“I remember him.” Qingtong narrowed his eyes. This was one of the beauties given to Duantian. Mo Tianliao had been deeply impressed by this man; he had promoted him from forge worker to blacksmith because of his innate talent. People who got that job had the possibility of actually acquiring some knowledge, sometimes Mo Tianliao would draw arrays directly on the newly forged ore, occasionally deigning to instruct those people.
This Ding Ziyu was calling himself Zi Yu at the time, Duantian must have spoken with him… Qingtong bowed his head and thought, he must have spoken more than ten times to him. He had seen him speaking to him more than ten times, at least. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.
Mo Tianliao felt the killing intent next to him and could not help freezing, “I… That was…”
Thinking about it, Mo Tianliao also remembered this person. At the time, most of the beauties sent to him had a furnace constitution, but the one called Zi Yu was special, his crafting abilities were high. Moreover, unlike other beauties, his eyes rarely stayed on Lord Duantian’s body, instead, he would always stare at the various crafting materials with a burning gaze. When he had sent him to tend the fires, he did so without complaint.
Later, when he was sent to work as a blacksmith, he would often meet Mo Tianliao, and Zi Yu would be bold enough to ask one or two questions. Lord Duantian was temperamental, but he always appreciated brave and driven people, so he would say a few words to him.
He had always thought that this man had been given by someone from the demonic path, he had not expected him to be the illegitimate son of a Liuyun Sect Elder! When the Mo Palace had been besieged, Liuyun Sect had been the main force, so the people who had disrupted the Great Mountain Guarding Array at the time…
His lips twisted in a sneer, so it had been like that. Mo Tianliao bowed his head and slowly opened his cat’s clenched fist. “Traitor, I should use him as kindle for my forge.”
“There was more than one traitor.” Qingtong pulled back his hand and did not let him touch.
“I know,” Mo Tianliao smiled. His Great Mountain Guarding Array could not be tackled by just one person, many people in the Mo Palace must have turned traitors. Even so, only one corner of the great array had collapsed, a great number of those people who had burst into the Mo Palace like wasps were still tangled in it and perished.
However, since he met him, then no matter what, he needs to turn him into forge fuel.
“That’s Ding Ziyu, I know him!” The ordinary disciples standing behind them started talking.
“I’ve heard of him, too!” Another female disciple followed suit.
Women were always interested in these kinds of gossip and Woyun Sect was not as strict as other sects, they even let their members wear whatever they liked, regardless of what other people thought.
In the mouth of these women, the story sounded just like the plot of one of the mortals’ heroic sagas. It was said that Ding Ziyu’s mother was Elder Ding’s concubine, and as an illegitimate son, he was born out of favour. Later, because of his extraordinary talent, his half-brother became envious of him, so he hatched a deadly scheme and sent him to the Demonic Lord as a mole.
Who did not know about Lord Duantian? His irritability and cruel disposition were famous! The pitiful youth was sent as a furnace, however, in order not to be defiled, he had deliberately concealed his appearance, so he was rejected by the demon, and was thrown to tend the forges and work as a blacksmith. Nevertheless, Ding Ziyu did not fear these difficulties, he studied hard, and fortuitously managed to demonstrate his talents, earning the appreciation of the Demonic Lord, who afterwards often came to instruct him, and finally decided to make him his successor! Unfortunately, things did not work out as expected, before Ding Ziyu had finished mastering all of Lord Duantian’s techniques, the Mo Palace was besieged and he perished.
Afterwards, the youth returned, and, having learnt so much, made repeated outstanding contributions to Liuyun Sect, he now sat on the Peak Master seat at such a young age…
Mo Tianliao listened so attentively to the stories of the female disciples that he did not even hear what the Sect Leader of Liuyun Sect was saying. Such a tumultuous story, and it even had him as a side character, how come he did not know anything about it?
Ding Ziyu’s abilities were fine really, but he was still a far cry from someone he would consider as worthy of being his successor.
“It’s a good story,” Qingtong said, raising his eyebrows and looking at him.
“It’s incorrect,” Mo Tianliao leaned closer and grabbed his slender hand again, holding those white fingertips, the round nails instantly turned into sharp hooks. “How can the wicked Demonic Lord have no ferocious beasts? To this story, you have to add a ferocious beast who often bites people, one who always bullies the youth and prevents him from going near the Demonic Lord. “
Qingtong’s mouth curled in derision, the whole demonic path knew that the Demonic Lord Duantian had kept a palm-sized cat as a spiritual pet, one who could not fight nor act as a guardian, one who could only be Lord Kitty.
“…the alchemy competition’s first prize, Forget Sorrows Herb!” The Sect Leader stated the competition process and began naming the prizes.
Forget Sorrows Herb? Mo Tianliao raised his head and looked at the platform, he saw Liu Mang Zhenren holding a blue jade box, when it slowly opened, he could feel the rich spiritual power emanating from it, even though he was so far away. A greenish yellow spiritual herb lay quietly in the jade box, shining brightly in the sun.
“Liuyun Sect actually uses this kind of thing as a prize?” Hua Qing was very surprised. The Forget Sorrows Herb was a very rare poisonous plant, when it was under 100 years-old it was useless, however, when it was 1,000 years-old or older it became very valuable. This kind of herb could be used for refining Forget Sorrows Pills, which when eaten would cause people to forget their past. For those whose internal demons made it difficult to ascend, they could just eat some Forget Sorrows Pills and start from scratch. But this type of pill was rarely sold, as no one dared to eat it lightly.
“Forget Sorrows Herb!” Taishi, who was in the shape of a wristband, began to shout inside his mind.
“What?” Mo Tianliao frowned slightly.
“Forget Sorrows Herb can be used instead of Dixiu Tree, although the effect will not be as good, even if you eventually find the Divine Dixiu Tree, it can still be used,” Taishi said resolutely. Dixiu was one of the materials needed to cure Qingtong’s soul, it was also used to purify souls.
Forget Sorrows… Mo Tianliao’s brow wrinkled even further. It turned out that the Dixiu was used to forget sorrows. If he found this divine tree for Qingtong, would it not mean that he would forget the past?
The first prize of the crafting competition was a branch of the Wenyu tree. All parts of the divine trees were treasures, and the branches of the Wenyu tree were a prized crafting material. Of course, as vegetation, they could also be used for refining pills. Hua Qing had no interest in the Forget Sorrows Herb, but he wanted the branches of the Wenyu tree very much, so he discussed it with Mo Tianliao. If he won the first prize, he would give him the branches.
“Then, shixiong will need the Forget Sorrows Herb to trade for it,” said Mo Tianliao with a smile.
“What, like it’s hard?” Hua Qing raised his chin slightly. In the righteous path, no cultivator below the Half-Immortal stage could compare with him when it came to alchemy.
Alchemy and crafting were the two most important skills in the field of cultivation, wherever alchemist and craftsmen went they were respected. Every major sect would train their own alchemists and craftsmen, and their competitions were always the highlights of the Three Sects Conference.
While they talked, the whole arena was divided in half, the east side for the alchemists, the west side for the craftsmen. With a wave of Liu Mang Zhenren’s hand, numerous jade walls were erected, further dividing the arena into dozens of small sections, each with a ground furnace.
Only cultivators on the Nascent Soul stage or below could participate in the Three Sects Conference’s competitions, the powerful Half-Immortals had to restrain themselves and not participate.
“It’s Master Wan Hua Dan!” When the crowd saw that Hua Qing would compete, there was an uproar. The last time the Three Sects Conference was held, was Hua Qing’s first time being in attendance, yet he had won the competition in one fell swoop. The title of Master Wan Hua Dan had resounded all over the cultivation world, and the price of his pills had risen astronomically.
Ding Zijin clenched the Starfall Stone in his hand, his half-brother had borrowed Lord Duantian’s fame and climbed to the position of Peak Master, and his father had praised Ding Ziyu in front of him more than once. This time, he must not lose, he must let his father know who was the most suitable heir!
Because of Ding Hu, the most famous craftsman of the righteous path, there were lots of people learning to craft equipment in Liuyun Sect, more than a dozen of them would participate, Qingyun Sect would also have five or six participants.
“Ziyu, you go too. You are still only in the middle of the Nascent Soul stage; you can also compete,” the Leader of Liuyun Sect said loudly and with a smile.
The people present gave them the side-eye, this made it sound as if Ding Ziyu was about to wipe the floor with them.
“Yes.” Ding Ziyu respectfully saluted the Sect Leader, modestly leaped onto the crafting section, and stood quietly in the first crafting station. His manner betrayed his assurance of winning the first place.
Mo Tianliao did not move for a long time; he was still playing with Master’s hand.
There was sure to be a theme for both craftsmen and alchemists, but because time was limited, they would not be able to make things that were too complex. The crafting theme was “spatial magical tools”.
After listening to the theme, Mo Tianliao simply got up and turned to look at his cat. “Do you still have that piece of Profound Space Stone?”
“Are you going to make that thing?” Qingtong was a little surprised, he pulled out a piece of pitch-black stone from his storage bracelet.
This was something Lord Duantian had found to make into a house for his cat, it was already half-finished.
“Yeah, the stuff is already prepared, I’ll just finish it while I’m at it.” Mo Tianliao took the stone with a smile, jumped off the stands, and stood in an inconspicuous corner at the back.
Spatial magical tools were usually understood as storage magical tools. Refining storage magical tools was not that difficult, but it was also not that easy, this was because spatial arrays were difficult to draw, it was easy for the drawing to go wrong. This theme was chosen to make the judging easier, storage magical tools were mainly judged on the size and stability of the space, for bonus points, one could add some extra functions, for example, making it resistant to divine lightning and the like…
Ding Ziyu could not help smirking when he heard this topic. Lord Duantian had been the best at spatial arrays. Almost all the magical tools he had crafted had had spatial arrays, and he had luckily learned a very rare technique for crafting storage magical tools. Thinking about this, he began his work, full of confidence.
Superimposing a qi gathering array and a qi holding array over the spatial array, would make the qi in the storage magical tool unable to disperse. Spiritual grass and fruits often needed to be put into jade boxes to keep them fresh and to prevent their qi from dissipating. This kind of storage magical tool could not only prevent the qi from dispersing, it even had heat insulating properties. Once the freshly picked spiritual grass was put in, it would remain fresh and moist no matter after how many days it was taken out, which was very convenient for cultivators who were out traveling.
Ding Zijin took out the Starfall Stone, preparing to craft a spatial magical tool that could transform into any shape.
Qingtong put his feet on the big tiger and looked idly into the arena. The competitors were separated by the jade walls, unable to see each other, but the people on the stands could see them clearly.
While everyone else was working hard on drawing arrays and crafting storage bracelets and rings, Mo Tianliao just threw the Profound Space Stone into the forge, and then sat idly, fiddling with some things.
Mo Tianliao took out a storage bag from his storage bracelet and poured out a pile of small objects with a clatter. They had all been made from scraps of materials, each of them was only the size of a fingernail. Upon closer inspection there was crystal, black jade, Xuanyuan Iron, Starfall Stone, and so on, they were bits and pieces, but they had been carved out into exquisite things. Tiny doors and windows, tables and chairs, soft couches, floor tiles, in addition to these, there were even sheets and tablecloths made of mermaid silk, minuscule cotton cushions and so on.
These had been carved during any free moment that he had, each one of them was intricate, the fabrics had been made by the maids of Qingning Palace, the little girls had been very interested in sewing these little trinkets. He wanted to make a beautiful cat house and keep his precious cat in it, so he could never leave.
“Exploring the Mo Palace”
Cultivator A: Woah, the Millennial Zhilan Tree
Xiaozhao: Put down my cat tree!
Cultivator B: Woah, Evergreen Grass
Xiaozhao: Let go of my catnip!
Cultivator C: *Rolling on the floor* A room full of Starlight Sea Pearl Sand! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Xiaozhao: My cat litter, meow-ow-ow-ow-ow! All of you die! Drop dead!
Unedited, please point out any mistakes
Thank you for the ko-fi, lilibeth