“Look at this little girl, she has indeed started practicing.”

Yuan Ming’s heart moved slightly, and upon closer inspection, he indeed sensed a trace of spiritual power emanating from her.

Although very weak, the presence of spiritual power meant that she had already embarked on the path of cultivation.

At this moment, footsteps approached from outside, and the little girl immediately put away the sheet of cultivation technique, carefully folded it, and tucked it into her arms.

As the door was pushed open, Tu Ya had already jumped off the bed and rushed into the embrace of a dark-skinned woman.

“Why have you been staying in the house all the time and not going out to play?” Ha Gong’s wife squatted down, stroking her daughter’s hair with concern.

“Tired, I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately,” the little girl lied.

“I haven’t asked you to do any…” Ha Gong’s wife stopped herself from saying the word “work,” only then realizing that the pile of firewood in the yard had all been collected by her daughter.

In fact, not only did she collect them, but she also broke the thick firewood with her bare hands.

“If you’re tired, then don’t help with the *** work. We still have money in our family,” Ha Gong’s wife said.

Yuan Ming had given them a lot of silver coins at the beginning. They were a mother and daughter living alone, and it was unclear whether they were used to living in poverty or if they were just not materialistic, as they seemed to live quite frugally.

“Okay. I understand, mother. Is the food ready? I’m hungry again…” Tu Ya rubbed her stomach, making a “gurgle” sound, indicating that she was really hungry.

Ha Gong’s wife stood up and smiled gently, “Alright, I made your favorite stewed mountain chicken with bamboo strips.”

“Great!” The little girl cheered and ran out.

Behind her, the woman murmured with a hint of confusion, “She can eat and sleep so well, it seems like she has grown taller recently?”

Yuan Ming’s gaze followed Tu Ya as she went outside and saw a small farmhouse courtyard.

The courtyard was not large, surrounded by a low wooden fence with no gatehouse. The ground inside the courtyard was solid hard soil, not paved with bricks, but it was swept clean.

At this moment, a commotion came from outside the courtyard, and a group of more than ten people riding various strange beasts stopped outside the courtyard.

Hearing the commotion, the woman inside the house was greatly surprised and immediately ran out, pulling her daughter back into the house.

However, the courtyard gate had already been pushed open.

A woman wrapped in a white robe from head to toe, wearing a bamboo hat and a veil covering her face, rode a beast that looked like a fierce tiger into the courtyard.

Ha Gong’s wife was shocked to see this and quickly protected her daughter behind her.

But Tu Ya, who was still young, was not afraid at all. She poked her head out from behind her mother, curiously looking at the person.

“Is it her?” Yuan Ming’s heart trembled at the sight of the woman.

Looking at the group outside the courtyard, he saw many tattooed knights riding beasts, just like the group that he had seen by the river when he was unconscious and received medicine from.

“It’s really them!” Yuan Ming confirmed.

This woman was his benefactor. If it weren’t for her detoxifying and healing elixir, he didn’t know what would have happened to him.

After confirming this, Yuan Ming was somewhat puzzled as to why these people would appear here.

At this moment, the woman in the white robe riding the fierce beast suddenly waved her hand, and a five-colored disc flew out and hovered over Tu Ya’s head.

In the next moment, the disc emitted a bright light, and a green light column shot up into the sky, rippling with spiritual energy.

The woman’s face was covered by the veil, so her expression couldn’t be seen, but there was a hint of joy in her eyes.

Ha Gong’s wife initially showed a look of suspicion, but seeing that the woman seemed to have no ill intentions, she forced herself to calm down and asked, “What do you want?”

“Your daughter has rare aptitude for cultivation. We want to take her in as a disciple, so that she can leave the mundane world behind and embark on the path of cultivation,” the veiled woman said.

If it were an ordinary woman, she would probably have been at a loss and not understood what the other party was talking about.

But Ha Gong’s wife had seen such cultivators before and knew how cruel they could be when they fought. She instinctively refused, “You, you must be mistaken. My daughter is just an ordinary person, she doesn’t want to…”

“Mother, I want to go,” before she could finish her sentence, Tu Ya stood up on her own.

“Tu Ya…” Ha Gong’s wife was shocked.

“Mother, I want to cultivate and become someone like big brother. I want to protect you and not let bad people bully you anymore,” Tu Ya spoke fluently and with determination.

The veiled woman saw this scene, her eyes flashed slightly, showing even more joy.

Without waiting for her mother’s consent, Tu Ya looked at the veiled woman and said, “Sister, I want to go with you, but I want to bring my mother with me.”

“What if I say no?” the veiled woman frowned and said.

“Then I won’t go. I cultivate to protect my mother. If my mother is not by my side, how can I protect her?” Tu Ya didn’t hesitate, shaking her head.

Ha Gong’s wife was stunned, and tears flowed down her cheeks.

“Alright, then let’s go together. Remember what you said today,” the veiled woman nodded.

She then ordered her subordinates to help Tu Ya and her mother pack up and leave together.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming also felt emotional for a moment, but he had no way to show it.

When the convoy started moving again, Yuan Ming suddenly remembered that he didn’t know which sect or faction this woman belonged to. Just as he was about to look around for any flags or symbols, his vision blurred again, and his spirit returned to his body.

When the scene reappeared before his eyes, Yuan Ming sat quietly for a long time, feeling the wonder of fate.

The benefactor who had saved him back then had actually taken Tu Ya, whom he had saved, as her disciple. He just didn’t know what she meant by Tu Ya’s rare aptitude. But no matter what sect the other party belonged to, encountering such a disciple, he believed that she would not be mistreated.

With a sect to rely on, Tu Ya’s life would be guaranteed, and Yuan Ming felt a little more at ease.

He got up, pushed open the window of the inn, looked at the moonlight streaming in, and directly took out a cushion, sitting on the floor to start practicing the Death Moon method.

In the blink of an eye, seven days had passed.

During these days, Yuan Ming had gone to Changxian Tower again and bought some elixirs to assist in his cultivation.He had originally intended to purchase some elixirs that could aid in Foundation Establishment, but Zhuo Lingling bluntly informed him that such elixirs were extremely precious and had a singular effect, belonging to the category of priceless goods that were hard to come by in ordinary markets.

Their Changxian Tower didn’t have them, and they were a rare sight even in the entire marketplace of Heiyan City.

Yuan Ming, not giving up, searched for several days, visiting the ghost market every day to try his luck, but in the end, he came up empty-handed.

Tonight, Yuan Ming did not go out again, as tomorrow was the day he was to retrieve the Bagua Mirror and the snake skin inner armor. According to the bald man, the Fire Refining Master would begin crafting his magical artifact tonight.

The image of that short and skinny old man surfaced in Yuan Ming’s mind, and a thought suddenly arose:

“How does this Fire Refining Master craft artifacts?”

It wasn’t that he had nothing better to do; he was simply curious as to why the old man, clearly capable of repairing superior-grade magical artifacts, insisted on only crafting inferior ones. There must be a reason behind it.

With this thought, he immediately took out the incense burner and lit the black incense.

Accompanied by the familiar sensation of blurred vision, Yuan Ming’s spirit once again plunged into darkness.

When his vision brightened again, Yuan Ming felt a scorching wave of air hit his face.

Looking at the scene before him, he saw that not far away, in the casting furnace, fierce flames were surging, burning something.

The sound of “clang clang” hammering echoed in his ears, steady and continuous.

“Is he refining the embryo?” Yuan Ming wondered in surprise.

But as his gaze followed the Fire Refining Master’s line of sight downward, he saw that the old man was holding a piece of soft armor with obvious snake scale patterns in one hand, and a carving knife in the other, engraving intricate runes on it.

The old man’s technique was skilled, and the speed of inscribing the spirit patterns was fast, at least Yuan Ming felt that his own skill was far inferior.

His gaze continued downward and he noticed that the runes inscribed were a rather rare type of defensive rune, strong against slashing and piercing damage, but weaker against blunt force trauma.

This was quite fitting for the nature of the soft armor.

“No, if the Fire Refining Master is inscribing runes, then who is refining the embryo? Could there be a second hidden artifact refiner?” Yuan Ming suddenly thought, puzzled.

Unfortunately, the sound came from behind, and he couldn’t make the Fire Refining Master turn around.

“Master, business has been getting better lately, you might have to work hard for a while,” a voice came from behind at that moment.

Yuan Ming immediately recognized it as the bald man’s voice.

“Could it be him refining the embryo? To be able to refine the embryo while talking, and the hammering sound not breaking at all, the breath during speech not the slightest bit disordered, isn’t this also a sign of a master refiner?” Yuan Ming grew even more astonished.

The Fire Refining Master did not respond until he had finished inscribing all the runes, then he finally spoke: “Don’t talk to me while I’m inscribing runes, have you forgotten again?”

As he spoke, he continued to focus intently on the soft armor in his hands, without turning to look at the bald man.

“I’m sorry, Master,” the bald man immediately responded.

“Go, bring me a spirit stone, be careful not to get the wrong one, I need one with wood attributes,” the Fire Refining Master instructed.

Not long after his words fell, the bald man came running over, holding a green spirit stone in his hand, and asked with confusion, “Master, using spirit stones for infusion can save spiritual energy, I understand that. But aren’t defensive artifacts better suited to metal and earth attributes? Why choose a wood attribute spirit stone for infusion?”

“What do you know? The special feature of this snake scale soft armor lies in its toughness, not its solidity, it is a weapon against cuts and stabs, naturally, it is appropriate to use the flexible properties of wood attribute, this is called using materials according to their properties,” the Fire Refining Master said irritably.

“So that’s how it is, I never realized that there was so much to consider in artifact infusion,” Yuan Ming thought to himself, committing the Fire Refining Master’s words to memory.

Just as he agreed with him in his mind, another question couldn’t help but arise: “If the bald man is right in front of me, then who exactly is refining the embryo?”

While the two of them were talking, the “clang clang” of hammering continued, steady and uninterrupted.

For a moment, Yuan Ming felt as if a hundred claws were scratching at his heart, his curiosity intense.