"So, how do you feel?" I asked the girl carefully trying to get up from the bed. Which, by the way, she was failing badly at. Her "careful" moves had already half-destroyed the bed and torn the mattress. No surprise, considering she'd never had combat training for physical fights and had only ordinary human strength her whole life. Control would come with time and training.
"I feel amazing! My body feels like it's boiling with power that could crush mountains!" Finally staggering up from the bed somehow, Ling Ling struck a bodybuilder pose, peering at her new muscles in the bedside mirror. There weren't many, keeping her figure aesthetically appealing and cute.
"By the way, why did you take my Lightning element before body enhancement? Any issues with it?" Having admired herself plenty, she asked me, glancing at my right hand where the cultivation of that element shimmered violet.
"Body enhancement technique doesn't work on Lightning mages. Their bodies are too adapted to the element; they get no benefit. No issues with the element itself. Here, returning it." I clapped Ling Ling on the shoulder, restoring the cultivation.
"Won't this harm me later? If the technique is incompatible with Lightning, is it safe to have them in one body?" Ling Ling eyed herself warily.
"It's completely safe. The lightning element itself doesn't conflict with the technique; it's just that its passive protection of the user from lightning energy nullifies its advantages, preventing the awakening of the human body's potential. That's exactly why I removed it before the enhancement. Now that it's complete, returning the element to you won't harm you at all." I replied confidently to her, because that's exactly how it was. I didn't lie a word here.
"Mu Bai, thank you so much. I don't even know how to thank you. And... sorry for yelling at you back then; I wasn't myself." Ling Ling looked at me with eyes full of gratitude, then guiltily turned away, revealing her reddened ears to me. Heh, is someone embarrassed about her behavior yesterday? Or did her gratitude hit her that hard?
"Ling Ling, you're our precious friend. If your mood ever dips again, come find us right away. Don't bottle it up inside. As you can see, it ends badly." I pulled out my phone and showed her a photo of her in her school uniform with a backpack. I managed to snap it yesterday when she first walked in. Now was the perfect moment to tease her.
"You! Why did you even take that?!" The girl's eyes widened in shock.
"Heh-heh, when you become the Queen of the Hunters League in the future, I'll blackmail you with this photo, making you do all sorts of humiliating things." I grinned foxily, quickly stashing the phone back in my Spatial Pocket, as Ling Ling, with all her newly acquired power, tried a sharp lunge to snatch it. But she miscalculated a bit and flew straight into the wall... smashing right through it. Yeah, she urgently needs lessons in control.
"Okay, you need to learn to control your strength ASAP. I know just the spot with plenty of monsters whose power level doesn't exceed a Chieftain... " I started calculating how to best plan my schedule to spend time with my friend and still train with Lu Nian.
"No way! We'll train her ourselves! Mu Bai, we just got back from a long trip—let us rest! Enough dragging us into monster fights every time. You promised us three months off." TuTu jumped up quickly, hugging Ling Ling who'd just gotten up from the floor, and started whining.
"..." I sighed, watching them, and shifted my gaze to Jiao Jiao, who nodded in agreement with her friend's words.
"Fine, you win. Train her yourselves—you can even do Hunters League missions as a girls-only team. I was planning to spend these three months studying and mastering magic theory anyway." I waved them off. The girls had recently gone through my training on strength control. They could definitely handle teaching Ling Ling.
"No Hunters League missions! At least not for the next two weeks. We're on vacation! Give us money—we're going shopping." TuTu wrinkled her nose and held out her hand toward me. Heh, she's so cute when she tries to act bossy and intimidating.
A second later, a Galactic Vein dropped into TuTu's hand, and everyone stared at it in bewilderment before turning puzzled looks on me.
"What? I'm short on cash. I gave my last big sum to Lu Zheng Ge for the future purchase of the Chief Commander's soul to break through his wolf. Need money? Sell the vein." I shrugged, utterly unembarrassed.
"..." Jiao Jiao rubbed her face.
"You're probably the only mage in the world who'd give his girl—who just wanted to go shopping—a Galactic Vein. But I'm kinda used to it by now."
"Alright, I'm off to study. But first..." I pulled out a black-and-red katana with sakura flower patterns and handed it to Ling Ling.
"I stand by my words—you'll save up for artifacts to wield your current power yourself. But that doesn't mean I can't help a little. This katana is a blank for a High or even Supreme-level artifact. Its core is a Rainbow Sea Crystal, known for absorbing and unleashing mana from nearly all elements. Find a good artifactor and pay enough, and you'll have one artifact that replaces many others. Instead of buying separate ones for each element, focus your funds on this—it can handle their combined power and upgrade as your strength and wealth grow." I explained to the stunned girl who'd received my gift.
Master Pin couldn't craft an artifact beyond his limits, let alone in just hours. But making a pretty sheath and embedding the ultra-rare material I brought from a parallel world? He could manage that in time. I even flattered it a bit by calling it an artifact blank. Essentially, it's just a Rainbow Sea Crystal in a fancy wrapper. Still, that crystal alone could match a strong Soul Seed in value—a solid gift.
"Mu Bai, I don't even know what to say..." Ling Ling clutched the katana to her chest, staring at me blankly. She knew the crystal and its rough price. It didn't compute why I spent so much time and resources on her when simple comfort and emotional support would've sufficed. Heh, time to finish her off and get to my own stuff.
"Oh, almost forgot. Catch." I tossed her the Mind Stone casually, ignoring her even more vacant eyes, and just left the room to head home. Needed to grab a couple things before leaving.