Chapter 970: I Can Forge Any Immortal Artifact

"I perceive that Fellow Daoist Yingtian's physical vessel is fragmented. Might you require some celestial gold to complete it?"

Without waiting for the Immortal Yingtian to speak, Yun Zhi discerned his condition and the object of his desire.

"In that case, my heartfelt thanks to Fellow Daoist Yun Zhi!" Yingtian was overjoyed, for this was precisely the artifact he currently required.

"Should you require any celestial armaments, Fellow Daoist, do not hesitate to speak; I can forge them all."

"At present, I have no such need. Should the occasion arise in the future, I shall trouble you then, Fellow Daoist Yingtian."

"Shall we go to see Xiao Ling and Lianyi?"

"My two sisters-in-law? Indeed, it has been a long time since we last met." Previously, Yingtian had feared that Ao Ling and Jiang Lianyi were backed by the Immortal of Extinction, and thus he had not dared to acknowledge them. Now that the misunderstanding was resolved, he naturally wished to see them.

"Fairy, do you know where they are?" Lu Yang asked in bewilderment. He recalled that Ao Ling and Jiang Lianyi frequently drifted about, their whereabouts uncertain.

"Ah, that is true, I do not know where they are. Shall we wait until we happen upon them in the future?"

Yun Zhi shook her head helplessly and drew forth a yellow talisman. "I feared Senior Ao Ling might suffer an assault from the Gray Fairy, so I requested Patriarch Hanhai to craft several teleportation talismans. You may utilize this talisman to locate Senior Ao Ling."

"That is wonderful. Our little girl Yun is always the dependable one." The Immortal of Immortality beamed with joy. Xiao Ling and Lianyi were constantly together; finding Xiao Ling meant finding Lianyi as well.

"I perceive that teleportation is forbidden within this pocket realm. It would be best for you to depart from it before utilizing the talisman," Yun Zhi reminded them further.

Yingtian had not anticipated that Yun Zhi's discernment would be so profound. He had feared that the Immortal of Extinction might use some unknown method to teleport directly into the pocket realm of the ancient ring. Therefore, when forging the ring, he had deliberately sealed off all paths of teleportation.

After Yun Zhi departed, Lu Yang likewise left the pocket realm of the ancient ring. He slipped on the ring that had fallen to the earth, activated the teleportation talisman, and transported himself to Ao Ling's location.

Seeing her junior brother depart with the two Immortals, Yun Zhi descended the mountain and located Yun Mengmeng among the river spirits that encircled the Single Dao Sect.

Yun Mengmeng lay flat in the river, allowing the current to drift her wherever it pleased.

This was her latest invented pastime. The river within the Peach Blossom Hidden Realm was a celestial river, and the Grandam forbade such play there.

Yun Zhi fished Yun Mengmeng out of the river.

"Mengmeng, do you require the forging of a celestial artifact?"

"A celestial artifact?"

Yun Mengmeng pondered. From what she gathered from the Chief, their Lineage of Immortality did not require weapons for combat. If weapon-type celestial artifacts were unnecessary...

"Will any kind of celestial artifact do?"

"Any kind will do."

Hearing this, Yun Mengmeng's eyes shone with brilliance. "Then can a treasure-gathering basin be forged? The kind where, if you place a piece of pastry inside, it turns into two pieces!"

"We can attempt it."

Yun Zhi then located her third junior sister, Gan Tian, who was reclining beneath a tree to commune with nature.

"Third Junior Sister, if a celestial artifact could be forged for you, is there anything you would wish to have made?"

Gan Tian sat up, not understanding the intent behind her eldest senior sister's inquiry, yet she leaned against the tree and fell into deep thought regardless.

As for a zither, she had little need for one. Her zither was a growing-type magical treasure that she had used since childhood; there was no necessity to replace it.

"Is there perhaps a celestial lamp that can grant any wish? For instance, if you rub it twice, a deity will emerge and fulfill three of your wishes."

"We can attempt it."

Yun Zhi inquired all around, recording the requested celestial artifacts one by one upon a sheet of paper: "A treasure-gathering basin that replicates all creation, a celestial lamp that grants any wish upon being rubbed, a coffin so comfortable that one is unwilling to rise once lying inside, a celestial artifact that teaches one how to love, a celestial mirror that can rank beautiful women..."

"They all seem to be rather eccentric and bizarre contrivances. However, considering that Fellow Daoist Yingtian is the Ancestor of Artifact Forging and capable of crafting any magical treasure, it should not pose much of a difficulty."

...

The Demon Domain, the Ancient Tomb of the Great Demon.

Within the corridor, eight or nine members of the demon race gathered, walking with utmost caution, not daring to take large strides.

"Eldest Brother, can we not use our divine sense to probe the surroundings? It is so dark here, one can see nothing at all." A female demon grasped her eldest brother's garments in terror.

"How many times must I tell you? This is the ancient tomb of a great demon at the Half-Step Nascent Soul stage. It is riddled with mechanisms, many of which are triggered precisely by divine sense or firelight."

"Oh."

"Everyone, walk only where I have stepped, lest you trigger some mechanism," the leader of the demons transmitted his voice to the group.

Having triggered mechanisms twice and fallen into several bitter struggles, the party finally arrived at the depths of the ancient tomb, a place hitherto unreached by any soul.

"At last, we have arrived." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as if a heavy burden had been lifted, collapsing onto the ground.

Night-luminescent pearls were set within the depths of the tomb. The crowd's eyes shone with brilliance as they beheld the manuals of cultivation techniques, elixirs, and spiritual treasures piled haphazardly upon the ground.

"As expected of the legacy left by a Half-Step Nascent Soul great demon; it is truly bountiful."

"Our thanks to Fellow Daoist Ao Lianyi and Fellow Daoist Jiang Ling for providing the map of the ancient tomb. We shall divide the spoils forty-sixty, as per our previous agreement."

Their party had chanced upon Ao Lianyi and Jiang Ling along the road. The two women possessed the tomb map but lacked sufficient hands. Fearing the perils within the tomb, they had proposed a partnership to explore it together, agreeing to a forty-sixty split upon completion.

Through their interactions along the journey, they had gathered that the two women possessed extraordinary backgrounds. Within their bodies flowed a trace of the Dragon and Phoenix lineages. It was likely that their ancestors belonged to those clans but had committed offenses and been expelled. By the generation of Ao Lianyi and Jiang Ling, they had fallen into great destitution.

The leader tallied the treasures of the tomb. The efficacy of most elixirs had long passed, rendering them poisonous or useless dregs. The spiritual treasures and cultivation manuals, however, were still usable and of exceptionally high rank.

"Look quickly at this one! This is actually the unique spell of the great demon!"

"And this one! This is the tomb owner's experience in forming his core. Heavens, by following his method, we have a fifteen-percent chance of core formation!"

"Strange, what is this?" One of them spotted a sword hilt protruding from the ground and pulled it out in curiosity.

"A broken sword? And it is rusted?"

As the rusted broken sword was drawn forth, the ancient tomb quaked. The coffin shuddered violently, emitting a clattering din, while an eerie laughter echoed throughout the tomb.

"Hehehe, who would have thought? A century has passed, and I, Daoist Sky-Centipede, have finally seen the light of day once more!"

"Old Green-Goat, you sacrificed your life to seal me here, laying down traps to bar entry. Yet what of it? In the end, have people not broken in and uprooted the core of the formation!"

"Daoist Sky-Centipede?" The crowd turned pale with horror at the name. Daoist Sky-Centipede was a renowned great demon from a century ago. Because his cultivation surpassed all others and left him without rival, the neighboring tribes had suffered miserably. Later, the ancestor of the Green-Goat clan broke through to the Half-Step Nascent Soul stage and challenged him to a duel, after which both vanished without a trace.

To think he had been sealed away in this very place.

A multi-colored centipede crawled out from the coffin, its hundred legs swaying in a rhythmic fashion that froze the blood.

"It seems that after Old Green-Goat died, his storage ring shattered and its contents spilled out. Splendid! Now that this seat has awakened, not only do I have a few youngsters to replenish my blood vitality, but I also have the worldly goods of a Half-Step Nascent Soul cultivator. It appears destiny resides with me!"

"It was the map we provided that brought this ruin upon you. Flee quickly, the two of us shall bring up the rear!" The two women stepped forward, the resolve for death gleaming in their eyes.

"Fellow Daoist Ao Lianyi!"

"Fellow Daoist Jiang Ling!"

The crowd wept aloud, "If we leave, we leave together!"

"Shut your mouths! If you do not leave, every one of us will perish here!"

"Hehe, none of you shall leave," Daoist Sky-Centipede laughed loudly, holding this group of demons at the pinnacle of Qi Refinement in absolute contempt.

The crowd engaged in a fierce battle against Daoist Sky-Centipede. The demon harbored a desire to toy with them, and thus did not slay them instantly.

"Fellow Daoist Ao Lianyi!" the crowd shrieked.

A single leg of Daoist Sky-Centipede had pierced through Ao Lianyi's chest. She lay weakly within Jiang Ling's embrace.

Ao Lianyi tremulously extended her blood-stained right hand to caress Jiang Ling's face. "Xiao Ling, let us be good sisters again in our next life."

"Lianyi—" Jiang Ling cried out in heart-wrenching anguish.

"Daoist Heavenly Centipede, I will make you pay for this in blood!!" Jiang Ling cried out in fury.

Daoist Heavenly Centipede paid it no mind, but suddenly he caught sight of Jiang Ling's eyes, and his expression shifted drastically as he involuntarily took two steps back.

He watched as Jiang Ling's eyes transformed into golden phoenix pupils, resembling an ancient phoenix undergoing a grand awakening.

"A bloodline awakening—you are of the direct lineage of the Phoenix Clan!" Daoist Heavenly Centipede cried out.

Suddenly, a door swung open, and Lu Yang stepped out, casting his gaze around the surroundings to see Ao Ling lying on the ground devoid of any breath of life, a furious Jiang Lianyi, the little demons nearby who had no idea what was happening, and the half-step Nascent Soul stage Daoist Heavenly Centipede.

"My apologies, I've got the wrong place."

Lu Yang silently retreated back inside.