"Did anyone else know that I'd returned?"
Xu Qing spoke up.
"No one. Brother Qing, you didn't use the terminal to notify everyone. Honestly, if I hadn't come back to the base today to collect next month's accounts, I might have missed you entirely."
The youth opposite him scratched his head.
"Don't leak this information for now."
Xu Qing gave the instruction. The youth nodded in agreement, without asking why.
"Have we been involved in the matter of lightning-element protective artifacts that's been causing such a stir throughout the Alliance lately?"
Xu Qing asked again.
The youth's eyes lit up. "Brother Qing, you know about this too? Well, right, the academy isn't completely cut off from outside contact. You should still have terminals to contact people..."
"This has become the hottest topic in all of Heyang City lately. Didn't they say that Nascent Soul Realm breakthroughs might face lightning tribulations from now on? Quite a few people want to prepare before they have to undergo their tribulations, so they can reap a few more benefits when the time comes."
It was only natural for cultivators to pursue the path of cultivation. Heavenly tribulations looked terrifying, but if the rewards matched the danger, the overwhelming majority of cultivators would not care about the so-called threat of life and death.
What a joke. Would they really be safe if they simply did not undergo the lightning tribulation?
The path of cultivation was inherently a path that defied heaven. Even without considering threats from outside, how few lingering ailments had everyone accumulated from their daily cultivation?
"Our district doesn't have the foundations needed for artifact refining. You know how it is, Brother Qing—without some real work, these things can't be made. Even if we wanted to sell them, we don't have any supply."