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

Chapter 232: The President’s Plea

By the time Shen Xian returned to his quarters, Qiu Ruoli was already deep in secluded cultivation.

She was hovering on the precipice of a breakthrough, her focus absolute. Shen Xian wasn’t concerned about her fleeing. Between the custom-brewed poison coursing through her veins and the undeniable benefits she gained from their dual cultivation, she would have to be insane to run. As long as her mind remained intact, she wouldn’t make such a foolish choice.

“A single High-Grade Spirit Treasure… it’s far from enough.”

Shen Xian sat at the head of the hall, nursing a cup of spirit tea while his mind clicked through calculations.

According to his intel, a High-Grade Spirit Treasure typically sold for around 10,000 High Grade Spirit Stones. Even at auction, the ceiling was likely 15,000.

The journey to the Sky Dome Sacred Land, however, demanded a staggering 1,000,000 Spirit Stones. To bridge that gap, he would need to prepare at least a hundred such treasures.

“I need a new revenue stream,” Shen Xian murmured, his fingers tapping against the armrest.

He still held a significant inventory of Spirit Treasures. But even if he liquidated everything—excluding the items he needed for himself or couldn’t trade—he would still fall short by more than half.

The system’s rebate function was currently on Cooldown. Unless he wanted to wait, his only option was to forge the capital himself.

But forging Spirit Treasures wasn’t like the simple reinforcement and tempering work he had done before. It consumed immense mental energy. Just melting the materials and harmonizing their conflicting properties could take half a month. That didn’t even account for the quenching, refining, and engraving of formation arrays.

Even for Shen Xian, a Rank 5 Master Refiner, crafting a truly powerful Spirit Treasure was a month-long endeavor.

Then there was the cost of raw materials—a massive expense in itself.

“Perhaps opening a dedicated forging workshop is the play,” he mused.

It would allow him to forge his own stock while earning fees by refining artifacts for others. Strengthening existing artifacts was significantly faster than forging from scratch.

The only hurdle was reputation. He needed fame, and he needed it fast.

Just as Shen Xian pondered how to manufacture this renown, the faint rhythm of footsteps echoed from outside.

His brow quirked. A pulse of Divine Sense swept out, instantly identifying the aura. It was Su Wuya, the President of the Heaven-Reaching Chamber of Commerce.

“Master Wang, forgive the intrusion,” Su Wuya’s gentle voice drifted through the door.

Shen Xian waved a hand, the heavy doors creaking open. Su Wuya stood in the courtyard, clad in azure robes, wearing a polite smile. Yet, Shen Xian’s sharp gaze caught the tension lurking between the President’s brows.

“President Su,” Shen Xian said calmly. “To what do I owe the honor of a personal visit?”

Su Wuya cupped his hands in a respectful salute. “I heard Master Wang is an Expert in the Dao of Forging. I came specifically to pay my respects. May I enter for a brief discussion?”

Xu Tian had already informed him that this mysterious guest was, at minimum, a peak Rank 4 Refiner. Su Wuya couldn’t afford to send a subordinate; this required the personal touch.

Shen Xian nodded. “Please.”

Once seated, Su Wuya didn’t waste time with pleasantries. He cut straight to the heart of the matter.

“To be frank, Master Wang, the Heaven-Reaching Chamber of Commerce is preparing to pioneer a newly discovered Treasure Land. The environment is exceptionally perilous. Hearing of your extraordinary attainments, I wish to commission a batch of defensive Spirit Treasures.”

He wouldn’t dare ask a master of this caliber to join the suicide mission, but securing high-quality gear was the next best thing.

A peak Rank 4 Refiner was Proficient in creating Spirit Treasures, items that offered a massive boost to a cultivator’s survival rate. In Azure Nether City, such masters were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Now that one was sitting in his guest house, Su Wuya had to seize the opportunity.

Shen Xian’s internal calculator whirred to life.

He had just been worrying about building a reputation, and now the perfect customer had delivered himself to the doorstep.

“President Su is well-informed,” Shen Xian said, taking a slow sip of tea to hide the glint in his eyes. “What specifications are we looking at?”

Seeing that Shen Xian didn’t reject him outright, relief washed over Su Wuya. “Primarily defensive types. I need at least twenty pieces. Ideally, I would hope for one or two to be Top-Grade Spirit Treasures.”

“Twenty pieces?” Shen Xian frowned, his voice dropping an octave. “That is no small undertaking.”

For a normal refiner, twenty Spirit Treasures would take over a year of grueling labor.

Su Wuya leaned forward, sensing the hesitation. “Fellow Daoist need not worry about materials; the Chamber will provide everything. As for the fee…” He paused, gritting his teeth. “I am willing to pay ten percent above the market rate for every finished piece.”

This expedition was tied to his breakthrough to the Soul Formation realm and the Chamber’s standing in the city. He was prepared to bleed capital to ensure success.

Shen Xian did the math instantly.

A Low-Grade Spirit Treasure fetched 5,000 High Grade Spirit Stones. A Top-Grade one approached 20,000. With twenty pieces, the commission would net him nearly 200,000 High Grade Spirit Stones. Combined with the auction proceeds, the million-stone gap would be nearly closed.

The only downside was time. It would take over a year. The teleportation array to the Sky Dome Sacred Land activated in less than five months.

However, arriving at the Sacred City poor was pointless. That place would be a shark tank compared to Azure Nether City; even a Rank 5 Refiner might struggle to compete without startup capital. It was better to secure the million stones here first.

Shen Xian didn’t let his satisfaction show. Instead, he deepened his frown, looking burdened. “President Su should know that forging drains the spirit like nothing else…”

He sensed Su Wuya’s desperation. It was time to raise the price on the spot.

“Twenty percent!” Su Wuya blurted out. “And if Fellow Daoist has any other requirements, as long as it is within my power, we can discuss it.”

Shen Xian set his teacup down. That was the magic number.

He offered a reluctant nod, as if doing a great favor. “Very well. Since President Su shows such sincerity, I will accept this burden.”

Su Wuya let out a long sigh of relief. He knew how temperamental high-ranking refiners could be. The fact that “Master Wang” hadn’t made exorbitant demands was a blessing.

After hammering out the details, Su Wuya took his leave, promising the first shipment of materials by the morrow.

Watching the President’s retreating back, a cold smile finally touched Shen Xian’s lips.

Once the first Top-Grade Spirit Treasure was finished, the Heaven-Reaching Chamber of Commerce would do his marketing for him.

The next day, Xu Tian personally delivered the first batch of resources.

Most were standard Rank 4 materials, but a small portion were Rank 4 High Grade—the cores required for Spirit Treasures, and notoriously difficult to melt.

Qiu Ruoli had just finished her cultivation cycle. Seeing Xu Tian handing over crates of ore to Shen Xian, she blinked in confusion. “You know how to forge?”

Shen Xian glanced at her, offering no explanation. His command was curt. “Protector duty. Now.”

This was the Chamber’s territory. While he had laid down defensive arrays, his skill in Formation arts was mediocre at best. having a Soul Formation cultivator like Qiu Ruoli as a Dharma Protector was a necessary insurance policy.

Qiu Ruoli’s brow furrowed. She despised being ordered around, but she knew she had no leverage. Silently, she walked to the corner of the room, sat cross-legged, and expanded her Divine Sense to blanket the perimeter.

Shen Xian began the prep work.

He arranged the materials with clinical precision. This step, while seemingly mundane, tested a refiner’s fundamentals. A milligram of error in the ratio or a second of delay in the sequence could ruin the entire batch.

Fortunately, Shen Xian’s skill was innate. With a single thought, he analyzed and sorted the materials, shaving hours off the process.

The melting stage, however, would not be so forgiving.

Inside the forging room, Shen Xian sat before the Burning Heaven Cauldron, spiritual fire dancing at his fingertips.

Qiu Ruoli watched as he tossed a fist-sized lump of “Mystic Thunder Cold Iron” into the furnace. The metal was a deep, abyssal blue—a top-tier Rank 4 material and the heart of the defensive treasure he planned to craft.

Shen Xian channeled his Qi, igniting a roaring thunderfire that engulfed the cold iron.

Three days passed.

To Qiu Ruoli’s shock, the stubborn metal had barely softened.

By the seventh day, the Mystic Thunder Cold Iron finally began to deform, sweating tiny beads of liquid metal. The process was agonizingly slow.

By the fifteenth day, when the last solid chunk finally collapsed into a pool of flowing, azure liquid, Shen Xian exhaled a long breath, his forehead slick with sweat.

“If only I had access to earthly fire,” he muttered, frustration flickering in his eyes.

He had assumed the Burning Heaven Cauldron, boosted by the Li Fire True Seal, would be enough. He had underestimated the resilience of the material. The spiritual fire he generated was intense, but it lacked the endless, churning endurance of a natural earthly fire vein.

That was why the core melt had taken so long.

Fortunately, the hard part was over. The auxiliary materials would melt much faster.

Once everything was reduced to liquid, Shen Xian began the shaping process. Flames roared, twisting and compressing the molten essence until the various energies achieved a perfect equilibrium.

“Condense!”

Shen Xian barked the command.

The fires inside the cauldron violently contracted. Amidst blinding flashes of silver light, a heavy shield materialized.

It was entirely silver-white, thick and broad, with a cold, metallic sheen. Intricate formation patterns pulsed along its surface, radiating an aura of impenetrability.

“A Top-Grade Spirit Treasure?!”

Qiu Ruoli’s pupils constricted.

She wasn’t a refiner, but she knew quality when she felt the pressure radiating from the object. This shield was at the absolute peak of what a Spirit Treasure could be—just a half-step away from surpassing the classification entirely.