According to the description given by Huan Ling Zi, Yuan Ming prepared a thick stack of blueprints, on which he detailed every aspect with meticulous annotation.

With Xi Ying's assistance, Yuan Ming demolished the previously constructed replica of the "Void Temple" and, following his own blueprints, endeavored to imitate the structure of Cloud Top Hall and rebuilt a brand new replica hall.

Standing before the peculiar structure that now stood before him, Yuan Ming felt a touch of unease in his heart, yet it was overshadowed by a greater sense of anticipation.

He paced slowly into it, sat down cross-legged with his eyes closed, and began trying to draw on the power of the stars.

In a short while, specks of starlight fell from above the grand hall, transforming into flowing radiance that poured into the Stealing Heaven Tripod.

"It has finally succeeded!" Yuan Ming's mouth curled into a smile as he looked towards Xi Ying.

"There's still one final step," Xi Ying said with a laugh.

She then stepped forward and began engraving and arranging something on the central open space of the grand hall.

In just a moment, a complex array appeared on the floor.

"Give it a try," Xi Ying suggested.

Yuan Ming nodded, took out the Silver Crystal Stone from within the space of the Stealing Heaven Tripod, and placed it in the center of the array.

Splinters of silver light peeled off from the surrounding star power, converging into the crystal stone. As they merged, the light from the Silver Crystal Stone suddenly flared brilliantly.

Seeing this scene, the tension Yuan Ming had been holding in his heart was finally relieved—he no longer needed to worry about not having enough space power.

Xi Ying also smiled knowingly and then turned to leave.

...

Inside Cloud Top Hall, where Huan Ling Zi had been waiting for contact from Yuan Ming, he felt a bit anxious.

He worried that any oversight on his part could delay the important matters of a Divine Envoy.

However, it wasn't long before Yuan Ming contacted him.

"You've done very well in this matter," Yuan Ming expressed his satisfaction.

"Being able to serve the Divine Envoy is my honor," Huan Ling Zi replied, a mix of delight and anxiety in his voice upon receiving the Divine Envoy's praise.

"These are your rewards," Yuan Ming's voice sounded, and a virtual light gate with gold and silver colors appeared.

As the gate opened, numerous spiritual medicines and fairy grasses flew out, landing before Huan Ling Zi, causing his eyes to brighten and his face to break into a smile.

"Many thanks, Divine Envoy," Huan Ling Zi quickly bowed in thanks.

"Now, there is another matter that needs your attention," Yuan Ming continued.

"Please, Divine Envoy, command me, and I shall diligently fulfill the task," Huan Ling Zi promptly said.

"Not too far from your location, there is a hidden valley. I need you to rush there, enter its underground, and retrieve a piece of Houtu Mountain Stone hidden within the earth veins, and deliver it to me," Yuan Ming instructed.

"Please wait, Divine Envoy, I'll attend to it right away," Huan Ling Zi immediately responded.

"No rush… I have a space treasure here for you to take when you retrieve the Houtu Mountain Stone," Yuan Ming hurried to intercept the overeager Huan Ling Zi and added.

Huan Ling Zi was momentarily surprised; it was just the retrieval of a piece of Houtu Mountain Stone—why was a special space treasure needed when any storage magic tool could easily handle it?

But in spite of his confusion, Huan Ling Zi didn't question the Divine Envoy and simply acknowledged the instruction.

When Yuan Ming transmitted the Red Ancient Scroll, Huan Ling Zi did not scrutinize it closely but respectfully accepted it.

"If you encounter demon beasts along the way, feel free to slay them all. However, do not waste their corpses; collect them inside this ancient scroll. The more, the better," Yuan Ming added with emphasis.

Subsequently, he taught Huan Ling Zi the exact location of the Houtu Mountain Stone and a temporary method to activate the Red Ancient Scroll.

After noting all the details, Huan Ling Zi departed on his own.

On his journey to the valley where the Houtu Mountain Stone was located, Huan Ling Zi kept Yuan Ming's instructions in mind, and along the way, he slew every demon beast he encountered that wasn't too troublesome, activating the Red Ancient Scroll to collect their corpses within it.

By the time he reached the valley, he had already slain no fewer than two hundred third-level demon beasts, and the count of second-level demon beasts exceeded a thousand.

If it weren't for not wanting to delay the matters of the Divine Envoy, he could have slain even more.

Clearly, however, retrieving the Houtu Mountain Stone was the primary task.

Yet when he finally descended underground and located what the Divine Envoy referred to as the "Houtu Mountain Stone," he was rooted to the spot in shock.

"The hell is this 'Houtu Mountain Stone'? Is this not more of a 'Houtu Town Mountain Peak'? " Huan Ling Zi began to doubt his life choices.

It was only then that he understood why the Divine Envoy needed him to bring this particular space treasure for the retrieval—it seemed that his own storage magic tools could not even fit the "foot" of this 'Houtu Town Mountain Peak,' could they?

"Having collected so many corpses of demon beasts earlier, could it be that there won't be enough space to fit this mountain peak?" Huan Ling Zi couldn't help but mutter his concerns aloud.

Still, he activated the Red Ancient Scroll and attempted to collect the Houtu Town Mountain Peak.

The volume of the mountain peak was immense, but it was essentially still a piece of Houtu Mountain Stone, not a real mountain peak, and so it lacked deep roots into the earth veins, meaning there was no need to sever the roots before collecting it.

When the light from the Red Ancient Scroll flared up, the entire valley began to tremble violently.

However, just as that patch of light became unbearably bright, the Houtu Town Mountain Stone, which appeared as massive as a mountain, suddenly flashed and vanished into thin air right before Huan Ling Zi's eyes.

Huan Ling Zi was initially taken aback, then immediately overjoyed.

"Boom boom boom"

But his joy was short-lived as a dull booming sound suddenly came from above his head.

With such a large chunk of Houtu Town Mountain Stone removed, a huge void appeared under the mountain valley instantly, and the soil and rocks above began to collapse downwards, pressing towards Huan Ling Zi.

Huan Ling Zi immediately used his Escape Technique, transforming into a streak of light and shooting out from the ground onto the valley above.

At this point, the center of the valley below collapsed, creating an enormous pit nearly five hundred zhang in diameter at the already sunken center of the valley, filled with dust and smoke that lingered for a long time.

A vast number of demon beasts in the valley were disturbed, running out like a flood.

Seeing this, Huan Ling Zi immediately dove toward the mouth of the valley, launching attacks on the fleeing demon beasts.

…

Unaware of the situation outside, Yuan Ming continued his cultivation and comprehension of the Six Jia Qimen and the Golden Sunflower Beast Taming Technique, the two new magic arts he had recently acquired, after contacting Huan Ling Zi.

In the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed.

During this period, White Scale Master, Old Man Hei Zhu, and others prayed devoutly, providing him with plenty of Desire Power.

He also contacted Yan Siyun to acquire various spiritual materials needed from the outside world for them.

Queen Ming Kong, having received the Ice Soul Silk, immediately went into Artifact Refining seclusion, and after forty-nine days, successfully refined the Ice Soul Zither.

One day, Yuan Ming suddenly felt the sincere prayers of Huan Ling Zi, knowing that the latter had completed his task, and quickly contacted him.

True to his expectations, the Red Ancient Scroll sent back by Huan Ling Zi now contained a Houtu Town Mountain Peak.

What delighted Yuan Ming even more was that there were also more than two thousand demon beast corpses inside.

After rewarding Huan Ling Zi, Yuan Ming immediately fed those demon beast corpses to the little black tree.

The black roots that this creature extended pierced into each demon beast corpse, sucking up all the essence from their bodies as if nursing from a mother.

Watching its growth, Yuan Ming felt immensely gratified.

On the other hand, the members of the Tide-rider Alliance who had waited for half a year could no longer wait for Queen Ming Kong's plea for help and doubt began to rise in each of their hearts.

"Big Brother, what's going on with Queen Ming Kong? So much time has passed, and she has not come back to us. Could it be that she no longer wishes to refine that Magic Treasure?" Blood Realm Venerable said, furrowing his brows.

"That's impossible. The Ice Soul Zither is of great significance to her. Once refined, it would greatly enhance her survival chances in this Secret Realm. She wouldn't give it up unless..." Yuan Wuji said with a frown, pondering.

"She found a substitute or got Ice Soul Silk from elsewhere?" Bing Li, the white-browed youth, interjected.

"That can't be." Blood Realm Venerable shook his head firmly.

"Indeed, it doesn't make sense. If she could have gotten it, she would have done so long ago, and wouldn't have lowered herself to plead with us before," the white-browed youth also denied his previous statement with a shake of his head.

At that moment, a small dark green Gu Worm suddenly flew in from outside, landing on the fingertip of the purple-haired woman.

The purple-haired woman, Poison Shadow, stared unblinkingly at the Gu Worm on her fingertip as if communicating with it.

Just moments later, her brows furrowed tightly, and she turned to the others and said, "Queen Ming Kong has already succeeded in refining the Ice Soul Zither."

"What?" Blood Realm Venerable exclaimed in disbelief.

Bing Li let out a deep sigh.

"How did she get the Ice Soul Silk? Besides us, who else in this Secret Realm would have such a thing?" Yuan Wuji asked with knit brows.

"She got it from outside the Secret Realm," Poison Shadow replied.

The moment she said this, the other three's expressions shifted from puzzlement to shock.

"She got it from the outside? Poison Shadow, clarify what you mean. What exactly happened?" Blood Realm Venerable asked urgently.

"Based on the information gathered by the Gu Worm, we can basically tell that Queen Ming Kong's Ice Soul Silk was very likely obtained from a deity named 'Nether Moon God.' In fact, it wasn't just her—White Scale Master and Old Man Hei Zhu also got some items from the outside world by worshipping the Nether Moon God," Poison Shadow answered.

"With the power to transcend the barrier of the Secret Realm and acquire items from the outside world, who exactly is this Nether Moon God, capable of such Divine Skills?" Bing Li said, deep in thought.

"While we had been foolishly waiting for Queen Ming Kong to relent, could we have been set up?" Blood Realm Venerable said, feeling some anger.

"Nether Moon God... if he truly has the ability to acquire things from the outside, wouldn't I also be able to get the Immortal Blood Jade that I need?" Yuan Wuji said, unable to shake off his astonishment.

Upon this thought, Yuan Wuji immediately spoke up, "We need to meet this Nether Moon God."

With that, he led the others to find Queen Ming Kong.

"What brings you here? I no longer need your Ice Soul Silk," Queen Ming Kong said with a slight frown as she suppressed a trace of contempt in her eyes upon seeing the group arrive.

"Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Ming Kong, on the successful refinement of the Ice Soul Zither," Yuan Wuji said, a brilliant smile spreading across his face as he clasped his hands in congratulation.

His smile was genuine, as if all the prior unhappiness had never existed.

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