One could think that such an explosion would worry Cao Yun and Xixue. However, it did no such thing. In fact, even the servants were not alarmed at all. Indeed, that loud explosion had come from the quarters of Dan Yao. Unfortunately, they had become used to his shenanigans. Even Lady Gu Xue's residence had received word of his activities.
Because the boy was a bit too eager to make his teacher proud, he was always pushing himself too far. Thankfully, he was only working with inferior pills and always with very simple bronze cauldrons. By now, he had caused several dozens such explosions. And in total, he had lost around twenty cauldrons that had been thoroughly destroyed.
As he left his study, Dan Yao was covered in black residues caused by the explosion. A trained nose could smell the faint fragrance of medicinal essence amidst the black smoke erupting from said study. The poor boy was trying to ventilate the smoke with his arms as he was coughing a lot. Suddenly, he stopped moving altogether and froze. In front of him was his teacher and master, Cao Yun.
Before leaving, his master had asked him not to overdo it. Worse, he had ordered him not to overdo it. And here he was, standing in front of him just as he had let yet another cauldron explode. Even worse than that, Dan Yao had not accomplished his assignment.
Suddenly, he dropped to his knees and kowtowed to his master. Parts of his robe were still fuming and there was a thick odor of burned clothes all around him. Besides the recent traces, his clothes had suffered a lot without being washed at all. Cao Yun could imagine how long he had spent locked up in his study trying to finish his assignment.
"Please, Venerable master, don't forsake him! This useless trash will do everything I can to make you proud. Please, keep teaching this worthless insect despite his rotten brain."
For a few minutes, Dan Yao cried a river at Cao Yun's feet. In fact, Cao Yun was so stunned by his actions, he didn't know how to react. Even Xixue wasn't too sure how to handle the situation.
"Student Dan, stop groveling at my feet. I have no intention of forsaking you. And if I did, your current behavior would not change my mind. In fact, it might even succeed to convince me that this would be the best solution."
Hearing Cao Yun's cold words, Dan Yao stood up all of a sudden. It was as though he had been submerged in freezing water and had regained his sanity. Clearly Dan Yao had not slept for a few days now and it was having some effect on his mood. It was no wonder he wasn't able to do anything right in his study. Without enough sleep, he couldn't progress at all. Thinking about it, Cao Yun remembered his own teacher. Sleeping all the time like Chief Elder Meng wasn't a good thing, but fighting to always stay awake wasn't any better.
"I will examine your work in a few hours. For the time being, clean yourself and rest. This is an order! If you're not asleep when I come to fetch you, then I will forsake you! Is that clear?"
"Yes, teacher, perfectly clear."
Now completely livid, Dan Yao ran toward his own chambers to clean himself. Looking at him running through the residence, Cao Yun shook his head in frustration. That boy had no talent but he was hard-working. However, he was way too hard on himself because of his lack of talent. That being said, he was quite pleasant to be around. Cao Yun was rather good with children apparently. And having his own student, even though he was a demon, felt really good.
Maybe it wasn't Dan Yao's talent that was to blame. The boy was so eager to learn that Cao Yun felt guilty for his slow progress. He would have to think seriously on how to improve his own teaching. With such a student, there was no reason Dan Yao couldn't improve. First of all, Cao Yun would need to establish precisely what his talents were. It was impossible for him to lack talent in all the domains of alchemy.
From there, he would try to think of a good way for him to improve. As he was using different cultivation systems to speed up his overall cultivation, Cao Yun thought about doing the same thing with Dan Yao. After all, he had entire libraries in his mind. He had to find a way of teaching him efficiently. From this point onward, Cao Yun became engrossed in how to craft perfect lessons for his disciple. Besides, it would also be helpful for his plan.
While he was already thinking of a study plan, Cao Yun's thoughts were interrupted by Xixue. As she had been for some time, she was very formal and completely detached.
"Lord Mo, Lady Gu Xue has shown interest in meeting with me at the earliest. Apparently, she heard about your 'misfortune'. And she extended her help to you."
Since his residence wasn't perfectly safe, Cao Yun answered Xixue both physically and telepathically.
"How much does she know about what happened?"
There was a tiny bit of panic in his voice. It was incredibly subtle, but loud enough that someone like Lady Gu Xue could detect it while sincerely believing he was trying to hide it. In Xixue's mind, the conversation was totally different.
"Of course, she did... She'll come in person in my chambers. I need everything to be ready for her arrival. I guess that the documents are all ready."
Xixue nodded while keeping up with Cao Yun's fake conversation. At the same time, there were two different conversations but Xixue couldn't answer to the one in her mind. However, she had a few gestures to answer Cao Yun. Just like the slavers, Xixue had developed a partial language with her hands and facial expression. Just by looking at her, Cao Yun could know what she was saying but no one else but him could.
"By the way, I've also analyzed the seals in your bones. They were even more dangerous than I initially thought. Yes they will help you cultivate faster for a time, until they push you to a bottleneck of course. But worse than that, they were also meant to kill Boss Gui."
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For a split second, intense surprise colored Xixue's face. Then, Cao Yun saw doubt.
"I don't care whether you believe me or not. But this City Lord Sihe meant for you to get close to Boss Gui until your cultivation was strong enough that your self-detonation could kill her. In my estimates, you would have blown up along with her in two to three years tops. Not only does it show that this Sihe is truly capable of everything to kill Boss Gui, but this also shows that he's a patient man."
Boss Gui seemed like the right choice for Cao Yun's plan. Indeed, although she was capable of great cruelty, she seemed to be very straightforward and rational. Dealing with someone like City Lord Sihe might be more troublesome. Even if he didn't exhibit great cruelty, he would plan and plot behind his allies' back. With this kind of man, one would not even see the knife stabbed in their own back.
Cao Yun could see that Xixue was shook once more. Her emotions were all over the place. Clearly, he had to speak with her to calm her down. Right now, she was absolutely crushed. The reality of her powerlessness hit her harder than before. She had thought that she had a bit of control thanks to her alliance with City Lord Sihe. After all, he had spent a few months training her for this mission. But she was just a pawn he had already decided to discard. And the worst part was she would have been happy to do his bidding until her death. In the end, she would have died without realizing the truth.
As much as she wanted to doubt Cao Yun's words, they were clearly true.
At first, she despised him because of his strength when she was powerless. While he could choose his own fate, she had been forced to lower herself to the status of slave. Moreover, she had been forced to commit a heinous treason just to be enslaved and brought to her target, Boss Gui. The fact that Cao Yun could do whatever he wanted without sacrificing his moral didn't sit well with her. But when he acted all good, that infuriated her.
Until now, all the Accomplished Demons she had met were working for their own self interests. Not a single one would do anything for another demon without a reason. Since Cao Yun seemed to do just that, he appeared like a hypocrite in her eyes, deepening her despise. However, she had finally realized that Cao Yun was sincerely trying to do what he thought was the right thing. Besides, he was literally going up against other City Lords.
Despite his cultivation, opposing the Nalupu Kingdom was insane. After all Lord Wanghuo was a late Accomplished Demon.
What truly marked Xixue though was the fact that Cao Yun didn't seem to know for sure what was right or wrong. He didn't have great ideals of morality. He was just trying to act on what was in front of him as fairly as possible. This was reassuring her. He wasn't a fool or a saint.
While she was still trying to sort out her feelings, she kept her distance with Cao Yun. Emotionally, she didn't want to get too involved. Her main goal was to find her sister and Cao Yun was certainly the best man to help her.
When their conversation was done, Xixue left to send an invitation to Lady Gu Xue. As was the custom, she sent a gift with the invitation. The value of the gift showed how much one hoped for a visit. Taking Lady Gu Xue's position into consideration, Xixue sent a gift to show that Cao Yun was desperate but was still trying to hide it as much as he could.
-
Receiving the gift, a pill, Lady Gu Xue was quite pleased. If she maneuvered right, she could not only take over Cao Yun's business but even improve her influence on the other businessmen of Ruohe. In fact, by using Cao Yun's alchemy, she could even hope to become a City Lord of a real city-state herself. Ruohe could become a city-state, the twenty-second city-state of the Nalupu Kingdom. Of course, this would take some time, but it was possible.
While she was ecstatic, Jia Lao wasn't. He kept examining the invitation and the gift. Although he couldn't find out what, something was amiss. For a long time, he hesitated as he didn't want to spoil his mistress' mood. However, he ended up taking a decision.
"My Lady! There is something I don't like about the current situation. I would suggest you to wait before meeting with Lord Mo. Please, give me enough time to investigate a bit longer. This entire business with Tu Jianhe and the others seems fishy to me. The contract they talked about is indeed very beneficial to them and crushes Lord Mo's Blazing Swallow. However, knowing Tu Jianhe, I feel like he went a bit too easy on him. Tu Jianhe is not a generous man at all."
"You worry too much, Jia Lao. Either he was balanced out by his partners or Tu Jianhe simply didn't want to destroy Lord Mo's shop. After all, he hopes to make some benefits from it. Besides, pushing someone too far can be a problem. We still don't know what Lord Mo did to infuriate City Lord Sihe. It's still possible that Lord Mo could try to silence Tu Jianhe and his partners. Crossing an alchemist who's also a 2nd-grade Accomplished Demon and who's escaped a City Lord might not be too smart."
"Well, it's possible... But I do worry. I sincerely don't know why but I feel that something is strange in this matter. It is as though all the stones on the board are favorable to us and yet they look like a gaping maw waiting for us."
"You're just nervous because the game is too easy. But you're right to be cautious. Anyway, we'll see what's what tomorrow."
"As you wish."
Still a bit uneasy, Jia Lao accepted his mistress' decision. Furthermore, no matter how much he was trying to think about the situation, he didn't see what Cao Yun could do. Even if he had somehow tricked Tu Jianhe and his partners, Lady Gu Xue was formally recognized by Boss Gui as leader of this city. Through Boss Gui, this was Lord Wanghuo who was recognizing Lady Gu Xue. This kind of legitimacy was enough to protect her.
Trying to take her down without the approval of the Nalupu Kingdom or the Xinian Confederation was impossible. Considering Cao Yun's situation, there was no way he had either of those. Otherwise, City Lord Sihe would have found him by now.
-
The next day, Lady Gu Xue did visit Cao Yun. Cao Yun's residence seemed to be extremely busy and Cao Yun himself appeared to be a bit flustered. Xixue did everything she could to make things look like she was hiding their current turmoil and it worked perfectly well.
While affecting fake arrogance, Cao Yun welcomed Lady Gu Xue. The old lady was smiling brightly as though she had already won. In her mind, she could already see her ruling a city-state as an Accomplished Demon. She was ecstatic and could hardly hide it. Still, she tried to look friendly. After all, she was here to offer her sincere help to Cao Yun.
Despite her advanced age for her cultivation, Lady Gu Xue still looked relatively young. At least, she looked way longer than old mortal women. However, that wasn't much comfort to her. It was extremely clear that she had used several pills in combination with balms and even superficial make-up to try and look younger. Most likely, there was a bit of vanity behind it, but this wasn't all it was. Looking too old for a cultivator was a sign of weakness, especially among demons. Some humans sometimes took it as a sign of wisdom. But among demons who valued blood and essence, old features meant that one was reaching the end of their lifespan, hence their essence and blood were spent.
Thus, Lady Gu Xue was a bit obsessed with looking young. At the same time, she didn't want to betray this fear as it could entice betrayals. Of course, in Cao Yun's eyes, everything was obvious. As an alchemist he was able to clearly see the signs of overconsumption of low quality pills. But after their meeting, this wouldn't be a worry for lady Gu Xue any longer.