Back at the True Transformation Source, Luo Qian handed the materials to Old Roughworker. His first order of business was to find Xiao Xiangzi and ask how the research on the large-scale Long-Distance Teleportation Magic Array was going. Xiao Xiangzi had reached the level of a sixth-rank Immortal, and the research was progressing remarkably fast. It should succeed within one more day. Luo Qian breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed he would soon be venturing deep into the Carefree Cloud Sea again.
Someone delivered an invitation to his door, gilded at the top and backed with fine jade. Luo Qian opened it. Lu Kuangtao had invited him to meet at a restaurant that evening. The place was not far from Luo Family Jewelry, and it was nearly dusk, so Luo Qian strolled out.
The True Transformation Source was no longer what it had been when Luo Family Jewelry first put down roots there. Back then, palace lanterns hung high on either side of the streets at night. They were bright enough, but rather dull. Now neon lights made by Luo Family Jewelry lined both sides of the streets, high and low, large and small. They glowed in a riot of colors, shimmering like waves and dreams. As the neon flashed, business opportunities multiplied; the streets thronged with pedestrians, and spending soared. In the past, once night fell, only the restaurants and entertainment houses had been bustling.
The restaurant Lu Kuangtao had chosen was elegant, out on the edge of the True Transformation Source, where few people came at night. A waiter stopped Luo Qian at the entrance. Luo Qian handed over the invitation, and the waiter immediately beamed and escorted Master Lu's guest upstairs. A seemingly flimsy paper door slid open. Lu Kuangtao waited in the seat of honor,