"These aren't matters to discuss over the air. You're scheduled to check in tomorrow, right? We'll talk about it then."
Professor Min spoke with urgency and hurriedly hung up the call, to avoid wasting his expensive jar of coffee.
"I probably gave his old heart a big shock." Bian smirked and went to gather some materials for his trip to the Saints Hall on the morrow.
The reason he didn't bother hiding his identity as a demigod was because he was going to join the Demigod Association soon, making his status public to the entire alliance.
That, and the Executioners had no idea what he looked like—well, except for Ouyang Ming. The others carried those weird medallions that reacted when he was around.
Unfortunately, Bian also didn't know who the Executioners were. He reasoned long and hard about calling Ouyang Ming for a formal cooperation, but decided against it in the end.
The feud between him and the Executioners would only end with one side dead. He couldn't let Ouyang Ming find out about his hidden cards in advance.
"Shall we continue our practice?" Han Yan walked out in her dark tunic, holding two wooden swords.
"I've already understood the intent. The only practice I'll need will be to put it to actual combat."
Although Bian said this, Han Yan still tossed him a wooden sword and put on a stance.
"Who said the training is for you?" she spoke sharply. "I need you to push me to my limits as fast as you can."
Bian had a lot of questions to ask, but he trusted Han Yan. He wanted to see where she was going with this, since she surely knew he was worlds apart stronger than her.
And of course, he was.
He had the Solum Mirror, which could tier up by absorbing souls, and the Bronze Cauldron to refine animals into pills.
His strength was literally soaring at unfathomable speeds.
Bian didn't go all out, but he didn't hold himself back much either.
He suddenly vanished from his position and his outstretched blade struck down towards Han Yan's chest.
"Huh?"
Suddenly, the blade got stuck.
It wasn't stuck in any material, but was frozen in mid-air.
'No, it's not frozen! How is she doing that?'
Bian's eyes widened like saucers.
His blade was an arm's length away from Han Yan, but it never seemed to reach her.
If their families were here right now, they would only see two blurs travelling through the planet at insane speeds.
"I can't!"
Han Yan suddenly cried out and tripped over. Bian barely managed to change the force of his swing at the last moment to avoid striking her.
"What was that?"
He asked Han Yan, mildly surprised that she was huffing and puffing from that one strike.
"It's a new skill I've been working on ever since you told me about Executioner Black."
She paused and took in a deep breath.
"You said his power is most likely super speed, and knowing how crazy the Executioners have been," she huffed and puffed again, "that speed would be nothing to scoff at."
Bian nodded, as he thought back to his first engagement with Ouyang Ming. He was fast—so fast that Bian thought they weren't on the same level.
Life wasn't a movie where a speedster would slip once the floor was frozen. If Ouyang Ming came at him right now... Bian dreaded the thought.
'I have to get stronger!'
The words burned at the back of his mind, and Bian felt like jumping right back into the sanctuaries, but had to hold himself back.
"I call it the Immortal Chasing Phantom. It's as if there's an infinite gap between the attack and my person."
Han Yan spoke, and Bian could swear he heard a tint of pride in her voice.
"Hate to burst your bubble, but your huffing and puffing means the move drains way too much of your energy."
Bian said squarely.
Bian understood the type of move Han Yan was developing. It was like she mimicked a state of quantum entanglement with an opponent's attack.
This might sound impressive, but the flaws were quite glaring. Aside from the unnecessary energy consumption needed to move the body as fast as the attack, such a move probably wouldn't work on more than one attack.
Still, it was a bit early to judge and anything could still happen. Bian understood that Han Yan felt like doing more against the Executioners, which was why she was developing a move particularly for one.
"I just need more practice. Once I master it to a higher level, it would be invincible against speedsters."
Han Yan responded.
Bian just nodded and didn't argue. He didn't ask her how she planned on attacking the super-fast speedster or any of the other dozens of questions in his mind.
'Surely she must also be thinking of such, and pointing it out would just bring unnecessary tension.'
Their training was short and yet, Han Yan had gained something tangible from it to improve her move.
She had to work on the energy consumption.
Bian, meanwhile, began charting down the materials he had written and drawing various tables for comparisons.
He packed a set of cutlery, stationery, and other mundane items which weren't too big and could be carried on his back.
The night passed by in a blur, and come morning, several spaceships were arriving on the planet.
"They must have found a good spot to settle down on," Han Yan commented.
Bian greeted her goodbye and walked to the private spacecraft which had come to pick him up.
This was the benefit of being a professional researcher and scientist in the Saints Hall. He didn't have to board large spaceships anymore with the common people.
'Should I buy my own private spaceship now that I'm a demigod, or do I just hire a personal chauffeur?'
The spacecraft might not have been as big as the normal public spaceships, but it was still larger than a house.
Unfortunately, it did not have a teleporter, but Bian was more than preoccupied before they reached the Saints Hall.
There was no fanfare with his landing, and soon, he found Professor Min's lab.
Knocking twice, the sliding door opened to a room as large as a mansion. Different apparatus were operating silently, and at the far end of the room was a desk with a miniature coffee machine placed on it.
Professor Min stood up to personally greet Bian, examining him from head to toe.
"You don't look so... demigody."
He said, finding that Bian looked more or less the same as he remembered.
"Yeah, it doesn't really show on the outside," Bian said and thought for a moment.
Proving to be a surpasser was easy—most could wield elemental powers and all could fly.
Proving to be a demigod was even easier, since only they could summon and control geno cores.
Unlike beast souls, which would first shadow the appearance of the beast before completely forming, summoning a geno core was more direct.
He summoned the Solum Mirror and allowed it to hover around the lab a bit.
"You really are a demigod, but how, when..." Professor Min was given a deep shock. Bian was so young, yet he had become a demigod so fast.
It was simply unprecedented.
'Is this what true talent looks like?'
He suddenly felt like all those other geniuses under his tutelage were trash.
Bian was unaware of the thoughts going through Professor Min's head.
He was here in the Saints Hall to find out more about his powers and the Devon family.