God Of Crafting

"I know this is kind of late, but..." I hesitated for a second, feeling extremely weird now that I wasn't going to be the one partaking in the testing, "are you really sure about it?"

It was one thing for me to test out just how heavily I could punch out, for me to live through the brunt of the risk of potentially injuring someone—even if it was with their approval.

But for Claire to so readily jump on the opportunity to duke it out with her own mother?

'I couldn't care less about Leila. She's important only through her relation to Claire, but...'

"What's with that tense look on your face?"

Rather than replying to me directly, Claire reached out with her hand to my face, only to give my cheek a slight caress as she graced me with a lovely, affectionate smile of her own.

"I will be okay," she affirmed after taking some time to brush her warm palm against my cheek. "I'm just going to test my... No, to test our strength for a bit. Plus, you don't have to worry about me," she added as her smile turned into a grin, "it's not like she's going to try to hit me back, is she?"

Seeing the playful, slightly bratty smile on Claire's lips was so fresh, I couldn't help but smile back.

"And why do I get the feeling that you are going to enjoy this process quite a lot for what's supposed to be merely a test of our strength?" I asked back before reaching out and brushing my hand through her lovely, fluffy hair.

"Did you forget already?" Claire's smile melted down a little while her eyelids moved down over her eyes as she immersed herself in the simple joy, the simple pleasure of having her head stroked.

Then, her smile soured before turning slightly vicious.

"She did try to sell me off for her own gain, masking it as an attempt to bring me over to this boring place!"

Claire didn't even bother to hold her voice back in an attempt to keep her words from her mother's ears.

'So I was right, huh?' I thought, pulling my hand back only to put both of my hands on Claire's shoulders and lean in, closing my eyes and then gently pressing my forehead against hers.

For a moment, we just stayed silent, as much enjoying each other's presence as much as we just reinforced our determination to go through the day.

"Okay then, I will be off," Claire whispered as she pulled back, gracing me with yet another slight smile of hers. "I hope you won't look away, no matter how ugly things may get."

I smiled back.

"Look away?" I shook my head. "I wouldn't dare! And don't think I forgot!"

Claire slightly raised her left eyebrow.

"Forgot about what?" she asked, cutely leaning her head off to the side, only to make me feel like just dropping the whole practice and testing thing just to grab her as she stood, bring her down on my lap, and spend the rest of the day patting her head and tickling the bottom of her chin.

"I didn't forget how she tried to peddle my woman away, merely putting on a show of being concerned about you," I said, referencing right back to what Claire said herself. "How could I look away, now that it's finally your time to slap her wrist for it?"

Claire's left eyebrow soon joined her right, only for the girl to then sigh out, shake her head, and then step back before turning on her heel.

"I plan to slap a lot more than just her wrist, you know?" she smiled before walking off to where her mother already awaited, ready to get the whole testing process started.

'Now, let's see how things are when it comes to our cultivation,' I thought, taking a few steps back just in case.

Since it's been quite some time, several ranks, and then the qualitative change induced by our recultivation of our strength since we last got serious in a fight, I didn't really want to put myself in Claire's way.

And while I was quite sure I could easily defend from whatever splinters of her spirituality that could end up bouncing in my way, there really wasn't that much of a point standing close enough to get hit by them, was there?

Up ahead, the situation didn't look anywhere as tense as it was going to be in the next few moments.

The mother and the daughter simply faced each other in the very middle of the practice arena, both taking their time to put themselves in their respective positions.

Claire lowered herself slightly on her knees, pushing her feet quite a bit away from each other while aligning her body sideways with the direction to her opponent. On the other hand, Leila stood with her feet just slightly further apart than the width of her shoulders, lowering her knees not to widen her stance but to reinforce it in preparation for absorbing the impacts of her daughter's attack.

For a moment, as the two women just stood in place, looking more like sisters than a mother and a daughter, one could think they were merely posing, like some sort of cultivation cosplayers trying to get the angle of their photos just right.

Then, Claire slightly nodded her head, closing her right hand into a fist as she raised it over her heart while reaching out with an open palm of her left hand. As if to average out her daughter's stance, Leila raised both of her arms up slightly above her chest, keeping her hands only slightly curled—halfway between keeping them open and closing them into fists.

'Claire openly shows she will use her left for control, while her mom opts out for a more ambiguous, versatile approach, huh?'

Just like it was with everything, there was a sort of a cryptic language for those who knew how to fight. A language based on the most subtle changes to one's stance, the movement of their eyes, even something as seemingly small as whether they kept their hands open or not before the bout.

And while I only ever managed to learn a single punch for myself, leaving myself lacking when it came to the ability to express myself through this cryptic language in a spar… After spending five years in the institution, I was more than capable of reading it from others.

A moment later, I saw it.

Both Claire and Leila tensed up, only to then relax to the point their bodies seemingly started to sink down, as they no longer pushed their muscles to keep themselves standing. And while Leila continued to sink down on her knees, keeping her stance as soft as she could to better intercept the coming attacks, Claire snapped forward, leaping forth and punching out with her right hand.

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Bam!

Two hands clashed…

But neither of the two moved, both refusing to give ground to their respective opponent.

With the visible tension of the mother and daughter duo trying to push the other out, either by physically pushing her mother away in Claire's case or forcing Claire to give up on her advance when it came to Leila, this conflict of advance soon became the background to the rapid exchange of increasingly intense punches.

Using her relaxed left arm, Claire continued to mess up her mother's guard, constantly threatening an attack from one direction only to grab at her mother's wrist and try to jerk her arm away, all the while she kept up the actual pressure with simple punches with her right.

On the other hand, Leila continued to refuse to let her guard break, tensing up her arm whenever Claire attempted to jerk it away, only to relax it to better move it to counter her threats, all the while soaking the power of Claire's right fist directly into her guard.

What started as a mere punchfest between the two, however, quickly skyrocketed in intensity as both sides infused more and more spiritual energy into their respective attacks and defense.

And as the spiritual energy infused in Claire's attacks and Leila's defense continued to grow, I could now see with my very own eyes the reason why Leila was so smug about the pry-proof barrier she set up around this place.@@novelbin@@

'Is it just me, or is this kinda more intense than even the oppression I felt from the clan's patriarch?'