Chapter 45
Chapter 45: Azure Lotus Platform
“They’ve all gone to the immortal realm.”
Hu Qing went still. “That fast?
When we still don’t know much about the immortal realm, choosing something like that doesn’t seem careful.”
The Devil Clan key, the Devilheart Seal, was in the hands of Qian Chuan. Hu Qing remembered him as a clean, easygoing man. She wasn’t close to him, so she had no place to comment.
The Demon Clan key, the Demon Beast Seal, belonged to Spirit Fox Clan Chief Zhou Lian Qiao.
The Spirit Fox Clan had smuggled her into Changji Gate, one of the Ten Great Sects of Little Li Realm, a sword cultivator sect, and that deception had sparked a long chain of trouble.
Hu Qing wasn’t close to Zhou Lian Qiao either, and she didn’t care what choice she made.
But Jiang Tian was different.
Back then, the number one sect of Little Li Realm, Taixian Palace, had been set up by the Devil Clan and nearly crushed.
Jiang Tian had been traveling outside and hadn’t made it back in time.
Taixian Palace fell from first-tier to second-tier. Countless died. Countless more left the sect.
In that kind of wreckage, Jiang Tian returned with a heavy hand, pulled the survivors back together, and forced Taixian Palace onto its feet again. With only early Nascent Soul Stage cultivation, he made the sect show its old edge once more.
Hu Qing had seen him in the Ancient Graveyard: silent, sharp, and cold as a sword.
If this were the modern world, he’d be the kind of hero people wrote speeches about.
In short, his sense of responsibility was terrifying.
She didn’t believe someone like Jiang Tian would leave Little Li Realm so quickly, or abandon Taixian Palace.
“So you’re telling me Taixian Palace chose Jiang Tian as Sect Master,” she said.
Shui Xin replied, “Don’t forget they carry keys. It might not be up to them.”
Hu Qing jolted. She immediately thought of the Devilheart Seal she’d dealt with.
That little thing had its own will. She’d exploited that to force it to switch owners on the spot, then killed the previous Devilheart Seal Lord who’d dared to set his sights on Xuan Yao.
“So all three keys are immortal artifacts. We just don’t know their exact grade. Are the people from above after the keys?
If they can’t take them, did they just snatch the holders away? Or are the three of them being controlled by the keys—hey, are you even listening to me?”
Shui Xin never slowed down. He picked out what he needed, then scooped up what Hu Qing didn’t want, sorting through everything with visible disgust. “This artifact stock is garbage. I’ve seen better from you.
Are you sure you went to the immortal realm and not some other lower realm?”
Hu Qing rolled her eyes. “You think everyone in the immortal realm is rich?
There are Spirit Immortals with entire households of attendants. People trade with spirit stones. Not everyone walks around using immortal artifacts.”
Shui Xin clicked his tongue. “Speaking of which, you promised to forge me a treasure bottle. Forget spirit treasures. Make me an immortal treasure instead.”
An immortal treasure?
She hadn’t even forged an immortal artifact yet.
Hu Qing shot him a look. “Aren’t you nurturing the materials yourself?”
Looking back, the two of them had been out of their minds: one dared to forge, the other dared to use.
She’d followed the Artifact Refining Compendium and still dared to set an internal array for Shui Xin’s artifact. And Shui Xin was even more reckless—he’d shoved that lotus platform into his own soul and nurtured it there.
Now, with a flick of his divine sense, a blue lotus platform drifted out from between his brows. It rotated slowly, emitting a quiet, cool glow.
Hu Qing reached out and caught it, turning it over in her hand. “You’ve nurtured it well.”
The outer layer was vivid blue-green, glossy as if it might drip. The inner layer was pale, smooth, and dense like congealed cream. Faint red veins traced the petals, lighter than before, but still flowing like hidden streams. Nurtured by his soul, the platform rose in quality as his cultivation rose.
It had always been a growth-type artifact.
Even now, when Hu Qing thought back, she felt like the heavens had handed her ten cheat codes. How else could she have forged something this good back then?
She sent her divine sense inside. Shui Xin didn’t stop her.
An eight-one spirit-gathering restoration array sat within, built from eighty-one top-grade thunder spirit stones. The formation was stable, running smoothly. The stones were full of energy—denser than when she’d first set them.
She spotted thunder-aspect materials placed inside the array and understood at once: it had become a perfect cycle. The better the array was nurtured, the better the materials became; the better the materials, the more they fed back into the array.
The biggest prerequisite, of course, was Shui Xin’s stable soul and strong cultivation.
Hu Qing handed the azure lotus platform back. “It’s good. Keep nurturing it.”
Shui Xin tapped his fingers on it. “You’re not swapping it out for top-grade spirit crystals?”
Hu Qing’s face went green. “I repaired that many iron pots and only got spirit stones.”
That sparked his interest. “Tell me the whole story.”
So she started from the moment she’d been driven off Heaven’s Grace Continent by some mysterious, unknown force. Shui Xin gave her a look of pure disdain.
“You can skip the details. You got a heaven-sent opportunity. That’s all.”
He pointed at her nose, then swung the finger around to point at himself. “I have one too.”
Hu Qing lit up. “You do? Where? Did you get it?”
“Idiot. I bluffed once and you spilled everything.
Next time, if you don’t want to talk about something, shut your mouth. The moment you open it, it’s nothing but holes.”
Hu Qing: “…”
After he finished showing off his brilliant mind and reclaiming a little pride for previous beatings, he lifted his chin. “I’m not lying. I sensed it.
But the time isn’t right yet. I think…” His eyes narrowed with thought. “My opportunity might be in the immortal realm.”
“The immortal realm?” Hu Qing yelped and scanned his face. “What, some female immortal drags you off to be her husband?”
Shui Xin’s eyes brightened instantly. He stroked his face like it was a priceless artifact. “You think my looks are top-tier even in the immortal realm, right?”
Hu Qing: “…”
He refused to let it go until she answered, so she clicked her tongue. “Everyone in the immortal realm is good-looking. When everyone’s pretty, it stops meaning much.
But their clothes are more colorful, and their lives are more colorful too. I never heard them talk about cutting off desire.
Hey, listen—I got dragged off by the Demon Clan as part of a dowry…” And she launched into it, babbling on.
She’d mostly been a background piece in that mess, but the timeline was long. By the time she finished, half a day had passed.
That monk dog didn’t even pour her a cup of water.
Hu Qing had to pull something to drink from her storage space. One look, and of course it was the sweet wine Da Mu and the others had brewed for her.
“Hm.” Shui Xin leaned closer. “So the immortal realm is full of beauties, but none are as outstanding as me… What’s that you’re drinking? Let me try.”
Hu Qing lifted her red porcelain cup. “Wine.”
He insisted, so she poured him a cup. “Under Buddha’s feet, too.”
Shui Xin took a sip. “Not bad.”
“Wow. Big words.” Hu Qing snorted. “Shi Xiu is a famous chain brand. This is immortal brew.”
Shui Xin stroked his chin. “A public marriage alliance between the Human Clan and Demon Clan… so the relationships between the races in the immortal realm aren’t what we imagined.”
Hu Qing cut him a sideways look. “None of your seniors who came back ever told you this?”
Shui Xin tilted his face toward the sky and carved her with a look from the corner of his eye, dripping with contempt.
Hu Qing blinked, then slowly understood. “They don’t like you?”
His people skills were genuinely terrible.
He had enemies hunting him outside, messy love-hate tangles at home, and that foul mouth of his. Older folks probably hated this sort of man on sight.
Shui Xin said, “Do I care?”
Yeah. That answered it.
But Hu Qing didn’t buy the indifferent act. “Just look at Senior Brother Shui Cong—you can tell the Buddhist Sect hasn’t given up on ‘treating’ you.
Did someone try to take you away, you refused, and it ended ugly?”
For an instant, Shui Xin’s face darkened. Treatment, my ass. He wasn’t broken. He didn’t need anyone’s so-called salvation.