Vessel of Worlds

Andy bought several Mind-Nourishing Pills along with a large batch of Mind-Nourishing Sub-grade pills, then found a quiet corner and removed his cloak.

After that, he went openly to the Duobao Pavilion and purchased some commonly used auxiliary materials for artifact forging. These items weren't worth many spirit stones, and there was no need for secrecy.

As for talisman-making supplies, he thought it over and decided against buying any for now. He had already made up his mind to devote the coming period to learning the art of artifact forging. Mid- and high-grade Qi Refinement talismans could wait.

After two full circuits of the modest Guling Street without spotting anything else of interest, Andy made his way to the spirit tea shop at the end of the street—the Immortal Guest Tea House. He ordered a pot of Cloud Mist Spirit Tea, a specialty of the Kuanglu Mountains, and settled in to wait for Jian Xin'er.

The Cloud Mist Spirit Tea lived up to its reputation as a premium spirit tea. The leaves unfurled like slender blades, green as fresh growth. The liquor was clear with a faint yellow-green tint, and at the rim of the cup, thin wisps of white mist gathered and lingered without dispersing. The first sip sent a wave of fragrance through him, clearing his mind and refreshing his senses. The second revealed a rich, full-bodied flavor—neither cloying nor slippery—with a subtle note of astringency beneath the depth that lingered on the palate long after swallowing. Even someone like Andy, who knew nothing about the art of tea, found himself thoroughly enjoying it after a few cups.

By the time Andy had drunk most of the pot, Jian Xin'er finally appeared.

"Radiant" was the first word that came to mind when he saw her. Her cheeks were flushed pink, a fine sheen of perspiration glistened on her forehead, and her bright eyes sparkled with excitement. Combined with her pink dress, she looked especially lively and charming. The moment she walked into the tea house, she drew the attention of nearly every cultivator inside. More than a few pairs of eyes drifted Andy's way as well.

"Find anything good?" Andy asked with a slight smile, pouring her a cup of spirit tea.

"Guess!" Jian Xin'er said mysteriously. She seemed thirsty—she took the tea and drained it in one gulp. Then she casually cast a Sound Barrier spell, enclosing the two of them in a faint dome of light. It was a common low-grade auxiliary spell. Apart from preventing sound from leaking out, it offered negligible protection.

Andy refilled her cup and shook his head. "I couldn't possibly guess." Though privately he was thinking: What else could it be? Pretty clothes or cosmetics, most likely.

"I knew you wouldn't guess! Look—what's this?" Jian Xin'er pulled a small wooden box from inside her robe with a triumphant grin and handed it to Andy.

"What is it?" Andy opened the box. Inside lay seven or eight identical purple pills, each about a cun across. He had never seen this type before, and from the spiritual energy they gave off, they appeared to be sub-grade pills.

He held one under his nose and inhaled deeply. The fragrance was unusually pleasant, but he couldn't identify it no matter how hard he tried.

"I give up. What miraculous pill has you this excited?" Andy conceded. He had read extensively about pills and elixirs, yet couldn't recognize these. Could it be some extremely obscure variety?

"These are Perpetual Youth Pills!" the girl announced, practically glowing. "Take one and you stay young forever—your appearance never ages." But a moment later, her voice dropped. "Unfortunately, these are all sub-grade pills, so the effect is probably minimal at best. The real ones—there were only a few—got snapped up by several Foundation Establishment senior aunts at nine hundred spirit stones each. Even the sub-grade ones cost three spirit stones per pill! You wouldn't believe how many senior sisters and junior sisters were fighting over them. I practically had to claw my way to these few."

"Three spirit stones each for sub-grade pills? That expensive? Must be good stuff—let me have a few." Before Jian Xin'er could agree or object, Andy reached into the box, plucked out two or three pills, and dropped them into his storage pouch.

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"You're a man—what do you need eternal youth for?" Jian Xin'er pouted and rolled her eyes at him, pulling a face that Andy found impossibly endearing.

Andy gave a sheepish chuckle but didn't answer. Instead, he changed the subject and asked about her recent cultivation progress.

The excitement vanished from Jian Xin'er's face at once. She put away the wooden box and said slowly: "Same as always. I cultivate every day in Senior Uncle Sun's medicinal garden. The spiritual energy there is quite dense, but my progress has been ordinary. I'm not confident I can reach the twelfth layer before the Foundation Establishment Trial in two years. The trial is going to be extremely difficult."

Andy understood what she meant. Cultivators like the two of them—without a powerful sect or family backing them, essentially independent practitioners stuck at the eleventh layer—were middle of the pack at best among the outer-sect disciples. Jian Xin'er also had very little real combat experience, and her best artifact was only mid-grade. In a competition where every participant was fighting for their future, her chances of standing out were slim.

The requirements for the Foundation Establishment Trial were straightforward: cultivation of at least the tenth layer of Qi Refinement, and age no older than forty. After forty, the odds of successfully reaching Foundation Establishment dropped dramatically, and even those who managed it would almost certainly be stuck at the early stage for the rest of their lives with no further progress possible. The ideal window for Foundation Establishment was before thirty—cultivators who broke through in that range stood a reasonable chance of continued advancement.

Among the nearly two thousand outer-sect disciples who typically entered the trial, several hundred would be at the twelfth or thirteenth layer alone, with most of the remainder at the eleventh. Competing for just a few dozen slots out of two thousand was daunting by any measure. You either needed superior cultivation and stronger spiritual power than your opponents, or you needed to rely on powerful artifacts to give you a decisive edge. Ideally, you needed both.

Jian Xin'er fell short on both counts, and her tone betrayed a clear note of discouragement.

Andy offered her a few words of encouragement, suggesting she focus entirely on cultivation and not worry about artifacts for now. Powerful artifacts were the kind of thing you stumbled upon through fortune, not effort—no amount of scheming was likely to produce one. Better to pour everything into cultivation. If she could break through to the twelfth layer before the trial, that alone would meaningfully increase her strength, since every advancement brought gains in spiritual power, spiritual sense, and more.

Jian Xin'er nodded. She agreed with his reasoning.

The hour was growing late. The two left Guling Street, chatting about cultivation insights as they flew back toward Tiechuan Peak. After seeing Jian Xin'er safely back, Andy returned to his forging chamber.

According to his own plan, since it would be difficult to make another major leap in cultivation over the next two years, he might as well use the time to prepare artifacts for the trial.

Anything available at the market was generally mid-grade, or at best a mediocre upper-grade artifact, and none of it came cheap. Andy didn't dare make conspicuous purchases, and he felt these artifacts weren't powerful enough to make a real difference in the intense combat of the Foundation Establishment Trial. So he hadn't pinned his hopes on the market.

Ever since discovering that the bowl could enhance forging materials, he had entertained the possibility of forging his own artifacts someday. Now he was convinced it was not only possible, but highly feasible.

From his preliminary understanding of artifact forging, the most important factor in producing a quality artifact was not the smith's technique—it was the raw material.

With poor materials, even the most experienced forging master in the world couldn't produce a mid-grade artifact from a few jin of ruined refined copper. You can't make bricks without straw.

Conversely, with excellent materials, even someone whose technique was rough around the edges had a real chance of producing a mid-grade or even upper-grade artifact. Take the premium refined copper that Andy could produce with just a brief session in the bowl—with minimal forging, it could potentially become a mid-grade artifact. In the hands of a true forging master, it might even yield an upper-grade one.

For an inexperienced novice, the risk of failure was high. A failed forging attempt meant that all the raw materials, spirit stones, and auxiliary materials used were destroyed—virtually unrecoverable. This was why most cultivators never dared attempt forging on their own, preferring to pay a master handsomely to do it for them. A single failure could mean losses too painful to bear.

But for Andy, with his inexhaustible supply of premium materials and spirit stones, a little waste was nothing. What he feared wasn't waste—it was exposure. He would never dare hand blocks of premium raw material to someone else for forging. If the forger grew greedy and set a trap for him, the consequences would be disastrous.

The fewer uncertainties, the better. My fate stays in my own hands. That was Andy's conclusion.