Forty-five, three clear fragments

  Xiao Yao suddenly felt a twitch in her temples: How did this person find his way to her cave? And even came squatting at the door?! Suddenly, there was a feeling of powerlessness and frustration, ever since returning from "Kunlun Realm", everything seemed to be going wrong, one trouble after another, without any break.

  She let out a slight sigh, mustered up her spirits and said to the unexpected guest: "Rong Dao, what brings you here..."

  "Wait for your return." Luo Jianying's body didn't move, and he raised his straight eyebrows.

  "Daoist friend... is there something?" Xiao Yao gazed at his straight back, the sharp long sword behind him, sitting upright like a clock, with an expression that was stern and serious, and couldn't bring herself to utter words of dismissal.

  "Let's have a match." As soon as he finished speaking, he stood up and drew his sword, with bright eyes and boundless fighting spirit.

  "Uh, I've had something come up recently... it's inconvenient." Xiao Yao forced a smile and said vaguely.

  "So when are you free? Pick a day." Luo Jianying had no intention of letting her off.

  "Hmm, it's hard to say, maybe one or two months, or a year or two, or even longer." Xiao Yao felt helpless, why was this person so stubborn, she really had no reason to fight with him!

  "It's okay, I'll wait for you."

  As he spoke, Rong Jianying stepped onto the flying sword and transformed into a rainbow light that flew far away. But not long after, the rainbow light returned again, and he said seriously: "I forgot to say, tomorrow I will come over again, if fellow daoist is done with his business, we will have a fight."

  Before Xiao Yao came back to her senses, Hong Guang disappeared into the distance once again, and this time he was truly gone.

  Xiao Yao finally realized what she had said after being stunned for a moment, "He said he'll come again tomorrow?!"

  "It should be like this," the leopard continued: "He's so sincere, don't you really want to have a fight with him?"

  Xiao Yao's eyes slanted lazily, "What, you're interested?"

  "Leopard son raised his head and let out a cold hum: 'Hmph, too weak, not worthy of being my opponent. If I'm going to fight, it's with that good-for-nothing! One day, I'll definitely bite him to death!'"

  When it comes to Zidong, the leopard's anger is reignited. Xiao Yao didn't refute him because she also had an urge to slap him to death in her heart, but unfortunately, her strength was not as good as others, and she could only let it go. Thinking of this, she felt another wave of annoyance in her heart. The feeling of being powerless when facing a strong person was really unbearable. If she didn't want to be threatened or controlled by anyone, she had to become stronger! However, her cultivation method had not yet been settled, and if she only relied on completing tasks on the task list to earn merits, it would probably take more than a hundred years to obtain the upper-level cultivation method of the White Jade Villa. If none of these things had happened, she could have waited for a hundred years, but now that her Void Secret was known, threats were lurking in the dark, and she couldn't afford to wait any longer.

  It seems that I need to go out and take a walk during this period of time. Opportunities won't come from just staying at home, I have to go out and try my luck!

  After a few breaths of effort, Xiao Yao had already decided what to do next, but before that, the forging of "Ling Kong Jie Zi" must be put first, and Little Ling had waited long enough.

  She was deeply troubled, and the leopard was also unusually silent. Thus, one person and one beast each with their own thoughts entered the cave.

  The materials for refining the "Empty Spirit Mustard Seed" have been gathered, and now it's time to refine them. However, in Xiao Yao's opinion, this refinement is even more difficult than gathering the materials, no less challenging than refining a bronze-grade artifact. This is also another reason why the "Empty Spirit Mustard Seed" is so expensive.

  In the Xianling realm for more than half a year, she had read many books on equipment refinement and had also forged some high-grade magical instruments. However, it was undeniable that the higher the grade of the instrument, the more difficult it was to forge, especially those above the first-grade spiritual instrument. She had once spent a lot of money buying rare materials and tried to forge them, but not once succeeded. Every time she reached the furnace refining step, no matter how precise her divine sense control was, the embryo would inevitably become deformed within an hour, and after several attempts, she stopped trying and began to think about the reasons for her failure. Logically speaking, over tens of thousands of years, she had never been unfamiliar with this craft, and although her forging skills were not exceptional, they were still exquisite, so it didn't make sense that none of them succeeded. Moreover, each time she failed at the same stage, from experience, this was likely related to the forging method rather than control. She had considered why she couldn't forge high-grade instruments in the mortal realm, and wondered if there were differences in the forging techniques as well.

  Because the prepared elixir was quite sufficient, Xiao Yao first took a portion as a trial, according to the requirements of the formula, cast it into an ingot, and then summoned the Phoenix Fire to prepare for furnace refinement.

  This guy usually likes to sleep in his dantian, and once he wakes up, he has to go out to find food. He is a complete foodie! After the battle of Suixing Valley, it swallowed a whole layer of palace flames and then fell asleep, waking up only after more than 20,000 years. This time, it didn't seem to have undergone a huge transformation like before when it woke up. Now, the flame is still the same as before, looking no different from ordinary fire at first glance, with its body still round and chubby, liking to show off in front of itself. However, the violent and ferocious aura hidden within its round belly is now hundreds of times more intense than before, and if one pays close attention, they can still feel a hint of an awe-inspiring power that makes one tremble. Nevertheless, for Xiao Yao, no matter how it changes, it's still that greedy Fenghuo.

  When the host called, Fenghuo immediately flew out obediently and enthusiastically rubbed its round body back and forth on Xiao Yao's body. This action is sometimes similar to that of a foot bath, both are affectionate. It's strange to say, it's actually a bundle of violent flames, containing terrifying power, but when this flame touches its own body, it doesn't feel hot at all, leaving only a comfortable warmth, like being embedded in invisible soft fur.

  Phoenix Fire scattered, Xiao Yao smiled and touched its head: "Get to work."

  The green-colored crucible was wrapped in phoenix fire, presenting a five-color appearance, with red, orange, yellow, blue and brown alternating brilliance. The "Three Purities" material was also being tempered by the flames, showing off the unique color of "Kong Gang". Everything went smoothly until then. However, as time passed, an abnormality gradually appeared in the crucible. At first, the five colors that had been appearing on the body of the furnace in a regular pattern began to change rapidly and frequently, and soon the entire furnace started shaking violently. Before long, the "Kong Gang" ingot began to deform.

  Xiao Yao's divine consciousness was still in control, but she had no way to stop the failure of the forging. She watched as the embryo took shape and became a lump of scrap metal. Before she could even lament, she heard a loud "boom" and the entire furnace exploded! Under the impact of the rolling hot waves from the explosion, she was forced back into the corner of the wall!

  As the heat wave subsided, Xiao Yao stared at the remains of "San Qing" on the ground, and after a moment's daze, she finally confirmed her speculation: The forging techniques of the Mortal Realm and the Xianling Realm have some differences. Completely using the Mortal Realm's refining skills to forge high-level artifacts in the Xianling Realm might not work. But the cost was too great, it actually destroyed her only furnace, what a painful loss!

  The leopard, who had been watching from the side, stepped forward and poked at the fragments on the ground with its front paw. Then it raised its eyes and said: "After all, it's something from the mortal world, and it's broken so thoroughly. Now what do you plan to do?"

  What to do, although the furnace was broken, but "Ling Kong Jie Zi" still needs to be refined. After cleaning up the fragments on the ground, she said: "Go to the market to buy a new one and take a look at some larger refining shops."

  Out of the cave mansion, it didn't take long for Xiao Yao to arrive at the upper city district of White Jade City. On the main street, she picked a larger-looking utensil shop and walked in directly.

  The store was nicely decorated, with all sorts of spiritual artifacts neatly arranged on the shelves. As Xiao Yao entered, a male Golden Elixir cultivator immediately came forward, smiling and saying: "Esteemed senior, I don't know what you need, but our 'Famous Air Building' specializes in selling all kinds of spiritual artifacts, whether it's dan furnaces, instrument furnaces, or array disks, spirit beast rings, we have everything."

  Xiao Yao smiled politely at him, "I want to buy a refining furnace, something slightly better, do you have any good recommendations?"

  The man saw that the other's cultivation was higher than his own, but he spoke with a humble tone and had a warm aura about him, which made him feel good in his heart. "Welcome, senior. You've really come to the right place. Today, my shop just received a new batch of stoves, ranging from high to low quality. I'll take you to see them now."

  He led Xiao Yao to a shelf, on which were placed various colored and styled furnaces, surrounded by spiritual energy, of extremely high quality, all of which were rare items that had never been seen in the mortal world. However, there were too many furnaces, and at first glance, it was dazzling and difficult to choose.

  At this time, the male cultivator spoke again: "The shelves here are all filled with medium-grade furnaces, each of the five elements - metal, wood, water, fire and earth - is represented, and there are also many attribute-less furnaces. I don't know which type senior likes."

  Xiao Yao didn't rush to answer, but instead slowly looked over the shelves, her gaze sweeping past the prices on the furnaces below, and she was secretly shocked. The cheapest furnace on this shelf cost several tens of thousands of mid-grade yuan crystals, which was really expensive! Now that she only had a little over 10,000 mid-grade yuan crystals on her, where could she afford to buy one?!

  Anyone who does business has some discerning eye, and Male Repair sees that he has looked for so long without a single satisfactory one. His eyes are always fixed on the price, and at this moment, he has a few points of understanding. With a smile, he says: "The middle-grade furnace is actually only one layer higher than the lower-grade furnace in terms of success rate, but the price is several times higher. In the younger generation's view, if it's just for ordinary forging, using a lower-grade furnace would be sufficient, and it's also more practical."

  "How much does this inferior crystal furnace cost?" Xiao Yao asked.

  "Returning to senior, a crystal of 10,000 to 20,000 middle-grade yuan is not equal, would senior like to take a look?"

  Looking at Nan Xiu's sincere eyes, Xiao Yao thought of her own empty purse and shook her head: "It's still too expensive, is there anything cheaper?"

  "This...” Male repair saw that this senior was probably newly ascended and wasn't very clear about the prices in the Eastern Extreme, and suddenly felt a bit embarrassed. "The items we sell in our store are all of the highest quality, and even the cheapest ones are gone. You should know that low-quality furnaces below a certain level are not up to standard, and forging some Taoist instruments is no problem, but forging high-level ones has some difficulties."

  "Is that so......" Xiao Yao couldn't help but feel down, the crucible had to be bought, but letting her buy one of average quality was somewhat unacceptable.

  Seeing her frowning, seemingly having a hard time deciding, the male cultivator had a very good impression of her and kindly suggested: "If senior is really in urgent need, why not borrow from the artifact shop? The price for borrowing once is less than fifty mid-grade yuan crystals."