Yang Ning and Lin Yuanxi's Connection

After drinking Yang Ning's wine, Xiao Huan's cheeks flushed slightly, and her relationship with Yang Ning visibly became closer. Since they had nothing to do while flying, the two started chatting.

"Where have you been coming from?" Yang Ning asked. "And what's that blue stick you're holding?"

"This isn't some blue stick; it's the heartwood of Luming Tree, a material for magical artifacts!" Xiao Huan corrected.

"Materials for a magical artifact?" Yang Ning's eyes lit up. "Can I take a look?"

"It's not that I can't show it to you, but..."

"I'll give you ten more bottles of fruit wine!"

"Cough cough, it's just for looking, it's nothing special, how can I take your wine for no reason!" Xiao Huan handed over the stick. "Just return it to me later!"

"Of course I'll return it to you!" Yang Ning's impression of Xiao Huan immediately improved, after all, he had originally thought that the maid who followed the young lady would have a bad temper.

This Luming Tree Heart looks like a piece of jade, but it feels incredibly light in your hand, almost weightless.

From a distance, it looked like a straight, cylindrical stick. But after holding it and activating his Insight Eye, Yang Ning discovered that the stick was actually thinner at one end and thicker at the other, though the difference was so subtle that it was invisible to the naked eye.

"This tree heartwood can be used to make a magical artifact called Luming Duster, but it is said to be very difficult to make. The Luming Tree Heart must be broken into fine whisk threads and then refined with Spiritual Qi!" Xiao Huan said.

"This thing doesn't seem to be a tree?" Yang Ning suddenly asked.

"How could that be? Its name is Luming Tree, what else could it be but a tree?" Xiao Huan asked, puzzled.

"Then tell me, is bamboo a tree?" Yang Ning retorted.

"Bamboo is definitely a tree!" Xiao Huan said.

Yang Ning smiled and said, "You don't know this, do you? From a taxonomic perspective, bamboo is actually a herbaceous plant, so bamboo is grass, not a tree!"

"Huh?" Xiao Huan blinked her big, round eyes. "How... how is that possible?"

"This Luming Tree is the same!" Yang Ning took out two magnifying glasses from his pocket, stacked them together, and pointed them at the cross-section of the Luming Tree Heart, saying, "Come and see, what is this?"

Both magnifying glasses are 10x magnification; when stacked together, they can magnify an object a hundred times.

"Huh, this." Xiao Huan was first startled by the effect of the magnifying glass, and then noticed that the cut surface of the Luming Tree Heart was covered with tiny dots!

"See those little circles? Those are the stems of individual plants!" Yang Ning explained. "This Luming Tree looks like a tree, but it's actually made up of countless grasses stuck together! What you meant by breaking the heartwood into threads must have been picking out each of these grasses one by one!"

"So that's how it is!" Xiao Huan looked at Yang Ning with some surprise. "You Artifact Forging Master know so much!"

"It's alright. I don't know much about the materials used in magical artifacts; I just guessed based on their appearance!" Yang Ning returned the Luming Tree Heart. Although he still had many tests he wanted to do, he was afraid of damaging it.

Although the materials used in magical artifacts shouldn't break so easily, what if they do?

"By the way, what are you taking this back for? Is it for your young lady to refine? Or is it for your young lady's Artifact Forging Master?" Yang Ning asked.

"My young lady doesn't have Artifact Forging Master! It's just the two of us on this entire mountain!" Xiao Huan retracted the tree heart, then glared at Yang Ning with annoyance. "As for these weapon refining materials, they're all for you!"

"For me?" Yang Ning blinked, her face full of surprise.

"What are you surprised about?" Xiao Huan asked. "Can't you tell that my young lady likes you?"

"Huh?" Yang Ning could obviously tell, but shouldn't he pretend not to notice at this point?

And you, a mere maid, actually said that outright?

"What? You think activating the Heavenly Spirit-Word Spell is easy?" Xiao Huan said.

"Um..." Yang Ning was silent for a moment, then asked, "But why? She doesn't understand me at all. Is it just because I can write poetry?"

He knew that girls' feelings could sometimes be quite blind, and having lived in the internet age for a long time, they were always seeing all sorts of new things.

But surely cultivators wouldn't be so superficial?

"My young lady's surname is Lin!" Xiao Huan said.

"I know?"

"The 'Lin' in Southern Forest '!"

"Then what?"

Taiheng has no specific administrative regions; the state, clans, and Lineage are everywhere, but there is a conventional division of areas.

For example, the four major regions of Eastern Victory, Western Splendor, Southern Forest Northern Plains.

It's called Northern Plains because this area has vast grasslands and wastelands.

It is called Eastern Victory because 30,000 years ago, Tianyi rose to power while Taiheng declined and the crops failed. Tianyi Sect supported Taiyin Sect in the northeast of Tianheng, Sun Sect attacked Taiheng.

The three factions fought for more than ten years in the territory of Eastern Victory, and Taiheng was the one who won. Eastern Victory got its name from this victory.

It is called Western Splendor because Mount Hua, known as the "Number One Mountain Under Heaven," is located here.

Of course, this Mount Hua and the Mount Hua on Earth are not the same mountain; they just share the same name.

Translating it as West Kunlun is also acceptable.

As for Southern Forest, it's because the Lin Family, an ancient and prestigious Aristocratic Clan with a history spanning millennia, is located here!

Before the rise of the Tianyi Sect, the Lin Family was one of the main branches of Taiheng. After the rise of the Tianyi Sect, several proxy wars with Taiheng led to the rise of some Lineage and the decline of Lineage.

The Lin Family's influence in Taiheng has also declined significantly, but it has only fallen from the top to the first tier. To Yang Ning, they are still a behemoth.

Lin Jingyun of the Nanlin Great Prosperity Dynasty was also from the Lin family, but he could only be considered a branch of the Lin family.

"The Lin Family is well-informed. My young lady loves poetry, and we have special intelligence agents to collect poems for her. Your poem 'Ode to the Goose' was already in her hands the day after it was written!"

Yang Ning interrupted Xiao Huan and asked, "If I may ask, how old was your young lady back then?"

"Fourteen years old!" Xiao Huan said.

Yang Ning was speechless. He had copied the Ode to the Goose when he was five years old, and he was fourteen seven years ago, so Lin Yuanxi was only 21 this year?

But she doesn't need to step on anything when she flies, while Fang Zhuo is at the Mana Realm, has to step on the Black Harp when he flies!

In other words, she is at least at the Qi Refining Fifth Level the Qi Supernatural Power Realm!

21 years old, Qi Refining Fifth Level? That's a bit outrageous!

"So, Miss knows you very well. She knows everything you've done and said since you were a child!" Xiao Huan added, "Do you remember the first memorial you sent to the Emperor after you Top Scholar at the age of eight?"

Yang Ning shook his head. "I forgot."

He did remember, but he couldn't conveniently reveal the contents of the memorial.

"You don't remember, but I do!" Xiao Huan laughed. "You petitioned the emperor to decree that all women in the country could only marry after the age of eighteen, arguing that if women married too early, their bodies would not be fully developed, making childbirth extremely dangerous and easily resulting in the death of both mother and child."

"I remember now, I did write such a memorial, but it has nothing to do with you!" Yang Ning asked, "You and your young lady probably don't need to get married!"

"How could it not be needed?" Xiao Huan said irritably, "At that time, my young lady was already seventeen years old and was betrothed to Wang Yu, the eldest son of the Eastern Victory Wang Family. But after your memorial reached her, she postponed the wedding for a year on the grounds that it was not appropriate to get married before the age of eighteen."

Yang Ning felt that the man surnamed Wang was being wronged, after all, Lin Yuanxi was already at the Qi Refining Fifth Level at the age of 21, and it was impossible that she hadn't embarked on the path of cultivation at the age of 17.

Having a child at eighteen is for ordinary people, not for cultivators, but Lin Yuanxi used this reason to refuse the Wang Family.

"Because of this extra year, Miss successfully broke through to the Qi Refining Stage and was able to enter Taiheng Sect as inner disciple!"

That's amazing!

At that time, Yang Ning was unaware of the existence of immortals in this world. He was single-mindedly focused on helping the Yue Kingdom strengthen its national power and even wanted to help the King of Yue unify the world. This memorial was submitted for this purpose!

Who would have thought that this memorial could help a little girl thousands of miles away?

Is this the legendary butterfly effect?