“Hurry up, George!” Fan Lia was furious. Lately her partner seemed to slack off even more than usual and it really pissed her off, “You should’ve been done with the fifty seventh sub-formation by now! If we continue at this pace …”
Their current work was at a crucial stage, but that damned bastard dared to take another break in order ‘to have a sip of tea’. Why couldn’t he work and drink at the same time like she did?“Calm down, princess!” He was as angry as her, except not only at her, but at the whole Golden Hand society for throwing them in this dump.
They had been stationed in this mortal for over three months and only half of that time they did the work he loved. The rest was wasted with menial jobs like digging and burying people. Even now Gorge couldn’t understand why two accomplished runemasters like them weren’t given an assistant, at least one for both if not one for each. There were quite a few Core foundation disciples who would’ve been thrilled to work for them just for the opportunity to watch and learn.
And the worst thing about this place was the weather. What was up with with the ten day rainy – ten day sunny periods? And the whole world was almost hundred percent covered in water! Why would the Immortal Alliance even insist on keeping a teleportation platform here?
“Ok, stop pouting and get back to work!” Fan Lia snorted.
She despised the wet clothing she had to wear during the rain, even when the sun came out, for days it felt like everything was still sticking to her. In addition, her beautiful, long, black hair was becoming greasy and proved that no person no matter their cultivation stage could go for long periods without a bath. Everything about this place irritated her and especially her partner.
“Pouting is for women! I’m scowling!” George barked back.
They had argued from the moment they arrived here and if at first it was kind of fun, it became increasingly annoying and for the first time since they met both felt they actually could go at it. A fight between Nascent soul stage cultivators never actually led to anything, but at least they could blow off some steam. The first problem, of course, would be the destruction they inevitably would cause and that would mean the construction of a completely new teleportation platform neither was confident in performing. And the second … well ... nether of them knew how to properly fight.
“F*ck you, you sexist! Everything always has to become a gender issue with you!” Fan Lia finally couldn’t take it and got rude, “I bet it’s because of your unnaturally small …”
“We can argue, but it’s probably a good idea to keep it civil.” George interrupted her and pointed at the edge of the meadow, “Otherwise you’ll leave even worse impression on our guest.”
“Uh?” She got confused and looked in the direction he was pointing.
“Hahaha! Don’t tell me you didn’t notice?” George suddenly laughed, “They’ve been here for two days already! What kind of a Nascent soul stage cultivator are you to not hear the shouts down below this morning!”
Fan Lia ignored the mocking and got up. Then she did a deep inhale, paused for a moment and then cursed again, “Damn it! Another man!”
“Whaaat?!” George saw her do something like that for the first time, “So this is how you tell the gender of a person ...”
But the next moment he shut up because a tea cup flew at him and unfortunately disintegrated the moment he tried to catch it. To this he could only sigh in regret – they were really running low on food utensils.
“Come out, you pervert!” Fan Lia shouted towards the spot Leo was hiding at from the moment he climbed up the slope.
It wasn’t as hard as he expected and the only difficulty was to carry the heavy sword on his back. Of course, additional problem was that because of its length it constantly got stuck all around the place, but Leo wasn’t going to complain – this was his first and favorite sword!
“I’m sorry, madam.” He finally climbed up on the meadow and said, “I didn’t want to impose so I intended to wait until you are done with your work for the day.”
Obviously he was scared the two would lash out, but there was no way he would go against the rule number five and piss off someone stronger than him. In addition, there was the rule number six – to always stay vigilant around women and if anything, observation of this particular one proved that there was a reason for this rule to exist.
Surprised by seeing a child and hearing Leo’s polite answer Fan Lia’s countenance softened, but Georges jaw literally dropped.
“Aren’t you sweet!” She said, “How come you speak the main dialect of the Immortal Alliance?”
“What she wanted to ask is – where the hell did you come from?!” George butted in before Leo could answer.
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“Don’t mind him. He’s a brute without any manners.” Fan Lia sweetly smiled and said, “But … yes … where the h… where did you come from?”
Stupefied with the question, Leo pointed and the teleportation platform the two were working at and shrugged. Weren’t they supposed to be smart people?
Even though the experts had a lot of work to do, they decided to take a break for the rest of the day since they hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone but each other for over three months. Even Leo’s silly story entertained them to no end and for some reason they kept giggling most of the time.
He omitted quite a few parts like Brandon cursing everyone or the fact that he cultivated under the lighting tree, but he didn’t lie or exaggerate either. Strangely enough neither Fan Lia nor George were interested in trivial details and the moment Leo found out they both were actually at the Nascent soul stage he understood why.
These two people led their lives at a completely different level compared to him. In Aurora mortal realm one could count the people who were at the Nascent soul stage on their fingers and none were as talented as these two – they were obviously barely twenty years old!
Sitting at the small bonfire and drinking fresh water from the nearby brook with civilized people was a great change for Leo. The bickering of the two did kind of feel familiar, but since George said they both were from the Immortal realm, it was obvious he had never met them. Fan Lia claimed she had heard the name ‘Sacred Order’ somewhere and knew of the Aurora mortal realm, but she didn’t remember the coordinates from the top of her head so there was no chance to send Leo directly back home after the teleportation platform was repaired.
Leo didn’t expect miracles, but if there was something he could do to help, he was glad to assist.
“Do you have any experience in rune crafting?” Fan Lia asked when he offered his services.
“No.” Leo honestly said shaking his head, “Formally I’m in the Alchemy division and even though that science looks much simpler than what you guys do, I don’t think I have talent even for that.”
He could’ve never guessed how many charm points he involuntarily scored with that sentence, but both Fan Lia and George suddenly began to like the honest boy. Of course, the fact that both Alchemy and Rune crafting divisions were fierce competitors in the Golden Hand society might’ve played a role, but none of the three thought of that.
“Well … we’ve actually done all the dull work during the first two months …” George began, but then his eyes lit up, “Leo, do you know how to cook?”
“Kind of …” The boy unconvincingly said. He was ‘cooking’ something in the waters near the lightning tree all the time so technically he knew, but it was probably not what George meant, “But I doubt it’s good enough for you …”
“George!” Fan Lia happily sprung to her feet, “For the first time in your life you had a great idea! You go, catch something! I’ll organize the rest of the things!”
“You see, Leo,” George explained, “Even though both of us are runemasters, I dislike cooking with passion, but Fan Lia … is such a terrible cook …”
After those words he had to evade a plate that flew in his face and then quickly left leaving only a loud laughter behind.
“Ok, let me find the stuff you’ll need …” When George vanished, Fan Lia got busy around a leather covered box one could fit a pair of large sized boots in, “I assume if you can speak the main dialect, you can read as well … oh! Here they are!”
First she took out several thick books, then a bunch of fist sized jars and then after thinking for a moment added few knives and plates to the pile. Then finally in the end she took out a kettle that was larger than the box it was supposedly in and a small pile of firewood. Leo’s eyes were as wide as saucers watching Fan Lia who like a magician took out more things from the box than one could actually fit in it. He even rubbed his eyes and pinched himself to verify he wasn’t dreaming.
“… so this should be enough for the start …” When Fan Lia was finished, she realized that the boy either had a stroke or was suffocating – at least the look on his face indicated that. Fortunately after a couple of gentle slaps Leo came back to his senses.
“Did you hear anything of what I just said?” Fan Lia asked and seeing Leo blush in embarrassment and shake his head, sighed. Compared to her, a scion from Lia family, anyone might be considered a country bumpkin to not speak about a boy from a mortal realm. Obviously he was stunned by half the things he saw.
“This item has a special rune formation built in manipulating its spacial properties.” She tried to explain, but seeing Leo’s expression turn weird again she added, “It’s bigger on the inside.”
“Oh, ok.” Leo nodded. That actually explained it.
Now was Fan Lia’s time to be stunned, but she quickly recovered with a silvery laugh, “I’ve brought a bunch of cookbooks for the trip, but even though I memorized most of the contents for some reason I can’t manage to create anything good. Since we’ll be stuck here for few more months, you should give it a try. You can use everything you see so just …”
“Ok, let’s see if our little friend can do anything with this!” George interrupted suddenly appearing from nowhere with a foot long fish in left and a coiling snake in his right hand, “Do you think you can cook a snake? There is this restaurant in the Golden city where …”
“Would you throw that thing away?!” Fan Lia took few steps back in disgust seeing the snake that kept struggling for its life, “Why can’t we have a normal meal?”
“I’m sorry!” Leo finally couldn’t take it, “I’m afraid your expectations are too high …”
“Don’t worry, kiddo! Just do your best. Nothing you make can be worse than what Fan …” George said only to get interrupted by a suffocating killing intent.
Leo could swear he actually felt the air temperature rapidly dropping.
“Ok, I’ll try. But no promises.” He said in attempt to dissolve the tension.
If these two Nascent soul stage monsters began to fight here, he most likely would die from the collateral damage. In that case it was actually worth giving a try to cook something.
“But I don’t know any good recipes yet.” Leo said, “I guess the best thing I can do is to roast us some fish?”
“Ok.” Was all George said as he threw the poor water snake away. Of course, it wasn’t as if he set it free – it would probably die from the impact of hitting the ocean surface anyway. Fan Lia also instantly calmed down and watched how her partner put the fish in front of Leo with expectant eyes.