Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.
Today.
Duke Fu's Mansion, Tribute Court Building A-2.
In the Cultivation Quiet Room, which was transformed from a study, Yu Xian sat with his eyes closed and legs crossed, facing a huge green jadeite stone.
His palm pressed on the jadeite, with his mana continuously surging from his body. His spiritual sense wrapped around the jadeite like an invisible net.
Intangible flames burned it.
The jadeite seemed to breathe, expanding and contracting, as if it had come to life.
"Now!"
Suddenly, Yu Xian's eyes opened, and he bit his tongue, spraying a mouthful of Heart Blood onto the jadeite. Instead of flowing down with gravity, the blood spread inward like a spider web.
It was like activating some magical mechanism.
Layers of red and green light emerged on the surface of the jadeite, and then the blood strands automatically became a mysterious small seal character within the jadeite.
Crack!
In an instant, the jadeite seemed to experience thousands of years of wind and sun, with countless tiny pores appearing on its surface. The gray impurities automatically flowed out from the small holes.
About a quarter of an hour later.
The impurities had piled up into small sand dunes around it.
The once three-foot-wide jadeite was now less than two feet smaller, but its color was deeper, and its texture was like clear, transparent lake water.
Looking at the artifact embryo with a small shape, Yu Xian exhaled a turbid breath and stopped artifact refining for the day.
He sensed that more than half of his mana was consumed, and he couldn't help but smirk.
"Thankfully, with Yulan's help, not only did my cultivation improve, but I can also recover mana. Otherwise, just recovering mana every day would take my life.
In addition, I have to spit out a mouthful of blood from the tip of my tongue every three days. Fortunately, once the Artifact embryo takes shape, I won't need to do it anymore. Otherwise, even the landlord's family can't stand such a torment.
It's no wonder that this primitive blood refining method has been eliminated by mainstream cultivators. It's just too grinding.
Probably, only poor ghosts like us would use this backward artifact refining technique."
As he thought, he picked up the wine gourd next to him and gulped down a few mouthfuls.
Now, not only did Doctor Huang increase the dosage of the Full Nutrient Wine, but he also added some medicinal materials that benefit Qi and blood.
However, Doctor Huang also said that these were already the best medicinal materials available on the market, and the dosage could not be increased any further.
Otherwise, it would be poison instead of medicine.
Once again, after adjusting his breath for a while, Yu Xian got up and went outside.
Recently, due to the Treasure Tower robbery, the Royal Mansion had become more tense.
After all, a few months ago, Chen Xiao tried to assassinate Duke Fu, causing heavy casualties in the Royal Mansion.
With the prior experience before them, the gang of thieves were powerful and fearless in their actions, and the Royal Mansion happened to be particularly wealthy, so they might target them for a big score.
So, Yu Xian had no choice but to make time to protect Duke Fu half a day every day.
After all, he was a Royal Mansion Tributor.
Of course, Duke Fu was quite sensible. He had to pay for his services, and Yu Xian's monthly salary had been temporarily raised to Three Thousand Taels of Silver.
If he was willing to protect day and night, the price could be even higher, reaching ten thousand taels a month.
If it were before, he might have had to bow for a handful of rice and make the ten thousand taels first.
But now he had fifteen thousand taels worth of gold in his room, and he could be a half-day bodyguard just to see how much fun they had together after entering the Royal Mansion.
However, to be honest, he would rather protect the Princess Consort.
...
Duke Fu's study.
Upon entering the room, Yu Xian greeted Ding Le, who had just been on guard for a night.
"Tributor Ding, thank you for your hard work. I'll take care of Prince Wang now."
As an elder of the Everjoy Sword Sect, Ding Le, who had sect ties, wasn't as free as him. After entering the Royal Mansion, he began to work like a horse.
After all, he could walk away at any time, and no one cared.
Today, Ding Le dared to leave without giving Duke Fu any face, and tomorrow, the army could besiege his Everjoy Sword Sect, forcing them to clean up their own sect.
This is the restraint and entanglement of family business.
A few days ago, Ding Le was scolded by Duke Fu for the case of the Sun Family Pharmacy.
Because by the time he took action, the main person in charge of the Sun Family Pharmacy had already left, leaving only a few scapegoats as a facade.
Now, seeing Yu Xian, Ding Le's face turned as black as the bottom of a pot.
He had already found out that the Sun Family Pharmacy case shouldn't have fallen on him, but this bastard in front of him had set him up.
Add to that being forced to be in a miserable state by Yu Xian's palm, where could he put on a good face? He walked straight out of the study without turning his head.
"Tsk tsk, Tributor Ding is still holding a grudge. Be more magnanimous, man."
Ding Le, who hadn't gone far, almost tripped.
Magnanimous? Magnanimous your ass!
He walked even more quickly, thinking, "If you can't fight them, can't you just avoid them?"
Seeing that there was no more fun, Yu Xian nodded to Duke Fu, who was watching the show behind the desk, and then found a place to sit down on his own.
It wasn't long before a serving girl brought tea and pastries, and Yu Xian's leisurely manner was even more relaxed than Duke Fu's.
This made Duke Fu, who had been busy recently, feel unbalanced.
But thinking that this was what he had asked for, he immediately thought of Tributor Ding's goodness, hard work, not returning hands when hit, not returning mouths when scolded.
That's his good tributor.
It's a pity that their strengths are different.
As usual.
Yu Xian ate the pastries prepared by Duke Fu's private chef, occasionally drank a sip of the famous tea made from the best tea leaves offered to the court and spring water, and idled in front of his employer.
Meanwhile, Duke Fu was busy at work, looking at the documents handed in by his subordinates, his brows furrowed into a "ε·" shape.
Unknowingly, almost two hours had passed.
Suddenly, there was a commotion outside.
A guard rushed to the door of the study, but was blocked by the guards outside. Yu Xian put away his leisurely attitude and stood in front of Duke Fu.
"Your Highness, there's a big problem!"
"What's the matter?"
Duke Fu also came out from behind the desk.
"Someone wants to kidnap the Princess Consort!"
The guard was panting, running so urgently that his face had traces of soot and an unshakable fear.
"That person can start fires and control divine fire, a little like... like the legendary God of Divine Fire. Tributor Ding has already gone, but we can't hold him off much longer."
"Tributor Yu, please help and save the Princess Consort!"
Duke Fu's face was startled, and he quickly looked at Yu Xian.
He could tolerate Yu Xian's various idling behaviors, all for this very moment.
"Your Highness, don't worry, it might be a ploy to lure the tiger away from the mountain."
Yu Xian analyzed with a serious look, and as soon as he heard the guard's description, he knew that the person was a cultivator. What kind of God of Divine Fire? It's just the Fireball Technique.
But he didn't really want to meet cultivators, and cursed this person for coming at the wrong time.
His magic artifact hadn't been refined yet. If it was a little later, no matter what kind of demons and gods, they would kneel down and call him Dad.
"What?"
When it came to his own safety, Duke Fu immediately calmed down and felt more convinced of Yu Xian's analysis the more he thought about it.
So, he said, "Tributor Yu's analysis is reasonable, but I have self-preservation measures. You can go and save the Princess Consort first."
"Alright."
Yu Xian nodded reluctantly. He wasn't scared, just didn't want to do it.
"Lead the way, let me see who dares to be so presumptuous!"