Returning to Xingde Mountain after so long away, Liu Xiaolou gazed at Xingde Temple, thick with cobwebs and dust, and fell into a daze.
In the blink of an eye, another two years had passed. Amid a creak, he pushed open the doors of the eastern side hall and slowly entered the chamber. The copper cover over the Nine Star Earth Fire was still as heavy as ever. The moment he lifted it, a wave of heat rushed straight into his face.
Liu Xiaolou sat cross-legged before the fire pit, took out the formation-disk jade talisman engraved with rune seals, and suspended it above the fire mouth.
Hmm, it needed to hang a little higher. Qingzhu had said back then that it should be a foot higher. His gaze drifted involuntarily toward the doorway. There was no one there, yet Liu Xiaolou always felt there was a slender figure standing there, pointing at the earth-fire pit and telling him:
"The fire is a little too fierce."
"About this high, roughly a foot. Don't put it too close."
"Tell me, then—what exactly is going on between you and Xixi?"
"Liu Xiaolou, do you think Xixi knows?"
He shook his head, driving that figure from his mind, and focused on the earth fire before him. Faint glimmers gradually appeared along the rune-etched channels of the jade talisman. Holding his breath and concentrating, he began smelting the five metals and eight stones. He spent nine days before the Nine Star Earth Fire refining the Earthly Disk, another nine days completing the Heavenly Disk's "Three Wonders" seal, and finally seven days fusing the Heavenly Disk and Earthly Disk together. The simplified Lin Yuan Xuan Shi Formation disk was complete, taking thirty-two days in all.
The moment the refinement succeeded, he entered the formation himself