Bai Ruolan stood frozen, her brush hovering mid-air. Her manic expression locked as his words echoed through her mind, systematically dismantling the wall she had been slamming her head against for three consecutive days.
"A wood-tempered solar heat..." she mumbled, her bloodshot eyes darting back and forth across her scribbled parchnt.
"Of course... the solar frequency handles the tal, while the wood-tempering prevents the herbs from vaporizing. If the ore is receptive beforehand, the temperature never has to reach the detonation threshold..."
Suddenly, a bright spark of pure clarity flashed across her face.
"I see it! It’s the sequence! The solar catalyst has to be introduced before the herbs, not concurrently!"
The sheer weight of her academic breakthrough lifted a massive burden off her chest, her posture slumping slightly in profound enlightennt.
But as the frantic, obsessive haze finally cleared from her brain, her logical senses snapped back into place.
The room grew quiet, and she finally registered the unfamiliar, slender, green-haired man standing casually inside her private, heavily secured third-floor sanctuary.
Her breath hitched. The realization hit her like a bucket of ice water.
"You—!"
Completely flustered, her face paled as a wave of sudden fear crashed through her
She scrambled backward, her hip slamming painfully against the edge of her wooden desk.
With a frantic flick of her wrist, a flash of spiritual light erupted from her storage ring, and she pulled out a slender, gleaming silver sword.
Holding the blade out with trembling hands, her knuckles white as she pointed it directly at his chest, she demanded in a sharp, slightly scared voice, her golden core qi flared.
"Who are you?! How did you get past the union’s defensive arrays?!"
Shen Yu stood perfectly still, his hands still loosely tucked inside his large sleeves.
Watching her sudden transition from a manic, talking-to-herself alchemist to a terrified, trembling cultivator holding a sword was utterly hilarious.
A deeply amused, predatory smirk spread across his pale face, his green pupils locked onto his next target.
Mo Liu looked at her trembling blade, his eyes gleaming playfully.
Slowly, his facial features shifted, deliberately forcing his pale skin to crease with a few artificial lines of a weathered, ancient cultivator.
He threw his head back and let out a sudden, booming laugh that echoed sharply against the walls of the closed study.
"Hahaha! ? I am Death!"
Hearing those words delivered with such sudden, chilling certainty, Bai Ruolan’s face turned completely paper-white.
The silver sword in her hand shook violently, the tip dropping an inch as absolute terror gripped her soul.
She took another frantic step back, her back pressing hard against her desk.
"P-Please spare !" she stamred, her voice cracking with fright.
"I haven’t done anything to offend anyone! Why... why are you after ?!"
Seeing her completely lose her composure over a blatant lie, Shen Yu couldn’t contain himself. He burst into another loud, thoroughly amused laugh.
"Hahaha! You are really fun! Hahaha!"
As his laughter subsided, he adjusted the mystical bracelet on his wrist.
A dense, suffocating wave of simulated Nascent Soul pressure suddenly flooded the room, heavy enough to make the wooden beams groan and lock Bai Ruolan’s joints in place.
"My na is Mo Liu," he said, his voice dropping into a smooth, leisurely tone as he withdrew the crushing pressure just as quickly as he had released it.
"I was simply passing by this little town and decided to spend so ti here. While staying in the city, I happened to hear rumors that the Golden Cauldron branch possessed quite the alchemical genius. Being a fellow pursuer of the grand path, I wished to see you with my own eyes. So, I ca."
Bai Ruolan stood frozen, her heart still hamring against her ribs like a trapped bird.
As she processed his shifting behavior and ridiculous explanation, her terror slowly began to mutate into sheer bewildernt.
’What the hell is wrong with this man?’ she thought frantically, her mind spinning.
’So the rumors are true... as these ancient monsters ascend in cultivation and age, their minds rot and they beco utterly eccentric. But this... this is just too much! Why did he have to scare like that?!’
A small spark of anger flared beneath her fear, but rembering the terrifying aura he had just flashed, she swallowed hard, gulping down her saliva before speaking.
"What... what do you want from , Senior Mo?"
Shen Yu shrugged his shoulders casually, his hands remaining loosely tucked inside his large sleeves.
"Nothing. As I said, I rely wanted to et you." He offered her a sharp, enigmatic smirk that sent a shiver down her spine.
"Now that I have t you... bye."
"Wait... what?"
Before the bewildered words could fully form on her lips, Shen Yu subtly triggered the Phantom Void Mirage Step.
His slender, green-haired form instantly dissolved into a faint, fluid blur, vanishing from the center of the study as if he had never existed, leaving behind absolutely nothing but a slight, warm disturbance in the room’s air currents.
"What the hell?!"
Bai Ruolan scread into the empty room. Her eyes bulged as she stared frantically at the vacant space where he had been standing just a millisecond ago.
The silver sword slipped from her trembling fingers, clattering loudly onto the wooden floorboards.
She clutched her head in absolute frustration, her fingers tangling in her disheveled hair as the sheer, unadulterated absurdity of the entire encounter washed over her.
"What is wrong with that young-looking old bastard?!"
She paced around the room for a few monts, trying to calm her racing heart, before her eyes inadvertently fell back onto the ssy desk.
She looked at her crossed-out notes, her mind instantly echoing the flawless sequence the eccentric senior had just given her.
The spark of inspiration reignited, burning away the last of her lingering fear.
"Well, whatever," she muttered to herself, a determined, manic fire returning to her gaze as she snatched up the parchnt.
"Intruder or not... his logic is flawless. I am going to refine this pill again right now."
anwhile, outside the massive obsidian fortress, Shen Yu blended seamlessly into the bustling evening crowds of Crimson Iron City.
Walking with a relaxed, unbothered stride, his green hair swaying slightly in the cool breeze, he began to look around the illuminated streets to find a high-end inn to stay at for the night.
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