Although the thunder tribulation was handled by Sima Jiao, Liao Tingyan still successfully advanced from the Divine Transformation stage to the Void Refinement stage.

The world has its rules. Liao Tingyan’s original Four-Nine Heavenly Tribulation had become the Nine-Nine Heavenly Tribulation, which was counted against Sima Jiao. So when Sima Jiao blocked the thunder, the achievement could still be credited to Liao Tingyan.

It was like coming to take a sixth-grade math exam but finding a college calculus test, then having an outside helper burst in to finish the test. Liao Tingyan’s tribulation was thrilling but ultimately safe.

Looking only at her cultivation level, she would now be considered a powerful figure in the Inner Court, but Liao Tingyan felt no real sense of accomplishment.

If she were surrounded by those at the Qi Condensation or Foundation Building stages, she might have felt a bit proud. But besides her was a great master who could ascend at any moment, and the enemies they encountered were all at Divine Transformation, Void Refinement, or even Integration and Grand Completion stages. None were inferior to her, and all had lived hundreds or thousands of years longer. Under these circumstances, she didn’t feel her cultivation level was anything special.

After passing the tribulation, they needed to cultivate in Thunder Echoing Valley for a few more days.

Liao Tingyan didn’t want to stay, since staying here would increase her cultivation level, and the last thing she wanted now was to increase her cultivation.

Sima Jiao: “Stay here.”

Liao Tingyan: “Fine.” She somewhat missed her quiet nap spot and Shi Yuxiang’s palace full of fragrant flowers. Either place would be much more comfortable to sleep in than this barren stone field. And there might be something different about this place—the streaming mirror had no signal here, which meant a lot less fun, like suddenly losing an internet connection.

It’s easy to go from frugal to extravagant, but difficult to go from extravagant to frugal. When she first arrived in this world, she wasn’t so particular.

Sima Jiao had reasons for everything he did. If he wanted to stay here, he must have his reasons. Thinking this, Liao Tingyan asked him: “How long do we need to stay?”

Sima Jiao: “Three days.”

Liao Tingyan looked at his bandaged fingers, suspecting he was simply retaliating because she said his wound needed to be bandaged for three days. This man was truly capable of such childish behavior.

But never mind, whatever.

The thunder tribulation had taken a long time, and now it was night again. Although with her current cultivation level she could see in the dark, Liao Tingyan still preferred light, so she took out a lamp. She was particularly fond of flower-shaped lamps, where the shade had various flower patterns that cast light around like blooming flowers.

After hanging the lamp, tidying up the table, and taking out the prepared food, she began to enjoy her meal.

Liao Tingyan always believed that no matter where she went, as long as conditions allowed, she must eat well and sleep well. If she ate and slept well, her mood would improve—this was the best way to treat herself. So while traveling with Sima Jiao, she paid attention to these things wherever they went.

In her storage space, she had the most items for eating, drinking, and making life more comfortable to enhance happiness. All her favorite little objects she was used to, various cushions, fur pads, pillows, long benches, bamboo mats, barbecue grills, stew pots, simple hot pot plates, and so on—enough to instantly set up several comfortable living quarters.

Opposite to her, Sima Jiao never cared about these things. Whether living in a magnificent palace or sitting on a large stone in the wilderness, he maintained the same demeanor, as if he never needed anything to embellish or serve him.

But he didn’t object to Liao Tingyan arranging their living space and even enjoyed watching her do these things.

He watched as Liao Tingyan placed her favorite soft cushion behind her waist, sat comfortably, and then took out food and drink. Under his gaze, she enjoyed a leisurely dinner, wiped her mouth, and then pulled out two wooden figurines she had made.

There was a heavenly-tier technique called Soul-Binding Art that could temporarily give life to inanimate objects, making them obey their master’s commands. This was what Liao Tingyan was using now.

In the book of techniques Sima Jiao had given to Liao Tingyan, Soul-Binding Art was among the more difficult ones. Sima Jiao had never seen her learn heavenly-tier techniques before; she mostly looked at the simpler ones in the front. Even with those, she would clutch the book, pull her hair, look up to the sky, and exclaim how difficult they were and how she couldn’t learn them.

This was the first time he saw Liao Tingyan use a heavenly-tier technique, and he hadn’t used this Soul-Binding Art himself, so he watched with interest as Liao Tingyan animated the two wooden figurines.

The wooden figurines were palm-sized before animation, but after being animated, they grew to about waist-high on Liao Tingyan. They had round heads with eyes and mouths drawn by Liao Tingyan—her most commonly used emoticons, two eyes representing laughter and a number 3 for a pouty mouth, as well as round eyes and a lying-down 3 for another pouty mouth. They looked like cute, round matchstick figures from a cartoon that had jumped out.

The two cute round-headed figures were obedient and hardworking, cleaning up Liao Tingyan’s dinner table. One took a small hammer Liao Tingyan gave it and began diligently massaging her back with heaving breaths.

Sima Jiao had never seen such strange “people,” so he couldn’t understand why Liao Tingyan looked at the two little figures with such affection, saying they were so adorable. He glanced at the busy little figures, thinking they looked odd, then noticed the characters written on the backs of the wooden figures: “1” and “2.”

“What is that?” Sima Jiao caught one of the little figures and pointed to the number on its back.

The captured Number Two had been massaging Liao Tingyan’s back but suddenly found itself suspended in midair, waving its limbs and small hammer while making squeaking sounds.

Don’t bully children! Liao Tingyan put it back on the ground, patted its head, and then answered: “They’re numbers. That one is 1, and this one is 2.”

After speaking, she realized that the ancestor didn’t know Arabic numerals. Thinking of this, she had another question. When she and Sima Jiao dual-cultivated, she occasionally glimpsed fragments of Sima Jiao’s memories. According to the bidirectional theory, Sima Jiao should have seen some of hers too, but he had never shown any unusual reaction.

If he had seen her memories from her previous world, he should have bombarded her with ten thousand questions, but he showed no unusual behavior. Also, when she occasionally thought about her past life in moments of excitement or mentioned things from her original world, he did not react.

So she guessed that everything about her former world might be “blocked.”

Sima Jiao: “One and two? Why use such strange symbols?” He didn’t seem interested in pursuing the matter, probably thinking it was terminology from the Demon Realm.

He only showed a slight interest in the Soul-Binding Art, holding out his hand and saying: “Give me the ‘Gengchen Record of Ten Thousand Techniques.'”

The “Gengchen Record of Ten Thousand Techniques” was the massive book of techniques he had previously brought back for Liao Tingyan. She took it out and gave it to him. He quickly found the Soul-Binding Art, looked at it for about ten seconds, then closed his eyes for five seconds, after which he took a blank wooden figurine from Liao Tingyan and used the Soul-Binding Art to animate it.

Liao Tingyan: “…” Mastering a heavenly-tier technique in fifteen seconds—do you know how long it took me to learn it? I kept failing before, and only finally succeeded after reaching the Void Refinement stage! I was just feeling a bit proud!

Now, witnessing the glory of a learning genius, her pride committed suicide along with the little deer.

Sima Jiao’s animated wooden figure was also round like Little One and Little Two, but Liao Tingyan hadn’t yet drawn eyes and a mouth for it, so it was just groping around blankly.

Sima Jiao pressed one hand on the little wooden figure’s head, mischievously watching it spin beneath his hand.

Liao Tingyan thought he looked like a little boy playing with a toy.

She took the little figure back and drew an emoticon face on it too—a strangely mocking expression that had a subtle resemblance to Sima Jiao.

She numbered it 3 on its back.

Although its expression was quite mocking, Little Three was also a hardworking little figure. Liao Tingyan didn’t have much for it to do, so she took out a bag of nuts—she forgot what they were called, but they were quite tasty, just troublesome to shell.

She gave Little Three a bag of nuts and a large bowl. It sat to the side, obediently shelling nuts, filling one bowl and offering it up, then moving on to the next bowl.

Sima Jiao: “…”

Sima Jiao: “I animated that one.”

Liao Tingyan: “Hey, why distinguish between yours and mine? Here, have some nuts.” Good for the brain.

Sima Jiao was stuffed with a mouthful of nuts. He had wanted to say that normally, a spirit animated by oneself could only be commanded by oneself. But seeing Liao Tingyan’s expression, which showed she hadn’t considered this at all, he couldn’t be bothered to explain. It was probably due to their soul connection, and she seemed happy commanding it.

He chewed the nuts in his mouth and swallowed before realizing he had just eaten something, then lay back down with some discomfort.

He didn’t like eating anything, not because of the taste of the food. When he was very young, he was mostly cared for by the Shi family, who had given him some… not very good things to eat. In any case, after that, he didn’t want to eat anything.

It was not the pickiness Liao Tingyan assumed.

The animated figures would revert when their spiritual energy was exhausted. To Liao Tingyan, they were like rechargeable robots.

Liao Tingyan’s Little One and Little Two turned back first. Little Three’s durability was three times that of the first two, but it seemed a bit dull. Since Liao Tingyan didn’t tell it to stop, it just sat there shelling a small mountain of nuts. Liao Tingyan thought that the next time she animated Little Three, she wouldn’t let it shell nuts—she almost didn’t have enough stored nuts for it.

After staying for three days, even though Liao Tingyan hadn’t cultivated, she felt her cultivation level steadily increasing during these days.

“Isn’t it about time to leave?” Liao Tingyan asked.

Sima Jiao extended his hand: “Remove this and we can go.”

Liao Tingyan: “…” Alright, alright, I’ll take off your paw socks, you stinky cat.

She had taken careful care of him these three days, basically not letting the ancestor use his hands, so when she now removed the medicinal talisman, she found the healing was a bit better than she had expected. She held Sima Jiao’s hands, just like Er Kang holding Zi Wei’s hands, and suddenly possessed by an acting spirit, she said with deep emotion: “Promise me, be careful not to tear the wound, and don’t bump or hit it. It would break my heart.”

Sima Jiao’s expression looked as if she had dropped a caterpillar inside his clothes.

Liao Tingyan: “Wait! Aren’t we leaving? Why are you walking inward?” Had he gotten angry because she was laughing at him in her heart just now?

Sima Jiao turned his head to look at her. “Just getting something before we go.”

Liao Tingyan was certain that what he described so casually as just picking something up was not simple.

Sima Jiao reached out to take her hand, to bring her along. Liao Tingyan first hugged his waist. “I’ll hold on myself. Don’t use force with your hands.”

Sima Jiao then placed his hand on her shoulder. In an instant, he brought Liao Tingyan to the center of Thunder Echoing Valley, released her, and bent down with his five fingers spread, pressing on an ordinary-looking stone in the center.

Heaven and earth trembled, but the place where they stood remained motionless. Liao Tingyan felt emptiness beneath her feet, quickly steadied herself, and hovered in midair, discovering that she and Sima Jiao were standing in a river of stars.

In this vast blackness, there were sparkling purple points of light, flowing like a river beneath her feet.

“Come.” Sima Jiao walked along the purple starry river, with Liao Tingyan following behind, watching those purple points of light. When they floated before her eyes, she saw that they were flower-shaped points of light.

After walking on this path for a while, several converging rivers of stars appeared ahead. All the brilliant points of light surrounded a fist-sized purple stone, with small arcs of electricity coiled around it.

When Sima Jiao reached out to pick it up, those electric arcs crackled and pierced into his fingers then were torn open by him—like tearing the white pith from orange segments.

After tearing them clean, he casually placed the stone in Liao Tingyan’s hand.

“Alright, let’s go.”

“What is this?” Liao Tingyan turned the stone over, examining it.

Sima Jiao: “Thunder Stone.”

Liao Tingyan: “Seeing the environment it appeared in, I can’t help but suspect that this high-end, prestigious Thunder Stone is a very important object in Thunder Echoing Valley.”

Sima Jiao pointed at the internally luminous stone. “It is the ‘heart’ of Thunder Echoing Valley. The valley’s ability to block thunder tribulations is mainly due to its function.”

Liao Tingyan: “…” So you’re saying that by taking this away, you’ve destroyed Thunder Echoing Valley?

“People will discover it’s missing,” Liao Tingyan said nervously as she put the stone away. But joking aside, since it was so useful, even if it was discovered missing, they should take it—they might need it again.

Sima Jiao: “They won’t. By the time they discover it, some time will have passed.” By then, no one would care about this place anymore. Thinking of this, he smiled with satisfaction.

As they were leaving, Liao Tingyan still felt a sense of unreality. “You just casually came here, and then casually took away their most important thing, just like that, so simple.”

Sima Jiao: “Thunder Echoing Valley was created by the Sima clan in the past. The Thunder Stone also belonged to the Sima clan.”

Liao Tingyan: “No wonder you could enter! But even though it was your territory before since the Shi clan has controlled it for so long, haven’t they set up some prohibitions or restrictions to prevent people of the Sima clan from coming and going freely?”

Sima Jiao snorted derisively. “Of course, they set them up, but were they effective against me?”

Hmph, trash, useless. His expression wrote it.

Liao Tingyan thought that just with this ancestor’s mouth and expression, he could anger at least ten people from the Shi family to death.