After closing the door to the cultivation chamber, Locke activated the chamber's defensive formation.
He had already said everything that needed to be said to Little White.
As for what Little White chose to do afterward, Locke didn't care much either.
Of course, all of this was predicated on one condition—if Locke failed to complete the soul defense artifact within ten years, Little White would renew the lease for him.
If his forging were interrupted because the rent hadn't been renewed…
One should never forget that Locke's greatest strength had always been his attainments in the soul.
Even without a soul contract binding them, Locke had long since grasped Little White's soul aura.
Finding Little White would be no difficult task at all.
In fact, if Locke didn't even feel like going to look for it, he could simply use Little White's soul aura as an anchor and conduct certain soul-based "tests," which would be more than enough to inflict devastating damage.
Setting those thoughts aside, Locke waved his hand. Instantly, more than eight hundred Amethysts were taken out of his spatial ring and floated around him.
With a thought, Locke's soul power transformed into a seven-colored radiance, completely enveloping every Amethyst.
Then, his soul power ignited into flames of emotion, lighting five Amethysts at once.
In just a few breaths, those five Amethysts shattered into countless fragments. The soul power contained within them, after being tempered by Locke's emotional flames, became soul energy fully under his control.
Without pause, Locke continued, using the emotional flames to ignite more Amethysts.
Gradually, greater and greater quantities of soul power were drawn into his hands.
By the time Locke had burned through five hundred Amethysts, he could feel that the soul power he was holding had reached the limit of what he could currently control.
Five hundred Amethysts—and not a single trace of soul power had dissipated.
In other words, the soul power Locke obtained from these five hundred Amethysts was equivalent to what others would gain only after refining three thousand Amethysts.
The moment he sensed his limit; Locke did not hesitate and began shaping the soul power gathered in his palms.
The primary purpose of a soul defense artifact was, naturally, to ward off soul attacks.
In the Coiling Dragon universe, other powerhouses with profound attainments in the soul usually condensed soul power into a protective barrier capable of shielding the soul when forging such artifacts.
For his first soul defense artifact, Locke had no intention of attempting anything fancy. He simply transformed this vast mass of soul power into emotional energy, forming a seven-colored protective shield.
In Locke's view, emotional power born from the soul possessed a slightly higher intensity than pure soul power alone.
As such, a barrier formed from emotional power would undoubtedly surpass a simple soul barrier in terms of soul defense.
Once the most basic shield took shape, Locke continued to refine the soul power from the Amethysts into emotional energy, further strengthening the seven-colored barrier.
After fully integrating the soul power from all five hundred Amethysts into the emotional shield, Locke attempted to fuse this soul defense barrier with one of his spatial rings.
To his surprise, no matter how he tried, the seven-colored soul shield simply refused to merge with the ring.
"…A miscalculation."
"I didn't expect that, aside from soul power itself, the vessel for soul power would also matter when forging a soul defense artifact."
"Ordinary artifact materials simply can't bear soul power…"
Staring at the seven-colored barrier in his palm, Locke frowned.
The difficulty of forming the soul defense barrier itself had been far less than he'd expected.
Yet getting stuck at this final step was entirely his own mistake.
If he failed to find a suitable vessel for the soul power within a certain amount of time, then once his soul power could no longer suppress the barrier in his hand, the soul energy within it would begin to dissipate.
"Could it be that my first attempt at forging a soul defense artifact is going to end in failure?"
Now that he understood the reason for his failure, Locke wasn't incapable of accepting it.
After all, next time, as long as he prepared a material capable of carrying soul power, he was confident he could succeed one hundred percent.
Just as Locke was about to resign himself to failure, his gaze suddenly fell upon the Amethysts still floating before him.
"I really am an idiot."
"Amethysts themselves already contain soul power."
"I was just worrying about where to find a vessel for soul power—when the Amethyst is already a perfect vessel!"
At that realization, Locke let out a light chuckle and shook his head. With a beckoning motion, a single Amethyst flew into his hand.
Divine power surged. In just a few breaths, Locke refined the Amethyst into a ring.
He then stabilized the Amethyst ring with divine power and guided the emotional shield toward it with his soul power.
Whoosh—
As expected, the seven-colored soul defense barrier was drawn straight into the Amethyst ring.
From the outside, one could vaguely see a strand of seven-colored radiance shimmering within the ring.
"That's it… it's finished?"
Locke knew very well that the core difficulty of forging a soul defense artifact lay in one's attainments in the soul—being able to transform soul power into a defensive barrier.
Still, completing it this easily was beyond even his expectations.
After all, he had originally planned to spend ten years on this.
And yet now—had it really only taken about ten days?
Perplexed, Locke slid his thumb across his finger, sending a drop of blood onto the Amethyst ring.
In an instant, a powerful surge of soul energy flowed from the ring into his mind, wrapping his soul completely.
The sensation was like suddenly donning a thick, high-quality winter coat in the depths of winter—his soul no longer feared wind or rain.
It was also like the feeling of finally having a home after years of struggle—deeply reassuring.
With a thought, Locke instantly switched places with his divine clone, exposing his Saint Domain true body.
Only then did the difference become clear.
Compared to the soul of his water-element God clone, the soul of his true body—lacking a soul defense artifact—was missing that subtle sense of "security."
"As I expected… many things can only be understood after you've seen them, after you've felt them yourself."
"Before using a soul defense artifact, when had I ever felt this kind of unease?"
Shaking his head, Locke didn't bother switching his divine clone back.
After all, it was all the same person—there was no real difference between using his true body or his divine clone.
(End of Chapter)
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