Through his detailed reading of “The True Xuan Divine Craft Scroll,” Li Hai discovered that so-called Divine Armaments were, in fact, a comprehensive product of technology and spellcraft.
The person who created such things, or rather, pioneered the manufacturing techniques for such things, emerged in the early tribal era, a period with rather vague historical records.
In this land of Yu Continent, before Great Jing was Da Xuan (Great Xuan), and before the Xuan Dynasty was the era of the Ten Kingdoms vying for supremacy, and even before the ancient feudal era was the even more ancient tribal era.
At that time, the Yu Continent was filled with thousands, or even more, primitive tribes, each possessing both extraordinary individual martial prowess and various prehistoric weapons.
The intensity of the wars between these tribes was no less than in the current era, and perhaps even more brutal.
And strangely, the number of Geniuses that appeared in that ancient era was also far more exaggerated than now.
According to historical records, there were even naturally born Grandmaster-level infants who could fly, escape the earth, capture Dragons, and seize Jiao-dragons upon birth.
It was in that era, within a tribe named 'Bo,' that a peerless Genius was also born.
However, this Genius's talent was primarily concentrated in his intellectual wisdom.
It was he who, combining primitive spellcraft with prehistoric technology, pioneered the Divine Armament refining technique, which has been passed down for thousands of years, continuing to this very day.
The various details of this technique need not be elaborated upon; its core principle is to imitate the process of a spellcaster consuming Yang Qi and magical power to cast spells.
By using special craftsmanship on specially made Materials, various spell-like forms are drawn and engraved, thereby allowing ordinary weapons to possess mystical and extraordinary power.
And this spell-like form, according to the records in “The True Xuan Divine Craft Scroll,” is called Xuan Runes.
A type of 'imitation-spell pattern' that does not require magical power intervention and can be driven and operated by consuming the essence of heaven and earth.
In a sense, this imitation-spell pattern is very similar to the so-called rune technology in the web novel “infinite terror” that Li Hai read in his previous life.
Putting aside this digression, in the records of “The Divine Craft Scroll,” this Xuan Rune weaving and engraving technique is divided into four levels.
The first level is called Outer Engraved Xuan Runes, which means engraving Xuan Runes on the outer layer of a Divine Armament, thereby providing a certain beneficial effect to the Divine Armament.
This could be an increase in durability, enhanced flexibility, or the addition of a certain auxiliary ability, such as being able to extend from three feet nine inches to ninety-nine feet.
Indeed, Li Hai’s pair of bamboo-joint steel whips are Outer Engraved Divine Armaments, belonging to the conventional type and not particularly rare.
It’s just that their Materials are quite exquisite, coming from a mysterious remnant material of a prehistoric civilization—Dragon Head Volcanic Steel—which makes them incredibly strong in terms of durability and flexibility.
Then, the second level, above Outer Engraved, is Absolute Engraved Xuan Runes.
This level of Xuan Rune engraving is much more difficult than Outer Engraved.
It requires multi-layered, three-dimensional (3D) Xuan Rune engraving inside the Divine Armament’s Materials.
Unlike Outer Engraved Divine Armaments, which only have two-dimensional (2D) Xuan Rune engraving on the surface.
Divine Armaments that have undergone this level of engraving far surpass Outer Engraved Divine Armaments in terms of the sheer number of Xuan Runes.
Furthermore, in terms of complexity, Absolute Engraved also completely surpasses Outer Engraved by a large margin.
Divine Armaments refined through this process will inevitably be significantly stronger than Outer Engraved Divine Armaments in all aspects.
Therefore, these types of Divine Armaments are usually the first choice for Tyrant Level powerhouses, and are referred to as top-tier Divine Armaments.
It can be said that those who can skillfully master and perform this Absolute Engraved level refining craft are exceedingly rare; each one is a treasure to various organizations and forces.
As far as Li Hai knows, the Demon Slayer Division does not even have a single Divine Armament craftsman of this level.
However, there seem to be a few in the Divine Armory, but they are all quite old, and none of their many disciples have been able to inherit their mantle, only able to circle at the Outer Engraved level.
This also shows how incredibly difficult it is.
Yet, this level is only the second level in “The Divine Craft Scroll.”
Above this, there is also Minute Engraved Xuan Runes.
However, regarding this Minute Engraved level, even the creator himself only had vague, almost speculative theories, without any practical technical knowledge, so this level is virtually nonexistent.
As for this creator, his conjecture was that all things in heaven and earth should be clustered and gathered by an infinite number of extremely tiny things under the action of some force.
If Xuan Runes could be engraved on these tiny things, and then layered engravings from small to large, all the way up to the macroscopic level.
Then the Divine Armament refined through this engraving process would undoubtedly be incredibly powerful, far surpassing Outer Engraved and Absolute Engraved.
But even above this speculative level of Xuan Rune engraving, the Ancestral Master of the Dao of Divine Armaments had an even more speculative level.
That is, Void Engraved Xuan Runes.
After gaining the understanding that all things in heaven and earth are composed of tiny things, the creator of the Dao of Divine Armaments took another step forward, speculating that these tiny things might not be the ultimate limit of matter.
He hypothetically surmised that the true limit of matter might be an unnamed substance existing between void and reality, between existence and non-existence.
And if Xuan Runes could be engraved on this unnamed substance, and then layered from void to reality, from non-existence to existence, eventually engraving all the way to the macroscopic level.
Then the Divine Armament obtained from this would definitely be powerful beyond imagination.
Only at that level would it conform to the Ancestral Master's definition of a Divine Armament.
Of course, these are all too distant.
Currently, what Li Hai needs is simply to refine Xue Cangqiong’s skull and spine to the Absolute Engraved level, which would be entirely sufficient.
To achieve this goal, he once again thoroughly searched the area within a thousand li, hoping to collect the necessary tools for Divine Armament refining, as well as auxiliary Materials for refining.
Perhaps Li Hai’s luck today was indeed strong.
So, even though the Machina Citadel was so severely damaged, after a thorough excavation, he still managed to gather a series of tools, large and small, capable of completing Absolute Engraved Xuan Runes, as well as ample auxiliary Materials.
Thus, in the subsequent time, he utilized the knowledge he learned from “The True Xuan Divine Craft Scroll” and began the Divine Armament refining process.
The specific refining process will not be elaborated upon.
In short, after several hours of refining, Xue Cangqiong’s skull and the spine attached to its base were collectively refined by Li Hai into a blue and red intertwined whip-hammer.
The overall form of this hammer was somewhat similar to the Tiger Soul Blade from the Hong Kong manhua “Divine Weapons and Mysterious Powers.”
Both main bodies are a spine, and both are enveloped by a layer of translucent crystal Material.
However, the Material enveloping the main body of the Tiger Soul Blade’s spine, that of Dan Youzhanhu, was dark yellow.
The Material enveloping the main body’s spine of Li Hai’s Sky Spine Hammer was ice-blue, like a frozen sky.
As for the function of this Divine Armament, in addition to the greatly enhanced durability and flexibility, Li Hai also added the original function of the bamboo-joint steel whip—that is, the ability to lengthen and shorten.