Observing the fifty additional energy points on the status panel, Dong Qi began to deduce their specific source.

  After only a brief moment of thought, he identified the origin of these fifty energy points.

  Having already confirmed the energy value gained from enhancing his Lifebound Artifact, the remaining fifty points likely came from his Lifebound Vehicle's collision with and elimination of those individuals.

  While it appeared on the surface to be energy gained from killing living beings, Dong Qi suspected that slaying ordinary creatures wouldn't yield energy points.

  Only the death of an Awakened individual would allow for the absorption and acquisition of energy value.

  The gain of fifty energy points now met the minimum requirement for using Manifestation from the Tide of Thought.

  Although it was unclear how high the upper limit for manifesting items was with one hundred energy points, Dong Qi's current demands weren't excessive.

  He simply needed to manifest a single magical artifact or a natural treasure of corresponding grade.

  Before using Manifestation from the Tide of Thought, Dong Qi needed to decide in advance which magical artifact to manifest.

  When a Lifebound Artifact successfully integrates a magical artifact and ascends in grade, there is a high probability of acquiring the functions of the integrated artifact.

  Therefore, Dong Qi also needed to plan ahead and choose which type of magical artifact to integrate into his Lifebound Artifact.

  Under normal circumstances, the most versatile choice is integrating a storage pouch.

  Even if it's only a low-grade magical artifact-level storage pouch, integrating it could expand the interior space of the vehicle or add an additional storage compartment.

  In the cultivation world where the Artifact Forging Mantra originates, this choice is quite common.

  After all, once one's cultivation reaches a certain level, the Lifebound Artifact can be stored within the Dantian and Qi Sea.

  At that point, simply by retracting the Lifebound Artifact into one's body, no one would be able to detect the items stored within its spatial compartment.

  Aside from integrating a storage pouch, the conventional choice is to integrate a low-grade magical artifact of the same category as one's Lifebound Artifact.

  This choice is standard: weapons enhance lethality, armor enhances defense.

  While it may seem conventional, the practical effectiveness is certainly not weak.

  However, Dong Qi felt somewhat reluctant to opt for any of these standard choices.

  Since Dong Qi had chosen a vehicle as his Lifebound Artifact, the integrated magical artifact should either enhance the vehicle's advantages or compensate for its shortcomings.

  Compared to other types of Lifebound Artifacts, a vehicle's greatest advantage isn't attack or defense, but its high mobility.

  To enhance this advantage, improvement can only come from two aspects.

  The first is to increase its capability to traverse more types of terrain.

  Simply put, this means possessing the three abilities of land travel, flight, and sailing.

  In the cultivation world, vehicles simultaneously possessing all three capabilities not only exist but are numerous in variety.

  However, the lowest grade for such vehicles is the Magic Treasure level, so this category can be ruled out for now.

  Aside from traversal capability, enhancement can only come from the powertrain system.

  By consuming other vehicles, his Lifebound Vehicle gained hybrid electric-petrol capabilities, but these both belong to the technological side of power systems.

  Dong Qi could integrate a magical artifact to allow his Lifebound Vehicle to utilize spiritual energy as a power source.

  However, lacking a stable method to obtain spiritual energy at present, even if his Lifebound Vehicle possessed spiritual energy propulsion, it would be of little use in the short term.

  Since temporarily enhancing its advantages isn't feasible, the only option is to compensate for its shortcomings.

  At this stage, the shortcoming for Dong Qi's Lifebound Vehicle isn't its limited interior space, nor is it the capacity limit of its fuel tank.

  The current defect is the extreme difficulty in obtaining high-grade materials for upgrading the vehicle.

  While Blue Star does have some materials that could be considered high-grade, they are either rare alloys or chemical raw materials that are difficult to acquire.

  These items are not only expensive but also have complex production processes, making them impossible for ordinary people to manufacture themselves.

  It's like everyone knowing uranium can be extracted from seawater, but even knowing the principle, ordinary people cannot purchase the extraction equipment.

  Therefore, what Dong Qi currently needs is a type of magical artifact capable of consuming large quantities of common materials and refining them into high-grade materials.

  This type of magical artifact is not rare, whether on Blue Star or in the cultivation world; it is a relatively common item.

  On Blue Star, this equipment is called refining equipment.

  Although each device can only refine a specific category of items, the vast majority of refining equipment can still be purchased if one has the money.

  In the cultivation world, this equipment is called an Artifact Forging Furnace.

  While refining efficiency varies from high to low, in terms of grade, it is not like vehicles where the lowest grade is the Magic Treasure level.

  Artifact-grade Artifact Forging Furnaces are very common.

  Materials refined by a Furnace at the Artifact-grade level can at least meet the material consumption required for upgrading the Lifebound Vehicle to the Artifact grade.

  As for the materials needed for the next grade, the Treasure grade, we will cross that bridge when we get to it.

  Having determined the target of his choice, Dong Qi no longer hesitated and decisively used the ability of Thoughtwave Manifestation.

  The Hundred Refinements Furnace.

  The Flesh and Blood Melting Furnace.

  The Soul Refinement Furnace.

  Once again, three different options were presented, each representing a distinctly different type of furnace.

  All three types of furnaces possess the function of refining materials, differing only in the type of combustibles consumed during use.

  The Hundred Refinements Furnace, as one would expect, is the most commonly used refining furnace by artificers across the cultivation world. It refines various materials through earthly fire or spiritual fire.

  As the name suggests, the Flesh and Blood Melting Furnace consumes flesh and blood as its combustible material. The higher the quality of the flesh and blood, the stronger the combustion effect.

  Similar to the Flesh and Blood Melting Furnace, the Soul Refinement Furnace requires souls as its fuel.

  Although animal flesh or animal souls can also be used, frequent use of these latter two furnaces would gradually dull one's humanity. Eventually, ordinary people might come to be seen as nothing more than particularly durable fuel in the eyes of the user.

  However, it must be said that purely in terms of refining efficiency, if sufficient combustibles are available, the efficiency of these latter two furnaces far surpasses that of an ordinary Hundred Refinements Furnace.

  Ah...

  Unfortunately, at this moment, Dong Qi's humanity remains intact, so he ultimately chose the Hundred Refinements Furnace.

  This time, the process of using the Treasure Forging Mantra to elevate the grade of his Lifebound Artifact was quite uneventful.

  It was not like when he first forged his Lifebound Artifact, where the consumption was so great he was on the verge of collapse.

  In less than ten minutes, the Hundred Refinements Furnace successfully merged with Dong Qi's Lifebound Artifact.

  And Dong Qi's Lifebound Artifact logically advanced from the Mortal grade to the Artifact grade.

  However, immediately after merging with the Hundred Refinements Furnace, although the grade of his Lifebound Artifact had improved, there was no substantial qualitative change in its essence. To achieve a true transformation, further investment of materials for upgrades would still be necessary.

  Nevertheless, after merging with the Hundred Refinements Furnace, Dong Qi's Lifebound Artifact did indeed acquire the ability to refine materials.

  Now, his Lifebound Artifact only needs to consume fuel oil or electricity to refine materials and enhance their quality.