Nine Nether Dragon Emperor

"Holy shit, Qin Ruonan, don’t tell me you used up all the materials?!"

As soon as he stepped out of the room and saw the mess on the floor, Ning Xuan’s heart sank.

"That shouldn’t be... This time, I was so sure..."

Immersed in her work, Qin Ruonan jumped with fright. Seeing it was Ning Xuan, she was about to continue when she suddenly looked up, first at the room and then at him. "How long has it been?" she asked.

"How would I know?" Ning Xuan replied irritably. "But it must have been a while. After all, I finished reading all the books in there."

Qin Ruonan nodded in solemn agreement. "Well, if it’s been that long, isn’t it normal for me to have used up all the materials? By the way, could you go get me some more..."

"SOB... SOB... Please, can you two just stop? These have been the five most boring days of my life!" Cheng Dabao’s voice suddenly cut in. She rubbed her eyes, the picture of utter despair on her face.

"Just hang in there a little... What did you say? Five... five days?!" Qin Ruonan’s eyes widened in shock.

"Yeah, five days! A whole five days! Do you have any idea how I’ve spent these days?!" Cheng Dabao demanded, her face a mask of fury.

Unfortunately for her, Qin Ruonan paid her no attention at all.

"Are you sure you finished all the books in there?!" she asked, staring intently at Ning Xuan.

Those books contained the accumulated wisdom of her family for several hundred years! It had taken her ten full years to read through them all. And now Ning Xuan was telling her he only needed five days? How could he be so demoralizing! After all, for taking only ten years, her family elders had hailed her as the reincarnation of a Heavenly Maiden—an unparalleled genius!

"Ahem, I think so," Ning Xuan said, suddenly uncertain under her intense gaze.

Qin Ruonan immediately began quizzing him on the contents she could remember. To her astonishment, Ning Xuan answered every question smoothly and fluently.

Qin Ruonan was stunned. Damn it, comparisons are odious!

However, her ability to adapt was truly top-tier. She quickly recovered and pulled Ning Xuan over, excitedly explaining her own progress over the past few days. She was certain that in this field, Ning Xuan was no match for her. After all, she had learned at her father’s side for many years!

"Fuck, Old Qin, you’re a real piece of work!"

When Ning Xuan heard everything she had done, he was dumbfounded. Thank God I read those books, or this woman would have screwed me over completely!

"Crafting Battle Armor is like compounding medicine—you have to mind the contraindications and compatibilities! You... Ugh, forget it. Let me do it... Do it with what?! You’ve wasted all the damn materials!" Ning Xuan was completely exasperated.

"Oh yeah? You talk a big game," Qin Ruonan huffed, petulantly tapping around the room. "Let’s see what you can come up with!"

Then, Ning Xuan was astonished as one hidden room after another appeared. Some of them actually held living creatures! There were not only giant Demon Spiders and bizarrely shaped Savage Bulls, but also ancient Demon Vines and sacred Strange Silkworms...

"These are all legacies my family has spent countless generations cultivating. You think you’re so good? Then the task of upgrading the God Martial Battle Armor is all yours! Oh, and here are the research notes my dad worked on for years. You can have these too." As she spoke, Qin Ruonan handed a bloodstained stack of manuscripts to Ning Xuan.

Ning Xuan hurriedly took them with both hands. Without a word, he immediately began to flip through them.

A moment later, he looked up and sighed. "It turns out your esteemed father was always researching an upgrade for the God Martial Battle Armor. He even came up with a name for it: the Destiny Battle Armor! He was so close to succeeding!"

Qin Ruonan, however, shook her head. "My father said that too. And he kept saying it for ten years straight."

With that, she turned and left. Her father was the most brilliant figure in their family for centuries. If he couldn’t solve something in a decade, there was no way Ning Xuan could do it in a short time.

Behind her, Ning Xuan hesitated, wanting to say something. He already had an idea. But after hearing her last sentence, he felt a wave of relief. After all, her father spent ten years on this. It can’t be that easy to solve! My idea must be wrong.

With this thought, Ning Xuan calmed himself and continued his deductions. Yet no matter how many times he ran through the problem, the result was always the same.

He couldn’t hold back any longer.

Still, to be cautious, he first crafted an ordinary set of Battle Armor. He decided to test his theory on that one first.

「Three days later.」

When Qin Ruonan returned, the first thing she saw was the brand-new Battle Armor. She froze for a moment, then reached out to touch it. Suddenly, her brow furrowed. "Why did you change the design of the God Martial Battle Armor?!"

That God Martial Battle Armor was her father’s final work! It was the very reason she had risked her life to sneak into the Alliance Headquarters and steal it! And now Ning Xuan had changed its design without her permission! To think she had even revealed her family’s library and their most precious living specimens to him!

Extremely disappointed, Qin Ruonan began, "You..." but she froze mid-sentence.

She had just spotted another God Martial Battle Armor. The moment she saw it, she knew. This was her father’s work.

"You... you actually built a God Martial Battle Armor?!" Qin Ruonan’s eyes filled with disbelief. It had only been three days! How could he be so ridiculously talented?!

"I think I know how to upgrade it into the Destiny Battle Armor," Ning Xuan said, looking at her seriously.

He then moved to pick up the armor he had made to begin.

However, Qin Ruonan immediately handed him her father’s legacy. "Use this one," she said, her tone almost a plea.

"Alright!" Ning Xuan agreed without hesitation.

Then, he began to work.

Qin Ruonan didn’t dare to even breathe.

「Three days later.」

Looking at the armor, which had gone through every process only to be restored to its original appearance, Qin Ruonan gave a deep, ninety-degree bow of gratitude.

"Why are you thanking me? We don’t even know if the upgrade was successful yet."

Qin Ruonan looked at the armor with eyes full of devout reverence. "It was successful!" she declared with certainty. "I can clearly sense how extraordinary it is! It radiates infinite vitality! No wonder it’s called the Destiny Battle Armor! With infinite vitality, doesn’t that mean you control your own destiny?"

Ning Xuan also nodded in admiration. "Your esteemed father was a true genius! I originally thought it was called the Destiny Battle Armor because wearing it would let you control your own fate. I never imagined your father’s Realm was so far beyond what a mere mortal like me could fathom. He actually granted destiny to the armor itself! Uh... why are you looking at me like that?"

Seeing Qin Ruonan staring straight at him, Ning Xuan felt a little flustered.

"I can’t believe how shameless you are, praising yourself like that!"

Ning Xuan’s heart skipped a beat, but he kept a straight face. "I don’t know what you’re talking about."

"My father failed because he was too fixated on the outcome," she said. "He wanted to create a Battle Armor that would let the wearer control their own destiny!"