Elder Storm Hawk sighed when she saw them and said, "To think that I would finish my supervision mission easily and in 25 years."
"I still remember when I was told to leave the inner sect and come to the outer sect to teach some scrawny 17-year-old kid and make sure that he survived the fusion of the wood and lightning element."
She paused to think. Then she shook her head as she reminisced and said, "I remember that I was pissed. I didn't want to waste my precious time teaching some ignorant kid."
"I thought you would be full of yourself for having such a unique talent. There was also the possibility that you would be too stupid to teach, and you would take up all of my time asking me questions."
"I also thought that you could be too smart and refuse to do something as dangerous as fusing wood and lightning elements. That would make my mission a failure."
She smiled and said, "Fortunately, you are just the right amount of stupid."
Arthur's face darkened when he heard what she said. He couldn't tell if she was complimenting him or not. But he wasn't going to stay silent either way.
In order to defend himself, he said, "I was just smart enough to realize the power to be gained in fusing the two elements."
"If there is something I could be blamed for, it is for being ambitious. But I survived and succeeded in fusing the two elements, so I was right."
He raised his chin imperiously and said with pride, "I was right, so I wasn't overconfident with the estimation of my capabilities. I was just confident, and as it turned out, I was right to be."
She rolled her eyes at him while saying, "Right, right. You are Mr. Right. I don't care what you call yourself. I only care about the capabilities of your unique foundation."
Then she asked him, "Tell me, how does it feel to have two elements in your foundation? Did you even fuse the two elements? It doesn't feel like it."
She observed him intently and said, "You look fine and healthy. Not as sickly as I thought you would be. You also reek of lightning with no hint of wood."
Her gaze lingered on him as she asked, "Did you really fuse wood with lightning? Why can't I sense the wood?"
Before he could reply, eyes lit up in understanding as she said, "Maybe it is because you fused the lightning element with wood that you look healthy instead of sickly. The vitality of wood must be keeping you healthy and masking the violent effects of keeping the two elements in a balance within you."
Then she began asking more questions. "So how does it feel to have lightning and wood fighting within you? Do you feel pain? Do you feel that you're about to explode? Do you think you can survive the third mortal coil?"
She hit him with a barrage of questions. But then she paused, and her tone of voice changed.
She stopped being inquisitive and became more worried as she said to him, "Please tell me that you can survive until you reach the seventh transformation. It is the least you can do for me since I invested a lot of time and energy into caring for you as your supervisor."
She became anxious as she insisted, "Please tell me you can do that much. You have to do that much for me. I have too much money counting on it. I can't lose it."
He had been disoriented and confused by her mood swings. He didn't know how to begin replying. But his mind latched on to the last thing she said and focused on it with laser focus.
He asked her, still confused, "Wait a minute. What do you mean you have too much money counting on me reaching the seventh transformation?"
She asked back, clearly displeased, "Of all the things I said, is that the only one you're concerned about? Stop being so selfish."
He ignored her joke and insisted, "Is someone betting on me?"
She sighed as if he was asking the world of her, "Fine. If you must know, someone is indeed betting on whether you will survive or your foundation will explode and kill you."
"Actually, a lot of people are betting on it. We began betting on you after I told an elder of the sect that you had reached the third mortal coil successfully."
"Many people don't think you can survive the third mortal coil. We began arguing about it and finally chose to bet about what we thought. That's what took me so long to prepare."
She pointed at herself and said, "I thought that you were strong enough to reach the seventh transformation of the third mortal coil. Please don't make me regret having that much faith in you."
If anything, Arthur thought that she had very little faith in him. He couldn't help but ask, "Is having two elements that bad?"
She snorted and said, "Bad doesn't even begin to describe it. Will pouring water into a fire have a good outcome?"
He replied, "It depends on the strength of the water and fire. And whether the outcome is good or not depends on what outcome I wanted in the first place."
She nodded in agreement and said, "That makes sense. But what I know is that the patriarch with the formation body who decided to create his own cultivation technique to establish his foundation nearly died when his foundation exploded."
"If that could happen to such a genius who was not messing around with lightning, I wonder what would happen to you for messing around with lightning."
"When I wonder, the image of wood exploding when lightning strikes it comes to my mind. I don't know how it will feel, but I think it must be a very painful death."
The more Arthur heard her speak, the more his face darkened. Even Roar had become fearful because of the bad image that she painted.