Chapter 27 Spirit Fire (First Release on Jinjiang Literature City)

Yao Sisi was carried on Ri Jiu's back as they traversed the forest. The fox, with its four paws on the ground, moved extremely fast, and they arrived at the cave in just a few hours.

She dismounted from the fox's back, placed the futon in a corner, pinched a spirit-gathering talisman, and began to regulate her breathing, trying to fill her body with spiritual energy.

Ri Jiu was panting heavily. He transformed into human form to cover the cave entrance, then returned to bed to study the array plate from before. Time passed slowly for the two of them. After Yao Sisi finished her treatment, she took out a soft couch from her space. She was sleepy and tired, mainly not physically but mentally.

The soft couch was placed in a corner of the cave. She pulled out a blanket, covered herself, and prepared to get a good night's sleep.

Ri Jiu's ears twitched after she fell asleep. Only then did she put down the array plate and tenderly rubbed her big tail. It was bald and not as pretty as before. She wondered when the new fur would grow back.

Yao Sisi woke up feeling very tired. She lazily nestled on the bed and tried to speak, finding that she could make a faint sound.

“The...nine...we...can’t...do this…”

Rijiu's little ears twitched: "What's wrong?"

Yao Sisi pointed to the rough cover at the cave entrance: "It's still... too... dangerous..."

Having lived in the jungle year-round, Rijiu didn't see anything wrong: "Then what should we do?"

Yao Sisi: "We...must...make...a...array plate...to cover the cave entrance."

Rijiu: "You're still having trouble speaking, so don't worry. I'll find a way to cover up the entrance."

Yao Sisi: "What's missing...materials...I'll go buy them..."

After giving these instructions, she closed her eyes and began to study the cluster of flames in her dantian. The flames that had been bound to her were not as violent as before. Sensing her probing, they took the initiative to show affection. Yao Sisi drew out a wisp of flame, which floated in front of her.

Its flames were a warm orange, with a touch of delicate red around the edges. Sensing her gaze, it stretched its body like a child waiting for praise, expressing its strength.

This flame is the fire from the earth's core. It has somehow gained some sentience. The thing sealed in that stone cave is very likely it. There are several ways in which the fire from the earth's core can be generated. This one is called the Earth Core Flame. Although it is not among the most damaging on the list of spirit flames, it is among the most stable.

The Earth Core Flame is best suited for alchemy and weapon crafting. It is one of the most beloved spiritual flames among alchemy masters and weapon crafting masters, and is extremely precious.

The one she obtained was only of low rank. It would gradually grow stronger over time or by absorbing other spiritual flames. Her body had not yet reached the Foundation Establishment stage and could not accommodate a very powerful spiritual flame, so this one was just right.

Seeing that the temperature inside the cave suddenly rose as she unleashed the flames, Rijiu, who was not far away, asked curiously, "Sisi, is that the evil flame?"

Yao Sisi: "Not entirely, but since you didn't take me with you back then, I would have been dragged into the fire pit and burned to ashes. There are countless ashes at the bottom of that pit that they are looking for as fuel."

From the faint signals conveyed by the spirit fire, there was more ashes than ash.

Ri Jiu subconsciously touched his tail, only to find it completely bare. He gritted his teeth in frustration: "Spirit fire is such a nuisance!"

Yao Sisi touched her nose, glanced at his bald tail, and comforted him, "When we have the chance, we'll go back to the Fire Pool and teach them a lesson."

Ri Jiu nodded emphatically. "I'm going to wipe them all out!"

Yao Sisi studied the spirit fire in the cave for half a day, then took out the refining furnace she obtained from the cave and used her divine sense to recognize it as her master.

During the Qi Refining stage, the usual practice is to use blood to establish a contract, because cultivators at lower levels have very weak spiritual senses and can only establish a basic contract through blood. However, her soul has been tempered and is incomparable to that of ordinary people, so the contract methods are more diverse.

The dark blue-green cauldron gradually grew larger in front of her. Judging from its quality, this cauldron was actually a high-grade magic artifact. Calculating its grade, it could be used until the late Foundation Establishment stage.

High-grade magic weapons are practically the prized possessions of any shop in the city. Unlike the small shop where she bought the knife, even in large shops, such items are rare and would cost at least several thousand Xuan stones.

Although refining the spirit fire consumed a lot of Xuan stones, what she obtained was even more valuable, so Yao Sisi felt a little more at ease.

However… the thought of needing a lot of materials to leave this place in the future, and not knowing how much it would cost, made the corner of his mouth twitch involuntarily.

Ri Jiu, who was fiddling with the array plate, seemed to have figured something out: "Sisi, I'll write some materials for you in a bit, go and buy some."

Yao Sisi sniffed: "Okay, just tell me how much material you need, I can handle it!"

Rijiu's ears perked up alertly: "Sisi, what's wrong?"

Yao Sisi: "Nothing much, I just really like buying materials. Tell me what other array plates you can refine. We'll need quite a few array plates for our journey, so I'm starting to buy materials now to avoid running out later."

Ri Jiu was taken aback, not expecting her to start preparing now: "Let me think about what materials we need, but Sisi is in a hurry for this array plate, let's take care of it first."

Yao Sisi nodded: "Okay, but we must make more array plates. For example, I bought too few kinds of medicine this time. If I had bought a throat-soothing medicine, I wouldn't be in this predicament now."

Rijiu said with heartache, "Sisi, you should go back to the city and get treated. I've finished writing the materials, here you go."

Yao Sisi took the materials, but she couldn't yet determine their value. "I'll come back after I've collected all the materials."

She rested at the cave entrance for a while, and her spiritual energy was now full, so she could travel without any problems. When she returned to the city, she didn't rush to inquire about Gong Yichen; she took care of her own business first.

After she had visited all the shops, collected most of the materials, and taken the throat-soothing medicine, she checked her pockets and found that she didn't have many Xuan Stones left.

The most expensive part was the materials, because the array plate to be repaired was of a high level, so the materials naturally had to be of good quality. Yao Sisi couldn't help but feel fortunate that the array plate only had a tiny crack, otherwise, she didn't know how much it would have cost...

Even so, we still haven't been able to buy a few materials.

She packed her things and returned to her residence, feeling increasingly that staying there would be detrimental to her cultivation. Qi Mu's private residence did not have high spiritual energy, so it was fine to stay there when her cultivation level was low, but it would become increasingly difficult to manage once her cultivation level increased.

Yao Sisi's cultivation was on the verge of a breakthrough. She had suppressed her cultivation during the year she was in the space, but the contracted spiritual fire had refined her cultivation again, and she would be able to break through soon.

"The Xuan Stone is gone, and the concentration of Xuan Qi in the surrounding area is still low. Even if I crush the Spirit Gathering Talisman to gather energy, it won't be enough for a breakthrough."

She needs a better place...

Because she didn't have enough Xuan Qi, she didn't rush to cultivate. Instead, she flashed into her spatial dimension, pulled out a book on weapon crafting, and began reading it with great interest.

The skill of weapon crafting is wonderful. Unlike alchemy, which is rigid and some formulas are already formed and cannot be easily modified, weapon crafting is different. Sometimes even the weapon crafter himself does not know what kind of thing he will create!

Besides common weapons, there are many rare treasures, and often a single weapon appears.

There are only basic methods for weapon crafting. Once you reach the master level, you mostly rely on mysterious intuition or even the destiny of the weapon. It is very difficult to craft the same weapon. The higher the level of the weapon, the stronger its uniqueness.

The key point is that if you forge the same weapon, the two weapons may fight each other until they kill each other.

I don't know why weapons would compete for favor. When you watch an alchemist making medicine, you never see one pill necessarily killing another...

As she perused the ancient texts, she breathed a sigh of relief. Weapons that could "compete for favor" were beyond the capabilities of someone her level of crafting; otherwise…

Imagine, the weapons she painstakingly crafted with countless spiritual energies and effort are hacking and slashing at each other until they are crippled, and she doesn't even have the strength to stop them. Isn't this just forcing her to watch her precious treasure be destroyed right before her eyes, before she can even sell it for money?

Is this a fight between weapons? It's like a weapon is stabbing her in the heart, stabbing her to death!

No matter what, she will raise her cultivation to be countless times stronger than her weapons. Even divine weapons will be suppressed by her. Any weapons that dare to fight each other will be stuffed back into the furnace and remade!

She hasn't even become a master weapon refiner yet, and she's already worrying about the future.

Fortunately, modern weapons are inanimate objects, lacking any spirit. Even if they are exactly the same, it doesn't matter. The key is that making them exactly the same is as difficult as writing a full answer sheet for an exam but getting zero points.

In the quiet night, Yao Sisi stayed up late reading that thick book. She scribbled and drew on the paper, sketching out the materials she needed for refining weapons, wanting to try her hand at it.

She rummaged through the storage bag, grabbed it by the opening, and tilted it downwards. After shaking it several times, a few mysterious stones finally tumbled out...

Hmm, buying enough materials to practice should be sufficient, but...

That's way too little!

QAQ

Yao Sisi had no choice but to resort to her old ways, rummaging through her spatial storage for useless books to sell. Coincidentally, she had just explored the senior's cave, so she didn't need to bother making up the origins of these books.

"The reason I didn't sell the book to Qi Mu last time was because I had already given him a sword technique book."

It's hard to explain how she has so many treasures. As the saying goes, one should not have the heart to harm others, but one should not be without the heart to guard against others. What if he is bewitched and develops the intention to steal the treasures?

Moreover, a small favor can breed resentment, and too much involvement of interests can easily lead to collapse.

She pulled out a sword manual from her spatial storage. It was much worse than Qi Mu's, with some damage on the edges. It was obviously just thrown into a pile of books to make up the numbers. The name of the sword manual was also very ordinary. She flipped through it casually. It was a low-grade book and wouldn't sell for much money. However, since many people here used swords, it might be popular.

Her eyes flickered; she had no intention of selling the book to an acquaintance.

"Every world has black markets, so this city should have one too..."

Who should I ask...? Should I ask Qi Mu again?

Yao Sisi silently crossed out this option, then crossed out Gong Yichen's option, and finally realized that these days, apart from cultivation, she had almost no social life and knew very few people...

Uh… I was careless!

After much agonizing reflection, Yao Sisi decided to contact those hunting teams tomorrow, hoping to find a breakthrough. And... if all else fails, she could even sell to them!

She didn't believe that a sword technique of the highest quality could be left unsold.

-----------------------

Author's Note: The female lead is questioning me about why I wrote her as so poor, asking if it's because I'm a stepmother author?!

I flipped through this "Today's Earnings" book and threw it in her face. 4.38 yuan! What more could you want? Let's eat dirt together, hahaha!

The author, KO, is a dirt-covered dog. The female protagonist, forced to eat dirt, is a complete winner.