The two Lotus Concealed in the Womb floated in midair above the Tooth Craftsman's hands. Their petals were translucent, with veins like blood vessels pulsing rhythmically.
At the center of each lotus was a lump of blood-red flesh that resembled a beating heart.
Both the petals and the lotus heart faintly shimmered with golden light. A pure fragrance filled the air, dispersing as a soft mist that drifted to the ground. Wherever it touched, new sprouts broke through the soil.
The once-charred earth became instantly lush and full of life, mysterious and sacred.
"Just like in the game. Even the special effects are perfectly replicated," Gu Fangchen muttered in awe as he took the lotuses to examine them.
The Tooth Craftsman truly lived up to his name as one of the ancestral masters of the Tenfold Dao's Crafting Path. His skill was beyond reproach.
Of course, the final product's appearance depended on how precisely the customer described it.
To create a convincing imitation, one had to have seen the genuine item and know its details inside and out.
Otherwise, even the Tooth Craftsman could not forge what he had never seen.
And Gu Fangchen had described every detail of the original with perfect accuracy.
Even though he knew full well these were fakes, the sight before him was so lifelike it momentarily deceived even him.
For anyone who had never seen the real thing, there would be no flaw to find.
The Tooth Craftsman watched him store the two Lotus Concealed in the Womb inside his spatial ring, and rare curiosity flickered in his eyes. He rubbed his hands and asked,
"You traded me those two teeth just to make two fake Lotus Concealed in the Womb?"
"With your abilities, even without the blueprints for the real thing, you could easily obtain the designs for other artifacts of the same grade."
"If you just wanted to trick someone, one fake would have been enough. Why go to such trouble?"
If it were anyone else, the Tooth Craftsman would not have been so casual.
Over the years, countless people had come to trade with him, yet few understood his obsession with teeth, often pestering him with endless questions.
Others tried to cheat him, bringing only mundane, worthless teeth.
But the two teeth Gu Fangchen had given him were of the highest and rarest quality, absolute treasures in his collection.
And the transaction had been quick and clean: no useless chatter, no haggling.
A perfect customer.
So the Tooth Craftsman was in a good mood, willing to indulge in a little small talk.
Gu Fangchen raised an eyebrow, crossed his arms, and said leisurely,
"Since when does the Tooth Craftsman inquire into his clients' purposes?"
The Tooth Craftsman chuckled.
"I'm human too. Naturally, I have my curiosities."
Gu Fangchen pretended to think deeply, then said with mock seriousness,
"I don't mind telling you. But you have your rules, and I have mine. If you want to know my purpose, you'll have to trade me something of equal value."
The Tooth Craftsman straightened up, amused.
"What purpose of yours could possibly be worth more than my lifetime's collection?"
He opened the toolbox behind him and took out a small golden scale.
That scale was the tool he used to measure the value of trades, an artifact he'd once obtained from the Dao Lord of Equilibrium.
He didn't decide a tooth's worth purely by whim.
Everything had to be weighed. Only if both sides balanced would the deal be sealed.
Sometimes, of course, he bent the rules when a particular tooth caught his fancy.
The scale could weigh not only objects but also certain concepts that existed in the world.
The Tooth Craftsman confidently handed Gu Fangchen a sheet of paper and a pen.
"Write your purpose on this paper and place it on the left pan. I'll add items from my collection to the right. If they balance, the deal is done. How about it?"
Gu Fangchen accepted the pen, thought for a moment, and then a sudden idea flashed through his mind.
He knew exactly what that scale could do, especially since it was connected to the powers of the Dao Lord of Equilibrium himself, the Eternal Peace Emperor.
If the scale worked, the Emperor would sense it each time it was used.
Perhaps... it was worth trying.
Gu Fangchen paused, then wrote a few words on the paper and gently placed it on the left pan.
With a metallic clang, the left side of the scale sank straight down.
The Tooth Craftsman blinked.
He looked from Gu Fangchen, who was trying hard to maintain a mysterious expression, to the scale, then said skeptically,
"Try lifting it off and putting it down again."
Gu Fangchen nearly broke composure but managed to keep a straight face.
He did as told, lifted the paper and set it down again.
Clang!
Once more, it dropped heavily to the bottom, unmoving.
The Tooth Craftsman sucked in a sharp breath. His eyes widened, and he carefully examined the scale to confirm it wasn't broken.
When he was sure it was fine, his face turned black as soot.
The two teeth had only sunk the scale two inches, one from a saintly spirit beast, the other from a divine barbarian god, both priceless rarities.
Yet this boy's "purpose" outweighed them by such a staggering margin?!
Shock gave way to burning curiosity.
Just what was this boy trying to do?
Grinding his teeth, the Tooth Craftsman dug into his toolbox and pulled out a coil of lightning-wreathed wire, a jade-blue bow with a pearl at its heart, and a small jade bottle.
He placed all three on the right pan. The scale rose halfway, but still failed to balance.
His face darkened even further.
Gu Fangchen's eyes lit up, marveling at the treasures laid out before him.
The old craftsman really was pulling out his best stock.
The golden wire was Thousand Tribulation Silk, forged from one thousand strands of heavenly lightning, each drawn from a separate tribulation.
Flexible yet indestructible, infused with thunder's might, it could bind or kill with equal ease.
The bow was called Rising Tide of the Azure Sea, its pearl inlaid from the Sea Kingdom's Azure Ocean Pearl.
When drawn and fired, it could summon rain and transform each drop into countless piercing arrows.
The last time Gu Fangchen had needed to summon the Marshlands of Dreaming Clouds, he had required four formation masters. With this bow, one arrow into the sky would have done the job, at least in theory.
Because to draw that bow required a fifth-rank martial cultivation, and special arrows.
The only arrows it could use were tipped with Merfolk Tears.
Yes, the very same beads Gu Fangchen had used as formation mediums when he first crossed over, the ones he'd hung as curtains in his room.
Each shot consumed one bead.
A single arrow was a literal fortune spent.
No ordinary person could afford to even nock it.
As for the jade bottle, that was even more incredible.
Gu Fangchen recognized it instantly, the Spirit-Nurturing Bottle.
As the name suggested, it could contain souls.
But its purpose was far darker than the name implied.
It absorbed and refined others' spirits, turning them into divine nectar that could be drunk to directly enhance one's divine cultivation.
It was eerily similar to a notorious item known as the Banner of Ten Thousand Souls.
If this bottle had a visual effect, it would surely be emitting black smoke.
Its reputation in righteous circles was abysmal.
But for Gu Fangchen, it was perfect.
His current body's dantian was artificial, powered entirely by Demon-Suppressing Nails forming his spiritual circuit.
The Lotus Concealed in the Womb would eventually rebuild his spiritual foundation, but the process was complex.
He wasn't yet safe enough to perform it, not until he reunited with Ning Caiyong and the others and reached Sword Pavilion.
Until then, he couldn't advance his divine cultivation by normal means.
But the Spirit-Nurturing Bottle posed no such restriction.
And since the Demon Sect was surely hunting him, someone would soon come to "deliver" him their souls.
"This kid's cursed!"
"What kind of purpose is so heavy?!"
"And how can all my treasures still not outweigh it?!"
The Tooth Craftsman's face was flushed with disbelief and stubborn pride.
At this point, it wasn't about value anymore, it was about his dignity.
Grinding his teeth, he reached into his chest of tools and carefully lifted out a porcelain doll as white as snow. He placed it gently onto the scale.
Creak...
The scale swayed, then slowly rose to balance.
The Tooth Craftsman exhaled heavily, suppressing the pain in his heart, straightened, and looked at Gu Fangchen with smug satisfaction.
"Done. The trade is complete. These items are yours."
He waved a hand grandly.
"Take them quickly!"
Gu Fangchen's eyes widened when he saw the porcelain doll, his heart skipping a beat.
He hadn't expected the craftsman to part with that!
He must have truly provoked him.
Afraid the man might regret it, Gu Fangchen quickly stored the items away, bowed solemnly, and said,
"My deepest thanks for your generosity, Master Craftsman!"
Then he turned and ran for it.
The Tooth Craftsman watched him vanish in a hurry, shaking his head with a laugh.
"So anxious? Does he really think I'd take it back?"
"Heh. As if I'd ever go back on a deal once it's made."
Amused, he reached for the paper on the left pan.
The scale returned to equilibrium.
He flipped the paper over, and froze.
There were only three characters written on it.
"I am happy."
The Tooth Craftsman stared blankly.
Gu Fangchen made two fake Lotus Concealed in the Womb for no reason other than to amuse himself?
Absurd! That wasn't even a reason!
And yet those three meaningless words had pressed the golden scale all the way down!
Slowly, his expression shifted, not anger at being mocked, but a growing solemnity.
After a long silence, he took a deep breath, turned toward the direction Gu Fangchen had left, and carefully placed the paper into his toolbox, at the very bottom, in the highest-ranked section of his collection.
...
Battlefield of Autumn Peace Road.
After a prolonged struggle, the remaining barbarian troops could no longer hold out. Their lines collapsed, soldiers discarding armor and fleeing in disarray.
"We've won! Victory is ours!"
"Thanks to the princess's consort! Without his help, we'd have fallen for the barbarians' trap!"
"Yes! I heard he trained under Marshal Ding. This first campaign of his has already earned such great merit, his future will be boundless!"
The soldiers cheered as they marched back toward camp, eager to greet the mysterious consort who had turned the tide of battle.
But when the deputy generals Shi Le and Yao Jin arrived ahead of them, their faces were oddly stiff.
The consort was nowhere to be seen.
A soldier stepped forward, puzzled.
"Generals, where is His Excellency the Consort?"
The consort had destroyed the protective mining formation and fled.
Could Shi Le say that? Of course not.
He sighed inwardly. Truth be told, the consort hadn't needed to run so fast.
If this had been before the victory, destroying the formation would have been a grave crime.
But now that they had won, it could easily be justified as a necessary tactical move, a sign of bold decisiveness.
At worst, he'd be scolded a little.
Youthful impatience, that was all.
Shi Le hesitated, unsure what to tell the men. Beside him, Yao Jin cleared his throat and said,
"Ahem... His Excellency means to seek out the Princess first!"
Shi Le immediately echoed, "Yes, yes! The Princess is still trapped. We must pursue and find the array's core!"
"All soldiers, follow me to the formation site!"
"Yes, sir!" the troops roared.
In truth, the princess's safety was no longer in question, it was only a matter of time.
The barbarian army was in full retreat, their shaman fled; the array would soon collapse.
When they arrived, a flash of sword light tore through the sky, piercing the crimson clouds. A brilliant figure descended before them.
"The Princess! Her Highness has broken free!"
Everyone knelt at once.
Xiao Yinghao's gaze swept across them and settled on Shi Le. She narrowed her eyes and asked,
"Where is he?"
Shi Le understood immediately who "he" was, Gu Fangchen.
So the consort's identity was genuine after all.
But Consort... why did you have to run?
Forcing a straight face, Shi Le said,
"He... has already departed."
Xiao Yinghao's eyes curved slightly.
"Good. Very good."
"How could my consort possibly run away? Take me to see exactly how he did it."
...
Gu Fangchen had already traveled several hundred miles.
He changed back into his original clothes and reshaped his face into a new disguise.
Then he perched in a tree, meditating to recover his strength, ready for the next attack from the Demon Sect.
Before long, he heard the rhythmic clatter of hooves approaching.
Opening his eyes, he saw a small party of riders coming slowly down the road, led by a man and woman dressed in luxurious robes.