Hidden genius: Black belly snake

Chapter 298: Little Blue vs Little Plum Part3

Layla tapped her fingers on the cave wall as she impatiently waited outside.

"How does she have this much time on her jade slip?" 

"I bet she is just standing uselessly in the outer circle and wasting everyone's time."

"This is what happens when a top cultivation resource is blindly handed over to an idiot. Hmph."

The dwarf who was guarding the entrance could only apologetically look at Layla and bow and apologize to her every now and then.

This was not his fault but he didn't want to incur the wrath of the princess.

In fact, neither of them had the power to do anything about this. 

These were the rules and regulations set up by the Emperor and the old Master and everyone had to obey them.

In reality, this kind of situation had never happened before, so this problem had stumped everyone.

Not many can withstand more than an hour inside the stone chamber, even at the outer edges.

So the maximum time someone remains within was simply a few minutes or an hour at most.

Occasionally, when a Grandmasters visits the stone chamber the room would be occupied for maybe a day or two.

But even then, they would eventually be forced to step out because their allocated time would ultimately run out.

So this was the first time since the setting up of the cultivation chamber that something like this was happening.

Tang Yue had by now hogged the stone chamber for almost an entire month and a half, thereby preventing anyone else from using it.

And this was in no way a small issue. 

In order to produce fire attribute weapons, this stone chamber was irreplaceable.

Several Master blacksmiths and Forge blacksmiths regularly used this room in order to gain insights and have a better output, especially when they were making weapons.

Fire elemental essence had the highest chance to improve the attack power of the weapon.

So the unavailability of the stone chamber affected their work quite a bit.

Within the span of a few weeks, Tang Yue had successfully managed to piss off almost all the high-ranking dwarves and the direct disciples of the dozen Grandmasters.

So not just Layla but several people were out for her blood.

But the most important revelation to everyone, almost the entire royal city was the presence of a new Grandmaster blacksmith amongst them, the famous drunkard.

Everyone who had looked down upon the smithy and the drunkard were now going green with envy.

Even other Grandmasters' personal disciples wanted to bang their heads against the wall.

Though they were personal disciples, they only got to occasionally interact with their teacher.

But in Tang Yue's case, they knew that the dwarf had handed over several weeks worth of cultivation time in the stone chamber.

She was getting the highest grade of treatment which others couldn't even dream about.

Several juniors also tried to use this chance and become Miller's disciples. However, the dwarf bluntly turned everyone down and in the end, even used an "Isolation" rune.

A barrier popped out around the medium-sized building preventing anyone and everyone from ever stepping in or even knocking on the smithy's door.

This only made them even more frustrated. Miller was the only Grandmaster who was almost at their reach, but they still couldn't meet him and beg him for tutelage.

"What do we do now?" Gale asked Ginko, the two sitting inside an inn and eating their meal.

Ginko didn't say anything. He only sighed in silence and shifted his gaze to Tang Xi, who was also sitting with them.

As opposed to the restless and anxious states the goblins were, Tang Xi was more relaxed and casual.

She lazily bit into the roasted boar's leg and enjoyed the delicious meat dissolving in her mouth.

"Are you not the least bit worried?" Gale plucked another unwanted hair from his chin in annoyance.

"Why should I be worried?" Tang Xi indifferently replied.

She had indeed suffered a bitter defeat once again, but that was not because of her sister.

It was rather because of Xander who had stepped in at the nick of time and thwarted off her attack. 

At least that's what she believed to have happened.

And now, everyone knew that both the elven princes had left the Empire.

Tang Yue might have seduced her way into becoming a Grandmaster's personal disciple, but at the end of the day, Tang Xi knew too well that women were merely playthings for men.

There was no way that the dwarf was going to be protecting Tang Yue at all times.

She only needed to wait for a perfect opportunity and then taking out Tang Yue would be as easy as taking a shit.

Gale looked at the confidence in her eyes and didn't know whether to believe in her strength or not.

Thanks to her, they had achieved the impossible and finished the first part of their mission. 

They had successfully identified Tang Yue among thousands of dwarves!

But now that they knew who she was, Marvin was getting impatient, as well the high council elder Darius.

They had already sent several jade slip communication messages to the two goblins.

If the mission was not accomplished soon, then it would only be their heads that rolled. None cared about Tang Xi and what she did or did not do.

So of course, these two were much more anxious and impatient compared to the snake sitting next to them.

While the two goblins uninterestedly munched on their food, Tang Xi ate her portion with an appetite and quickly went back up to her room in the inn.

Once inside, she locked the door behind her and removed her outer robe.

This revealed her shoulders and upper back, and the numerous unsightly scars etched onto them.

She then sat down on the cot in front of the window.

She did not cultivate. she did not meditate. She did not do anything. 

Tang Xi simply sat by the window and stared at a spot in the distance.

This was the entrance from the royal palace into the northern mines. 

This was where Tang Yue had entered into the mountain range and this was where she would be soon exiting as well.

Tang Xi's long tongue flickered in and out as she patiently waited for her dear sister.

Inside the stone chamber, Tang Yue slowly rotated her mana cores as she absorbed more and more fire essence and earthen essence swirling around her.

Her two mana cores were now the size of big melons and revolved around the center of her body.

"Ok. Enough. Stop now, little snake. Don't breakthrough into Saint realm just yet."

Tang Yue stopped. 

Even if the old man hadn't reminded her, she was not crazy to try and condense her elemental seeds before her physical body stepped into the Saint realm.

While the Mortal realm, Martial realm, and Emperor realm were beginning stages of cultivation, the Saint realm was the first step towards immortality.

At this point, the world's energy nourishes the life force and prolongs one's life span from a mere hundred years to several thousand years.

This was also the stage where one's foundation is stabilized. 

So this was an extremely crucial step and hence has to be completed with absolute perfection.

Otherwise, if the foundation was shaky, then everything would remain forever imperfect.

"I understand, Master." Tang Yue obediently nodded and started swinging the hammer again.

For some people, this might be an extremely boring and monotonous process, but if one was truly pushing oneself, then it wouldn't be as simple.

And Tang Yue most definitely pushed herself as much as she could.

The bloodbath that awaited the entire Nine Countries was motivation enough for her to push herself to the extreme.

She didn't have any lofty goals to be the entire continent's savior or some sort of supreme heroine who saves the day. 

She only wanted to work hard and garner as much strength as she could to protect herself and the few who mattered to her. 

If she aimed for anything else, she would only be lying to herself. 

The old man could sense her chaotic thoughts and sighed. 

The cycle of life was as such. The strong preyed on the weak and there were no exceptions to this.

"Little snake, don't break into the Saint realm just yet. You should stop here for now."

"Why?" Tang Yue curiously asked. These days the old man had been weirdly helpful and forthcoming with knowledge.

But this only made her more frightened!

"Dumb little snake, listen. Did you think that you were eating all those herbs for time pass?"

"When you step into Saint realm, your entire body will be remade from top to bottom."

"Doesn't that happen with every evolution?" Tang Yue was confused.

The old man could only helplessly sigh. "Yes, that's because you are a special case. But for others, Saint realm is when a person's body constitution solidifies."

"You should stop the physical tempering here and use my set of elemental arrays to improve your body's resistance."

"Unlike your elven slave, you were born without any special constitution but you can rectify that here."