Immortal Refiner

Li Qing’s heart raced with anticipation. The most crucial element in the Immortal Slaying Sword Formation Diagram he planned to refine in the future was the diagram itself.

The Immortal Slaughtering Sword and Immortal-Trapping Sword would undoubtedly mature into heaven-piercing spirit treasures. Though the remaining two killing swords showed no signs of such growth yet, Li Qing intended to refine them to that level as well.

As the quality of the four killing swords rose, the sword formation diagram that would contain them would naturally need to rise in tier as well. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be able to withstand four heaven-piercing killing swords.

Thus, he estimated that his future sword formation diagram would likely need to be inscribed with an eighth-tier formation.

However, eighth-rank formation masters were exceedingly rare in the entire spirit realm. Not just in the Great Yu Kingdom, but anywhere, they would be treated as honored guests.

He never imagined Xia Wushuang would provoke such a supremely powerful figure, truly courting disaster.

Li Qing immediately abandoned all thoughts of rescuing Xia Wushuang, leaving the man to fend for himself.

He did consider whether he could persuade this figure to design the basic grand formation for his Immortal Slaying Sword Formation Diagram.

But this was merely a fleeting thought. Even if Li Qing emptied his entire fortune, he couldn’t make such a formation master lift an eyebrow.

Li Qing then submitted his resignation to Prince Ning, intending to return to his cave abode to cultivate.

Prince Ning did not object, instead readily granting his leave and inviting him to return at any time.

”Thank you, Senior Prince Ning. I shall take my leave now.”

”Hmm, if you encounter any trouble in Yujing City, feel free to seek me out.” Prince Ning picked up his ancient manual and began flipping through it.

After bidding farewell to Prince Ning, Li Qing returned to his cave abode.

”Now that I have the Black Iron Token, I can patiently await the opening of the Xuantian Divine Palace.”

”I wonder what I’ll gain from it. The body integration realm experts will surely be flocking to the palace.”

Li Qing took out the black iron small shield and murmured to himself.

He then put away the token and began cultivating in seclusion within his cave abode.

Most of his daoist arts were now nearly perfected. His future cultivation would focus on three main areas.

”First, continue with diligent cultivation, consuming all the wood essence jujubes on hand to boost my cultivation.”

Li Qing rejected this path. While consuming the remaining jujubes could deepen his mana, it wouldn’t bring about any substantial improvement in his cultivation realm.

He was still a long way from the mid void refinement realm, and even with the help of the five elements jujubes, he couldn’t break through to that realm in a short time.

Moreover, to maximize the medicinal efficacy of the five elements jujubes, it would be best to find a skilled pill refiner to refine them into medicinal pills, which would amplify their medicinal power.

”I’ve heard that some exceptionally skilled pill refiners possess secret, unshared pill formulas. They can use five five elements jujubes as the primary ingredient to refine a batch of Five Elements Great Medicine, which has astonishing miraculous effects when consumed.”

”I wonder if there are any such pill refining great masters in Yujing City.”

The remaining two areas for improvement were his artifact refinement technique and his self-created Dao Tribulation Limitless Sutra.

The cultivation technique chapter of the Dao Tribulation Limitless Sutra remained stuck at the nascent soul level, but he had made significant progress and was close to continuing his Law Creation.

However, Li Qing had no intention of doing so. His cultivation of the Crimson Blaze Heaven-Burning Art was progressing smoothly, and he wasn’t in a hurry to switch to his self-created daoist art.

Therefore, he turned his attention to the artifact refinement technique.

”I’ve heard that the Xuantian Divine Palace contains truly extraordinary spiritual materials, even some peerless treasures from the dawn of heaven and earth. If I can obtain some there, I might be able to refine the third killing sword.”

After stroking his chin thoughtfully, Li Qing decided to redouble his efforts in mastering the artifact refinement technique.

His current skills were already quite remarkable. Refining earth-grade spiritual treasures was no longer a challenge for him; he could produce them effortlessly, provided he had the appropriate spiritual materials.

However, for the next two killing swords, he planned to refine them to the level of heaven-piercing spirit treasures. This would require not only extremely precious spiritual materials but also exceptionally profound artifact refinement techniques.

Aware of his shortcomings, Li Qing slowly closed his eyes and began studying the handwritten notes and arcane codices he had obtained from a subterranean chamber in the Heavenlight Secret Realm.

Much of the text in these documents remained unintelligible to him. Apart from the technique for refining spiritual materials into threads, he gained nothing from them.

Now that he had some free time, he resolved to thoroughly investigate this mysterious script.

In Yujing City, there were numerous places to gather information, such as the former Chengshun Merchant Guild and the Heavenly Secrets Towers run by feng shui masters.

Li Qing shuffled the incomprehensible text, extracted fragments, and took them to these information brokers, asking if anyone could decipher the characters.

Persistence pays off. After more than ten days, Li Qing finally found information about the mysterious characters at the Mystic Secrets Pavilion.

”Senior, the characters you’re inquiring about are likely the common script of the Profound Nether Realm.”

Profound Nether Realm.

Li Qing narrowed his eyes. ”Is the Profound Nether Realm also a spirit realm?”

”Correct. The Profound Nether Realm is far removed from our own, though some lost minor worlds once fell into the void above our realm. That was eons ago, the exact era lost to time.”

”If you wish to master the Profound Nether script, senior, I recommend visiting the Imperial Academy in Yujing City. They have scholars specializing in various languages; you might find something there.”

Li Qing nodded, left some payment, and departed.

The Imperial Academy in Yujing City was the foremost institution of learning in the Great Yu Kingdom, dedicated to cultivating practitioners.

However, most students there were young, with cultivation levels at most in the nascent soul or divine transformation realms.

”To enter the Imperial Academy, I’ll likely need to ask Prince Ning for help,” Li Qing sighed softly, surprised he had to return to Prince Ning’s Mansion so soon after leaving.

Still, for the sake of the potential artifact refinement techniques recorded in those texts, he decided to request Prince Ning’s assistance. As a prince, getting him admitted to the Imperial Academy shouldn’t be too difficult.