On the computer screen, two wedding scenes unfolded.
[Congratulations! Your descendant, Li Xinghuo, has wed Zishu Wandong!]
[Your descendant, Li Xinnian, has wed Nangong Qingya!]
Amidst the world of ice and snow, there were festive red adornments; within the hall, the guests' faces were filled with joy.
Regardless of where they were, Li Wei and his clansmen sent their heartfelt blessings for the children's weddings.
"Good, good, good."
In this pitch-black sea of stars, Li Wei actually felt a stinging sensation in his nose.
He rubbed it vigorously. "Damn it, I'm getting old. Getting more and more sentimental."
It took a long while for him to compose himself.
Li Wei tapped the wristband on his wrist.
The star field coordinates displayed specks of starlight—this was the coordinate map Xiao Qingluo had given him.
One of the starlights was blinking continuously. He projected his Divine Soul perception forward and outward, and an asphalt-colored, dark planet instantly came into view!
"Planet Yinwater. Its internal temperature is extremely low, containing the Rules of Ice and Time. This is the one!"
As he drew closer, Li Wei felt like a mere speck of dust in this sea of stars compared to Planet Yinwater.
The primal human fear of megastructures made Li Wei's heart skip a beat, while roaring sounds filled his ears without end.
Taking a deep breath, Li Wei held the device gifted to him by the Salvation Army and plunged abruptly into Planet Yinwater.
Sensing the surrounding temperature, golden light burst from Li Wei's eyes. "Yaotie, hurry up and build that space. Our family is about to produce a Void Refining expert!"
...
Within the blazing sun in the sky above Merit City.
Inside the Spirit Gathering Cauldron, beneath the Heavenly Fire Divine Tree, a bald, muscular man could be seen sweating like rain, swinging a giant hammer in a frenzy.
In this Spirit Gathering Cauldron space, illuminated red by the scorching flames, molten lava flowed continuously from the iron tree.
In front of him, a tall, fit woman with short white hair, wearing a vest, watched as the bald muscle man brought his hammer down.
A massive, red-hot stone slab, a hundred square meters in size, floated into the air.
"Phew."
Bai Rourou summoned a technique, using ice-cold techniques combined with the surrounding levitation arrays to cool the stone slab.
Before them, a massive cube was already half-completed, its construction as precise and orderly as stacked building blocks.
Bai Rourou fitted the now-black stone slab onto the cube.
As the incomplete cube rested in her grasp, Bai Rourou wiped the cold sweat from her forehead and gazed out at the mountains of various spirit ores piled up in the distance.
They had been living like this for over thirty years.
Just then, the Old Ancestor's spirit tablet lit up, and Bai Rourou's eyes shone with excitement.
"Ah Tie, a message came from the Old Ancestor! The matter regarding the power of Rules will be resolved in twenty years at most!"
"Hurry up! In another twenty years, our family will produce a Void Refining expert!"
Hearing this, Li Yaotie gritted his teeth and hammered with even greater speed.
"Got it. Go find Second Sister and see how she's coming along with refining Baimei."
As Bai Rourou departed.
Li Yaotie's hand gripping the forging hammer moved so fast it left afterimages. The Heaven-bestowed technique, "Primal True Fire," actually clung to the iron hammer.
[Your descendant, Li Yaotie, has spent thirty years refining the space. Through continuous tempering and the application of "Primal True Fire," he has gradually comprehended an Earth-rank hammer technique: Primal Fire Hammer.]
[Using the hammer technique through Primal True Fire increases artifact refining speed by 20%.
In combat, Heaven and Earth become the artifact to be forged; there is nothing it cannot hammer. Its power is three times his own spiritual power.]
[Due to continuous use of spiritual power, acquired Trait: Super Endurance.]
[Stamina increased by 50%. Spiritual power and spiritual power intensity permanently increased by 20%.]
"Primal, Primal!"
Li Yaotie rested only one day a year, consuming his Second Sister's pills to recover his condition.
He continued to hammer ceaselessly, fire practically shooting from his eyes as he muttered subconsciously, "Void Refining, Primal! Void Refining, Primal!"
...
Outer City. In the center of a bamboo forest, smoke swirled, rising straight into the clouds.
Many farmers of Merit City could be seen sitting cross-legged here after their farm work, absorbing the dense Heaven and Earth Spirit Qi emanating from the thatched hut in the center of the bamboo forest.
The air was filled with the fragrance of medicine; even a single breath of it was of great benefit.
Inside the thatched hut stood a pill furnace.
The Immortal Boy was fanning the fire, while Li Yaoqing sat cross-legged in the air, three meters above the furnace.
Heaven and Earth spiritual power flowed ceaselessly from her body into the furnace. Above Li Yaoqing's head, layers of spiritual formations circled.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
From within the pill furnace, the sound of pounding could actually be heard.
As the pill furnace shook, the Immortal Boy cursed viciously at it, "Old thing, thirty years have passed—what is the point of struggling? Just obediently let yourself be sealed within your body. Don't bring suffering upon yourself and force us to waste more effort!"
"Ahhh!!!"
Inside the pill furnace, white smoke swirled to take on a human form—it was none other than the Old Daoist Baimei.
Within Baimei's Soul Sea, his soul could be seen ramming wildly in every direction, yet he could not break free from the spiritual formations surrounding him on all sides.
As that white smoke surged into his Soul Sea, he felt that as time passed, he would gradually lose control of his body. His soul would be trapped by the Li family forever, and he would become... an artifact spirit.
"Let me go! I was wrong! I was truly wrong!"
Old Daoist Baimei let out a shrill wail. "Just how long do you intend to torture me? Just kill me!"
Li Yaoqing looked down at the gradually quieting pill furnace and smiled.
"Since you know you were wrong, then obediently serve my Li family to atone for your past sins."
As they spoke, Bai Rourou flew over.
"Second Sister!" Bai Rourou was drenched in sweat.
"The Old Ancestor has contacted Ah Tie. His Venerable Self has already found sufficient power of Rules; now all that's missing is Old Daoist Baimei's husk and the space."
"Good!" Li Yaoqing's eyes shone brightly.
With a casual wave of her hand, a massive bird's nest became visible in the sky above Merit City.
From within the family's communication Dharma Treasure, the "Shadow Nest," Dark Crows flew out toward the four corners of the Imperial Dynasty.