I Was Forced to Marry a “Trash” Cultivator, But She Turned Out to Be a Reborn Empress!

Chapter 217: The Art of Exploitation and the Birth of the Soul

In the end, Shen Xian failed to secure that piece of Red Crystal.

Although he was the heir apparent, the clan could not allow him to act completely without restraint. It was only because the Chief Steward, Shen Lingyue, owed him a personal debt of gratitude that the man had reluctantly parted with such a staggering amount of resources. Had it been any other steward, they would have long since reported Shen Xian to the Patriarch to curb his insatiable appetite.

This rejection served as a stark reminder: he needed to cultivate his own faction. Only with loyal subordinates in key positions could he bleed the family’s resources dry with true efficiency.

Setting aside his regrets, Shen Xian chose not to use the clan’s artifact refining halls. Instead, he sealed himself within his own residence.

Previously, smelting seventh-grade materials had required external formations and massive ley-line fire. But for his current batch of upgrades, the flames of the Burning Heaven Cauldron were more than sufficient. There was no need to draw unnecessary attention to his craft.

Shen Xian sat cross-legged, his expression focusing as he began the work.

Whoosh!

The Burning Heaven Cauldron roared to life, spewing tongues of crimson fire.

Shen Xian flicked his wrist, tossing the Profound Heaven Azure Cloud Robe into the inferno. The mid-grade Spirit Treasure unfurled in the heat, writhing like a living creature bathing in the flames.

“Phantom Silkworm Silk for the cuffs. Starlight Sand fused into the cloud patterns…”

The Li Fire True Seal ignited between his brows, casting a harsh glow over his face. He formed complex hand seals, guiding the fire with the precision of a conductor. Inside the cauldron, the sound of dragon roars echoed against the bronze walls.

As he struck incantation after incantation into the fabric, the robe began to shimmer. Points of starlight emerged within the weave, and as the sleeves swayed in the heat convection, they left behind trailing afterimages.

One hour later.

The robe completed its metamorphosis, ascending from a mid-grade to a high-grade Spirit Treasure. Information on its new capabilities flowed into Shen Xian’s mind.

[Starlight Protection]: Automatically deploys a stellar barrier upon impact. [Phantom Following]: Generates three indistinguishable afterimages during movement to confuse enemies.

“Not bad.” Shen Xian inspected the robe, nodding in satisfaction as he felt the defensive arrays hum.

Without pausing, he tossed a silver-white mask into the flames.

The Breath-Concealing Mask was originally a generic tool for hiding one’s cultivation. However, after Shen Xian introduced the Illusion Form Jade Marrow and a single, lethal drop of Thousand Machinations Poison, bizarre cyan veins began to crawl across its surface like infected blood vessels.

The moment he placed the completed mask over his face, his aura shifted violently.

First, it simulated the erratic Spiritual Qi fluctuations of an early Nascent Soul cultivator. Then, it flared, emitting the terrifying, crushing pressure of the Soul Formation stage.

It was a bluff—a paper tiger with no real substance—but coupled with the sinister aura of his poison scripture, it was enough to make even veteran cultivators hesitate.

“And now for the hidden feature.”

Shen Xian flicked his finger, sending a wisp of blue Spiritual Qi into the mask. The cyan veins glowed, and the mask silently vented an invisible, odorless mist.

Paralysis gas.

A cold smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. This kind of underhanded tool suited him perfectly.

The modification of the Nine Orifices Exquisite Needle, however, required the most delicate touch.

The three-inch silver needle hovered above the chaotic flames. Shen Xian used Mystic Ice Iron Essence as the structural base, carefully integrating the formula for Spirit-Eroding Water.

At the needle’s tail, the microscopic Lingxi Pearl split into nine distinct chambers, each sealing a different strain of lethal toxin. When the final poison-refining seal was struck into the metal, the needle emitted a high-pitched, sinister hum that grated on the soul.

“Go!”

With a mere thought, a streak of silver light vanished from his palm.

Thwack!

The needle pierced through ten layers of refined iron plating stacked in the corner of the room. The metal around the tiny puncture hole immediately turned a sickly bluish-purple, hissing as the bone-corrosive poison ate through the molecular structure of the iron.

Just as Shen Xian prepared to upgrade the Grand One Mirror, the Spatial Crystal Stone in his storage bag began to vibrate violently.

Before he could react, the mirror’s surface rippled like a disturbed pond and forcefully devoured two of the precious crystals.

Shen Xian watched in astonishment as the mirror digested the materials on its own. He sensed that the stability of the pocket dimension inside the mirror had increased by thirty percent. Unfortunately, his remaining stock of materials was now insufficient for further refinement.

He scanned his inventory, calculating his options.

With his proficiency as a Rank 5 Artifact Refiner, upgrading these items was child’s play. The bottleneck was raw materials. The resources he could mobilize as an heir were vast, but not infinite. Consequently, his two strongest True Spirit Treasures—the Burning Heaven Cauldron and the Mountain-Suppressing Chaotic Sky Bell—would have to wait.

Still, the harvest from these few days was substantial. His combat power had soared.

…

Shen Xian did not neglect his cultivation while refining.

Several days later, while he was practicing a movement technique, a translucent blue window flashed before his eyes.

[System Alert: Host’s Dao Companion, Wei Zhaoli, has broken through from mid-Golden Core to late-Golden Core stage.]

[Blessing Triggered: Returning 50x the cultivation gained from the Dao Companion’s breakthrough.]

“Finally.”

Shen Xian’s eyes snapped open, gleaming with anticipation.

He had been stuck at the peak of the Golden Core realm for some time, blocked by that final, invisible wall separating him from the Nascent Soul.

Now that Wei Zhaoli had advanced, the torrential river of Spiritual Qi returned by the System would provide the brute force needed to shatter that barrier.

He wasted no time. Shen Xian immediately sat cross-legged, engaging the Eight Trigrams Primordial Dao Scripture.

Boom!

The feedback hit him instantly. A vast, ocean-like surge of Spiritual Qi erupted from his Dantian, roaring through his meridians like a flash flood.

Inside his Dantian’s Qi Sea, his Flawless Golden Core began to vibrate violently. Fine, spiderweb cracks appeared on its perfect golden surface.

Shatter the old to establish the new.

For ordinary cultivators, breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage was a tribulation of life and death. It required months, sometimes years of secluded meditation, accompanied by volatile energy fluctuations that could attract enemies or demons.

But Shen Xian was different.

This was a System Return. He didn’t need moments of enlightenment or arduous stabilization. He simply had to sit there and let the energy rewrite his existence.

Coupled with the heavy restrictions he had placed around his room, not a whisper of this earth-shattering evolution leaked to the outside world.

CRACK!

The Spiritual Qi inside him contracted into a singularity. The cracked Golden Core imploded, dissolving into millions of dazzling specks of light.

These motes of light did not dissipate. Instead, guided by the ancient Dao Scripture, they swirled in the center of his Dantian, slowly coalescing into a new form.

A faint, blurry silhouette of an infant appeared.

The Nascent Soul Embryo!

Shen Xian’s consciousness descended into his Dantian, watching the process with clinical detachment.

The transformation wasn’t over. The System’s energy poured into the embryo like a waterfall, force-feeding it power. The blurry figure rapidly solidified, its features sharpening until it became a perfect miniature of Shen Xian.

The tiny entity sat cross-legged in the center of his Dantian, surrounded by wisps of chaotic, primordial Qi.

“Early Nascent Soul stage. Done.”

Shen Xian opened his eyes. A terrifying pressure radiated from him for a split second before he reigned it in.

The difference between Golden Core and Nascent Soul was qualitative, not just quantitative. A Golden Core cultivator fought with their own fuel tank. A Nascent Soul cultivator, however, could seize control of the ambient Spiritual Qi within a hundred-mile radius, turning the world itself into their weapon.

Shen Xian flexed his fingers. A wisp of Sword Qi materialized and slashed forward. The air distorted, and a low hum of spatial vibration filled the room.

“So this is the power of a Nascent Soul…”

He nodded, satisfied. Immediately, he activated his concealment techniques, suppressing his aura back down to the Golden Core level.

“Now is not the time to expose this.”

The expedition to the Northern Region was imminent. In such a chaotic environment, a hidden ace was worth more than a revealed king. His Nascent Soul cultivation would remain his dǐpái—his bottom card.

[Congratulations, Host, on successfully forming the Nascent Soul.] [Dao Companion capacity increased by +1.]

Shen Xian’s mood brightened further.

Another slot. Another source of passive income.

And the timing was impeccable. This new slot could be filled by someone who could accompany him to the Northern Region.

He certainly wasn’t going to bring Wei Zhaoli. Her cultivation was too low; she would be a liability in the harsh environment of the North. It was safer for her—and more convenient for him—if she stayed behind to stabilize her new realm.

Shen Xian had already calculated this move. He had a candidate in mind long before the notification appeared.

Qiu Ruoli.