Chapter 85
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Chapter 85: Return
After Xu Yuexian left, Xu Fan examined the mobile-phone-shaped artifact in his hand.
Its functions were straightforward: one for news and interesting stories, and the other for advertisements.
“Interesting, very interesting.”
“The amount of information it can transmit must be the work of an artifact master.”
Xu Fan noticed the data on the light shadow screen was about to exceed 2MB; ordinary artifact masters couldn’t achieve such a high transmission rate.
Just then, a piece of news caught Xu Fan’s attention.
It mentioned that the beast race, guarding the ancient beast forbidden area, planned to convert all their camps into fairy cities to secure the area permanently. The article also explained the reasoning behind this decision.
It turned out that the ancient beast forbidden area was the resting place of ancient great beasts. Without external interference, they would remain in slumber.
However, if awakened and unsealed, they would bring disaster to all of Xiangzhou. The beast race was the tribe that had sealed these great beasts in ancient times. Once they reached the beast king level, they would know how to break the seal, which is why the human race was so cautious.
“No wonder we’ve always been so strict about contracts. Now I see why.”
“I wonder what ancient great beasts looked like,” Xu Fan mused.
Not long after, a Qi Training Stage cultivator entered Xu Fan’s shop carrying a box.
“Shopkeeper, are these the jewelry artifacts you ordered from Yanhong Chamber of Commerce?” the cultivator asked.
Xu Fan nodded.
“Six jewelry artifacts, totaling 20,000 spirit stones. Please inspect them.”
The box opened, revealing six exquisite pieces of jewelry.
Xu Fan nodded again and handed over two bags of spirit stones to the artifact master.
“Good thing I made some spirit stones selling spirit pills recently; otherwise, this would’ve hurt my wallet.”
Just then, Xu Yuexian walked in, holding a pink mobile-phone-shaped artifact.
“Master, look at this! It only cost me 5 spirit stones, and it even has a lighting function, unlike yours.”
As she spoke, Xu Yuexian activated the lighting function, and a bright beam of light shot directly into Xu Fan’s eyes.
“Ah! My eyes!”
Caught off guard, Xu Fan was nearly blinded by the sudden brightness.
“You troublemaker! I’m adding a new rule for this.”
From that day on, Xu Fan’s disciples were forbidden from shining bright lights into their master’s eyes.
Five months later, Xu Fan and his two disciples boarded a battleship heading back to Que Tian Gate. It was said that this batch of ships needed maintenance.
“Time flies. It feels like just yesterday, but half a year has already passed.”
Upon returning to Que Tian Gate’s mountain, Xu Fan settled back into his usual spot.
At that moment, familiar energy waves swept through the area, scanning the Outer Sect once again. The returning disciples were given extra scrutiny.
“Enough already. This happens every single day,” Xu Fan grumbled.
He was convinced this was someone’s personal obsession, as there were always powerful beings doing this every three days.
After venting his frustrations, Xu Fan turned his attention to the two children before him. They were well-fed and plump, clearly well-nourished.
“Xiangchi, your cultivation speed has picked up a bit; slow it down. You should stay in the Qi Training Stage for at least 20 years.”
“Building a strong foundation is crucial for becoming an immortal in the future,” Xu Fan said, noticing that this little rascal’s cultivation had risen quickly in his absence; he was now already at the fifth layer of Qi Training.
“Understood, Master,” Wang Xiangchi replied, his small face still cold, but he listened very well to Xu Fan.
“And you, little Xingci, don’t follow your senior brother and senior sister. At such a young age, you just advanced to Foundation Establishment.”
“That’s only second-grade Foundation Establishment; your foundation is definitely weak. Don’t imitate them,” Xu Fan advised his youngest disciple. He realized that pursuing level increases alone was not the best choice; development should be well-rounded in virtue, knowledge, and physical ability.
“Understood, Master,” Li Xingci responded.
“Alright, go and do your homework now,” Xu Fan waved his hand and said.
In the cultivation room, Xu Fan looked at the twenty million spirit stones in his space ring, his face slightly reddening; this was a profit given to him by Pang Fu.
He had never been so wealthy before. Glancing at the twenty million spirit stones, Xu Fan decided to make a big move.
“Ten million will go to purchasing runes with time attributes, and the rest will be used to enhance the Heart of the Puppet.”
During his more than half a year at the Forbidden Ground Defense Line, Xu Fan mainly focused on adjusting the Heart of the Puppet. The Heart of the Puppet was like a blank computer, and Xu Fan was adding various command programs to create its own system.
Now, the intelligence of the Heart of the Puppet was comparable to that of a teenager, but Xu Fan was still unsatisfied. His goal was to enable the Heart of the Puppet to control the puppet and craft other puppets.
At that moment, Xu Fan picked up the rune iron plate that Wang Yulun had given him.
After several breakthroughs by Xu Fan, the iron plate fully recognized him as its master. However, he did not expect that there would be further tests, which became Xu Fan’s main task now.
From this iron plate, Xu Fan obtained over 300 runes, and combined with the ones he had before, he now controlled just enough runes to total one thousand, meeting the basic requirement to become a master craftsman.
After acquiring the runes, the iron plate presented a new challenge: to craft the specified treasures, starting from the lowest grade artifacts.
Xu Fan easily completed the task of crafting 36 artifacts, earning 50 runes and receiving a crafting insight written by a grand master, which greatly helped him in his artifact crafting. Otherwise, he would not have been able to easily add precious artifact mystique to that heavy armor.
Now, Xu Fan was stuck at the fourth challenge: crafting five specific fourth-grade treasures.
It wasn’t that Xu Fan couldn’t make them; it was just that for the third artifact, there was a spirit ore he couldn’t find. He had been searching for over five years.
“Can’t you choose a different treasure? This thing can’t be crafted without the Celestial Star Pearl!”
Xu Fan had learned about the Celestial Star Pearl’s origin, which was why he felt disheartened.
The Celestial Star Pearl could only be found in the Extreme Void Domain; it was a pearl formed within the body of a peculiar sea beast, not very valuable but quite rare. Its only function was to protect the wearer’s true form for a brief moment in the Extreme Void Domain.
Those who had the ability didn’t need it, and those who didn’t have the ability couldn’t use it.
Because of this, aside from the central continent, it was nearly impossible to find in other areas.
At that moment, Xu Fan suddenly had a flash of inspiration; it had been over a year since he last nursed Wang Yulun. He wondered if a single nursing session could yield a critical hit.
Xu Fan quickly used a specific communication artifact to notify Wang Yulun, knowing that he had been carrying out missions in the sect and rarely going far.
In no time, Wang Yulun arrived on a celestial crane before Xu Fan.
“This crane is the same one from the first time you and your wife came to see me,” Xu Fan asked curiously. It had been so many years, and it still hadn’t been cooked.
“Yes, after Qianer and I advanced to the Foundation Establishment Stage, this crane couldn’t keep up with our speed, so it has been raised at Beast Taming Peak. Now this crane is about to break through the Foundation Establishment Stage, so I brought it along to keep company with Xiangchi and Xingci.”
For some reason, Xu Fan suddenly didn’t feel like talking to Wang Yulun anymore.
