Chapter 97: Fire Spirit Resonance

Upon hearing Rayan's words about leaving Shadowcrest Ridge, Duke's expression dimmed for a moment, but he quickly masked it with a smile, saying, "As long as you remember, that's good, that's good."

After devouring three large pots of meat, Sola finally let out an inelegant burp, and slumped in her seat, patting her belly. Crow flew around above her head, mocking her greasy appearance from every angle. Sola lazily waved her hand, uninterested in dealing with Crow.

"Go rest."

Seeing Sola's state, Rayan realized she was clearly not fit to train with him, so he gestured for her to go back to sleep in the attic.

Sola seemed to understand Rayan's intentions, attempting to stand up, but she failed to stabilize herself after several tries.

"Zuolin!" Sola exclaimed, her eyes wide as she looked to Rayan for help.

"It's 'master'…" Rayan corrected.

"Die, Zuolin!"

"You…"

Rayan's usually stern face couldn't help but smile wryly, "You might be the first slave girl who's eaten so much she can't walk and still curses her own master."

Sola blinked her orange eyes, sitting confused in her seat. Crow continued to mock her mercilessly from above her head.

"Well, since I'm your master."

Rayan sighed helplessly and picked up Sola, carrying her upstairs.

Sola wrapped her slender arms around Rayan's neck, her body pressing against his solid chest.

The moment their skins touched, Rayan felt his body temperature rise, every limb and joint feeling relieved, as if he had been soaking in a warm bath all day, all fatigue vanishing.

Initially, Rayan thought this intoxicating warmth was from Sola, but soon both of them realized with surprise that the heat wasn't coming from either of them, but from their mutual resonance, like two burning fires—when one dwindles, just getting close to the other can reignite it.

This was an excellent recovery method! Far better and safer than alchemist Morien's powerful potions, with no side effects!

With such a method, Rayan didn't need to sleep when tired; a brief embrace with his little female slave was enough. The time saved could be used for training, to break through to the Tenth Tier Battle Qi sooner.

Thinking of this, Rayan felt a surge of excitement and carried Sola to a corner of the attic, reluctant to let go. Sola was equally unwilling to release her grip. Since being captured by the slave mercenary, her nerves had been on edge, her physical strength severely depleted. Now that she had found a way to recover, she wasn't going to let it go easily.

She wrapped around Rayan like a python around its prey, pulling down the much stronger Rayan onto the bed.

"Sola!"

Rayan lay atop the hot-bodied slave girl, trying to get up, but his body felt as if it were magnetized to another magnet, unable to extricate himself. He hurriedly propped his elbows on the bedding, trying not to let his condition become too embarrassing.

" Zuolin…"

Sola responded to Rayan in kind, her orange eyes filled with shyness.

Rayan quickly straightened his expression, but his tone of voice had already softened due to their mutual body heat: "We can't... at most, just hold each other a little while longer…"

—The days that followed resumed their routine.

The reputation of the lord of Shadowcrest Ridge had been spread across the continent by traveling merchants who had benefited, bringing great trade volumes and tax revenue, far surpassing other frontier towns and even breaking records set by previous lords.

This was largely thanks to Olivia. Although she had a sensitive and quirky temperament, as a member of the joint council and the true exerciser of the Crow Lord's rights, she managed Shadowcrest Ridge impeccably, almost achieving the goals she and Rayan had set.

Rayan wanted to take the opportunity to commend her efforts, but whenever he thought of the resentful look Olivia gave him, he immediately dismissed the idea and continued to train relentlessly.

Of course, what pleased Rayan most was that the Righteous Blood Group's suspicious gaze did not fall on Shadowcrest Ridge.

Indeed, the Righteous Blood Group had dispatched several team captains with Tenth Tier Battle Qi to investigate along the way, but Duke had long taught Rayan how to conceal his Battle Qi. When the investigators used Battle Qi to probe near the tavern, what they found were just two ordinary Second Tier Battle Qi users.

Obviously, Second Tier Battle Qi could not instantly kill two Sixth Tier Fighters and one Seventh Tier Fighter. And when they arrived, Rayan deliberately wore the lord's robe, covering his face and posing as the Crow Lord, showing the contract and promissory notes signed by Gruk to the people of the Righteous Blood Group. The faces of the Righteous Blood Group members were filled with horror, fearing being pressed for debts by the Crow Lord, and they fled Shadowcrest Ridge overnight.

They shifted their suspicion to stronger opponents, such as other slave mercenary groups or guilds from other nations, but in the end, it was just a case of a dog biting a dog, with no real gains.

As for the biggest victim of this incident, the true master behind Simon, they did not participate in the investigation. It seemed they were afraid of exposing their noble status or the secrets behind the incident, so they remained inactive.

And thus, the whole affair quietly faded away.

During that time, Sola was kept hidden by Rayan in the storage room. Whenever Rayan was tired from training, he would embrace her to recover his strength and energy. The resonating effect of the fire spirit was astonishing, and this recovery was mutual, so Sola remained in a spirited state as well.

To keep her from getting bored, Rayan let her learn the common language of the royal family. Excited, she picked up the language quickly, and within a few days, she was able to use a few simple words to communicate with Rayan, her pronunciation no longer as stiff as before.

In order to save time spent on recovery, every time Rayan held Sola in his arms, he would study the barbarian tribes' language with her, preparing for any unexpected needs.

They leaned on each other, feeling the warmth of their mutual resonance, holding "Snow Love," with Sola reading aloud in the common language and Rayan in the barbarian tribes' language, then pointing out each other's pronunciation errors. What reassured Rayan was that although they were reading an erotic book, neither thought about anything inappropriate...

At least he didn't.

Even if he did, it was fleeting, since Sola was still young.

Rayan felt very fortunate for this; if Sola had matured to the level of demoness Ella, Crimson Thorn, Lady Spring Rain, or Olivia, the consequences would have been...

Every time, Sola just rested her head on his shoulder, curling up in his arms like a kitten, her hand on his chest, while he simply held her, his hand on her back—they were just doing it to recover more quickly and to learn the barbarian tribes' language, nothing more.

However, some of the questions Sola raised often caused Rayan headaches. When she asked what "beautiful breasts," "love fluid," and "male genital" were, Rayan could only pretend not to hear.

—He couldn't explain.

Once the storm of suspicion from the Righteous Blood Group had passed, Rayan let Sola out of the storage room, allowing her free movement. But Sola had no interest in other things, simply following Rayan wherever he went, almost never leaving his side.

Moreover, she remained the biggest eater at the Ravenstorm Inn.

Almost every meal, she would start a fight with Crow at the dining table. Initially, Rayan and Duke tried to mediate a few words between them, but the more they mediated, the more spirited they became. Eventually, Rayan and Duke simply stopped interfering, letting them grab each other's necks, fighting like two children squabbling over a toy.

With the new method of quickly regaining physical and mental strength, Rayan's training intensity increased significantly, and his learning ability also improved markedly.

Every morning at dawn, Duke would come to the attic, sparring with him while explaining the techniques of moving through shadows, teaching Rayan how to communicate with the shadows.

Rayan learned very quickly. Although he couldn't merge with the shadows immediately, he was already able to sense the presence of shadow power. Duke had thought this sensing process would take at least three months, but Rayan broke through in just one month, merging with the shadows in front of Duke.

Although still unskilled and rather poor in effect, the speed of acquiring this skill truly left Duke dumbfounded, unable to believe it for a long time.

Duke's disbelief also stemmed from another reason—the days of parting with his beloved disciple were approaching, almost countable on his fingers.

Even though he felt reluctant, Duke still taught with all his might, not holding back any techniques. The two skills he taught Rayan were the most practical for him. Concealing Battle Qi levels could catch an opponent off guard, allowing for surprising victories, while Stealth could attack unexpectedly, even safely escaping after a kill.

These two skills were not damage skills, but they were the most important skills in the Assassin profession, absolutely not to be disclosed, especially not to Fighters. For Fighters, high damage combined with such skills was almost an unbeatable existence.

Yet Duke took the risk of possibly being pursued by the Balance Sect, teaching these two skills to Rayan—in Duke's heart, this was his historical duty and destiny.

And Rayan was the one destined to rewrite history...

Thus, spring passed, and more than half of summer went by.

Rayan's Ninth Tier Battle Qi had reached a bottleneck, with a potential breakthrough to the Tenth Tier imminent. His Stealth technique had reached an intermediate level; although a Hall of Fame Hero several ranks higher like Duke could easily detect him, for an unguarded Intermediate Hero, he was no longer a problem.

Compared to these internal strengths, what improved even more was his appearance. He had grown taller, his features more refined and handsome, his muscles firmer and fuller, his eyes deeper and less revealing of their sharpness.

As long as he could break through to the Tenth Tier, he could go and take revenge on Duncan, reclaiming his own Twilight Blade. This was his set goal. But the Tenth Tier wasn't something that could be achieved just by hard training; otherwise, Tenth Tier Fighters would be everywhere.

To break through to the Tenth Tier, a sudden insight was needed, but such opportunities were hard to come by. Rayan both hoped for an early breakthrough and didn't want to leave Duke too soon.

His conflicted emotions grew heavier, and with the Tenth Tier breakthrough still unachieved, he began to uncontrollably grow irritable.