The ready-made clothing shop's proprietor followed Li Qiang uneasily, silently praying to gods and Buddhas: My silver! Bodhisattva, please protect it!
Cheng Zizhong introduced the place. "This is the largest and best jewelry shop in the city, Zhao's Treasure Silver and Gold Jewelry Shop. Stop standing there in a daze, proprietor. Go in and announce us."
The clothing shop's proprietor hurried inside, calling, "Boss Zhao, I've brought you an honored customer! Come out and welcome him!"
"Oh, it's you, Fatty Qi. Slow down, don't fall. Which honored customer has come calling?" Amid laughter, a lean, capable-looking middle-aged man came out to greet them. "Why, isn't this Master Cheng? You're such a busy man. How did you find time to visit my humble shop?" His tone brimmed with warmth.
"Old monkey, can't I come over for some fun?" Cheng Zizhong was smiling broadly too. Pointing to Li Qiang, he said, "I've brought you a major customer. How are you going to thank me?" He introduced him to Li Qiang. "This is Zhao Degui of Zhao's Treasure Silver and Gold Jewelry Shop. His name resounds throughout Hanlin City. Everyone, from every walk of life, knows him, and he even has jewelry shops in the capital." Then he added, "This is Lord Li Qiang, newly arrived in Hanlin. You two should get acquainted. Hey, old monkey, aren't you going to invite Lord Li inside?"
Nodding and bowing, Zhao Degui ushered the group into the inner hall, where they sat down and were served tea.
With the prefectural office's chief adviser personally accompanying him, the visitor was clearly a major customer. Beaming, Zhao Degui bustled about attending to them. He had the women of his household bring out refreshments and keep the four young girls whom Lord Li called his little sisters company.
"Our humble shop has recently made a new batch of gold and silver jewelry. Do you practice martial arts, Lord Li? I've just obtained three superior immortal stones from the capital. Would you care to take a look?"
Li Qiang nodded and placed two palm-sized pieces of top-grade jadeite, one superior rain splendor stone, and four diamonds of varying sizes on the tea table. "Old Zhao, take a look. Are these worth anything?"
Cheng Zizhong saw them first and drew in a sharp breath. "A top-grade immortal stone! Jadeite! And gemstones! Hey, old monkey, come look!" Even his voice had changed.
Boss Zhao had been busy telling an assistant to fetch the jewelry. Cheng Zizhong startled him, and when he turned and saw the things on the tea table, he too was dumbstruck. In all his years in the jewelry trade, he had never seen gems and jade of such exquisite quality.
Fatty Qi, the clothing shop's proprietor, suddenly opened his little eyes, normally narrowed to slits, into perfect circles. Greedy light flickered in them. Wiping away a trail of drool, he kept repeating inwardly, A Bodhisattva scattering wealth! Have mercy on me! I crawled right past the road to riches. I-I quoted far too low a price!
Li Qiang tapped the tea table lightly and coughed, laughing inwardly. Good grief! I wasn't all that excited when I got them. They're just a few stones.
In fact, Li Qiang had already been very wealthy on Earth. Moreover, once a cultivator reached the Spirit Quiescence Realm, his material needs would decline rapidly, and Li Qiang had already surpassed Spirit Quiescence and reached the initial stage of the Nascent Soul Realm. Ordinary cultivators had to put tremendous effort into resisting the temptations of material life as they advanced from the Heart Stirring Realm to the Spirit Quiescence Realm. If they failed, not only would they lose their Spirit Quiescence cultivation, but even their Heart Stirring cultivation would have been in vain, and they would have to start again from the Fusion Realm.
Li Qiang had begun from a very high starting point. The Purple Flame Heart itself was a kind of unconscious Nascent Soul, so he had effectively acquired a Nascent Soul first and then cultivated to fill in the earlier stages he lacked. His state of mind naturally changed as his cultivation advanced.
"Quickly, invite the old master here," Zhao Degui excitedly instructed an assistant.
"His father is a cultivator, a famous half-immortal. He's the real boss behind this place, and he's very formidable," Cheng Zizhong whispered to Li Qiang.
Zhao Degui picked up the rain splendor stone. "This is the first time I've ever seen an immortal stone of this quality." After examining it over and over, he said, "This rain splendor stone is worth at least a hundred thousand taels of silver. In the capital, it would fetch even more."
"The old master is here," an assistant announced.
A tall old man entered the room, his snow-white hair gathered atop his head. His two long eyebrows swept toward his temples like drawn swords, and the steel-needle beard beneath his broad mouth was neatly groomed. The old man gave an impression of great frankness and generosity, and Li Qiang took an immediate liking to him.
The moment Old Master Zhao entered, he spotted Li Qiang and never looked anywhere else. He stared fixedly at him, seemingly not even hearing Cheng Zizhong's greeting.
Zhao Degui panicked. He had never seen such an expression on his father's face, as though he were both laughing and crying. It was utterly strange. "Father! Father, what's wrong?"
Old Master Zhao raised a hand to stop Zhao Degui. "Have you already achieved Fusion? Hmm, no, that doesn't seem right. You..." He was actually using honorifics, his tone filled with reverent trepidation.
Li Qiang paused, then suddenly understood. Cheng Zizhong had just said that the old man was a cultivator. Smiling, he said two words: "Nascent Soul."
Everyone else in the room was dumbfounded. None of them understood what the two were saying.
With a thump, Old Master Zhao dropped to his knees and touched his forehead to the floor. "Exalted master, please guide me out of my confusion. This junior only attained Light Opening the year before last, and lately I seem to have stopped progressing. Please show mercy and accept me as your disciple."
Zhao Degui was stunned. With his father kneeling, he could hardly remain standing, so he too dropped to his knees with a thump. A string of thumps followed as the assistants, seeing their employers kneeling, decided they could not stay on their feet either. They all knelt.
Li Qiang could not bear this. Among modern Chinese people, who knelt to a living person, apart from bowing to ancestors and Bodhisattvas?
He had just risen when an enormous thud beside him gave him a fright. Who had made such a racket? It sounded like someone had slammed a great bull to the ground. Looking down, he saw that the fat clothing shop proprietor had also knelt. Holding back his laughter, Li Qiang said, "Everyone, get up, or I'm leaving."
Li Qiang walked over to Old Master Zhao and tried to help him up. To his surprise, the old man was truly stubborn. He refused to rise, repeating, "Exalted master, have mercy! Exalted master, have mercy!"
Li Qiang sighed helplessly. "All right, all right, I'll have mercy. I'll have mercy. Hurry and get up." He thought, Surely cultivating doesn't warrant going this far.
He did not know just how difficult cultivation was on this planet. Besides expending effort, one had to spend enormous sums buying immortal stones and seek out an enlightened teacher. If one failed to reach the Nascent Soul Realm within one's lifetime, all that effort would vanish like a burst bubble.
"Master, please take the seat of honor," Old Master Zhao said respectfully.
Li Qiang cried out in dismay, "No, no! I wouldn't dare accept you as my disciple. You-don't kneel again! Don't kneel! We can exchange pointers, all right?" He thought, I only came to sell a few gems, and now I've ended up with a disciple older than my father. How am I supposed to show my face with him in tow?
Cheng Zizhong was not surprised that Old Master Zhao wanted to become a disciple. After all, the accomplished could teach, and there was nothing shameful about it. What puzzled him was that Li Qiang seemed terribly afraid of people kneeling to him. Whenever someone knelt, he became completely flustered.
Seeing Li Qiang refuse, he smiled and intervened. "Everyone, hear me out. Lord Li seems unwilling to accept a disciple."
Li Qiang bobbed his head like a chicken pecking grain. "Exactly, exactly!"
"But Old Master Zhao is determined to acknowledge him as his master."
Old Master Zhao said anxiously, "Don't call me Old Master Zhao. Call me Zhao Hao. Master, you must accept this disciple, no matter what. I beg you with all sincerity." His sheer determination made Li Qiang's hair stand on end.
"Then why not let Zhao Hao become Lord Li's Registered Disciple?"
After an intense struggle to press his case, Zhao Hao finally got his wish. The old man, already in his seventies, became Li Qiang's first Registered Disciple.
At Li Qiang's insistence, the gems on the tea table were given to Zhao Hao's family as gifts, with the rain splendor stone going to Zhao Hao for his cultivation. The jewelry shop settled the clothing shop's bill. Without the slightest reluctance, Li Qiang gave the cloak to Cheng Zizhong and selected some jewelry and other items for his four little sisters.
Li Qiang knew very well that wherever one went, harmony with others was essential.
After spending only one night in the prefectural office's guest quarters, Li Qiang asked to move to an inn. It was not that he had anything against Feng Kaiyun. He simply wanted to learn more about the local customs and way of life, and he could see none of that inside the prefectural office.
With Cheng Zizhong mediating, Feng Kaiyun had no choice but to agree. Before leaving, Li Qiang gave many gifts to Feng Kaiyun, Cheng Zizhong, and the four young maidservants. Feng Kaiyun was both surprised and delighted to receive them. What the gifts were did not matter to him; what mattered was that they showed Li Qiang bore him no ill will.
Zhao Hao, this elderly disciple, did everything in his power to invite Li Qiang to stay at the jewelry shop. Li Qiang also wanted to draw on his experience to inquire about Heavenly Court Star, and to find a quiet place to refine some urgently needed equipment, so he went along.
Zhao Hao was overjoyed. He bustled about the jewelry shop, sending chickens flying and dogs leaping. Not only did he clear out the entire rear garden, he also specially found several maidservants and serving boys to attend Li Qiang. Once everything was done, he followed closely behind Li Qiang, matching his every step as he awaited his master's instruction.
That evening, Li Qiang began refining his first weapon. When he returned to his quarters after gathering the materials and tools, his elderly disciple Zhao Hao refused to leave, no matter what he said, insisting on staying in the room. He sent the servants away, closed the door, and stood reverently to one side, watching Li Qiang without blinking.
Li Qiang was both annoyed and amused, but felt too awkward to drive him out.
First, he laid out a defensive formation in the room and activated it with true essence power. After checking that everything was correct, he explained to Zhao Hao how to enter and leave, then had him stand at the formation's Kun position. Once the refining began, the temperature inside the defensive formation would be far beyond what Zhao Hao could withstand. Only the yin corner at the Kun position would remain unaffected. With every preparation complete, he began his first refining attempt.
Li Qiang planned to refine a piece of protective equipment, a wrist crossbow, and a long spear first.
Fu Shan had left all three items in his bracelet, but they were merely unfinished pieces that had taken rough shape and still needed considerable work. Li Qiang decided to finish refining these three first to gain some experience. After all, this was his first time refining equipment.
He first stripped off his clothes, leaving only a small pair of underpants. Then he took out the protective equipment: a diamond-shaped arm shield only thirty centimeters across, silver-white and without any patterns. Glancing at Zhao Hao, he reminded him again, "Whatever you do, don't disturb me while I'm refining. Just watch."
Zhao Hao's cultivation had not reached this stage, and he did not know how to refine equipment. He could not help growing nervous too.
The Sky-Full-of-Stars Inner Armor emerged from Li Qiang's body, and Zhao Hao immediately understood why he had taken off his clothes. His underpants instantly turned to ash, and purple light illuminated the entire room. The little silver shield hung in the air as two streams of purple flame shot from Li Qiang's hands, continuously scorching it.
Zhao Hao was stunned. This was Samadhi True Fire, also called Heart Fire. Only someone who had cultivated a Nascent Soul possessed such powerful true essence. He thought, So Master has already cultivated a Nascent Soul. He's already joined the ranks of the immortals.
In truth, Zhao Hao's knowledge was limited. Cultivators in the cultivation world never considered themselves immortals, and those who had reached the Nascent Soul Realm were as numerous as hairs on an ox. Cultivators who reached this stage generally withdrew from secular society to cultivate in seclusion. Moreover, Heavenly Court Star was not a planet where cultivators gathered. Sealed Fate Planet, where Fu Shan lived, was one planet truly dominated by cultivators. Li Qiang's appearance here could only be called an accident.
Li Qiang's mind had merged completely into the little silver shield. He discovered a small protective formation inside it, without the slightest trace of power. Since the method of making it was recorded in the jade eye slip, it posed no difficulty for him. After carefully adjusting it, Li Qiang began feeding power into it.
Because Li Qiang's foundation was the Purple Flame Heart, which was fire-aligned, it gave him tremendous help in refining equipment. There were two kinds of equipment refining: Instrument Refining and Heart Refining. The gulf between their levels was so vast they could not be mentioned in the same breath. Instrument Refining used equipment as the furnace and immortal stones as the underlying fire, controlling the refining with true essence. Heart Refining used heaven and earth as the furnace, controlling the refining with Samadhi True Fire and true essence power. It was the supreme method for refining top-grade equipment.
Power gradually filled the silver shield. Li Qiang used the Severing Character Instruction to cut off the true essence, the Sealing Character Instruction to seal the formation, and the Turning Character Instruction to make the formation flow slowly within the shield. Though he was not very practiced, he still completed it smoothly.
A sudden inspiration struck Li Qiang, and he decided to add another formation to the silver shield-an offensive one.
Now the importance of the storage bracelet became clear. Immortal stones emerged from his hand one after another and entered the silver shield: four water-aligned stones for their suppleness, two metal-aligned stones for their sharpness, and one fire-aligned stone for its explosive force.
Since this was his first attempt, stumbles, corrections, and revisions were unavoidable, but he finally completed it.
With the core finished, Li Qiang decided to make the silver shield's exterior more attractive. The first image that came to mind was a dragon. After all, the Chinese nation's totem was forever rooted in the heart of every descendant of the Flame and Yellow Emperors. Li Qiang found a dragon an entirely fitting design for the shield's face.
Shaping the shield's face with Samadhi True Fire proved extraordinarily easy. Whatever form he imagined, the face assumed. Li Qiang then shaped its edges into flames and inlaid some gold and silver wire as decoration. At last, the work was complete.
His elderly disciple Zhao Hao felt his horizons had been vastly broadened. Though he had kept watch for seven days and seven nights, he was still especially happy.
Li Qiang opened his eyes and looked at the arm shield in his hands, delight written all over his face.
The thirty-centimeter silver arm shield had changed. Gold and purple now shimmered within its silver surface. The coiled dragon rose slightly from its face, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws as though about to soar into the sky. The flame-shaped edges looked as though real fire burned there. Even Li Qiang marveled in disbelief. I made such a beautiful arm shield? I can hardly believe it.
With a wave of his hand, the shield attached itself to his left forearm. He immediately felt it become one with him. As soon as he stirred his true essence power, the formations within the shield activated. Li Qiang wanted to test its strength. Seeing Zhao Hao, he smiled happily.
His elderly disciple Zhao Hao gripped the weapon that had made his name, the Giant Wind Saber, mustered eighty percent of his true strength, and shouted, "Watch my saber!"
The Giant Wind Saber sliced through the air, its shrill whistle making one's scalp prickle. Li Qiang's intent moved with his thought, and the arm shield's defensive formation activated. A purple-gold dragon covered in flames coiled around him, and the offensive formation activated along with it. Clang... Boom...
The Giant Wind Saber shattered.
This is bad! Li Qiang hurriedly stopped the offensive formation. Moving swiftly, he seized Zhao Hao by the collar and flung him away. That was close! Far too close! He nearly died. What a joke it would be if word got out-my first disciple, killed by the first arm shield I refined. Good grief!
Zhao Hao's saber strike felt as though it had struck a steel pillar. What terrified him was that this steel pillar could strike back. As the Giant Wind Saber shattered, the recoil numbed his entire arm and split the web of his hand, drawing blood. Watching helplessly as the purple-gold dragon lunged at him, he thought, I'm finished. Suddenly his collar tightened, and he flew away as though riding clouds and mist.
Sitting on the ground, Zhao Hao was filled with emotion. "My martial arts stand among the best in the Green Basin's three kingdoms. By any reckoning, I'm an expert. Yet when Master tested his moves with just a tiny arm shield, I couldn't even get a single attack through. If Master hadn't intervened, the consequences would have been unthinkable!"
Feeling guilty, Li Qiang helped Zhao Hao up. "Ah, I've ruined your weapon. How about this? I'll refine a new one for you as an apology."
His elderly disciple Zhao Hao was both astonished and delighted. A weapon given by his master would surely be an immortal treasure. "Thank you, Master. Does this arm shield have a name?" Seeing Li Qiang shake his head, he continued, "This disciple has a name in mind. I wonder whether Master would like it?"
Li Qiang asked curiously, "Let me hear it."
"How about the Crimson Flame Dragon Shield?"
Li Qiang cheered loudly. "Excellent! I like it. The Crimson Flame Dragon Shield it is! Haha!"