Ye Ling might lack discernment, but he had the system. With a single glance, he saw straight through the soft armor in front of him.
[Armor Name: Palm-Struck Heavenly Silk Jade Armor (Lower-Grade Spirit Artifact)]
[Description: Suitable for home and travel, close-fitting and warm, a must-have for outings]
[Abilities: Three styles available. Immune to attacks below the Foundation Establishment stage, reduces damage from Golden Core stage by fifty percent, and can withstand a full-power strike from the Nascent Soul stage (referenced to the host's realm)]
[Note: Experimental soft armor. Currently in a damaged state after taking a palm strike from the host's Master]
Master, I know you're a rich loli, but could you please stop throwing money around like this?
A lower-grade Spirit Artifact. Even Golden Core cultivators might not own one, and you're just casually giving it to a trash-tier Foundation Establishment cultivator? Is there no justice left in this world? No rules at all?
And with so many treasures at your disposal, why didn't you pull one out for me yesterday?
Ye Ling felt like his heart was bleeding. This soft armor was already damaged, yet it could still withstand a full-force Nascent Soul strike from him. If it were intact, how terrifying would it be?
Mid-grade Spirit Artifact? High-grade Spirit Artifact? Or even…
The more Ye Ling thought about it, the angrier he became. He didn't know the exact gap, but seeing Leng Qingqiu's dazed, blank expression, he more or less understood.
That girl had probably gone completely out of her mind with joy.
On the other side, Leng Qingqiu was indeed stunned, but not in the way Ye Ling imagined.
Are you messing with me?
Take it back. Take it back!
I take back what I said about paying it back double.
Paying it back double in lower-grade Spirit Artifacts… I can't afford that!
Although Leng Qingqiu's cultivation method came from an ancient inheritance, and her Void Sword Casket was a Dao Artifact, she was actually very poor. Everything she owned had been obtained by risking her life in ancient ruins.
Of course, if she eventually inherited the Leng Clan, repaying two lower-grade Spirit Artifacts wouldn't be impossible.
But she had no intention of relying on the Leng Clan, nor did she plan to inherit it. She wanted to walk an entirely new path of her own.
Losing two lower-grade Spirit Artifacts for nothing was no small loss. It was enough to drain years of her accumulation, time she simply couldn't afford to waste.
Moreover, among all magical artifacts, protective armor was the rarest type.
The reason was simple. It was difficult.
Armor had to cover the entire body. A flaw in one part affected the whole, making the failure rate during forging extremely high.
Because of this, artifact refiners naturally preferred forging weapons or small defensive treasures. Very few were willing to pour massive amounts of effort into crafting a single piece of armor.
Generally speaking, any armor-type artifact that appeared on the market was a masterpiece from a renowned artifact refiner, created specifically to validate years of accumulated experience. Such items were priceless.
And even if a cultivator went through endless hardship to find an artifact refiner willing to forge armor, the materials themselves posed another enormous obstacle.
High-quality armor required rare heavenly materials. The ferocious beasts, or even demon races, guarding those materials were challenges no cultivator could easily avoid.
More often than not, conversations between cultivators and artifact refiners went like this:
"Then go gather the materials."
"The materials are guarded by demons. I can't beat them."
"If you can't beat them, why don't you forge the armor yourself?"
"Isn't that why I'm asking you?"
"Then go gather the materials."
Though said jokingly, these exchanges perfectly captured the awkward reality of armor crafting.
Those strong enough to handle it didn't care for armor of that level. Those too weak to handle it already had grass growing several feet tall over their graves.
That was why any piece of armor, even a lower-grade treasure, could fetch an astronomical price, driving cultivators to bankrupt themselves fighting over it.
And yet, right now, lying before Leng Qingqiu was a lower-grade Spirit Artifact soft armor. Its value spoke for itself. When Ye Ling said it could serve as a betrothal gift, that wasn't a joke.
In fact, forget betrothal gifts. Even buying a Foundation Establishment female cultivator outright wouldn't require a lower-grade Spirit Artifact.
Put another way.
If Ye Ling wore this lower-grade Spirit Artifact and took a stroll through any sect below the second tier, there would be no shortage of female cultivators throwing themselves at him. Sect masters offering their daughters would be routine, and if they were bold enough, even offering a Dao companion wouldn't be out of the question.
This lower-grade Spirit Artifact soft armor was like the luxury supercars parked outside art academies in Ye Ling's previous life, with beautiful women lining up just to leave their contact information.
And that was without even talking about armor at the Spirit Artifact level. Any artifact that reached the Spirit Artifact tier was enough to turn brothers against each other or see an entire small sect wiped out.
Yet here was Bai Yiyi, rummaging around for a defective piece. And this was what she came up with?
But since Bai Yiyi had already said it out loud, Ye Ling couldn't exactly take it back. Besides, while he understood intellectually how precious Spirit Artifacts were, he didn't have a concrete sense of their value.
It was like someone telling you that a person was incredibly rich. You wouldn't really get it. But if they told you that person's assets were only slightly less than Jack Ma's, you'd instantly understand what kind of big shot they were.
Lacking any real frame of reference, and seeing that things were already set in stone, Ye Ling could only say, "Envoy Leng, the ground is cold. Take the armor and leave."
There was no need to talk about the outcome of their fight anymore. If Leng Qingqiu was smart, she wouldn't bring it up again.
"Th-this…"
Leng Qingqiu bit her lip, unable to make up her mind.
If she'd truly been handed a scrapped piece of armor, no matter how humiliating it was, she would have worn it and left. But this priceless soft armor instead left her hesitating.
Having a piece of life-saving armor was the ultimate dream of every cultivator, much like how mortals dreamed of owning a large courtyard house.
Yet precisely because armor was so valuable, Leng Qingqiu found herself afraid to accept it.
Seeing her hesitation, Bai Yiyi seemed to think of something and said, "Envoy Leng, that counterattack was triggered by your artifact. I blocked it as the referee. Even if I damaged your artifact, I wouldn't be required to compensate you."
One thing was one thing. It was normal for artifacts to suffer damage during a duel. If breaking someone else's artifact meant compensation every time, she wouldn't even know how many artifacts she'd owe by now.
"Heh…"
Leng Qingqiu forced a smile and said, "Sect Master Bai, you're too polite. I understand these rules."
But halfway through speaking, she suddenly realized something, and her expression changed drastically.
That jade pendant contained her Master's remnant soul!
Even though her relationship with her Master had been one of mutual exploitation, she still didn't want her trump card to disappear just like that.
Yet when she looked again at the pendant in her hand, now split in two, she found that it had already turned to powder. There wasn't even the faintest trace of soul fluctuation left.
Huh?
Master… how did you just disappear like that?
As Leng Qingqiu stood there in a daze, Bai Yiyi spoke from the side, "Why does your jade pendant have a self-destruct mechanism built into it?"
"Hm?"
Leng Qingqiu raised her head and looked at Bai Yiyi, her eyes filled with complete confusion.