When Our Lady of Jinling broke through to the Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm, Master Tongtian had already been keeping an eye on her. Whenever she went out, he would intentionally watch over her. After all, she was his personal disciple, so he naturally had to protect her. If he were careless for even a moment and let some blind fool hurt his disciple—knowing full well that this was the era of the tribulation and the outside world was still extremely chaotic—if any accident really happened, even if he could take revenge, his personal disciple would never come back. Back then, there was no samsara, so once someone died, they were truly dead.
When he saw Our Lady of Jinling fighting two Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm sea demons single-handedly, Master Tongtian was very satisfied, though he remained ready to intervene at any moment to prevent accidents. When he sensed Zhou Chen's arrival, Master Tongtian unconsciously relaxed a little. But as Zhou Chen unleashed Control Over the Five Thunders, Master Tongtian's heart grew tense once again. He was terrified that Zhou Chen wouldn't recognize Our Lady of Jinling's identity and would wipe out both her and the two Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm sea demons in one go. Master Tongtian also felt a bit of grievance: dealing with merely two Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm sea demons, didn't that Control Over the Five Thunders consume a bit too much magic power? Did you think those two were in the Daluo Golden Immortal Realm? Even a Daluo Golden Immortal probably couldn't withstand that divine ability!
When the lightning of the Control Over the Five Thunders bypassed Our Lady of Jinling, Master Tongtian unconsciously breathed a sigh of relief. Although Our Lady of Jinling hadn't made it through this crisis by her own strength, the crisis was resolved nonetheless. Her safety was guaranteed, and she had also gained some practical experience; you could consider it a complete success.
In an instinctive flash, Master Tongtian moved right beside Our Lady of Jinling and Zhou Chen, leading to the scene that had just unfolded.
Master Tongtian glanced at Zhou Chen. Although Zhou Chen had always displayed the cultivation of the Earth Immortal Realm, his actual strength was no less than that of a Daluo Golden Immortal. He simply assumed that Zhou Chen was merely revealing an Earth Immortal Realm exterior to keep outsiders from knowing his true strength. Through this incident, Master Tongtian was certain that Zhou Chen must be a Daluo Golden Immortal, and a remarkably powerful one within that realm at that. Displaying the Earth Immortal Realm outwardly was just a ruse to confuse enemies.
Whose Earth Immortal Realm could unleash lightning comparable to the full-strength strike of a Daluo Golden Immortal? And looking at Zhou Chen's relaxed appearance, it wasn't even his full strength!
Earth Immortal Realm? Ha! Not even a dog would believe that!
Hearing Our Lady of Jinling's expression of gratitude, Master Tongtian felt utterly terrible. Accepting it? He hadn't even done the deed, and the actual perpetrator was standing right in front of him; he didn't have the gall for that. Telling Our Lady of Jinling the whole truth wasn't quite right either—he couldn't very well say, "You were in danger and although your Master was watching over you, I wanted you to get some experience so I didn't interfere, and it was actually your Junior Brother who saved you." If word of that got out, Master Tongtian would feel quite awkward, so he glared fiercely at Zhou Chen instead.
With thoughts spinning rapidly in his mind, Zhou Chen understood Master Tongtian's embarrassment and hurriedly smoothed things over.
"Senior Sister, Master is a Sage! Besides, this is the East Sea, right near Master's Daoist field—how could he possibly allow anything to happen to you? You are Master's most cherished personal disciple, and also the First Senior Sister of Jiejiao.
However, Master should have told you beforehand. Senior Sister was actually frightened to tears by Master; if there weren't any outsiders around, Senior Sister Jinling would have lost all her face. If word got out that the First Senior Sister of Jiejiao is a crybaby, that wouldn't look good at all!"
Zhou Chen's attempt to smooth things over was exceptionally smooth, turning Our Lady of Jinling's look of gratitude into a resentful glare, which thoroughly infuriated Master Tongtian.
Making me, her Master, take the fall for you kid and not exposing your identity as a Daluo Golden Immortal—as her Master, I can swallow that. But you kid are actively driving a wedge between me and little Jinling, isn't that going a bit too far?
However, seeing little Jinling's resentful gaze, he couldn't afford to deal with this scoundrel just yet.
"Jinling, as your teacher, seeing you break through to the Taiyi Golden Immortal Realm, I figured you needed some tempering, which is why I didn't make a move. I just wanted to see what kind of spiritual treasure suited you best."
With Master Tongtian maintaining a completely straight face, Zhou Chen almost believed him—if he hadn't been the one who caused the whole mess in the first place. But Our Lady of Jinling knew nothing of this; her resentful look vanished instantly, replaced faintly by an expression of self-reproach.
Zhou Chen's lips twitched. Seizing the moment while the iron was hot, Master Tongtian continued to solidify the master-disciple bond with Our Lady of Jinling, lest she be incited by some shameless scoundrel again.
"Through my observation, I found that this Four-Images Pagoda and the Dragon-Tiger Jade Ruyi are most suitable for you. I bestow them upon you for your self-protection."
As his voice fell, two streaks of light flew out from Master Tongtian and came to a halt right in front of Our Lady of Jinling.
A small pagoda and a ruyi radiated the majestic pressure unique to a Xiantian Spiritual Treasure. Our Lady of Jinling's face instantly beamed with joy, and she hurriedly bowed in thanks.
"Thank you, Master!"
Having finished bowing, she took the Four-Images Pagoda and the Dragon-Tiger Jade Ruyi, continuously turning them over in her hands and playing with them. Anyone could tell that Our Lady of Jinling was extremely happy.
Zhou Chen felt a twinge of envy. He wanted a Xiantian Spiritual Treasure too! Xiantian Spiritual Treasures were treasures naturally conceived by heaven and earth after the creation of the world, containing Xiantian laws within them.
Every Xiantian Spiritual Treasure possessed Xiantian restrictions. Based on the number of these restrictions, Xiantian Spiritual Treasures were divided into five grades: lower, middle, upper, top, and supreme, each possessing a different quantity of Xiantian restrictions.
Lower-grade Xiantian Spiritual Treasures had 1 to 12 Xiantian restrictions.
Middle-grade Xiantian Spiritual Treasures had 13 to 24 Xiantian restrictions.
Upper-grade Xiantian Spiritual Treasures had 25 to 36 Xiantian restrictions.
Top-grade Xiantian Spiritual Treasures had 37 to 48 Xiantian restrictions.
Supreme Xiantian Treasures had 49 Xiantian restrictions.
In truth, these Xiantian restrictions were the Xiantian grand divine abilities operating through the laws where the spiritual treasure resided. The more Xiantian restrictions there were, the stronger the Xiantian grand divine ability—or rather, the might—of the spiritual treasure.
Refining a spiritual treasure was akin to gradually mastering and unlocking the doors to a treasure vault, with those doors being the Xiantian restrictions. Through the process of refinement, one opened the doors one by one to seek the treasure, ultimately gaining complete mastery over the spiritual treasure.
During the process of refining a spiritual treasure, by comprehending the profound principles within all the Xiantian restrictions and gaining insight into the Xiantian laws contained in the treasure, once the refinement was completely finished, one could execute the Xiantian grand divine ability attached to the spiritual treasure even without borrowing the treasure itself.
This was why various Xiantian Spiritual Treasures shone so brilliantly during the Investiture of the Gods period. A Xiantian Spiritual Treasure was equivalent to having a Xiantian grand divine ability coupled with its own law; the upper limit of its might was not locked. The higher one's magic power and the stronger one's cultivation realm, the greater the might of the magical treasure. However, Xiantian Spiritual Treasures did have a lower limit—meaning that as long as you were able to use the treasure, you could unleash a certain degree of its might. After all, the magical treasure inherently carried its own laws and the rules for using those laws. This was precisely why Xiantian Spiritual Treasures played such a dazzling role during the Investiture of the Gods period.
"Master, look at how weak your disciple's strength is. Don't I also need some spiritual treasures for self-protection?"
Zhou Chen rubbed his hands together, looking at Master Tongtian with a flattering expression.