Why did you provoke that old man? He's a reincarnation of a deity!

Yu Biao personally led the way.

The two arrived in Mizhou Prefecture. Xiao Nian followed him through three streets and arrived at a small, secluded house in the east of the city.

When Yu Biao pushed open the door, Xiao Nian smelled a medicinal fragrance wafting out of the room; it was the medicine that Xiao Nian had asked Lin Mumu to get.

Lin Mumu was sitting in the main room eating a plate of braised beef and drinking thick soup when he saw Xiao Nian come in. He choked on the soup and almost dropped the bowl.

"Uncle Meng? You've been arrested too?"

Xiao Nian looked him up and down. Did this fat man look like he had been kidnapped?

Yu Biao stood at the door, scratched his head, and explained somewhat awkwardly:

"Old Meng, Brother Hu said that this fat guy, oh no, Mr. Lin, has very strange abilities. Although he injured several of our brothers, he is also a great talent."

"Tiger said that such talent shouldn't be wasted, so he wanted him to stay and join the gang. He saw we were a loan shark gang and refused to join, which is why I locked him up. Later, while he was locked up, Tiger thought it best to treat him well, just in case he changed his mind..."

Lin Mumu put down her bowl, looking aggrieved: "Me, the heir of a prestigious family of weapon refiners, going to join a gang? Even if they don't beat me to death, I can't forgive myself."

Xiao Nian glanced at Yu Biao, who quickly took a step back and said tactfully, "I'll bring the five million tomorrow. You can take the person away now."

"I'm taking him with me." Xiao Nian turned and walked out.

Lin Mumu quickly put down the bowl, ran to the inner room, picked up her younger sister, and followed Xiao Nian out the door.

Xiao Nian's new residence was a secluded courtyard he found in Xinyou City. It had two courtyards, with an old locust tree in the yard, and was not far from the Pill Guild and the Martial Arts Academy.

Lin Mumu settled her younger sister on the bed in the inner room, then came out and kowtowed three times to Xiao Nian, her forehead turning red from the effort.

"Uncle Meng, you gave me my life. From now on, if you tell me to go east, I will never go west; if you tell me to urinate, I will never dare to defecate."

Xiao Nian didn't let him kowtow a fourth time.

He walked to the bedside and re-established his pulse on Lin Xueci. The moment his spiritual energy entered, his brow twitched slightly.

Last time he felt that this girl's physique was unusual, so this time he was even more careful, and his spiritual energy went down along the meridians, directly probing the depths of her dantian.

There lies a lurking, extremely cold spiritual source, so pure that it contains not a trace of impurity, like a block of ice that has never melted for millions of years.

really!

It's an ice-type celestial spiritual root. The purest kind.

Ordinary people can never even touch the threshold of spiritual roots in their entire lives. On a blue planet where spiritual energy is depleted, there is only one in ten thousand who can grow such a heavenly spiritual root.

But Lin Xueci was born into an ordinary family, without any cultivation techniques to guide her or any elixirs to nurture her talent. This talent was a disaster for her.

That cluster of celestial spiritual roots continuously generated ice essences, like a spring that kept overflowing with water; with no outlet, it burst the entire pool.

She had been cold all over since she was a child, and it got worse as she grew older. If she didn't have a cultivation method to guide her by the age of fourteen, she would freeze to death by the spiritual root in her body.

Xiao Nian withdrew her hand and looked at the thin girl on the bed.

She opened her eyes, her bright eyes looking at him quietly.

"Old man, tell me, when will I die?" Lin Xueci heard the doctor announce her death most often. "Will I see another spring?"

She could accept death, but what she couldn't let go of most in this world was her brother, and her desire to see spring again. A strange illness had confined her to bed for two whole years.

"What's your name?" Xiao Nian asked.

"Lin Xueci".

"Lin Xueci, listen carefully. You're not sick. You just haven't figured out how to use the good stuff yet."

The room fell silent for a moment.

Lin Xueci's eyes were filled with disbelief.

"The coldness in your body isn't an illness; it's because your innate spiritual root is too strong. For ordinary people without cultivation techniques, spiritual root is like poison. But once you start cultivating, this spiritual root is the best talent in the world," Xiao Nian said, looking at her.

"First, you must acknowledge me as your master. I will give you a cultivation technique. If you practice it, the cold energy will automatically be drawn into your dantian and will never flare up again. Can you do that?"

Lin Xueci's eyes lit up. She had been walking in the darkness for too long, and suddenly she saw a light—that was hope.

She nodded, her voice soft yet firm: "Yes, Master!"

Xiao Nian lightly tapped Lin Xueci's forehead with her index finger, and a message entered her mind:

"What I'm giving you is the introductory chapter of the 'Zhou Tian Xing Dou Refining Immortal Technique,' which focuses on the Yin-cold spiritual veins. You must meditate facing Venus in the north every day at midnight to absorb the power of the stars. After three months, the coldness will be completely suppressed. After six months, the spiritual root within your body will turn into your strength."

Lin Xueci's eyes were full of light.

Xiao Nian paused, then added, "Now that you're my disciple, once you're able to walk, go to the Martial Arts Academy to register. There are some resources there."

Lin Xueci was stunned for a moment, and then tears welled up in her eyes without warning.

She lowered her head and wiped her face haphazardly with her sleeve: "Thank you, teacher."

Lin Mumu's eyes also reddened as she stood beside him, and she kept repeating, "That's great, that's great."

Xiao Nian stepped out of the house and stood under the old locust tree in the courtyard.

Lin Mumu followed them out, hesitated for a moment, and then spoke up:

"Uncle Meng, I learned those formations from an incomplete book passed down in my family. My ancestors were a family of weapon refiners from the previous dynasty, and by my father's generation, only a few pages were left."

"I've been fascinated by those patterns since I was a child. I figured out how to draw them myself, and eventually I could use them. The small array I set up that day was activated by the only ancestral spirit stone. That spirit stone shattered after it was used up."

Xiao Nian nodded after hearing what he said. He took out the piece of Void Beast Skin from his pocket, which was an extra item that Lin Mumu had bought along with the medicinal herbs.

Do you recognize this?

Lin Mumu leaned closer for a couple of glances, then shook her head: "I don't recognize it."

"This is the hide of a Void Beast! This stuff can be used to craft spatial artifacts. The first thing you need to do to become an artifact refiner is to learn about various materials."

Xiao Nian spread the animal hide on the stone table. "Now I'm going to roughly refine a space bag. Watch carefully; I'll only demonstrate once."

He extended his right hand, and spiritual energy flowed from his palm into the animal hide.

The animal hide seemed to come alive, its surface gleaming with a silvery-gray sheen, and the patterns began to flow and recombine.

Xiao Nian used her spiritual power to draw intricate array patterns on the animal hide with her fingertips.

"Actually, weapon crafting and formation are closely related. A master weapon crafter will definitely be a master formation master, but a master formation master is not necessarily a master weapon crafter. Learn formation first, then learn weapon crafting."

Space folding, spiritual energy locking, and storage expansion—three arrays overlapped and interlocked on two palm-sized animal hides.

It took no more than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Xiao Nian withdrew his hand, and the animal hide had turned into a palm-sized gray cloth bag, which was quite ordinary.

"This is a storage bag I crafted. It can hold as much stuff as this courtyard." Xiao Nian tossed the storage bag over. "You can store and retrieve items by activating the opening with your spiritual power. Take a look."

Lin Mumu caught the storage bag with both hands, her fingers trembling.

He watched as an eighty-year-old man forged the legendary magical artifacts depicted in the ancestral manuscript in less than the time it takes for two incense sticks to burn.

Xiao Nian gently tapped Lin Mumu's forehead, and a huge amount of information entered his mind, consisting of densely packed words and images.

"Advanced techniques for formations, and some insights into weapon crafting. Your foundation is good; what you lack are the methods and materials. This should keep you busy for a while."

Lin Mumu knelt down again with a thud, but Xiao Nian stopped her by pressing her cane against her.

"Don't kneel. Your sister is my apprentice, and you are the older brother of my grand-apprentice. There will be plenty of opportunities for you to contribute in the future."

After saying that, Xiao Nian walked away, leaning on her cane.