The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#246 - This is inappropriate.

Because Chi happened to have a batch of Si Tianjian's armor to forge, the experiment with the new alloy had to be postponed. So, Chi let Lu Jing and the others return first.

Xia Huai and Yang Tao were somewhat pessimistic about the final result, mainly because Lu Jing hadn't told them he understood metallurgy. Seeing him suddenly wanting to refine some new material, they were even more unsure than Chi, who didn't know Lu Jing's background. They worried that Lu Jing's actions would anger Chi.

However, Lu Jing himself seemed quite confident. Afterwards, he didn't look for other ways to chop bamboo, and just returned to his usual routine.

He spent most of his time each day cultivating the Fire Scale Armor and Wind and Cloud Change martial arts techniques. When there were classes, he would go to the school to listen, and when there were no classes, he would study beast taming with Ye Gongmei, or go to the library to sort out the books. He didn't seem anxious at all.

However, even Lu Jing himself didn't expect Chi to come so quickly.

He originally thought he would have to wait at least half a month, after all, there were quite a few sets of armor, twelve in total. Ordinary blacksmiths would probably take a year and a half to forge them, which wouldn't be surprising.

But as a result, less than ten days passed before Chi came to find him again.

Moreover, this time Chi came in person, but the time she chose was very strange. She actually arrived outside Lu Jing's courtyard at the hour of Chou, when everyone was already sound asleep.

Chi didn't knock on the door. She rode Nietie directly over the courtyard wall, and then went straight to Lu Jing's厢房.

However, as soon as she entered the courtyard, she was discovered by Amu, who was watching the stars on the roof. The little wooden puppet still remembered Lu Jing's instructions, and hurriedly slipped down from the roof to wake Lu Jing in the room.

However, Lu Jing had just opened his eyes and hadn't figured out what was happening when he saw his door being pushed open.

Chi rushed in from outside like a whirlwind and said, "Why is there a new path on the rock wall outside my door?"

And Lu Jing was also stunned after seeing who it was, and subconsciously replied, "When I went there before, I saw that there was no place to stand on that rock wall, so I left a few handprints and footprints on it."

Chi frowned upon hearing this, but she wasn't angry. She just said, "I don't like being disturbed. The reason why I opened a door there is actually to hope that people who come to me will be deterred. So, I have already filled in the path you left behind."

After she finished speaking, she paused, and then continued before Lu Jing could speak, "I'll tell you where the other path is. That path is for my own use when I go in and out of the mountain. Nietie occasionally uses it too. You can use that path to find me in the future."

"I'll find you?" Lu Jing hadn't fully recovered.

Chi nodded, "Your weapon refining skills are better than mine. You have pointed out a new direction for me, but there are still many things I don't understand. I want to ask you for advice. If it's convenient for you, it would be best to move there and live with me."

"Live with you? But... but I'm still a student of the academy," Lu Jing was dumbfounded.

"It doesn't matter. I can tell Guo Shaojian to let you stay in the academy and be my assistant, no... my colleague. You have extraordinary talent and aptitude in weapon refining, enough to stay in the academy for a long time."

"But..."

"What 'but'? Do you want to become a supervisor, tracking down the traces of strange objects and guarding the human world? But in fact, there is more than one way to guard the human world. Being a weapon refiner, refining powerful weapons and armor to help the supervisors, can also guard the human world," Chi said solemnly.

"No, didn't you hear the meaning behind my previous sentence?" Lu Jing smiled wryly, "Being a student of the academy is just an excuse. What I really want to say is that it's not appropriate for us to live together, right?"

"What's not appropriate?" Chi asked in confusion.

Lu Jing looked into Chi's eyes and couldn't see any teasing or pretense in them.

Chi's confusion was sincere, just like it was normal for her to come to Lu Jing's residence in the middle of the night, rush in directly from outside without knocking, and even stare wide-eyed at Lu Jing, who was only wearing a pair of shorts.

Lu Jing finally understood what Ye Gongmei meant when she said that Chi was a bit strange.

So, Lu Jing quickly put on his clothes and asked Chi, "Senior Chi, when did you... start learning weapon refining?"

"Let me think, I was probably picked up by my master when I was three years old. When I was a little older, I worked as her assistant. After that, my master and I lived in the academy all the time. My master just passed away last year."

"Always here? Didn't you leave during this time, like to go to Kyoto for a stroll or something?"

"Why would I go to Kyoto?" Chi frowned and asked, "My master said that the swordsmiths there are all very average, and they all cherish their skills, valuing them more than their lives, and are unwilling to teach them easily. You can't learn anything from them."

"Uh... I'm not talking about weapon refining," Lu Jing said, "You can go to Kyoto to listen to operas, drink tea, play Guanpu, and so on."

"Are these things you mentioned useful for weapon refining?"

"No," Lu Jing already understood where Chi's problem was.

She was obviously too obsessed with weapon refining. No, more precisely, only weapon refining was left in her life, and she didn't care about anything else.

"Is there a problem with my life?"

Being asked about things unrelated to weapon refining had finally made Chi a little impatient, and she looked at Lu Jing with a suspicious expression.

"Don't you think your life is... a little different from other people's lives?"

"But everyone here... everyone's life is different," Chi said as a matter of course.

Lu Jing was speechless for a moment.

Indeed, compared to Ye Gongmei, who was getting smaller and smaller and simply never saw anyone, and Jing Xiang, who was willing to enter a world within a world to revive a friend, Chi's life seemed quite healthy and normal.

At most, she was just a rather extreme workaholic.

So, Lu Jing didn't say anything more. After putting on his clothes, he said to Chi, "Senior Chi, since you came to find me, it seems that you have already obtained the new material."

Seeing the topic return to weapon refining, Chi's eyebrows also relaxed, and she said happily, "That's right, your method really worked. I picked out the one with the best quality and brought it here for you to see."

As she spoke, she took out a palm-sized, silver-gray thing from her waist and handed it to Lu Jing.