While Xue Mo and Hesroth were talking, back in the Dark Arts Sect headquarter, a middle-aged man was sitting cross-legged in a dark room. Immense waves of Qi rolled around him.
At this moment, the man opened his eyes, and with it, the slit in his eyes showed that he wasn't a human. The man breathed deeply, sucking all the Qi inside him before looking at the room's door, "Freya, you can enter."
The man's voice was authoritative and dry. The huge door opened with the order given, showing a black-haired woman with youth reflecting on her figure. She entered and immediately knelt, "Master, Elder Hesroth has some news!"
Her voice was calm and serious, she looked in her twenties, matching her young voice, but her eyes shined with wisdom.
Hearing what the woman said, the one called Master stayed silent, waiting for her to continue. "Elder Hesroth said that he found a Divine One."
After hearing that, the Master stood up. Even someone his age would have an incredulous expression once they heard that. He appeared excited, filled with hope, and, most importantly, relieved. "When is Hesroth coming back, when is he bringing the Divine One?"
The man's voice was still as before, but the rapid questions were unlike him, showing just how excited he was with the news, 'The Divine One's survived, I have to protect this one at all costs. If they find out about this…' The man stopped thinking as a vicious glint appeared in his dragon eye; he looked at the woman and ordered coldly, "kill everyone who knows the identity of the Divine One. This information mustn't reach them!"
"As you wish, Master," the woman bowed before leaving.
The man sat back in silence, thinking, 'how lucky are we to find a Divine One? I should tell the others. We have to protect him, even if we have to sacrifice our lives.'
***
Xue Mo didn't know that all the plans he was making were for nothing. His plan, which was to reap countless benefits from the Dark Arts Sect, was useless as the sect's higher-ups regard him highly. If he knew it, he would expedite his plans without worry.
Right now, Xue Mo was in a tea house drinking. It had been two months since the fight with Nathan. After contacting Hesroth, he convinced him to let the plan that Nathan's son, William, had, continue.
Using practice and weeding out the trash from the good as an excuse, he would let there be war and make the assassination academy offer their services to all sides. Only those that can survive would be rewarded and even could go to the Dark Arts Sect in the future.
Hesroth liked the plan and agreed, which made Xue Mo deliver Nathan since he wanted to extract information. Xue Mo wanted to do it himself because he hadn't tortured someone for a long time, but Hesroth insisted, saying that 'a Divine One shouldn't dirty his hands' so he let him go as he could do whatever he wanted once the war started.
Getting up, Xue Mo left the money on the table before leaving the tea house. He went back to the inn that he had been staying in, a hideout for the assassination academy.
"How's the level of the skill?" As soon as he sat down, a fox jumped from his shoulder on the bed, which was Lu Yao. Hearing what Xue Mo asked, Lu Yao, looked in front of her and stared at the status screen.
[Infinite Darkness]
[Name: Xue Mo (Lu Yao)
Body: No Cultivation
Soul: No Cultivation
Energy: {External Mana Method: Level 5)}]
"It's already level 5. Hmm, it's still slow, but it will get better in the future." Lu Yao replied. She had been supplying energy, knowledge, and calculating stuff to help the skill upgrade and evolve, but it only upgraded five levels even after all this time.
"It's already gotten faster, it's learning capability is impressive, Infinite Darkness is evolving fast."
"That's true, at first it took too much energy from me that I barely had energy, but now I barely even feel it taking energy, which is weird…" As if she realized something, Lu Yao quickly commanded, "Infinite Darkness, why are you not taking my energy anymore? Where are you taking the energy now?"
Lu Yao realized that the only reason for her not to feel herself being 'drained' was for Infinite Darkness to find another energy source, and she wanted to know where it came from. Xue Mo, who was resting next to her, also focused on hearing the answer.
"Hosts, I have found that the energies that you have are special and shouldn't be used for useless things such as providing me energy, so I took it upon myself to find a source of energy that wouldn't make you tired while also helps in tempering you. This source of energy is both hosts' souls. After observing the hosts and other creatures, I have found that the hosts' souls are special and purer than others, yet there is still a place for growth, and after taking information from Host, Xue Mo, I found some techniques that concern tempering the souls. It took me a long time to research and dismantle these methods, and I still haven't finished, which is why the Mana technique's progress was so slow. Although I could already supply myself with the hosts' soul energy, I wanted to help the hosts temper their souls too."
Xue Mo's eyes grew cold and narrowed, hearing what Infinite Darkness said. He looked at the blue screen in front of him and warned, "what you did is good, but don't do something like that without receiving orders."
Xue Mo understood how precious that information and ability was, and it seemed as his and Lu Yao's power grew, so did Infinite Darkness. Still, the only thing that worried him was how easily Infinite Darkness did something without asking permission and made him a little paranoid.
"Affirmative, I won't take any further actions without asking the hosts for confirmation. Should I stop the process host?" Infinite Darkness' replied fast. After all, Xue Mo and Lu Yao weren't just its hosts but its Master's and Parents. It didn't want to anger them.
"No, forget the Mana Technique, for now, focus all your attention on tempering our souls. Categorize all the information that I have into different sections and put what's useless to you in a different section. You may need it in the future. For now, implant the latest level of Mana Technique into our minds and calculate how much more can it upgrade; once you are done, carry out the order I gave before."
Xue Mo quickly gave several commands to the improved Infinite Darkness and sat down to think. He had complete control over Infinite Darkness and even added a safety measure if something unexpected happens. Hence, he wasn't worried about betrayal what he had to improve his power now. He had a feeling that he would need to get much stronger soon.
Xue Mo narrowed his eyes before thinking, 'let's practice some Mana.'