It had been half a year since Xue Mo had started teaching in the Assassination Academy, and what used to be two classes every couple of days slowly turned into a full-on eight classes every day. Everyone appreciated and benefited from his classes, which made his already high status rise even further.
In these months, Lu Yao had seen a transformation in Xue Mo that she hadn't expected. The cold and distant, emotionless, and introverted man that she knew had slowly started leaving his shell. Or that's what people in the academy were seeing.
Lu Yao didn't know if this was good or bad, but seeing how Xue Mo was slowly becoming more normal, she felt happy for him. 'As long as he's happy,' she thought with a beaming smile.
"You seem happy!" The voice was still cold as ever, but towards Lu Yao, it was soothing and sweet.
"Am I? Maybe it's your fault!" Lu Yao retorted with a smirk.
"Hmm, I see. Wait, I just noticed, but do I say, 'I see' a lot?" Xue Mo asked curiously. Ever since he met Lu Yao, he uttered the word 'I see' a lot and just noticed that peculiarity.
"You have. But who cares!" Lu Yao exclaimed. From her voice, she was bored and didn't want to talk about such stuff.
"Don't worry, give me a few more days," His voice sounded cheerful. "Soon, we can finally cultivate."
"Wait. What?!" Lu Yao screamed in disbelief.
She had known that he was a genius, but creating a new power-system was extraordinary even if he had in-depth knowledge of one system and had studied the other one extensively using the academy's books.
"Can you not scream in my ear." Xue Mo chided, he didn't know that revealing this would elicit this kind of reaction from Lu Yao. After hearing what he said, she closed her mouth as her mind drifted, thinking of who knows what.
Just as Xue Mo was making his way to his residence, Myzer and Hiari came running after him. Seeing them, he stopped wanting to see what's wrong.
Two people with an aura that now seemed to rival the previous Declan had appeared in front of Xue Mo and bowed. Already used to that scene, no one cared as they continued doing what they were doing.
"Master Mo, we have broken through!" Myzer couldn't hide his excitement, and he wasn't even trying. Yet, Xue Mo and Hiari, who got used to that, ignored him.
Hiari was more reserved, though. He just bowed like a noble did to his king and waited for orders. That was the reason he had come here!
"Master Mo, as instructed, I have focused on Mana, and thanks to the method you had given me, my Mana manipulation and reserves had increased," Hiari said with respect.
In these months, besides trying to create a new cultivation path, he had been enhancing some methods using Infinite Darkness. One of these methods was the Mana manipulation technique he had created with Lu Yao's help.
However, the previous simple method could now not enhance control, but also help to increase the amount of Mana someone could use slowly. All of this, of course, without 'The System's' help.
"That's good. Keep up the good work!" Xue Mo complimented with a smile.
After he had given Hiari and Myzer a few more pointers, he turned around and entered the Pagoda. Hiari and Myzer looked at his departing back and thought, 'Master Mo is indeed the best!'
Xue Mo didn't know what these two's thoughts were, but he could guess what they were thinking.
"Soon, I will- no, we will be able to cultivate!" Xue Mo said while staring at Lu Yao with warm eyes. What people think about him didn't matter; only Lu Yao's opinion mattered to him.
The warm and teacherly Xue Mo was nowhere to be seen right now, only the dark and cold Xue Mo was present. In these few months, he could tap into his previous talent of acting and slowly fooled everyone into thinking that he warmed up to them.
The only one who wasn't fooled was Lu Yao. She had spent the most time with the true him after all. However, she was almost fooled with his acting too, yet her entire being denied the possibility, and Xue Mo's venting when they were alone confirmed that he was only acting.
The reason Xue Mo was acting was to get honest answers and real results for his experiment. What seemed to others as Xue Mo was kind, and teaching people his knowledge out of goodwill was just a façade. He was doing that to test several things that would help him solidify the power-system he was creating.
Fortunately, he was almost done. When he told Lu Yao that they could cultivate in a few days, he wasn't lying. He just needed to solve a small problem that he noticed, and they would finally start their path of cultivation.
Lu Yao was asleep as usual. After spending time pondering over the issue of why that was happening, he noticed that the Mana controlling technique that they had registered in Infinite Darkness was slowly increasing in potency and effect. Lu Yao had been trying to keep this under wraps not to worry Xue Mo.
When he learned this, Xue Mo didn't confront her as he had no place to do that. If Lu Yao wanted to do something herself, he had no place to stop her. He was her partner, not her jailer. Although their relationship was more than a simple Partnership by now, he still didn't want to stop her. Cultivation was, after all, a way to find a path. And, if Lu Yao decided to explore stuff on her own, it was up to her.
However, if Lu Yao were taking things too far by exhausting herself, he would do something about it. Although that would make him a hypocrite as someone who wouldn't mind hurting himself if it meant getting results, he didn't care.
After they arrived in their room, Xue Mo laid Lu Yao on the bed before focusing on his research. This was his routine in the past sixth months. He would come home, lay Lu Yao on the bed, immerse himself in research for a few hours before honing his external cultivation.
***
It had been a week since Xue Mo promised Lu Yao to be able to cultivate, and at this moment, he had just succeeded in making his first fusion and the first step into creating a new power-system.
"Hmm, this wasn't what I expected, but it works," Xue Mo said while staring at the orb of energy he was holding in his hand. It was Mana that he had condensed into a ball. However, the weird thing is that another cyan energy with a different feeling and aura was slowly overcoming and absorbing parts of the Mana and expelling what it didn't need.
This cyan energy was the Arch or how people called it here, the Qi energy. What Xue Mo did was try to fuse the two cultivation systems of his and this Unverse's to create a new one.
He decided to name it the True Arch power-system.
Lu Yao, who was staring at the blue orb on the side with her widened eyes, 'he did it. That means we could now finally start!'