"Do you feel as if something is different today?" Nathan approached Hesroth and whispered. "It's only been five days, but don't you think that Master and Mistress seem closer than before?"
Hesroth glanced at his Masters, who didn't act different than usual, ordinary people wouldn't have noticed, but he and Nathan were the most to interact with them. Although they looked the same, both of them seemed as if a burden or a wall separating them had disappeared.
"Don't speak nonsense, and let me concentrate on what Master ordered."
"Fine," Nathan shrugged. "I already knew you would deny it. This proved my thoughts, so thanks."
Hesroth cursed his friend at his sly way of acquiring info and got back to work. He remembered the order they received today when they convened. 'It seems we will be busy again.'
Nathan looked around him, seeing everyone but him doing something. Hesroth supervised training. Dominic, Declan, and Sarah left to join the Sect discreetly. Deckim visited the library under their Master's orders. Even the troops had a whole schedule prepared by Xue Mo and Lu Yao. Only he had no assigned work, not that he minded.
'Let's Cultivate then,' he thought before approaching Xue Mo and Lu Yao's chamber, yet the door opened once he got close.
"What?" Xue Mo looked irritated for some reason.
"Master," Nathan started, carefully minding his mood, "since I don't have anything to do, I wanted to Cultivate."
"And?" Xue Mo spat back as he tapped his foot impatiently.
"And I would like some resources," Nathan went to the point as Xue Mo seemed to be getting more annoyed.
"Alright," Xue Mo said before closing the door leaving Nathan outside. Before the latter could think of what to do, the door opened again. Xue Mo looked at Nathan and threw him a space ring before closing the door again.
'Well, that was anticlimactic. I wonder what made his mood sour. Did something happen with Mistress?' He wondered as he walked down the stairs. He inspected the ring to pass the time but what he saw made him widen his eyes and whistle.
"What are all these pills and potions?" He thought aloud, amazed. "I definitely shouldn't tell the others lest they get jealous and kill me!" He laughed.
***
Xue Mo entered the room silently. He drew near Lu Yao, who was brewing a potion. 'As expected of my Yao, such a genius that she could even make low-grade potions after only five days of learning.'
He looked at Lu Yao's stuffed workplace with various failed and successful potions and noticed how her success rate was slowly increasing.
The brews Xue Mo just threw at Nathan were from them. Although it wouldn't help him much at his level, the quantity could replace the quality. He even gave him many helpful pills for his Cultivation too.
Drip, Boom!
A small explosion that became fairly usual to the duo occurred after Lu Yao added the last component of the Mana recovery potion. She didn't seem to mind and closed her eyes instead of cleaning the materials.
'Fairy Grass, two pieces of goblin beans, and liquid minced bay leaf. What I did wrong was not mince the leaves fully, hmm, next time I will mind the mixing process.' Xue Mo heard her thinking inwardly.
He unknowingly started smiling as he saw her seriously going over what went amiss. While others would have focused on their failures and became depressed, Lu Yao concentrated on learning from her mistakes.
"After you learn all the potion formulas in the scripture, what will you do?" Xue Mo asked when he saw her open her eyes.
"I will try to create some new formulas," she calmly said, fully knowing that others will only see this as arrogance. "If I go with this mindset with this just like I did when I learned Rune Mastery, I think I will accomplish a lot more!"
Listening to the ambitious but slightly arrogant words, he had one thought: 'if it's her, I believe she can do it!' Lu Yao ignored him after saying that and turned her attention to the ingredients in front of her. She still had various batches and formulas to try.
Xue Mo left her to her own devices and moved on to take a look at his gigantic forge. Tongues of flames crackled in the furnace while what seemed to be an incomplete spear laid on the anvil. The spear was still smoldering as the hot red color enveloping it indicated.
He looked at the heated spear before nodding to himself and taking out a dark gold metal. It was one of the metals that their room was made of and had outstanding conductivity for Mana and Qi.
Yet, the menacing energy flooding it and changing its internal structure made it seem as if it had become something else. Xue Mo poured his Shadow Soul Pressure into the metal and gave it some of its properties without touching on anything else. His expertise allowed him to do this with ease.
After what seemed to be the climax point, Xue Mo threw the metal into the ever-rising heat furnace, quickly melting it. With a smooth and fluid movement, Xue Mo was half-naked by now, exposing his pale and sickly skin and strong muscles transferred the metal on top of the anvil and spear.
Unknown when he had picked it, an impressive-looking hammer fell on the melting metal and spear. His refined and sleek moves looked like a sculpture. The practiced methods that he had used for thousands of years, coupled with the experience, made everything appear natural.
Even Lu Yao, who was so concentrated on her brews, took some time off and diverted her attention to him. To her, Xue Mo looked like a painter drawing a masterpiece. She couldn't not look, as every hit of the hammer was precise, pointing at a flaw and fixing it. The process mesmerized her.
In no time, the metal and spear combined, giving the spear the metal's color. Since it got heated again, Xue Mo let the spear cool down and watched it for hours, never letting it leave his sight. Once the prime time came, he picked a bucket filled with azure-colored liquid and threw the spear in it.
PSSHHH, AHHH!
The sound of the spear cooling off as the vapor rising from its center spread in the room. Xue Mo picked it up after it stopped sizzling and returned it to the anvil. It seemed like he hadn't finished yet.
He looked back and saw Lu Yao staring at him and the spear, which made his concentrated expression loosen. "Yao, can you come and help me? I will draw some Arrays on the spear and want you to help me with the runes. If there is enough time, let's add some Array Formations on it."
Lu Yao was stunned before moving closer. She took a deep breath and recovered her bearing before glancing at the spear and Xue Mo. She nodded, telling him that she was ready, and they started—each focusing on one part.