“What is this?” asked Meng Qi, looking at the beautiful case.

“Haha, beautiful miss, please have a look!”

Long Chen opened the case, revealing an exquisite hairpin inside. Meng Qi involuntarily exclaimed, “How beautiful!”

The hairpin was seven inches long and completely golden. Complicated lines had been carved into it. At the head of the hairpin was a beautiful flower. It had eighteen petals and thirty-six pistils, looking just like a real flower.

What made Meng Qi the most surprised was that even the extremely delicate pistils were covered in decorative designs that would have required immense skill to carve. It was so beautiful that she instantly fell in love with it.

“Is this really for me?” asked Meng Qi.

“Of course. It took me a long time to carve and polish this gift. It took a lot of effort,” said Long Chen.

“Thank you, Long Chen!” Meng Qi tightly embraced Long Chen. She was filled with delight when she looked at the hairpin. There was no woman who could resist such a beautiful ornament.

However, if Guo Ran heard Long Chen’s words, it was unknown whether or not he would take his hammer and smash his boss who he respected so much.

It was true Long Chen had spent a great deal of time creating and polishing the design of this hairpin. But to say it had taken him a lot of work to make it was a bit shameless, as that hairpin was something Guo Ran had worked day and night for half a month in order to create.

“Oh?” Meng Qi suddenly let out a startled cry when she carefully held the hairpin in her hand.

“What? It feels a bit similar, right?” Long Chen smiled.

“This…” Meng Qi was a bit bewildered.

“Hehe, yes, it was created from the golden page.” Long Chen laughed. He explained, “This hairpin is now a true soul item. The eighteen petals and thirty-six pistils, along with the main body of the hairpin, can all be separated and used as weapons.

“Each piece has soul imprint runes carved into it. As long as you nourish them with your soul, then your soul energy can send out even a single pistil to kill someone silently.”

Soul items were extremely precious, and apparently, even the Wind Spirit Pavilion’s master had only possessed one soul item, a ferrule that was extremely powerful.

But regretfully, Long Chen hadn’t gotten to see it. Under that lightning tribulation, all of them had been completely exterminated, their bodies turned to dust.

Perhaps it was possible for an absolutely supreme spatial ring to survive, but Long Chen had been heavily injured, so he hadn’t had any time to clean up the battlefield.

Only someone on the level of the pavilion master had had the qualifications to possess a soul item, so it could be seen how precious they were.

“Could it be that Guo Ran made this? Creating a soul item must have been very taxing.” Meng Qi finally recalled how Long Chen had asked her for the golden page that day and then immediately went to find Guo Ran.

Taxing? Of course, it was taxing. Otherwise, that little fellow wouldn’t have almost turned hostile against him. Creating it was nothing, but the taxing part was carving those runes.

If it had been an ordinary soul item, then it would have been fine, but to carve runes into those tiny, delicate pistils was incredibly difficult.

It was fortunate Guo Ran had a shocking talent when it came to forging. He had also comprehended some tricks from the Ethereal Crafting Secret Record. Although it was an extremely shallow understanding, runes were something a forging master had to have mastered, and so it was something he was capable of doing, but it was incredibly difficult.

Just creating this small hairpin had been more difficult for him to create than his entire armor.

“For the next few days, you should pause your cultivation and focus on refining the hairpin with your soul energy. Once you brand your spiritual imprint on it, you’ll have another trump card,” said Long Chen.

If she was fighting an enemy, Meng Qi could use Magical Beasts to protect herself and then stealthily send out a flower pistil to one-shot her enemy.

This hairpin was made of soul gold, and that was something only Xiantian weapons or material on that level could block. But Xiantian weapons were incredibly precious, and less than one in two Xiantian experts possessed one.

As for Xiantian armor, that was practically unheard of. But without Xiantian armor, how would you defend against this soul item?

It could be said that once Meng Qi could use this hairpin, she would become capable of killing Xiantian experts, and her killing power might become the highest of them all.

After talking with Meng Qi for a while, Long Chen didn’t hold her up from refining the hairpin any longer. He returned to his own residence to enter seclusion.

Taking advantage of this time when no one was disturbing them, he began to crazily devour medicinal pills. When Meng Qi had tried to persuade him to retire from the cultivation world, he had felt immense pain from the bottom of his heart.

He couldn’t watch as the people around him were killed. He also couldn’t give up on finding his biological parents. So, his only choice right now was to get stronger!

Whether it was for the people by his side, his parents, or even that mysterious voice that rang in his head occasionally, he had to get stronger.

He had no retreat path. He had to charge forward all-out, because as soon as he slowed down, he would lose the companions he cherished.

…

During this time, the supermonastery was extremely calm. However, this calm was a bit frightening, because the investigation team only worked for a week before disbanding.

Zhou Qingyi wasn’t a fool, and she had already realized Long Chen hadn’t left any openings for her to catch him. Continuing like this was a waste of time and would even make people laugh at her.

So, she directly gave up on the investigation, and she sent her son back to the Xuantian Dao Sect, hoping to use her connections to invite an expert soul cultivator to seal a portion of his memories.

Sealing a portion of a person’s memories was equivalent to sealing a portion of their Spiritual Strength. In other words, that person’s soul would no longer be complete, and it would make it impossible for them to advance.

But in any case, Zhou Qifeng had always been famed for being useless. He had only reached the mid Xiantian realm thanks to a mountain of resources and special treatment. The late Xiantian realm would have been his absolute limit. For him to advance out of the Xiantian realm was an impossibility.

Since that was the case, it was best to just seal a portion of his memories. That way, he could at least live normally for a few more years.

After handling that, Zhou Qingyi didn’t make any further moves nor did she target the first monastery. Everything was exceedingly quiet.

But this quiet was unable to give people a feeling of peace. This was like the calm before the storm, and it was unknown when that storm would erupt.

This quiet lasted for a whole month. After this month had passed, a group of people appeared in the first monastery’s transportation formation.

“Long Chen, get the hell out here! I, Han Tianyu, have come to challenge you to a fight!”

A furious shout rang throughout the entire monastery, and all the disciples rushed over to the transportation formation.

“Han Tianyu!”

When they saw who it was, their expressions changed. That person was acclaimed the supermonastery’s junior generation’s number one expert, a once-in-a-thousand-year genius, Han Tianyu.

Currently, his expression was extremely dark, and killing intent filled his eyes. He seemed like a furious Magical Beast, and just looking at him gave people chills.

Behind Han Tianyu was a woman. Many people recognized her, as she had once come to the first monastery. She was the Yin family’s half-step Sea Expansion expert, Yin Qing.

Beside that woman was an icy man with a pair of eagle eyes. That man’s gaze icily swept over everything.

Any disciple whom his gaze landed on would feel their heart start to pound and find it hard to breathe. At the same time, they felt their blood rapidly circulating, as if it wanted to explode out of their bodies.

Those disciples were all horrified. It seemed as if he could almost kill them with just a look. Just how strong was this person?

The three of them walked off the transportation formation. Han Tianyu didn’t see any familiar faces in the crowd, and he once more shouted, “Long Chen, you son of a bitch, get out here!”

“Han Tianyu, could it be that you want to kill yourself but don’t have the courage, and so you want me to help you resolve that problem?”

An icy voice rang out, and everyone hastily turned their heads to see Long Chen slowly walk out. He was wearing black robes, and his gaze was practically electric.

“Long Chen!” Seeing Long Chen, Han Tianyu’s handsome face instantly became twisted, killing intent roiling out of his eyes.

Long Chen couldn’t help being puzzled. Just why would Han Tianyu suddenly appear at the first monastery? Furthermore, he dared challenge him to a fight?

Seeing Han Tianyu’s current state, Long Chen’s heart trembled. Han Tianyu seemed like a completely different person than before.

Previously, Han Tianyu had been extremely gloomy, not revealing his own emotions easily. But now, his whole body emitted a berserk aura. That aura possessed a certain aspect that even intimidated Long Chen.

Before he could examine Han Tianyu in detail, Long Chen felt a pair of eyes land on him. When he looked back at those two eagle-like eyes, his heart involuntarily clenched.

That gaze seemed to possess some kind of magical power, and when their gazes met, Long Chen felt his blood begin to circulate rapidly and out of control. His blood began to surge into his head, and if that happened, his entire head would explode.

Long Chen snorted. Activating the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, his berserk blood instantly returned to calm.

“Oh? He has some abilities.” The eagle-eyed man was a bit surprised.

Long Chen was extremely shocked inside. This man had to have an extremely bizarre cultivation technique for even a single gaze to be an attack. Ordinary disciples could be killed with just a look.

“This place is the first monastery, and without our consent, don’t you think it’s rude for your Yin family to come here? Are your ancient families all so rude?” said Long Chen icily.

“You’re wrong. I agreed to have them come here.”

Suddenly, the transportation formation lit up, and two more figures appeared in front of them.

“Greetings, monastery head.”

The two were Shui Wuhen and Zhou Qingyi. The one who had spoken was the latter. However, everyone only greeted Shui Wuhen, treating the latter as just air. Zhou Qingyi’s expression turned ugly.

“Long Chen, Han Tianyu challenges you to a life and death battle. Do you accept?” shouted Zhou Qingyi.