Compared to half a year ago, Nie Tian had not only grown stronger, but also become quite a bit taller.
In An s.h.i.+yi’s eyes, he had been nothing more than a child half a year ago. However, the Nie Tian currently in front of her had already grown into a young man.
After the Green Illusion dimension trial, not only had Nie Tian’s cultivation base improved significantly, but he had also shed away his immaturity and had become more confident and calm.
Even though An s.h.i.+yi was surprised by all the changes, what had really made her sigh with mixed emotions was Nie Tian’s current status.
He’s now Wu Ji’s disciple.
She had long since heard about the name Wu Ji as well as his honorable status, not only in the Cloudsoaring sect, but even across the entire Realm of Flame Heaven.
Having been chosen by Wu Ji, Nie Tian could be considered to have reached the heavens with a single bound.
Because of Wu Ji, Nie Tian’s future had become immeasurable.
She understood that Nie Tian’s ident.i.ty as Wu Ji’s disciple had even made the domineering Yuan Xian avoid offending him and never again dare to cause trouble with the Nie clan.
“Sister An, how come you’re greeting guests?” Nie Tian asked with a chuckle.
An s.h.i.+yi snapped out of her reverie, forced a smile, and said, “The sect has been short on hands lately. Well… enough chatting. I’ll arrange for people to take you to Jiang Lingzhu and the others.”
“She’s here, too?” Nie Tian asked in confusion.
“Of course,” An s.h.i.+yi responded. “The Cloudsoaring sect, Grayvale sect, and Mystic Mist sect have all come, as well as several subordinate clans of our sect.”
Nie Tian nodded. “Oh, I see."
“Go ahead. I’ll find you and chat when I get time,” said An s.h.i.+yi.
Nie Tian didn’t read too much into her words. “Okay, then I’ll head inside first.”
“Liu He, bring Nie Tian to the Cloudsoaring sect’s residence,” An s.h.i.+yi instructed.
A person from the Spiritual Treasure sect hurried out of the sect gate and said respectfully, ”Please, follow me.”
WHOOs.h.!.+
At that moment, the Thunder Beast flapped its wings and took off, soaring high into the clouds.
Knowing that Jiang Lingzhu and others from the Cloudsoaring sect were also here, Nie Tian didn’t worry about the departure of the Thunder Beast.
He believed that since Jiang Lingzhu was here, whether or not the Thunder Beast would return and pick him up after the convention, he would be able to return to his sect along with Jiang Lingzhu and the others.
Therefore, under the guidance of the man from the Spiritual Treasure sect, he entered the main gate.
Once he was inside, he saw numerous stone pavilions alongside the stone roads, with Qi warriors of different realms constantly going in and out of them.
A loud laugh echoed out from within a stone cave that was in the mountain peak to his left.
“I’ve done it! Hahaha! It has finally been refined!”
An old man with red hair and a bushy beard that still had sparks of fire shooting out of it, was waving a long sword that had rays of moonlight flowing within, as if he had gone insane.
Nie Tian looked up towards the incomparably excited old man, and asked, “Equipment forger?”
Liu He, the escort, nodded while smiling. With a brief bow, he said, “In the entire Realm of Flame Heaven, we have the most equipment forgers in our sect. They all live in the stone caves in the nearby mountains, within which there are equipment forging rooms. Those unique equipment forging rooms are connected to the blazing flames at the earth’s core, enabling the equipment forgers to easily melt and forge items.
“A lot of rich buyers have come to this Treasure Convention, so all the equipment forgers are hoping to refine unique spiritual tools and then sell them for a good price.
“That’s why they’ve been rus.h.i.+ng with their work during the last couple of days. They all want to forge high-ranked spiritual tools.”
Nie Tian nodded blankly and said, ”Oh, so that’s how it is.”
He had heard his master Wu Ji talk about the Treasure Conventions of the Spiritual Treasure sect, so he knew something about them.
Liu He didn’t lie, as most of the formidable equipment forgers of the Realm of Flame Heaven were truly from the Spiritual Treasure sect, and the Spiritual Treasure sect was located at the heart of Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, which was an excellent place for the equipment forgers to refine items.
In order for equipment forgers to refine a spiritual weapon, they would need fierce flames to melt the spiritual materials.
Deep under the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range was concealed a powerful earthflame. Through special means, the Spiritual Treasure sect channeled the earth’s core flame to each and every one of the forging rooms within the caves, so as to facilitate the equipment forgers in refining and forging spiritual tools, as well as to improve their equipment forging skills.
Spiritual tools forged by the equipment forgers of the Spiritual Treasure sect would usually be s.h.i.+pped to the seven major cities for sale.
The equipment forgers would get spirit stones in return for selling the spiritual tools, which they would then use to buy various kinds of materials to refine spiritual tools of even higher ranks.
However, the spiritual tools that were s.h.i.+pped into the seven cities often wouldn’t be of premium quality or high rankings.
The Spiritual Treasure sect would usually stock up the ones that were truly rare, had special usage, or high ratings. Then they would wait to sell them during the Treasure Conventions to the Mystic Mist sect, Grayvale sect, and Cloudsoaring sect.
Only those three sects would be able to afford the truly high-ranked spiritual tools.
According to Wu Ji, not only did the tools forged by the Spiritual Treasure sect excel in the Realm of Flame Heaven, they were even reputable throughout the entire Domain of the Falling Stars.
Wu Ji said that they had even attracted Qi warriors from the other eight realms to travel across the river of stars just to attend the Treasure Conventions held by the Spiritual Treasure sect.
Moreover, the Spiritual Treasure sect would specially supply the Qi warriors from the other eight realms with a selection of spiritual tools they had forged.
Nie Tian pondered as he followed Liu He. Before long, they arrived in front of a six-story stone pavilion.
“All the guests from the Cloudsoaring sect have been arranged to live here.”
Liu He raised his voice and asked, “Is Mr. Liu here?”
“I’m here.” Liu Yan’s voice came from within the stone pavilion.
“Excuse me.” Hearing Liu Yan’s answer, Liu He bowed briefly and went back along the route they had taken to get here.
Moments after he left, Liu Yan from the Cloudsoaring sect walked out of the pavilion door.
Liu Yan examined Nie Tian with his eyes. “Are you the one who called my name?”
“Greetings, Mr. Liu!” Nie Tian greeted him in a grand manner.
Although he couldn’t remember Liu Yan’s appearance, he had heard from Nie Donghai and Nie Qian that when he was one year old, it was because of Liu Yan’s consent and sparing two additional spiritual tools that he was allowed to take part in the Lot-drawing Convention.
He also knew that back then he had angered many people with his domineering actions at the convention. Had it not been for Liu Yan taking his side, he would have surely been punished by the clan at the age of one...
Furthermore, the dragon bone that had practically changed his life had also belonged to Liu Yan.
For these reasons, he harbored grat.i.tude towards Liu Yan ever since he had known about him. Unfortunately, because of his previously insignificant status, he didn’t have the chance to go to the Cloudsoaring sect and visit him.
Furthermore, Nie Tian spent the past half a year apprenticing to Wu Ji in the back mountain, and thus still hadn’t found the chance to visit him.
To his surprise, he finally got to meet Liu Yan, who had shown major kindness to him, during his trip to the Spiritual Treasure sect.
“Greetings...” Liu Yan stared at Nie Tian, who kowtowed to him with great sincerity and respect. He was confused and couldn’t recall who the teenager in front of him was.
Jiang Lingzhu blurted out from inside the room, “Uncle Liu, he’s Nie Tian.”
“Nie... Nie Tian?!” Liu Yan was taken aback. After a moment he recovered from his state of amazement and said, “It’s you, kid! Enough with the courtesy. Quickly get up. I don’t dare accept it!”
He helped Nie Tian up.
However, Nie Tian took three steps backwards, and bowed. Only after that did he raise his chin and say, “Uncle Liu, I was just one year old then we met, and therefore couldn’t remember what you looked like. But I heard more than a few times about you from my aunt and grandfather. I’ve always been grateful for what you did, and I always wanted to visit you in the Cloudsoaring sect. Unfortunately I never had the chance to do so.”
“Hahaha!” Liu Yan laughed out loud. “Your mom was my junior martial sister. It’s only right that I look after you. You don’t need to burden yourself with it.”
With these words, Liu Yan stopped laughing, but instead looked deeply at Nie Tian and said, “But I never thought her son would be even more outstanding than her. Back when your grandfather asked me to test your cultivation talent, I didn’t discover anything.
“After all, I wasn’t martial granduncle. I didn’t have his acute perception, and wasn’t able to see through your potential at that time.
“However, seeing what you have achieved today, I’m really happy for her. I hope that you can take advantage of such a rare opportunity and rise up like your two senior martial brothers, stepping out of the Realm of Flame Heaven one day.”
“Thank you, Mr. Liu!” Nie Tian said respectfully.
Liu Yan promptly shook his head. “I can’t accept it, I really can’t accept it. You’re martial granduncle’s disciple, so according to seniority, I should address you as martial uncle.”
“So let’s put seniority aside,” Nie Tian said sincerely. “If you don’t mind, how about I address you as Uncle Liu from now on?”
“Well, sure." An elated expression appeared on Liu Yan’s face. “Let’s get inside. We’re family now. Come on in.”
Then, he led Nie Tian into the stone pavillion.
“Let me introduce you to everyone.” Once they were inside, Liu Yan pointed at a few people from the Cloudsoaring sect and introduced every one of them to Nie Tian. “You know Jiang Lingzhu and Ye Gumo, so I won’t say more about them. This is s.h.i.+ Yi, and she is Luo Xin. They are my junior martial brother and sister. My master Wu Xing brought us here, but he isn’t here at the moment. He went to catch up with his friends from the Spiritual Treasure sect.”
Nie Tian was about to greet them one by one. However, those who had just been introduced to him all had strange expressions on their faces as they greeted Nie Tian first. “Greetings, martial uncle.”
Even Jiang Lingzhu, whose face was filled with unwillingness, greeted him obediently.
“s.h.i.+ Yi and Luo Xin are my junior martial brother and sister.” Liu Yan explained in a soft voice. “s.h.i.+ Yi has been a member of the sect for quite some time. When your mother was still with us, he had already become my master’s disciple. Luo Xin was taken in by my master nine years ago. She never met you mother.”
Nie Tian looked at the silent s.h.i.+ Yi. After a moment of heistation, he said, ”Uncle s.h.i.+.”
“I dare not accept the honor,” s.h.i.+ Yi hurriedly said.
“Luo...”
He was just about to greet Luo Xin, who seemed to be only about twenty years old. The graceful Luo Xin jumped in and said, “Don’t you address me that way; I’m only a few years older than you. You can just call me Sister Xin. By all means, don’t address me as your aunt!”
“Sister Xin,” Nie Tian said with a chuckle.
Luo Xin let out a sigh of relief. With a grin, she said, “You’re so lucky that martial granduncle set his mind on you, and that the sect broke the rules that had been around for decades for you. This is really something to be proud of.”
“I’m a lucky kid,” Nie Tian said self-deprecatingly.
Liu Yan showed Nie Tian to a seat and went back to their conversation about the Treasure Convention. “Where were we?”
Nie Tian could tell that they had been discussing something before he had arrived. Hence, he sat there quietly and listened.
They had a pleasant chat.
From their conversation, Nie Tian learned that Liu Yan knew something about equipment forging, and he had great interest in the matter. Therefore he wouldn’t miss even one Treasure Convention held by the Spiritual Treasure sect.
The seven spiritual tools that Liu Yan had brought to the Nie clan years ago had been collected by him from these Treasure Conventions.
The dragon bone that had changed Nie Tian’s fate was one of them. This made Nie Tian secretly attach great importance to the convention, and at the same time, become very excited about it.