The earthfire hall was the most important structure of the Tool Refinement Hall. Although it only spanned a little over three hundred meters wide, it was three stories tall.
The top floor was the storage area for materials. The second floor was where one could directly use earthfire to refine materials and refine low-grade spirit stools. And the bottom floor was a hundred meters pit into the ground where high-grade magic tools were refined with the a.s.sistance of earthfire essence.
Han Li often used a secluded room on the second floor to refine materials and brought County Lord Luxiu there to refine her Bloodvein Silver. It was slightly cluttered so he set off on tidying it up when they arrived.
“This is where Senior Martial Brother Han refine materials?” County Lord Luxiu curiously looked around the room and particularly focused her attention at the large cauldron and the eight gourd magic tools that were scattered around it. It appeared this was the first time she saw a tool refinement site.
“What? Has the County Lord never seen magic tools refined before?” Han Li asked with a slight frown.
She reached out to touch the handle of the cauldron and said, “Ever since I was young, I’ve followed Aunt Yu in cultivation and haven’t had the time to learn about tool refinement. I usually remain in the estate to cultivate.”
Han Li glanced at the ashes in the cauldron and casually asked, “You cultivated in your estate? Could it be the Yu Estate is located above a spirit vein?”
The woman yelped in surprise and then curled her lips in a smile, “Could it be that Senior Martial Brother didn’t know who I was? You truly don’t know the royal clan that I claim my status as a County Lord?”
Han Li’s heart stirred and he chuckled, saying, “I am quite ignorant and am unsure of your ident.i.ty.”
“You’re ignorant? Hehe, that’s great. There is no need for me to act as my position of County Lord. To tell the truth, I only have distant relation to the Great Jin’s royal family, but I’ve never seen the face of the emperor of the Great Jin. I’ve always remained in cultivation with my master and have never visited the royal mansion.” A trace of happiness flashed across the young woman’s face and her att.i.tude quickly changed from the graceful poise of a n.o.blewoman to a strangely spirited young woman.
“You’re royalty?” Han Li’s expression changed in surprise.
The young woman sat down in the lone chair in the room and tilted her head. Then with a smile, she asked, “What? Are you surprised? My t.i.tle of County Lord is genuine, but it is only something that the emperor bestowed upon me. Were it not for the fact that my aunt said that I mustn’t shame the face of the imperial family before I arrived, I wouldn’t have dressed up in this fas.h.i.+on and wouldn’t have that group of people bothering me. Their empty talk all day around is truly boring and tiresome. Currently, I am only able to relax around Senior Martial Brother Han. You won’t be so tactless and start uttering nonsense, right?”
Han Li let out a cough and said, “In that case, I’ll continue to talk as I am now, but it seems your esteemed ancestor is an unordinary person.”
“Have you heard of the four great vagrant cultivators in the Great Jin? My grandfather is one of them.” Luxiu raised her head when she said this as if in pride.
When Han Li heard this, his expression vastly changed and he astonishedly said, “The four great vagrant cultivators? Despite my ignorance, even I’ve heard of their fame. So it turned out the County Lord is even more of an important person. I’ve been truly disrespectful. That ident.i.ty is no lesser than your t.i.tle as County Lord. Your future prospects are boundless.”
He had heard of the four great vagrant cultivators from Cao Mengrong. They were at late and mid-Nascent Soul stage and each of them had abilities that far exceeded common Nascent Soul cultivators.
“Yes, that’s right! Everyone knows of my ancestor’s name. I believe that’s the way others should think of me!” Luxiu bluntly accepted Han Li’s praise.
Han Li stroked his nose and felt a bit of a headache. He paid no further attention to the woman and then struck the large cauldron with several spell seals. The cauldron began to roil and glow with light.
The young woman didn’t conceal her curiosity and glanced at the s.h.i.+ning pitch black stone with bright eyes, paying particular attention to Han Li’s actions.
Once the cauldron was fully activated, he turned to Luxiu and said, “Take out the material!”
“Here!” The young woman blinked and said with a smile, “I’ll just tell you now that there is no need to speak politely in front of others. If Senior Martial Brother truly fails and ruins this difficultly acquired material, you will have to compensate me.” Afterwards, she took out a fist-sized rock and handed it over to Han Li.
The rock was sparkling silver, but it was mixed with countless threads of crimson. He looked at the stone in his hand and inwardly rolled his eyes at the young woman’s giggling words.
Let alone a Qi Condensation disciple, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would be troubled to acquire a piece of this rare material. If he were a true Qi Condensation cultivator, it would be strange if he were able to compensate her.
Han Li refocused his attention on the cauldron and tossed the rock into it. Then, after he placed several supplementary materials inside of it, he sat down cross-legged onto the floor.
He proceeded to slap a talisman on his body and a layer of blue light appeared on his body. Following an incantation, the eight gourd magic tools on the ground began to brightly s.h.i.+ne with light and release eight streams of scarlet flame onto the lower half of the cauldron.
The temperature in the room began to suddenly rise.
...
As Han Li was occupied with refining the Bloodvein Silver, an old Daoist nun and a middle-aged woman were having a discussion in a secluded building at the top of the mountain.
With a grave expression, the Daoist nun said, “We don’t have much more time. Our royal family has spent over four hundred years preparing for this already. Eight generations of monarchs had spent a painstaking effort to keep this plan hidden. If this fails, not only will we not acquire those two treasures but the entire royal family will suffer calamity. Our Ye Clan may have ama.s.sed strength in secret, but if we were to truly cla.s.s with the Buddhists and other factions, we would collapse at the first strike. As for those rotten Confucians, they may say they loyally support the throne, but if we attract their attention, I fear they will be the first to act against our royal family. I have always felt our Ye Clan have been playing with fire.”
The beautiful woman sighed and said, “Aunt, we all knew this, but this is a great opportunity for our clan to free ourselves from the other powers. And don’t forget how our Seventh Great Uncle and the others had died; when they saw our royal family increase slightly in power, the many great factions immediately joined hands in dispatching several Nascent Soul cultivators to deal with them. Afterwards, they found a reason in pa.s.sing as justification for the killings. If we don’t break away from this horrible situation, our royal Ye Clan will only be the top n.o.ble clan only in name, when in truth we are only an expendable resource that the great factions have agreed upon. So long as the legends are true and we truly acquire these two treasures, our painful efforts over the years will pay off and we’ll force those superpowers to recognize us through power alone. They won’t dare to attack us then.”
A cold glint flickered from the Daoist nun’s eyes and she snorted, then speaking with a fearful tone, “Although legends in the cultivation world proclaimed the inconceivable might of Divine Spirit Treasures, I have difficulty believing that two of these treasures will be able to completely turn the world around and put us on equal footing as these superpowers. I fear we’ll overreach ourselves and attract calamity by stirring the superpowers into wiping us out. If I remember correctly, those superpowers should have treasures of a similar level. Although I don’t know how many they have, a single one will have the capability of eliminating our Ye Clan.”
The beautiful woman frowned and solemnly replied, “Deity Transformation cultivators are rivalless in this world. Even with the Divine Spirit Treasures, our three great ancestors would barely be able to defend against such monsters. However, there is no need for you to be too worried about this. Our Ye Clan had secretly investigated this matter over a hundred years ago. After much a.n.a.lysis, a.s.suming the lifespan of those monsters are a thousand years greater than a Nascent Soul cultivator, there have only been a few cultivators capable of reaching Deity Transformation stage in the last two thousand years. A small portion of them may have succeeded and most of them should’ve ascended to the spirit realm, leaving only two or three in the mortal realm at most. Furthermore, these people must be paying an enormous cost to remain in the mortal realm. Not only are their movements restricted and cannot easily take action, but their cultivation should be forcefully suppressed to the late-Nascent Soul stage as well. Furthermore, those monsters most likely won’t have any interest in taking action over the rise of a faction.”
The Daoist nun’s expression turned particularly more gloomy when she heard this. “How can you know of this? Don’t tell me this is information that you’ve acquired from conjecture and a few questions. Over the years, countless cultivators attempted to find out about the secret information of cultivators remaining in the mortal realm after achieving Deity Transformation, but all of them failed. How can you clearly understand this knowledge after only a hundred years? Is your confidence an attempt to trick me? Or is there something that you aren’t mentioning?”
Seeing that her aunt was angry, the woman hurriedly explained, “We have no intention of fooling you. Although this information isn’t something that our Ye Clan had researched, it is something that we acquired from an elder we recently recruited. His information was a complete match for clues that we collected, so it is fair to say that our Ye Clan had managed to properly investigate the matter.”