After Max went to his room and closed the door, he took out his bed and sat cross-legged on it. He mediated for a while, regulating his breathing and entering a calm state of mind. Because he wasn't used to meditating, it took him more than half an hour to do so.
He then took out a bottle of 'core strengthening demonic liquid' and drank half of it, according to what Amara had told him.
"Fuck…" As the liquid entered his mouth and travelled down his throat, he felt as if he had drunk boiling hot lava and couldn't help but curse in pain. As the liquid entered his stomach, the pain caused by the burning sensation grew manifolds. Moreover, the taste was also disgusting.
He hurriedly used his mana to cover the insides of his stomach, only then the pain lessened.
'The demonic medicine is indeed different from the medicine humans use.' He thought.
Most of the medicine that humans and elves use was usually gentle in nature to make it comfortable to use, but demons didn't care about it. They only care about the medicine's effects since their bodies were stronger than humans' weak bodies since birth and can easily withstand this kind of pain.
Of course, this wasn't the only reason. Another reason was that the demons didn't have the patience required to become an alchemist and the very few people who became one, they didn't want to waste time and extra resources to make the medicine's effects gentler.
Taking a deep breath, he started using his mana to speed up the digestion and assimilation of the demonic liquid.
It took him over 6 hours to complete the assimilation of the medicinal energy of liquid. After that, he started directing it toward his mana core a bit by bit.
Compared to the times when he used 'foundation strengthening liquid' to strengthen his mana, using the demonic liquid to do the same was more difficult and painful.
More than half a had passed and night arrived. He was sweating, his breathing was uneven, and he had also exhausted a large portion of his mana, but he still hadn't used half of the medicinal energy.
He really wanted to rest now, but if he did that, the remaining medicinal energy would be wasted since he could barely contain it and stop it from dispersing.
Therefore, he clenched his teeth and continued to direct the medicinal energy and strengthen his core.
…
Meanwhile, Amara had returned from Ashroth's residence. She tried to dissuade him from going with him, but he didn't agree. Although he assured her he would be safe, she was still worried since she knew how insidious Osmont was.
Seeing how worried she was, Ashroth had told her a secret which no one knew apart from himself. He told her he wasn't a mid-stage four-star demon, but a peak four-star demon and could soon break through to the five-star realm.
Hearing this, she finally calmed down a little and returned to her residence.
Right now, she was walking in her garden, looking toward servants' quarters where Max's room was.
'It's already night now. Should I ask him if he wants to have dinner with me?' She thought.
Remembering that he told her not to disturb her unless he messaged her, she dropped the idea.
After walking around for a while, she returned to her villa and started making dinner.
Although some of her old servants had returned in the day to apologise and asked if they could work for her again, she refused them.
It wasn't only because they left her when she was venerable but also because she liked to do her things on her own now. Moreover, it was good if there wasn't anyone apart from her and Max in the villa, since it would be easier to keep her relationship with Max a secret.
After she ate dinner, she waited for a while more for Max's message. But he didn't contact her. So, she went to her room, took out one of the boxes Beille gave her and opened it.
There was a grade-four blood gem laying there. After finding out that she had awakened her bloodline, Beille had given her all ten four-star blood gems she had in stock. Moreover, they were free.
Amara knew why she gave them to her without even asking.
It was because she could guess that Amara may have to participate in the war this time too, and given her current strength, the chances of her dying were too high. Therefore, to help her increase her strength before she was called to participate, Beille had given all the blood gems she had to her.
Thinking about this, her eyes became a little moist. Apart from her big brother, no one cared and loved her like Beille did.
"Perhaps I should start treating her a little more kindly." She muttered, a gentle smile appearing on her face.
She then stopped thinking about everything, threw the blood gem in her mouth, and started cultivating.
…
Phew!
When it was almost morning, Max exhaled a deep breath and finally opened his eyes.
Flop!
After stabilizing his breathing and drinking some water, he directly fell back on the bed, his hands and legs spread apart in a relaxed posture.
Although he was thoroughly exhausted, he was very happy and satisfied with the results.
Just a single bottle of low-tier grade-three 'core strengthening demonic liquid' helped his mana core reach a stability and firmness that he could have gotten only after using over 20 units of three-star mana. Not only that, it seemed to have helped his body, too.
To confirm his suspicion, he opened his status window and immediately exclaimed in surprise. "It really helped my body!"
[Vitality: 53]
"It's quite a pleasant surprise." He muttered. Not only could he save more than 20 units of three-star mana, he also got an increase of 2 points in Vitality.
'Now I only need to wait for the system to wake up before I can extract Amara's yin energy and progress toward the three-star realm.' He thought. Since he couldn't strengthen his mana core anymore without increasing his three-star mana, he could only wait for the system to wake up.
