Chapter 36: Not Angry

Chapter 36: Not Angry It took Xu Tao and Arthur over 2 hours to return, mostly because they were carrying others with them, limiting their speed. If not for that, just like before, they should’ve been able to cover that distance in half an hour. "Welcome back, Sir Tao, Sir Arthur." And as soon as they arrived at the gates, they were welcomed by a smiling Jehanne. "Lunch is ready. I’ve set aside your portions too," she said, the smile on her unchanging. "So please help yourselves." "J-Jehanne..." Although, for whatever reason, Xu Tao felt like he’d stepped on a landmine. He stuttered, trying to chase away the chill down his spine as he explained, "Before that, help us move these ladies somewhere they can be observed." "Oh, I thought you brought your new companions. So they’re just for observation purposes, then?" "What?" "Nothing. I was just wondering what a married man was doing, going around, dragging scantily clad ladies all over the place, that’s all." "...What are you talking about since earlier?" Xu Tao was completely, utterly confused. But despite his confusion, he could tell one thing—Jehanne was angry, fuming, about something. He wasn’t sure why, however. He couldn’t think of any reason she could be angry at him. Of course, the "married man" she was referring to indirectly was none other than Xu Tao himself. Though Xu Tao had no idea that Jehanne thought he’d proposed to her already, so their conversation was going in parallel. "Well... anyway." Xu Tao dropped the four on the ground roughly. "I’ll start working on the blueprints for now. Arthur, you handle your ladies yourself." Xu Tao decided to retreat, dumping everything on Arthur, and returning to work! "Sir Arthur’s... ladies?" But his casual response ended up being interpreted by Jehanne in another way. "So these women are Sir Arthur’s possession?" "Huh?" Arthur, being addressed directly all of a sudden, let out a stupid voice before nodding. "Well, technically, they’re mine. So I have to ensure their livelihood at least—food, clothes, shelter, and such." "I-I see..." Jehanne’s face suddenly took a reddish hue. "Ahh... How could I misunderstand something and get angry at Sir Tao without even hearing the details... I fail as a wife...!" She covered her face with her hands, crouching right where she stood. "...Then, I’ll... get going." Arthur didn’t want to get involved in any way and decided to let sleeping dogs lie. He carefully carried the seven back by himself, and laid them down in the Log House’s shade. Xu Tao, on the other hand, was busy setting up the Log House blueprint. The detail about Jehanne being angry was already thrown out of his head. After placing down the blueprint a short distance away from the first Log House, he didn’t delay and began working. The hammering was done in five minutes, the punching in two, and finally, the hacking done in 15 minutes. The next moment, the blueprint exploded with light before materializing a completely identical building as the first one. Overall, he spent 22 minutes to build this one alone, and the rating was just a bit lower than the first: 95/100. "I wonder what decides the rating..." he wondered out loud. Small crafts like hammers, shovels, and such, all came out as 100/100 effortlessly. However, bigger ones like the Mud Hut and this Log House, no matter how fast he tried to finish them, ended up a bit short of perfection. "I must be missing something..." Xu Tao mused, and shook his head after a moment. "But I can’t even begin figuring out what that missing piece is." Instead of wringing his brain on a problem without a direct solution, he just moved on to the next blueprint instead. It was positioned in the same line as the other two. As soon as the blueprint was set, he began working without delay. But figuring that just working would be a waste of time, he decided to cultivate while doing so. Xu Tao took a brown bottle from his Storage Ring, popped the cork open, and fetched one pill from it—a translucent blue pill, almost looking like condensed light and energy. "I’ll claim five of the ten pills, and give the remaining five to the five disciples." He nodded to himself, deciding how to split this loot. Of course, he didn’t even consider giving it to Jehanne or Arthur, as they both didn’t even have any points in Cultivation. Neither did Jehanne’s soldiers. As such, this pill was only usable for Xu Tao and the five outer disciples of the Azure Dragon Sect. Without delay, he popped the pill into his mouth while returning the bottle into his ring. The next moment, a powerful surge of Qi erupted from the pill, still in his mouth. It was so powerful, in fact, that Xu Tao felt troubled about what to do for a moment. But after a moment’s hesitation, he decided to ditch his original plan and simply focus on cultivation. The raging Qi in his system needed a lot of concentration to gather, control, and make his own. As such, he sat down in a lotus position, closed his eyes, and began his breathing exercises. Each breath he took, a drop of Qi materialized in all three Dantian at the same time. It was a pace that he never imagined possible for someone at just the 9th stage of Body Refining! "Ughk!" But even for someone like Xu Tao, the amount of Qi in the Condensed Qi Pill was too much. His meridians were crying from the pressure, fine cracks appearing in his Dantian, as the pain of his soul being torn apart assaulted his senses. At this rate, giving these to the five disciples at their current state would simply lead to their deaths! But Xu Tao held on, out of sheer will. Cold sweat fell from his face, but he forged ahead. Slowly, the raging Qi began to calm down. Then, the drops of Qi that he gathered started to combine, forming a single pool—one in each Dantian. The pool was the Qi that he condensed from the beginning until reaching the peak of 10th Stage Body Refining. Forming this "pool" was the basic requirement to break through to the next stage, Qi Gathering! However, it didn’t end there. After forming the three pools, proving his breakthrough to 1st Stage of Qi Gathering, he continued controlling the Qi from the Condensed Qi Pill. Like a sponge, he just kept on absorbing all the Qi of the pill until it was all dried up. "Phew..." At last, Xu Tao managed to complete his session! He opened his eyes, surprised that the sun was almost setting already. Only a few minutes—half an hour at most—before night dawned on them. "You’re finally awake," and just as he returned, a voice called him from the side—Jehanne. "I was worried since you weren’t responding to my voice at all, but was warned by Sir Shin Gaoshun not to touch you until you’re done." "Oh, sorry about that." Xu Tao shook his head, standing up slowly. "I wasn’t planning to cultivate either, but the power of the Condensed Qi Pill was way more than I expected." Casually, he opened his main menu and checked his cultivation stat—and got a surprise. [Cultivation: 2200] The value jumped by over a thousand, breaking past 1st and reaching 2nd Stage of Qi Gathering! This content is taken from (f)reewe(b)novel.com