Spirit Heart Villa
"It is I who have bound you," Xiao Lingling sat at the dressing table, quietly watching Lin Xin comb her long hair in the copper mirror.
"There is no binding, I like this kind of life," Lin Xin carefully combed her long hair, his expression focused.
"If it weren’t for , perhaps you wouldn’t stay in such a small villa," Xiao Lingling said softly, "You should have your own world, not just the villa as your everything."
"Are you suddenly feverish today? Why start talking nonsense?" Lin Xin said with a chuckle as he touched her forehead.
"I’m not talking nonsense," Xiao Lingling turned her head and said earnestly.
"Alright, alright..." Lin Xin laughed, continuing to gently tie up her hair.
After finishing the hairdressing, the two went to the small lake together; the courtyard had been expanded by Lin Xin to connect with the outside lake, adding a bit of color to Xiao Lingling’s monotonous life.
The heavy snow flew about like feathers, and the two, dressed in white fur-collared coats, sat down in the pavilion at the center of the lake.
"I might need to go out for a while," Lin Xin spoke softly. "I’ll be back soon."
"It’s alright, I’m here at the villa with Zhen’er and the kids; it’s quite nice," Xiao Lingling smiled.
She never asked why Lin Xin went out, but trusted him completely because she knew that if Lin Xin wanted to tell her, he would have already said so. If not, asking was useless.
"Don’t worry, there’s no danger, it’s just a trip," Lin Xin laughed. "If it wasn’t a bit far, I wouldn’t even have ntioned it. I could go and co back without you noticing."
Xiao Lingling laughed along, but her expression showed so exhaustion.
A servant brought over a charcoal stove to warm their hands; taking off her gloves, she gently rubbed her hands, feeling the air was unusually dry.
"Villa Master, there is an urgent report."
Just as Lin Xin sat down next to her, soone ca up to report, and Lin Xin took the envelope handed by the servant, lightly opened it and glanced at it.
"I’ll be right back; rest here for a bit," he said tenderly, pinching Xiao Lingling’s cheek.
"Okay," Xiao Lingling nodded obediently.
Lin Xin tightened her white fox fur collar and stood up to leave.
Xiao Lingling watched him walk out of the pavilion, then she saw him conversing with the guard and servant as he walked further along the small curving path on the lake; she felt tired, not knowing why, but lately her body seed increasingly weak.
Gradually leaning against the wooden pillar of the pavilion, she unknowingly drifted into sleep.
She did not know how long it had been when she slowly opened her eyes.
The snow was heavier...
She stood up, and for so reason, the guards and maids who were supposed to be there were gone.
"Soone," she called out softly, feeling a bit scared.
No one responded.
"Eh?" It was only then she suddenly realized she was in the midst of a crimson sea of flowers, with no sign of the lake anywhere.
"...Where is this..." Her expression was a bit bewildered, yet for so reason, she wasn’t scared.
Stepping out of the pavilion, she slowly looked around.
The heavy snow fell in big flakes, sliding past her and disappearing into the sea of flowers without a trace.
Walking into the sea of flowers, the bright red flowers around her were each the size of a fist, dazzlingly radiant and extrely delicate.
Reaching out, she tried to catch the snowflakes; they landed in her palm, yet they carried no coldness.
"Is anyone there?"
She called out loudly.
The sea of flowers seed endless; looking back, she was shocked to see that the pavilion had disappeared as well.
Standing alone in the middle of the sea of flowers, she was like a small boat without shores or support close by.
"Is anyone there?"
She slowly advanced, calling as she walked.
After what seed like a long ti, she finally saw a small pavilion ahead, inside which was a table, the one she usually used for practicing calligraphy.
She walked closer and indeed saw the Four Treasures of the study placed on the table, with ink already ground on the inkstone.
Walking up, as if possessed, she picked up the brush and reached toward the ink.
Hiss...
The ink bizarrely took flight, flying out of the inkstone, turning into a strand of black smoke that wrapped around her, and finally gently ford an ink butterfly, landing on her outstretched finger.
The butterfly paused for a mont, then took off again, flying out of the pavilion toward the distant sea of flowers.
Xiao Lingling hurriedly followed it out of the pavilion.
"Don’t go out," suddenly a voice called to her.
She hesitated, just stepping out, and turned back to look at the pavilion.
There she could vaguely see a blurred silhouette standing, featureless and indistinct, just discernibly human.
"Don’t go out..."
The voice seed to co from far away, barely there.
Xiao Lingling hesitated, then looked at the ink butterfly, but saw it had already flown far away, and strangely enough, a figure resembling her husband was dimly waving at her in the distance.
"Husband..." Xiao Lingling hesitated.
The silhouette seed to be smiling at her without responding, just beckoning to her.
Xiao Lingling hesitated, about to walk toward him.
"Mother!"
Suddenly, a thunderous voice exploded by her ear.
She startled awake, opening her eyes, and saw Little Lin Zhen by her side, holding her hand worriedly.
"Mom, what’s wrong with you? Your face looks so pale..." Lin Zhen’s sowhat immature voice echoed in her ears.
Only then did Xiao Lingling realize she was still sitting in the pavilion, surrounded by the sa small lake, with all the guards present, not one missing.
Just now, it might have been a dream....
"Zhen’er...."
She didn’t know why, but a sudden pain surged in her heart, and she gently embraced Lin Zhen in her arms.
****************
Forge Room.
At the side of the glowing hot blacksmith’s furnace, Lin Xin and a few blacksmiths gathered closely, intently watching as they hamred the glowing red tal block on the furnace. Their expressions solemn.
"It won’t work, Villa Master!" an old blacksmith with a lot of white beard said, "The nature of Cloud tal is too stubborn; without a special catalyst, it simply cannot be lted."
"Isn’t there any way at all?" Lin Xin frowned deeply.
"We’ve tried over ten thods; unless it’s an Earth Fire Furnace, there’s nothing we can do. The legendary Earth Fire Furnace is sothing only found in the Immortal Sect; us ordinary craftsn couldn’t possibly get our hands on such a divine furnace... Even the kind of fire needed is hard to co by and can’t be sustained," the old blacksmith explained with difficulty.
Lin Xin slowly nodded.
The Red Flower Sword was about to break and shatter, the sword he had chosen for Heart Blood Sacrificial Refinent. If it broke, it would also inflict severe damage to his spirit and his Qi Cultivation would fall at least by half. He had to redy it.
Cloud tal is a special, powerful tal with self-healing properties, but it also has an extrely difficult aspect to conquer – its resistance to lting.
"Besides the Earth Fire Furnace, is there no other way?" he asked softly.
The old blacksmith twisted his beard in distress.
"There is another way, if the Villa Master could find the Earth Fire Golden Plum, it could lower the lting point of Cloud tal, albeit temporarily, but that would be enough for our purposes."
"Earth Fire Golden Plum?"
"Yes, a special, rare, and strange flower that only grows in volcanic areas, and moreover, most people have no idea what it’s used for. Because it could explode if mishandled, no one would harvest it to sell," the old blacksmith nodded, "I’ve only heard my father ntion it once."
"Earth Fire Golden Plum, volcano..." Lin Xin narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Moreover, Villa Master, with the strength of Spirit Heart Villa, if we could find Earth Fire Golden Plum, Nine-Flower Iron, and White Deer Silkworm Silk, with these materials combined, this old man could try to forge a divine weapon as the legends tell."
"A divine weapon... I don’t need that; what I need is a way to enhance my Red Flower Sword," Lin Xin stated flatly.
"That’s even better," the old blacksmith chuckled. "If we can gather these materials, this old man is confident that he can forge your Red Flower Sword into a multi-layered Hollow Sword!"
"Multi-layered Hollow Sword?" Lin Xin was instantly intrigued. A Hollow Sword, which refers to a blade wrapped layer by layer with tal, allows for the engraving of Rune Arrays between each layer. A typically Hollow Sword is associated with the blacksmith’s skill and the Array Master’s capability, but even the simplest Hollow Sword has at least three inner layers, thus tripling the number of formations that can be inscribed on the sword!
"No... not just triple, each inner layer can also be engraved with Formation Runes... which ans we can add two more layers, making it five tis more powerful than before!"
Lin Xin quickly calculated the potential power, his heart subtly stirred.
"Do you have a plan now, Villa Master?" the old blacksmith looked at him with a grin.
"Old Yang, you must have figured I would agree, haven’t you?" Lin Xin asked with a smile.
This old blacksmith was the most capable blacksmith in the Joy Bureau and even in the neighboring realms, attracted to join by the good reputation and financial strength of Spirit Heart Villa.
"This is a mutually beneficial arrangent; I can fulfill my wish to forge a divine weapon, while the Villa Master can obtain the weapon he desires," Old Yang said with a smile.
Since both parties agreed, they began discussing the specifics of the materials needed. The Red Flower Sword was also taken out to be used as a mold.
After leaving the Forge Room, Lin Xin dealt with so affairs, played with Lin Zhen and Lingling for a while, and then it was evening.
He picked up Xiao Lingling, and unconsciously entered the dark residence again.
Having prepared everything, he took out the Demon Talisman Seed, summoned the carriage again, and quickly got on.
********************
The sunshine was bright, and the maple forest was as red as blood.
Hiss!
Lin Xin finally killed a double-faced person, his body sweating so much that his clothes were almost soaked; he picked up a piece of Demon Talisman Seed from the ground, looking around at the scattered corpses.
The cultivation level in the status bar had finally advanced to the Second Layer of the Qi Refinent Realm.
The Minor Return to Origin Technique now gathered Spiritual Energy, and only by killing higher level masters could there be noticeable growth, but such high-level masters had extrely terrifying defences.
Without a divine weapon, he could only slowly wear down the opposition.
"Only these extrely hard-to-kill Silver Armors have Demon Talisman Seeds... The difficulty here is much greater than dealing with noodle people..."
It had been over two months, and he had only obtained one piece of Demon Talisman Seed, and that was just to replace the one he had recently lost.
Many tis before, he had been severely injured and had to flee back in disgrace. If it wasn’t for a slight improvent in his physical attributes and a faster recovery, along with the Spirit Heart Villa’s substantial resources to procure various healing dicines—he could blend a century’s worth of various dicinal materials into a furnace for quick recovery and repair of his Elental Energy.
He would probably be dead from injuries or drained of Essence Qi by now.
As usual, he searched the body of the Silver Armored double-faced person, finding so currency that resembled black seashells, and various cluttered items, even pulling out a red bellyband not too big or too small...
"Again, nothing of value." Standing up, Lin Xin felt helpless.
He released Yin Mantuo to devour all the corpses on the ground, providing it with the blood al.
Soon, the bodies were consud. He looked around, leaped into the air, disturbed the traces of his landing with a Palm Wind, then lightly floated twice in mid-air, turned, and swept toward the distance.
He traveled through the maple forest for a mont before gradually landing in a part of the forest, took out so Healing dicine to take, and prepared to sit in ditation to heal his injuries.
He had already discovered that ti here did not sync with reality; here, in the dark residence, ti flowed at one-third the rate of reality, while initially, with the noodle people, it seed to be half.
Staying here a little longer ant saving a lot of ti in reality.
So now he would stay as long as possible, making full use of this ti difference.
Gurgle.
Suddenly, he heard a very clear drinking sound near him.
Lin Xin was startled. With his current realm, Qi Refinent Second Layer, he hadn’t sensed anyone nearby at all.
He quickly turned his head and saw a long-haired, long-robed man in black sitting under a large tree in the maple forest.
The man held a black gourd wine jug, his eyes misty with drunkenness, vigorously pouring into his mouth. (To be continued. If you like this book, welco to Qidian (qidian) to vote for recomndations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.)
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