Demonstration

The afternoon passed by, with Lan Xiang gaining 10 more recipes before he stopped.

"At this rate I'll fill even the stockpile inventory with one more day... I should delay it on Monday then. I'm gonna take it easy on the weekend."

These past few days, Lan Xiang realized that he had been working like a robot. In the morning, school. In the afternoon, pill refining. And in the evening, training.

By tomorrow, both school and pill refining would be gone, and he would only have to do his training at night.

"I should take Jian'er out tonight!" Lan Xiang became enthusiastic.

Much to the dismay of her (his) customers, the Mysterious X had cleaned up her (his) stall.

From a secluded alleyway, Lu Xifa flashed an okay sign, to which Lan Xiang responded with a nod.

"Oh, right, I won't be here for the weekend. And the last time I'll be here is on Monday. I'll only be taking the first, hmm... 14 pill commissions, so come early. Bye now."

As soon as he was finished with his words, Lan Xiang bolted towards the alleyway where Lu Xifa was at. Both her and Zhang Xiaoqin were waiting there. When they saw the slightest trace of him, they jumped into the rift, with Lan Xiang making it through just as it closed.

Most of the customers, who were busy comprehending the Mysterious X's words, were caught unaware by her sudden running and lost track of her.

Of course, some chased after her, but when she turned the corner and went into the alleyway, it was like she disappeared.

"Woah, where did she go?"

"The master pill refiner also has some movement tricks up her sleeve!"

Meanwhile, in Lu Xifa's room...

Out of nowhere, a rift opened, and like a giant mouth, it spit out three people before disappearing.

"Ah, we're here." Lu Xifa gently pat the dust off her clothes.

Zhang Xiaoqin looked around. "Hey, isn't this your room? Why are we here?"

"It's only a temporary stop. We were in a rush after all, what with Lan Xiang angering an entire mob!"

Lu Xifa opened another rift, this time leading to Zhang Xiaoqin's house. After waving goodbye, she jumped in.

Lan Xiang took off his robe and the disguise ring and put it in his storage ring.

"Haizz, a busy day today..." Lan Xiang leaped onto Lu Xifa's bed headfirst. His body slowly sunk into the mattress.

"Aiya, Xiang! You're still sweaty, get off my bed!"

Lan Xiang looked at Lu Xifa with exasperation as he sat up instead of resting comfortably.

"Now that Xiaoqin is gone, show me! Show me your control of all the elements like you said!"

"I'm tired, let me rest for a little while..."

"Well then, take a shower first!"

Right as Lan Xiang was about to arrive in the bathroom, he stopped. "Wait, who's Xiaoqin?"

"Ah." Lu Xifa realized she had been careless. "Er, no one."

"And I was starting to wonder why you all struggled with Ying's name. Turns out it's because she's Xiaoqin, huh?" Lan Xiang went inside the bathroom.

You already figured it out, why would you still ask me... Lu Xifa stared at the recently closed bathroom door.

She then glanced at the covering of her mattress. Even though it wasn't much, there were still traces of his sweat.

Lu Xifa erased the urge to smell it as she turned red for a bit. "I, I'm not a pervert!"

After a while, Lan Xiang emerged from the bathroom, a single towel covering his lower body.

Lu Xifa had all this time to marvel at his well-chiseled body... she almost started to drool.

"Do you have any clothes I can use?"

"W, why of course!" She rushed towards the closet and closed it violently.

"Hai. What am I doing here anyways...? I could have rested at home." Lan Xiang pondered for a while. "Ah, that's right, I was going to show her my control over all the elements."

Normally, Lan Xiang would have refused, with the reason being that he had nothing he needed to prove to other people. However, since Lu Xifa so kindly provided him with the Lu Family Technique as well as her notes, it was the least he could do.

Lu Xifa returned with a set of clothes that looked elegant.

"Hm? Why do you have a butler suit? Oh, you cosplay, that's right..."

Lan Xiang wore the suit in the bathroom and came out.

This time, Lu Xifa burned the image of Lan Xiang wearing a butler suit into her mind.

His hair that barely reached his shoulders were a perfect fit for a suit like this! Her imagination started to run wild.

Lan Xiang: "My lady, I will serve you."

Kyaaa! Lu Xifa quickly snapped out of it.

Lan Xiang who was wearing the suit, was surprised at its flexibility. It wasn't as tight as he expected it to be. And so, he crashed headfirst into the bed again. His weight slowly sank into the bed.

He took out his phone and called Xie Jian.

"Jian'er~... Nothing, I just wanted to hear your voice... Yep, so I need your healing after that... Oh, I'm at Xifa's house, taking a break... Well, actually, she found out about my control of the elements, so I'm just gonna demonstrate it for her real quick..."

With droopy eyes, Lu Xifa looked at Lan Xiang. So this is your definition of resting, talking with your girlfriend??

After half an hour of talking, Lan Xiang finally hung up the phone, in part because his battery was bordering between life and death.

He stood up, feeling completely energized after hearing Xie Jian's voice.

"Okay, let's do this! What do you want me to show you first?"

Lu Xifa, who was reading manga quietly beside the bed, closed the book. "Let's head outside first."

"Oh, that's right..." Lan Xiang recalled the destructive scene that happened in the Ning auction house's storage room. Although his memory of it was hazy, he had still learned his lesson.

Lu Xifa opened a portal, and both of them stepped through it.

"Where are we?" Lan Xiang looked around the unfamiliar terrain. The ground was slightly rough but flat, and behind them were two mountains that looked like they overlapped each other.

"Ah, it's just my normal training ground."

"Okay, let's begin. What element do you want me to show you first?" Lan Xiang thought of using Wizard Powers as demonstration. It seemed more orthodox than everything else.

"Let's start with fire."

Lan Xiang nodded as he walked a distance away from Lu Xifa.

This should be far enough.

He closed his eyes and breathed in and out.

Plenty of qi to waste... why not show off? Hehe.

With a smirk, he directed his qi towards his palm. The golden threads of qi jumped from his hand and hovered, wrapping around each other. Eventually, the qi formed into a ball, which started increasing in temperature and was becoming more material.

"Ball of Fire..." Lu Xifa watched the scene closely. His qi materialization was different from the orthodox method.

Normally, the qi would bring with it a property that the person embedded into his own qi, whether it be high or low temperatures, a solid or liquid state, et cetera. That property would determine the only element that that cultivator could utilize.

Whereas in Lan Xiang's case, Lu Xifa observed that the qi threads that came out of his palm were formless, of no property. It was only when they started threading themselves into each other that a certain property was formed, in this case, a high temperature.

"But this has been tried before by cultivators of the past, and it's even being researched into right now. In their studies, they find that forming properties outside of the body are significantly weaker than those formed inside. But how is it... that Xiang is doing it so flawlessly?"

She watched as the ball of flames burned brighter and brighter as it grew bigger, still hovering above his hand. Eventually, the fireball was bigger than Lan Xiang himself.

It was as if... Lan Xiang had the sun in the palm of his hands.

With a little grin, Lan Xiang launched the attack towards the sky. "Fireball!"

Lu Xifa's gaze followed the rising fireball, not dissipating in the slightest. She expected it to disappear rather quickly, especially since it went into a high altitude.

Before long, Lan Xiang snapped his fingers.

Kaboom!

The fireball exploded like a firework, sending streaks of smoke and sparks into all directions. Soon enough, the shockwave of the explosion reached where they stood.

Lu Xifa stood her ground as she struggled to keep her balance, while Lan Xiang just took it as a light breeze.

The trees behind the two swayed as the clouds spread away from the sky, revealing the bright yellow sun behind.

"Hm, how was it?" Lan Xiang was quite satisfied with his performance. And better yet, he still had tons of qi to spare!

Lu Xifa was speechless. "...Next element."

"Sure."