After the day's training ended, Li Luo bathed and changed. He was entranced by the handsome youth in the mirror staring back at him, and he spaced out for a few minutes.
He shook himself from his reverie at last.
"Just a pretty face, hollow underneath." He sighed. He needed spirit liquids and purifying lights so badly.
He had been at the Astral Sage College for more than 20 days now, and his supply of spirit liquids and purifying lights had been exhausted. He had run out two days ago, and it felt strange. He had gotten so used to them.
That batch of spirit liquids and purifying lights had mostly helped his woodearth resonance, bringing it from the fourth grade to the fifth-grade.
However, his first resonance, the waterlight one, still remained at the sixth grade. Moreover, it was a long way away from the seventh-grade.
The main limiting factor was the steep price of sixth-grade spirit liquids and purifying lights. Although Jiang Qing'e had guaranteed him a continuous supply, it was not enough to keep pace with Li Luo's cultivation.
He understood, but he was unhappy nonetheless. The Suncreek Villa's profits were climbing steadily at headquarters thanks to his secret watersource, but it wasn't going to make him a fortune overnight.
He had to take things slow.
"I'll just have to endure it."
Li Luo hung his head and walked out of the room.
He headed for the second level of the basement, a refining workshop. Chi Chan would give him and Bai Mengmeng refining advice here in their free time.
There was a crystal wall on one side of the workshop, where one could see within. Li Luo saw Chi Chan standing outside with her hands in her pockets and looking in.
He went to take a look.
Inside the refining workshop, a petite girl was on the refining platform. In front of her was an entire assembly of bottles and flasks. Her hands were a blur as she performed complex procedures, adding, distilling, and creating even more glowing liquids.
She turned briefly to look at the whiteboard behind her, which was already covered in a scrawling mass of numbers.
Li Luo stared at her. She looked like a completely different person, her usual, demure look gone. Instead, her face was almost like a robot as she worked on her calculations with calm and collected precision.
"That's Bai Mengmeng??"
Chi Chan heard the disbelief in his voice. "Mm. Rather, it's Bai Mengmeng in a dream state."
"What do you mean?" he asked, puzzled.
"It's a special place for her. Her Nightmarish Water Butterfly resonance has powerful hallucinatory effects. For some reason, she can use it on herself as well.
"She can induce a dream-state for herself, and when she does so, her ability to do research increases greatly. In this state, she can overcome many obstacles that she usually can't."
Li Luo was amazed. So she was... sleep-walking?
"So far, Bai Mengmeng has created more than 10 different spirit liquids and purifying lights. Although they are all fourth-grade and below, the best among them was rated a four-star spirit liquid.”
Li Luo was even more impressed now.
In the Xia Kingdom, liquid and light formulas were classified into five grades, with one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest. Four-star was already considered superb.
Even the best that the Suncreek Villa offered was only a three-star formula. Despite the vast amounts of money they had thrown into research, they had yet to come up with a four-star formula. And yet this little girl had already beaten their research headquarters.
Her formulas alone could probably fetch tens of millions of skygold.
She was a low-key ultra-rich woman!
Her net worth was probably higher than the entire Suncreek Villa.
"Why do you think the Resonance Artificers Hall is drooling over her?" Chi Chan laughed, interrupting Li Luo's thoughts. "Many mentors have come to find me in the last half-month."
Li Luo wiped a tear from his eye and stared at her with such a hot intensity that it seemed like he could melt the glass. That was a treasure of a girl inside.
If he could just bluff—no, invite her to the Suncreek Villa, what heights could the combination of his secret watersource and her research reach?
Of course, if he could also get an artificer like Mentor Chi Chan to anchor things there, the Suncreek Villa would immediately reach the top ten.
Millions of skygold a day. His waterlight resonance would reach the seventh-grade. The eighth-grade! For all three resonances, if he had them!
Li Luo was trembling with greed.
"I have no idea what you are thinking, but that vibrating is creeping me out. Stop it immediately, or I'll kick you out," Chi Chan warned the drooling Li Luo.
He stopped it immediately.
"You better not be thinking of taking advantage of her," Chi Chan warned him, displaying her uncanny ability to read his mind. "She might be a pure girl, but her sister and the Bai family aren't all harmless herbivores like her. You're asking for a world of pain."
"Mentor!" Li Luo burst indignantly. "How could I?!
"I merely wanted to exchange skills with Mengmeng. As the leader, it's my responsibility to care for my members!"
She ignored his nonsense. "Another thing. There is an additional prize for the upcoming monthly test. Do you know what it is?"
He shook his head curiously.
He opened his mouth and no words came out. He closed them again. "Mentor," he sobbed, "I'm so touched. You go too far for me."
The 12 Step Weave's hefty price tag was a great worry for him. But now it was the monthly test's reward? Wasn't this an amazing chance for him?
Who else could be so nice to him, besides Mentor Chi Chan?
She shook her head. "Wasn't me. It was Shen Jinxiao. He even paid for the 12 Step Weave out of his own pocket to make it an additional prize."
Li Luo stared at her, blinking stupidly.
Had that old bag found a conscience? Or lost his marbles?