The things I had to take care of had been piling up recently. Before shit inevitably hit the flying spiritual fan, I was going to cross out what I could.

I returned to my immortal cave after purchasing forging and alchemy raw materials, then entered the space’s smithy.

My immediate goal was to complete the drums, a spy recorder, and the cure for Three Drops Silent Toxin.

The little golden dragon flew in at top speed and then circled around me. “Hey!”

With a wave of my arm, I placed the spiritual metal and leather for the drums onto my stone workshop table. “What do you need? Did the brat get himself into trouble again?”

The spirit turned into his teenage-looking human form. His eyes appeared to be a bit red, but his expression was more serious than I’d ever seen it. Then this arrogant dragon bowed. “Thank you for saving my master… and for working to find a cure for his side effects.”

He looked more sincere than I’d ever seen him.

“Are the side effects doing something to your connection to Little Spring?”

He nodded. “It feels… sluggish and weaker.”

Fuck. The bath must have messed with Little Spring’s bloodline-based contract with his space. That was just another negative side effect I’d have to fix.

“Are you asking me to rush the cure without actually asking?”

His cheeks reddened.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make it one of my top priorities now that you’re finally respecting me as your master’s martial sister.”

He opened his mouth, paused, then turned back into a dragon and flew away.

What? Was he embarrassed?

Little Spring appeared next to the furnace. He smiled brightly. “I’m ready to help, Sister Lin!”

Maybe the dragon knew the brat was arriving and didn’t want to get caught.

“Help me set out the tools! We’ll need both hammers, the big rollers, and the small crucible.”

He nodded and started bringing out everything using spiritual energy while I brought sand from the lake to make a series of molds on the stone floor of the forge.

I had just spread out a thick pile of sand that I was going to form a circular mold for a Crash Cymbal when Little Spring turned toward me.

“Sister Lin...” he paused, and gestured to his white hair. “Will this prevent me from helping you?”

“You think your spiritual energy isn’t compatible with mine, now?”

He nodded.

That was a possibility. If he couldn’t work with me, then that would make creating higher rank pills and tools more difficult. But I never had his protagonist boost in my past life, and yet I’d still reached the Immortal Ascension stage. While working with him made things easier, that didn’t mean I needed his help.

“I think we’ll have to see for ourselves... but there is a possibility that your current energy will mess things up. We will likely have to wait until after I’ve invented a cure to forge items and concoct like we used to.”

His fluffy ears drooped.

Goddamn it. The kid seriously got an adorableness boost.

“Well… you can still learn to forge a sky-rank tool.”

His ears perked up and focused on me. If the kid had a tail, it would be wagging. “Do you think I’m ready?”

This fucker perfected practically everything I gave him in an inconceivably short amount of time. “Of course you are! At least you’re ready for lessons. You’ll have to practice to actually accomplish it.”

I clasped my hands behind my back so I looked like the master I was. “Now, what do you think makes a sky rank tool?”

He touched his chin as he thought. “Is it the materials?”

“That is part of it. If you don’t have high-quality materials, you won’t be able to make high-quality tools... unless you put in the effort to raise the quality yourself or use enough energy to purify them during the forging process. But what else makes a tool sky rank?”

“The advanced techniques?”

“The enchantments! Without the right enchantments and materials that allow them to be activated, you can’t create higher rank tools.”

“Does this mean you’re finally going to teach me how to enchant tools?”

“I thought I’d already taught you?”

He scowled. “You only showed me how to do it. You never explained anything.”

Oh, right! Actually, I had handled all the enchantments at this point, but it wasn’t like he hadn’t been paying attention to me when I’d worked on them. With his protagonist skills, he could probably copy what I’d done before. That said, nothing was better for learning than being able to ask a question and get an answer.

“Fine, let’s go over sky-rank enchantments. First, remember that they need a higher rank material than we’ve been using so far. We got lucky with the Keyboard because our energy synergized well enough to push the instrument into sky-rank. This time we’re setting out to create a sky rank tool from the start.”

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He nodded.

“Enchantments we use are similar to formations, but there are other kinds as well. Each school of smithing has its own style.” Part of what made Xianxia such a fascinating genre was the variety. Of course, living in a world without standardization was hard as fuck sometimes.

“For this drum, we’ll add sky rank enchantments that enhance its functionality.”

“Which ones would those be?”

I shook my head. “While the rank is important, it’s best to design what abilities you want the tool to have first then use the sky rank version of them. Otherwise, our drum set that is supposed to function as a shield and last a hundred thousand years, will become a set of single-use exploding drums.”

“An exploding drum set does sound powerful.”

I flicked his glabella, and he rubbed it with a grimace.

“You’ve played them before. What features would you want your drum set to have?”

“That’s easy. I’d have them to be mobile so they could be used in a fight. They would need some kind of defensive enchantment since the instruments are eye-catching and would make the drummer a target in any battle. Also, I think we should include sound enhancement. Maybe even one that could damage the ears of a Golden Core cultivator!”

I nodded. “All good things. Anything else?”

His eyes grew wide as if he was surprised there were enchantments for all the things he wanted. “Is there a way to shrink them down somehow?”

“Not a terrible idea. Being able to resize them at will would also give the player a greater range of notes. But it still needs more versatility. So, what else can we make them do?”

“Could...” He paused and shook his head.

“What?”

“Could we make them entrap someone?”

Like what that Noxious asshole did to me?

I held my fist out and he naturally gave it a bump.

“That’s a perfect idea! Let’s also add in an illusion enchantment so the drummer can either use it to hide or become the center of attention.”

“But can we really add all those things?”

“Ha! Who am I?”

“Fairy Lin!”

“That’s right. Of course, we can make them do all that. We’re no longer weak little beginning Foundation Establishment cultivators. We’re at the peak! A step away from Golden Core. Do you think we can’t pull something like this off?!”

He grinned. Then his smile vanished. “But... what about my energy?”

“That is an excellent question! We have to discover how messed up your Qi is now. The only way to do that is to experiment!” Muahahaha!

There were so many ways I could test his transformed energy. Some of those methods were slightly dangerous, but only a bit.… which wouldn’t be a good idea… but, on the other hand, we had healing pills for any injuries for a reason...

He frowned. “Sister Lin. You know that I’m your martial brother and not your test subject, right?”

I coughed.

Damn it. Testing the brat through extensive experiments wasn’t ideal. We didn’t have the time for it, anyway.

“How could you assume your own martial sister would consider you a test subject? I’m not that thoughtless. I’d never do any experiments on you. Not without your consent... unless you were about to die…”

He narrowed his eyes at me.

“… and it could save you.”

That skeptical expression on his face made me think he didn’t quite believe me. Brat.

“Anyway, I bought enough material to make a few extra Cymbals if we needed them, so let’s forge them first to see if your changes prevent us from working together.”

I gestured for him to warm the furnace.

After some hesitation, he stepped up to the large furnace. He used the incantation gesture to start the warming process. Unfortunately, whatever happened with the bath had really messed with his energy. Instead of increasing the flames, a white-hot fire blasted out.

Little Spring dodged out of the way and I created a shield to protect myself.

The kid quickly formed the seal to lower the temperature. The fire vanished, and the forge room cooled.

For a brief moment, we stared at each other with wide eyes. Then he sent me a sheepish look.

Apparently, the bath made him too strong. This was such a fucking classic thing to happen to a Xianxia protagonist.

He rubbed at the blackened floor. When the soot didn’t easily come off the stone, he grimaced. Fuck. Even the pile of sand I’d been working with had turned to glass.

“Maybe doing some more tests wouldn’t be so bad.”

I nodded. “But, for now, I’ll be handling all the forging until you’re cured or get used to your new strength... In the meantime, don’t do anything stupid.” With a grimace, I picked up the glass before tossing it and the rest of the charred sand into a storage bag. “Maybe take notes or something.”

“Yes, sister Lin!”

***

Three days later, while completely drained of energy, I put the final touch on the drum set — an enchantment that connected them or separated them at will. It took three medium-tier spirit stones to empower that final enchantment.

Ow, my spirit stones.

Ghosty was worth it, though. So was spreading rock through the world.

As the energy from the spirit stones settled, a massive bright blue illusory spiritual ram appeared over the set, showing that it had reached sky rank.

Little Spring stared at the illusion with confusion. “That ram looks very powerful, but... why a ram?”

I pulled out a drumstick and tapped a snare drum, causing a sound wave to echo through the smith.

“The only suitable leather the treasure pavilion had was from a high-level, rank-three Great Winds Ram.”

“Oooooooh.”

“Sadly, I didn’t have time to find the appropriate crystals to forge a spiritual polymer, so I had to make do with what was available.”

He nodded and ran his hand down a shiny metal snare where I used a special technique to polish it to a mirror finish.

“Sister Lin, shouldn’t an instrument like this have a suitable name?”

I paused and looked it over. “Like Lin’s Kickass Drums?”

“I was thinking, Great Winds Drum Set.”

“Hmmmm. My name for it is definitely better... but we are in hiding, and you did help plan the enchantments. We’ll go with your suggestion.”

He grinned.

“Now that we’ve finished, are you planning to head to the treasure pavilion? Or do you want to watch my new band’s first practice session?”

He pulled out the small recording spiritual tool I made while waiting for things to cool. “I want to place this on the second floor of the treasure pavilion as soon as possible, so I’ll come to your next one.”

I shrugged. “Don’t forget to pick up a good sword while you’re there. Your energy is overpowered right now, so you might be able to take on a peak Golden Core cultivator if you manage to get it under control and have a weapon to match.”

He nodded. “I’ll practice once I have my new weapon!” Then he glanced at me, his eyebrows scrunched with worry. “You should take a break, Sister Lin.”

I waved him off. “I’m fine. We don’t have enough time for me to rest.”

He looked like he was about to argue, so I pulled the drum set into my ring.

“I need to check in with Gold String Delicate Touch to see if he’s entered the inner sect yet. If he hasn’t, then we’ll have to practice in the outer sect. If that’s the case, I’ll concoct the antidote I need to give Three Drops Silent Toxin.”

I paused. Was there anything I was missing?

Little Spring had his spy tool.

I had the drums and a cure.

Little Spring wrapped around me. I stiffened. Right, hugs. That was what I was missing. Kids needed hugs. Especially after the shit this one just went through.

“Thank you for everything, Sister Lin.”

I patted his white hair. It was much softer than it used to be.

image [https://i.imgur.com/2qNMyaD.jpeg]

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“Please, get some rest.”

“Hey! Do I look that tired?”

“Very!”

He was right. I was... exhausted. If I were in my original Immortal Ascension body, I wouldn’t have felt tired even after years of hard work. Now that I thought about it, I hadn’t had a real break in over a week. “Fine. I can spare a couple of hours to sleep after telling my bandmates to meet up.”

He let go and beamed at me before vanishing from the space.

That fuckin’ thoughtful kid.