Mo Tiange held the stone in her hand, gazing at it for a long time. This was the Qiyun Stone she had obtained from Ziwei Sanren and had forgotten in the depths of her Qiankun Bag.
The Qiyun Stone wasn't large, only about the size of a child's fist. Yet Qin Xi had said that a Qiyun Stone of this size was already quite rare; the one he had seen before was even smaller.
Well, she wasn't greedy. Having one was good enough. However, with such a small Qiyun Stone, she couldn't afford any waste during the refinement process. At most, it could only be used for two attempts, placing extremely high demands on her artifact refining skills.
Her talent for artifact refining was truly nothing special. Over the years, it wasn't that she hadn't practiced, but she could only refine magical tools at best, and her success rate wasn't particularly high. Originally, she had planned to find an Artifact Refiner from her sect to craft her Magical Treasure. But with only two portions of Qiyun Stone, she didn't even dare to seek out an Artifact Refiner.
Refining a Life-Bound Artifact was inherently different from refining an ordinary Magical Treasure. A Life-Bound Artifact needed to be in perfect harmony with the cultivator, so the cultivator themselves must be present during the refinement. Knowing when to add essence blood and what effects to achieve required the Artifact Refiner to have a deep understanding of both the cultivator and the artifact.
The best method was still for her to refine it herself. But if she did that, she would have to invest a great deal of effort and time into improving her artifact refining skills.
"What a hassle..." she murmured to herself.
"What's a hassle?" Qin Xi, who was meditating nearby to heal his injuries, opened his eyes and glanced at her.
Mo Tiange held up the Qiyun Stone in her hand. "We have the materials, but refining it is troublesome. That thing is merely a type of Magical Treasure conceived by Bi Shui Yuanjun. It's never been tested to see if it can actually succeed. Besides, the materials are so scarce."
Qin Xi then said, "Refine it yourself. For a Life-Bound Artifact, having someone else help refine it is never as satisfactory as doing it yourself."
Mo Tiange smiled bitterly. "If only it were that easy. But I'm not very good at artifact refining."
"Learn then. It's not that difficult."
Hearing this offhand remark, Mo Tiange glared at him. "You make it sound so simple. Not everyone has such great talent for artifact refining."
Qin Xi raised an eyebrow. "I see your alchemy skills are excellent. The principles of artifact refining and alchemy are interconnected. Logically, your artifact refining shouldn't be that far off."
"It's not the same." Her alchemy skills were built upon mountains of spirit herbs. But for artifact refining, where would she get so many materials? If she started buying them in large quantities, it would be far too conspicuous.
"Why isn't it the same?"
"...You'll understand later."
Qin Xi didn't press further. He just looked at her with a gaze that made her uneasy.
Mo Tiange felt uncomfortable under his stare. "What are you looking at? Are your injuries healed?"
Qin Xi turned his back to her. "Want to check?"
"Forget it..." she muttered. For cultivators, such injuries might look terrifying, but they would heal completely without a scar in a few days. He was clearly taking this opportunity to... well.
Sure enough, Qin Xi looked quite disappointed and asked persistently, "Really don't want to?"
Mo Tiange rolled her eyes at him, put away the Qiyun Stone, and continued pondering the matter of her artifact.
For the two of them, the injuries to their meridians and dantians had mostly recovered after treating each other. Now, Qin Xi's injuries were mainly superficial flesh wounds that would heal in a few days. Her injuries were to her spiritual sense; they looked like nothing was wrong, but would require several years of careful nurturing.
"When are we going up?"
This question made Qin Xi put away his smile. He looked at her with a meaningful gaze. "Don't you want to stay here a few more days?"
"Don't we still have things to do?" Mo Tiange lowered her head, not noticing his expression. "I feel uneasy leaving things unfinished."
"..."
He didn't speak further. The two of them went about their own business.
They were inside the cliff face of Wanren Peak. Although there was Demonic Qi outside, it was blocked by the restrictions they had set up. One could say this was the safest place within Tianmo Mountain. It had been seven or eight days since Tianmo Mountain opened. Many cultivators outside had already encountered danger. If they wanted to preserve their strength, staying here was the best option.
He had originally thought staying here another seven days would be ideal. Half a month was enough time to handle their affairs, and this place was undisturbed...
"Rumble..." Suddenly, a tremendous roar came from somewhere, and then the mountain began to shake.
"What's happening?" Feeling the small cave they were in also shaking, Mo Tiange's expression changed. "Could the mountain here collapse too?"
Qin Xi's expression turned grave. In just that moment, through the cracks at the cave entrance, they saw countless rocks tumbling down. The defensive restriction they had set up outside to block the Demonic Qi couldn't hold, and it broke not long after.
"Not good! A major restriction has collapsed!"
Mo Tiange was stunned. "Like over eighty years ago?"
Qin Xi shook his head. "It shouldn't be as severe as eighty years ago. But the trouble is, this time it's very close to us." After saying this, he stepped forward, pulled Mo Tiange to him, and summoned his Three Yang True Fire Sword, forming a defensive sword array around them. "Where's your defensive Magical Treasure?"
Mo Tiange reached into her Qiankun Bag. The white silk handkerchief transformed into mist, wrapping around the two of them.
The shaking grew increasingly violent. The two of them held onto each other tightly just to barely keep their footing. Fortunately, the cave they were in was deep within the mountain, very sturdy, and also small, showing no signs of collapse.
Seeing the shaking continue for nearly half an hour without stopping, with many rocks still falling from above, Mo Tiange couldn't help but look up and ask, "Why is it lasting so long?"
Qin Xi said, "Back then, when your father and I were trapped here, for the first three days out of seven, rocks kept falling, nearly burying us alive. Later, when we went up to the peak, we saw that the once towering mountain peak had actually been leveled. Don't worry, nothing will happen."
Mo Tiange wasn't really worried about danger. With their Magical Treasures and cultivation levels, even if the restrictions on Wanren Peak collapsed, they could still preserve their lives while staying here. However, she was worried that the restriction at the entrance might be affected and appear early, trapping them here...
The rumbling grew louder. Through the cracks, even more rocks tumbled down. Both their expressions turned grave—the commotion seemed too great.
Suddenly, among these rocks, a figure in cyan was mixed in. A flash of white light streaked past and, in an instant, embedded itself into the crack at the entrance of their cave. Then, a person in cyan robes flipped and leaped in.
"Cough! Cough!" The person coughed twice, covered in rock dust and debris, looking utterly disheveled.
The person patted the dust off his sleeves, pulled out the flying sword stuck at the cave entrance, turned around, saw the two of them, and froze. "It's you?"
This person was none other than Jing Xingzhi. His eyes swept over them, finally settling on their clasped hands. He smiled meaningfully. "You two really know how to pick a place. Here... truly undisturbed."
Qin Xi had never liked him, especially with such ambiguous words. His face immediately darkened. "Fellow Daoist Jing, please show some restraint!"
"Cough! Cough!" Jing Xingzhi patted off debris as he spoke. "How am I not showing restraint? I'm not slandering you or anything." As he said this, he glanced sideways at Qin Xi. "I say, Fellow Daoist Shoujing, matters between men and women are part of human nature's greatest desires. Why do you have to be so secretive about it?"
"Jing Xingzhi!" Qin Xi shouted. This was getting more and more inappropriate!
"Alright, alright!" Jing Xingzhi waved his hand, speaking with complete nonchalance. "You're thin-skinned. I won't say anymore, okay?" His eyes, with their peach-blossom charm, then turned to Mo Tiange. "What a pity, Fellow Daoist Qingwei. We met too late."
Qin Xi didn't speak this time. He simply waved his hand, and the Three Yang True Fire Sword floated before him.
Seeing this, Jing Xingzhi helplessly backed down. "I'm afraid of you. Just a joke. Why are you so humorless?" Then, without any politeness, he said, "Lend me this place to hide for a bit." After speaking, with a flash of sword light, his flying sword sank into the rocks. He leaned on his sword, vigilantly watching outside.
His demeanor clearly indicated he was guarding against something. Mo Tiange asked, "Fellow Daoist Jing, how did you end up here?"
Jing Xingzhi's gaze remained fixed outside as he replied casually, "How else? Calculated against by those two old fellows. You two were smart, leaving early."
Hearing this, Qin Xi's attention was also drawn.
Jing Xingzhi turned his head and glanced at them. "I originally guessed that those two old fellows, Ku Mu and Tong Tianyun, definitely had other purposes. But after all, we've been friends for over a hundred years, so I didn't guard against them too much. We originally planned to split up at the foot of Wanren Peak, but they insisted their goal for this trip was the Ruins of All Immortals, so all three of us followed..."
"Did you smoothly reach the Ruins of All Immortals?" Qin Xi asked.
Jing Xingzhi shook his head. "Not smoothly at all. Madam Feng's injuries grew worse. She was abandoned when crossing the Weak Water River. Lei Dongqing actually turned back to save her, and both died in the Weak Water River. Sigh, I truly didn't see it coming. I originally thought Lei Dongqing just fancied Madam Feng's beauty, hence his usual teasing. I never expected him to be such a devoted soul. A pity..."
Qin Xi and Mo Tiange exchanged a glance, both shocked and secretly relieved. Fortunately, they had extricated themselves in time. Otherwise, even if they had been wary, getting dragged into these trouble would have inevitably brought a heap of trouble.
"What about you? Why did you fall from above? You should have reached the Ruins of All Immortals with them, right?"
Jing Xingzhi nodded. "Once Lei Dongqing and Madam Feng died, I knew those two old fellows were up to no good. They had been using us all along. But we were already halfway there. Not to mention confronting them, even on my own, I couldn't advance or retreat easily. I had no choice but to continue forward with them. Luckily, we didn't encounter anything too dangerous later."
"Then why did you come down from above? Were you ambushed by them?"
"I jumped down myself." Having nearly perished on Tianmo Mountain, Jing Xingzhi's expression remained nonchalant, as if he held no grudge against Ku Mu and Tong Tianyun at all. "Those two old fellows had apparently arranged to meet several Nascent Soul seniors in front of the Ruins of All Immortals, seemingly to enter with them to search for treasures. When they entered the Ruins of All Immortals, they left me outside. Not long after, a restriction within the Ruins of All Immortals collapsed. I don't know if they triggered it. Seeing the situation was dire, I steeled my heart and jumped down from above, barely managing to save my life."
"So that was their plan..." Qin Xi pondered.
Jing Xingzhi turned his head and smiled at him. "I say, Fellow Daoist Shoujing, we've known each other for over a hundred years after all. Now we're both stranded here in distress. When you go up, you wouldn't mind taking me along, would you?"