University City. Inside a simple two-story building on the Fifth University's campus, Iseda stood before Mr. Mo with utmost respect.
Mr. Mo wore a neat black robe, with a crystal lens rimmed in mithril perched on his nose. Within the lens, polished thin as a cicada's wing, runes of various colors flickered faintly, while triangular and quadrilateral geometric patterns surfaced and vanished from time to time.
Peering through the lens, Mr. Mo narrowed his eyes at a thin report in his hand. After a while, he nodded lightly. "Those two easterners? Yes, there is indeed something off about them. Especially that man, Lin Li? Many people have monosyllabic surnames. The surname 'Lin' reminds me of certain rather unpleasant things."
With a heavy sigh, Mr. Mo cast a cold glance at Iseda. "How have you been feeling lately?"
Iseda swayed his body and extended both hands. A ball of blazing fire sprang up in his left hand, flame energy at the peak of Earth-rank; in his right hand was a mass of battle energy glimmering with a purple aura, its fluctuations at high Heaven-rank. Then the aura within his body shifted rapidly. The magical flames and battle energy soon vanished without a trace, and his aura returned to Human-rank.
"Very poorly!" Iseda looked at Mr. Mo with reverence and fervor. "If I possess both magic power and battle energy at once, my body can maintain that strength for less than an hour. It has no practical combat value. But if I possess only magic power or battle energy, then drinking one bottle of Genesis Potion can sustain my strength for seven days—strength at the peak of Heaven-rank. That feeling is wonderful!"
Mr. Mo frowned. Carefully, he took out a thumb-sized potion bottle and handed the pale purple potion, still continuously emitting