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The Yellow Jasmine Inn was a relatively large building for Ridgeflower City, so a lot of travelers came by to sleep for a night or two before leaving the region. It wasn't unexpected that Luo Xiao and Jiang Yao decided on it when choosing where to take shelter for the evening. They quickly got a room on the second floor of the inn, and then went inside, away from prying eyes.
"That was quite the fruitful trip," Luo Xiao remarked as he looked into his storage bag. While one couldn't say the storage space was full to the brim, it certainly seemed so; the cave with the dragon heart had bore unexpected and plenty of rare herbs and flowers. "Overseer Zhu left me a few different medicinal liquid recipes, and there's a few herbs that I can use from these. Do you think I should go for it? They are of excellent quality." Before Luo Xiao could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Jiang Yao, who shook his head and said, "Just use them, Xiaoxiao. There's plenty of them for both of us."
He smiled to himself a second later, deciding not to say that they would also have no effect on him, regardless of the quantity used.
After nodding to that, Luo Xiao closed his storage bag up before stretching lightly. "I do think a quick bath is needed before anything else, don't you agree?"
It had been quite a few days before the two had had the chance to relax fully. Jiang Yao was at the limit of the realm, but quite a few encounters and fights had happened in that period of time. Therefore, Luo Xiao felt the need to just take a warm bath and get a change of clothes. It's not like the ones he was wearing weren't practically spotless, but it was good decency to do so.
About fifteen minutes later, he finally walked out of the bathroom, dressed in a set of fresh white clothes. His hair was slightly damp, and fully loose on his back, which made Jiang Yao smirk as his eyes went from Luo Xiao's face to his feet and back up again. The simple gesture made Luo Xiao's cheeks heat up a little, after which he smiled in return, and went to look through his storage pouch once more.
Sitting down on the floor, he started taking out a few different herbs and grasses, one after the other, laying them down in front of him. A few moments later, it became clear that the variety of herbs in front of him was quite a lot more than he had noticed initially.
"I can recognize Frostrage Bark, Teal Spark Aster, King's Barberry, and a few others," Luo Xiao spoke while looking over the various herbs, and pointing slightly to the ones he knew. "Do you know anything about the rest?"
To his question, Jiang Yao got up from the bedside, leaning over Luo Xiao's back to take a better look.
"I don't recognize all of them, but I think for what you need, use only the ones you are familiar with. However, what I can tell you is that all of them are absolutely top-notch quality and will make great nutrients for your body," he answered with a smile.
Luo Xiao looked at him from the corner of his eye, clearly expectant. "That's not the question I asked you to answer though."
The prince raised an eyebrow at the remark, smiling. "Every day, you get sharper and sharper. I like it."
That smug look which Jiang Yao gave him made Luo Xiao's face heat up even more than from the gaze from before, but he didn't have any time to react at all before Jiang Yao continued.
"These are Emberleaf Thymes and Mellow Spearmint, and that one with the purple edges should be a Lightning Dream Grass." He listed a few more, pointing to each one that he knew. The sudden change of topic forced Luo Xiao to focus on the herbs. Regardless, in the back of his mind, he kept thinking about the little compliment he received from the demon.
It certainly felt nice to be complimented by him.
The important thing was to focus on refining his body with the materials, so Luo Xiao listened carefully as Jiang Yao listed the names of the different herbs they had picked up at the dragon's cave. He had heard Overseer Zhu mention some of them once or twice, though only now did he get his chance to see, let alone hold copious amounts of them.
There were a few that even Jiang Yao had no idea what they were, which Luo Xiao decided to put aside with the rest for now and focus on those he was familiar with. Once the two were done sorting the herbs out, Luo Xiao took out his pill furnace and put it down, after which he sat down cross legged in front of it.
It was time to concoct the various medicinal liquids he had the recipes for.
Just before he began, the thoughts about his adoptive father, his real father, and family flashed before him.
Whatever place the upper realms were, Luo Xiao knew cultivators there were much stronger than even his precious Jiang Yao. And Jiang Yao wasn't weak at all. Then there was also the spell that had been put on him that had saved him from the corpse puppet, a detail which seemed to complicate the situation as well.
No, he thought to himself as he took a long breath. He wasn't going to think about this at the moment. He knew that when time came, he and Jiang Yao would stand together against whatever was going to come.
With a resolute spark in his eyes, Luo Xiao's gaze fell on the pill furnace as he began stirring up his soul energy.
