Qin Ruqing sat cross-legged, contemplating how to summon the artifact spirit.

Soon, the question arose: how to summon it?

This wasn’t a question that needed much thought.

Before arriving at the Lu family, Qin Ruqing had already discussed this matter with Xiao Tang.

They came up with two methods:

Pass the trials: Follow the rules of the trial ground and use exceptional performance to attract the spirit’s attention.

Leverage her connection with the Azure Lotus: If the artifact was indeed related to the Azure Lotus, showing part of its unique qualities might attract the spirit.

Each method had its pros and cons.

The first method was stable but troublesome, as it required passing the trials.

The second method was uncertain, as the connection between the artifact and the Green Lotus was merely speculative and could not be definitively discussed.

Given the current situation, Qin Ruqing’s choice was clear—she was someone who preferred to avoid trouble.

After only passing three trials, her patience was already wearing thin.

The number of trials she had passed being “three” instead of “one” was merely to see how this trial ground differed from the Fourth Domain of the Fifth House.

So, the only viable option left was to use the Green Lotus’s uniqueness to attract the spirit.

Qin Ruqing’s fingers twitched unconsciously, her first instinct was to use bloodletting.

She was very familiar with this method! Back when she was a novice and didn’t understand all aspects of the Dao Physique, she had already used bloodletting to attract various monsters.

By shedding blood, an unusual fragrance would spread, and if the amount was sufficient, Qin Ruqing was confident it could attract the artifact spirit—assuming it was indeed related to the Azure Lotus as rumored.

However, this direct method had a major flaw: it was too conspicuous!

The directionality of blood was too obvious, easily linking it back to Qin Ruqing herself.

Moreover…

Qin Ruqing glanced subtly in a direction within the trial ground, smiling to herself.

There might be many people watching secretly right now.

The trial ground appeared to be a sealed space, but such an environment also provided a 360-degree surveillance capability.

From her experience with the Fourth Domain, even the ugly object of Fifth Lingyu could monitor her through copper bells.

For a hidden family like the Lu family, achieving this was not difficult.

So, bloodletting was still too direct.

Doing so would practically announce that there was something wrong with her.

Perhaps a more subtle approach was needed.

Instead of bloodletting, she could use something else…

The effectiveness of blood was fundamentally due to its special contents. Long ago, Qin Ruqing discovered that the green energy in her blood was the key.

Previously, she didn’t know what this green energy was, but now she understood: it was “spiritual substance.”

This was the core of the Dao Physique’s function, akin to essence blood but rarer and more mysterious.

When the Dao Sovereign Fusheng helped her advance to the Dao Physique, one of the key conditions was the three drops of essence blood from a Heavenly Realm expert.

The purpose of this essence blood was essentially to provide her with a large amount of “divine substance.”

It was these “divine substances” that caused a qualitative change in her body.

The spiritual substance she was using now was slightly inferior to the “divine substance,” essentially a diluted version.

Qin Ruqing was now much more adept at manipulating this.

She summoned a flame, and the spiritual energy she extracted was enveloped in the fire.

To outsiders, it merely appeared as if she was performing a mysterious technique.

To complement the “performance” and create a more logical association, Qin Ruqing began to chant, her expression solemn and mystical, sometimes frowning and other times relaxing her brows.

This act indeed intimidated the Lu family. They frowned in unison.

The younger generation chattered, “Priest, what is she chanting? Apart from our Lu family, is there someone else who masters the summoning of natural spirits?”

The priests were at a loss for words.

How could they admit that they didn’t know what incantation Qin Ruqing was chanting?

Watching Qin Ruqing act so serious, did she really know how to awaken the spirit of the artifact?

Did the Feng Clan actually find someone who knew what they were doing?

How bizarre.

The Lu Clan members who were closely watching the star disk had no idea that soon after Qin Ruqing started muttering her incantations, her consciousness was pulled into a special space.

In this space, Qin Ruqing saw a hazy, fog-like figure.

“Are you the artifact spirit?” Qin Ruqing raised an eyebrow and asked.

She was somewhat pleased.

Even though the artifact spirit hadn’t spoken a word yet, its appearance already confirmed many things.

At the very least, it confirmed that this artifact was indeed related to the Azure Lotus Dao Ancestor.

Qin Ruqing waited for the artifact spirit to respond, but after a long wait, the hazy shadow merely conveyed some indistinct information.

Qin Ruqing frowned, analyzing for a while before she understood: “…Was it you calling me?”

Wow, was communication really going to be this difficult?

Qin Ruqing suddenly recalled what the Feng Elder had told her:

“The artifact spirit’s state is unstable—its consciousness fluctuates between clear and muddled, and it has now fallen into a deep sleep. If not for the risk of the spirit fading away, I doubt the Lu Clan would have agreed to our visit so easily.”

No wonder.

This artifact spirit’s poor condition was probably one of the reasons the Lu Clan was so confident.

Qin Ruqing’s brows furrowed deeply.

If this spirit continued to be so dull and clueless, how was she supposed to communicate with it, let alone carry out her grand scheme of persuasion?

This wouldn’t work.

Qin Ruqing had to shift her approach from “how to trick the artifact spirit” to “how to make this spirit smarter, at least enough to communicate normally.”

The answer wasn’t hard to come by.

She had previously awakened the slumbering spirit using spiritual essence, prompting it to initiate communication.

Now, she could use the same method to make the spirit a little more “awake.”

Before taking action, Qin Ruqing glanced around the surrounding space—a vast expanse of white.

She tried summoning fire, but the flames in this space had no temperature.

It was clear: this was a mental realm.

The Lu Clan shouldn’t be able to see what was happening inside her mind.

Reassured, Qin Ruqing interlaced her fingers, brought them before her eyes, and before channeling spiritual essence into the hazy figure, she intentionally said, “I’m about to give you something good. I’m helping you, so behave yourself, okay?”

Of course, she emphasized it on purpose. Who does a good deed without leaving their name these days?

She was about to give the artifact spirit something incredibly valuable—spiritual essence.

If the spirit remained completely oblivious to her efforts, she’d be losing out big time!

The shadow floated in midair, and Qin Ruqing could even sense it making a head-tilting gesture of confusion.

It took a while before it seemed to grasp what she meant, then it nodded and said, “Alright!”

Qin Ruqing let out an inexplicable sigh of relief and began to channel the essence.

At first, she didn’t dare to increase the “power output” too much, unsure if this would even work on the spirit.

But when she saw the spirit’s hazy form gradually solidify, Qin Ruqing’s eyes lit up.

She had bet correctly!

Like opening a floodgate, she increased the power, boosting efficiency while feeling a wave of dizziness.

What she was doing wasn’t literally bleeding, but it was more severe than that.

Blood essence could be replenished with some medicine from her third sister, but spiritual essence?

Even her third sister couldn’t help her with that.

This expenditure would probably take months to recover.

Qin Ruqing’s face turned pale as she mumbled, “I’m losing out here, I’m really losing out! If you’re still dumb after this, I’m going to take a huge loss!”

Just as Qin Ruqing’s vision began to blur and she felt she couldn’t hold on any longer, the artifact spirit suddenly severed the connection on its end.

Qin Ruqing breathed a sigh of relief, her shoulders slumped, and she plopped down on the ground.

She quickly closed her eyes and meditated, and after a while, the suffocating feeling in her chest finally subsided.

Qin Ruqing slowly opened her eyes.

She didn’t bother getting up; instead, she bent one knee, found a comfortable posture, and looked up at the spirit.

Its form was now much more solid compared to its previous foggy state.

Moreover, it had turned from gray to pure white and was glowing softly, swaying in the air like a floating lantern.

Seeing Qin Ruqing looking at it, the artifact spirit spoke, “Descendant of the Azure Lotus, how are you feeling?”

Wow, the Azure Lotus heir! This thing really knows how to make an entrance!

Qin Ruqing was thoroughly intrigued.

Her interested gaze meant that the artifact spirit had transformed from an inanimate object into a familiar entity in her eyes.

So, her first words were: “Artifact spirit, you shouldn’t have forgotten that I saved you, right? I risked my Dao Physique’s degradation and nearly turned into a dry corpse to transform you from a mere fool into what you are now. You should remember that, right?”

The artifact spirit looked somewhat surprised, finally able to show an expression. “So you saved me? But I wasn’t dead before.”

Qin Ruqing nodded solemnly. “You weren’t dead, but given your previous state, you were close to it, weren’t you? If you were fine, why would you be conserving energy by sleeping? Without me, could you have ended up like this?” Qin Ruqing gestured towards the spirit.

The spirit examined itself according to Qin Ruqing’s gesture and realized that without her, it could not have become what it was now. It enlightened and said, “You’re right.”

“Exactly!” Qin Ruqing was satisfied.

She had established the mutual understanding that she was the spirit’s benefactor.

Qin Ruqing shifted her position, sitting cross-legged, and said kindly to the spirit, “I saved you, but I’m not one to claim credit. Let’s talk about you instead. How did you come to be? And how did you know…” she pointed to herself, “…that I am the Azure Lotus heir?”

The spirit floated up, as if familiarizing itself with its new form, and circled Qin Ruqing before speaking. “You see, as a spirit, I am inherently a part of the rules. From the moment I gained consciousness, I naturally knew many things. When I saw you and felt your aura, the related information naturally surfaced.”

Qin Ruqing nodded.

Spirits indeed seemed to have an innate, self-taught quality.

This was convenient for her questioning.

She quickly interrogated the spirit thoroughly and understood the relationship between the Lu family’s artifact and the Four Hell Priso of the Fifth House.

The Four Hell Prison of the Fifth House was, of course, also an artifact.

It was a different part of the same artifact as the one held by the Lu family.

“You can think of my original form as a lotus without a seed pod. The seed pod was taken away by someone, and what remains is me,” the spirit explained.

Qin Ruqing understood.

The removed seed pod clearly belonged to the Fifth House.

“The original artifact was bestowed by the Dao Ancestor to his direct disciples. However, they found it impossible to wield it after some research, and since there was no great crisis at that time, they just kept it for worship.”

Qin Ruqing was taken aback.

A divine artifact handed down by the Dao Ancestor was merely used for incense?

She felt a sense of wasted potential.

“Later, the artifact naturally passed to the second-generation disciples, Dao Sovereign Fusheng and Dao Sovereign Yue Ming. At that time, the Beast Clan had invaded, and humanity faced a huge crisis, almost using all their trump cards. To leave a final hope for humanity, Fusheng had to turn to the ancient artifact meant for worship.”