Xia Mi: Is Refining Your Bloodline Really That Hard?

The I Ching once mentioned, "The turbid is the path to clarity; after long darkness comes radiance." Applied here, it meant that Dragon Blood was inherently turbid, and when its turbidity reached an extreme, it drove one mad. But ancient alchemy believed that the turbid was also the path to clarity. As long as it was refined over and over, after prolonged darkness, a radiant light would emerge from within. The madman who developed this technique called this step "Blood Washing."

Xia Mi raised a finger and poked Li Lin's forehead in warning.

"But this is only a conjecture based on ancient alchemy. Before reaching the concept of 'Blood Washing,' all your existing knowledge, thoughts, and reason will be treated as fuel by Dragon Blood. Then your body will rapidly break through one genetic barrier after another like a rocket engine, until you become a Dead Servant that is neither human nor dragon."

"In other words, this is a technique that must be practiced in moderation. Recklessly disrupting the balance of your bloodline will cause irreversible effects on both your mind and body."

As Li Lin looked at the Kassel Celestial-Rank Technique he and Xia Mi had pieced together, her description sounded increasingly familiar.

"Isn't this like the Eight Gates in Naruto? Those with exceptional bloodlines and firm wills can, through long-term training, even control Dragon Blood that has surpassed the Critical Blood Limit."

"Kind of like that. But have you learned it yet?"

Xia Mi looked at Li Lin with anticipation in her eyes.

She could not wait to see how Li Lin would react after crashing into that towering wall known as the Critical Blood Limit.

As long as Li Lin developed a strong yearning and interest in the sights beyond the Critical Blood Limit, she would have a chance to guide him step by step into becoming her retainer.

Then, after replacing her brother on the throne, she could seize one or part of a Dragon Bone Cross in the prophesied war. She might even use alchemy through Nibelungen to guide Li Lin into becoming a Hybrid Monarch whose power rivaled that of a First-Generation Species.

And once the war was over, they could stay in Nibelungen and...

Xia Mi was already letting her imagination run wild.

Li Lin suddenly threw a question back at Xia Mi.

"Have you learned it?"

"I... I definitely haven't."

Naturally, Xia Mi could not say that she had mastered this technique, which the Secret Party called Blood Rage, faster than her S-Rank peers.

Since Xia Mi had not learned it, Li Lin answered as a matter of course.

"What a pity. I haven't learned it yet either."

Xia Mi was not surprised. "Ascending the bloodline ladder" was a relatively difficult technique even for the Dragon Race itself. It was perfectly normal for Li Lin not to grasp it right away.

"It's fine. We can stay here for several more days anyway, so we can study it together later. If that still doesn't work... we can use this 'exchange student' matter to negotiate with the principal and ask him to give us more time."

"Speaking of that... have you already decided to go to Tokyo?"

"Why wouldn't I go? There are cherry blossoms, hot springs, Disneyland, and... Akihabara!"

When she mentioned "Akihabara," Xia Mi's eyes actually lit up. Ever since coming to Cassel College, she had acted far too much like a normal, sociable, obedient girl. Li Lin had nearly forgotten that she actually had a hidden otaku side.

"I remember now. When your middle school anime club held an event, you originally wanted to cosplay Asahina, but everyone ended up recommending that you cosplay Haruhi Suzumiya..."

"That was because I liked Haruhi Suzumiya." Xia Mi swiftly cut off Li Lin's recollection.

"Wasn't it because..."

"I told you already... I. Like. Her!"

The girl spoke with absolute conviction.

Back then, to prove that she had chosen that cosplay because she liked Haruhi Suzumiya, rather than because her figure limited her to only cosplaying Haruhi Suzumiya, she had even changed the usernames on all her social media accounts to "Haruhi Suzumiya."

Li Lin surrendered.

If they kept arguing, Xia Mi might force him to change his forum username to "Kyon."

He was still somewhat wary of that name, because in his previous life, one Avatar King had been named Kyoshi. She was a great figure who, while in the Avatar State, could directly perform shear surgery on the mantle by guiding the flow of lava.

In terms of Earthbending alone, before he fell seriously ill in his previous life, Li Lin had not been much inferior to Kyoshi. But she had been the Avatar, and her Firebending had been equally peerless. Only then had she been able to set tens of thousands of tons of lava flowing in one go.

If Li Lin had lived another decade or two, he was certain that he could have honed his Earthbending to a level even the Avatar King could never reach.

But that had become his greatest regret.

As Li Lin and Xia Mi immersed themselves in studying the books at the table, evening arrived before they knew it.

Professor Schneider had spent the entire afternoon working remotely outside the archives. When he heard the metallic hum of the door opening, his gaze instinctively swept over Li Lin's and Xia Mi's collars.

Thankfully, he did not see the young man and woman emerging from the archives with their clothes in disarray.

Young people these days knew far too well how to have fun. Schneider truly worried that a lone man and woman, shut away in a quiet room where the outside world could not disturb them, might do something excessively inappropriate before the graves of their departed predecessors.

Of course, a normal kiss or hug was still normal. The Lionheart Society was no longer the generation from its founding days, and the archives were no different from a library. If the mood was right and they could not resist flirting a little, everyone could understand.

Schneider did not ask Li Lin to return his access card. "The Lionheart Society clubhouse opens at ten in the morning and closes at ten at night. I'll be here waiting for you during those hours."

Li Lin and Xia Mi each thanked Schneider, then prepared to head to the cafeteria for dinner.

"By the way, do you want to move into Norton Hall soon?"

Xia Mi tempted Li Lin repeatedly along the way.

"Norton Hall is only a few hundred meters' walk from Odin Square and the student cafeteria, and it's less than two kilometers from the Lionheart Society clubhouse. That way, you won't need to cross half the campus from the student dorms or teaching buildings to get to the archives anymore."

"Has the club been paying people to come clean every week, and now that you've watched the balance shrink day by day, you're starting to feel the pain?"

Li Lin looked at Xia Mi suspiciously.

Xia Mi hurriedly coughed twice to hide her embarrassment. Clearly, she had realized that she had been spending rather extravagantly lately.

It could not be helped. Whenever she heard words like palace, garden, or estate, the girl could not help suffering an attack of "princess syndrome."

Here, "princess syndrome" was meant literally. More than once, when the mood struck her, she had suddenly involved herself in state affairs, ordered palace expansions or garden renovations, and nearly emptied the treasury on several occasions.

"Anyway! Move into Norton Hall already. We can't just leave the place sitting there and wasting away!"

"Then why don't you live there yourself?" Li Lin was not particularly picky about his living arrangements.

"The place is too big. I'd get lonely, so you should live there..." Xia Mi continued yielding.

Then Aki Shigede's voice drifted eerily from behind them.

"If you ask me, you two might as well live together."