Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Not in Good Shape

Juan Bu wasn’t wrong.

The space fragment remained quiet, but Emotionless Thread, the Xue Sha Pearl, and the Devil Emperor Order were all trouble waiting to happen.

They weren’t truly her artifacts. None of them had properly acknowledged her. If anything, they seemed to look down on her.

Juan Bu had once sneered about it in private. “Using you? Pah. A bunch of broken, crippled artifacts daring to scheme. Once they entered your sea of consciousness and took your nourishment, the Heavenly Dao recorded them under your name. They think they can heal up and sneak away? Dream on. As long as I’m here, nobody runs.”

Hu Qing suspected part of his fury was personal. He couldn’t run either.

Same fire pit. If he couldn’t climb out, then no one got to.

Still, after Scorching Sun Blaze appeared, those three troublemakers stopped fighting and stopped causing chaos. When they did send her feelings or intent, it was almost… affectionate.

Hu Qing didn’t fool herself into thinking she’d changed them. They just didn’t want to lose Scorching Sun Blaze.

That fist-sized red sun hanging in her sea of consciousness was new life.

After checking her materials, Hu Qing decided to start with basics: knives and swords. She’d follow Immortal Realm aesthetics in the details and aim for low-grade immortal artifact quality.

If she couldn’t reach it… then she’d sell cheap and pretend it didn’t hurt.

She used materials from little li realm.

People loved to assume the Lower Realm couldn’t produce anything good, but that wasn’t true. Some Lower Realm resources were rarer than anything in the Immortal Realm.

Materials had limits, sure, but more often it was the artifact refiner’s skill that limited what a material could become.

Hu Qing’s ores were top-grade even by little li realm standards. Forging immortal artifacts shouldn’t be impossible. The only question was whether she was good enough.

The problem was that she hadn’t been able to spend much quiet time refining since arriving in the Immortal Realm. Her days had been packed. Only at home had she ever managed true seclusion.

Juan Bu said, “Why not just go into seclusion here? Outsiders can’t enter little li realm for now. It’s safe. You don’t need to worry about Hu Nuan.”

“I do need seclusion,” Hu Qing said, feeding ore into her furnace, “but not here. I’m going back to little li realm. Now that it’s become an Immortal Realm, its resources will rise too. I need proper earthfire. A Spirit-Gathering Formation isn’t enough.”

Juan Bu grumbled. “You shouldn’t have come alone. Even if you brought Xuan Yao, you’d have someone to help.”

Hu Qing laughed. “Don’t underestimate Xuan Yao. He’s the only one who can actually help. Everyone else would just make a mess.”

Then her eyes lit up with a terrible idea. “Can I pull Xuan Yao here through our contract?”

Juan Bu shut that down immediately. “In your dreams. If a master-servant contract could drag someone across multiple Immortal Realms instantly, everyone would become someone’s servant.”

His tone sharpened into a warning. “Don’t try anything stupid. If you force a summon he can’t fulfill, you might be fine, but Xuan Yao could die from contract backlash.”

Hu Qing went cold. “That serious? We’re so far apart.”

“That’s exactly why,” Juan Bu said. “Distance doesn’t make it safer. It makes it impossible.”

Hu Qing’s jaw tightened. “When I get back, I’m terminating the contract.”

Juan Bu didn’t answer. He didn’t believe that little devil spirit would let go so easily.

Hu Qing threw herself into refining.

Ore piles rose and fell. Heat shimmered. The barrier kept the hammering and the furnace roar sealed inside.

When she finally stopped, the cave floor was lined with broad blades and long swords—hundreds of them.

Hu Qing removed the Spirit-Gathering Formation and stored her furnace.

Her vision went black so abruptly she had to slap a hand against the rock wall to keep from collapsing.

“What’s wrong?” Juan Bu asked.

“I’m fine,” Hu Qing said, breathing through the nausea. “I just… pushed too long. First time refining properly in the Immortal Realm, and I went all in.”

There were more than five hundred blades. She’d held her focus for too many hours without breaking.

She circulated spiritual power, forced the dizziness down, stored the weapons, erased every trace of the cave, lifted her barrier, and flew up into open air.

Wind hit her face. Fresh air filled her lungs. The sickness eased almost immediately.

So it really had been the cave.

She found a quiet, scenic place and meditated for a full day and night before moving again.

Now she needed buyers.

Hu Qing frowned as she checked the batch in her mind. The quality wasn’t good enough. Everything had reached spirit-treasure grade, but she should’ve been brushing the edge of low-grade immortal artifacts.

The Immortal Realm’s environment really did boost her craft. She could feel her technique sharpening. But something was off. She’d been focused, yes, but she hadn’t reached that clear, seamless state where everything clicked.

Maybe the fire wasn’t right.

She flew in a random direction for days until a small city finally appeared ahead.

You could see from one end to the other. A fee was required at the gate, and the guards looked sloppy. One man sat behind a desk with paper and brush, staring into space like he was recording entries.

“Ten low-grade spirit crystals to enter,” a guard barked. “If you can’t pay, get lost.”

Hu Qing’s heart clenched. Ten? That was robbery.

No one argued. They simply lined up and paid.

While waiting, Hu Qing noticed something else. Everyone entering came in groups of three or five, dressed in mixed styles but all deliberately low-key.

Task teams.

So this city wasn’t a real city. It was a staging hub.

A hub was perfect.

Task teams meant consumption. Pills, supplies, weapons—everything wore down.

And if they weren’t rich, even better. Poor people bought cheap.

Hu Qing almost smiled.

“Wait,” the guard said as she reached the front. His gaze sharpened. “You’re alone?”

Hu Qing pointed inside, casual. “I’ll find a team once I’m in.”

The guard studied her for a long moment, then jerked his chin. “Go in.”

He turned away like her presence offended him.

Hu Qing stepped through the gate.

Inside, her guess proved right. The entire place was built around posted tasks. A main avenue ran from the gate straight to a central task hall. Shops lined the street, full of buying and selling. Voices washed over her in a noisy tide, and she quickly picked up the lay of the land.

This hub had been assembled by immortals on their own. Most people here were wandering immortals or Immortal Sect disciples out on training journeys. Behind one side of the main street was a free market. Behind the other were rental cave dwellings.

There were no permanent residents.

And the topic on everyone’s lips was the same.

A masked killer bandit.

He only targeted task teams. He killed, robbed, and vanished, leaving bodies behind. The latest case had happened three days ago, less than a hundred li outside the city.

Eight people dead.

Count back far enough, and the bandit had committed dozens of crimes, killing hundreds and roaming across half of Qing Ting.

The bounty on the board had climbed to a hundred thousand spirit crystals.

Still, no one took the job.

No one knew anything useful. Only that the masked killer bandit worked alone.

On a street where everyone traveled in tense clusters, Hu Qing walked alone.

Someone muttered loudly, “Funny thing is, nobody even knows if that bandit’s a man or a woman.”

A few heads turned.

More than a few.

Hu Qing felt the weight of their stares and kept walking, expression perfectly blank.