Xu Mingxian went out and purchased over ten pieces of spirit iron, spending two spirit stones.
Spirit iron, spiritual herbs, and such were vastly different in price compared to finished magical artifacts and pills.
Although these spirit irons were low grade, if handed to someone with exceptional weapon refining skills, they would be enough to forge two low-grade flying swords.
Of course, like pill refinement, weapon refining also couldn't guarantee success on the first try.
Any failure meant all previous efforts were wasted.
Xu Mingxian needed this spirit iron to practice carving array patterns to serve as the foundation for setting up arrays.
Actually, spirit stones were excellent materials, but they weren't as hard as spirit iron. Once a failure occurred, the spirit stone might be directly ruined.
For the current Xu Mingxian, spirit stones were too precious. However, spirit iron was hard and could withstand multiple array pattern carvings for recycling, perfectly suitable for beginners to practice.
Afterward, Xu Mingxian stayed in his room practicing array formations.
One month, two months...
…
The year drew to a close, children competed for new calendars, old men counted past scars.
In the blink of an eye, it was the year-end sacrifice again.
Dongxi Village, the Xu family.
In previous years, all the Xu family members would gather in the great hall for a family reunion.
This time, though nearly everyone was present, there was less cheerfulness and more melancholy.
"Let's begin the feast."
After Bai Jing spoke, everyone started using their chopsticks.
The youngest, Xu Derui and Xu Deheng, still needed their mothers to feed them, but they also held chicken legs and wings in their hands, their eyes shining brightly as they stared intently.
From time to time, they would take a bite, their small hands covered in grease, as were the corners of their mouths.
Xu Dezhao, Xu Dewen, and Xu Dejing were all well-behaved, their manners and bearing extraordinary.
Xu Deling sat quietly and demurely beside Yang Ronghua.
Bai Jing surveyed them, a smile appearing at the corners of her mouth, but thinking of Xu Chuan and Xu Mingxian who were away, she put down her chopsticks and let out a long sigh.
Xu Mingwei, beside her, saw this and said with concern, "Mother, are you thinking of Father again?"
"This is the first time he's been away for so long. I always feel he's getting further and further from me. Every time I wake in the middle of the night, I dream of his back. He's clearly right in front of me, but I can never reach him no matter what."
Xu Mingwei sighed inwardly. He knew his father's aspiration was to seek immortality.
His heart toward the Dao was also far more resolute than any of theirs.
He examined the gray-white hair at Bai Jing's temples, his heart filled with sorrow.
Bai Jing had never practiced martial arts, much less cultivated immortality. She already showed signs of aging now. In at most twenty or thirty years, she would probably leave them.
"Mother, Father must also be thinking of you somewhere." Xu Mingwei said.
"I believe so too." Bai Jing smiled sweetly, "Your father is devoted and different from others, but he also has great ambitions."
"Mother, why didn't you practice martial arts in your early years?" Xu Mingxuan asked curiously.
"Why would I practice martial arts? I'm not like Rushan. Ask your sister-in-law, why doesn't she practice martial arts?"
Yang Ronghua smiled lightly, "I never liked practicing martial arts, and I have no particular talent for it."
"For many people, being able to live a stable life is the greatest fortune of this lifetime." Bai Jing said slowly, "Your father also once asked me. I was the one unwilling."
Her words came to an abrupt halt.
"Forget it. Today is a day of reunion. Speaking of such sorrowful matters is most inappropriate."
"Come, let's all raise our cups and drink together. May the Xu family rise to even greater heights in the coming year!"
"To even greater heights!"
…
Yuehu Market.
Xu Chuan and Xu Mingxian drank lightly under the moon.
Xu Mingxian looked at the expression on his face and said softly, "Are you thinking of Mother and the others?"
Xu Chuan smiled back at him lightly and took a shallow sip.
"Yes. I've been with your mother for over thirty years. This is the first time we've been separated for such a long time, and the first year-end sacrifice we haven't gathered together."
"But for the sake of the Xu family's legacy for ten thousand generations, you and I are destined to be the pioneers, the pathfinders. Yunnu, you don't blame your father, do you?"
Xu Mingxian shook his head and also gazed toward the sky.
"Father's aspiration is also this child's aspiration. This child is willing to be the foundation stone of the Xu family. Moreover, in the path of immortal cultivation, this child also takes pleasure in it."
"Haha." Xu Chuan patted Xu Mingxian's shoulder, "That's good then. You and I, father and son, will advance together hand in hand."
…
Yuehu Commandery City.
Yang Zhao's residence.
At the dinner table, Yang Zhao suddenly spoke, "Today, Great Uncle spoke to me again, wanting me to assume the position of Yang family head. What do you all think?"
Wen Jing's face brightened with joy, "Father, you should have agreed long ago!"
Lady Yang said, "Whatever choice you make, Husband, this wife will follow alongside you."
"Chang'er, what do you think?"
"If Father becomes the Yang family head, it will naturally benefit our family, but Father is already the Commandery Commandant with many official duties to handle daily. How can you spare the time?"
"That's all you see?"
Yang Zhao was slightly disappointed, feeling his son's thinking was somewhat simple.
Yang Wenfeng wanted him to serve as the Yang family head, probably most importantly to use this to establish good relations with the Xu family.
For his great uncle to do this, he must have previously discovered that the Xu family's potential was far greater than he imagined and wanted to draw them as allies.
"I've disappointed Father." Yang Shichang had always preferred straightforwardness.
"Forget it. I'll consider it further. Everyone, eat." Yang Zhao said lightly.
Several days later, Yang Zhao declined Yang Wenfeng's kind offer, citing busy affairs and limited talents.
Another month passed in a flash.
Yuehu Market.
"Seven pills, four middle-grade, three low-grade."
Looking at the newly refined pills from one furnace, Xu Chuan also revealed a joyful expression.
Over nearly a year, his pill refinement attainment had improved greatly, and the number of formed pills kept increasing.
He had already become the signature of the Zhou Clan's Pill Shop.
After Xu Chuan could stably refine middle-grade pills, his monthly salary increased from five spirit stones to seven. Zhou Sen even promised that if Xu Chuan could stably refine high-grade pills, his monthly salary could increase to fifteen.
Someone like Zhou Sen, who had immersed himself in these pill formulas for decades, could only stably refine middle-grade pills and occasionally produce a few furnaces of high-grade pills.
He was already a renowned pill refinement master in the Yuehu Market.
If Xu Chuan could truly stably refine high-grade pills, that would mean his pill refinement attainment had truly reached the master realm. Even twenty spirit stones per month, the Zhou family would gladly give. However, Xu Chuan still had the agreement with the Zhou family to refine six and take one.
During these days, he had already accumulated quite a few low-grade pills and several middle-grade pills.
One bottle of low-grade healing pills, twelve pills, priced at three spirit stones. But if one bottle were all middle-grade, the value would be five blocks.
Reaching high-grade would be worth eight spirit stones.
If it were essence-recovering or magical power advancement pills, the price would be even more expensive. However, even with Xu Chuan's talent, it would probably take another year or two to achieve this.
On the other side, Xu Mingxian's attempts at array formations had also yielded results.
He had already succeeded in carving array patterns on spirit iron using divine sense, and then began attempting to set up Spirit Gathering Arrays. However, before this, he still had to try qi-attracting arrays.
This was the foundation of Spirit Gathering Arrays.
Six qi-attracting arrays combined, plus Spirit Gathering Array patterns connecting them, could form a Spirit Gathering Grand Array.
These spirit irons were only the lowest-rank spiritual materials, containing spiritual qi far less than even one-tenth of a spirit stone. Even if successfully set up, the effect would be minimal.
If one could use spiritual vein nodes or mountain and river terrain to set up grand arrays, they would probably have the might to burn mountains and boil seas.
Of course, array formations of this level wouldn't be recorded in a small book like "Introduction to Array Dao."
The more profound the techniques and array formations, the more difficult their preservation.
Those that could be recorded in texts through written words were mostly low-rank items.
Xu Mingxian experimented for half a month.
When materials weren't enough, he went out to purchase more. After several attempts, he finally carved a complete qi-attracting array formation on a piece of spirit iron.
Once the array formation was complete, it would draw upon the surrounding power of heaven and earth, attracting spiritual qi from all directions to approach the array eye position.
Over time, it could form a faint mist.
"I've finally carved my first array formation!"