Results, hopeful

Xiao Su woke up groaning in pain, there wasn't a spot on her that didn't hurt.

He Lan's cold face came into view above her. "You woke." She stated the obvious.

"Yep," Xiao Su grinned despite the pain. "No recoils so far, it looks like a success," she said after running a quick check through her body.

"Don't assume." He Lan warned sternly. "Monitor yourself closely for the next few days." She ordered.

"You're killing the mood." Xiao Su pouted.

"Monitor yourself closely for the next few days." He Lan repeated coldly.

"Ugh, you realize you're the servant, right?" She questioned playfully, feeling giddy. "I'll be careful" She finally relented upon seeing He Lan's face reach sub-zero. She planned to be careful anyway, she didn't want to die.

He Lan nodded indifferently. "You've been asleep for four hours; your injuries are still fresh." He Lan informed her. "I suggest you go back to the house and rest today, it's almost night anyway."

He Lan got up from the chair next to Xiao Su's bed. "I have to attend to some matters and will be home late, I'll drop by your room to check on you." He Lan promised before turning to leave. "Don't do anything strenuous, focus on recovering and observing." She stopped at the doorway and warned her.

"I promise to be good, have fun at work mom." Xiao Su answered earnestly.

He Lan shot her a withering glare before leaving.

Xiao Su waved at He Lan's departing back before her face became more contemplative. She closed her eyes and focused on her dantian. Her consciousness once again returned to that chaotic sea of colors. It was obvious that not much had changed with the sealing of one only qi, it looked just as chaotic as ever. The only difference was there was a bright-green cluster of qi calmly floating on its own.

Her focus approached that cluster, careful to avoid disturbing anything else, and began to analyze it. It was hard to see, but the qi was covered in symbols of the same color as itself. Those symbols were the seal, when the net had finished forming, it enclosed and merged with the qi. Xiao Su spent over an hour checking every part of it for holes or defects, but thankfully found none.

'Looks good so far, so long as it doesn't start deteriorating in the next few days it should be fine.' She thought, opening her eyes with a happy smile. There was still a lot to do, but it felt like she was moving forward. She slowly levered herself up while wincing in pain. Her wounds weren't serious, but they'd need a couple days to fully heal even with the medicine.

"She did it again." Xiao Su said dully as she admired the pure white bandages wrapped around her injuries. She recalled being a bloody mess before passing out, but now she was spotless again. Though it scared her how thoroughly He Lan could clean her without waking her, even she didn't want to sleep encased in her own blood, she could only be thankful for the care.

...

The sun set by time Xiao Su arrived back at the house. Her head was full of ideas on how best to proceed with the sealing. She had to do each qi type one at a time, so she had to give some thought into the order. Naturally, she couldn't use the sealed qi, so she also had to think of which one's she'd leave unsealed for use. Still, even with so much work ahead, she didn't forget about the all-important sealing method. As the saying goes, a hundred days of practice is nothing in the face of one day of real experience. After using it for real, she realized a lot of deficiencies in the sealing method. The method itself was fine, but her application was clumsy and inefficient at best, she was sure that she could improve it immensely.

With so many thoughts running through her head, she naturally didn't notice the maid begging for her attention and walked wordlessly to her room. She took out some paper and immediately started going through the ideas in her head. Xiao Su couldn't use her qi without suffering intense pain, so she'd gotten into the habit of writing most of her theories on paper where she could process and test them. She still needed to practical test them eventually, but by solving as many problems as she could in the theory stage, she could greatly reduce the number of trials.

Writing and erasing, ripping up pages in frustrations, shouts of joyful success, she worked for hours non-stop, completely oblivious to time. When He Lan got back the floor was littered with papers covered in complex theories and designs. He Lan's eye twitched at the mess in the previously spotless room. She was so irritated she almost scolded her, but she managed to resist, so as to not disturb her.

Xiao Su worked well past midnight before finally putting her pen down with a satisfied sigh. After the satisfaction came the pain. She looked at her clothes to find blood stains in some areas. She'd moved too vigorously and opened a few of her wounds. She clicked her tongue but didn't react more than that. It hurt, but it was nothing compared to what she was used to.

She turned to organize her notes only to be surprised at He Lan already going through them and filing them neatly. "When did you get back!" She exclaimed quietly, alarmed.

"Two hours ago." He Lan answered, while looking through the pages, with a cold edge to her voice that made Xiao Su bow her head in shame.

"I guess I got too enthusiastic." Xiao Su said, mildly embarrassed and apologetic.

He Lan continued to look through the papers and said, "I already knew it, but your theoretical knowledge is outstanding, even with my cultivation base, I can only understand enough to group them." With a hint of admiration in her voice, not even annoyed anymore.

Xiao Su laughed bashfully and said, "Well, I've read a lot after all." With pride in her voice. She started helping He Lan sort while smirking.

"I'm surprised you could do so much calculating without fainting, or at least get a splitting headache." He Lan said, packing up the last of the papers.

"Eh? I don't really think it's more than I usually do." Xiao Su said, tilting her head in puzzlement.

He Lan frowned imperceptibly. Xiao Da told her that the concentration pill would drain a vast amount of mental energy and slow recovery for twelve hours, but Xiao Su didn't seem to show any signs of mental exhaustion.

Ancient ability, [Limitless]. An ancient ability that not only recovers vitality and qi at a speed that far surpasses ancient ability [Vigor], it also had the unique attribute of recovering mental energy as well. When Xiao Su woke up, her mental energy had already recovered by almost half, despite the pills side-effects. [Limitless], a truly powerful ability that Xiao Su has yet to realize the advantages of.

He Lan didn't know the full details of [Limitless], (partly because Xiao Su didn't fully understand it herself), she vaguly knew the effects but not the full weight of it. She didn't dwell on it long, and chalked it up to Xiao Su's many years of experience. It was a good thing, and there were more pressing matters. "Here." She said as she handed a letter to Xiao Su. "It's from your grandfather."

Xiao Su's face changed to one of mixed feelings. Her expression only became more depressed after she read it. "He wants me to have lunch with him in two days." She summarized glumly.

He Lan wasn't surprised to hear this. Xiao Su's grandfather never came by the house, but he did occasionally send invites for Xiao Su to come over. It'd been this way from before He Lan had met Xiao Su.

"Send him a message saying I'll be there." She said with a sigh.

"Already done." He Lan replied immediately, making Xiao Su put on an awkward expression.

"Shouldn't you have brought the letter before sending the reply?" She asked, a little peeved.

He Lan just gave her a flat stare. She didn't have much of an impression of the man, she'd never met him, she also didn't understand Xiao Su's relationship with him, she only knew two things about him/ One was that Xiao Su didn't like meeting him, and two was that she would always meet him when called.

Xiao Su pouted but really couldn't say anything to as she knew her track record spoke for itself. "Fine, I'm going to bed now." She said after putting the collected notes into a space ring. Space rings could store items into a separate space within the ring. They weren't super rare, but they weren't easy to get either, Xiao Su recieved this one from her mom on her tenth birthday.

"Understood, then I'll redress your wounds." He Lan said as she moved towards Xiao Su.

"Whoa! I can dress them myself." Xiao Su exclaimed in defiance.

"Here's the medicine and bandages then." He Lan said uncaringly while handing over a paste and bandages. She didn't care how Xiao Su got clean, so long as she was clean. "Give me the clothes so I can wash them, you don't do it thoroughly." She said disdainfully while holding out her hand in a manner that brooked no argument.

Xiao Su almost had tears in her eyes as she was forced to strip by her servant. 'It's not that I'm not thorough, you just go overboard!' she complained bitterly while handing over her bloody clothes.