"Grandfathers, can you reserve two slots for me?" Bing Huoyuan said.
Elder Bing sent a glare toward Bing Huoyuan. "Do you think that as a half-retired immortal elder, I would have such clout? For true immortals like me, the current Demon Slaying Expedition isn't that important. But with the seclusion of the demon race with the divine beasts, materials that were common thousands of years ago are no longer common. Now the largest source of demon resources is the Demon Cage Realm controlled by the Buzhou Immortal Sect. For this chance, many nascent soul grandmasters and above will fight tooth and nail. What makes you think that I will help you take a slot for that outsider girl?"
"I never said it was for Ningwei." Bing Huoyuan mumbled, averting his eyes.
"Stinky brat, I remember personally changing your diapers. Do you think I would not understand your little thoughts?" Elder Bing rebuked, causing Bing Huoyuan to shrink even more. "And there is a high chance that lass won't come. With her natural talent, why would the Bright Ascension Sect waste a slot for her?"
"Lai Erchu will definitely fight for a spot for Weiwei! And Weiwei simply needs a chance to shine. Her talent and heart aren't any worse than me." Bing Huoyuan decisively said.
Elder Bing slapped Bing Huoyuan's head. "Stinky brat, only a nascent soul grandmaster, and you already know how to take back to your old man!?"
Bing Huoyuan shrunk his shoulders together. But he quickly straightened them and stared straight at his grandfather. Elder Being glared back as he stroked his beard with perhaps a bit too much force as there were audible snapping sounds and several long beard hair falling onto the ground.
"Fine, fine." Elder Bing relented first, causing a sunshine-like smile to appear on Bing Huoyuan's face. Elder Bing felt a vein nearly pop. Unable to control himself, he slapped Bing Huoyuan's head once more. Finally, Elder Bing sighed as he looked at Bing Huoyuan with a severe expression. "Yuan'er, I know your thoughts toward the lass, Bai Weiwei. For our alliance with the Bright Ascension Sect, what do you say I include her as part of it? As your wife or Dao companion."
It was as if lightning had struck Bing Huoyuan. An expression of delight flashed across his face before it quickly turned to bitterness. "Forget it, forget it. I don't seek to spend the rest of my life with her. I only wish for her to be happy."
"Time after time, you aided her, but has she given anything in return? Don't say that you don't require anything from her. A relationship is a two-way street. If only one person gives, can that still be called a relationship?"
"If she gives me anything in return, I'm afraid that it will affect her relationship with Lai Erchu. It's better that she doesn't. Besides, I'm willing." Bing Huoyuan said.
"Yuan'er, you are the only family I have left. I hope you can attain immortality and happiness. If this continues, I'm afraid that you might develop an inner demon concerning that Bai Weiwei, and your immortal ascension will be at risk." Elder Bing said. "Besides, do you really only wish to stand quietly and protect from behind? Yuan'er, the alliance with the Bright Ascension Sect is your greatest advantage, don't lose this chance."
Bing Huoyuan fell into deep thought at his father's words. Was he truly willing to let Bai Weiwei be with another man? Naturally, he wasn't! Which man would want to see their beloved be with another person? But at the same time, he didn't want to force Bai Weiwei and make her despise him. "Father, let me consider it."
As Bing Huoyuan turned to leave, Elder Bing said, "That Lai Erchu, which quality exceeds you? In terms of lineage, he is only the great-grandchildren of a true immortal, unlike you, a true immortal's only child. In terms of talent, he is far inferior to you. How can he protect your beloved? Remember, you only have until after the Demon Slaying Expedition to make up your mind."
Bing Huoyuan's body trembled for a brief moment at his father's words, but he continued to steadily return to his part of the estate.
"Young Master, what do I do?"
What awaited him was a fretful Bai Ningwei. She looked incredibly uncomfortable with two outer disciple servants attending to her. Seeing this made Bing Huoyuan recall one of his first memories of Bai Weiwei. It was after they first met, and they were at a teahouse. Bai Weiwei's face also became like this due to him paying attention to her, causing him to think that she was easily satisfied with such a basic amount of care. Recalling, this Bing Huoyuan laughed.
Bai Ningwei puffed out her cheeks as tears started to gather at the corner of her eyes. Just as Bing Huoyuan wanted to apologize for laughing, Bai Ningwei ran up to him and pounded her fist on his chest. The fists were small and adorable. Rather than any pain, he felt as if there was a small animal pawing at his chest.
Bing Huoyuan laughed even harder.
Tianyi exhaled a breath as he observed the bottle sculpted out of black jade. According to his memories, the black jade was a material known as Soul Lingering Jade. Its properties were its ability to have souls adhere to it and keep the soul in a stasis-like state as if frozen in time.
Due to the temporal effects of the Temporal Void Domain and his continuously perfected martial cultivation, Tianyi had already reached the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm, the Diamond Nascent Soul stage, quite a while ago. But this resulted in a problem. His soul was beginning to breach the limits of the Nascent Soul Realm. His nascent souls appeared to be sculpted out of diamonds by the greatest craftsmen, each glittering brilliantly. But if he continued to increase the density and strength of them, Tianyi had a suspicion that they would implode onto themselves.
The road ahead of Tianyi was dark, and he could see no path. To enter the Unity Realm, a cultivator must be able to harmonize with heaven and earth. But Tianyi couldn't do that. He could not detect heaven and earth at all. In fact, he felt his absorption of the spiritual qi of heaven and earth weaken as if heaven and earth were rejecting his existence. To harmonize with heaven and earth was to resonate with the Heavenly Dao. The Heavenly Dao was the sky, the lands, and everything in nature. And becoming a true immortal required the acknowledgment of the Heavenly Dao. In other words, Tianyi's path was filled with numerous unknowns.
Tianyi planned to contemplate a possible solution after creating the soul nourishing segment of his martial cultivation method. Currently, he was still trying a method to have his martial body nourish his soul. Coupled with his already strong nascent souls, with his strong body continuously feeding power to his soul, his soul's defense would reach another level. But in order to prevent his nascent souls from imploding, Tianyi stuck to what he knew, clone creation. Naturally, it wasn't a full clone creation. He just split his nascent souls and formed an embryonic clone soul. At most, this was a stop-gap measure. There were only so many times Tianyi could split his soul and degrade his realm.
However, it wasn't like there were no benefits to it. A cultivator's embryonic clone soul had many uses aside from creating a clone. For one, they were prime materials for refining an artifact. If a cultivator were to use their embryonic clone soul to refine their lifebound artifact, the artifact's power would tremendously increase. If they were lucky, it might even become an artifact spirit, further increasing the cultivator's power. Of course, being only able to create an embryonic clone soul at the Nascent Soul Realm, and only being able to create a lifebound artifact upon entering the Core Formation Realm create an unsolvable conundrum.
As for Tianyi, he still hadn't decided what to do with them. He didn't have a lifebound artifact, so forging a personal artifact didn't sound like too bad of an idea. Aside from the question of how it felt he was cannibalizing his own offspring to forge an artifact, Tianyi didn't know what kind of artifact to refine. He already had a sword artifact. With each rise of his cultivation level, a seal would be released and bring the artifact closer to its true power. He also had the defensive robes his mother prepared for him. Plus, wearing an artifact forged with your soul just felt weird.
As for Tianyi's most skilled techniques, they were his claw arts. Due to the influence of the Eight Strokes Word Art, Tianyi began to merge his claw techniques, palm techniques, and fist techniques into a single style.
In other words, the claw arts he was strongest in never had a chance to reveal themselves before they turned into comprehensive hand arts!
On a more serious note, Tianyi felt that he didn't really need any artifacts at all. His body was already tougher and stronger than artifacts of the same realm. So aside from miscellaneous functions, battle types artifacts were unneeded for Tianyi.
Tianyi could always use his embryonic clone souls to create new clones. He wouldn't mind having a few more clones, but he didn't want to create a clone arbitrarily. His first clone was created using the womb of a demon fox and cultivated Sovereign Suiren's Primogenitor Flame Scripture, while his second clone was created from the Dragon Emperor's blood essence and cultivated the Dragon Emperor Fist. Each clone was special and had immense potential, even compared to the geniuses of first-rate sects.
Now that he thought about it. He used the womb of a demon fox which had intelligence equal to humans. It kind of felt like he used the womb of a human. The same situation with the Dragon Emperor's blood essence, although Tianyi wouldn't mind personally extracting more blood essence from the Dragon Emperor out of spite.
Using the womb of a creature to cultivate his clone, Tianyi felt goosebumps just thinking about it. When did he change? Was it due to his lessening memories of Earth, or did he purposely ignore it because he wanted to discover Dong Chifan's origin? He decided not to think about it any longer. Tianyi discovered that he couldn't care less when he felt that his life was in danger. He'll care about morals when he is strong enough to protect himself.
Tianyi sighed and placed the black jade bottle inside his spatial ring. He had asked his mother to modify his spatial ring. Right now, encrusted on his spatial ring were three jewels. Including the ring itself and the three jewels, each had its own space for Tianyi to store his belongings, making it easier to organize. He had tried wearing numerous spatial rings, but it just looked too gaudy for Tianyi's taste.
Walking down from the Temporal Void Domain's second floor, Tianyi saw Xi Ri cultivating on the first floor. Tianyi didn't bat an eye at it. He had gotten used to Xi Ri popping up when he wasn't busy with his duties as a disciple of Assignment Hall. Just as Tianyi was about to walk out of the Temporal Void Domain, he snapped his head back.
He could detect the different aura on Xi Ri. "Old Cousin Ri, you've transcended your Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation?"
Xi Ri opened his eyes and showed a pleased expression. "I've managed to enter the Core Formation Realm a few days ago."
"Why didn't you tell me? I could have gone and supported you." Tianyi asked with his brows furrowed.
"It's not a big deal. My master was there for me in case anything happened." Xi Ri said, unconcerned.
"Older Cousin Ri, no Xi Ri," Tianyi said as he sat down in front of Xi Ri. "You got to tell your friends when you undergo your heavenly tribulation. It's a major affair, and we want to be there to support you. Just because you think it is nothing doesn't mean you should not tell us."
"I really don't think it's anything important. Compared to entering the Core Formation Realm, I'm more nervous about the Xiyi Talismans. We haven't made progress in a long time. And the formation cards are becoming more popular. Soon I'll have to expand the scope of manufacturing them." Xi Ri said.
This time, Tianyi averted his eyes. "I've been busy with cultivation. A problem cropped up, and I can't settle down to research anything."
After speaking for a few more moments, Tianyi bid farewell. But not before reminding Xi Ri that he had to tell them when he was undergoing the heavenly tribulations.