The Forging of Monghyeon-gyeong
It was a strange crystal fragment that drank in light like a black hole, its obsidian hue giving way to contours shaped from an even denser darkness. If one stared at it too long, it produced an eerie sensation that the shard was slowly swelling, drawing nearer.
Han Yujin stepped before the device known as the Dimensional Force Analyzer. He placed the Abyss Eye on the workbench and manipulated the instrument’s panel, activating a protective barrier.
Rather than immediately relying on the equipment, he raised a faint glow of Purple Heaven Divine Lightning in both palms. Even from within his eyes, where Dream Dragon Dharma Power was concentrated to an extreme degree, a dreamlike violet radiance flowed outward.
Crackle…!
With a low thunderclap, dozens of spell sigils formed in the air and lanced into the Abyss Eye. The intensity and sequence were precisely controlled by the refined senses of a Decisive Stage investigator.
In that instant the Abyss Eye throbbed like a living thing, scattering thick darkness. Yet the protective field of the Dimensional Force Analyzer contained it, preventing the gloom from spreading.
Soon the object, which had clearly possessed a crystalline texture, began to soften and melt into liquid. At the same time, sparks and flames from the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning burst wildly, shrinking its mass.
It was the unavoidable loss that came from stripping away the Abyss Eye’s danger.
The fragment was primarily infused with the illusion-realm properties of mental laws, thick with the instincts of the monster race called Xenos. This was therefore the most reliable method of neutralization. He had not mobilized Purple Heaven Divine Lightning on a whim.
Devising and confirming this process had been greatly aided by the knowledge he received from Queen Elb. Information gleaned from the Galactic Empire’s data archives had helped as well.
Yet the truly decisive assistance came from the research journal of a mage investigator.
It recorded the exhaustive experiments a Nascent Soul Stage mage—extremely sensitive to antimatter—had performed on Xenos biological tissues. Naturally, the notes proved invaluable for processing another Xenos byproduct: the Abyss Eye itself.
Forgetting the passage of time, he continued forming spell patterns with Purple Heaven Divine Lightning, liquefying the Abyss Eye and incinerating its impurities. At the same time he operated the analyzer’s panel, activating its various auxiliary functions in sequence.
Detailed streams of data rose across both the analyzer’s display and the augmented-reality interface of his Nexus Band. Thanks to them, he could monitor the material’s condition with far greater precision and even harness the device’s dimensional interference field to advance to the next refinement stage.
He eradicated the remaining traits treated as impurities, then roughly separated the surviving characteristics of the illusion, resonance, and soul realms of life-and-death laws according to his blueprint.
Rather than isolating them completely, he left them in a properly fused state and shaped the mass into a circular plate slightly smaller than a handspan.
Activating the analyzer’s dimensional resonance stabilization function, he withdrew his hands and stepped back. He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing.
Much easier than I expected…
It felt smoother than any of the practice runs he had performed with ordinary materials. The difference, he suspected, lay in the depth of his concentration.
After a brief rest he picked up the next ingredient: the Five Elements Metal Stone—fragments that had broken away from the Five Elements True Spirit Great Stone of their own accord.
This material was far less troublesome than the Abyss Eye. He moved to the Aether Resonator, loaded the designated quantity, and began the homogenization process. The work would harmonize and purify the stone’s five-element attributes.
While the resonator ran, he spent the time melting additional spell patterns into the Abyss Eye and periodically checking the metal stone’s condition.
Once homogenization was complete, he transferred the Five Elements Metal Stones into a much larger apparatus known as the Plasma Fusion Furnace.
He added several consumable reagents he had prepared beforehand, sealed the glass-steel lid, and activated the device. Inside, flames of every color bloomed as the materials began their final refinement.
Without this equipment he would have needed days of exhausting mental effort and still failed to achieve comparable results.
When the Five Elements Metal Stone was finished, the Abyss Eye—currently undergoing a maturation process inside the Dimensional Force Analyzer—would join several other reagents for the final stage.
Now came the most critical work of all.
From the table laden with materials, he drew a special plastic case through the air with telekinesis. With movements bordering on reverence he opened the lid and removed its contents.
At first glance it resembled a small coin. Yet from moment to moment it would scatter like smoke, threatening to vanish in every direction; when one looked again in alarm, it would sit obediently in its original form.
Even its color refused to settle. What appeared black one instant looked white the next; what seemed white burned crimson, then shifted to the vivid blue of an autumn sky, before every hue in existence swirled together in a vortex.
It was a Quantum Phase Nano Chip.
The vessel for a fusion intelligence.
Of course, such chips were not used exclusively for fusion intelligences; otherwise he could never have obtained one.
They formed the core component of machines requiring transcendent calculation, and this particular specimen was a pure, unetched vessel with no ether circuits yet inscribed.
In other words, he intended to carve the circuits himself and bring a fusion intelligence to life.
To explain the difference between super-fusion and fusion intelligences in brief: it depended on what they connected and merged with.
A super-fusion intelligence linked directly with the Astral Dimension and the Honwon realm. Without imposed restraints, it developed clear self-awareness and could grow independently.
A fusion intelligence, by contrast, merged with a specific individual. That individual was usually a sentient being; thus innate restrictions formed, the self remained slightly blurred, and growth was possible only when the owner grew.
Many other distinctions existed, but the only one that mattered now was the nature of the fusion intelligence.
A being that partially fuses with me, its master, sharing intent and thought; an existence that can treat my knowledge and experience as a database while performing transcendent calculations through quantum-phase technology.
The design was flawless. Because the foundational knowledge had come from AI Elb, the resulting entity might resemble her, yet they could hardly be called the same.
With that thought, he moved before the apparatus called the Nano Engraving Station and placed the chip at the center of the work surface.
He closed the transparent steel-glass lid and operated the panel. A gentle wave of light swept through the interior, purging all contaminants.
An image far more precise than human vision appeared where his gaze fell, magnified to an enormous scale. Augmented-reality interfaces rose on either side for manual control, and the interior mechanisms of the station began to shift.
From one edge emerged a mechanical arm fitted with impossibly fine needles, ready to work. Simultaneously the chip floated into the air, bathed in multicolored light that completed preparations for blueprint input.
After one final check of the station’s status, he inserted the core material—the Thread of Fate—into the designated port, slotted a data stick into the auxiliary socket, and synchronized the two.
Soon, waves of many-colored light swept across the hovering chip again, etching extraordinarily complex and delicate circuits across its surface and deep into its interior.
This was merely a visual preview. The true engraving would be performed by the Thread of Fate. The mechanical arm’s specialized needles would carve nano-scale grooves while simultaneously filling them with the precious material.
“Huu…”
He exhaled slowly, centering his mind one last time. Gazing at the magnified projection, he began to manipulate the augmented-reality interfaces, moving the station’s mechanical arm.
The work stretched on for more than a full month.
The most vital stages—ether circuit engraving and law formation construction—proceeded flawlessly, without the slightest error, thanks to the Nano Engraving Station. The same perfection held when inscribing circuits upon the other materials.
Refinement and processing of every ingredient reached an exceedingly satisfactory level through the combined use of the Dimensional Force Analyzer, Aether Resonator, and Plasma Fusion Furnace.
The Void Crystal in particular would have been nearly impossible to shape without the analyzer’s dimensional interference field. After all, he was still only a Decisive Stage investigator whose space-time perception had not yet awakened.
At long last, the natal magic treasure stood complete, awaiting only its final step.
Han Yujin sat in meditation with eyes closed, the treasure floating in the air before him.
It was a circular hand mirror that fit perfectly in one grip. It had no handle; instead, a refined black-metal frame reminiscent of the night sky encircled the glass.
The front surface reflected every form with perfect clarity, yet it continually shimmered with shifting, colorful light that lent it boundless mystery. The reverse side blended all images with a dreamlike violet radiance before showing entirely different landscapes, creating the illusion that those scenes might leap into reality.
The refined Abyss Eye supplied the primary illusion-realm traits of mental laws, lightly mixed with resonance characteristics, while also containing an appropriate quantity of soul-realm traits from life-and-death laws to stabilize the artifact spirit.
The Five Elements Metal Stone, naturally, embraced every category of elemental law in perfect harmony. It formed the ideal foundation to complement his cultivation scripture, the Taiyi Five Elements Dao Scripture, and was the most balanced material possible.
The Void Crystal guaranteed the treasure’s compatibility and durability through spatial-realm dimensional laws, while also providing special synergistic effects for illusion construction.
The Thread of Fate, a high-grade material, secured the performance of the ether circuits and bestowed causal and creative traits from fate laws, granting the circuits exceptional adaptability and growth potential.
Finally, the fusion intelligence—its nano-scale circuits engraved upon the Quantum Phase Nano Chip—would become the treasure’s magnificent artifact spirit, drawing on the refined Honwon Stone as its energy source.
A short while later, after continuously attuning himself to the treasure and examining its state, he quietly opened his eyes. At the same moment he opened his mouth and expelled his own vital blood.
It was not a single drop but nearly the volume of a walnut. His complexion instantly turned deathly pale.
Vital blood was the extreme condensation of a cultivator’s physical, spiritual, and mental power; the reaction was only natural. Moreover, it carried a mysterious connectivity that defied easy explanation, making the toll even greater.
The droplet flew silently through the air, touched the waiting hand-mirror natal treasure, enveloped it without gap, and soaked into the metal as though evaporating.
No dramatic outward change occurred.
Yet in that instant he felt an inseparable bond form between himself and the object before him. The completed but dormant ether circuits stirred to life, as though receiving the final touch of a dragon’s eye.
He had finally accomplished the greatest objective of his visit to the Galactic Empire—and at a level far surpassing his original expectations.
No greater sense of fulfillment could exist.
What should I name it…
It would still take time for full activation. Carefully steadying his weakened body after expending so much vital blood, he pondered.
The treasure was so excellently crafted that he considered giving it a grand, impressive name.
Jinmong Changse-gyeong?
It sounded decent at first, but he soon shook his head. It was too grandiose; he might feel embarrassed saying it aloud to others.
Monghwan Yusim-gyeong…?
Acceptable, yet it reused the name he had already given to his divine ability. The thought displeased him.
Jinmong Hyeonhwa-gyeong… No.
It revealed the treasure’s functions too nakedly; merely knowing the name might place him at a disadvantage.
He decided to abandon any attempt at sounding impressive.
Immediately, one name rose clearly in his mind.
Monghyeon-gyeong.
It captured the treasure’s nature without being overly literal. Its concise elegance somehow contained the very grandeur he had given up on. He liked it immensely.
The moment he settled on the name, enough time seemed to have passed for the treasure to awaken completely.
In that instant, Han Yujin felt as though infinite light were pouring from the mirror he watched.
Countless colorful illusions—too numerous to distinguish—swirled before him, accompanied by a harmonious resonance that echoed endlessly.
The power lost through the emission of vital blood returned in full, restoring him.
More than mere restoration, the now-indissoluble connection rapidly elevated the strength of his body, soul, and mind.
It felt exactly like the sensation of advancing to a higher realm.
Within that almost euphoric wave of growth, he suddenly perceived a small figure born from the infinite light, gazing back at him.
Perhaps “perceived” was more accurate than “saw.” He could not describe its features or attire, yet he felt he observed it in impossible, contradictory detail.
Fusion intelligence.
It was unmistakably the artifact spirit of his natal magic treasure, Monghyeon-gyeong.
The fusion intelligence named Elb responded with the purest, most affectionate smile. Like a child asking to be held, she spread her arms wide.
In the next moment, the phenomenally glowing Monghyeon-gyeong transformed into a single streak of mysterious light and melted into the center of Han Yujin’s chest, vanishing from sight.