"Senior Yan, you said that Xiao Li's father is very likely that King of the Night?"
"That's right. In the ancient era of cultivation, although human cultivators were powerful, they were not the only ones who could dominate."
At least the two powerful forces that can rival it are the demon race and the sea race.
Leaving aside the sea creatures, they occupy vast sea areas and rarely come ashore; the sea is their home.
Apart from powerful beings at the Nascent Soul stage and above, very few cultivators are able to get involved.
As for the demon race, both the sea race and the demon race belong to the category of demonic beasts and spirit beasts, but one lives in the sea and the other mainly lives on land.
The two sides did not interact closely and even had some friction, which led to their division into two major forces.
Otherwise, if these two major forces were to unite, the initial stage of cultivation for human cultivators would become much more difficult.
"Yan" paused for a moment, then continued.
"As for the King of the Night that I just mentioned, it is one of the twelve demon kings under the emperor of the land demon race, and its true form is also a night spirit fox."
He commands the Spirit Fox clan and many other demonic beasts, possessing formidable strength comparable to a human cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage.
"Since there is a Spirit Fox clan, then Xiao Li might not be a descendant of the King of the Night, right?" Lu Qing asked.
"No, the Night Spirit Fox is an extremely rare species among the Spirit Fox clan; perhaps only one will appear in an entire era."
Before I fell asleep, there were only two Black Night Spirit Foxes in the entire demon race, and they had even become a couple.
Therefore, Xiao Li must be a descendant of those two.
The word "炎" is very authentic.
Lu Qing remained silent. If that were the case, then it was most likely true.
"But why is Xiao Li here? Judging from its condition, it seems to still be a juvenile?"
"Yan" was also puzzled.
"Xiao Li is indeed still a juvenile. I only met it by chance two years ago."
Lu Qing briefly recounted how he first met Xiao Li, and mentioned that Xiao Li had no memory of his identity or background.
"It seems that many major events have indeed occurred in the cultivation world after I went into a deep sleep back then," Yan sighed. "Otherwise, those two wouldn't have left their daughter all alone."
It's just that we don't know what happened later, when the spiritual energy was depleted and a great calamity befell us.
How did the other factions resist?
Will they successfully leave this world, or will they all perish in the great calamity?
Lu Qing remained silent.
If even an ancient being like "Yan," who has lived for tens of thousands of years, doesn't understand something, then he certainly wouldn't know.
"Senior, if Xiao Li is indeed the daughter of those two people you mentioned, then she must have been born at least tens of thousands of years ago. Why is she still just an infant?"
"This is not hard to understand. It must be that the King of the Night used some kind of magical treasure to seal Xiao Li away when she was just born."
It should be known that the Black Night Spirit Fox possesses two major attributes: fire and space, and is also born with a strange spiritual sense.
They can easily discover treasures that are difficult for ordinary people to detect.
The King of the Night possesses profound cultivation, making the search for treasures a piece of cake for him.
I remember that during the several times the secret realm appeared, it was the one that looted the most treasures.
It's not impossible that they might possess some extraordinary treasure that could seal Xiao Li away for tens of thousands of years.
So treat your Black Night Fox well.
This is truly a lucky star, waiting for the future when the rules of heaven and earth evolve to the point where many secret realms can emerge.
Perhaps it will be your best help when you explore the hidden realm.
At this point, Yan's tone became somewhat inexplicable.
Lu Qing's luck is simply too strong.
Not only does he possess several magical artifacts, but he has also subdued a magical beast like the Black Night Spirit Fox.
It's hard to imagine how many opportunities he will be able to obtain when the rules of heaven and earth truly evolve and perfect, and many secret realms emerge.
Thinking of this, it couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation, and its previous frustration vanished.
With such a fortunate master, perhaps one day it will be able to break free from its cage and gain its freedom.
"Lucky Star, huh..."
Lu Qing looked at Xiao Li, who was playing with Xiao Yan, and remembered how it had brought a hundred-year-old ginseng to exchange for fish.
After thinking about it, I decided not to tell it about this yet.
Since it's been tens of thousands of years, we don't even know if the pair of Night Spirit Foxes are still alive.
Tell Xiaoli that it will only cause her more trouble and won't do her any good.
Perhaps keeping it as carefree as it is now is what the pair of night-dwelling foxes would most like to see.
The Wei family acted swiftly.
Wei Shanhai said it would take three days to gather all the materials Lu Qing needed.
In fact, on the second day, the Wei family's convoy began to transport some of the materials over.
"Young Master Lu, the fine iron here was temporarily collected from several foundries in the county town. We are sending it to you as instructed by our ancestors."
As for other jade materials, they have already been transferred from the prefectural government.
It should arrive in the next day or two.
In the small courtyard halfway up the mountain, Chief Steward Wei respectfully addressed Lu Qing.
The Wei family now attaches great importance to all of Lu Qing's requests, and this batch of refined iron was personally escorted by Chief Steward Wei.
"Thank you, Chief Steward."
Lu Qing first thanked him politely, and then inspected the batch of refined iron.
"Ah Qing, what kind of formation are you setting up that requires so much refined iron?"
The old doctor was somewhat surprised when he saw the large quantity of refined iron escorted by Chief Steward Wei and heard that more would be transported over.
“There’s not much left.” Lu Qing shook his head. “I need to further refine and purify this refined iron. In the end, there won’t be much left.”
"What a pity. If I had a batch of refined iron that had been refined a thousand times or more, I wouldn't have had to go through the trouble of refining it."
Upon hearing this, Chief Steward Wei said:...
There wasn't a single foundry in the entire county that could forge iron that had been refined over a thousand times.
That is, they have some in their Wei family's treasure vault.
It would be too difficult for Lu Qing to collect a batch all at once.
Even if you plundered the entire Cangzhou, it would be difficult to achieve that.
After all, refined iron is a treasure that can be forged into a thousand-times-refined weapon.
It has always been in high demand and short supply, and is extremely sought after.
Any martial artist who obtains it will immediately try to forge it into the most suitable weapon for themselves.
Few people would keep it unused or collect it.
Lu Qing naturally knew that his idea was just wishful thinking.
Therefore, after Chief Steward Wei and the others left, he immediately opened the furnace to prepare for refining refined iron.
With a hand seal, a small fire cauldron, no bigger than a finger, hangs around the neck as a pendant.
It flew out silently, transforming into a large cauldron half the height of a person, and landed in the courtyard.
The old doctor's expression shifted slightly.
Although he had witnessed it more than once, he still couldn't help but marvel at the various miraculous methods of the path to immortality each time.
"Senior Yan, I'm in trouble."
"No problem, leave it to me."
Lu Qing slowly threw the refined iron piled up in the courtyard into the Li Huo Cauldron.
"Flame" accepts everything that comes its way, swallowing it all up.
With its own internal space, it could swallow anything, not just a little bit of refined iron, but even a small mountain.
After swallowing all the refined iron, "Flame" formed a hand seal in the spiritual artifact space.
The next moment, a large amount of flame appeared out of thin air and began to burn the pile of refined iron.
Soon, the refined iron was melted and turned into a large mass of molten iron.
"Yan" remained relaxed, manipulating the flames in the space to continue burning the molten iron.
As a spiritual artifact, refining mere ordinary iron in the Fire Cauldron is no easy task.
It can be easily accomplished without using any force at all.
Under the control and forging of "flame", the impurities in that large mass of molten iron were rapidly refined, and its volume gradually decreased.
Finally, when it had been burned to its limit and could no longer be refined to produce any impurities, Lu Qing's figure appeared in the spiritual artifact space.
He took control of the Fire Cauldron, and under his mental manipulation, the pure molten iron split into dozens of smaller clumps.
Immediately afterwards, Lu Qing began to inject restrictions into the interior.
The old doctor was always by his side, and when he saw Lu Qing enter meditation, he helped protect him.
Then, not long after, he saw small iron pillars gradually being ejected from the Fire Cauldron.
On each iron pillar, mysterious patterns faintly emerge, seemingly containing some kind of mysterious power.
After spitting out dozens of small iron pillars, Lu Qing finally opened his eyes.
There was a hint of weariness in his eyes.
"Ah Qing, is it all ready?"
"Well, it's a pity that there's still not enough refined iron. We can only forge thirty-six magic pillars for now."
Lu Qing said with some dissatisfaction.
"How many magic pillars do you need to set up the formation?" the old doctor asked.
"In my plan, one hundred and eight magic pillars are needed to set up the complete array."
The old doctor was somewhat taken aback.
The amount of refined iron sent by the Wei family this time was not small, but it didn't even meet half of what Lu Qing had requested.
"However, thirty-six magic pillars are enough to barely set up the framework of a large formation."
With a wave of his hand, Lu Qing sent the thirty-six magic pillars, which he had refined with his mind, into a bright light. They rose from the ground, transformed into streams of light, and flew down the mountain.
Lu Qing's current spiritual power is comparable to that of the Foundation Establishment Realm. If he were to use his full senses, no movement within several miles would escape his notice.
Covering the small village of Jiuli is naturally not a problem.
Under his divine control, the thirty-six magic pillars fell precisely to the positions he desired, silently disappearing into the ground.
Having lived in Jiuli Village for so long, Lu Qing already knew the village's terrain like the back of his hand.
Therefore, the landing points he chooses are all the nodes most suitable for setting up the formation.
As the magic pillar fell, the energy flowed together, and the entire Jiuli Village instantly underwent a transformation.
The earth's energy was quickly channeled, and the spiritual energy surrounding the village was gradually gathered there.
Of course, these changes are difficult for the ordinary villagers of Jiuli to perceive.
They suddenly felt that the village seemed to have become much cooler.
"Old man, have you noticed that the house seems a bit cooler?"
At Grandpa Zhang's house, his wife, who was enjoying the cool air with a palm leaf fan, said with some surprise.
"It seems much cooler now. What's going on? Is it going to rain outside?"
Grandpa Zhang, who was lying on the recliner and feeling unbearably hot, quickly got up and ran outside to collect the laundry.
However, when he ran out into the courtyard, he found that the sun was shining brightly outside, without a single cloud, and the blazing sun was hanging overhead.
But strangely enough, even standing under the blazing sun, he did not feel the intense heat he had felt before.
On the contrary, the sunlight felt warm, as if it were autumn or winter.
"What's going on?!"
This bizarre situation did not make Grandpa Zhang happy; instead, it terrified him.
Something unusual is bound to happen; such deviations from common sense often indicate that something extraordinary is about to occur.
At this moment, other clever villagers also noticed the sudden change and ran out of their houses to check the situation.
Just as everyone was filled with worry, Lu Qing's voice suddenly came from the mountain.
"Don't worry, the changes in the village are because of me. They are beneficial to the village and will not harm anyone."
The sound, though coming from the mountain, was not deafening; it seemed to be ringing in the ears of the villagers.
Upon hearing this, all the villagers suddenly understood and were relieved.
"So it was Aqing who did it. Is everything alright? Everyone, just go about your business."
"Aqing is getting more and more amazing. I wonder what incredible skills he learned on this trip that he can even influence the celestial phenomena."
"That's great! The weather has been getting hotter and hotter lately, much hotter than in previous years. I was about to lose my temper. Now that it's cooler, I can finally get a good night's sleep."
"Yes, the weather this year is strange. A few months ago, there was a freezing rainstorm. I heard that some people in the next village froze to death."
It's unbearably hot now; if this continues, I'm afraid there will be a severe drought.
"Luckily, we have Aqing. He's become even more powerful now. He actually managed to cool down the entire village. That's almost as powerful as the gods in operas, isn't it?"
"Could it be that Ah Qing and the old doctor went out this time to seek immortality and enlightenment?"
...
The villagers were buzzing with discussion, their topic shifting from the celestial phenomena of the past few months to whether Lu Qing possessed magical powers, and the conversation became increasingly exaggerated.
Lu Qing, who was in the small courtyard halfway up the mountain, heard these discussions, shook his head with a smile, and withdrew his spiritual perception.
However, his expression became more serious.
The villagers are right; ever since the rules of heaven and earth changed and spiritual energy revived...
The celestial phenomena have indeed become much more complex in the past few months.
Let's not even talk about that freezing rain that lasted for several months.
The fact that the sun has been blazing and the weather has been getting hotter and hotter over the past month or so, almost reaching the limit that ordinary people can bear, is quite abnormal.
"Master, it seems that these changes in the world are really hard to say whether they are a blessing or a curse for ordinary people."
"I'm afraid it will bring more misfortune than good fortune."
The old doctor also showed a sigh on his face.
He had overheard the villagers' conversation.
Jiuli Village is adjacent to the Shiwan Mountains, a place of beautiful scenery, yet it is still like this.
What kind of scene would unfold in those even harsher environments outside, given these unusually changing celestial phenomena?
Thinking about all this, the old doctor felt a little heavy-hearted.
After a long while, he suddenly spoke up: "Aqing, I'm thinking of taking a trip to a nearby village in the next few days."
