The two fell silent for a moment before Zhao Di asked again: "Why didn't you tell me these things?"

  The young girl smiled wryly and said, "Having multiple romantic interests is not something to be proud of, and even if I told you, it would only make you laugh. Perhaps in the entire cultivation world, Brother Wu is the only one who truly treats me well, but unfortunately..."

  "What a pity that his spiritual roots and talent are too poor, he has no hope of building a foundation, right?" The girl hadn't finished speaking when Zhao Di interrupted her.

  The girl was taken aback, then resolutely said: "Not bad, I indeed have such thoughts. Given the current situation, even if you got the foundation pill, the chance of successfully building the foundation is not great. If you can become a foundation cultivator, that would be best. But if you fail to build the foundation, I'm afraid in the future, our cultivation generations will be different, and we won't be able to speak so intimately in front of others! Although in my heart, Brother Wu is always the person closest to me." The girl said this last sentence with tears welling up in her eyes.

  Zhao nodded, not saying anything else. The other party's words seemed ruthless, but were very realistic. In the cultivation world, so-called friends and companions are all based on the foundation of similar cultivation levels. If the cultivation level differs by one realm, it is indeed difficult to maintain. Not to mention other things, just the huge difference in lifespan alone makes it hard for people to bear.

  The girl paused for a moment, smiled and said: "I came this time just to see if Wu Gen Ge is safe. Now that I know you're back safely, it's enough. As for whether you can build the foundation successfully, let's leave it to fate. Wu Gen Ge, with your determination to cultivate, there's no need for me to say more. I know you'll do your best to break through. Xiang Er wishes you success!" After finishing speaking, the girl's slender body lightly turned around, and she stepped on a fluttering silver silk ribbon, floating away.

  Zhao Di gazed at the girl's receding back, let out a sigh, and continued on his way to Zhao Yin Peak.

  ……

  "Zhao Shidi, we've arrived!" a grey-robed monk said with a smile.

  "Lu Shixiong, you brought me here, what do you want to do? This doesn't look like the entrance to a refining room at all!" Zhao Di said coldly, his tone revealing his unmistakable anger.

  After arriving at Zhao Yin Peak, Zhao Di was preparing to rent a room for closed-door cultivation when he was suddenly stopped by Lu Wen, a fellow disciple of Zhao Yin Peak. Lu Wen said that the original entrance of the room had an accident half a month ago and the new entrance was moved to another location, and he took the lead in taking Zhao Di there.

  Although Zhao Di was very suspicious, he thought that there wouldn't be any danger, at most they would just take a detour, so with half-belief and half-doubt, he followed Lu Shixiong to another place for nearly half a day.

  When Zhao Di realized that the direction of the refining room was getting farther and farther away, and the place he was in was becoming more and more remote, just as he wanted to ask the other party, the other party had already spoken first.

  "Alas, I have no choice," Lu Wen sighed and said with a helpless expression: "Who made me so unlucky? I passed the foundation-building trial for two consecutive terms, but both times I failed to build my foundation after taking the foundation-building pills! There's nothing I can do, so I'll just have to ask my junior brother for help!" His tone was very calm, but the content scared Zhao Di half to death!

  "What do you mean? Are you trying to intercept me? How did you know I had the Zhugedan? To think that I only just returned to the sect half a day ago, how could you have anticipated and ambushed me halfway?" As Zhao Di spoke, he carefully scanned his surroundings with his divine sense, but didn't discover anything unusual. Nevertheless, he deliberately slowed down his pace, keeping some distance from the Lu surname cultivator.

  "There's no need to ask, I have my own way." The Lu surname cultivator said: "Zhao junior brother, originally I still wanted to chat with you for a while before making a move, but you're too clever, constantly moving around, and might just leave the range of the formation I set up!" As he spoke, he took out a golden light flashing talisman and lightly tapped it.

  Upon hearing this, Zhao Di hastily made a leap, but heavily crashed into a golden light wall. He focused his attention and saw that all around him, a huge golden light screen had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, several tens of feet wide and four or five feet high, encircling him and the Lu surname cultivator within it.

  "Formation!" Zhao Di exclaimed, the large light shield that was emitted couldn't possibly be a spell cast by a Qi Refining stage cultivator. Combining this with the formation disk in Lu Wen's hand, he immediately thought of some information.

  "Not bad!" Lu Wen said with a pleased expression, "This is the complete set of Golden Blade Suppressing Tiger Formation that I borrowed with great difficulty! Setting up this formation cost me three pieces of mid-grade golden spiritual stones! For Zhao Shidi, I've really splurged."

  "To deal with me, a 12th-level cultivator, why must you go to such great lengths, Brother Zhao?"

  Since it's a law array produced light shield, before breaking the law array, it is absolutely impossible to get out. He knows very little about the formation method, but since this formation requires mid-grade spirit stone to drive, its power is naturally not small. Zhao Di simply stood still and calmly pasted several defensive talismans on his body first.

  "Haha! Others may not know your true strength, Zhao Shidi, but I'm well aware of it! I've personally seen you wield several top-grade artifacts before, and I suspect they were all crafted by your own hands!" Lu Wenguao chuckled to himself, his eyes fixed intently on Zhao Di as he spoke.

  "Not bad! Brother Lu's eyes are like torches! There is a treasure here, also personally refined by me, please let Brother Lu appreciate it!" Zhao said, slowly taking out an unremarkable silver small sword. Suddenly, he fiercely sent all his spiritual energy into the small sword, which emitted a dragon's hum, carrying a silver light, and shot straight towards the Lu surname cultivator! The sword had not yet arrived, but the astonishing spiritual pressure already made it hard for people to breathe!

  "Top-grade artifact!" The Lu surname cultivator shouted, but his words didn't reveal much surprise, instead he calmly took out a black shield with a layer of dark light and said: "Junior Brother Zhao indeed has obtained a top-grade artifact, no wonder you were able to return triumphantly from the Dragon Subduing Valley where experts are as common as clouds!"

  The silver sparks emitted by the small silver sword and the black shield had not yet met when they were blocked by a layer of ink light. This seemingly unremarkable black shield actually completely withstood the first strike of the top-grade Silver Sword artifact.

  "This inkstone is also a top-grade artifact! Brother Lu indeed has good skills!" Zhao Di furrowed his brow and said slowly, "Brother Lu not only set up the Golden Blade Fierce Tiger Array in advance but also took out this top-grade defensive artifact. It's clear that he came prepared. But I really don't understand, brother, how did you manage to do all this in just half a day? Did you know in advance that I would survive and return from Dragon Descending Valley?"

  "Zhao, my junior brother, don't ask any more questions. I won't reveal even a hint of it. Now that your methods have been exposed, it's my turn as the senior brother! Let me show you the power of the Golden Blade Fow Tiger Formation! According to the person who lent me this formation, it can even kill cultivators in the Foundation Establishment stage!" Lu said, his two hands forming a strange hand seal as he struck the golden ritual plate.

  A strange scene appeared!

  A huge golden light shield formed by the array method began to shake, and the dots of golden light on it slowly gathered together, forming small balls about an inch in diameter. These golden small balls turned into dozens of three-inch-long golden short knives in the blink of an eye, with as many as thirty or forty!

  Zhao Di felt that every one of the golden short knives was equivalent to a mid-grade spell in the Refining Qi stage - "Golden Blade Technique". These thirty or forty golden knives were equivalent to thirty or forty Golden Blade Techniques, and indeed had a powerful force!

  Under the command of Lu Xingshi's golden dharma disk, these thirty or forty golden knives came from all directions and rushed towards Zhao Di without any politeness.

  If Zhao Di's mid-grade spiritual artifact, the Frost Shield, was still intact, it would naturally be able to withstand this wave of attacks! However, the Frost Shield had been completely destroyed in the valley!

  He still had several good defensive artifacts in his hand, but unfortunately they were all high-grade artifacts and it was difficult to withstand the attack of so many golden knives at once. Moreover, his spiritual power was constantly being input into the silver sword, and he didn't have any more spiritual power to control one or two defensive artifacts.

  Zhao Di had long thought of this and from the beginning did not plan to release other magical instruments, but instead pulled out a thick stack of red talismans.

  (First update! Three updates today, continued requests for collection, recommendation and advertisement!)