Failed artifacts either become sub-artifacts with far less power, or they are thrown into the garbage space and become part of the countless god junkyards in the lower realms.
The fact that the God of Treasures was able to collect over a thousand failed artifacts over countless billions of years is precisely because they originated from the hands of the gods.
Because divine artifacts are so difficult to forge, even among the gods, it is difficult to find high-level and super divine artifacts.
The Spirit Star Artifact that was smashed to pieces by the old tortoise is truly unique, unparalleled in the world.
The reason the Lonely God-King could amass hundreds of divine artifacts was because he feigned weakness to deceive others; the vast majority of them were plundered from the gods who invaded his divine realm. If we're talking about divine artifacts he forged himself, he probably wouldn't even possess one-tenth of them.
If even the lonely and widowed God is like this, then it goes without saying that other gods are too.
Therefore, once Xiao Wenbing successfully condensed five thousand divine swords, equivalent to the full power of fifty Heavenly Dao Divine Swords, he naturally had the strength to walk sideways in the God Realm.
Unless he truly incurred the wrath of the masses, or encountered those two first-generation gods, Xiao Wenbing was not afraid of any challenge at all.
Volume 23, Chapter 17: The Favor of the Sea God
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With a gentle breath, divine power surged, and the six exquisite divine swords in his hand flew to the side of Orochi and the others.
"These divine swords are treasures connected to my mind. If you wear them, you can maintain a spiritual connection with me, and I can easily find you no matter where you are."
The giant snake said with envy, "Lord Xiao is truly skilled. He already possesses a divine artifact. Poor us, we don't even know when we'll be able to get a low-grade divine artifact."
Xiao Wenbing gave it a disapproving look and said, "We risked our lives to come here precisely to search for divine artifacts. As long as you don't back down, you can choose any artifact you find."
The giant snake was overjoyed upon hearing this and quickly expressed its gratitude, even seeming to have become much bolder.
Xiao Wenbing was right. The reason they left the God Realm and came here was to find the divine artifact.
In the realm of gods, the presence or absence of a divine artifact makes a huge difference when battling the gods. Possessing a high-grade, superior divine artifact can lead to an unimaginable boost to one's overall strength.
Although Xiao Wenbing was born with the power of creation, and could create super artifacts like the Nine Heavens of Ice and Fire out of thin air, the difficulty of creating such artifacts was too great.
To create a divine artifact from nothing, even if two thousand Dark Infants acted together, and even if the Void Cauldron was fully powered and undisturbed, it would still take about a hundred years to condense one.
A divine artifact can be created in about a century. If the gods knew of this speed, they would be incredibly envious. For them, a century is far from enough time to even gather the materials, let alone forge the artifact...
However, in Xiao Wenbing's opinion, this speed was still too slow.
Don't forget, he has nearly 20,000 gods under his command. Even if it's one every hundred years, it would still take two million years to reach the point where each person has one.
Although many gods only obtained their first divine artifact millions of years after arriving in the divine realm, Xiao Wenbing absolutely did not want to procrastinate like that.
Based on Keres's account and the information revealed by the Lonely God, Xiao Wenbing was certain that this place in the Underworld must contain a large number of artifacts left behind by ancient gods.
He couldn't understand what had gotten into those first-generation gods. Why would they leave these things behind when they left this world? But for Fang Mingwei, there couldn't be better news.
Everyone silently accepted the divine sword. Even Zhang and Feng were encountering the Myriad Swords Technique, which Xiao Wenbing had condensed, for the first time.
This small, three-inch sword felt icy cold in my hand, and I could faintly sense a powerful divine aura emanating from it.
The giant serpent and the Food King looked at the small sword with envy. Although it only had one-tenth the power of the Heavenly Dao Divine Sword, it was still comparable to ordinary low-grade divine artifacts.
The thought of the divine artifact buried below ignited their excitement. Even the unknown dangers before them seemed less significant.
After observing the divine sword for a long time, the Roc extended its long, sharp beak and swallowed it whole. The serpent and the others stared in astonishment at this king of birds, filled with admiration for its audacity. This creature was truly divine; it dared to swallow even someone else's divine weapon—it was unbelievable.
Xiao Wenbing chuckled wryly. The birth of the Roc was also an anomaly. After absorbing the inner demons that overflowed when countless immortals became gods, it finally evolved into an extraordinary divine bird. Even the color of its steel feathers was somewhat different.
In terms of power, the Roc is now far superior to the newly emerging deities such as the Great Serpent, and it is showing a trend of approaching the level of the Turtle God.
There is no divine realm outside the body, but the divine body is incredibly powerful. This kind of cultivation method can be considered unique in the divine realm.
"let's go."
The group responded and, in a flash, arrived above the Bagua formation.
"Wait..." the giant snake suddenly called out.
"what are you up to?"
The giant snake looked grave and said, "Lord Xiao, I seem to have a bad feeling."
"Really? How come I didn't notice?"
"Perhaps it's because my intuition is quite accurate."
Xiao Wenbing twitched his lips, then suddenly looked surprised, pointing to the area below the giant snake and asked, "What's that?"
The giant snake lowered its head but did not notice anything unusual. Knowing something was wrong, it was suddenly struck by a powerful force from behind and was thrown against its will to fly towards the center of the array.
"ah……"
The cries of grief and indignation lasted only a few seconds before being cut off by the closed black hole.
The King of Food touched his scalp and said with a wry smile, "Lord Xiao, the giant serpent won't be in any danger, will it?"
Xiao Wenbing patted the old man-eating flower on the shoulder and said, "King of Food, don't worry, this big snake is a cat, it won't die."
A flash of black light, and the guiding technique within the Bagua formation activated once more, a powerful suction force continuously emanating from the black hole. Xiao Wenbing and the others, prepared in advance, did not resist; they simply activated their divine power to protect themselves completely.
The guiding technique within the Bagua formation wasn't intended to harm anyone. Since they didn't resist, they didn't feel much pressure. Only the rings of suction continuously coiled around their bodies, pulling them towards the center of the black hole.
In a flash, everyone had vanished, and it seemed as if he were all alone in this world.
In a short while, the surrounding suction force dissipated, and Xiao Wenbing moved slightly, already floating lightly in mid-air.
This is a vast and boundless building, within which stand countless stone forests of varying heights.
The stone forest has all sorts of strange shapes: some look like towers, some like buildings, some like swords reaching for the sky, some like objects and animals, and some like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Some resemble mushroom clouds, some like scholars and warriors, and some like young girls and village women.
In the far distance, there are layers of gray, broken walls that pierce the sky like wolf teeth, inspiring awe and fear.
Above, a transparent shield emitted a mysterious light, completely blocking out the deep blue seawater. Looking up, one could see countless deep-sea monsters roaming about, sometimes transforming into ferocious beasts, and sometimes curling up their massive bodies to sleep peacefully.
At this point, he understood that he had definitely arrived at the lower levels of the underworld. He just wasn't sure which level it was.
With his eyes slightly closed, Xiao Wenbing sensed the whereabouts of the small swords.
A moment later, he had sensed five of them, but to his great surprise, one of them had simply vanished.
In a flash, he realized that the missing small sword was the same one that was on Feng Baiyi's body.
If it were anyone else, Xiao Wenbing would inevitably worry. But the danger of Feng Baiyi disappearing here was almost negligible.
As the successor of the Heavenly Thunder, if Di Feng Baiyi were to encounter any harm here, that would be the most ridiculous thing in the world.
Moreover, based on the mysterious spiritual connection between himself and Feng Baiyi, Xiao Wenbing was certain that she had not been harmed in any way.
But if she wasn't in any dangerous place, then why couldn't I sense her presence?
He took a deep breath, and his mind immediately entered a state of perfect tranquility.
Strands of divine thought spread out in all directions, their all-pervasive intent supported by surging divine power, reaching as far as the horizon.
However, to his surprise, even so, he did not sense the presence of anyone.
With a sudden thought, he directed his mind upwards, passing through the mysterious light and arriving in the boundless ocean.
The underwater world remains vibrant and diverse, but it is also fraught with deadly dangers.
The power of the creatures here far exceeded Xiao Wenbing's imagination. In just a short while, he discovered traces of no less than twenty powerful life forms.
Judging from the energy of these creatures, although they are not as powerful as gods, they are in no way inferior to supreme immortals.
His divine sense continued to expand, but suddenly stopped spreading thousands of miles to the west.
It wasn't that he stopped voluntarily, but rather that he discovered an extremely powerful life energy there. This energy was so powerful that it surpassed the Supreme level. Even if the Great Serpent, who had just become a god, were here, it would probably be slightly inferior.
If that were all, it wouldn't be enough to surprise him, because since entering the realm of gods, he had learned that there were actually quite a few gods in this world. Those supreme gods who had cultivated for countless billions of years, no matter which one of them came out, possessed divine power far greater than this guy he had just discovered.
The problem is, those are all gods, and they possess divine power.
At this moment, the creature Xiao Wenbing was in contact with did not possess the divine power that filled the heavens and earth; it only possessed the life energy within its body.
It's not divine power, nor is it magical power; it's more like spiritual power.
He was slightly startled. What kind of monster was this? It was even more powerful than ordinary gods.
In his memory, only the Tree of Life in the cultivation world possessed such a strange condition. And only that old fellow, who had existed since the time of the first generation of gods, possessed a vast life energy comparable to that of a god.
However, the longer it lives, the larger it becomes; the size of the Tree of Life is directly proportional to the realm it inhabits. To this day, Xiao Wenbing still cannot determine just how enormous the ancestor of all plants in the cultivation world truly is.
If the creature he sensed this time had also possessed such a massive size, he wouldn't have been so surprised. But in fact, after sensing it, he understood that although this creature was not small, it was much slender compared to not only the Tree of Life, but even compared to the Turtle God.
The creature seemed unaware of Xiao Wenbing's divine sense, so it remained leisurely in place, without moving an inch.
With a slight sway, Xiao Wenbing concealed himself, disguised by divine power. While he might not be able to fool the old supreme gods, he was confident that a being without divine power could remain undetected.
Ripples spread through the space, but instead of cracking, they flew upwards layer by layer.
Because the ripples travel at extremely high speeds, even if someone sees them, they would probably think it's just their eyes playing tricks on them.
A moment later, the ripples entered the water and instantly merged with the vast ocean, becoming one with it.
Following the water flow, they traveled forward. In an instant, they covered a hundred miles.
Accompanied by layers of underwater currents, this distance of thousands of miles was covered in mere moments.
This is only because he transformed into a tiny drop of water and drifted with the current; if he used teleportation, he could arrive in an instant.
However, in order not to disturb this strange life form, Xiao Wenbing chose a cautious and prudent approach.
A powerful suction force came from the front, sucking in the tiny water droplet that Xiao Wenbing had transformed into.
He was startled. Had they already been discovered? His mind raced, and he saw countless grains of seawater being sucked into the monster's body.
After circulating through the monster's body, all the seawater and sand surged out like a receding tide, leaving the monster's body.
Xiao Wenbing immediately understood that this monster was not targeting him specifically, but rather acting in accordance with the natural order of breathing.
However, the power of this breath was too great, which is why it had such a terrifying aura.
Only when we got a little further away could we see what the monster looked like.
It turned out to be a large seashell, though not very big; its longest end was only about ten meters. At that moment, the two shells were slightly open, with large amounts of sand and water swirling in and out, creating a small spectacle around it.
Within the seashell, a faint seven-colored light could be seen, suggesting that this creature likely possessed a treasure like a luminous pearl or its inner core.