Invincible Dad-Chapter 789 Despicable Foreigner_1

Watching his wife and senior sister return to the room, Xu Lai retracted his Divine Sense. He was indeed afraid Ruan Tang might feel lonely, but he was even more concerned that she might overthink things. The Magical Treasures and formations being refined in the Refinement Workshop required immense mental focus, and there could be no mistakes whatsoever.

Artifact Refining is classified into ten grades. The first four grades are Mortal Instrument, Treasure Instrument, Heavenly Instrument, and Spiritual Artifact, respectively. Starting from the fourth-grade Spiritual Artifact, spirit infusion is required. Although this ’spirit’ is rudimentary compared to the spirits within ninth-grade Immortal Artifacts and tenth-grade Quasi-Emperor Artifacts, owning a Spiritual Artifact is still an extreme luxury for a Golden Core Realm Cultivator in the Immortal Domain.

For example, the Yunxiao Sword that Xu Yiyi currently uses is a Spiritual Artifact. It was not a gift from Xu Lai, but something she acquired on the Moon. The Yunxiao Sword’s former owner was Li Qingzhou, the Sect Master of Hua Country’s Yunxiao Sect, who perished in the forbidden area of the Sea of the Moon three hundred years ago.

Xu Lai could refine hundreds of thousands of Magical Treasures below the sixth grade in a single hour, but the ones he was currently crafting were different. They were growth-type Magical Treasures that could evolve with their user, similar to the Formation Chessboard Ruan Lan was using. The Formation Chessboard was personally refined by the ancestor of the Star Origin Sect and was an Emperor Artifact embryo. If Ruan Lan could somehow step into the Emperor Realm, the Formation Chessboard could become a Supreme Emperor Artifact just by being infused with the Divine Sense of an Emperor.

Compared to Taotie’s three Quasi-Emperor Artifacts, the growth-type Magical Treasures that Xu Lai was refining were clearly much more difficult to craft. Therefore, Xu Lai absolutely could not afford the slightest distraction. His earlier claim of creating ten or twenty sets was an exaggeration. He would be content if he could produce just two sets, each containing four pieces of offensive and defensive growth-type Magical Treasures. This was also a perfect opportunity to coax his senior sister into coming to Earth; she was, after all, a bit lonely by herself in the Old Heavenly Court.

「...」

Xu Lai spent a month on Artifact Refining. It seemed like a short period, but a great deal had happened. For Earth, the biggest event was that the war with the Moon had begun.

Twenty days prior, Chang’an City had assembled an elite force. While en route to attack the Moon Clan’s tribal lands, they encountered the Moon Clan’s vanguard. Both sides were stunned. Admitting to a sneak attack was out of the question; they were all renowned experts with reputations to uphold. Thus, the Moon Clan shouted, "Despicable outsiders!" while the warriors of Chang’an City yelled, "Despicable Moon Clan!" and the two sides immediately clashed.

The battle thus began in a dramatic fashion. Neither the Moon Clan nor Chang’an City had expected it. The eruption of grievances accumulated over a thousand years led to a war where both sides fought with bloodthirsty ferocity. They exclusively used lethal techniques, resulting in exceptionally heavy casualties.

The Moon Clan had far more Golden Core Realm Cultivators than Chang’an City, but that was no match for Ruan Lan’s multitude of formations. In the preceding days, she had created one powerful formation after another, each with terrifying destructive power. For twenty long days, the surface of the Moon was littered with corpses. During this time, the Moon Clan used a mysterious Magical Treasure that almost breached Chang’an’s great defensive array, forcing a panicked Ruan Lan to hastily reinforce the formation. However, the Moon Clan’s main camp was also thoroughly ravaged, with the six Watchmen and experts from the Yunxiao Sect, along with its allied sects and lodges, breaking through their lines seven times.

The sword that came closest to the Moon Clan’s current commander, Ji Jie, stopped just three inches from her brow; she had narrowly escaped being pierced through. Ultimately, the Yunxiao Sect Elder was a step too slow, obstructed by a powerful Moon Clan expert defending Ji Jie. Battles like this occurred at least four or five times over the twenty days. The fighting was fierce and evenly matched, with both sides trading victories and defeats.

In the early hours, Earth time, the Moon Clan temporarily retreated ten miles from the city after another failed siege. The sight of nearly one million members of the Moon Clan amassed outside weighed heavily on the spirits of the warriors within. The most recent casualty report revealed that 1,700 warriors had perished, and over 5,000 were wounded, with 2,000 of them gravely injured.

The total number of martial artists from Hua Country above the Seventh Grade, combined with the major Martial Dao families, the Cultivation Holy Lands, and even some Demon Race experts persuaded to join by the Martial Dao Association, was less than 200,000. Yet, as the battle raged on, 30,000 names had already been carved onto tombstones, and a shroud of sorrow enveloped every heart.

"What are you all moping about?" Ruan Lan shouted as she stood on the city wall, patching up a formation. "Instead of meditating to heal your wounds, you old coots are just sitting here feeling sorry for yourselves. What good does that do? Not a damn bit of good!"

"Daoist Ruan..."

"Old Zhang, you will address me as Fairy Ruan!"

"..."

The martial artists in the city couldn’t help but crack a smile. Over the past month, Ruan Lan had lived and eaten among them, becoming familiar with everyone. They had started by addressing each other as fellow Daoists, but Ruan Lan soon insisted they call her ’Fairy Ruan’, which she felt sounded much more ethereal. Her mastery of formations was more than enough to earn their respect as a senior. Coupled with the fact that she had been tirelessly repairing the formations for days without so much as closing her eyes, her contributions were plain to see, and everyone was willing to indulge her eccentricities.

"If you want to avenge your comrades, then annihilate those bastards!" Ruan Lan thumped her chest and roared, "Swords in hand, follow... follow Sister Mo and Brother Qi! Charge!"

"Right!"

"Fairy Ruan is right!"

"Let’s kill those sons of bitches!"

Her rallying cry was met with a chorus of shouts.

Within the city, Dao Sect Master Mo Lian and Blade Sect Master Qi Jiuyang looked on with a mix of exasperation and amusement, while even the Elders from the Yunxiao Sect collectively slapped their foreheads. Ruan Lan was a character, but she had effectively transformed the warriors’ grief and anger into a burning will to fight.

Ruan Lan stood proudly on the city wall, her spirits soaring. Just then, a sweet voice piped up beside her. "Auntie, why don’t you lead the charge yourself?"

"Cough." Ruan Lan coughed. "Yiyi, you’re still young. You don’t understand that strategizing from the rear is actually more dangerous than fighting on the front lines."

Yiyi pressed on, "Auntie, are you scared?"

"Scared? How could I, your auntie, possibly be scared!"

Ruan Lan had, in fact, previously joined the elite unit led by Mo Lian and Qi Jiuyang on a deep strike into Moon Clan territory. She had performed meritorious deeds but had barely made it back alive. It was because of that woman, Ji Jie, the one in the red palatial dress sitting on the throne. As the Yunxiao Sect Elder’s sword descended upon her, she had remained utterly unperturbed, casually pointing a finger toward Ruan Lan at the hall’s entrance.

That gaze... It was three parts mockery, three parts icy indifference, and four parts a complexity that Ruan Lan couldn’t begin to fathom. A bewildered Ruan Lan was then instantly surrounded by the Moon Clan’s Golden Core experts, one of whom even faintly radiated the aura of a Half-step Nascent Soul.

"Can’t handle a fair fight, huh? Thirty against one isn’t very heroic! How about a one-on-one?!"

Thankfully, she had prepared a small Teleportation Array in advance; otherwise, Ruan Lan doubted the Human Race cultivators could have rescued her in time.

So, this time, Ruan Lan decided to hold the rear—not because she was afraid of death, but because the formations needed constant maintenance.

"I am Ruan Lan," she declared, striking a pose. "The Starlight Defense Formation beneath my feet protects not only Chang’an City but Earth itself. It is the shield for billions of ordinary people and countless living creatures. The sheer weight of this responsibility has nearly crushed my alluring, snow-white shoulders—skin so delicate it feels like it could tear at a touch. Yiyi, you don’t understand me, and I don’t blame you."

With her hands clasped behind her back, Ruan Lan gazed at the distant azure star, her silhouette appearing exceptionally desolate.

"..."