Chapter 52: The Refining Furnace (Part 7)

Yu Chu remembered that when entering the Water Moon Flower Realm, each person was allowed to carry no more than five magical artifacts.
Xu Qianyu had already obtained five artifacts but wasn’t satisfied. Her ambition kept growing, pushing Yu Chu to craft more advanced artwork. Due to her domineering personality, Yu Chu dared not refuse.
During the day, Yu Chu endured immense pressure. At night, she imagined herself being beaten by various demons, ghosts, and Demons within the Shui Yuehua (Water Moon Flower Realm) due to her own incompetence. She pulled the blanket up to her mouth, shivering in fear.

Under this double torment, Yu Chu was mentally exhausted, with dark circles under her eyes.
Today, Xu Qianyu was determined to make a final masterpiece, heedlessly pouring all the remaining spirit stones, along with a dagger she had earned from her senior sister, into the furnace. “I plan to refine Dragon Whip.”

Seeing the mountain of spirit stones, Yu Chu had a bad feeling and hurriedly checked the manual, only to find that the Dragon Whip was a high-level artifact listed on the last page. The failure rate was close to fifty percent. Her eyes widened. “No, I can’t do it…”
“Oh, but you can,” Xu Qianyu said coldly, shutting the furnace lid.
She had compared all the options and concluded that Yu Chu had the best luck with the furnace here. To obtain a quality whip, she would have to squeeze every bit of potential from Yu Chu.
“I’ll take the loss if it fails,” Xu Qianyu said. “No need to be nervous.”
Yu Chu looked at Xu Qianyu’s intense gaze on the furnace and felt it didn’t match her casual words. A cold sweat broke out as she was overwhelmed by that stifling pressure.

The young lady’s expectations were too high for her. She hadn’t done much; it was all due to luck. But what if, one day, that luck didn’t shine upon her? It was something she couldn’t control. So many spirit stones, all burnt up in one go—wouldn’t the young lady peel her skin off?
The more she thought, the more frightened she became. She grabbed Xu Qianyu’s hand, trying to make her change her decision. But Xu Qianyu patted her hand, firmly stuffed the Eight Immortals fan into her grip, and left.

Yu Chu struggled her way to the furnace, cold sweat streaming from her hands, barely holding the fan. Mechanically, she fanned for a while, then suddenly lost consciousness for a brief moment.
She had been overly anxious these days and was exhausted. Today was like a snapped string; she didn’t know when she’d fallen asleep, even dreaming in the middle of the day.
Inside the furnace came a sizzling sound. Yu Chu’s ears twitched. She recognized this sound—it was the sound of dough fermenting. Half-awake, she thought she was back home baking pastries and instantly fanned the flames harder, making the fire obediently fall under her control.

She often stayed up late to bake pastries for the young lady, so it had become a habit. She could control the fire with her eyes closed. Listening, she seemed to see bubbles rising inside the furnace, with the flat dough puffing up to the size of an apricot, its crust swelling so thin it became transparent.
Yawning sleepily, she ignored it, waiting until the crust was about to burst before swiftly snuffing out the flames. Only then could the pastry crust be baked to the thinnest, crispest state.
After cooling it for a while, she made a gesture, and a fire dragon shot to the bottom of the furnace.
This time, the dough seemed a bit thick, taking ages to bake to a crisp. Sweat covered her forehead as she finally heard a faint sizzling sound and flipped it.

She repeated the fermenting and flipping process several times, never suspecting anything amiss in her dream, only that this time, baking pastries felt endless and exhausting. Until the furnace erupted with a loud “bang,” like iron pieces colliding and bouncing inside, shocking her awake.
Yu Chu opened her eyes and felt cold sweat drenching her clothes.
She had fallen asleep?

How could she sleep at such a crucial moment? Her face turned ashen as she scrambled to pick up the booklet, glancing at it before slumping to the floor.
In the middle of the process, she hadn’t followed a single step from the instructions.

It was over!

The scariest part was that Xu Qianyu had promised to oversee this opening of the furnace. Hearing the sounds, which signaled the end of the refining, she came over, only to find Yu Chu biting her lip, on the verge of collapse, staring at her with a pale face. Xu Qianyu asked curiously, “What’s wrong with you? Why are you sweating so much?”
Yu Chu wanted to confess, but the young lady’s shadow loomed over her heart too deeply. She looked at Xu Qianyu’s face but couldn’t speak. The thought of thousands of spirit stones she’d wasted in a careless mess—if a worthless product came out, the young lady would immediately know it was her mistake…
Xu Qianyu called her senior to help open the furnace, and beside her, there was a “thud.”
System: “Yu Chu seems to have fainted from fright.”
Xu Qianyu was a bit nervous too, but she hadn’t expected anyone to get this tense. “Useless thing, lay her down over there.”

As Yu Chu fainted, she had a ridiculous dream: she dreamt she was Xu Qianyu’s concubine, with all her relatives gathered around her bed, anxiously waiting for her to give birth.
After a long struggle, she finally heard a baby’s cry, and the midwife trembled as she held out a black, charred little creature, shocking everyone.
The young lady sat on a golden sandalwood chair beside her bed, richly dressed and grim-faced. With one look at the creature, she scolded, “Useless, ugly thing, throw it out and beat it to death!”
Yu Chu sat up in a cold sweat.

Then she realized that reality was no different from the dream: she was lying on the ground with an outer robe as a mat, the young lady sitting beside her, surrounded by many disciples. Numerous concerned, worried eyes stared at her, and seeing her sit up, they exclaimed happily, “She’s awake, she’s awake!”
Yu Chu, with a strand of hair sticking up, grabbed Xu Qianyu’s hand and said, “Miss, did I give birth? What did I give birth to?”
Xu Qianyu, startled by her, automatically ignored the strangeness of her words and simply called someone, “Bring it for her to see.”
On the tray, against a black velvet cushion, lay a long, sleek, white whip with delicate silver scales, shining as though a small dragon lay quietly coiled there.
“A Dragon Whip… I really refined it?” Yu Chu pinched her cheek in disbelief, wondering if she was still dreaming.

Xu Qianyu looked at her with a complex expression, a mixture of joy and jealousy in her gaze. “What Dragon Whip, this is the God-Punishing Whip.”
The God-Punishing Whip, one of the top ten artifacts of the sect?!
Someone handed her a treasure book. On the last page, the form of the God-Punishing Whip was depicted with spirit power, along with a line of text. She leaned in to read it, “God-Punishing Whip, crafted by outer sect disciple Yu Chu on such-and-such date.”
“The God-Punishing Whip is an Upper Grade A artifact. With a single strike, it can knock down a cultivator’s level. Its attack power is so strong it’s not even listed in our refining handbook.”
“Sister Yu Chu, you’re amazing.”
“Sister Yu Chu, it wasn’t in the booklet—how did you make it?”
“Don’t push, don’t push; let me see what Sister Yu Chu looks like.”
The crowd surged around her in chaos.
But Yu Chu stayed still, her finger resting on the line in the treasure book as if she didn’t recognize her own name.

Yu Chu. It said Yu Chu.

Since she’d joined, no one had ever noticed her—a wildflower in the corner, a little turtle hiding behind a rock. If no one bullied her, she was already lucky. When had so many people ever crowded around her, saying her name?
Her cheeks burned; even in her wildest dreams, she wouldn’t dare imagine this.
Xu Qianyu wrapped up the God-Punishing Whip and handed it to Yu Chu. “I’ve already spoken to the master to add a furnace for you. From now on, you’ll refine artworks with me… What are you doing?”
Yu Chu was persistently trying to return the whip to her hands. Xu Qianyu asked, puzzled, “You made it yourself. Why are you giving it to me?”
Though Xu Qianyu had provided the spirit stones, refining such a rare artifact wasn’t easy, and she had no reason to claim it. It rightfully belonged to Yu Chu.
“Here, it’s for you, Miss.” As Yu Chu looked up, tears were streaming down her face. “For you. Having this is enough for me.”

With that, she clutched the treasure book tightly and suddenly plunged herself into Xu Qianyu’s arms, holding her tightly.
After a moment, Xu Qianyu felt a warm dampness on her collar. She noticed Yu Chu’s trembling shoulders, her thin frame shaking in her embrace, feathers on her disciple’s robe quivering with each movement. Hesitantly, Xu Qianyu placed a hand on her back and felt her sobbing chest.
Yu Chu was crying.

Xu Qianyu had seen Yu Chu cry countless times before, either from fear or from her own restless thoughts, but never like this—never so quiet, so heartbroken, or so complete.
Held tightly by Yu Chu, Xu Qianyu paused and asked the system, “Do you remember what Yu Chu’s ending was?”

The system replied, “… I remember now. She used to be Lu You’s friend when he was still an outer disciple. Then, it seems she took the blame for something he did, was expelled from the sect, and nothing else was known after that.”
Expelled from the sect—how well could things have gone for her after that?
Xu Qianyu glanced at the silvery God-beating Whip in her hand and said, “So, you’re saying our world is a book you wrote?”

“Yes,” the system replied.
“No,” Xu Qianyu declared firmly. “Even if it was, starting today, it no longer is.”
The system felt a shiver of fear. 
Seeing Xu Qianyu’s determined gaze, it knew she would no longer follow the story path or attempt to win anyone over. Instead, she intended to trample the plot beneath her feet and cause a grand upheaval.
“I’m giving you one incense stick’s time to think about what you can do to make it worth my while to keep you around.” Once back, Xu Qianyu subjected the system to ruthless interrogation. “I despise useless things.”

The system whimpered.
“And things that whine and snivel.”
The system instantly went silent.
Xu Qianyu wasn’t wrong. Yu Chu used to cry often, but Xu Qianyu had forced her to stop.
“If you can’t convince me, I’ll find a cultivator to deal with you. A fox may not be able to drive out wild spirits, but the cultivators here might,” Xu Qianyu threatened.
“I… I know a hundred ways to capture male characters’ interests!” the system stammered hastily as it watched Xu Qianyu retrieve the Dream Shadow Tube of Wuzhen. Slowly, a figure in a dark robe appeared.
Since she hadn’t opened it in a while, the figure seemed fainter, with Wuzhen’s eyes closed as though still asleep.

“I also know most of the storyline.”
“I can turn into a mosquito, a fly, or a little bee to gather information! I can help take notes! Study!”
Whether Xu Qianyu listened was unclear as she set up an incense burner in front of Wuzhen.
“I also… I also understand Lu You! I know she has a’system’ too, which you can think of as an external force capable of affecting your world. I… I can sense this interference.”
However, Xu Qianyu seemed unfazed by the system’s bombshell. The system couldn’t help but ask, “How… how do you feel about Lu You?”
“Feel?” Xu Qianyu lit three sticks of incense, sounding uninterested. “Just a person.”
“A person?” The system was surprised.

Indeed, Xu Qianyu had so little interest in people she considered unimportant that she didn’t even care to look closely at Lu You until just before her death. That was why Lu You’s initial attempts at endearing herself had failed—Xu Qianyu was completely indifferent.
She was too proud.

Proud enough to be reborn without caring about Lu You—unless Lu You deliberately sought trouble.
The system dared not ask further. After all, Ruan Zhuqing was still treated like a dog, and Xie Yuzhen likely ranked even lower. What, then, of itself—the cause of all this?
The system began trembling, too scared to make a sound.
There was a “bang” as Xu Qianyu’s hand trembled while lighting the incense, and she looked up.
Wuzhen seemed to have regained his strength, his dark eyes opening with a hint of anger as he immediately struck her with the Dream Shadow Tube.
After the hit, just as he was about to close his eyes and resume lecturing, a wisp of smoke drifted by his face. He glanced down at the incense burner on the ground, his brow twitching as he tightly clenched the scroll in his hand: “…” 
Take this wretched thing away.

But Xu Qianyu, oblivious, held the incense sticks sincerely, bowing three times. “Uncle Master, your death was truly tragic. Don’t worry, I will diligently cultivate the inner—”
Before she finished, there was a loud “clatter.”
The incense burner tipped over on its own, as if someone had kicked it, scattering ashes everywhere.
A moment of silence.

“Uncle Master, your soul resides within the Dream Shadow Tube, correct?” Xu Qianyu’s expression grew serious, and she stepped forward. “You’ve been able to hear me and see this room all along.”
The corner of the young man’s robe fluttered slightly, as if he hadn’t heard her.
“Striking me with a scroll and answering my questions… none of this could be achieved solely by spells. I have other Dream Shadow Tubes, but none are as lifelike.”
Xu Qianyu pondered for a moment before continuing, “I heard that during your battle with the demon lord, you fell into the sea. The Dream Shadow Tube was retrieved from the sea by a spirit crane and belonged to you, already bearing your soul. When I fed you flower dew that day, you even stored remaining soul fragments inside.”
Xu Qianyu speculated that either Wuzhen didn’t want her to know his plans and pretended to be an illusion, or his soul was too weak to respond. “Can’t speak? A nod or shake of the head will do.”
Wuzhen still ignored her.

“Your sect has restrictions. That day, you deliberately allowed me in and even made me feed you. Since you chose me but kept me in the dark, do you think I’m a fool?” Xu Qianyu, who despised being manipulated, crossed her arms and glared. “You’re teaching me inner power. Who knows what you’re planning? If you don’t explain, I’ll close the Dream Shadow Tube and throw it back into the sea.”
After a long silence, the illusion nodded ever so slightly.
Xu Qianyu’s expression softened, and she spoke more respectfully. “Uncle Master, your body has been taken over by the demon lord. Should I inform the other elders in the sect?”
Wuzhen shook his head.
“Why? Is it because your soul is still entangled with the Demon King, and you haven’t taken it back?”
Wuzhen paused and nodded.

Seeing his hesitation, Xu Qianyu sensed the actual reason might be more complex, something he couldn’t clearly explain or wasn’t ready for her to know.
So, she didn’t press further and instead asked, “Shishu, can you still be reborn?”
The young man lowered his gaze, neither nodding nor shaking his head.
Xu Qianyu thought; he doesn’t know either.

She felt a bit sad, yet still asked, “Even Nezha could rebuild his body with a lotus root. If one day I succeed and can repay your kindness, how can I help bring you back?”
Wuzhen remained motionless.
After a long silence, three golden words appeared in the air in front of the illusion, written stroke by stroke: “Wufu Cliff.”
They were made of golden light, yet the ink seemed to drip down like blood.
Wufu Cliff.
In the next instant, the illusion seemed to exhaust its energy, vanishing abruptly and returning to the Dream Shadow Tube.

Xu Qianyu opened her book, realizing the message Butterfly gave by her senior brother could finally be put to use. However, the higher one’s cultivation, the harder it is to communicate, a way to avoid powerful cultivators being disturbed without reason. She discovered that an ordinary pen left no mark on it; she could only write with her spirit sense.
Lacking spirit sense herself, Xu Qianyu struggled, using weak consciousness to write slowly. Several times, her energy ran out, and when she paused, the message butterfly assumed she had finished. Xu Qianyu watched it flap away with her eyes wide open: “Hey, I haven’t finished writing yet!”
Shen Suwei was meditating when a golden butterfly circled around him. After a while, he opened his eyes, pinched the note between his fingers, and saw two crooked characters: “Are you there?”

Shen Suwei: “…”

For a moment, he suspected the child hadn’t told Xu Qianyu he was in seclusion. Since he was in retreat, how could he be exchanging messages? He looked at it for a while, lightly shook his wrist to erase the words, and sent it back to her.
Xu Qianyu, scratching her head in frustration and regretting wasting a message butterfly on a mere opening line, was surprised to see it return, now a blank sheet.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Before long, Shen Suwei received another message. This time, three big characters were written on it: “Wufu Cliff,” followed by a small line: “Where is it?” And then it stopped abruptly.
It was understandable why Xu Qianyu couldn’t express herself clearly; writing even five characters had taken considerable effort.

Shen Suwei didn’t respond but sent it back blank.
Xu Qianyu noticed her messages kept getting returned. She wondered if it was because messages couldn’t reach him while in seclusion. This reassured her, so she stopped sending more and focused on studying the annotated texts her senior brother had provided, working day and night to memorize what she couldn’t fully comprehend, hoping to strengthen her awareness.

After all, it would be quite embarrassing if she couldn’t even send a message properly.
For each book she finished, she sent a message.
Day after day, Shen Suwei found himself surrounded by butterflies. He eventually took one in his fingers, noticing the messages becoming longer and clearer.

“Wufu Cliff, where is it?”
“Wufu Cliff, where is it? Is it dangerous?”
“Wufu Cliff, where is it? Is it dangerous? Can I go there?”

By the time he read the last one, her handwriting had become neat and refined, resembling her usual hand.
But he didn’t understand why she had developed an interest in a place as perilous as Wufu Cliff.
Xu Qianyu prepared to write again when she saw that the message butterfly had returned. But this time, it wasn’t blank. There was a single word on it: “No.”
She was startled.
She had inquired from others and learned that Wufu Cliff was a place teeming with spirits and where many cultivators had perished; dangerous, accessible only to inner disciples during springtime. She hadn’t expected anyone to respond, thinking she was just practicing her calligraphy.
Shen Suwei received a response quite quickly, with only two hurried words: “Senior brother.”
From those words alone, he could sense Xu Qianyu’s tone.
It seemed both delighted and affectionate, as though it held deep trust.

Shen Suwei fell silent, finally voicing the question he had long hidden in his heart: “Why do you call me senior brother?”
After sending it, he thought the message sounded ridiculous. He was, after all, her senior brother in the inner sect; what else should she call him?
Yet, what he really wanted to ask was not that. He wanted to know why she felt such affection and trust and where it stemmed from.
Xu Qianyu looked at the message and hesitated a bit, realizing it did seem overly familiar and self-assured. After a moment, she didn’t explain, simply writing, “Anyway, I’ll eventually become your junior sister.”
She wasn’t wrong; as long as she passed the Water Moon Flower Realm, she’d soon enter the inner sect.
Shen Suwei read her words: “Anyway, I’ll eventually become your junior sister.”
For a moment, he felt a bit dazed.
Until he heard a faint cough beside him. Startled, he turned to see a man in white robes with white hair trailing on the ground near the entrance. The man’s cultivation was above his own, which allowed him to approach undetected.
Shen Suwei quickly hid the paper in his sleeve and turned, bowing, “Shizun.”
“This place is so quiet; it’s truly ideal for cultivation. If I weren’t the sect leader, I would also like to cultivate here,” Xu Binglai said with narrowed eyes, observing his usually composed disciple hurriedly putting away a letter. He wondered, What kind of seclusion involved exchanging letters?
But he said nothing. Shen Suwei was still advancing slowly, though not as quickly as before.
“Come out,” Xu Binglai said as he walked out of the cave. “I have something to discuss with you.”