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

Chapter 237: Late Nascent Soul Realm, Hundredfold Return

With Ai Xiao handling the heavy lifting in the forging room, Shen Xian finally found a moment of respite.

Taking advantage of the lull, he retrieved a communication jade slip and contacted Chen Min. He intended to offload another high-grade spirit treasure obtained from a previous system return.

Chen Min was overjoyed at the news and rushed to the residence personally. However, when he arrived and saw his old friend Ai Xiao actually working as a diligent apprentice, his jaw nearly hit the floor.

“Master Wang,” Chen Min said, shaking his head with a chuckle. “This fellow Ai Xiao is usually a loose cannon—wild and untamed. But when it comes to artifact forging, he’s an absolute fanatic. Please, bear with him.”

Chen Min and Ai Xiao shared a friendship that transcended their age difference. Naturally, he wanted to see his old friend find a path that didn’t end in ruin.

Shen Xian nodded slightly, his expression calm. He took the opportunity to probe into Ai Xiao’s background.

Only then did the truth come out. Ai Xiao had once tried to join a major Sect, hoping to refine his craft. Instead, they treated him as a human bellows—a disposable tool for mass production. It had cost him a terrible price to sever ties with them and escape with his life.

It explained why the man was so vehemently opposed to joining any established power.

“By the way, Master Wang,” Chen Min said as he prepared to leave, producing a jade slip from his sleeve. “The Artifact Forging Grand Assembly is starting soon. I’ve compiled some intelligence on the participants. You might find it interesting.”

This year’s assembly had attracted a swarm of Rank 4 Artifact Forgers, many with illustrious reputations. Chen Min had gone out of his way to organize the data, a clear gesture of goodwill to cement their business relationship.

Shen Xian thanked him and accepted the slip.

Returning to the forging room, the heat was intense.

Ai Xiao looked up from the furnace, wiping sweat from his brow. “Master Wang, melting these materials with standard spirit fire takes far too long. Why don’t we go to the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion?”

He gestured enthusiastically. “They have a dedicated Earth Fire vein. It provides a continuous, high-intensity energy source that our personal flames can’t hope to match.”

The Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion was the city’s largest Chamber of Commerce. Their facilities were top-tier, sitting directly atop a subterranean fire node. Ai Xiao reasoned that with Shen Xian’s status as a ‘Master,’ borrowing a room would be trivial.

“No need,” Shen Xian refused flatly.

While Earth Fire would indeed skyrocket their efficiency, the Pavilion was someone else’s turf. It came with inconveniences and surveillance. More importantly, his current persona—while respected—wasn’t enough to make the Ten Thousand Treasures Pavilion offer their prime facilities for free.

If he used their fire, he would owe them.

In the cultivation world, a debt of gold is easy to clear; a debt of favors is a chain that binds the soul.

The Heaven-Reaching Chamber of Commerce wasn’t pressing him for this batch of spirit treasures anyway. He had time. Melting them at home was slower, but safer.

However, Ai Xiao made a valid point. To reach the pinnacle of forging, he couldn’t rely on basic spirit fire forever.

Shen Xian’s mind drifted to the ‘Source Fire’ Chen Min had mentioned previously.

If I can obtain that flame, I won’t be limited by geography or resources ever again.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, a sudden, violent tremor shook his internal world.

A colossal volume of spiritual power materialized out of thin air, flooding his Dantian like a dam breaking.

Shen Xian frowned, his eyes narrowing. He immediately turned and strode out of the forging room. “I need a moment.”

He moved quickly, returning to his private quarters. With a wave of his hand, he deployed an isolation barrier. For good measure, he slapped several high-grade isolation talismans onto the walls, sealing the space completely.

[System Alert] [Host’s Dao Companion, Qiu Ruoli, has broken through from Golden Core Perfection to the Nascent Soul Realm.] [Blessing Return Triggered: Fifty times the cultivation growth of the Dao Companion.]

Boom!

The instant the notification faded, the spiritual power inside Shen Xian exploded. It surged through his meridians like a raging river, wild and uncontrollable.

Inside his Dantian, the miniature Nascent Soul opened its eyes.

It radiated a blinding golden light, illuminating his internal sea.

It’s finally here.

The corner of Shen Xian’s mouth curled into a faint, satisfied smile. He could feel the power—raw, intoxicating power—coursing through every fiber of his being.

The lotus platform beneath his Nascent Soul instantly bloomed. Nine golden petals unfurled, each one etched with profound, shimmering Dao patterns.

“Fiftyfold return… truly extraordinary.”

Shen Xian turned his gaze inward. The spiritual energy in his meridians was condensing rapidly, transforming from a gaseous mist into a heavy, liquid state.

The ambient Qi in the room stagnated for a split second before collapsing into countless tiny whirlpools. They spun madly, funneling into Shen Xian’s body to fuel the transformation.

His aura climbed vertically. The bottleneck that separated the Mid Nascent Soul Realm from the Late stage—a barrier that trapped countless cultivators for centuries—shattered like wet tissue paper.

“This is the power of the Late Nascent Soul Realm…”

Shen Xian clenched his fist. The air inside the barrier distorted around his grip.

With a thought, he extended a tendril of Divine Sense. It pierced through the walls, expanding effortlessly. Ten miles. Fifty miles. One hundred miles.

Every rustle of leaves, every breath of a mortal, every flow of wind within a hundred-mile radius was now under his absolute dominion.

Even better, he sensed his compatibility with the Li Fire True Seal had taken a massive leap forward.

Suddenly, the Nascent Soul in his Dantian formed a complex hand seal.

A pillar of golden light erupted from his body, shooting straight up. It threatened to punch through the roof and pierce the clouds—a phenomenon that would have alerted every powerhouse in the city.

Buzz.

The isolation barrier and the talismans flared, groaning under the pressure, but they held. The golden pillar smashed against the invisible ceiling and dissipated into harmless sparkles of light.

“That almost caused a scene…” Shen Xian exhaled, secretly glad for his paranoia.

He breathed out a plume of turbid gray air. The divine light in his eyes slowly receded, hiding the terrifying power back within his depths.

“Qiu Ruoli didn’t disappoint me.”

Thinking of the stubborn, high-and-mighty Saintess, a playful glint flashed in his eyes.

It seemed his diligent efforts in dual cultivation—and the nights spent ‘helping’ her—were not in vain.

“Now that she is a Nascent Soul cultivator, the system’s return multiplier should increase…”

As if waiting for his cue, the System chimed again.

[Congratulations. Host’s Dao Companion, Qiu Ruoli, has successfully condensed a Nascent Soul.] [Return Multiplier Upgrade: Hundredfold!]

Hundredfold?

Shen Xian’s eyes widened, a predatory gleam flashing within them.

A hundredfold return meant that if he gifted her a standard Dharma Treasure, he could receive a top-tier Spirit Treasure. If he gave her something valuable…

This was a windfall of astronomical proportions.

His mind immediately went to the Heavenly Mechanism Disk—that Top-Grade True Spirit Treasure sitting in his storage.

If he gifted that to her… would the System return a Heaven-Reaching Spirit Treasure? Or something even beyond that?

His heart beat faster. The potential profit was staggering.

Patience, he told himself. Qiu Ruoli just broke through. She’s likely stabilizing her realm and won’t emerge from seclusion immediately.

He would wait until she came out.

Feeling refreshed and significantly more powerful, Shen Xian stretched his limbs. The joints popped with the sound of cracking stone. He dispelled the barrier and walked back to the forging room.

Inside, Ai Xiao was still fully engrossed in his work.

The Rank 4 Artifact Forger was manipulating the furnace fire with a steady, rhythmic technique. The flames danced like extensions of his own arms.

Yet, Ai Xiao’s brow was furrowed. “I have the melting point of the Star Pattern Steel under control… but the grain is still too muddy. The patterns aren’t clearing up.”

Artifact forging was a discipline of microscopic details. A muddy grain wouldn’t cause the refinement to fail, but it would cap the item’s potential quality. It was the difference between ‘Good’ and ‘Perfect.’

Shen Xian stood with his hands behind his back, his upgraded Divine Sense sweeping over the furnace.

“The heat control is fine,” Shen Xian said coolly. “But your spiritual power circulation is too conservative.”

In his elevated mood, the flaw was glaringly obvious.

Ai Xiao startled, then immediately adjusted his hand seals. “Master Wang is right. I was too focused on stability and lost my edge.”

He poured more Qi into the array. The furnace fire roared to life, becoming more active. But to Ai Xiao’s dismay, the delicate patterns on the Star Pattern Steel became even more blurred, washed out by the intensity.

“Overcorrection,” Shen Xian noted. “Going too far is as bad as falling short.”

He stepped forward, raising a hand. He didn’t push Ai Xiao aside but simply tapped the air. A beam of precise spiritual light shot into the furnace.

“Watch closely. This is the essence of Gossamer Thread Fire Control.”

Whoosh.

The roaring fire in the furnace suddenly split. It didn’t grow or shrink, but unraveled into hundreds of threads as fine as human hair. These threads didn’t burn the steel indiscriminately; they wove through the metal, tracing the natural Star Patterns with surgical precision.

Ai Xiao’s pupils contracted to pinpoints. “You… you can control fire to such a microscopic degree?”

As a veteran with centuries of experience, he understood exactly how terrifying this display was.

“No brute force,” Ai Xiao whispered, his eyes glued to the flames. “Using finesse to break the deadlock… simple, yet profound.”

His rough fingers twitched, unconsciously mimicking Shen Xian’s movements in the air.

“You try,” Shen Xian said, suddenly withdrawing his control.

Ai Xiao didn’t hesitate. He shifted his stance, his fingers dancing in a complex rhythm. The furnace fire obediently split into dozens of threads.

It was nowhere near the hundreds Shen Xian had summoned, nor as stable, but it was a massive improvement over his previous blunt-force method.

“I see! I see!” Ai Xiao laughed, his face flushed with the heat and excitement. “The spiritual power needs to be pulsed—released and withdrawn in the same breath…”

Shen Xian nodded approvingly. “Not bad. Your comprehension is decent. Remember: forging is like cultivation. Too rigid and it breaks; too soft and it’s useless. Balance is the Dao.”

Ai Xiao felt a sensation akin to enlightenment washing over him.

As a Rank 4 Artifact Forger, he had raw skill. His weakness was his background—he lacked the deep, systematic heritage of a major sect, leaving him with few advanced techniques.

Shen Xian, as a Rank 5 Artifact Forger (courtesy of the System), had the complete library of techniques ingrained in his mind. He could dismantle Ai Xiao’s problems with a glance.

With Shen Xian’s guidance, the melting of the Star Pattern Steel proceeded with terrifying speed.