When Leon reached the entrance of the busy Lancaster workshop tower, he suddenly became hesitant to enter. According his mother, his fiancée, Rachel had been holed up in this place to help with the workload.
As a descendent of a prestigious blacksmithing family, Leon did not doubt that his fiancée was knowledgeable in blacksmithing. However, he could not imagine Rachel holding a hammer in hand with her thin arms and hammering the hot iron with sweat oozing from her body. All the blacksmiths he had seen and knew about, had all been incredibly well built and bulging with muscles.
Looking at the shape of his own body that have grown tall and toned without any excessive muscles, if one did not look carefully, he would still appear quite thin. If his fiancée had transformed into one of those macho men, his feelings would be complicated to behold.
"Who are you, sir? Is there something you need here?" One of the guards approached and asked courteously, seeing Leon just standing in front of the entrance and unable to sense his cultivation. As for whether Leon was an ordinary person without cultivation, it did not cross the guard's mind. There was a difference between sensing an obscured cultivation and sensing zero cultivation. "We would like to kindly remind you that this place is currently not open for public business."
With the ongoing projects around the Capital, the Lancaster workshop tower had their hands full processing ores and providing construction materials; ranging from big steel frames to small screws and nails.
Evidently, the guard here did not recognize him. This was his first time visiting the workshop tower. The Lancaster's people at the workshop tower may have heard of him, but they had not seen him.
"Ah… Would you be so kind as to inform the Duke that Leon Crawford has come to visit?" Leon replied.
"Huh? Crawford?" The guard stared blankly for a moment, before realization dawned upon him. "Ah! Y-Your highness! I will do it right away!"
Leon was the Duke's son-in-law. The guard wanted to just say he could enter as he please, but he did not have that authority. He was just a guard and had to follow the procedures. At least, that was what he thought. After making his report, he was scolded for not being flexible. The rules were set for the ordinary people. Was the prince an ordinary person? How could he make the prince wait outside?
The guard returned sometime later.
"Sorry for making you wait, your Highness. I hope you aren't offended. Please enter on your own accord, your Highness." The guard said apologetically with a forced smile.
Leon shook his head and said, "Just a small matter. Be at ease."
He wasn't so narrow-minded as to be offended over such a trivial matter. Time was tight. He wasn't so bored as to find trouble with the guard over it either.
Entering the workshop tower, Leon was immediately surprised by the inner workings of the workshop tower. He had anticipated the scene of muscular men hammering the hot iron on anvils, but what he really saw was a bunch of steam-powered machinery operating in place of manpower.
He was reminded that the world's path of development was different to the Divine Realm and the prevalence of machine, eliminates the burden of work required by human hands. However, this did not mean that traditional blacksmithing was no longer required. Otherwise, the Lancasters would not be called a blacksmithing family and the workshop tower would simply be a factory.
There were some things machine cannot replicate; the purification and strengthening of alloys through fiery energy-infused hammering of a fire-user blacksmith. Thus, all weapons, armor and intricate tools still relied on human hands and not machines.
"Haha, my good son-in-law is back! I was worried when I heard you went to Extreme Misty Forest. But seeing that you are back in one piece, I am relieved that my daughter will not become a widow before marriage." The Duke joked heartily, before he said, "What made you decide to visit this father-in-law of yours?"
A proud aura exuded from the duke as he continues hammering a steel ingot in a rhythmic timing, making it thrum with a strange after glow with each hit. It appeared this was how magisteel was created.
Seeing the vigor of the Duke and sensing his cultivation, Leon could see why the Duke was in a good mood. The Duke had broken past the bottleneck of the 9th Step Awakener Realm.
"Congratulations on breaking through the 9th step Awakener Realm, father-in-law." Leon did not answer the Duke's question immediately but congratulated him instead.
"Haiz… It's all thanks to the red crystal your mother, her Majesty sent, but it's only enough for me reach the strength of one star in this past week." Ignis sighed.
"I believe it has to do with your busy schedule in the workshop. If you focus on cultivation, you would surely be able to advance a few more ranks."
Even his mother advanced all the way to the Transcendent Realm. One might think her smooth advancement was due to the Crawford's superior cultivation method, but it was due to the crystal itself.
As he had previously suspected, the crystals were the elemental seeds of Transcendent Realm experts and beyond. Absorbing the crystal was similar to absorbing their remnant cultivation. The water was prepared. They just have to pour it into their own water bottles to make it their own.
This was why Leon advanced easily, devouring fire and ice elemental seeds of other Awakeners, but unable to do the same with earthseeds. If there was no bottle, how can it be filled? One needed the prerequisite foundation before absorbing the crystals.
Therefore, Leon was confident that the Duke should be able to advance a few levels with each crystal. What he didn't know was that Duke Ignis had already completely expended one red crystal to advance his strength to the level of one star.
There was no problem with the red crystal. There was enough essence to advance his cultivation a few times. The problem lies with the Duke. He was unable to absorb all the essence and wasted most of it
"Hahaha… no need to flatter me, boy. I know my own condition. I won't be able to advance again in a short time." Ignis said self-depreciatingly.
"Hm?"
Leon noticed the Duke's strained smile and was dumfounded. Could the Duke only able to advance one level with one crystal? How was that possible? Unless… there was a problem with the Duke's body?
Leon sent out his divine sense and gave the Duke a sweep. Divine sense couldn't be seen by mortal eyes; hence the Duke was unable to see what Leon was doing. However, he sensed the change and felt the peculiar gaze. He suddenly felt he could not hide anything from Leon's gaze. It was an uncomfortable feeling. He felt violated.
Unaware of the Duke's complicated feelings, Leon continued his sweep and understood the reason. The Duke had overexerted himself in cultivation and damaged his meridians. He could also see that this wasn't a condition that happened in the recent week but been ongoing for several weeks.
"What did you just do, boy?" Ignis asked warily, but his eyes widened in surprise with Leon's following words.
"Cultivation overexertion. Meridians damaged and several blood clots formed, blocking the flow and absorption of energy."
It was a minor case due to the Duke's cultivation, but in serious cases, blood clots could lead to death.
"You can tell from just looking?"
Leon shook his head. "That's not important. What's important is I can cure you right here right now."
He did not pry why the Duke exerted himself so hard in cultivation, but it wasn't hard to guess.
The Duke was supposed to be very powerful, second only to the royal members. It must have been quite a blow to the Duke, knowing his cultivation was only comparable to the palace guards and he wasn't powerful as he thought he was.
Duke Ignis felt ashamed, knowing Leon probably guessed why he was in such a state. He coughed awkwardly, "Ahem, please."
Leon nodded and took out his needles and sterilized it with his fire. Afterwards, he shot them in various points on the Duke's body, targeting all the blood clots in his meridians with pinpoint accuracy. Next, Leon wrapped the blood clots with his energy and removed it along with his needles in a swift manner.
The treatment was completed in a matter of seconds. The blood clots were the only real problem. The damaged meridians can heal on its own if the Duke stops using it for a period of time.
From another's perspective, it looked like Leon just randomly jabbed a few spots with his needles before retracting it. Although he could just incinerate the blood clots with his fire ability, the lingering ashes would lead to other illnesses.
"That's it?" Ignis asked with a peculiar expression of doubt.
"That's it." Leon said flatly, before adding, "Just give it a few days for the meridians to heal and you would be good as new. You should rest during this time."
Duke Ignis circulated his energy and felt the smooth flow. A smile appeared on his face as he looked at his son-in-law with gratitude, before it soon changed to a pleading one.
"A few days? Can you prescribe me with some pills to speed it up?" Ignis rubbed his hands and asked. His wife had already reached the level of three stars.
Leon shrugged and gave him a single tier 2 healing pill. In additional, he handed over another 2 bottles with different pills inside as labelled.
"Hmm? What's these other two for? Forgetting Nightmare Pill? Reminiscent Trial Pill?"