Immortal Refiner

Ever since Li Qing made a name for himself in Jade Capital City, he had been staying at Ning Wang’s mansion to avoid the limelight.

But things didn't go as planned, and even hiding in Ning Wang's residence didn't bring him peace.

In recent days, Ning Wang's mansion had been extremely lively, with ministers frequently visiting with their daughters, their purpose naturally being Li Qing.

In just over ten days, Li Qing had become acquainted with all the unmarried noble ladies in Jade Capital City.

The eldest daughter of the Minister, the granddaughter of the General, the beloved daughter of the Vice Minister, and so on – he was finding it hard to cope with them all.

However, after strongly expressing his unwillingness to form a Daoist partnership with anyone, the limelight finally passed him by.

It was nearly late autumn, but the scenery in Ning Wang's mansion was still like spring, with rare and precious spiritual trees bearing abundant fruit.

Finally finding some leisure, Li Qing took a stroll in the mansion's garden, thinking about bidding farewell to Ning Wang and returning to his own cave dwelling.

Although the cultivation environment in Ning Wang's mansion was also very good, being located in the central area of a sixth-order spiritual vein, he felt quite uncomfortable staying there.

Just as Li Qing was pondering how to bring it up, respectful voices from servants came from outside the garden:

"Greetings, Your Highness Princess Qing He!"

"Mm, you may rise."

Li Qing looked over and saw a princess who had left a deep impression on him during the competition in the palace, although her cultivation was only at the Transformation God stage, she was skilled in formations.

Today, Princess Qing He was wearing a simple, light green dress, her face, which was considered pleasing, wore a calm expression, unmoved by external things.

"Your cultivation is a level higher than mine, there's no need to be so formal, you can call me Fellow Daoist Qing He," Princess Qing He said calmly.

In the Great Yu Kingdom, although the imperial family held a noble position, strength was ultimately respected, and cultivators did not need to kneel and bow to members of the imperial family, only needing to distinguish seniority based on the strength of their cultivation.

Li Qing naturally knew this, but he still respectfully addressed her as Princess, in order to appear more distant, as he didn't want to get too close to these imperial family members.

Just as he was about to turn and leave, Princess Qing He said, "Wait, I came specifically to find you."

Li Qing paused, a look of confusion on his face, "I wonder what business Your Highness has?"

Princess Qing He took out a letter from her person and handed it to Li Qing, saying:

"Yesterday I went to my teacher's place, and a one-eyed man asked me to give this letter to you, here."

Xia Wushuang?

Li Qing was slightly stunned, not yet understanding the situation, he took the spiritual letter, and the information on it quickly appeared.

"Brother Li, help! I've been imprisoned by a strange old man in West Liang Mountain in Jade Capital City, and I'm suffering every day!"

"This old man is extremely arrogant and doesn't even care about Ning Wang. You should inform Ning Wang of this matter and have Ning Wang bring people to ransack this old man's house! And rescue me."

Looking at the contents of the letter, Li Qing's mouth twitched, thinking that the old man Xia Wushuang was talking about should be Princess Qing He's teacher.

"Ahem, Fellow Daoist Qing He, may I ask who your teacher is?"

"My friend seems to be trapped there, I wonder what's going on?"

Princess Qing He truthfully said, "Ying Fuzi, but I am only a nominal disciple of the teacher, and cannot call him master."

"As for your friend, although he has been imprisoned, his life is not in danger. The teacher wants to extract some information related to formations from him, the formation inheritance he has learned is of no small origin."

Hearing this, Li Qing frowned slightly.

Ying Fuzi.

He had no impression of this name, but since he could become Princess Qing He's teacher, even if he only accepted her as a nominal disciple, he should not be an ordinary person.

"Thank you for making a trip, Your Highness Princess! I just don't know, if my friend doesn't reveal the origin of the formations he has learned, what will your teacher do?" Li Qing asked tentatively.

Princess Qing He shook her head, "Actually, the teacher wanted to accept him as a personal disciple in exchange for the formation inheritance he possesses, but this person spoke wildly, claiming that the teacher was not qualified to teach him in the way of formations, and even said something about rustic techniques, which angered the teacher."

After hearing this, Li Qing was silent for a while, he thought about it and decided to leave it alone for now.

Such a profound formation master, he probably wouldn't be of any use in the past, it would be better to let the other party vent enough anger on Xia Wushuang, and then he would naturally release him.

"Thank you, Your Highness, for delivering the message!"

Princess Qing He rarely showed a smile, she said, "No need to thank me, besides delivering the letter, I also want you to help me test the Upside Down Star Formation!"

"These days I went back to retreat, and added some new changes to this formation, this time it will definitely not be broken by you so easily!"

Once she started talking about formations, this Princess became much more talkative.

After listening, Li Qing smiled wryly, and finally agreed.

"Then please enlighten me!"

A moment later, in the backyard of Ning Wang's mansion.

Princess Qing He looked at the Upside Down Star Formation that had been split open by Li Qing with a single sword, revealing a pensive expression.

This time, she personally presided over the formation, bringing its power to the extreme, but it still failed to block Li Qing's sword.

It was even more decisive than the previous time, shocking her, and she wondered if her changes had failed.

Li Qing slowly put away the Immortal Slaughtering Sword and said, "Fellow Daoist Qing He, there's no need to be discouraged, few people in the Void Refinement stage can withstand this sword head-on."

The implication was that this fifth-order grand formation was already quite remarkable, and there was no need to fight him to the death.

After thinking for a while, Princess Qing He nodded again, then put away the formation plate and the other shattered formation flags, without saying anything, she left Ning Wang's mansion directly.

And Li Qing also used the excuse of inquiring about this Ying Fuzi to approach Ning Wang.

Inside the study in the mansion, Ning Wang was flipping through an ancient handscroll, he couldn't help but laugh after hearing Li Qing's account.

"In front of this Ying Fuzi, this Wang really can't get any respect."

"He is the National Guardian Grand Preceptor, the guardian formation in the palace, as well as the teleportation formations in various counties of the Great Yu Kingdom, are all from his hand, even His Majesty doesn't dare to give him a good face."

"Unless the late Emperor Taizu personally comes forward, no one can persuade Ying Fuzi."

After hearing these words, Li Qing's face showed a look of shock.

Ying Fuzi, one of the founding heroes of the Great Yu Kingdom, once fought the world together with Emperor Taizu.

His cultivation was at the mid-stage of the Fusion Realm, and his attainments in the Dao of formations were unmatched in the entire Great Yu Kingdom. He was a genuine eighth-order formation master, whose skills could be described as divine craftsmanship, completely seizing the creation of heaven and earth.

Li Qing felt a surge of longing. The most important part of the Immortal Execution Sword Formation Diagram he wanted to refine in the future was the formation diagram itself.

The Immortal Slaughtering Sword and the Immortal Trapping Sword would definitely grow into Connate Spiritual Treasures in the future. Although the remaining two killing swords had not yet shown any signs, Li Qing also planned to refine them to the level of Connate Spiritual Treasures.

And if the quality of the four killing swords improved, then the sword formation diagram that would bear them would naturally have to rise accordingly, otherwise it would not be able to withstand the four Connate Killing Swords at all.

Therefore, he estimated that his future sword formation diagram would probably have to be engraved with an eighth-order formation.

However, eighth-order formation masters were rare existences even in the entire Spirit Realm.

Not to mention the Great Yu Kingdom, they would be treated as honored guests anywhere.

He didn't expect Xia Wushuang to provoke such a top figure, truly asking for trouble.

Li Qing immediately and completely dispelled the idea of rescuing Xia Wushuang, letting him live or die on his own.

He was thinking about whether he could get the other party to take action once and design the basic formation of the Immortal Execution Sword Formation Diagram for him.

However, this was just a thought. Even if Li Qing emptied his own family fortune, he would not be able to raise an eyebrow from such a formation master.

Then, Li Qing submitted his resignation to Prince Ning, intending to return to his cave dwelling to cultivate.

Prince Ning did not stop him, but let him leave very readily, and also said that he could come at any time in the future.

"Thank you, Senior Prince Ning, then I will take my leave first!"

"Well, you can come to me if you encounter anything in Yujing City."

Prince Ning picked up the ancient hand scroll again and flipped through it.

After saying goodbye to Prince Ning, Li Qing returned to his cave dwelling.

"Now that the Xuan Iron Token is in hand, I can wait step by step for the opening of the Xuan Heaven Divine Palace."

"I just don't know what kind of gains I will get. I'm afraid there will be many Fusion Realm experts entering it by then."

Li Qing took out the Xuan Iron Shield and muttered to himself.

Afterwards, he put away the Xuan Iron Token and began to cultivate quietly in the cave dwelling.

Now, the Dao techniques on his body have been cultivated almost to the point, and the next direction for improvement mainly has three aspects.

"First, continue to cultivate diligently and swallow all the Wood Essence Dates on your body to improve your cultivation."

Li Qing did not choose this direction. Although swallowing the remaining Wood Essence Dates on his body could make his mana deeper, it would not bring substantial help to his cultivation.

Now, he is still quite a long way from the mid-stage of the Void Refinement Realm. Even with the help of the Five Essence Dates, it is impossible to break through to the mid-stage of the Void Refinement Realm in a short time.

Moreover, if you want to exert the maximum medicinal effect of the Five Essence Dates, it is best to find a alchemist with superb alchemy skills to refine it into a pill, so that it can exert greater medicinal power.

"I heard that some alchemists with superb skills have some secret pill formulas that are not passed on, which can simultaneously use five Five Essence Dates as the main medicine, and then refine a furnace of Five Elements Great Medicine, which has amazing miraculous effects when taken."

"I don't know if there is such a alchemy master in Yujing City."

The remaining two directions for improvement are the art of refining weapons and the 'Dao Tribulation Limitless Scripture' he created.

The cultivation chapter of the 'Dao Tribulation Limitless Scripture' is still stuck at the Nascent Soul level, but now he already has many clues and can continue to create the method downwards.

However, Li Qing did not intend to do so. Now, cultivating the 'Crimson Radiance Burning Heaven Skill' is still going smoothly, and there is no need to rush to switch to the Dao method he created.

Therefore, he set his sights on the art of refining weapons.

"I heard that there are quite amazing spiritual materials in the Xuan Heaven Divine Palace, and it is even possible to capture some rare treasures from the beginning of heaven and earth. If there is something to be gained this time, perhaps the third killing sword can be refined."

After Li Qing stroked his chin, he decided to work harder on his own art of refining weapons.

Now, his weapon refining skills are actually quite amazing. Refining earth-grade spiritual treasures is no longer a difficult task for him. As long as there are suitable spiritual materials, he can refine them.

However, the next two killing swords, he plans to refine them according to the level of Connate Spiritual Treasures, which not only requires extremely precious spiritual materials, but also requires extremely profound weapon refining skills.

Knowing that he was slightly insufficient, Li Qing slowly closed his eyes and comprehended the hand scrolls and some secret books he had obtained in a secret room in the Heavenly Light Secret Realm.

Among these hand scrolls and secret books, there were a large number of texts that even he could not understand. Apart from the weapon refining technique of refining weapons into silk, he gained nothing.

This time, after he had time, he planned to study these texts carefully.

In Yujing City, there are many places where you can inquire about news, such as the Chengshun Chamber of Commerce at the beginning, and some Tianji buildings opened by feng shui masters.

Li Qing scrambled the order of these texts that he could not understand, and then extracted some paragraphs from them, and took them to these places that sell intelligence and news to ask if anyone could recognize these texts.

As the saying goes, hard work pays off. After about ten days, Li Qing finally found information about these mysterious texts in a place called Xuanji Pavilion.

"Senior, the texts you are inquiring about should be the common texts of the Xuanming Realm."

Xuanming Realm.

Hearing this, Li Qing narrowed his eyes and asked, "Is the Xuanming Realm also a Spirit Realm?"

"That's right, the Xuanming Realm is far away from our realm, but some lost small realm groups once fell into the outer void above our realm, but this was already a very long time ago, and the era is no longer verifiable."

"As for these texts of the Xuanming Realm, if the senior wants to master them, you can go to the Taishu Academy in Yujing City. There are scholars who specialize in studying various languages there, and there should be some gains."

Hearing this, Li Qing nodded, left the reward and left.

The Taishu Academy in Yujing City is the highest institution in the entire Great Yu Kingdom, specializing in teaching cultivation.

However, most of the people who study and cultivate in such places are the younger generation, and their cultivation is at most around the Nascent Soul Stage or the Transformation God Stage.

"If you want to go to the Taishu Academy, I'm afraid you have to ask Prince Ning for help."

Li Qing sighed lightly, unexpectedly he had to go to Prince Ning's mansion again after leaving for such a short time.

But there was no way. For the weapon refining skills that might be recorded in it, Li Qing decided to ask Prince Ning to help with this favor.

As a prince, it should not be difficult to put him into the Taishu Academy.