Spirit Realm

It was as if it was snowing inside the stone tower. The bench, table, and floor, all made of stone, were frozen in ice, and the horrible cold someone to feel freezing cold all over.

Outside, sunlight was shining high, the lake was shimmering, and the temperature pleasant. In contrast, the inside of the tower was like the middle of winter—practically another world compared to the outside—and it caused Tang Siqi’s expression to change as she couldn’t help but cry out in surprise.

Inside the frozen little workshop, Qin Lie’s eyes remained indifferent with not the slightest trace of emotion inside his eyes. It was as if he didn’t notice her arrival at all.

Qin Lie continued to use the simple tools to break down the bones and grind them into bone dust. From beginning to end he never lifted his head to look at her even once, treating her like air…

Tang Siqi had been raised with love and care since she was a child, and ever since she arrived at Armament Sect, she was even beholden by all eyes. She was every young man’s dream lover, and no matter where she went, she was the focus of attention. Her voluptuous figure was always chased by countless gazes, and she had never been ignored so thoroughly by anyone before.

She did not receive the passionate gaze a normal man should have from Qin Lie. The cool and indifferent look in Qin Lie’s eyes made her feel extremely uncomfortable, almost as if she was being humiliated.

However, when she bent over and looked at the bone dust inside the wooden barrel, her eyes lit up a little.

The bone dust grinded by Qin Lie inside the wooden barrel was like the ashes of burned yellow paper. This was true powder without a single granule shaped substance to be found.

Withstanding the cold inside the tower, Tang Siqi arrived next to the wooden barrel, extended a jade-like finger into it, and stirred for a little.

Her eyes grew brighter and brighter as she exclaimed softly in her heart, “This perfectly meets my needs! If I were to do it myself, this is about what I could manage!”

Recently, she required high quality bone dust to use with a few sets of spirit armor.

Even though she was so talented, as an Armament Sect inner sect disciple, she was still required to forge artifacts on time for Armament Sect. One of the reasons was to ensure their artifact forging skills didn’t decay, and the other was to increase Armament Sect’s income.

The spirit artifacts distributed by Armament Sect to each Armament Pavilion were also forged by disciples and elders in Armament Sect. The spirit stones earned were then used again on the sect to buy all kinds of rare spirit materials so the inner sect disciples and elders could continue to research artifact forging and increase their artificer rank.

When Tang Siqi instructed Qin Lie to grind the bones, she didn’t expect much. The bones she had people deliver were also a little special—they mostly came from the Land of Profound Yin.

It was easy for phosphorus poison to form within bones from Land of Profound Yin. They could easily hurt whoever was grinding them and even cause them to lose control of their mind.

Originally, she was not planning to use the bone dust Qin Lie had grinded. This was because she knew that it wasn’t easy at all to grind down so many bones in just five days.

Even if he did succeed, the bone dust he grinded would never have met her expectations.

Therefore, she actually had a different arrangement set up already—she had asked Tong Jihua to look for a few older outer sect disciples to help her grind the bones.

Before she came here, she had looked through the bone dust grinded down by the outer sect disciples—they had achieved her minimum requirements.

Her trip here today was mainly to humiliate and make life hard for Qin Lie. She wanted to make him pay.

—She thought nothing about Qin Lie’s bone dust from the beginning and had never planned to use it at all.

However, when she had felt the bone dust inside the wooden barrel grinded by Qin Lie for a while with a jade-like finger, she immediately changed her mind—she was going to use the bone dust Qin Lie grinded!

The quality of Qin Lie’s bone dust was leagues better than any grinded the others. It had greatly exceeded her expectations, and was also the most suitable ingredient for her to use on the sets of spirit armor.

“If there are good quality materials to use, then why would I use mediocre ones?”

She muttered silently. Carefully watching the bones inside the small workshop, she discovered that, out of the two boxes of bones, there were only nine bones left. The rest was all grinded to dust. She then checked the bone dust in the other barrels and found that all of it was just as high quality.

“I suppose he is a serious person, and his attitude towards artifact forging… is acceptable, I guess, far better than those who do a half-hearted job.” Tang Siqi nodded on the inside as her view on Qin Lie changed just a little.

At this moment, Qin Lie woke from the state of Thoughtless Tranquility. As his gaze changed, the chilly atmosphere in the room was also quickly withdrawn.

“Senior Sister Tang,” Qin Lie said coldly.

Tang Siqi shuddered, surprised by Qin Lie suddenly calling out to her. She then humphed once, nodded, and said, “The quality of the bone dust you grinded isn’t bad, but there are still nine bones that you haven’t completed. I’ve told you before that you must grind all the bones to powder in five days!”

“It’s hasn’t been a full five days yet, I still have an hour left.” Sitting straight, Qin Lie lifted his head to coldly stare at her with derisive eyes, “You seem to have misremembered the time?”

The moment that indifferent gaze fell on her, the burning anger in Tang Siqi’s heart immediately rose to the surface. She suddenly recalled the scene from that day again. “Wh-what’s with your attitude?”

“This is my attitude.” Qin Lie opened the gauze wrapped around both his hands and revealed the bloody wounds on his arms and the back of his hands. “Supposedly, special gloves would be provided to the grinder to prevent them from getting hurt when grinding bone dust with phosphorous poison.” He stared at Tang Siqi with an even colder expression. “Where are my gloves?”

Seeing the bloody wounds on his hands, Tang Siqi’s attitude suddenly turned weak. “I-I don’t know. All I did is to give out the task. I wouldn’t care about the distribution of the appropriate tools a-and I couldn’t care less about it.”

Qin Lie frowned and bowed his head silently for a while. Suddenly, he waved his hands as if he was sweeping away flies with a face full with impatience. “Please leave and stop wasting my time or disturbing my work. I still have an hour left, and I would like to finish the rest within that hour.”

“You—Very well! Qin Bing! I’ll remember you!” Tang Siqi stomped her feet with her beautiful face beet red as she grit her teeth and retreated.

Like a ball of flame she arrived at Lian Rou’s VIP pavilion and angrily sat down, “I’m so angry, that bastard made me so angry!”

“Qin Bing?” Lian Rou picked up a wooden spirit tablet and was inscribing a spirit diagram on it. When she saw her coming in with a face filled with anger, she put down the spirit tablet and asked with a smile, “You went to collect the goods didn’t you? How is it? Did he grind the bone dust with the most malicious manner possible and give you some bone bits instead?”

Lian Rou’s thoughts were the same as hers. She had assumed that Qin Lie wouldn’t treat this seriously and would do sub-par work, resisting her with bone bits.

“It’s not like that. The bone dust that guy made was a lot better than the ones I asked Uncle Tong to find others to do.” Tang Siqi angrily continued, “Even if I were to do it myself, that was the best I could’ve done. It wouldn’t be better than the bone dust he made—he is a very diligent person, and there are no flaws that I find with it at all.”

“Then why are you angry?” Lian Rou was slightly surprised. She sat up straighter as she grew more and more curious.

“It’s, it’s his attitude. The way he looks at me! The way he talks to me!” Tang Siqi said in a flustered and exasperated manner. Her beautiful face was filled with anger. “In his eyes, it’s as if I’m not a woman. No, that’s not right, in his eyes it’s as if I’m not even a person! He never looked me in the eye. He treated me like air, like I couldn’t even compare to the stone bench or stone table in his house! That bastard even said that I intentionally left out the gloves, what the hell does it have to do with me? The ones who distribute them are the outer sect disciples, I’ve never said a thing about it, on what basis is he putting that blame on me?”

“Siqi. You don’t usually get angry this easily, but it appears that you get riled up quite easily as of late.” Lian Rou looked deeply at her.

“Ever since I ran into that bastard and got my clothes burned by him, I just feel a well of anger inside me. It’s as if I can’t stand anyone anymore.” Tang Siqi grit her teeth with what seemed like flames burning inside her eyes. “This can’t go on. I want to control him, I want him to listen to me obediently, I want him to feel fear when talking to me! Hmph!”

Lian Rou’s expression turned strange. “Siqi, you’re so dumb!”

“What?” Tang Siqi grew confused.

“This is his method! This is his way to attract your attention, just like that crazy Yi Yuan who ask me to choose him in front of everyone. Qin Bing is also using this way to make you pay attention to him. See, didn’t you fall for it?—These are all tricks of men!” Lian Rou said with an experienced outlook, “Compared to Yi Yuan’s methods, this Qin Bing is on a much higher level than him. Look at you, hasn’t he made you completely upset? Once you’re upset, then you might fall into a passive position. You’re about to fall into his trap!”

Once she said that, Tang Siqi seemed to have come to a realization. “So what you’re saying is… he is just like those guys who have specifically come for me? It’s just that he used a completely new method—riling up my anger—to attract my attention?”

“That must be it!” Lian Rou was very sure.

Tang Siqi blanked out slightly before she began giggling. Her beautiful face was filled with high spirits. “So this is how it is. Interesting, how interesting! I’ve not seen such a shrewd person in a long time. Ha, I’m going to have a lot of fun with him alright!” When she reached this point, she grit her teeth yet again.

“Also, you should be careful with Liang Shaoyang, he should be here for you as well. Make sure you don’t fall for it,” reminded Lian Rou again.

“I knew that from the beginning.” Tang Siqi nodded. “I only played a little trick when I stood beside him, and he was distracted already. There must be something up his sleeve!”

“Shishi’s brother… also seemed to think about you a little,” Lian Rou softly said after a moment’s discretion.

“Pang Feng?” Tang Siqi frowned before shaking her head. “Maybe not. He seldomly takes the initiative to contact me, and the only one in his heart is his sister. Most of his time is spent cultivating in the martial way, and he is completely focused on becoming an outer sect elder. Maybe you’re thinking a little too much about this.”

“I hope so.” Lian Rou did not continue explaining either.

……

“Brother, you should be more proactive. If you don’t reveal your feelings a little, she’ll never know about them.” At the foot of Flame Volcano, beside the glittering lake, Pang Shishi stared at the lake surface and softly said, “There are so many people chasing after Senior Sister Tang, and it’s possible that she doesn’t even remember many of their names. If you never tell her, then when will she ever look to you?”

Beside the lake, Pang Feng quietly sat, facing the lake like steel and stone. He quietly replied, “Shishi, you don’t have to worry about me. You just focus your energy on artifact forging.”

“How can I not worry?” Pang Shishi wrinkled her nose elegantly. “Let’s exclude those guys from the past or some of the seniors of the inner sect. Let’s talk about this new batch of people. That Liang Shaoyang and Qin Bing have also come for Senior Sister Tang. Not only that, but Liang Shaoyang is the youngest son of Dark Shadow Tower’s Tower Lord. Neither his realm nor his looks are worse than yours, he is not weak competition.”

“There’s also that number two hundred and thirty Qin Bing. To this day, I haven’t found out anything about his background, but his methods are definitely amazing… Even if it was a little despicable and shameless, he has succeeded in his goal and was directly selected by Senior Sister Tang to be her assistant. He will have more and more chances to come into contact with Senior Sister Tang in the future.”

“People often say that time breeds affection. His advantage now is pretty obvious. At the very least, he’s better than Liang Shaoyang. Someone who can come up with such a shameless idea must be a very insidious person. When he came over, he must have had an entire plan already thought up. If he is allowed to wander around Senior Sister Tang, then your position will be truly precarious!”

“I told you, you don’t have to worry about it!” Pang Feng yelled out quietly.

“Fine, see if I care, hmph!” Pang Shishi angrily turned her head and walked away.

“Number two hundred and thirty, Qin Bing…” After she left, Pang Feng frowned and whispered while looking at the lake’s surface.

……

On the other side, Liang Shaoyang’s expression was gloomy inside the same type of stone tower that had been arranged for Qin Lie and Yi Yuan.

Armament Sect’s inner sect disciple, Yin Hao was also inside the room. A few days ago, he had selected Liang Shaoyang as his assistant, and right now, when he was facing Liang Shaoyang, not only did he not have the slightest bit of arrogance in his behavior, there was even a trace of flattery in his expression. “Shaoyang, is the Tower Lord doing well as of late?”

“Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother. My father is doing well.” Liang Shaoyang came to his senses. “I will like to trouble senior brother to investigate that Qin Bing’s background.”

“Don’t worry, Shaoyang. I already have my men on the job.” Yin Hao nodded before saying, “Tang Siqi had caused reactions in two spirit pattern pillars and is highly regarded by the current sect master and inner sect’s First Elder, Mo Hai. She herself is a true artifact forging genius, and if there are no accidents, she will definitely become the next sect master.”

He looked to Liang Shaoyang, “If you, Shaoyang, can move her heart and form a connection with her, then in the future, Armament Sect will become Dark Shadow Tower’s spirit artifact warehouse. All of Armament Sect’s artificers will be serving under Dark Shadow Tower, and Dark Shadow Tower’s strength will immediately reach completely new heights!”

“Naturally, I understand.” Liang Shaoyang nodded proudly. “That is my goal in coming to Armament Sect, for Tang Siqi!”

“But now you have a stumbling block,” Yin Hao said.

“Qin Bing? I will sweep this obstacle as soon as possible!” Liang Shaoyang snorted coldly.