The world once again melted at super speed while they flew through the air as blood. While they turned into blood, they could still see.
This was because the full transformation into blood would only be useless, only transforming their form into blood while keeping all functions was more efficient and so that is what Master Sheng did with the formations on each door.
As they flew through the air, constantly turning and changing directions, Hou composed himself and gathered his thoughts. He needed to somehow convince Master Sheng to both give him time off and resources without revealing too much if possible.
After a few more moments, they came to a room where Master Sheng stood. Their bodies turned from a coiling form of blood into their physical bodies. For a moment it felt off as they reformed.
Hou stepped forward and bowed a little, "Sir Master Sheng,"
Hamar saw this and a moment after bowed but omitted the greeting. The two stood up synchronised and Hou began his speech,
"Ma-"
Master Sheng held his hand out with one finger outstretched, "just one thing. Just call me Master, no need to say Master Sheng or Sir. You may continue,"
Master Sheng was sat in a desk with one leg up, his chin resting in his knee. He had a small worm of blood swimming around his fingers as he listened.
"Master, I want to ask you for something. I swear we'll repay you however you want but we want to do a ritual and need some help."
"A ritual..." Master Sheng crushed the blood worm in his hand and reabsorbed it. He sat forward and listened a bit more closely, "Do continue"
"Yes we have a ritual that will help us both immensely, I don't want to reveal any of the details for obvious reasons but..." Hou exhaled a bit and scratched his head "We don't have the resources to do it. We need a large room and a fairly large amount of resources too."
Master Sheng hopped off the desk and pulled out a piece of paper form his jacket, "Are you willing to write down what you will need?" He handed the paper out towards Hou, including a fountain pen too.
Hou took it and started writing. He hadn't been taught how to write in the flowing script which could be understood without knowledge but...
'Luckily the Flowing Divine Script I got with True Sage's inheritance could be reversed into flowing script. Thanks Master Yue for figuring that out...'
Hou write for a while, occasionally stopping to think. Then, once he was done he handed the paper back. Master Sheng took it and started to read,
"Space Devouring Snail powder...hmm..." He read out a loud a few ingredients and made some unsure noises.
After he was fine reading he folded the paper and put it into his pocket, "To tell you the truth, the sect does allow us teachers to give you resources for these sorts of things, it's actually quite common."
He walked back to the desk and sat down, "Usually the poorer students stumbled upon a rare ritual or transcript and needed resources to use it, that's where the sect would pay for it...think of it as an investment. But this... This is quite a lot, maybe as a longer term student they would but right now, I wouldn't think so."
Hou and Hamar let out the tension in their body and sighed, Hou almost began to leak a few of their secrets in order to make it possible but before that happened Master Sheng continued,
"But while the sect wouldn't, I will. If you haven't noticed but your whole cohort, the ones taught by me are mostly on the lower end with few exceptions. I was given the poorer or lower class students, and I want to support anyone I can. You can do it, I'll prepare it in a week."
Hou looked up, "thank you. Sincerely thank you Master. Though-" he bit his lip and winced, "is there anyway we could do it now, it's quite crucial especially for Hamar who's already struggling in some parts..."
Hou threw Hamar under the bus slightly, hoping that he could get the resources to do straight away. The sooner he could do the magic ritual, the better.
"I know you're impatient to do what you found but let me warn you. You should always look over what you found, if you have trust I can look over it. Otherwise, I want you two to wait a week and just make sure you're ready, that's all."
Hou sighed, "okay, we will. Again, thank you Master." He bowed even deeper than at the start. Hamar saw this and put his fists together and bowed deeply too.
"Just one more thing actually, think of it as your payment." Master Sheng blurted out.
"What is it?" Hamar was the one to ask this time.
Master Sheng pointed to Hou then to Hamar, "I know you two both have... peculiar backgrounds, I can see when the records are too clean and I've seen it before. Just before you go, each of you show me one thing."
'Does he knows I'm not a real cultivator?! Did he somehow figure I'm something else entirely?! I'm not sensing any malicious intent...' Hamar began to sweat and become nervous.
Similarly, Hou was thinking inside his head whether he would have to reveal his background. He started to make up different excuses when Master Sheng continued,
"My daughter said you, Hu Li, had some special blood that you gave her?"
"Your daughter?!"
"Yes, Jin. Did you not know? She said you gave her some 'special healing blood', it's hard to impress her."
Hou shook his head, "I did not know this at all! Uhh-yeah? I did 'give' her some blood yeah, I don't think it was very special though."
Hamar saw Hou's confusion and asked Master Sheng himself, "but what about me?" With a nervous smile in his face.
"You're even more peculiar. That blue...thing. it's not sword laws...and I won't ask you to reveal what it is but is there a way for me to have some of it? Perhaps in a sort of container or crystal?"
Hamar made a confused noise and looked up, "I don't thi-"
Hou cut him off, "Actually Hou there is a way, I think. I'll teach you later." Hou turned back to Master Sheng, "so how about this, we each give you what you want next week, before getting the resources?"