"There we go." Lin Mu nodded his head in approval as he gazed at his finished work.
The first Sword Nurturing Box was completed and shone in a low light. Its brass casing contrasted with the Immoral stone and Bleak frost crystal layer inside, making it look rather elegant.
Then there were the many runes on the box that circulated the energy within it gently. Not only did it modulate the flow of the Immortal Qi of the Peak Grade Immortal stone within it, the runes also insulated it while absorbing more Immortal Qi from the air.
This created a positive cycle that would prevent the net loss of Immortal Qi in the Sword Nurturing box.
~huu~
Lin Mu let out a breath and felt pleased with his work.
"Time to see if it fits well." Lin Mu gestured to Ocean Raker and the sword floated over eagerly.
~Clink~
The sword lowered itself into the box, perfectly fitting the cavity that was made for it.
~HUMM~
Ocean Raker let out a joyous hum, while also asking for Lin Mu to close the box.
"Alright." Lin Mu pressed on the top of the lid, making it snap shut.
~CLACK~
With a crisp sound, the lid shut and the formations were linked up again.
~HUALA~
A Qi circuit was formed within the Sword Nurturing box upon the box's closure, allowing Ocean Raker to be bathed within it.
Lin Mu could see everything with his Immortal sense and confirmed that it was working perfectly as intended.
"This is good for your first time." Xukong praised upon seeing Lin Mu's work.
"I can improve a lot more." Lin Mu replied.
"Is that why you left the casing removable?" Xukong questioned.
"Yes. I can simply slide out the two halves of the Immortal Stone from it and put in a new casing later on." Lin Mu answered.
He has several ideas about how to improve the Sword nurturing box later, but he would have to wait till his skills were improved too.
~SHING~
Afternoon Pine let out a cry, as if a child urging their parent to hurry.
"Don't worry, you are next." Lin Mu assured the sword. "Your box needs a different process that needs more work, so I left it for last." He spoke.
~humm~
The sword calmed down after that and gently laid on a pillow nearby, fully intending to watch the process.
Lin Mu rested for a bit and let himself relax before starting the work again.
The starting step was the same, involving him cutting the cuboid and carving away the two sections to make the cavity.
But after that, Lin Mu needed to utilize several different materials.
For the Sword Nurturing Box intended for Afternoon Pine, Lin Mu decided to use materials of all elements that he had. Since the Qi skill of Afternoon Pine could accommodate basically all elements, Lin Mu decided to improve upon it.
He hoped that being nurtured with all these materials, Afternoon Pine would be able to improve its strength of the Qi skill.
Thus, Lin Mu took out five elemental materials that were quite common in Weapon Forging and Immortal Tool Refinement.
These were none other than various elemental crystals!
Fire Vein Immortal Crystal, Water Vein Immortal Crystal, Wood Vein Immortal Crystal, Earth Vein Immortal Crystal, and Metal Vein Immortal Crystal were what he used.
These crystals could be artificially manufactured, thus there wasn't a lack of them. Lin Mu had tens of these in the storage too, most of them being obtained from the spatial storage treasures of the people he had killed.
Even Huangyu Shiyi had these in his storage and provided Lin Mu with the bulk that was needed for the Sword Nurturing Box.
Being abundant didn't mean that they were cheap though. As each of these crystals was worth tens of Mid Grade immortal stones. Working with them was also not simple, with each crystal requiring a different process.
And this was just half of it, as there were not one but five types of them.
Lin Mu needed two to three hours to refine each of the crystal types before they were usable for the Sword Nurturing Box. And once they were refined, Lin Mu needed to carve a unique formation into each of them too.
These formations would complement each other and link up to form a new array.
It was called as the Five Harmony Array and was used in multiple places ranging from city wide arrays, immortal tools, as well as refinement arrays. The function of the array was to modulate the energy flow of the five elements and amplify their effects.
Each element could amplify the effect of another.
For example, wood nourished fire, fire nourished earth, earth nourished metal, metal nourished water and water nourished wood.
Such was the cycle of the five moral elementals and as long as it stayed in harmony, it would bring for the optimum effects.
Once Lin Mu had finished refining and imprinting the crystals with the right formations, it was time for him to add them to the Immortal stone sections. This time, he couldn't mold it in the same way he had done for the Bleak Frost Crystal.
Instead, he laid them in five sections that were mirrored on both sections of the box. Each of the five sections had five crystals of each element placed in it. This amplified the effects of the Five Harmony Array, since there were now multiple of them within the cavity.
Just this process alone took Lin Mu over thirty hours to complete, showing just how vast the difference could be depending on the process involved.
Once all the crystals were fitted, a wave of energy spread from the two sections.
"They're finally working properly…" Lin Mu was relieved.
He had actually made a couple of mistakes while fitting the crystals and had to fix them later. Thankfully, the end result was good, and there seemed to be no issues.
With the inner section of the Sword Nurturing box completed, all Lin Mu needed to do was to make the casing again before it was completed.
