It is dusk when Lan Xiaohui opens her eyes and groggily blinks away the confusion and the pseudo-dreams induced by merging her consciousness with mine before passing out — though I am not certain what kind of effect this had on her, if any.
Between the performance profile of the gold core I gave her, and her ability to absorb the vitality of nature through her high degree of comprehension of [Empty Moon Prana], Lan Xiaohui’s recovery abilities are unprecedented.
By my estimation, even if she lost vital organs, she could survive long enough to potentially recover from such damage if she were given the opportunity to utilize the benefits of her cultivation method.
Of course, this is still conjecture, and I am not eager to find out if I am right or wrong. However, it is well known that cultivators who manage to cross the Great Boundary cannot be easily killed by the destruction of their physical bodies. The method they use to survive such damage — shifting their physical vessel to a more spiritual property — is completely different from Lan Xiaohui’s method.
Lan Xiaohui is simply difficult to kill because the same kind of energy that drives the vital processes of her body are also the ones she can absorb from nature itself now. Other than destroying her physical vessel — thoroughly and completely — killing her is likely not as simple as destroying vital organs.
In other words, her recovery from the damage she recently received in two separate battles is alarmingly swift.
She sits up slowly, her hands grasping at her torn dress where Qianyan Kongju tore it open and broke her ribs as if still feeling some form of phantom pain, even though there are no more injuries there.
She surveys the area, noting the various craters and destroyed features, lingering briefly on the rather large hole in the center of her surveying zone where my excavation formation used to be.
“Qianyan Kongju…?” she asks, eyes still searching for the familiar opponent.
“It escaped a few days ago,” I tell her.
Lan Xiaohui’s lips part, and her eyebrows twitch slightly. “A few days…? How long have I been…?”
“Six days.”
Calmly, she nods, understanding the situation now.
“Why did you not kill it with your sword technique?” I ask her after she remains silent for a few seconds.
Lan Xiaohui smiles guiltily. “You could tell I missed intentionally?”
“I see everything about you, even those things you hide deep in your heart.”
Lan Xiaohui’s reaction to my declaration is strange. Rather than being alarmed, her heart opens up more, as if wanting to show me its contents. And while her cheeks become slightly redder, her heart glimmers with fragments I see clearly, but do not understand. I can indeed see everything, but understanding them is another matter.
“Yaoyue,” she hums my name with a bright smile, as her fingers grasp at my blade and slowly pull my vessel into her lap. “If you could see that much, then you would know why I let it go.”
Her mocking and teasing tone suggests I should downgrade her Obedience Index by a rank or two, but it does not seem that she plans on rebelling.
“Do you want to know why?” she asks, tone far more mellow, as her fingers stroke along the fuller of my vessel.
“Yes,” I concede. I cannot defeat her logic, anyway.
“I don’t know!” she proudly announces.
I should’ve known it was pointless to even ask.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“You said your ancestors were killed by its predecessor,” I press on. Now that I’ve wasted processor cycles on this, I want to at least gain some benefit out of it.
Lan Xiaohui nods. “But that one and this one are different. The Qianyan Kongju from two hundred years ago killed thousands of people mercilessly. It took a large suppression force to hunt it down and kill it. I did not feel the same kind of malice from this one.”
“This one is still only in the Core Formation realm,” I remind Lan Xiaohui. “Once it develops, it may become the same as the previous one.”
Lan Xiaohui shakes her head. “It won’t.”
“Reason?” I ask.
Lan Xiaohui smiles, eyes focusing on the black jade set into the core of my vessel. “Because I can tell when I am being deceived or lied to.”
Once again, I find myself falling into the same trap of expecting reasonable actions and thoughts from a fundamentally unreasonable sword cultivator.
“For example, when those three cultivators ambushed me, I knew from the beginning that they were trying to deceive me,” Lan Xiaohui continues.
She is serious about having some ability to perceive lies?
“I also knew that Lady Feixue was telling the truth when she said she did not have any intention to send us to the Perilous Sword Valley. Even then, when Lady Yue offered her help, I could tell that it was honest and genuine.”
I consider attacking Lan Xiaohui’s logic and reasoning by simply pointing out that there is no evidence to support those last two claims but decide against it.
In fact, there are reasons to believe her.
“It is possible that you are using my perception, subconsciously, to supplement your intuition and determine whether someone is telling the truth or not,” I conclude and share my theory with my owner.
She shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know about that,” she mentions. “I’ve always been like this. I always had this feeling that when someone lies to me, I want to cut them.”
I find a few things about that statement rather alarming but immediately find them to make sense — for a sword cultivator.
Lan Xiaohui lowers her head a bit, thoughtful. “Qianyan Kongju… even in that final moment when it was afraid… I could tell that it was relieved that it finally found something stronger than it. I don't think that was a lie.”
She smiles and raises her head. “That is why. I don’t think it wants to bully the weak. The Qianyan Kongju I fought seemed like a noble and proud creature.”
“Besides,” she says, slowly standing up and walking towards the large hole in the center of the area. “Even if I am wrong about this, what does that have to do with me anymore? When I was hurt and abandoned, it was the mercy of devils that saved me."
It wouldn't surprise me if my owner, who is driven by revenge, felt some animosity toward her own kind for abandoning her, but I sense no such animosity in her heart.
I sense nothing at all.
As Lan Xiaohui approaches the edge of the chasm that drops several dozen steps below, her eyes are illuminated by the twinkle and pale blue glow of treasure coming from below.
“This is…” she whispers.
“It is a large vein of Supreme grade ore, trapped inside a Heaven grade spirit crystal,” I inform my owner.
Lan Xiaohui falls to her knees, eyes widening even more. “This… this… it is too much…”
Too much? It is barely enough to repair the functions of the Martial Hall, let alone the rest of my Inner World.
“It must be worth… a million spirit stones,” Lan Xiaohui says.
“I estimate around fourteen million spirit stones, according to the last known exchange rates,” I correct her.
At this point, Lan Xiaohui is simply too dumbstruck by the number to even reply.
“Since the ranking tournament and the conference are approaching, I will focus on recovering the Martial Hall and training formations,” I tell my owner. “The other facilities will have to wait.”
Lan Xiaohui blinks, horror dawning on her expression as she begins to realize just how expensive her practice session for fighting against the princess truly was.
“Yaoyue… I… I did not… know…” she whispers.
“Disregard that,” I interrupt her. “We need to discuss your fighting style and further development.”
Lan Xiaohui blinks again, still mesmerized by the blue glow of stone, and black patches of ore showing through the crystallized stone.
“In terms of large-scale warfare, you don’t have an equal. But in small-scale combat, you leave yourself too exposed,” I continue. “This is because you practice in the Killing Field, where you face multiple opponents at once. From now on, I want you to focus on individual comb…”
I trail off when I realize that my owner is not listening to me at all.
“I… I am sorry… I did not know it was… this much…”
Does she still not understand that these things are, by default, hers to do with as she pleases? That was our contract when I decided to become her weapon and tool.
“I need you to stab me into the rock down there so that I can consume it,” I tell her, changing the topic.
She nods, still shaken. “Okay…”
“Your ranked match against Xie Zhiqiang is in two days. This will take about that long, so as soon as I am done, we will head back to the sect.”
Once more, she nods, still barely responsive.
I give up on attempting communication with my owner for now. After everything she has said, I did not think such a small amount of wealth, or expense would shake her heart.
Even though I see everything in her heart, it is as good as seeing nothing if I cannot comprehend it.