In the Snap of a Finger

After settling Ning Youwei and his mother in, Qin Sang set off alone for Wuya Valley. In Qingyang Market, the items in the shop were of little value, so he had no worries about the mother and son running off with the money. Although the ebony sword had turned into a sword embryo and could not be used, Qin Sang had no shortage of protective magic tools. Having obtained Sun Xin's map, he spent most of his time active in the second layer of Wuya Valley, hunting down demon beasts. The second layer saw few human footprints. With his cautious nature, he gradually grew accustomed to tempering himself inside Wuya Valley, finding it little different from the Ancient Immortal Battlefield. After training for a period or gathering enough spiritual materials, he would return to Qingyang Market to cultivate diligently, study the art of artifact crafting, and contemplate the contents of the jade slip. Finally, he applied his insights to the ebony sword with remarkable results, drastically shortening the time required for it to devour the wood and even drawing his connection with the sword noticeably closer. Though this took a slight toll on his cultivation progress, the gains far outweighed the cost. …… In the snap of a finger, time flew by. The Sword Pavilion had been open for twenty-eight years and had earned a bit of fame in Qingyang Market. At first, the little shop was unassuming, stocked only with low-grade magic tools. The clerk was dull and slow of speech, and most visiting customers were cultivators below the sixth layer of the Qi Refinement stage. Thanks to the fair prices, it still managed to attract some patrons. As Qin Sang's mastery over artifact crafting deepened, the grade of magic tools on the shelves gradually rose. Other varieties of magic tools dwindled, until eventually nearly everything displayed consisted of diverse spirit swords. Spirit swords stood like a forest within the shop, living up to the name of "Sword Pavilion"! As a result, the uniquely specialized Sword Pavilion gradually spread its renown across the market, drawing in a steady stream of cultivators. Whenever cultivators visited Qingyang Market, many would make a detour to browse the Sword Pavilion to see if any new swords had arrived. While it never reached the point of a mad scramble, selling his wares was never an issue. Once Qin Sang began experimenting with blending cold metal into his spirit swords to elevate their quality, demand even began to outstrip supply. By then, it was already Qin Sang's thirteenth year in Qingyang Market. Over those thirteen years, he had never ceased his study of artifact crafting, forging large batches of inferior tools each time for practice. He had also achieved a modest success rate with high-grade magic tools, allowing the shop to gradually turn a profit, though it still earned few spirit stones. Fortunately, Qin Sang had looted Yu Hua's mustard seed bag, leaving him with deep enough pockets to indulge such expenditures for so long. Yet when he began attempting to forge top-grade magic tools, he hit a bottleneck. After failing several times in a row, even Qin Sang found the cost hard to bear. The stone-core fire spawned by his spirit formation was no longer potent enough to support the crafting of top-grade magic tools; he had to pay exorbitant fees to rent a subterranean fire vein in the market. Not every subterranean fire vein could be used for crafting or pill refinement. One had to select a spot where the flame was stable and reinforce it with an array of spirit formations and restrictions to rein in the vein. Finding an appropriate spot by his own efforts alone was nearly impossible. Those spirit stones had to be spent. What pained Qin Sang even more was that every failure squandered a hefty sum of precious spiritual ingredients. Reflecting bitterly on his losses, Qin Sang understood he could not continue so recklessly. He did not possess infinite resources to squander. After careful deliberation, he decided to take a roundabout path. He would forge high-grade magic tools and supplement them with various rare ingredients to elevate the swords' quality, which was considerably less difficult. Once he could craft spirit swords comparable to top-grade magic tools and amass sufficient experience, he would try again. This insight had been drawn from the Wu clan ancestors' records. For generations, the Wu family had researched the craft deeply. Constrained by limited talent, few had ever broken through to Foundation Establishment, so they had relied on this very method to elevate their craftsmanship. With this plan in mind, Qin Sang turned his sights toward that piece of cold metal. The cold metal refined from the Cold Metal Ore Matrix was among the finest materials in his possession, and wasting it on low-quality magic tools would have been a shame. Yet for the sake of the ebony sword, Qin Sang could not afford to be stingy. Even so, he suffered several failures before gradually mastering the temper of the cold metal. Blending cold metal into a magic tool not only imparted extreme frigidity, but also enhanced the tool's structural integrity. Compared to an ordinary piece, one infused with cold metal instantly stood far above the rest. Once word spread that someone had acquired a tool infused with cold metal at the Sword Pavilion, the shop's fame soared, bringing an endless stream of visitors. More eyes turned to the Sword Pavilion, including several factions and merchant guilds. Inquiring into the progression of magic tools sold in the shop over the years, one could easily deduce that the master of the Sword Pavilion was likely an artifact master. To achieve such skill in merely a dozen years suggested either exceptional talent or an inherited legacy. A number of merchant guilds sought to recruit the proprietor. Unfortunately, the shopkeeper remained elusive, seen by almost no one, forcing them to leave letters with the clerk and wait for word—all to no avail. Even the few who managed to meet Qin Sang were politely turned away. At this point, Qin Sang realized he had gone a bit too far. He was merely using the identity of an artifact master to mask his true background; he had no desire to attract the attention of powerful organizations and invite unforeseen complications. Right around then, Ning Youwei proposed purchasing magic tools elsewhere to resell at a margin, or branching into other wares to keep the business running. Ning Youwei was now a forty-year-old man sporting a goatee. His cultivation remained stuck at the fourth layer of the Qi Refinement stage. Having long since abandoned dreams of immortality, he had married, fathered children, cared for his mother until her passing, and now lived a tranquil life little different from any mortal in the market. Qin Sang only crafted a batch of magic tools whenever he returned from his training excursions. With business booming, the stock would be swept clean in no time, leaving the shop shuttered the rest of the time. That was what had prompted Ning Youwei's suggestion. For over a decade, Ning Youwei had served Qin Sang conscientiously and prudently, never making a single misstep. Qin Sang cared little about the shop, intending to hand it over to Ning Youwei whenever he departed anyway, so he let him do as he pleased. In the years that followed, Qin Sang rarely forged low-grade spirit swords, devoting his focus instead to comprehending the jade slip. The high-quality spirit swords he produced were no longer sold through the Sword Pavilion; instead, they were routed through several friendly merchant guilds while he remained hidden behind the scenes. With full authority in his hands, Ning Youwei managed the shop as he saw fit, and after several adjustments, operations stabilized. The ones left grieving were the regular patrons. Unwilling to give up, they frequently visited at first, but after going so long without seeing any spirit swords on display, their disappointment grew. Rumors soon spread that the artifact master behind the shop had likely left the market to wander the world. The former brilliance of the Sword Pavilion proved as fleeting as a night-blooming cereus. Having shone for merely a handful of years, it faded into mediocrity, drawing many a sigh of regret. As his mastery deepened, Qin Sang finally forged a top-grade magic tool! His success rate remained low, but the rewards were immense: he could at last comprehend the teachings of that Xuling Sect Golden Core master recorded in the jade slip. In his twenty-first year in Qingyang Market, the ebony sword finally devoured the Boundless Blood Mulberry! Shortly thereafter, Qin Sang refined the Blood-Dripping Ghost Mushroom and that bottle of Qi Gathering Pills. With the third killing talisman formed, his cultivation advanced as smoothly as water flowing through a channel, successfully stepping into late Foundation Establishment!