"Hehe, just kidding."

Seeing how irked the two girls were, Xu Xiaoshou immediately shrank back.

​​

He tossed the white stone into the air and caught it. He'd never expected such a plain-looking stone to actually be a treasure comparable to that scabbard he'd found at the Black Waterfalls.

Counting the "Spirit Mark of Life" in his possession, this stone was the third treasure he'd encountered.

He figured there were probably twelve of such treasures throughout the Tianxuan Gate, and he'd already gotten his hands on a quarter of them. Given that they still had a day to spare, he figured he might just be able to get himself one more.

"So what can this thing do?" Xu Xiaoshou then asked. "Since it has sealing attributes, could it seal the grey mist thing?"

"Can't do," Mo Mo answered. "At most, that would only delay its awakening. Furthermore, to truly put this thing to use, one has to smelt it first."

She sighed. Where could one find a smelting pot in the Tianxuan Gate?

Even if she was able to bring that thing out with her by the time they could exit Tianxuan Gate, it wasn't like she could ask the elders of the spirit palace for help.

It was something she'd stolen, after all, so there was no way she could just go about announcing to others about her find.

As such, using the "Sealing Stone" against the grey mist figure was simply impossible.

The reason why she'd chosen to hand the stone over was simply that she wanted to give it to Xu Xiaoshou while that thing was still dormant.

It would be nothing short of a source of disaster if it were to stay in her hands.

"Smelt?" Xu Xiaoshou's interest was piqued as he recalled his own Infernal Heavenly Flames. "How do you go about doing that?"

Mo Mo shook her head and said, "Not something one could do here. Not only would doing so require special means, but one would also require flames of extremely high temperatures…"

She then immediately recalled the woods that Xu Xiaoshou had ended up burning when he was fighting the grey mist figure.

Crackle.

Xu Xiaoshou reached out his hand and started burning the stone with his Infernal Heavenly Flames.

"I don't dare to make claims, but when it comes to flames of high temperatures, I dare say that, besides for two people, no one could claim they can ignite flames of higher temperatures than mine."

Mu Zixi stuck her head out and said, "Two others. Shouldn't it be one?"

Whack!

Xu Xiaoshou immediately whacked her across the head and retorted, exasperated, "You forgot about your own master, eh?"

Mu Zixi said nothing.

Cursed, Passive Point +1.

Mo Mo stared at Xu Xiaoshou's palm for quite a while before finally scanning it with her spiritual sense. The feedback "scorching" was sent back to her.

There was so much joy in her eyes that her voice rose a pitch. "So you could really smelt this 'Sealing Stone?'"

"Indeed."

Xu Xiaoshou then continued, "But that special means you mentioned…"

He was feeling rather troubled. Given his utter lack of talents, such means wasn't something he could easily pick up.

"No need to worry about that. I'll do it." Mo Mo grinned and continued, "Just smelt that thing, and when you get it into shape, I'll be the one to do the sealing."

"That should do it." Xu Xiaoshou was pleased to hear this. The longer he could keep that thing sealed the better, as he was really afraid the grey mist figure would wake up as soon as they got out of Tianxuan Gate and come after his head.

But, well, even after they left, Elder Sang and the others would still be around, so that thing probably wouldn't dare.

However, a thief setting their sights on someone was still more terrifying than said thief actually making a move.

"Is there any way to solve the problem once and for all, like completely removing it from your body?" Xu Xiaoshou asked.

"I wish that were possible…" Mo Mo turned rather glum.

"Heh, well, sealing it is better than nothing. We'll deal with it one step at a time." Xu Xiaoshou wasn't going to get his hopes up. If it were actually that easy to get rid of, it would've been gotten rid of a long time ago.

He held the stone in his hand and asked. "So how do you want the process done?"

"Melt it into liquid form as best you can. I'll just infuse the sealing means into it before it becomes solid again," Mo Mo answered.

"Need my help with anything?" Mu Zixi butted in, feeling that if she kept quiet any longer, the two would forget that she was still there.

Xu Xiaoshou stepped back for a bit and took out his bathtub. He put it on the ground and said to the girl in a serious tone of voice, "There is something."

"What's that?" Mu Zixi flipped her pigtails, pleased to find that she was needed.

Xu Xiaoshou pressed on her head and said, "Stand aside and don't get in my way."

Arrghhh!

The girl was p*ssed and flailed about in frustration.

It was too bad that Xu Xiaoshou had a longer reach and had had the foresight to press down on her head beforehand, preventing her from being able to get to him.

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

"Alright, quit it already."

Xu Xiaoshou pushed her backward and put the bathtub between the two of them. He glared at the girl and then pointed at the stone in his hand, signaling to her that he needed to get to work.

Mu Zixi pouted and continued to mumble to herself under her breath. Xu Xiaoshou saw his Information Bar continue to refresh and felt the scene was rather amusing.

"Can we begin?" He looked at Mo Mo, who then nodded.

He immediately lit up a fireball and had it burn under the cauldron. Then, he threw the white stone into the bathtub.

Mo Mo checked the temperatures and commented, "Not high enough."

"Well, the stone isn't some kind of ingredient, and it isn't that fragile, then…" Xu Xiaoshou thought as he immediately pulled back the external layer of flames, causing the temperature to instantly spike.

Crackle, crackle.

The white tub turned red hot in an instant, causing the air above the tub to warp, but the stone still didn't melt.

"Well, well, isn't this something indeed."

He then flicked a fire seed into the tub, which caused the stone to tremble.

Swoop!

He flicked another inside.

Unable to take the heat any longer, the Sealing Stone cracked from the high temperatures.

Mo Mo was utterly surprised. She hadn't expected the smelting process to be so easy, and she wondered just how long it'd taken to burn the stone before it cracked.

She glanced at Xu Xiaoshou, who looked to be completely at ease. It was apparent that he hadn't even reached his limit.

"He truly has become powerful…"

She sighed inwardly, knowing that if it wasn't for that grey mist figure, she'd be drastically behind Xu Xiaoshou right now, unable to even begin to keep up with his progress.

No.

"If it wasn't for that thing, I never would've been able to enter the spirit palace, and I never would've gotten the chance to know him in the first place," she thought.

Mu Zixi's expression turned increasingly strange as she looked at how Mo Mo was looking at Xu Xiaoshou.

Hold on a second.

Cough, cough.

She covered her mouth and coughed a little.

Xu Xiaoshou looked up at her. "Do you have a sore throat?"

"…"

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

Xu Xiaoshou was baffled. This girl cursed at just about everything! He was being nice! What did he do wrong?

"Are you like the queen of cursing?" he thought.

Mu Zixi's cough immediately made Mo Mo snap back to her senses. She pulled her gaze away from Xu Xiaoshou and turned her attention back to the stone.

"Turn down the heat. Spiritual source is siphoning. It's about to liquefy."

"Sure," Xu Xiaoshou acknowledged, and fluidly controlled the entire smelting process.

After all, melting down a stone was a lot easier than doing alchemy. There was no need for him to consider the fusion of medicinal effects, and he didn't need to think about how to mold them into pills or anything. All he needed to do was simply boil the thing inside as he would a soup.

"It's a pity this isn't a rib or something," he thought. "I'd have dumped some herbs in it otherwise."

The stone cracked before long and melted into white liquid.

Mo Mo twirled her fingers about and performed several seals, which she then infused inside the liquefied stone.

"Quick, get it into shape." She sounded rather desperate.

Xu Xiaoshou was baffled. "What shape then?"

Mo Mo looked at her right arm, considering the stone's volume. It wouldn't be possible to make a huge cast out of it for sealing the grey mist figure.

"A bangle?"

"Huh?" Mu Zixi's eyes widened when she heard this, and she looked at Mo Mo in disbelief.

She realized it sounded wrong as soon as she said it, as she was basically asking Xu Xiaoshou to make her a bracelet.

Wait, wouldn't that mean…

She blushed and glanced at Mu Zixi. "That's not what I meant."

Mu Zixi blinked and eyed Mo Mo. "What do mean by that?" she asked.

"…"

The girl waved her hand dismissively at Mo Mo. "You're overthinking things."

Mo Mo then let out a sigh of relief.

Cursed, Passive Points +1.

Xu Xiaoshou was baffled. For a while, he didn't know which one of them had cursed him, but he knew who was behind it the next moment.

Envied, Passive Points +1.

"Boy, the girl sure knows how to pretend like she doesn't care," he thought.

"What are you thinking of?" He shot Mu Zixi an exasperated look. "The stone is just that big. What else other than a bangle could you make out of it?"

"I didn't say anything!" Mu Zixi stood with her arms akimbo and pouted.

"I said nothing, and yet you picked on me instead?" she thought.

Talked back at, Passive Points +1.

Begrudged, Passive Points +1.

"Yeah, sure." Xu Xiaoshou didn't say anything more. "Sure, you said nothing. Don't go about having weird thoughts in the first place, and you won't have to cover anything up," he thought. "Begrudged, eh? That doesn't seem like your first. I'd like to see your notes if you dare to show them."

"You sure think of weird stuff for someone your age," Xu Xiaoshou jokingly chastised her.

Mu Zixi lowered her head, finding that she'd actually run out of comebacks.

Cursed, Passive Points +1, +1, +1, +1…