Time flies like a shuttle, light passes like a stream.

In the blink of an eye, half a year hurried past. Ye Kong drew a thread of spiritual energy into his Qi Sea and slowly opened his eyes. In his pupils was a trace of faint joy.

Many things had happened in the past six months.

First, Second Wife’s aftermath. Because Second Wife and Chen Qingfang died in such a shameful way, neither the government nor the Ye Manor investigated their true cause of death.

Although their deaths were somewhat suspicious – no one would believe two people simultaneously died from excessive passion, and all those servants had fallen unconscious, which was also a suspicious point – no one pursued it. Keeping it hushed up was the more important matter.

Once Second Wife died, Ye Wei, who was in the military camp, even ran back to handle the funeral affairs. Ye Wei suggested letting Third Wife manage the inner courtyard, then writing to inform Ye Haoran in An Capital to await his final arrangements.

With great power in her grasp, Third Wife immediately became glorious. Every day she glowed with radiance, managing this and that. As for Little Red, she suffered no difficulties and smoothly became Chen Jiuniang’s personal maid. Little Red and Lu Qin got along every day, living happily and harmoniously.

But Third Wife didn’t remain happy for long. After more than a month, a letter came from An Capital. What drove Third Wife crazy was that Ye Haoran actually had the just-twenty-five-year-old Ninth Wife manage the inner courtyard. Speaking of which concubine was most favored, this made it clear. Actually, Ye Haoran had his own thinking – Ninth Wife was youngest and most likely to cuckold him. Giving her some power would make her cherish her current life more.

Finally, regarding Second Wife’s two sons, Ye Wen and Ye Wu – these two were miserable. Their mother had died in a way that truly disgraced the Ye Manor, so no matter who came to power in the inner courtyard, no one would give them a good face.

As for Ye Wu’s coming-of-age ceremony, no one managed it anymore. As soon as he turned eighteen, he was driven out of the inner courtyard. They didn’t even give him money to purchase property. He just stayed at his older brother Ye Wen’s residence, muddling through his days in chaos.

Ye Kong wasn’t too clear about these things yet. He’d just experienced a half-year of isolated cultivation.

“How is it? Reached Layer 3 yet?” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs promptly delivered his first greeting.

“Reached it.” Ye Kong said with a smile.

He was indeed very happy. In just three years of cultivation, he’d successfully entered Qi Refinement Layer 3 realm.

Of course, this speed really wasn’t fast at all. Looking across the cultivation world, this speed was just average, even slightly below average.

You must know the beginning is easiest – it’s later that wastes time. Reaching Qi Refinement Layer 3 in three years wasn’t anything special. With this speed, you’d be too embarrassed to tell people.

But the key issue was that the cultivation method Ye Kong practiced was different, especially slow. The time needed for cultivation was particularly long. So reaching Qi Refinement Layer 3 in three years already made Ye Kong very satisfied.

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs deserved much credit here. Without his spiritual energy, if Ye Kong absorbed spiritual energy from the air by himself, it would absolutely be impossible to have such fast cultivation speed.

“How much of my spiritual energy have you refined?” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs wasn’t pitying his own spiritual energy but wanted to calculate how many layers his remaining spiritual energy would be enough for Ye Kong to rise.

“Refined half. Exactly half.” Ye Kong used inner sight technique to look and answered.

“Half! Only rose one layer!” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs cried out in shock.

He’d originally thought that refining all that spiritual energy together would be enough for Ye Kong to rise to Qi Refinement Layer 10 – the Great Circle realm. Later, knowing the cultivation method he practiced was truly special and extraordinarily slow, he’d then thought he’d at least rise to Qi Refinement Layer 6 or 7.

But looking now, this Five Elements Ascension Scripture really needed too much spiritual energy. Refining half only raised him one layer. If he refined the remaining half, it would only be Qi Refinement Layer 4. The gap was truly too large.

If this kid cultivated to Foundation Establishment, how much Read on Jormuntl spiritual energy would he need to absorb? Old Ancestor Yellow Springs didn’t dare think about it.

“Then you try using the Object Control Technique to control this small sword artifact.” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs said again.

Ye Kong said strangely, “Didn’t you say you need at least Qi Refinement Layer 4 to manipulate magical artifacts?”

“Not necessarily. I think manipulating magical artifacts mainly depends on the magnitude of spiritual power and the strength of divine sense. Your body has accumulated so much spiritual energy, so naturally your spiritual power and divine sense far exceed ordinary people. Why don’t you try manipulating it first? Maybe you can…” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs couldn’t continue speaking. Because he’d already seen the small sword artifact stir abnormally. Hearing only a buzzing sound, the small sword had already floated up hazily.

“It rose!” Ye Kong was also extremely pleasantly surprised. He’d long heard that at Qi Refinement Layer 4, one could manipulate magical artifacts. He’d also been anticipating this day.

Having a magical artifact meant he could travel the world. Being able to manipulate magical artifacts meant his strength had greatly increased. Generally, in battles between immortal cultivators, those who used spells were all low-level immortal cultivators. The power of spells was far weaker than magical artifacts. Moreover, those Fireball and Ice Bullet techniques had extremely poor accuracy.

Being able to manipulate magical artifacts had many other advantages. Because magical artifacts weren’t just the offensive type – there were also defensive magical artifacts. So Ye Kong’s defensive power could also greatly increase.

At the same time, various auxiliary magical artifacts could now be used. For example, flying-type magical artifacts. During Qi Refinement stage, one couldn’t fly independently. Levitation techniques consumed spiritual power extremely, and couldn’t fly very far. This required borrowing external objects.

However, turning back to the topic, besides the small sword, Ye Kong currently had no other magical artifacts. Talking about those was all empty.

As his layer rose, the Dragon-Tiger Mountain Complete Collection of Talismans in his Spirit Platform opened up quite a bit more. All the low-grade lower-tier talismans fully displayed their splendor to him. Those Fireball Curses and Ice Bullet Curses naturally weren’t worth mentioning. What made his heart itch unbearably were those more formidable curse methods, especially the last few pages of talismans in the low-grade lower-tier.

“Giant Force Talisman” – auxiliary attack-type talisman that could suppress enemies within a certain range with giant force, causing slowed movement.

“Ice Armor Talisman” – could form an ice-attribute armor around the body, with effects far exceeding the Golden Light Talisman.

“Swift Movement Talisman” – stick this talisman on the legs to double Read on Jormuntl speed while reducing fatigue. An essential talisman for going out, home travel, and running away when you can’t win a fight.

Of course, what most moved Ye Kong’s heart was the last type in low-grade lower-tier: “Thunder Fire Curse.”

You must know that among all attributes, the most powerful was the supremely fierce thunder attribute. This was produced from fire and wood attribute mutation. Thunder attribute’s power was universally recognized. A fireball hitting an opponent was far inferior to a lightning bolt striking an opponent. As for ice bullets, water arrows, and flowing sand – those powers were even worse.

But Ye Kong could only look now, feel moved for a moment. He had no spirit paper for drawing spirit talismans. Now he had the talisman brush, had spirit herb juice. The only thing lacking was talisman paper.

“Sigh, if they held an immortal cultivator’s market in Southern Capital City, that would be great.” Ye Kong couldn’t help but sigh.

“Dream on. Do you think Southern Capital City is a city for immortal cultivators?” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs cursed, then grabbed the hovering small sword with his hand. “Although this sword is somewhat garbage, it’s still a mid-grade magical artifact. If you don’t want to demolish your own house and destroy the formation, you’d better find a secluded place to practice using it.”

“Oh, alright then.” Ye Kong took the small sword, anticipating in his heart. What functions did this sword actually have? Could he stand on it and fly? Could it become bigger? Or did it have other formidable functions?

Old Ancestor Yellow Springs cursed, “Stop looking. It’s just a mid-grade magical artifact. Back in my day, I had supreme-grade spiritual artifacts, ancient treasures. Mid-grade magical artifacts… hmph, whoever gave me this thing, I’d slap their face!”

Ye Kong sighed. “A hero doesn’t boast of past glories. I say, Old Ancestor, can you stop talking about your glorious history in the future? And your romantic history? My ears have calluses from hearing it.”

“I’m telling the truth. I’m not deceiving you.” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs muttered dissatisfiedly.

Ye Kong continued, “Old Ancestor, you’d better drill into the small sword. I need to go out. Little Red generally wouldn’t come disturb me. Today she came to push the door – must be something important.”

“I know you’re going to see your little lover. Do you think this ancestor is reluctant to go in? Heartless little cultivator. This ancestor truly regrets not killing you back then, saving this ancestor from such annoyance!” Although Old Ancestor Yellow Springs cursed viciously, he raised his hand and took out a gray armor-like garment.

“This is…” Ye Kong stared in surprise, then said joyfully, [unauthorized copy]“This is the defensive magical artifact made from Inkshark hide?”

“Yes. This is this old man’s painstaking effort!” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs said dissatisfiedly.

“This is… a magical artifact, or a spiritual artifact? Magical treasure?” After Ye Kong took it, he discovered this thing was very soft to the touch, and very light, like chicken skin velvet.

“Dream on! Only after Golden Core can you use magical treasures, spiritual artifacts! This is a high-grade magical artifact. How about it, think it’s not good? If it’s not good, you can refuse it! I don’t know what this old man owed you in his past life?” Old Ancestor Yellow Springs cursed and grumbled. His body rapidly shrank. Just as he was about to enter the small sword, he turned back to look at Ye Kong’s excited appearance. He also secretly smiled, then drilled into the small sword.

“Don’t leave! Let me put it on and see if it looks good. It’s very similar to thermal underwear. Haha, I wonder if it fits? When my body grows bigger in the future, will it automatically increase in size?”

Ye Kong had a series of questions that made Old Ancestor Yellow Springs curse again. “Research it yourself! Don’t bother me! This ancestor wants to sleep. Please, don’t call me unless there are beautiful women!”

Ye Kong responded with a sound. Taking off his outer coat, he put the Inkshark defensive magical artifact on his body. Using divine sense to communicate, he discovered he still couldn’t use it yet. It still needed refining.

Any magical artifact needed to be refined before use. The main purpose was to make the treasure recognize its master, then let the user familiarize themselves with the treasure’s functions.

Generally speaking, the higher the grade of the magical artifact, the longer the refining time. Of course, this also related to the user’s own spiritual power strength. Finally, if it was seized from someone else’s hands, then it related to the previous user’s spiritual power strength and usage time. A very complicated matter.

This Inkshark armor was freshly made, so there was no need to erase the original owner’s divine sense. Ye Kong just needed to refine it slightly. Spending one or two days should be enough to finish it.

However, Ye Kong had no time to refine it now. Because he needed to go out. Little Red wanted to come in outside the formation today. There might be some urgent matter.

Actually, Ye Kong had prepared to keep meditating until the Inedia Pills were finished eating. Now that Little Red had urgent business looking for him, he could only leave seclusion early.