Chapter 181

"What kind of magic artifact is this?" Su Jing stared blankly at the rope on his body, feeling all the true essence in his acupoints flowing away, a sense of powerlessness surging in his heart, and some panic.

Liu Xiaolou naturally knew the power of his treasure and didn't dare to bind him for a long time. He pinched a finger technique, and the Ground-Leaving Essence-Dispersing Rope flew back to his wrist, turning back into a blue vein under his skin, and asked with a smile, "Not convinced?"

Su Jing's true essence stopped flowing away, and he felt relieved. While panting, he shook his head, "No."

For a cultivator, having a good magic artifact is definitely a manifestation of strength. If we really talk about magic artifacts, they, the sword cultivators, are the ones who truly value them, often searching hard and refining with difficulty for a suitable flying sword.

Just like the Tide-Watching Sword in Su Jing's hand, it was refined by his master Bai Changzhen helping him collect the essence of conch from the Nanhai Islands as the main material, and it was tempered in the rising and falling tides for three years. It can be said that in these three years, half of his cultivation effort was on this sword.

Therefore, losing to such a treasure, he didn't feel there was anything wrong, "Brother-in-law, what is the name of this rope?"

Liu Xiaolou naturally couldn't tell him the real name. After pondering, he changed to another name, "This is a precious treasure inherited from my Three Mystical Sect, the Mystical Truth Rope."

Su Jing asked, "Can you let me have a look?"

Liu Xiaolou said, "The rope cannot be easily brought out. Once brought out, it binds people."

Su Jing was awestruck, climbed up from the ground, bowed, and said, "I have learned!"

Dabai flapped its wings, let out a "ga," shook its head and tail, and walked away with a goose step. Xiaohei followed behind, looking back at Su Jing from time to time, let out a "meow," and jumped onto the roof beam, disappearing.

Su Jing asked again, "Brother-in-law, how is this Mystical Truth Rope refined? What conditions are needed to refine such a treasure?" He was truly asking for advice.

For this Thirteenth Brother who took the initiative to call him "brother-in-law," Liu Xiaolou liked him very much and felt they were quite compatible. Of course, the origin of the rope couldn't be spoken of, so he answered in a roundabout way, "Refining magic artifacts and practicing mystical arts are connected. Are the magic artifacts you get from others easy to use? Perhaps they can be used, but in most cases, they are not easy to use. Truly easy-to-use magic artifacts must have accompanied one's own growth, experienced wind and rain, and even experienced life and death!"

Su Jing nodded, "Tempered between life and death!"

Liu Xiaolou said with satisfaction, "Right, that's what it means! Only in this way can one breathe and share difficulties with the magic artifact! If you can't do this, you must participate in the refining of the magic artifact yourself. This time, I went to Mount Jin Ting to refine the mountain-protecting grand array for the Jin Jin Jin Tingpai. Master Tang, who presided over the refining of the grand array... has Shisanlang heard of him?"

Su Jing's face was serious, "Is it the great array master Tang Song?"

Liu Xiaolou waved his hand, "Right, that's him."

Su Jing said, "I heard he is a great array master of the same level as the elders of Mount Siming?"

Liu Xiaolou smiled, "The cultivation level is about the same, but in our array master profession, his reputation is slightly higher... Me? With my little ability, how dare I show off? Thanks to Master Tang not abandoning me, he pointed me to be his assistant and supervise the array masters in refining array plates."

"Ah... Amazing! Brother-in-law, continue."

"Haha, when I was supervising, I found that almost all array masters were rushing to refine the array plates themselves, even Master Tang was the same, and he specifically refined the most important array eye array plates. When refining, Elder Zhao of the Jin Jin Jin Tingpai... do you know Elder Zhao?"

"Nascent Soul Elder Zhao Yongchun? A high-level expert..."

"Right, he is very amiable, and I have learned a lot from him. Even such a high-level expert participated in the refining himself, fully invested, regardless of the level of cultivation."

"I understand, brother-in-law. This Tide-Watching Sword of mine was refined by me, but it was still dominated by my master, and it lacks the tempering between life and death."

"Don't worry about tempering. When the opportunity comes, it will naturally be there."

"Brother-in-law..."

"Hmm?"

"I will work hard and must break into your grand array and challenge your grand array!"

"Uh... I believe you can do it in a few years."

The news of Liu Xiaolou's return had not spread, so he had another period of quiet days to open up his acupoints. Practicing meridians is not the only way to cultivate, but in the Qi Refinement stage, it is the most basic method. Only after opening up all the meridians in the body can one talk about moving the cycle, building the Qi Sea, and refining the three flowers.

Since dual cultivation with Qingzhu, the Mystical Truth Art and the Yin-Yang Art had merged. Liu Xiaolou's speed in opening up every acupoint on his meridians was two points faster. In a year, of the fourteen acupoints on the Foot Jueyin Meridian, he had opened nine: Dadun, Xingjian, Taichong, Zhongfeng, Ligou, Zhongdu, Xiguan, Ququan, and Yinbao. Although it was not as fast as the first time he opened his mind through dual cultivation, it was still much faster than his former self.

In addition, the practice of sword light was also the focus he always paid attention to.

Even when refining array plates on Mount Jin Ting, when running back and forth between the earth fire holes, as long as there was no one around, he would pour true essence into the Three Mystical Sword and practice sword light hard. After unremitting efforts, the sword light had grown from an inch long a year ago to more than three inches now, and the progress was very obvious.

The only thing he couldn't understand was that the sword light was still very thin and soft. Compared with when the sword light first appeared last year, it was still like a blade of grass—a slightly larger blade of grass, willow branch, vine...

Fortunately, it was sharper than before, and it was quite easy to use after it grew, quite like a soft sword, but it was always so limp, and he always felt it was a bit embarrassing to take out.

It was truly strange!

In any case, in the less than three years since he married into the Su family, he had broken through two levels in a row, from the third stage to the fifth stage, and the cultivation progress of the fifth stage was more than half over. The speed was quite fast, and most of the reason was that he didn't lack spirit stones.

He didn't have to run around for spirit stones, often ate spirit rice, drank spirit wine, tasted spirit fish and shrimp, and his cultivation was stable without great danger or worry. This was the benefit of marrying into the Su family.

It's a pity that he hadn't been to the back mountain of Mount Shenwu and hadn't seen the divine beast Water Snake Fu raised by the Su family. It was said to be a water-type spirit beast. The young snake possessed basic water-type supernatural powers as soon as it was born and could compete with mid-stage Qi Refinement cultivators. After growing up, it had the strength of a late-stage Qi Refinement cultivator, and the best ones could even fight with Foundation Establishment cultivators. It was an important reliance for the Su family to stand in the world.

These Water Snake Fus liked to live in the White Dragon Pool in the back mountain of Mount Shenwu, feeding on the Nine-Hole Water Chestnuts in the pool, and also liked Golden-Bearded Dragon Carp, abalone shrimp, and large toads. The Golden-Bearded Dragon Carp, abalone shrimp, and toads that they couldn't finish were caught by the Su family for their own consumption.

Liu Xiaolou was forbidden from entering the back mountain, but Dabai and Xiaohei had both sneaked in. Once, when Dabai was carried back on Xiaohei's back, it was frozen like an ice lump. Liu Xiaolou boiled a pot of hot water and cooked it for a while before it recovered.

Counting it up, there were only three months left until the three-year agreement. He probably wouldn't have the opportunity to see the true face of the Water Snake Fu in the back mountain. Not only could he not see the Water Snake Fu, but he was in the Qingyu Fuyong Garden and couldn't even see the Su family members. Except for the servants in the kitchen delivering meals on time every day, almost no Su family members came to see him.

Liu Xiaolou didn't have any thoughts about this. The Su family didn't see him, and he didn't want to see the Su family!

Of course, not all Su family members. Except for Susu, didn't he have another brother-in-law who was willing to acknowledge him?