The Swallowing Sky Toad silently stuck its head out of the water, its large eyes observing the surroundings.
After carefully investigating for a moment and finding no one around, it then leapt out of the water.
Its skin was sleek and smooth, leaving no trace of water behind.
Upon landing, the Swallowing Sky Toad lightly hopped a few times, instantly covering dozens of yards, and arrived in front of the largest Casting Room in the Weapon Casting Valley.
Qin Family Residence.
In his room, Qin Feng sat cross-legged on the bed. Using the Demon Refining Pot, he projected his spirit onto the Swallowing Sky Toad, allowing him to see everything the toad saw.
His power of spirit directed the Swallowing Sky Toad, which lightly jumped to the window. Its limbs stuck to the wall like a gecko, showing no signs of falling, as it gently pried open the window and jumped inside.
The Swallowing Sky Toad's eyes were large and bright, enough to see in the dark.
It hopped twice in the Casting Room, reaching a high vantage point, where it could see everything inside.
Soon, it spotted the glittering Flying Sword placed on the Casting Platform.
The Gold-Plated Slash was a type of Flying Sword at the Spiritual Artifact level, but it wasn't extremely powerful. Otherwise, the forging skill for this wouldn't have been passed down to the Huang Family.
Following Qin Feng's command, the Swallowing Sky Toad opened its mouth, and its long tongue wrapped around the Flying Sword, instantly swallowing it into its abdominal space.
The Yunling Array was merely a prohibition array that gathered spiritual energy to nourish the Spirit Sword, without any offensive or defensive capabilities. It was naturally incapable of stopping the Swallowing Sky Toad.
Originally, after retrieving the sword, Qin Feng intended to urge the Swallowing Sky Toad to return quickly.
However, upon seeing the large iron hammer on the Casting Platform, along with the various sorted materials for casting spirit artifacts and magic artifacts, his eyes lit up, and he began a sweeping operation.
The Swallowing Sky Toad opened its mouth wide, continually swallowing various refined iron, red copper, xuanjin, and other materials, including the large iron hammer used by the Huang Family Great Elder for casting spirit artifacts, as well as their family's generational inheritance—a spiritual artifact level Artifact Refining Furnace, all swallowed into its belly.
Qin Feng was somewhat greedy, wanting to swallow the giant Casting Platform as well. Unfortunately, the space in the Swallowing Sky Toad's belly was full and couldn't contain anything more, so he had to give up.
At this moment, a furious roar suddenly came from the courtyard at the rear of the Weapon Casting Valley: "Who dares trespass on the Huang Family's restricted area?"
It turned out that after the Swallowing Sky Toad swallowed the large iron hammer used by the Huang Family Great Elder for casting spirit artifacts, it immediately alerted the elder.
After all, it was a magic artifact he had been refining for many years, connected to his spirit. Earlier, due to the exhaustion from many days of artifact refining, and being inside his own Casting Room, he forgot to put it away.
He fell into deep sleep to recover the energy spent on casting the Spirit Sword, only to suddenly sense that his large iron hammer had lost connection with him. Shocked, he woke up from his sleep.
Hearing the roar, Qin Feng was startled and hurriedly urged the Swallowing Sky Toad to leap out of the Casting Room, quickly jumping into the Sword Washing Pond, swiftly swimming towards the Spiritual Well.
"Boom..."
Just a few moments after the Swallowing Sky Toad leapt into the Sword Washing Pond, the figure of the Huang Family Great Elder flew over from the rear courtyard.
The elder landed on the roof of the Casting Room, his late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation bursting forth, sweeping across the entire Weapon Casting Valley. After several sweeps, he found no abnormal presence.
His expression changed, and he suddenly descended to the ground, pushing open his Weapon Casting Room door.
With just one glance inside, the Great Elder became furious: "Bastard!"
At this moment, the Great Elder was so angry he nearly spat blood.
The thief who infiltrated the Weapon Casting Valley had not only stolen his freshly forged Gold-Plated Slash Flying Sword but also taken his refining hammer and Artifact Refining Furnace.
Worse, the materials the family had painstakingly gathered for refining spiritual artifacts were also gone.
The entire Casting Room was empty, save for the heavy Casting Platform.
Without refining materials, they could be slowly collected again. Losing the Gold-Plated Slash was bearable; another could be forged for Huang Yulang. But without the refining hammer and Artifact Refining Furnace, how could they forge spirit swords now?
Especially the Artifact Refining Furnace, handed down from the family founder, it wasn't something easily obtained. Its refining process was complex, requiring not just highly skilled Artifact Refiners, but Artifact Refining Masters to easily forge a spiritual artifact level Artifact Refining Furnace.
By now, the rest of the valley's inhabitants had been awakened by the Great Elder's furious roar and came running out.
Someone asked: "Great Elder, what happened?"
The white-haired Great Elder's chest heaved a few times before he suppressed his anger, replying furiously: "Someone infiltrated the valley and stole my freshly forged Flying Sword Gold-Plated Slash, as well as my refining hammer and Artifact Refining Furnace."
"What?"
Everyone was shocked and then filled with rage.
"Who could be so brazen to steal from our Huang Family, seeking death."
The Great Elder shouted sternly: "Notify the Family Head immediately, gather all family cultivators, block all nearby roads, and search for any suspicious traces!"
"Yes, Great Elder."
At that moment, no one cared about disturbing the Family Head's cultivation. Some cultivators used the Divine Movement Technique and sped towards the family residence to inform the Family Head of the intruder in the Weapon Casting Valley, and to gather everyone to search the area.
The Great Elder, with a grim face, circled the Weapon Casting Valley multiple times. Not only did he fail to find any non-family members, but he completely lost contact with his refining hammer.
He knew the thief must have used some method to conceal the hammer's aura, preventing him from sensing it.
But he couldn't fathom that the thief was actually a Swallowing Sky Toad, only the size of a child's fist.
The space within the Swallowing Sky Toad was much superior to the forcibly modified spaces like those created through the prohibition technique of a storage bag.
With its internal space, it was impossible for the Great Elder to sense the aura of his magic artifact.
...
The Huang Family was in chaos. Upon hearing about the Weapon Casting Valley theft, Family Head Huang Tingyuan was furious, mobilizing all the family cultivators to lock down Kun City and all nearby escape routes.
Given the commotion, the Qin Family soon caught wind of it. The Qin Family would never approve of Kun City's lockdown as many of their businesses required active operations.
Fortunately, the Huang Family cultivators didn't intend to trouble the Qin Family, preventing a conflict between the two.
Receiving news of the theft at the Huang Family's Weapon Casting Valley, the Qin Family mainly saw it as a joke and had no intention of provoking the Huang Family at this time.
While the Huang Family conducted a thorough search, Qin Feng walked briskly to the Spirit Fruit Garden.
The family members tending the Spirit Fruit Garden had grown accustomed to him making rounds there.
To maintain appearances, Qin Feng genuinely learned about caring for spirit plants from the elders.
Given his high growth potential and sweet-talking nature, the uncles were fond of him, willingly imparting their knowledge, hoping he would progress in the Beast Taming Sect and grow strong enough to protect the family.
However, this morning, Qin Feng informed them that he would focus his efforts elsewhere, no longer coming to learn, which they found regrettable.
Yet, they didn't want to waste his time learning other skills and gave him a few spirit fruits as he left.
The caregivers, who had long worked in the Spirit Fruit Garden, considered this a minimal benefit, and giving Qin Feng some spirit fruits wasn't a big deal.
They had no idea that Qin Feng had, meanwhile, gone to the Spiritual Well to retrieve the Swallowing Sky Toad.
The Swallowing Sky Toad wasn't pleased.
It had hoped its master would let it feast in the Spirit Fruit Garden, but instead, it had to lurk in the water for days, only to return with a belly full of iron.
PS: Brothers, while others release one or two chapters during the new book period, I post three chapters a day, showing my sincerity! How about showing some support with recommendation votes?