Everything that Bai Qi ordered arrived in the morning, along with a letter of invitation to the auction he had bought his pass to.

The refining and pill furnaces were placed each in one of the servant rooms. Bai Qi never intended to have servants, and so it probably was the best spot for them.

True pill or refining masters used cauldrons, but Bai Qi had no way to obtain one at the moment, so he had decided to start his training with the old, slightly easier way.

But before he proceeded to it, he had another thing to do.

"Xie Fan, I will enter the cultivation room. In case someone arrives, not that it should happen, but if it does please tell them that I am meditating and to return in two days" Bai Qi said without showing any emotion.

"But you will not" She had not moved from the spot where he had found her the day before, still standing in the middle of the yard, looking at the pond and few small trees around it.

"I will, but not entirely" A small smirk crossed his face while he turned around.

"Alright"

***

With the doors closed and the formations activated, Bai Qi willed for four small boxes to emerge from his storage ring. And as he did, he felt part of his qi become agitated. Each of the boxes was covered with sealing runes that shone with the blue light indicating their active status. Bai Qi slowly put three of them on the floor near him and placed his free palm over the single one he was holding.

"Unseal"

________________________________________________________________________

Bai Qi emerged from the cultivation exactly two days after entering it. He briefly looked at the sun, now visible in the sky, and marveled about the strange event that happened on this plane during the equivalent of the Xiazhi and Dongzhi periods.

He had asked about this while shopping and found out that supposedly the Sky Tear was not just a name, but an actual tear in the sky of this plane, one that during the two solstice periods, ones that were the best for Yang and Ying cultivators, respectively, the sun crossed that tear, and albeit its warmth continued to reach, it could not be seen, and so the light did not.

He found Xie Fan in the same place as before, and if not for the cleanliness of the manor, one that showed regular effort, Bai Qi could swear that she had not moved at all.

"Let's go, I require your assistance"

"What for?"

"I will be practicing refining, and as it's something beneficial for you, I think it's good for you to learn it as well" Bai Qi said calmly and began walking towards the east wing of the manor, one meant for servants but now turned into a provisional workshop.

***

The refining furnace he had bought was a simple bell form stone one, reinforced with runes and a pair of sets to prevent smoke.

Its capacity wasn't the best, just a pair of stones. But the quality was good, as even with the common flame, one that could be generated with the fire formation inside it, it could smelt practically any Spirit-tier ore.

Not that the intended to use the common flame, owning the full strength 'Ghostflame' - the reason for his last short session in the cultivation room.

"There are two basic processes of refining, and two different objectives are reached with each" Bai Qi explained while beginning to summon different ores from the ones from the ridge's inheritance.

As blue, red, black, and even white ores appeared, he briefly named each of them and gave a quick rundown on what were their main qualities and uses.

He also gave a bigger explanation about the materials that Xie Fan knew "An ingot of Bluesteel is an amalgamation of five 'Sea Scale' ores and one of 'Black Iron'. Both of them are good materials for weapons and armors, but the Sea Scale is slightly better for qi infusion, thus 'Bluesteel' is considered the superior material for Spirit weapons in lower-tier planes"

"Then why the 'Black Iron'?" Bai Qi's bet on Xie Fan being interested was right, and so she broke from her usual affirmations to his words and asked on her own.

"To prevent a prevalent element. Sea Scale as the name says is found in the sea, in the 'Seven Islands' case - mined from the coastal area around the Inverted Tower. So it's to make weapons-usable with any elemental skills without suffering a decrease in power" He explained while taking one of the blue ores in his hand.

"But are not ores of the metal element?"

"They are, and they are also partially influenced by the fire used to smelt and refine them, but the area in which they are mined, obtained, or harvested still influences them a great deal" Bai Qi sent a small wisp of qi at the ore, making the latter release a small hint of water element.

"..."

"This is just the basics, as a real master refiner can influence the element from the ores and minerals, but that requires skill and a cauldron, preferably one of the treasured ones" He said while placing the ore back into the pile.

"So we will use the method used in our plane?" Xie Fan asked curtly.

"Mmm. Anyway, the processes are called 'Material Refining' and 'Form Refining'. There is no difference in the first step, which is to use either a rune, formation, or spiritual flame to smelt the ores and then with qi, formations, runes, or even skill separate all the addons. The true difference lies in the second one, which is either to solidify the freed material into a form or use it directly for a weapon, armor, or else" Bai Qi explained detaidely while motioning his hand towards an ingot.

"A form like ingots?" Xie Fan understood the hint and asked for confirmation.

"Indeed" He nodded.

"And what are the advantages of the second then?"

"The quality of the weapon or armor is easier to control if the material hasn't yet solidified. Not to mention that any additions that you want to infuse into it are better accepted"

"Mmm"

"I bought some Void Stone, so I will smelt and create a pair of forms, one for throwing daggers and one for scales by using qi. Normally forms are carved out by a master refiner with the help of a runemaster to improve the result, but we will go with the simple for now" Bai Qi explained while reaching for several black stone slates.

"And then?"

"And then we will proceed to smelt the ores that I have. Some for ingots, and some directly into the forms"

Bai Qi had no truly rare materials in his possession, as even Bluesteel was comparatively cheap on a mid-tier plane, even so, he had decided to keep all the ingots for later. For now, he wanted to recall the sensation of smelting, forming, and refining a material in the most basic form. Furnace, Qi, and nothing else. It wasn't something common even in mid-tier planes, considered obsolete and time-spending, not to mention that the quality was worse... But if one wanted to learn, or in his case to recall, the situation of feeling the ore, it was by far the best.

________________________________________________________________________

The four days that Bai Qi spent smelting ores, forming throwing daggers and scales, as well teaching Xie Fan turned out to be a welcome change of pace. Not only he had stabilized his cultivation, at least to the point of requiring combat to further do it, but also recalled and felt at ease with the memories and experiences he had with the Refining Path. He never had made great strides with it, but still, at his previous peak, he had exceeded the Grandmaster level, even if it was mostly just of curiosity and the desire to learn more about each material.

He did not even count how many pieces of each they had created, and he did not truly care about it either. The daggers would be disposable anyway, as for the scales, after resmelting the mistakes, the other several sacks would be used up when he began dabbling in Armor Refining.

Xie Fan also turned out to be a very good apprentice, and albeit her enormous golem body wasn't exactly the finest thing to control, her pure qi control was very good, and she had managed to create a few ingots by herself. Now that he had left and so recalled the 'Ghostflame', he taught her how to control the flame formation, and she decided to continue practicing with the hundred or so stones of ores Bai Qi left her for it.

As he washed, changed clothes, and ran a quick check on his current shards, which numbered just a bit over five thousand, Bai Qi left the manor, starting towards the Trade District.

The previous tail was again present, but he ignored them again and simply moved at a normal pace. Well, if entering two tea houses, briefly using one of the arenas to test his entirely black 'Flaming' set, and making them lose him thrice before appearing nearby could be considered a normal pace.

The guards of neither district stopped him at all, with the formations of each gate simply confirming his identity from the resident plate he got along the manor. Well at least if he kept to the three districts freely visitable for him at the moment, as any attempt to enter the Overlord ones would require him to pass a check, as well to have an invitation to do so. As for the other two residential and the Central district, Deng Guiying had explained that although he could enter them freely, he still would need to explain the reasons for such.

***

The auction venue was an enormous pagoda located in the center of the Trade District. From what he had gathered, it also served as the headquarters for the guild, and it was indeed impressive. A tenth or so of a mile fifth, the last and smallest floor, it good up to at least a third of a mile at its base.

Three main entrances, each to a street that could accommodate at least twenty chariots side by side were guarded by dozens of cultivators dressed into the golden colors of the Hall, and Bai Qi could only acknowledge that the Hall was indeed a power on its own. After all, even if this were their Elites, having fifty Warrior Lords guarding the entrances was an impressive feat. Especially for a power that wasn't even a tiered power, at least officially.

Taking a glance around, Bai Qi selected the entrance with the most people, deciding to keep a low profile.

And while he did indeed do so, some people did not...

"Open way! The Sima Clan Young Lord is passing through!" A pair of muscular and armored guards shouted while practically throwing any passerby's or lined people from their way, making the path for an impressively decorated chariot.

Bai Qi who had by that moment mixed with a group of rogue cultivators, disciples from different powers, and others lined before the entrance he selected turned his head and was instantly attracted to the beasts pulling the chariot.

"Azure Demonbreeds!" He could only exclaim after seeing the ten feet tall, blue-skinned and crimson-manned horses.

"Oh? Young friend is knowledgeable! Indeed that is the Azure Demonbreeds that the Sima Clan is so famous for taming" A small-statured old man, with a straw hat that covered the upper part of his face and dressed into common grey robes said.

"I am just impressed to see a Saint Beast inside the City" Bai Qi said with a sheepish expression while making to steer clear from this Sima clan. If they were allowed to bring in Saint Beasts so easily and to throw people out of their way, then probably they were a power better not to meddle with.

"Ahh, you are probably new here so you don't know about it. Albeit most of the powers from Great Forest, and the low-tier from other overlords have no issues with Shuomen's laws, the 'Ten Families' consider themselves too noble to walk the same streets as commoners" The old-man explained calmly, but when he said 'Ten Families' his voice had changed into one of a well-concealed fury.

"The Ten Families, huh? The Sima Family is one of the ten that rule that region then?"

"Yes, albeit they are the weaker one of them and can be hardly compared even to a 2nd tier power from our region" Another person, a young man dressed in the bluish and fish embroidered uniform of the 'Fish Gazing Sect' interjected.

"Haha, you may be right Young Friend, but not allow them to hear you" The Old man laughed while pointing with his head to the two armored guards that had cleared the entire area near the entrance by now.

***

The closed chariot had approached the entrance and parked itself in a way that no one even could take a look at who had disembarked. And someone had, as when it left, the guards entered the pagoda as well.

Thankfully after this small incident, nothing happened, and Bai Qi, along with the two people he just met entered the Trade Hall Headquarters with no other issues, just by presenting their invitations.