With his senses, Cao Yun could tell almost everything from Ren Chao's parents. His father had worked as a blacksmith all his life and it had cost him his arms. Although he was controlling them right now, Cao Yun could tell that he had lost most sensation in them. If he tried to take up a hammer, he couldn't even hold it above his waist. On the other hand, his mother had suffered in childbirth. Considering that Ren Chao had no brother or sister, Cao Yun could guess what had happened to them. Moreover, she had gone back to work too early and her body was also suffering from that strain. However, he could also tell that they had taken pills.

Unfortunately, they were already too old. Powerful pills that could help them would probably be too potent. Instead of helping them, they would most likely end their lives. In other words, short of cultivating to grow stronger, there was nothing to do. But they were also too old and tired to make any significant progress in their cultivation. In fact, it was clear that they had cultivated a little in their life but now they were almost mere mortals. From everything he was seeing, Cao Yun could tell they would die within a decade, maybe even a year.

Before he could really let this set in, he felt a strong arm almost dislocate his shoulder.

"Come on, Brother, let's drink! Let's eat! Let's enjoy life!"

There was no way Ren Chao wasn't aware of the situation. Thus, Cao Yun decided to make him happy. He forgot about it all.

"Uncle, Aunt, this unfilial one presents his respects to the venerable couple."

"Young Sect Master, you're doing too much. We don't deserve such honors. We're just extremely grateful that our useless son found such great brothers and a sister. Please, put up with our son for a bit longer."

"What?! I'm not a burden on Brother, am I?"

"Aunt, do not worry, I already put up with his antics for quite some time. And I'm sure Sister Wang will correct him if need be."

"Hey!"

"Good, good. I still can't believe such a fine young lady settled for my poor son..."

"Hey! I'm right here!"

Wang Mei put her hand on Ren Chao's shoulder. The large man was tearing up a little, but this was just theatrics. Suddenly, they all started laughing. Servants brought wine to their table. Everyone drank. Then, they kept talking and laughing while drinking and eating. Cao Yun was quite impressed with the meat. Looking at some of the servants, it was clear that they were real chefs. Ren Chao's status in the Wubei Sect was very elevated, for sure. In fact, he was probably better treated than his own master. Indeed, Ren Chao was considered the best blacksmith in the entire Hongchen Kingdom. Which meant that he was the best on the Piaolu planet, period.

For several hours, Cao Yun completely forgot about everything. Without his focus on it, his Soul Embryo and his soul recovered much faster.

At first, Ren Chao's kids were a bit shy. But Cao Yun knew how to deal with young kids. Ren Hua was the most daring so she approached her uncle more easily. Seeing Cao Yun play with their older sister, the three boys got closer. In the end, 'Uncle Chen' was playing around with all four kids. Yes, he really forgot everything for a few hours.

When the kids fell asleep from exhaustion, Wang Mei brought in half a dozen young women. They were clearly all from the Coiling Silk Faction. Before Cao Yun and Ren Chao's family, they performed songs, dances, and poetry. When it came to poetry, they put more emphasis on Saint Dashan's poems. Obviously, they had done their research. Saint Dashan was Cao Yun's favorite poet. Thus, they spent a large part of the night enjoying art and talking some more, about everything and nothing. To sum it up, the evening was absolutely charming. It had been a long time since Cao Yun had just enjoyed a simple life. Although it reminded him of his own family, it didn't make him sad. In fact, it made him happier than ever. Despite all the tragedy he had seen, such a simple life could still exist and flourish. This was one more reason to fight!

-

Late in the night, Ren Chao's parents were asleep, just like his kids. Wang Mei decided to leave Ren Chao and Cao Yun alone in his workshop. All around them, Cao Yun could see furnaces, anvils, various hammers and tools he knew existed but that he had never seen before outside of books and illustrations. Here and there were scraps and unfinished weapons and artifacts of many kinds. Ren Chao had quite literally an entire pot of wine in hand while he sat down.

"Brother, had I known where you were, I would have come swimming! This is shameful... But now that you're back, I will make sure that you don't meet such a terrible fate again. You know, I don't want to boast, but I'm the best blacksmith. And I've trained a lot on spears."

Indeed, among the unfinished weapons, most of them were spears. There was only one reason Cao Yun could see of why his brother had focused so much on that particular weapon.

"I remember that I promised to make you a worthy weapon. Now that you're back, I will! I just need your input on what kind of weapon you would like. Although I can't promise to forge the perfect weapon, I did study Brother Sun's 'Heavenly Mirror Longbow'. Thus, I can assure you that I could forge a 1st-grade Spirit weapon, at the very least."

Of course, Cao Yun was surprised. Unlike array formations and pills, the quality of a weapon was only its grade. Indeed, an array formation or a pill of one specific grade could be more or less well refined or set up. But either a weapon belonged to a certain grade or it didn't. There were no other gradations. An Earth weapon was basic and could just conduct some Qi from the body. However, injecting it with Qi would damage it until it literally exploded. Only a Human weapon could be injected with certain amounts of Qi without exploding. After that, a Heaven weapon would absorb the Qi all around itself to grow stronger, thus the cultivator could use more Qi in their attacks while spending less of their own.

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Those three levels were all quite basic in reality. Then came the Spirit weapons. A Spirit weapon, as the name suggested, could harbor a spirit. It didn't mean that the spirit existed since the forging of the weapon. But the weapon had the ability to slowly form a spirit inside. This meant that the weapon itself could evolve slightly. In fact, many Spirit weapons were actually spiritual weapons that had been found. A spiritual weapon was a weapon forged within the soul of a cultivator. When it gained physical form, it could keep evolving alongside the cultivator. If it was sturdy enough, it could even survive the death of the cultivator and be bonded to someone else, just like Sun Liao's 'Heavenly Mirror Longbow' which he had obtained in the Palace of Supreme Wisdom.

A Spirit weapon was almost like a spiritual weapon, as it could also evolve over time thanks to the spirit within. However, it would also need to be physically improved, unlike a spiritual weapon. The spirit within could leave the weapon to get into a better weapon later on, while a spiritual weapon would just improve on its own.

Finally, the last grade was known as a God weapon. It was a weapon with a fully formed spirit. Such a weapon was said to be able to cultivate on its own. In fact, legends said that a God weapon could actually attain immortality and study the Dao. Fighting with such a weapon was literally like fighting with another cultivator supporting you.

All that being said, a Spirit weapon could only be forged by a Spirit Warrior. Even Spirit Warriors would have a hard time forging such a weapon, just like Heaven alchemists had a hard time refining a Spirit pill. However, Cao Yun could see the confidence in his brother's eyes. Instead of questioning him, he answered him directly. From his spatial ring, he took out the scale of the Ebony Snake Dragon. It was the last remnant of his 'Nine Chi Black Dragon Spear'. That weapon wasn't even a 1st-grade Human spear and the Ebony Snake Dragon wasn't even a 4-core demonic beast. But Cao Yun had grown close to this spear and he had even faintly sensed some remnant of the Ebony Snake Dragon in it. Besides, his main martial art was related to dragons.

"If Brother Ren can forge a weapon with this scale in it, I would be glad."

Ren Chao took the scale. Contrary to his usual behavior, Ren Chao was extremely serious. For several minutes, he examined the scale very closely. Then, he took a piece of paper and began to draw many schematics. Even with his knowledge of alchemy and array formations, Cao Yun barely understood anything. It wasn't because it was too complex. Ren Chao's writing was simply too bad to decipher. To be fair, Ren Chao was also writing extremely fast, and this could also have been a way of hiding his secrets.

"Brother, I imagine that Chief Elder Baishen wants to spar with you. I'll have to observe this battle. The more I know about your spearmanship, the better the weapon I'll forge. Brother, I assure you that I'll forge the best weapon you've had so far. I can't promise that you won't ever get a better one, but if that's the case it will be outside of the Piaolu planet."

"Thank you, I trust in your abilities."

"Good, good! Now that that's out of the way, you have something to tell me, right? Something is weighing on your mind and you wonder if you should tell me..."

Cao Yun was truly surprised by Ren Chao's demeanor. But then, he recalled something earlier between Ren Chao and Wang Mei.

"Oh? Your wife told you."

"What?! I could have guessed it myself... Yes, my wife told me. Brother, what is it?"

"It's nothing... Really..."

Suddenly, Ren Chao's hand crashed on his desk. At that moment, Cao Yun realized why his desk was made out of Ageless Marble. Even with such a durable material, it almost collapsed. Most likely, Ren Chao was the strongest man in the entire Hongchen Kingdom, when it came to pure physical strength. Of course, with Qi and spiritual senses, many cultivators were stronger than he was, Cao Yun was one of them.

"Do you look down on me, Brother? Do you look down on my family? Do you think I'm afraid of anything? We swore that even if we could not have been born on the same day, we hoped to die on the same day! Even without my wife, I can tell that you're hiding something out of some sense of protection. You think I need your protection, but if you're killed, I will gladly give my life to fight your enemies. So stop that! If you value our bond, please, be honest with me, Brother!"

Ren Chao's words were echoing throughout the room. Since it was his blacksmithing workshop, it was more or less sound-proof. That being said, Cao Yun's ears were ringing. In his brother's eyes and in his brother's voice, Cao Yun could hear great sincerity. Although Cao Yun didn't want to risk Ren Chao's life, especially now that he had met his family, he also knew that he couldn't lie straight to his face.

Ren Chao kept staring at his brother for quite some time, until Cao Yun gave up. From his spatial ring, he took out an array formation plate and activated it. Around the two men, a powerful array formation protected them from spiritual senses. It wasn't perfect, but no one could send spiritual senses easily. At the very least, even if they succeeded, Cao Yun would detect it. Then, Cao Yun spoke with his brother through spiritual senses so as to not make any sound.

Seeing how secretive his brother was, Ren Chao was glad, not afraid at all. Although he had no idea what secret his brother was hiding, Ren Chao could tell that Cao Yun was about to tell him the whole truth. For that, he was glad. Even if Ren Chao had to face all the horrors of this world for his brother, he would, so he had no reason to be afraid of any secret. In fact, Ren Chao was ready for anything. Then, he heard Cao Yun's story. Cao Yun told him absolutely everything about him and his family. He explained how Emperor Weide had sent his 5th Imperial Brocade Guards to slaughter his mother's family when she was a kid. Later, they had finished the job by massacring the Cao family.

As Cao Yun spoke, he could see the rage swell up in his brother. Ren Chao was grinding his teeth and clenching his fists. But he didn't interrupt his brother until the very end. Finally, Cao Yun talked about his younger sister and how Emperor Weide hoped to sacrifice her to become a Sage. Then, he was done.

"Do Brother Sun and Sister Mei know?"

"Not yet."

"Who knows?"

"My master, Sect Leader Xuan, Spirit Master Xiao, Feng Yingyue, Matriarch Huang Yufeng, Miss Huang Liyue, and my uncle Fang Shaolong. However, I still need to warn them about the fact that Princess Yong Ke is really my sister Cao Huiying."

"I see... Then you might have some powerful allies to help you. But you need to tell Brother Sun, and especially Sister Mei, especially her..."

Ren Chao was almost shaking. Cao Yun had never seen him that furious. Suddenly, he couldn't contain himself and smashed his desk. Even the Ageless Marble couldn't take it, everything exploded.

"That bastard! I'll open up his chest and eat his beating heart while laughing! That disgusting bastard! AAAAAAH!!!"

For quite some time, Ren Chao broke apart his own workshop. Even Cao Yun was shocked. Then, he fell to his knees before his brother, lowering his head.

"Brother, will you forgive me...?"

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