“Stop looking pitiful. Let’s go.”

Hou Wanshan put away his wandering thoughts and gave another prompt.

Lin Jingyi climbed onto the cloud with a deflated air, accepted the refined-steel sledgehammer his daughter-in-law held out, and let it hang loosely at his side.

After so many years in the safety of Lizhou, he’d nearly forgotten the last time he’d had to use force.

Well. Fate had apparently decided it was time for a trial.

He sighed, and was just about to lift off into the air—

When a flare of crimson filled everyone’s line of sight.

A streak of red cloud came sweeping in from the distance like a bolt of light, arriving above the Implement Sect’s mountain in an instant.

Riding a demon cloud this conspicuously within Great Qian’s borders — Madam Lin had only ever seen one person do that.

She blinked, then called out in delighted relief, “No need to go! The Inspector’s back!”

“Hah.”

Like she needed to point it out — Lin Jingyi had already dropped his hammer, clambered off the cloud with rather more haste than grace, and was mopping the cold sweat from his forehead.

Thank the heavens above.

That wretched fox, at least it had had the sense not to push things past the point of no return.

However weakened, Great Qian still had a Spirit-Transformation cultivator holding things down.

A starved camel was still bigger than a horse. Better to resolve a feud than to carry it.

“Lucky you.”

Hou Wanshan shot the old man a glance, then turned to look at the Red Cloud, clasping his hands behind his back and arranging his face into something approaching a smile.

A General technically fell under the Inspector’s authority.

But with Lizhou as prosperous as it was — much of that his doing — he could claim a certain standing, and there was no need to be excessively deferential even toward a newly appointed Inspector.

And yet, under everyone’s eyes, the red cloud didn’t come toward the crowd.

It paused for a brief moment in the air.

Then Shen Yi’s figure descended to the edge of the mountain’s hollow, looking down with evident curiosity.

“…”

Lin Jingyi felt a sudden unease he couldn’t quite name.

But he went forward quickly all the same. “Commander Shen, are you alright?”

As he spoke, his eyes darted upward again.

Three people had gone. One had come back. How?

“Fine.”

Shen Yi gave a small nod, his gaze not moving, still fixed on the dense pale mist rising from the hollow.

This wasn’t smoke from fire — it was more like a cold haze of some kind.

He asked, with a trace of curiosity, “What’s that?”

At those words, Lin Jingyi’s expression grew even more peculiar.

Anyone in Great Qian with any real knowledge knew the Implement Sect had one trump card of a superlative-grade artifact kept in their innermost vault.

The Inspector was asking something he clearly already knew the answer to — what did that mean?

Lin Jingyi was silent for a moment, then answered plainly and honestly. “Commander Shen, what’s stored down there is the Implement Sect’s most treasured possession — the Cold Jade Mysterious Silk Hand.”

He was a man who forged metal for a living, but when it came to his sect’s own prized possession, his wits sharpened at once.

He quickly added a follow-up. “This is the one and only superlative-grade artifact in all of Great Qian. The War Temple’s Commanders have asked us to keep it safe and work toward elevating it into a true spirit-treasure — when that day comes, we’ll send it to the War Temple as well. That ought to count for something worthwhile.”

“Mm.”

Shen Yi nodded, glancing sideways at it, his tone thoughtful. “You invited that Qingqiu fox over because of this?”

The young man’s expression and voice were perfectly ordinary.

And yet Lin Jingyi was scratching vigorously at the back of his head, looking desperately to his daughter-in-law and Hou Wanshan for rescue. “…”

The woman gave a dry cough and turned her face firmly the other way.

Hou Wanshan’s divine spirit was out — no one could see it — and he assumed the air of a man very much not involved in any of this.

“Haah.”

Lin Jingyi sighed again, abandoned all the roundabout approaches, and came right out with it. “Commander Shen, we did invite Qingqiu’s Perfected Master Hu here for assistance — but whatever scheme it had in mind had nothing to do with this artifact. If you’d like to take it back and examine it, this old man wouldn’t dare object… I’d just find it a waste.”

Take it back and examine it?

Shen Yi raised an eyebrow. He was genuinely interested in what was stored down there — he’d just had his mind on demon lifespan before, and only now had the leisure to ask.

If the fox demon had really possessed this kind of ability to refine spirit-treasures, he could ask it about the method sometime.

“Great Qian’s cultivation centers on the divine spirit, so artifact-forging has never been much of a priority.”

Lin Jingyi sounded faintly resigned. “A superlative-grade artifact is enough to make the Implement Sect famous across the Nine Provinces. But a true spirit-treasure — that would carry our name beyond Great Qian’s borders. Please give us a little more time. This old man guarantees that when it’s ready, we’ll send it to the War Temple ourselves.”

“What step are you still missing?”

Shen Yi asked offhandedly — if it wasn’t too much trouble, he could always ask the fox about it later.

“I’ve already worked out the method for elevating it with Perfected Master Hu — the only thing missing now is an extremely cold material to serve as a catalyst. Perfected Master Hu said it would find a way to supply that.” Lin Jingyi said, and then something seemed to occur to him, and he looked around in puzzlement. “Where is Perfected Master Hu, anyway?”

“I saw it off.”

Shen Yi let the subject pass without elaboration.

After witnessing how comprehensively the golden dharma form had crushed ordinary martial cultivators and demons alike, he’d developed a few more degrees of wariness toward the genuinely major powers out there.

The golden body hadn’t fully taken shape yet — right now was the moment he was most vulnerable.

Keeping a low profile was always the right call.

And to put it bluntly, setting aside questions of whether he was strong enough, he had just one person and one dharma form between them — a grand total of four hands. How was that supposed to protect the Nine Provinces?

The War Temple had given him so many benefits. The least he could do was stop creating trouble for them.

“An extremely cold material?”

Shen Yi reached around at his waist, and his hand closed on the white dragon’s demon core. He thought about it, then put it back, and took out a pair of enormous dragon horns instead, setting them on the ground.

“Will these do?”

The horns were a lustrous jade-white, translucent as water — just touching them for a moment was enough to feel a bone-deep cold seeping into the skin.

“These are—?!”

Lin Jingyi might not be much at many things, but a lifetime at the forge had given him eyes for treasures that were second to none.

He leaned in and sniffed, identifying the material’s quality in an instant, and couldn’t help letting out a startled exclamation. “An extreme-tier demon king’s dragon horns! Commander Shen, wherever did you come by these?”

“Someone gave them to me a while back.” Shen Yi looked back toward the hollow. “Will they work?”

“Of course they will.”

Lin Jingyi kept his face carefully neutral, and stole a glance at the base of the dragon horns, where the blood hadn’t yet fully dried.

If his guess was right, they’d been removed less than two hours ago.

Perfected Master Hu had taken the Inspector outside Great Qian’s borders, and they’d killed an extreme-tier demon king?

No.

That couldn’t be right — if that were the case, Perfected Master Hu would have come back with him.

That old fox would never let a prize like this slip into someone else’s hands.

So…

Lin Jingyi swallowed, and found his body beginning to tremble, without quite meaning for it to.

Either Perfected Master Hu had called in a group of demon kings to ambush and kill Commander Shen, or it had been a falling-out over the spoils — but either way, in the end, the only one who’d come back alive was the young man standing before him.

And looking at that perfectly calm expression, like nothing had happened at all.

What did it mean to be truly formidable? This — this was what it meant to be truly formidable.

This was not the kind of person a bunch of metal-workers could afford to offend.

The old man’s voice began to shake as he spoke. “I — I — I’ll start the final step right now. A month at most. Guaranteed to meet the Commander’s satisfaction.”

Lin Jingyi’s unusual demeanor had drawn everyone’s attention.

Hou Wanshan looked back at the two of them again, something puzzled surfacing in his eyes. “…”

(End of Chapter 246)