10 Leaving

After sorting his thoughts out, he waited for Lu Yao to come back. In the meantime, he opted to continue training his body as every second is essential, and since he isn't doing anything, training is an excellent way to pass the time.

It didn't take Lu Yao much time before she came back. Noticing Xue Mo training, she went silent and gave him his time. Xue Mo had felt Lu Yao's presence, and seeing her standing at the side, trying not to interrupt him, allowed him to continue his exercise.

Xue Mo didn't take long. After another round of exercise using the three stances, Xue Mo stopped and closed his eyes. He started feeling his body and checking its condition 'Hoh. It seems that battle helped increase my progress a little, I could probably begin practicing the fourth stance, Abyss Dragon Meridians in another month or two'. Xue Mo thought before opening his eyes and sitting down to rest.

At that moment, Lu Yao entered the cave and sat down next to him. "Was your training fruitful?" Seeing Lu Yao initiating a conversation, Xue Mo didn't make things awkward as he already decided to go with her.

Nodding his head, Xue Mo answered her while revealing some information, "Yes, I could probably move on to the next stance soon."

"Hmm, that's good then." From the way Lu Yao talked, he inferred that she didn't know what he was talking about, making him think, 'Do they not have martial arts in the Hollow Sky Universe?' Though he doubted this idea, he wanted to confirm it.

"You don't know what I was doing, do you?" Xue Mo asked to test the waters.

"Nope, not at all." Lu Yao's honest answer put Xue Mo in a tight spot, so he asked directly this time: "Do you have Martial arts in your Universe?"

"Martial arts? What's that?" This time the answer stupefied Xue Mo as he thought, 'They don't even have Martial arts, how do they even cultivate their bodies then?'

Xue Mo didn't ask that less; he didn't like the answer. Instead, he changed the subject, "About your proposal, I accept." Xue Mo didn't beat around the bush and directly told her his answer.

Lu Yao's indifferent face became brighter, although she didn't show it, Xue Mo was able to infer that she is happy. 'Why is she so happy? She doesn't know anything about me, so she isn't like those annoying girls that I had to kill every time. More so, she doesn't annoy me like them.' One of the reasons that Xue Mo agreed to go with Lu Yao is because she, unlike other girls and women, doesn't disgust him in the slightest. He wanted to know the reason.

"But-" Hearing the but in Xue Mo's words, Lu Yao paused to hear it. "You have first to tell me the conditions of the partnership."

Xue Mo's words put her mind at ease. For some reason, her instincts kept telling her to take Xue Mo with her. These same instincts had saved her many times before, so Lu Yao listened to them.

"The conditions? Why should there be? If you want conditions, then let's put some. We will both protect each other no matter what. If we find a place one wants to go to, as long as it's safe, we can go, but if it's not, we won't.

We shall be partners, so we should also drop the formality with each other and act casual, as for the last one, hmmm... Let's go with..... Mhmmm, We shall never separate unless we both agree upon this; if one of us doesn't agree, then we will stay together." Thinking that her previous words were clear, Lu Yao didn't explain more, but it seems Xue Mo believed that this Partnership is temporary; therefore, he wants to know rules to follow. Too bad for him, Lu Yao wasn't planning on making rules.

'What kind of conditions are these? This is basically binding us to each other, what's next getting married?

Sigh

Whatever its better this way, at least there are no restrictions, It's not like I was going to renege anyway, this girl is overthinking stuff. or is it me who is overthinking?' Xue Mo started rambling in his mind while thinking of useless thoughts.

Xue Mo wanted to ask this because only those desperate with no other choice in front of them would blindly go with someone. But Xue Mo wasn't just any tom, dick and harry, that would agree to anything without considering other possibilities. So hearing Lu Yao's words and discerning from his experience that she wasn't lying to him, he readily agreed to the Partnership.

"Alright, then we should probably head out soon, lest we lose our energies midway. If that happens, we will die before we could even get to your Universe." Xue Mo's words were reasonable. His situation was even more precarious since he estimated that he only had two months left of stored energy after that, he would die.

Since he didn't know how long it would need them to get there, he has the right to worry; after all, his life is on the line.

Xue Mo suddenly had a weird thought and gave voice to it, "You could have asked me to become your slave or servant. In my situation, it isn't weird for me to agree, right?"

Hearing what Xue Mo said, Lu Yao's face scrunched up as she said in the same cold voice that she had used earlier, "You want to be my slave?" Hearing how, when she said the word slave, Lu Yao's voice leaked a slight amount of killing intent, Xue Mo knew that something must have happened to her for her reaction to be this severe.

"No, of course, I don't. It's just a question." Xue Mo tried to downplay the matter and make Lu Yao calm down, and his plan seemed to have worked.

"Would you even agree to be my slave if I asked?" Lu Yao joked.

"It's not like I have a chance now, do I? If you asked me to be, I might have agreed as I have no place to go back to." Xue Mo said in a seemingly serious manner, but Lu Yao detected the amusement in it.

"You don't have a choice? Who are you kidding? Do you think I am like those naive idiots that would believe this? You have many options to choose from. Among them, you could go to the planet you came from to bide your time before leaving again. or even might be lucky and search around the Universe and stumble on a rift that would take you out of here. You still have more options." Lu Yao scoffed at Xue Mo and retorted, making him suddenly laugh.

"You actually get me. You are right. I wouldn't have accepted becoming a slave, no matter what. Some of these ideas are actually things I have thought of. Not bad, but this is all in the past, we are now partners." Xue Mo said.

"You know the reason I asked was to test you. After all, in my world, people making other slaves and servants isn't unordinary, so if you were actually to suggest that I would have killed you." Xue Mo's face was fierce as he leaked all his killing intent, but in front of someone with Xue Mo's killing intent, Lu Yao didn't cower and took it head-on.

"I am sorry for talking about slaves." Seeing how weird the atmosphere became when he talked about slaves and servants, Xue Mo knew that he crossed a line he shouldn't have. He wasn't someone who wouldn't admit his faults when he was the one who made blunders, so he apologized.

Even though the atmosphere eased up after Xue Mo apologized, they both still felt a little weird.

"Let's not waste any more time." Lu Yao said and left towards the cave's exit. Understanding what she meant, Xue Mo followed her out as they were finally leaving this place.

Exiting the cave, Xue Mo waited for Lu Yao to tell him what they needed to do next as it's his first time traveling the Universe. In his opinion, the journey that he made from the Divine Hell Universe to this Moon wasn't considered a world trip since he was in his soul form at the time.

"You should watch out for several things along the way. Other than the meteors that we might bump in, there are also space worms, black holes, space-time turbulences, and other things that I will tell you on the way.

Oh right, some people get headaches or get disoriented from the unusual atmosphere, so if that happened, just hang on tightly". Lu Yao explained a few things for Xue Mo to watch out for.

Xue Mo nodded his head as he digested the info and kept it in mind, but then he suddenly noticed something weird in what Lu Yao said, "What did you mea-" Xue Mo stopped his words as he already got his answer.

While Xue Mo was asking, Lu Yao began to use her space property by molding the Mana around it.

Green feathery wings sprouted from Lu Yao's back before she transformed into a creature that seems to be a mix of a fox and a wolf with white fur and a large frame allowing Xue Mo to sit comfortably.

While she was transforming, Lu Yao kept working on the space element in her hands, appearing to be utilizing what Xue Mo thought to be, space Magic.

Lu Yao saw Xue Mo observing what she was doing, so she quietly let him. Before long, Lu Yao was finished, and with her, Xue Mo had a clearer idea of Mana's true nature and the overall structure of Magic.

'So Magic is just gathering Mana from the surroundings and joining a specific element with it.' Xue Mo thought while theorizing what Magic could be based on his observation of Lu Yao.

'Then that also means Mana can be manipulated without the need for elements but just by using its raw form.' Xue Mo thought.

"Hop on, let's not waste any more time." Knowing that Lu Yao was speaking for his own good, Xue Mo dropped the matter of uncovering the nature of Magic and how to manipulate it for later.

Once Xue Mo got on top of Lu Yao's back, a coating of sorts started enveloping them, but once it came into touch with the energy already covering Xue Mo, it disappeared as if it was absorbed by something.

Once that happened, Xue Mo felt a slight increase in his energy reserves, making him think, 'Is this one of the ways to increase the amount my Shadow Soul Pressure has?' Although it was a productive thing to find, However, it isn't something that they need at the moment.

"Can you retract your energy please, it's eating the Mana away!" Lu Yao's statement broke Xue Mo out of his thoughts before slowly retracting his Shadow Soul Pressure when the Space energy neared him, and in no time Xue Mo was covered by it.

Xue Mo had agreed to retract his Shadow Soul Pressure because he saw how the energy that enveloped Lu Yao was also withdrawn whenever the Space energy coating reached her. So it's not only him, but the difference is that his power devoured the Mana while hers just let it disappear.

Once Xue Mo was wholly enveloped by the Space energy his Shadow Soul Pressure that he was suppressing inside him, suddenly got agitated. Xue Mo quickly worked on repressing it, and thanks to his practice over time, his control over it, although it cannot be called marvelous, was now better than before.

After examining his situation, he figured out why he lost control over it, which was Mana. 'It seems to want to eat Mana again.' Xue Mo thought before working on keeping his energy suppressed. Otherwise, it would go on a rampage and eat all the remaining Mana Lu Yao currently has.

Lu Yao saw that Xue Mo, who was on her back, seemed to be having a slight problem, so she asked: "Are you ok? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Knowing that she couldn't see him since he is, after all, sitting on her back, Xue Mo replied, "No, I have everything under control." This time Xue Mo wasn't lying as he was able to calm his Shadow Soul Pressure down.

'Since, when does energy react this way?' Xue Mo randomly thought.

"Are you ready? Hold on tight." Lu Yao didn't wait for Xue Mo to answer as she started flapping her wings.

Before their eyes, a rift was slowly opening from the remaining Space Mana that Lu Yao hadn't used, which they went through before it closed. Lu Yao, with Xue Mo on her back, entered the split, leaving the barren Chaosverse.