God Of Crafting

"Out of everything that you said, I don't understand only one thing," Claire claimed as she moved her head off from my shoulder and laid down across the sofa while resting her head down on my lap. And as she looked up, right to my face, she asked, "If you despise the idea of calling your uncle so much, why did you bring him up to begin with?"

Looking down, I couldn't help myself but bring my hand up to Claire's head and then brush my fingers through her soft, brown hair. An action that instantly put a small smile on the girl's face as she lowered her eyelids and purred in comfort.

"You see, it's what my uncle did that I hate, not my uncle himself. And by now, I'm mature enough to admit that while what he did was shitty, it was still a valuable lesson I learned."

Claire leaned her head slightly to the side, as if not sure whether to enjoy the head-patting or to put an emphasis on how little sense my words made to her.

"What do you mean by that?" she ultimately went with asking the question, only to instantly close her eyes down and go right back to enjoying the slight caress.

"My uncle used me in his conflict with my father. So wouldn't it be only fitting for me to use him back?"

As much as I disliked answering a question with a question on my own… given the more rhetorical nature of my response, I could still somehow squeeze those words out of my throat.

"Wait, what?!" Claire nearly jumped up from my lap, only for her relaxed body to twitch… and then fall right back onto my thighs as she ended up being too relaxed to take any decisive actions. "You would be willing to give up on all those things that you stuck to for so long just to slap the face of some stupid bitch?!"

Claire's face painted with disbelief, holy fury, anger, and all sorts of other high-octane emotions.

A mix of expressions that I responded to by just… smiling.

"You do realize that I could just lie to him?"

For a moment, Claire froze.

"What's more, it's not about smacking the face of some cultivator Karen. That's not the point at all," I stated while shaking my head and then moving my hand from the top of Claire's hair to her cheek as I caressed it lightly. "It's about slapping the face of someone who dares to annoy my dear Claire. And it might be just me, but I think there's one hell of a difference between the two."

This time, Claire froze at first… only to then relax all on her own, opting not to engage as she focused her attention on hiding the satisfied blush that rushed up to her cheeks as she heard my words.

"How do you know what are just the right words I would like to hear…" Claire complained a bit only to then shake her head to the sides as if nestling it deeper into my lap. "Anyway, Karen or not, I don't want you to take such a huge step just to make me feel good, make me feel justified for all the off-handed remarks that bitch likes to throw my way."

Claire's face twitched a little as some sort of a thought visited her mind, only for her face to then quickly grow quite somber.

"More importantly, I don't want you to make people aware of your existence," she stated as she raised her head from my lap… Only to then raise up as if she wanted to sit, only to press her hands against the bed to lift her ass before planting it right back down where her head was just a moment ago.

"That kidnapping accident… We managed to suppress the news about it, but I'm not arrogant enough to believe we left no one any wiser. Right now, the only reason why no one else is trying to put their filthy hands on you," Claire's voice quickly grew more and more agitated as she went back with her thoughts to that fateful day, "is because they don't know enough to commit hard enough.

And I really don't want that to change."

That was quite the problem. A problem that I was fully aware of, just underestimated its scale and rate at which it grew.

After figuring out the current extent of my abilities and just what kind of insane inventions I could bring to the cultivation side of the world, I pretty much had no other choice but to accept all the risks and responsibilities that would come with it.

In that perspective, the kidnapping attempt…

It was merely the beginning, a foreshadowing of how my life was likely to look like in the future rather than just an off-case of someone who stumbled upon my stream, managed to find out who I was, and then made a move to secure my abilities for themselves.

But then again, wasn't this the fate of all those who made it big? And that thing was one of the few I was quite sure about - I was going to make it big in this broken and nonsensical world!

"Wait, now that I think about it, I never asked about what happened to the guys who tried to kidnap me," I realized and nigh instantly voiced this doubt-slash-curiosity. "Are they all dead, or…?"

Even though, in theory, I wasn't changing the topic… In reality, there wasn't much else to discuss.

Claire already made her mind clear - she didn't want me acting high-key, all in a bid to keep me a hidden card of her clan rather than a high-profile member of it. And given how I was all for this kind of approach myself, what else was there for us to discuss?

"We are holding them in one of the black sites of the clan," Claire replied without even a shred of hesitation as if she was talking about what she had for yesterday's dinner rather than a very likely highly illegal solution to equally as illegal problem.

"Why do you ask, though?" she asked herself, throwing her right hand behind my neck only to lock it on her left before hanging her entire body back as she stared right into my face.

"It started as just a curiosity when I realized I know pretty much nothing about what happened back then, especially after I collapsed," I admitted before putting a wide grin on my face. "But now, your tickling of the info only made my curiosity grow!"