Brax and Anna arrive back at Whiteworro village and find the villagers still busy fixing all the damages done by the bandits.
When the villagers notice Brax, they immediately stop whatever they are doing and bow down to him in reverence.
To Anna, this display of reverence is not new, as her father was the guardian of this village.
The middle-aged villager from before, noticing Brax's presence, rushes towards and greets him.
"Welcome back, of great lord. Has the bandit been taken care of?" he asks nervously. Since that bandit escaped, he feared that he might bring more of his comrades back with him to wipe out the village.
"I have dealt with the bandits. Your people don't need to worry about them anymore," Brax reassures the villager.
"Ah, Thank you so much, Oh great lord, we the people of Whiteworro will always be extremely grateful to you," the man thanks Brax from the bottom of his heart, bowing down multiple times.
"Enough with that. Go tell the village chief to find me in Farco's house," Brax says and moves on.
The villager nods and moves to the side. As he watches Brax leave, he gets curious about the person covered from head to toe following Brax.
"I wonder who this is?" he murmurs, but quickly stops thinking about it. He knows he is a mortal and shouldn't bother about an immortal business.
He then makes someone inform the village chief about Brax's return before getting back to work.
________________________
Brax and Anna enter Farco's house.
It's been a while since Anna has stepped foot inside her own house.
She starts getting emotional again as memories of this place start playing in her mind. She used to live with her father in this very place, but now this same place feels very foreign to her without her father in it.
"Go clean up and rest, we are going to leave tomorrow," Brax says and leaves Anna on her own. Anna opens her mouth to say something but stops.
She nods and goes to her room.
Anna has not taken a proper bath for quite a while. During her time locked up in that cage, if she ever wanted to get cleaned, those barbaric bandits would just throw a bucket of water over her.
She enters her room, collects some of her old clothes, and walks into her bathroom. She instantly feels the warm humidity on her skin.
Anna removes her baggy clothes revealing her dirt-covered body, but it doesn't take away her beauty.
She takes a deep breath and enters her warm water. This is a natural warm water spring turned into a bath by her rich father.
As the pleasant feeling washes over her, she can't help but compare her life to when she was locked inside that small cage.
Tears roll down her cheeks. She can't stop thinking about the hard times she suffered and the death of her father. If Brax had not come and saved her, she would still be suffering and then sent off to be used as a toy for someone else.
She doesn't know what her future holds now as she has decided to surrender her life to Brax, but she believes it will be better than anything that was coming her way due to her father's killer.
Anna thoroughly cleans up and puts on a nice dress.
'I wonder what master is doing?' She thinks and exits her room. Anna looks around her house and finds her father's room door slightly open.
Anna hesitates for a second and pushes the door open. She finds no one inside. 'Where did Master go?' She asks looking around when she sees the entrance to a stairway in the far corner.
'What's this?' She approaches the stairway and finds it leading down to a basement. 'I didn't know there was a basement here.'
Anna walks down the stairway and finds herself in her father's secret basement. She also sees her master working on something.
Brax was already aware of Anna's presence before she even stepped foot in this basement, but he didn't get distracted by it.
'The molecular structure of this metal is no different from a tungsten carbide, but the bond strength between its molecules is exceptional,' Brax concludes, as he studies the metal from the cage the original Farco was locked in.
'It definitely has something to do with refining through Qi,' He thinks as he finds traces of Qi between each molecule bonding together.
He tries to replicate this on a normal piece of metal but fails.
'I wonder where I can learn how to refine metal,' Brax thinks, finally lifting his head. He sees Anna patiently waiting for him.
His irises dilate as he looks at Anna. She looks incredible.
Now that she has gotten rid of the dirt on her body and put on a nice dress, she looks like an enchantress.
Brax eyes stare at her, taking in all her beauty, appreciating it like it should be. Anna gets shy feeling his burning gaze on her again, making her cheeks rosy.
"Immortal lord. It's me, the village chief," Brax hears the old man's voice from above, disturbing him.
"Put on your veil. The village chief has arrived," Brax says and exits the basement and Anna follows right behind.