I was baffled when I heard Jiko Ai's answer. To me, it was something so ridiculous it felt like a joke. Except of course, it wasn't a joke at all. The fact that the whole conversation turned from a simple question about why Jiko Ai became a split persona, into her telling me that I can apparently touch people's souls with my own and give them a power-up, Hadou God style! Or something similar to that?
At least when I dual-cultivate with them, I guess.
Mei Wu gaining a cultivation technique and getting stronger since we dual-cultivated? I was easily able to accept that due to her trying to find her self and was trying to paint her will on her Qi, and the fact that my Qi was immensely pure and potent due to my technique being the most fitting cultivation technique for me in specific, and plant-type beasts or anyone with high affinity for them. And now, I'm hearing that while that part was true, it was also because the Natura Aeterna Nirvana resonated to my love to Wu-chan and helped her unleash her potential to bring down others to below her level via touching her soul, and turning said potential into the Malignant Tumor Apoptosis technique?
At least, that's what I understood from what Jiko Ai was saying. Assuming that I am not misunderstanding something that is, which I really doubt.
And it was my technique, combined with my highly probable possibility of evolving into a Liliraune in the future that gave my Narcissism a personality, a soul, and also allowed her to be fully cognizant and gave her the ability to paint her own Qi, as well as allow her to create her own cultivation technique.
This was too much for me to handle right away. I felt as if my head would explode from all these surprises.
I only asked just one of the questions I wanted to know the answer for, and already I have one huge headache as I clutched my head in frustration.
"Gah! This is ridiculous, you know that?" I complained to Jiko Ai, who only shrugged despite her expression still being quite serious.
"It is, but that's the truth. And frankly, it is amazing really that your technique is that overpowered, that it unlocks the potential of a person you dual-cultivate with. Though it's more of an extreme version of how dual-cultivation works, I think. Pretty sure that dual-cultivation with an Innate warrior could do the same, depending on how pure their Qi is, so really dual-cultivating with you is just more potent than normal warriors doing the practice." she answered me.
I wasn't amused at that, especially with the implications that me doing the cultivation equivalent to sex would make anyone that practices dual-cultivation with me grow stronger. Me and Wu-chan, that was completely fine, as far as I was concerned, but it was clear that the possibility of it working without my consent was not zero.
Now, other than being a highly intelligent and 'sapient' beast, as far as the world may know in the future, there would be no doubt that one will try to use me, and Mei Wu as cultivation furnaces if they felt like it.
And that made me absolutely livid. The soulscape was tainted by green as my anger leaked, my Qi raging like a storm at the mere possibility that I so rejected so hard I wanted to wipe its mere existence from my mind.
"You know what we will have to do about that if it ever happened or was about to, right?" I gritted my teeth as I almost hissed towards her, my thoughts clear and reached her very core.
"Of course. You don't have to tell me, you idiot." despite her childish appearance, the way she looked so determined and stoic in front of me made it clear why she is my Narcissism.
The scent and feeling of the predator hiding behind the sweet and cheeky smile made itself clear, mixing with my own Nature Qi. For some reason it felt rather fitting, and a part of me felt at home as it washed over me like a storm yet at the same time as if it was a mere breeze. I had no other way to describe it.
If I had to explain what I felt from my Narcissism's Qi, it was seemingly the inverse to how my Qi and cultivation technique. My ability is to grow the flora and control them, in other words, my Natura Aeterna Nirvana generally shows the 'beautiful' side of the nature.
She though seemed more like a wild yet highly intelligent, and hungry predator. The Qi of Narcissism that was so red, only craved to bite and consume those that dared to attract its attention in any negative way.
A world where nature was full of hungry malicious beasts. Even their beauty can only be used to enhance the danger contained inside these green eyes.
"We will crush and crush and crush them. We will wipe their existence so thoroughly not even a single cell shall remain, for that is the fate of a prey. Even if we are weaker, we shall grow stronger until we simply eclipse them, then crush them utterly, and absolutely. We will erase them until the end of Nayuta!"
The malice towards the possible filth that would touch Wu-chan was insane. And it felt as if it was still growing by the second as our inner world was tunted by the color of red, the same color of our possible enemies' blood.
It was honestly maddening how I was able to feel the unrestrained madness and bloodlust that were in her eyes, yet I only thought that it was just so beautiful and acceptable.
'That's right, if she and I want to protect Wu-chan, then any less bloodlust and determination in wiping out anything that would harm us is nothing but a disgrace.' I thought, my own bloodlust starting to materialize before I blinked and stopped myself.
Oh great, another episode where I want to become a murderhobo because Wu-chan could be hurt by some asshole. Let's put these feelings under the rug again. Man, these feelings are really getting easier to feel now that I had become a Gold-ranked beast, plus the fact that I was now in love and in a relationship.
"Yeah... better watch out for these impulses. We alraunes are highly possessive and extremely violent when it comes to love, whether as lovers or family. We might not care that much if some random pet of our is murdered, probably, but anyone we like, whether romantically or if we deem to be close family, we kinda feel the urge to eviscerate anyone that dares to touch them." Jiko Ai told me, calming down herself as the inner world returned to its usual colors, giving a soft sigh.
"I will have to teach you a lot about alraune culture, but these have to wait unless it's absolutely and immediately necessary. In case we end up dealing with a den full of them."
Well, that isn't ominous at all.
I grimaced a bit at that. But, deciding to ignore the sudden shift in the subject of our conversation, I shook my head, refocusing on the actual problem for now.
"Anyways!" I was a bit louder than necessary with my yell, "So the gist is that you are now my instincts given life and a soul, thanks to my cultivation technique. And I also awakened Wu-chan's potential when we dual-cultivated, or close to it due to the quality of my soul as well. Is that it?"
She only shrugged at that. "Yep! That sums it up really."
Another round of silence swallowed the atmosphere, until she crossed her arms, looking at me questioningly, though for some reason I felt she was attempting not to look like she was judging me. What she's trying to judge me about, I had no idea, but for some reason I just knew that it would feel awkward.
"That aside, I have a question. That Xie clan's pretty woman we captured, what do you plan to do with her? You know, the woman who probably had a grudge with Wu-chan and probably wanted to kill or torture her? And is currently being watched by the Queen Bee's subordinates?"
Ah, that. Of course, that was something to discuss alright. Pretty sure Wu-chan would talk about it after I wake up as well. My face no doubt looked highly displeased and disgusted.
"Ugh... do we really need to keep her alive? Can't we just kill her? You know that I'm not exactly into that, now that I have a lover, right? Doesn't that count as cheating or something?"
"You know that you don't have to bring the subject of cheating, right? Just saying you don't like to do such a thing now that you're in love is more than enough. Still, while I would prefer you keep her alive to satiate our bestial desires for the moment, I won't tell you to fuck her, at least not personally, but at least keep her as an energy source for a few days if possible. Don't worry, you can always use a clone for that like these trashy naruto smut fanfics."
I rolled my eyes at the last phrase. That was so random as much as it was amusing.
"You can discuss with Wu-chan how to satisfy your romantic and sexual cravings, though seeing how your spanking session went without a hitch before our boss showed herself and if the discussion you would have went well, I believe you may not have too many problems with that..."
My face glowed at that as I looked at the ground that suddenly became very interesting. Did she really have to remind me of that!? That was something I wanted to forget! At least, the part where the Queen Bee decided to pop into our room without any warning.
Thankfully, or not, what she said next was enough to both wake me up from the shame, and freeze me in my track.
"You know that you will have to tell her about you being reincarnated, correct?"
Suddenly, I felt as if I was choking, and I winced at the blatantly clear request.
"Do I really have to?"
"We both know that it was a matter of 'when' until she decided to ask on why your soul looks older." she pointed out, much to my chagrin.
She was right, and I knew it. Wu-chan had no doubt seen how my spiritual form looked more mature and older than how I was physically. It was going to happen eventually, a part of me always felt that way, and I knew that I would end up telling her at some point.
"Not to mention, we wouldn't exactly be able to hide it from her for so long anyways. Sure, we could try to explain it by us being simply more mature or something, but even that would only work for a while before the questions resurface once more. We can't hide that from her unless we just decided not to dual-cultivate with her for the sake of secrecy. Not that we are that great at lying really when it comes to her, nor do we really want to. Sure, lying about some things makes sense, but this subject is not going to be easy, so just better get it over with ASAP, and then try to fix the damage if there was any."
I only grimaced further at that. Putting aside how well or poorly Wu-chan might take the revelation that I was a former human reincarnated as an alraune by an arguably nigh-almighty goddess, I just didn't feel like hiding such a secret could work in the long term.
Honestly, how can these idiotic protagonists in these novels just... do that? Regressors and such, they make sense. But some dude reincarnated from Earth, most likely some neets or nobodies suddenly finding themselves inhabiting the near-dead body of some random guy or random clan member, and then they basically turn into the perfect liars and experts in making everyone drop their jaws from sheer shock at how easily they lie.
And of course, no one who could check these lies would just continue asking, especially when they knew the person that the reincarnator took over the body over.
I was a bit lucky so far, arguably, but I had no delusions that my luck would succeed in dealing with this amount of secrecy or that it would continue forever, and even to me, I could see how it would be unfair for both me and Mei Wu if I did that.
Not to mention, the only things I'd prefer to hide from her are whatever the fuck these movies, animes and fics I ended up watching and reading because I was curious and I now regret ever being interested into these. Me being a reincarnator isn't exactly that big of a deal when factoring how the cycle of samsara and rebirth exists, at least, as long as any knowledge about cultivation quotes is either hidden or not really dangerous in this world.
"That would just be a headache, won't it?" I groaned towards Jiko Ai who only shrugged helplessly.
"Oh, most definitely. Just keep the xianxia quotes and chants in your brain. Last thing we need is for some idiotic cultivator getting their hands on the words of Hajun's spell and it somehow actually working when they speak them."
I shuddered, paling at that. Yeah, that was a most horrifying possibility.
"Anyways, that's it for now." my Narcissism gave me a smile as I found myself apparently ejected from her area while I calmed down. "I will be sleeping for now, controlling your body and your technique, while easy, is still highly strenuous for me at the moment. Time for me to get my beauty sleep~! Have fun with Wu-chan for the next couple weeks before I take over for one day. Ciao~!"
Wait, what?
Before I could respond or even react in any way other than shock as my eyes widened, my vision went black as I found myself feeling a very familiar sensation of waking up.
I felt as my blood was moving into my cells, then I heard the beating of my heart, then finally I could notice even my own breath as I instinctively gasped.
My eyes opened to the familiar sight of me being inside one of the many chambers in the Queen Bee's hive. The familiar scent of honey as well as the sensation of the many bees around met my nose. I heard as the bees were buzzing around, even as they weren't inside the chamber just as easily as if they were.
I though disregarded that after only a few seconds, deciding to pay attention to a much more important person.
She had already felt me waking up, her own eyes opening, looking directly into mine. Mei Wu looked at me, her eyes widening just slightly.
I could almost taste her anticipation as I nearly heard her heart beating quickly as soon as her gaze fell on my face.
"A-Ai'er...? Is that you?" she asked me with a voice almost full with skepticism, her lips trembling as she stood up from her pose as she was just cultivating.
The sensation of the Apoptosis lingered in the air, and I could feel as she was almost poking and prodding on my Qi to see if this was really me.
I felt happy that she was this serious in her desire to protect me, and pained that I indirectly caused her pain when I nearly died today.
"Yes, Wu-chan. I am here." I answered her softly, my throat bubbling with happiness and joy at finally seeing her alive and unharmed. I may have seen my Narcissism's memories of how she made sure to protect my love, but seeing it in front of me just made it even more real to me, as I nearly jumped from the top of my monstrous body to hug her. To make it clear for the both of us that this was real.
"I am here, Wu-chan. Only me, with no Jiko Ai for now." I almost whispered, my human body slowly closing the distance, holding back tears as I saw that she was really in front of me.
"Ai'er, I..." she whispered as well.
Despite the whole fight only taking a few hours at most, it felt like we were separated for a long time. I did the only thing I could think of as I hugged her, and she gladly reciprocated.
At this moment, I didn't care about the coming discussion, or anything at all really.
I only desired one thing only, to embrace her like this until our hearts are satisfied. That was the only thing I wanted to do at the moment.
I was baffled when I heard Jiko Ai's answer. To me, it was something so ridiculous it felt like a joke. Except of course, it wasn't a joke at all. The fact that the whole conversation turned from a simple question about why Jiko Ai became a split persona, into her telling me that I can apparently touch people's souls with my own and give them a power-up, Hadou God style! Or something similar to that?
At least when I dual-cultivate with them, I guess.
Mei Wu gaining a cultivation technique and getting stronger since we dual-cultivated? I was easily able to accept that due to her trying to find her self and was trying to paint her will on her Qi, and the fact that my Qi was immensely pure and potent due to my technique being the most fitting cultivation technique for me in specific, and plant-type beasts or anyone with high affinity for them. And now, I'm hearing that while that part was true, it was also because the Natura Aeterna Nirvana resonated to my love to Wu-chan and helped her unleash her potential to bring down others to below her level via touching her soul, and turning said potential into the Malignant Tumor Apoptosis technique?
At least, that's what I understood from what Jiko Ai was saying. Assuming that I am not misunderstanding something that is, which I really doubt.
And it was my technique, combined with my highly probable possibility of evolving into a Liliraune in the future that gave my Narcissism a personality, a soul, and also allowed her to be fully cognizant and gave her the ability to paint her own Qi, as well as allow her to create her own cultivation technique.
This was too much for me to handle right away. I felt as if my head would explode from all these surprises.
I only asked just one of the questions I wanted to know the answer for, and already I have one huge headache as I clutched my head in frustration.
"Gah! This is ridiculous, you know that?" I complained to Jiko Ai, who only shrugged despite her expression still being quite serious.
"It is, but that's the truth. And frankly, it is amazing really that your technique is that overpowered, that it unlocks the potential of a person you dual-cultivate with. Though it's more of an extreme version of how dual-cultivation works, I think. Pretty sure that dual-cultivation with an Innate warrior could do the same, depending on how pure their Qi is, so really dual-cultivating with you is just more potent than normal warriors doing the practice." she answered me.
I wasn't amused at that, especially with the implications that me doing the cultivation equivalent to sex would make anyone that practices dual-cultivation with me grow stronger. Me and Wu-chan, that was completely fine, as far as I was concerned, but it was clear that the possibility of it working without my consent was not zero.
Now, other than being a highly intelligent and 'sapient' beast, as far as the world may know in the future, there would be no doubt that one will try to use me, and Mei Wu as cultivation furnaces if they felt like it.
And that made me absolutely livid. The soulscape was tainted by green as my anger leaked, my Qi raging like a storm at the mere possibility that I so rejected so hard I wanted to wipe its mere existence from my mind.
"You know what we will have to do about that if it ever happened or was about to, right?" I gritted my teeth as I almost hissed towards her, my thoughts clear and reached her very core.
"Of course. You don't have to tell me, you idiot." despite her childish appearance, the way she looked so determined and stoic in front of me made it clear why she is my Narcissism.
The scent and feeling of the predator hiding behind the sweet and cheeky smile made itself clear, mixing with my own Nature Qi. For some reason it felt rather fitting, and a part of me felt at home as it washed over me like a storm yet at the same time as if it was a mere breeze. I had no other way to describe it.
If I had to explain what I felt from my Narcissism's Qi, it was seemingly the inverse to how my Qi and cultivation technique. My ability is to grow the flora and control them, in other words, my Natura Aeterna Nirvana generally shows the 'beautiful' side of the nature.
She though seemed more like a wild yet highly intelligent, and hungry predator. The Qi of Narcissism that was so red, only craved to bite and consume those that dared to attract its attention in any negative way.
A world where nature was full of hungry malicious beasts. Even their beauty can only be used to enhance the danger contained inside these green eyes.
"We will crush and crush and crush them. We will wipe their existence so thoroughly not even a single cell shall remain, for that is the fate of a prey. Even if we are weaker, we shall grow stronger until we simply eclipse them, then crush them utterly, and absolutely. We will erase them until the end of Nayuta!"
The malice towards the possible filth that would touch Wu-chan was insane. And it felt as if it was still growing by the second as our inner world was tunted by the color of red, the same color of our possible enemies' blood.
It was honestly maddening how I was able to feel the unrestrained madness and bloodlust that were in her eyes, yet I only thought that it was just so beautiful and acceptable.
'That's right, if she and I want to protect Wu-chan, then any less bloodlust and determination in wiping out anything that would harm us is nothing but a disgrace.' I thought, my own bloodlust starting to materialize before I blinked and stopped myself.
Oh great, another episode where I want to become a murderhobo because Wu-chan could be hurt by some asshole. Let's put these feelings under the rug again. Man, these feelings are really getting easier to feel now that I had become a Gold-ranked beast, plus the fact that I was now in love and in a relationship.
"Yeah... better watch out for these impulses. We alraunes are highly possessive and extremely violent when it comes to love, whether as lovers or family. We might not care that much if some random pet of our is murdered, probably, but anyone we like, whether romantically or if we deem to be close family, we kinda feel the urge to eviscerate anyone that dares to touch them." Jiko Ai told me, calming down herself as the inner world returned to its usual colors, giving a soft sigh.
"I will have to teach you a lot about alraune culture, but these have to wait unless it's absolutely and immediately necessary. In case we end up dealing with a den full of them."
Well, that isn't ominous at all.
I grimaced a bit at that. But, deciding to ignore the sudden shift in the subject of our conversation, I shook my head, refocusing on the actual problem for now.
"Anyways!" I was a bit louder than necessary with my yell, "So the gist is that you are now my instincts given life and a soul, thanks to my cultivation technique. And I also awakened Wu-chan's potential when we dual-cultivated, or close to it due to the quality of my soul as well. Is that it?"
She only shrugged at that. "Yep! That sums it up really."
Another round of silence swallowed the atmosphere, until she crossed her arms, looking at me questioningly, though for some reason I felt she was attempting not to look like she was judging me. What she's trying to judge me about, I had no idea, but for some reason I just knew that it would feel awkward.
"That aside, I have a question. That Xie clan's pretty woman we captured, what do you plan to do with her? You know, the woman who probably had a grudge with Wu-chan and probably wanted to kill or torture her? And is currently being watched by the Queen Bee's subordinates?"
Ah, that. Of course, that was something to discuss alright. Pretty sure Wu-chan would talk about it after I wake up as well. My face no doubt looked highly displeased and disgusted.
"Ugh... do we really need to keep her alive? Can't we just kill her? You know that I'm not exactly into that, now that I have a lover, right? Doesn't that count as cheating or something?"
"You know that you don't have to bring the subject of cheating, right? Just saying you don't like to do such a thing now that you're in love is more than enough. Still, while I would prefer you keep her alive to satiate our bestial desires for the moment, I won't tell you to fuck her, at least not personally, but at least keep her as an energy source for a few days if possible. Don't worry, you can always use a clone for that like these trashy naruto smut fanfics."
I rolled my eyes at the last phrase. That was so random as much as it was amusing.
"You can discuss with Wu-chan how to satisfy your romantic and sexual cravings, though seeing how your spanking session went without a hitch before our boss showed herself and if the discussion you would have went well, I believe you may not have too many problems with that..."
My face glowed at that as I looked at the ground that suddenly became very interesting. Did she really have to remind me of that!? That was something I wanted to forget! At least, the part where the Queen Bee decided to pop into our room without any warning.
Thankfully, or not, what she said next was enough to both wake me up from the shame, and freeze me in my track.
"You know that you will have to tell her about you being reincarnated, correct?"
Suddenly, I felt as if I was choking, and I winced at the blatantly clear request.
"Do I really have to?"
"We both know that it was a matter of 'when' until she decided to ask on why your soul looks older." she pointed out, much to my chagrin.
She was right, and I knew it. Wu-chan had no doubt seen how my spiritual form looked more mature and older than how I was physically. It was going to happen eventually, a part of me always felt that way, and I knew that I would end up telling her at some point.
"Not to mention, we wouldn't exactly be able to hide it from her for so long anyways. Sure, we could try to explain it by us being simply more mature or something, but even that would only work for a while before the questions resurface once more. We can't hide that from her unless we just decided not to dual-cultivate with her for the sake of secrecy. Not that we are that great at lying really when it comes to her, nor do we really want to. Sure, lying about some things makes sense, but this subject is not going to be easy, so just better get it over with ASAP, and then try to fix the damage if there was any."
I only grimaced further at that. Putting aside how well or poorly Wu-chan might take the revelation that I was a former human reincarnated as an alraune by an arguably nigh-almighty goddess, I just didn't feel like hiding such a secret could work in the long term.
Honestly, how can these idiotic protagonists in these novels just... do that? Regressors and such, they make sense. But some dude reincarnated from Earth, most likely some neets or nobodies suddenly finding themselves inhabiting the near-dead body of some random guy or random clan member, and then they basically turn into the perfect liars and experts in making everyone drop their jaws from sheer shock at how easily they lie.
And of course, no one who could check these lies would just continue asking, especially when they knew the person that the reincarnator took over the body over.
I was a bit lucky so far, arguably, but I had no delusions that my luck would succeed in dealing with this amount of secrecy or that it would continue forever, and even to me, I could see how it would be unfair for both me and Mei Wu if I did that.
Not to mention, the only things I'd prefer to hide from her are whatever the fuck these movies, animes and fics I ended up watching and reading because I was curious and I now regret ever being interested into these. Me being a reincarnator isn't exactly that big of a deal when factoring how the cycle of samsara and rebirth exists, at least, as long as any knowledge about cultivation quotes is either hidden or not really dangerous in this world.
"That would just be a headache, won't it?" I groaned towards Jiko Ai who only shrugged helplessly.
"Oh, most definitely. Just keep the xianxia quotes and chants in your brain. Last thing we need is for some idiotic cultivator getting their hands on the words of Hajun's spell and it somehow actually working when they speak them."
I shuddered, paling at that. Yeah, that was a most horrifying possibility.
"Anyways, that's it for now." my Narcissism gave me a smile as I found myself apparently ejected from her area while I calmed down. "I will be sleeping for now, controlling your body and your technique, while easy, is still highly strenuous for me at the moment. Time for me to get my beauty sleep~! Have fun with Wu-chan for the next couple weeks before I take over for one day. Ciao~!"
Wait, what?
Before I could respond or even react in any way other than shock as my eyes widened, my vision went black as I found myself feeling a very familiar sensation of waking up.
I felt as my blood was moving into my cells, then I heard the beating of my heart, then finally I could notice even my own breath as I instinctively gasped.
My eyes opened to the familiar sight of me being inside one of the many chambers in the Queen Bee's hive. The familiar scent of honey as well as the sensation of the many bees around met my nose. I heard as the bees were buzzing around, even as they weren't inside the chamber just as easily as if they were.
I though disregarded that after only a few seconds, deciding to pay attention to a much more important person.
She had already felt me waking up, her own eyes opening, looking directly into mine. Mei Wu looked at me, her eyes widening just slightly.
I could almost taste her anticipation as I nearly heard her heart beating quickly as soon as her gaze fell on my face.
"A-Ai'er...? Is that you?" she asked me with a voice almost full with skepticism, her lips trembling as she stood up from her pose as she was just cultivating.
The sensation of the Apoptosis lingered in the air, and I could feel as she was almost poking and prodding on my Qi to see if this was really me.
I felt happy that she was this serious in her desire to protect me, and pained that I indirectly caused her pain when I nearly died today.
"Yes, Wu-chan. I am here." I answered her softly, my throat bubbling with happiness and joy at finally seeing her alive and unharmed. I may have seen my Narcissism's memories of how she made sure to protect my love, but seeing it in front of me just made it even more real to me, as I nearly jumped from the top of my monstrous body to hug her. To make it clear for the both of us that this was real.
"I am here, Wu-chan. Only me, with no Jiko Ai for now." I almost whispered, my human body slowly closing the distance, holding back tears as I saw that she was really in front of me.
"Ai'er, I..." she whispered as well.
Despite the whole fight only taking a few hours at most, it felt like we were separated for a long time. I did the only thing I could think of as I hugged her, and she gladly reciprocated.
At this moment, I didn't care about the coming discussion, or anything at all really.
I only desired one thing only, to embrace her like this until our hearts are satisfied. That was the only thing I wanted to do at the moment.
