It was a muggy summer.
The sky had been overcast for several days in a row.
The sun remained hidden behind the clouds, and a layer of mist permeated the air, settling on people with an uncomfortable dampness.
It felt suffocating and oppressive.
It was as if a heavy rain was about to break.
On this day, Lu Mo walked into the Weapon Refinement Hall as usual and headed to one of the rooms.
“Good afternoon, Miss Liz,” she said to the short-haired girl who was dozing in a chair. “I heard the weapon forging is complete, so I rushed over.”
Today, she was here to collect the sword.
At the sound of Lu Mo’s voice, the short-haired girl woke up instantly.
“Oh, the sword is finished,” she said, her panda-like dark circles prominent as she gave Lu Mo a resentful look. “I nearly died of exhaustion because of you. I shouldn’t have believed your words and accepted this commission!”
The girl before her was the only daughter of the Master of the Weapon Refinement Hall.
She possessed a talent for smithing that rivaled her father’s. Despite her young age, she had already earned the qualification of a high-level blacksmith, and her forging techniques were even superior to most of the teachers in the hall.
More importantly, her fees were very cheap.
Of course, that didn’t mean just anyone could commission her. She generally only forged weapons for acquaintances or friends.
Lu Mo was considered one of her friends.
Some time ago, Lu Mo had found her and presented a pitch-black broken sword.
The patterns on the blade were almost entirely worn away, but even so, Liz had been immediately captivated by it.
‘This material… this level of complexity in the alchemy circuits…’
It could only be described as perfect!
Even for her father, forging a sword like that would likely be no easy task.
But soon, Liz’s expression turned volatile.
“However! It’s obvious that someone broke this sword on purpose! Waaaah… who is the cold-blooded, insane bastard who would do such a thing to such a perfect, beautiful work? If I ever find out, I’m going to break that bastard’s ‘roots’ too!”
For some reason, Lu Mo suddenly felt a chill beneath her skirt.
As expected of Liz, she could actually tell?
“Ahem, well, Miss Liz, I actually came to see you today because I wanted to ask a favor,” Lu Mo coughed awkwardly and spoke.
“For what?” Liz turned her head back, irritated.
In the next moment, she watched in bewilderment as Lu Mo laid out a row of rare metals and exotic items before her.
“I’d like you to melt down the broken sword and these items to reforge a new weapon for me.”
Lu Mo thought for a moment before finally taking out her current primary weapon and placing it on the table. “Add this too. It’s best if it’s suitable for an Ice Attribute user,” Lu Mo added.
“Eh?” Liz was stunned.
A second ago, she wanted to tell Lu Mo that her current weapon was good enough to use for quite a while longer and there was no need for this.
But when Lu Mo mentioned it should be suitable for an Ice Attribute user, she froze.
Lu Mo was a Light Attribute user.
Wait.
Did Lu Mo want to use her entire fortune to forge a sword for Elia?
Liz was a bit dazed; she didn’t understand why Lu Mo would do this. Was it really necessary to go to such lengths for a servant?
But for Liz, the most important thing right now was to decline the commission. The difficulty of this project was a bit too high for her.
The grade of the black sword was extremely high.
Even if her father melted it down and used the rare metals Lu Mo provided, he might not necessarily be able to forge a weapon of a higher grade than the original black sword.
“I… I don’t think I can do this…” Liz started to say.
But immediately afterward, she saw Lu Mo looking at her with sincere eyes, beginning a speech.
Nonsense like “Successful people aren’t smarter than you, they just take the most action in the shortest amount of time,” “A positive attitude is a trait of all winners,” “Potential is unleashed when there is no way back,” and “The stage is as big as your heart is” came pouring out.
The more Liz listened, the more absorbed she became.
In the middle of it all, Lu Mo interjected a few times with “Do we understand? Applause!” and Liz even cooperatively clapped her hands.
“Miss Liz, you wouldn’t want your future achievements to fall short of your father’s, would you?” Lu Mo gave Liz one last motivational boost.
That wouldn’t do!
She had to surpass that stubborn old man!
In the end, Liz slammed the table. “Well said! I’ll take this job!”
That same afternoon, Liz began the forging process.
“As long as I don’t die from forging, I’ll forge until I die!”
“Success is inevitable! Success is inevitable! Success is inevitable!”
She constantly encouraged herself, forging the sword for Lu Mo with ferocious intensity. She didn’t even leave her room for the first few days.
After several days had passed and her passion had faded slightly, she suddenly realized she seemed to have been brainwashed by Lu Mo.
But it was too late to regret it now.
‘Damn it… next time Lu Mo comes over, I’ll throw her into the forge too and turn her into a sword spirit!’ she swore fiercely.
Of course, it was just talk born of frustration.
She still put her utmost effort into forging the sword.
In the end, a miracle actually occurred.
She succeeded.
She had forged a piece of work that was not inferior to her father’s.
On the morning she completed the work, she contacted Lu Mo.
And then, Lu Mo arrived.
“Thank you for your hard work,” Lu Mo said, sticking her tongue out playfully at Liz.
Liz had originally intended to use some very foul language to scold Lu Mo, but seeing Lu Mo act cute, she actually laughed, and her mood improved.
“Fine, I won’t nag you. Take a look at the sword first—” Liz said as she pushed a long box toward Lu Mo.
Lu Mo opened the box and saw a brand-new sword lying quietly inside.
The color of the sword was somewhere between pale gray and white, with faint natural frost patterns flowing across its surface.
Lu Mo could tell at a glance that this sword was no ordinary item; it was not inferior to her own original Sequence weapon.
“See, Miss Liz? I knew you’d succeed. Not only are you incredibly talented and focused on your craft, but you’re also very che—” She was praising Liz, but she spoke a bit too quickly and almost let the word “cheap” slip out.
“Also very what?” Liz asked suspiciously.
“No, nothing—” Lu Mo waved her hand and quickly handed over her student card. “This is the agreed-upon payment. Swipe the student card.”
Liz didn’t refuse. She took the card and began the transaction.
“Wait.”
“Is something wrong?”
“We agreed the payment would be 100,000 points, but there are only a little over 95,000 points left on your card. You’re still short about 4,000 points.”
Uh oh!
She had spent a bit too many points on materials earlier.
“Can I owe it to you for now?” Lu Mo asked tentatively.
“Sure.” Liz nodded. She wasn’t worried about Lu Mo running away.
“However, Miss Lu Mo, since I worked so hard for your sword, don’t you think you should give me some extra compensation?” Liz spoke again, looking at Lu Mo.
As she watched Lu Mo begin to seriously consider how to compensate her, her heart rate actually sped up a little.
Fine.
She admitted she had a bit of a crush on Lu Mo.
Beautiful and handsome, as gentle as a blooming rose yet as domineering as a tiger baring its fangs—who wouldn’t love a girl like that?
That was why she was willing to be friends with Lu Mo.
That was why she was willing to forge this weapon so seriously for her.
‘But Miss Lu Mo seems to care more about her little servant,’ she thought.
Lu Mo’s level of concern for Elia even exceeded her concern for herself.
It was truly enviable.
Seeing that Lu Mo was still thinking, Liz couldn’t help but speak up bluntly. “You don’t need to think about compensation for that long, do you? Any kind of compensation is fine. For example, go shopping with me or treat me to a meal. Of course, it has to be just me for it to count as compensation.”
“Hmm…” Lu Mo responded, seemingly finding an idea. “How about we go to that newly opened high-end restaurant? How does dinner sound?”
“Okay!” Liz replied without hesitation.
Thus, the two made an appointment for the following month. Lu Mo picked up the sword box and bid Liz farewell.
“I actually… got a date?” Liz murmured in disbelief as she watched Lu Mo leave.
Then, a wave of joy and inner turmoil washed over her.
‘I can’t waste an opportunity to be alone with Miss Lu Mo!’
‘What color dress should I wear?’
‘Should I get a facial or something before I see Miss Lu Mo?’
***
The weather became even more oppressive.
Dark clouds gradually gathered, converging over the city.
Simply breathing felt as though water were being forced into one’s nostrils.
Lu Mo walked along the streets of Ice Orchid City, holding a new product she had bought at a dessert shop.
“In a bit more time, all three tasks should be completed, right?” she murmured. “By then, Elia will have grown into a powerhouse who can hold her own and walk her path alone…”
The image of that night of blood and fire flashed in her mind—the woman’s request to her.
She had agreed and had walked alongside Elia until now.
But why was she thinking about this now?
Was her mood being affected by the weather?
“I should head back early…”
As Lu Mo spoke, she unconsciously quickened her pace.
*Drip-drop—*
*Drip-drop—*
Raindrops fell from the sky to the earth.
One drop, then two, wetting the pavement.
*Splash—*
Soon, tens of thousands of raindrops poured down in a torrential downpour.
Men and women on the street began to run, searching for a place to take cover.
Lu Mo circulated her realm power, separating the rain from herself. Because of this, she didn’t look particularly disheveled in the storm.
“Will you buy flowers?”
“Does anyone want to buy flowers?”
Through the curtain of rain, she saw a child wearing a hood and carrying a flower basket, selling the last few remaining blossoms.
Seemingly noticing Lu Mo, the child pulled on their hood and ran toward her.
“Sister, do you want to buy some flowers?”
The child spoke, reaching into the basket.
And in the next moment—
Petals flew, scattering into the heavy rain.
What the small figure pulled out from the basket was no longer a flower, but a poisoned dagger.
He looked at Lu Mo, his eyes filled with a murderous intent and madness that did not belong to a child at all. “Xue Yue, it really is you—”
He was no child; he was a Sequence of the Shadow Moon Hall.
Sequence 9, Venom Fang!
Lu Mo looked at the figure charging toward her.
*Rumble—*
At that moment, lightning streaked across the dark sky.
It was as if it were announcing the return of something.
The fate they had escaped on that night of blood and fire, that heavy past, seemed to be washed back to the surface with the arrival of this storm!