A couple more weeks passed and Tang Yue still felt as if she was no closer to learning any of the higher level methods.
She did manage to forge a couple of mid-grade swords, but it was not finished to perfection and Tang Yue was not satisfied as well.
But she didn't give up and continued working on it.
Somethings required raw brutal hard work and there was nothing anyone could do about it.
On the brighter side, she felt as if she was already closer to the next bottleneck, both in her cultivation core and her mental strength.
She only needed to progress a little more before attempting to break through again.
Tang Yue finished the last weapon she was working on and disappointedly threw it to the side.
Charlotte still hadn't returned back from her trip to the forest, so she decided to use this time and try out the lightning rune.
After she had bluntly refused to do the 'special mission' and use Charlotte like a pawn, the old man had been unusually quiet and he wasn't even handing out any more missions or rewards.
So Tang Yue decided to finish the last quest and then sweet talk him into giving another quest soon.
She didn't like his methods and didn't agree with his principles but at the end of the day, she was shameless enough to ignore the bad and only want the good part.
Also, at the back of her mind, she kept thinking back to what the old man had said and couldn't help but wonder every now and then about when exactly that perilous situation might arise.
She had boldly declared in front of the old man that she would protect Charlotte but was she strong enough to do so?
Tang Yue really wanted to finish this work in the dwarven empire soon and disappear.
By now she knew very well that her real strength laid in absorbing bloodlines and stealing talents from other beasts.
So she wanted to travel far and wide and hunt as many unique and powerful beasts as possible.
Maybe because her mother had disappeared at a young age, and managed to never be found, she had always felt that this world was a huge mystery.
And now that she had the strength to do so, she definitely wanted to experience this vastness personally.
She wanted to cross the ocean that bordered their nine countries and see for herself what laid beyond these boundaries.
More importantly, she had a nagging feeling about that human being she had seen back in the labyrinth.
What would happen if more human beings started showing up in this part of their world?
Was this the dangerous situation that the old man talked about? Several questions swirled in her mind.
But Tang Yue could only sigh and put them away from her mind for now.
She cleared her cluttered brain and focused on the rune formation for the lightning domain.
Domains were not something new.
For a long time, only the Demi God realm and higher realm experts were capable of setting up their own personal domains.
But one of the elven rune grandmasters who lived a few centuries ago successfully managed to replicate this method and capture it in a runic spell.
Of course, from this original runic spell, several other runic spells were derived and multiple versions of domain runes were available in the current market, their strength greatly varying.
Tang Yue had no doubt that the rune pattern she was currently setting up on the smithy floor was one of the best versions, if not the best version available.
Except for the fire domain set up from when she contracted with Little Plum, Tang Yue hadn't experienced any domains per se.
So she was slightly nervous and anxious. She didn't want to be fried alive into dust and end up dead like when it happened before with Little Plum.
But unfortunately, since both the domain rune pattern and the elemental contract rune pattern were given to her by the same cold-hearted old bastard, she was almost one hundred percent sure that this ending was inevitable.
After a few minutes, Tang Yue patiently completed all the details of the pattern that was needed to perfection.
But then she didn't activate it immediately and waited for Charlotte to return.
Even though a domain was actually pretty convenient for her since whatever happened within the domain stayed within the domain and not even a small sound would leak out, Tang Yue still didn't want to take any chances.
She just absentmindedly played with the little kid and took a break while waiting for Charlotte to return back with little blue.
However, weirdly, minutes turned into hours and Charlotte had still not returned even after the sky turned dark.
"What happened?" Tang Yue was slightly worried.
She knew that Charlotte was a Saint realm expert and possessed many treasures and was more than capable of protecting herself in case there is any danger, but she still had a bad feeling in her heart.
"Nothing will happen to that hag, big sis." Xander cheekily replied.
He silently wished that the elf would disappear and never come back again.
But then he saw how much Tang Yue was worried and sighed sadly.
Should I use my soul sense to look for that damned woman? Xander pondered.
If he used his soul sense, chances are that he might be discovered.
So he didn't want to do that unless Tang Yue was in actual danger.
But he really couldn't stomach the worried look on her face.
So he ended up deciding to do it anyways and was about to scan the dwarven royal city, when suddenly Tang Yue stood up.
"Baby, stay here. I will come back in a bit." Tang Yue muttered and walked out of the smithy.
Huh? Xander was confused.
He waited for a couple of minutes and quietly walked out as well, following Tang Yue closely.