Chapter 371: Leisure Time

Over the next two days, Li Luo remained behind closed doors at the House Luolan headquarters, both to recover from the fatigue of the training ground trial and to acclimate to the resonance power he had just upgraded by a level.

In a courtyard.

Li Luo lay on a chair, letting the warm sun fall upon him, feeling too lazy to move.

Sitting nearby was Cai Wei, who had arrived not long ago; her vibrant crimson dress made her already charming and moving self appear even more alluring, her breathtaking figure fully on display.

She had come to report on the progress at Xiyang House over the past month, and the results were quite pleasing to Li Luo; because of the addition of the batch of top students from the Resonance Tempering Institute led by Li Bi, the scale and strength of Xiyang House had surged, and coupled with the upgrade of the secret method source water and the four-star formula provided by Bai Meng, the performance of Xiyang House this month had reached its highest level in history.

And this was only the beginning; as these resonance temperers from Li Bi's group gradually adapted to Xiyang House and the reputation of Xiyang House continued to rise, there would be even more room for growth in these figures.

It could be said that the current Xiyang House had infinite potential.

Two slender, delicate fingers, white as jade, held a peeled grape and suddenly placed it by Li Luo's lips; he looked at Cai Wei, who was smiling brightly with a face as charming as a flower, and said with flattered surprise, "Sister Cai Wei, from that smile of yours, I already know what you want."

Cai Wei popped the grape into Li Luo's mouth and said with a gentle smile, "Since you know, then please, Young House Master, hurry up and hand over this month's quota."

Li Luo's expression turned bitter: "I just finished a trial, you know."

Cai Wei rested her chin on her jade hand, tilted her head, and smiled: "Be good, I have no choice either; Xiyang House is urging me every day for secret method source water. If your supply cuts off here, the performance of the entire Xiyang House will be affected."

Then she picked up an exquisite little box from beside her and opened it, revealing two glass bottles; inside, the liquid seemed to possess life, flowing slowly, and even with the bottles covering it, a wisp of strange aura still emanated, making anyone who smelled it feel their internal resonance palace emitting a sense of hunger.

Seeing this, Li Luo immediately straightened up from his "corpse-like" state and said in surprise, "Seventh-grade spirit water and light?!"

Cai Wei smiled sweetly: "Young House Master, do you have the motivation now?"

Li Luo waved his hand grandly and said, "I just leveled up two days ago, so there's plenty this time."

"The Young House Master is truly generous."

Cai Wei said happily: "If there's enough, why not prepare a bit more to increase the output of Xiyang House?"

Li Luo's expression stiffened, and he said earnestly: "Sister Cai Wei, one must understand the principle of a long-flowing stream; if you squeeze too hard and break the source, that wouldn't be good."

Cai Wei said coquettishly: "The Young House Master is so young, surely you aren't that unable to hold up?"

However, her words were mostly teasing, and she didn't really intend to let Li Luo drain the pond to catch the fish; she immediately changed the subject: "But Young House Master, Xiyang House has its current momentum almost eighty percent due to your secret method source water. This is a good thing, but also not... in the long run, relying on one type of secret method source water is still a bit lacking for Xiyang House, and it lacks anti-risk capabilities."

Hearing this, Li Luo's expression turned slightly serious, and he pondered: "Sister Cai Wei's words are indeed very farsighted."

No one could say for sure what the future held; after all, the major event concerning the survival of House Luolan in half a year had yet to be settled, but they couldn't ignore the future of Xiyang House because of that. Moreover, would Li Luo stay in this Great Xia forever? Li Luo himself didn't know.

And if he were to leave, Xiyang House would suffer a major blow or even be knocked back to its original state.

This was a matter that needed to be prepared for in advance.

"What does Sister Cai Wei mean?" Li Luo asked humbly for advice.

"I don't mean anything else, just that I feel Xiyang House might need to stock up on some other secret method source waters or secret method source lights as backups. Of course, high-purity secret method source water and light are extremely rare and not easy to get, but we must make some preparations for it," Cai Wei mused.

"Hmm, I'll leave this matter to you, Sister Cai Wei. Keep an eye out for such news in the future," Li Luo said with a smile.

Cai Wei rolled her eyes at Li Luo; he was truly carefree, tossing another burden over just like that.

"Sister Cai Wei, there is one more thing I need to trouble you with."

Li Luo then grinned and pulled out the broken octagonal golden shield, saying: "House Luolan also has forging industries; help me find someone to repair this item. Also, help me look around to see if there are any suitable dual-blade treasures. The grade should be high-grade white-eye; of course, if there's a golden-eye one, that would be best!"

The small hand with which Cai Wei took the octagonal golden shield trembled slightly. A golden-eye treasure? You really dare to ask! Treasures of this level were not only few in number but also extremely expensive. A golden-eye treasure could easily cost millions. Although Xiyang House was thriving, it wasn't a place for such squandering.

However, despite thinking this, Cai Wei didn't truly blame Li Luo for being extravagant; instead, she sighed softly and said, "Golden-eye treasures are quite difficult to find, and dual-blade types are even rarer. But I will keep an eye out, though I think it's more likely to be a high-grade white-eye or a gold-threaded white-eye."

Li Luo nodded, his face showing sincerity: "Then I'll have to trouble you, Sister Cai Wei."

"Who told me I was born with a life of toil and worry?" Cai Wei lamented, and after confirming the matter of the secret method source water with Li Luo again, she hurried away. After all, there were many large and small matters within House Luolan that required her, the head steward, to handle the first step, and only matters that passed through her needed to be reported to Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e.

It could be said that without Cai Wei, this trustworthy head steward, Li Luo and Jiang Qing'e would never have had enough time to cultivate at the Astral Sage College.

After Cai Wei left, Li Luo continued to lie in the sun, feigning sleep. Then, he suddenly felt the sunlight being blocked, so he opened his eyes and saw a tall, slender figure standing before his chair. She had her arms crossed, and her long hair shimmered under the sunlight.

Her stunning face appeared even more exquisite and three-dimensional in the faint shadow cast by the sunlight, and her golden eyes were like a pool of gold, radiating a magic that made one want to fall into them.

"Sister Qing'e? You're back?"

Li Luo exclaimed happily. He hadn't seen Jiang Qing'e in the two days since he returned. According to what she said before, she had gone into the Dark Cave for training, so he hadn't paid it much mind, but he hadn't expected her to appear before him today.

Jiang Qing'e looked Li Luo over and smiled lightly: "Not bad, you've actually improved again. This has reached the fifth pattern of the Pattern-Birth Stage, right? It seems you gained quite a few benefits from this trip to the Golden Dragon Training Ground."

Li Luo stood up. He looked at the stunning beauty before him, but his gaze keenly noticed the wear on the armor plates of her battle skirt and some dark, viscous liquid remaining on them. He then understood that Jiang Qing'e must have received news of his return and had ended her training in the Dark Cave early to rush back to House Luolan.

Perhaps only a few hours ago, she had been in the Dark Cave, battling strange and terrifying Otherkind.

Looking at Jiang Qing'e's seemingly calm expression, Li Luo could feel the trace of worry in her heart. A warm current surged in his heart, and he reached out to take the girl's delicate, jade-like hand.

Jiang Qing'e just looked at him without pulling away, a trace of a smile in her eyes.

Then she felt something roll out from her palm.

Jiang Qing'e looked down with some confusion and saw a silver-white space ball lying quietly in her hand, flickering with a mysterious luster.

"A gift I brought for you," Li Luo said with a bright smile.

Jiang Qing'e was slightly stunned. She looked at the space ball in her hand, its smooth mirror surface reflecting her cheeks. Soon, a smile blossomed on her beautiful face. She rubbed the space ball with her slender fingers; it was clearly a cold touch, yet it caused waves of warmth to rise in her heart.

Then, her golden eyes looked at Li Luo with a meaningful expression: "Suddenly so attentive, and even bringing gifts? Could it be you've done something to wrong me?"

Li Luo's body shook, and he immediately put on an expression of grief and indignation.

"Alright, I know you're a good actor."

But before he could speak, Jiang Qing'e smiled and blocked all his words. She looked at Li Luo's depressed expression, the corners of her lips curved, and she stepped forward and hugged him.

She rested her cheek lightly on Li Luo's shoulder, raised her hand, and brought the space ball before her eyes, her golden eyes reflected within it.

Then, a soft whisper reached Li Luo's ears.

"But the gift, I like it very much."