Sword Flash had used part of the reward that he was given by their employer to upgrade his sword box to rank 6. This was why he was easily able to destroy the Red and Blue Fire sect.

But what he was given back then was only a small amount. Now that he had five times the amount that he used to upgrade his sword box, his face couldn't help but bloom into a smile.

He said to himself, "I should probably exchange the rank 6 artifacts of the Red and Blue Fire sect for something we can use or exchange for money."

The rank 6 artifacts of the patriarchs of the Red and Blue Fire sect are like the blood octopus. They have their own will and require a certain cultivation technique before their full power can be displayed.

Their wills can be coerced or forced into obedience. But even if the rank 6 artifacts are obedient, without the life fire to use with them, they would be mostly useless.

They won't be completely useless, though. They are still rank 6 artifacts, so they have their innate toughness. But only the life fire can make them display their full power as rank 6 fire cauldrons.

He has been reluctant to let them go before because they can still be useful. He also harbored hope of reforging them. But now that he has living metal, he has become willing to exchange them for something more useful.

After he exchanged the six rank 6 artifacts, he left the League of World Eaters and returned to the sect. Then he called a meeting in the council hall.

Arthur was still in the middle of his research into logic models when he was called. He had just managed to craft triangular prism thought units.

What he managed to create were large, clumsy structures, so he still has a long way to go in learning how to recreate thought units. But he was already working on arranging them in a structure that improves their parallelism.

He would have loved to be given a few months of peace for his research. Unfortunately, he had to put aside his work and attend the meeting.

Everyone had to put aside everything that they were doing and rushed to the council hall immediately. When they arrived, they greeted the three patriarchs. Then they had their seat and waited for others to arrive.

In less than ten minutes, everyone who should have come had arrived. The council hall was silent, but this silence was loaded with anticipation.

Sword Flash didn't keep everyone in suspense anymore. He said, "I have good news and bad news."

When everyone heard that there was going to be bad news, their hearts began to throb in anxiety. Since everyone's heart was their golden core now, the anxiety they felt caused their golden core to throb, thereby pushing and pulling on the mana around them.

This action was involuntary, and everyone had done it instinctively. But because everyone was doing it at the same time, the mana in the council hall became like seawater in a storm.

As the mana around them rolled around them, it smashed against the three patriarchs like waves of water hitting the shore. If anyone didn't know any better, they would think the 31 golden core elders were trying to put pressure on the three patriarchs with their presence.

Sword Flash knew why everyone was behaving this way, so he chuckled and said, "The bad news isn't all that bad. In fact, there are three pieces of good news and one piece of bad news. So all in all, everything is good."

This indeed eased the tense atmosphere a little, but it was only by a little. After all, there was a lot to look forward to, and the golden core elders didn't want to lose out on any of the things that they had been looking forward to.

Sword Flash said, "For the first good news. We successfully refined the seven nascent soul pills, and I am happy to say a 60% increase in the chances of success is guaranteed."

This was indeed good news. So everyone clapped.

They clapped for a short while. After the clapping ended, Sword Flash continued.

He said, "For the second good news. We have received the reward for completely eliminating the Red and Blue Fire sect. The reward is a rank 6 material that can upgrade any rank 5 artifact to rank 6."

"I have used this material, so I am sure that it is very valuable. The material can also be upgraded to rank 7 by infusing it with mana, but it will take a long time for this to happen."

"The priority will be given to those who advance to the fifth mortal coil and refine their weapons or other artifacts to the peak of the fifth mortal coil. If you meet these two requirements, you will be eligible to use the material."

"But only weapons that require the Everlasting Wood Art cultivation technique and Divine Lightning Armament technique will be allowed to use the materials for now. Artifacts that require other kinds of cultivation techniques to utilize will be sidelined until artifacts that use those two techniques have been upgraded to rank 6 first."

After saying this, he paused. This was the cue that they had been waiting to clap. So everyone clapped.

After they were done clapping, Arthur raised his hand to signify that he had a question to say.

Sword Flash pointed him out and said, "You may speak."

Arthur rose up from his seat and said, "What about artifacts that don't require any cultivation technique to utilize them?"

He was referring to the formation breaker. Sword Flash glanced at the white disc floating above his head and also understood why he was asking that question.

So Sword Flash nodded and said to Arthur, "Good question. If your artifact doesn't require any cultivation technique to make full use of its power, then your artifact won't be sidelined for an upgrade yet.