It had been a long day, the Queen Bee thought as Jiko Ai dismissed the large army of plant beasts she had summoned.
The Queen Bee didn't exactly know how the clones of the alraune and the many plant-type beasts Jiko Ai had created worked, especially when apparently, even after being dismissed, the corpses still being eaten didn't just drop on the ground, but instead vanished as well, and the Queen Bee could see that Jiko Ai's Qi reserves were somehow still being replenished by the energy of the vanished corpses.
Did the alraunes and thorny flowers transfer the corpses of their victims into their stomachs through the clones? Did they create some alternate stomach or space where the corpses were being digested? Something else entirely?
It was something baffling, the Queen Bee thought, but it wasn't something mind-shatteringly baffling in her opinion. At least compared to the sheer brutality that the hungry army of thorny alraunes and thorny flowers were consuming the corpses. That was quite barbaric, really.
But, ignoring that, she decided to focus on the present and future. For now, the Queen Bee, her army, along with Mei Wu and Jiko Ai had returned inside the hive that was quickly concealed thanks to the alraune's Nature Qi and the Queen Bee's honey.
The Queen Bee creating the honey to act as a ceiling for the hive, while Jiko Ai used the Natura Aeterna Nirvana to blend the golden and rock-hard honey with the surrounding flora, so this way, she and her hive has some time to prepare for what they would do next. Hopefully, they would have at least a few days to get their bearings and to think of their next move.
'My hive was going to be discovered sooner or later, after all. I expected it would happen eventually, but now that it actually did...' she would have sighed if she could.
This was the moment where she had to choose whether to make another hive somewhere else, or choose the rather difficult option of prioritizing her own survival first like she did when she had to escape from these humans that managed to ruin her former kingdom of bees years ago. And while she was certain that Mei Wu and Kasumi Ai will probably choose to leave the hive, and that the possibility really made her annoyed and a bit furious, she knew that she had to face the reality.
It was only a matter of time for the disaster to strike the forest and her hive. The alraune and human's presence just accelerated it by unknowingly bringing the Xie clan into the forest. The Queen Bee supposed that she could be angry at the two for their presence inviting the problem, but at this point, it was both an exercice in futility and in poor taste to do that. Maybe she would have killed them if the elders appearing and breaking into the hive happened merely a few days since Kasumi Ai was invited, back when the Queen Bee didn't have a very high opinion of the alraune and human women, but now, doing that seemed rather outrageous in the Queen Bee's mind, and rather unfair as well after all they did to help her.
'So, the choice here is: To leave this forest and rebuild my hive somewhere else, to forget about the hive and just find another way or goal to live for, or to fight and die in a blaze of glory or a silent whimper.' she found herself thinking. None of the options were preferred, of course, but she knew that she would have to make one.
Her wings buzzed loudly, showing her irritation. If only things were so simple like they were a month or so ago. But there was no medicine to regret, and she doubted she would take it if there even was one.
Shaking her head in disappointment, she decided to let that thought alone for now. First, she will eat the halves of Xie Xiu and her Camouflage Chameleon's corpses, and wait for Jiko Ai and Kasumi Ai to have their talk inside their body, before maybe deciding to join the alraune and her human lover.
And maybe check on that Xie clan woman that was captured by the alraune and put to sleep with powerful sleep-inducing pollens and nectar thanks to Jiko Ai, and was currently tied and bound in a different room surrounded by a couple of the bronze-ranked Drone Bees to inform the queen and the alraune when Xie Zu woke up.
She will do that, the Queen Bee decided. But first, she will fill her stomach. Eating the corpse of a Level 5 [Grandmaster] along with a silver-ranked beast was quite rare these days.
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"This will be the last one for now. Natura Aeterna Nirvana."
The sensation of Nature emanated and exploded around me, following my will. Even with me inside the territory governed by my alter ego, and the different feeling the Qi was giving, it didn't even try to stop me from unleashing my technique, as the Qi of Nature overflowed, the area looking as if colored with a thin green film or fabric.
I focused on the invisible wall in front of me, one of my still-unlocked meridians, and soon it was opened, the invisible wall shattering like glass before vanishing as if it was never there.
"Phew. That was the second one for the day." I sighed, relaxing, the soulscape returning to its original form. I resisted the urge to shudder a bit at the sensation that was all around me.
If there was a difference to how my soulscape's area was, compared to Jiko Ai's area, then the first difference was the scent of the Qi and the atmosphere around here.
While my Qi was full of the scent of Nature, it was mostly filled with the feeling of flora and the beauty that was present in nature, a vibrant and green world that felt more beautiful than deadly.
Jiko Ai's area though was all about predation. Despite the grass that was all around, and the blue sky above me, the place reeked of a seemingly-endless hunger and desire to feed on anything deemed worthy of being a prey or an invader. An area that was blatantly showing that while it had beauty, it only cared about being deadly and cruel to whatever it didn't like or humor, like a wild beast only wanting to satiate is urges while ignoring anything else that isn't important or urgent.
'A world that only delights in breaking and feasting on what it defines as a prey.' I shuddered at that. The memories I got from my Narcissism about the ending of the battle only made the feeling in my heart even stronger.
The second difference is that while my area of our now-merged soulscape was full of plants, trees and weed, and so much more, Jiko Ai's area, while full of green and vibrant grass, there was a lack of any unique plants or flowers around. Instead, the very soil and grass seemed to be made of mouths and teeth similar to what my monstrous plant half had in its mouth.
No eyes, and no vines. Just countless teeth manifesting as blades of grass, prepared to bite and consume any uninvited guest with glee. It was, very literally, an area that wanted to chomp and swallow anything it didn't accept or tolerate until nothing remained. And I had a feeling that these countless mouths craved demonic qi and meat the most.
I was honestly glad that this area didn't want to kill me or lock me here, which proved that Jiko Ai didn't have any intent of forcefully taking over. The way I could feel her will in the air was clear enough. Had I been an enemy, I would be eliminated or tortured without a second thought, and even more worryingly, I felt that I would have done the same in her place, especially with the memories I got from her.
'To say that I might have issues is an understatement.' I thought sardonically at that.
I had seen her memories, watched how she fed on the enemy, how she, using one of the many alraune clones created by the Propagation Division, was mentally breaking the Xie clan's disciples, how she loved every second of her sexually torturing them and how Jiko Ai was enjoying the process even if she had to focus on killing Xie Xiu first.
Me? I felt excited about these very same memories and experiences. I found myself enjoying the sight of them trembling in fear as I (the clone) pumped aphrodisiacs into their blood, chipping away at their ability to reason, and turning them into mere toys before making them into food when I get bored of them or keeping them alive was no longer worth it.
It wasn't even the emotions of Jiko Ai that gave me that sensation. It was my own mind that felt that way, even if to a much lesser extent than my Narcissism felt.
I was honestly glad that she loved Wu-chan just as much as me, otherwise I would be panicking as if the world was ending right now, and I wouldn't be so... calm and docile, so to speak, waiting for my Narcissism to reach me so I can talk about what the fuck just happened to me, my body and my mind.
"Glad to see you're enjoying your stay in my little domain, Ai-chan~!"
Speak of the devil, and she shall appear with a grin.
I immediately turned around the moment I heard the voice that surprised me so deeply. The same voice as mine, same tone that I used to tease Mei Wu, yet somehow, it felt rather unsettling and excited, but even more surprisingly, had no malice in it.
"Jiko Ai, my Narcissism." I breathed as I finally got to see her, and compare the differences between us both.
Our huge plant bodies were completely identical, physically at least. I couldn't see a single difference, whether it was the size, the number of oversized leaves, or the petals. Everything was looking the same.
Her human body though, was different than mine in one detail that made her feel utterly alien yet strangely fitting for her. Her hairstyle. And that made her whole presence feel completely different than me.
Our human bodies were the same. Same height, same face. From her toes to her head, we were identical down to the shade of our eyes and hair. Somehow, we also had the same bust size as well, though for some reason I felt that hers should be smaller, all due to the way her hairstyle made her feel.
While my hair was long and I didn't really bother to give myself a unique style, Jiko Ai though preferred twintails instead. The sight, combined with a casual smile that was closer to a grin on her face made her look many times more childish than I usually did -or at least Mei Wu probably thinks I am childish, so rude- yet Jiko Ai also looked many times more dangerous than I probably could try to make myself seem to be.
It was almost natural for her to look like the most childish yet cruelest and most violent thing ever to appear in front of me. As if she was blatantly telling me that she had no need for looking mature or graceful.
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"Because I am a predator, and instincts, I shall not worry about acting my age. If I have the power, then I can look and act however I want with no reprecussions. That's why! Should a beast care that it looks goofy when it can destroy a world so easily? Of course it won't care, after all. At least, not without a good reason." she easily finished my unheard line of thoughts.
"You know my thoughts easily, huh." I smiled at her, feeling that she was clearly relaxed, yet she was also ready to defend in case I attacked her. Honestly, I did think of that, but in the end I deemed it to be a futile endeavor. I forced myself to relax, taking a deep breath.
"Well, it's more like how I can understand how you feel and deduce with a good amount of accuracy what you think. It's not a mind reading, even in our soulscape. I can't just shove my consciousness into your brain and rip out the memories and secrets you have after all." Jiko Ai deflected with a strange sincerity. "For now Wu-chan is meditating, and the Queen Bee is probably planning to think of what she would do next. I guess that only I and you have to waste time talking then?"
At that, I looked at her seriously. I had so much to say to her, and I was honestly angry at the stunt she had pulled when I was dying but not really. Yet I only glared at her instead.
"So, hello." I fought back against my desire to unleash my Nature Qi at her, "Nice of you to take over my body after joking about raping Wu-chan and then locking me here, even if temporarily." I was clearly a tiny bit livid at what she did.
Alas, she only gave a small sigh, not fazed at all. "Oh, you know from my memories that I was just scaring you now that I managed to exist. I admit that it wasn't the best idea in hindsight, now that I am calmer and satisfied." she shrugged nonchalantly at that, though I felt that she was attempting to apologize, at the very least.
Though I was still vexed about it, I decided to leave it for now. I had more questions to her, and I would like to get good answers for them.
"Fine, that discussion is not over yet, but I will let it go for now." I told her, "My first question to you is this: what exactly are you, and how did you come into existence?"
The winds did not blow, the grass didn't move. The entire area seemed to have become silent in just a second as I looked at her, demanding answers.
For the first time since she appeared, the Narcissism's smile fell off, crossing her arms as she as well gazed at me. "Straight to the point, huh? Rather expected of you, in my opinion. I will answer your question with another question first; we, or I suppose, you were reborn as a beast in a xianxia setting. You were reborn, thanks to the goddess, with the ability to cultivate, and kept your sapience and ability to reason intact even while being reborn as a normal-ranked alraune." she gave a small smile that I couldn't understand if it was amused or not.
"So my question is; what do you think is the strange thing in that? And keep in mind how beasts are supposed to be in the Long Live Summons world as well."
I mulled at that, frowning. I knew that my reincarnation gave me some perks and allowed me to ignore a conventional problem that is a beast's inability to cultivate unless they were close to becoming a Holy Beast. Plus, I was reborn with my sapience intact. It was with it that I was able to even bother to talk with Wu-chan back then, aside from the fact that I wanted to know about where and when I was supposed to be, if this world followed, or is following the plot of that novel.
But with Jiko Ai's question, the specific choice of words, I was easily able to see what she was trying to say. Though I felt that it was rather baffling, and made my sentiment clear.
"You mean that me being born sapient while not being a Holy Beast or close to that level is what created you?" I asked incredulously at her, my eyebrow raised.
"Bingo!" I wasn't amused by her response or her smirk, "you should know by now, beasts are beasts for a reason. Even if said reason was the Heaven favoring the humans... supposedly." she gave a shrug at that, "A beast may be intelligent, they maybe smart, they may be tactical. But they cannot be sapient. Not until they were strong enough, and capable of controlling their instincts and beastly behaviour. It's not something that could be ignored so casually, unless a beast was born as a Holy Beast or higher, in other words, being closer to being 'human' in mind and soul, which of course, you were not."
The Narcissism then pointed towards me. "And so, you, Kasumi Ai, are reborn in the body of a beast. Capable of being sapient, capable of being congizant of things beyond merely your instincts and primal desires, able to think and resist your instincts. But, you weren't born as a Holy Beast though. You were born in a body that is way too immature to hold that sapience and get used to it, and too weak to fully adapt to having the soul of a human woman who had more than thirty years of experience in life, with an already established ego and personality."
She chuckled at me. "So, what do you think will happen when the instincts and brain of the body is completely out of synch with the mind and spirit in this kind of xianxia worlds?"
Damn. That... that makes way too much sense, what she's hinting at. I shuddered as she kept waiting for my answer.
"Either the the difference in body and spirit will break the body, resulting in death," I shivered, realizing that I was, since my rebirth, hideously lucky in more ways than one. "Or the difference will be forcefully migitated by having the weaker part grow by force, or the stronger part will be diminished until the balance was easier to maintain."
This meant that I could have lost my sapience. Regressing into a beast that only cared about satisfying its instincts and urges, and only using the intelligence I was having as a former human to be more effective in that.
Instead, what happened was that my instincts and desires started to grow increasingly fast to keep up with my sapience, my spirit and mind.
"That's right. You could have died, or had your sapience utterly destroyed, until you were strong enough to regain it again. If anything, the goddess made it so that you won't just turn into a frighteningly intelligent predator that can only think with its mouth... all three of them." she sighed at that, and was it my imagination, or did she feel happy that it didn't happen? No- it made sense that she didn't want that.
"And thus, you were born as you were forcefully growing to keep up with my soul..." I finished the conclusion for her. "You were my own body's immune response to having a soul that is way too sapient dumped in a fragile body. Still, wouldn't it make more sense that you would just be instincts and desires though? Why a whole different split personality?"
"Ah, that. That is a whole different situation altogether, but if you want me to spell it out for you, then I will. In reality, I was supposed to be just that, nothing but an unrestrained desire of an alraune to do whatever. To uphold the law of jungle as long is it benefited me with no care of anything else. Thankfully, or not... you wished from the goddess to be able to cultivate. Not to mention the fact that technique you chose to cultivate fit you perfectly, along with the type of beast that you are now." she gave me a strangely happy smile.
I reeled at that, realizing the implications. Had I not been able to cultivate, Jiko Ai wouldn't be cognizant and have any identity? She would have been just a mass of instincts inside my body? And probably trying to influence me as well, most likely.
"The answer must be clear by now, don't you agree?" she asked me, her lips giving a small smirk.
'What did that even mean?' I thought, a feeling of irritation on my face as I glared at her vague answer. She is telling me that my ability to cultivate is the reason for her being a split personality. And she also stated that the Natura Aeterna Nirvana technique is also a part of the mystery.
But how? My cultivation technique isn't something capable of giving life to split personas, or creating them, last I checked. It could help plants and flora to grow exponentially, and let me control them, but that's it!
It didn't have a secret and unknown side-effects, too. Deep in my soul, I felt so, and I was cultivating for more than two months now, so even if I was still at the first stage, I was certain that the next stages won't have such a side-effect.
I felt that the technique was indeed part of the situation, and Jiko Ai said that my body is a part of it. I was an alraune, that much was obvious. But again, whay does that have with Jiko Ai becoming a separate ego?
'Wait...' I felt as if lightning struck me as I remembered something I read about alraunes before, back when I was a human. Wasn't there some variant of them with two women instead of one? The two women were clearly two different people, even if they were one monster, right?
"You... you don't mean...?" I asked her, confused and a bit worried, "Liliraunes?"
"Yep! You're correct, mostly." Jiko Ai answered, spreading her arms in what felt like amusement. "Because you reached the gold rank, you are indeed quite close to being a liliraune. Though I'm not sure if you need one more evolution to become one, or more than that." she mused.
A liliraune, an alraune that had two human-like women instead of one. I was going to become one? In hindsight, that made a lot of sense.
"So this means, that you are supposed to be the second woman that would be born from my body? Is that why you became a fully sentient and sapient persona?" I asked to be sure.
"Indeed." she simply admitted it, and I noticed that she was proud of it. "But, as I said, your technique is a part of it too. Honestly, that goddess really went above what she had to do, creating that technique." she complained half-heartedly.
... Why though? It was an amazing cultivation technique.
"Because, and I think you forgot this..." she responded to my thoughts, as I nearly jumped at the closest thing to mind-reading that I was experiencing. "Do you even understand what she did? She created a technique designed to be the most perfect cultivation technique for you and only you. Not even Yue Yang, the novel's protagonist, had a technique specifically designed for him."
I frowned at that. Now that she said it, that was true. He got that Innate-ranked technique when he was 'kidnapped' by an old daoist and thrown into the xianxia world right at the start of the novel, didn't he? So maybe the technique was overpowered as fuck, but it probably isn't the absolute compatible one with him even if he used it to its fullest potential due to luck and genetics, while mine is utterly and perfectly compatible with me, down to the soul?
"I feel that something is still not clicking." I answered, crossing my arms. "So I have a cultivation technique that is the most fitting for me, my body and soul. I know that it is most likely a very strong one, but..." I trailed off as she rolled her eyes.
My own Narcissism is feeling disappointed that I'm not already solving this mystery, isn't she?
"And why exactly is it strong?" She asked with a rather smug smirk. For some reason, the smirk combined with the childish look on her face irks me.
"I don't know. Maybe because it was based on an Original Character from the Shinza Bansho series that I made when I thought that a self-absorbed god who wants to just murder the entire multiverse to attain solitude is the coolest character ever and the fact that it's based on a Hadou God's Law?" I responded sarcastically. I wasn't even bothering to hide my irritation.
Jiko Ai... only grins. A wide, amused grin full of mirth. Somehow, I just feel as if she was enjoying a joke only she knows.
And what comes from her mouth next is something that just stops my thoughts.
"And how exactly do you think Wu-chan gained a cultivation technique?"
I suddenly freeze.
"What?" my question feels like it is the only sound around despite me nearly whispering it. The silence was suffocating despite it only lasting for a few seconds.
The Narcissism stops smiling.
"The path of the Hadou is that of conquest and ruling. It is one where gods conquer the souls of others and add them to their own soul's mass no matter how virtous one is and no matter how pure and gentle their desire is. Did you really think that such a fact won't matter when we are in a world where souls are a literal force on its own, and could be used, expanded, and destroyed, with the right ability? Where Innates are almost guaranteed to be able to do such things?"
Every word only made me even more baffled. A shiver ran down my spine as I could feel how her words were completely true despite the absurdity of them.
"So, you mean that with my cultivation technique, when I was dual-cultivating with Wu-chan, I was also using my own soul and synchronizing with hers?" My voice trembled slightly at the implications. "That I was also giving her literal soul the ability to reach my level due to that? Like how a Hadou God's most capable followers are boosted to the same level as their respective Hadou God?"
That... That was ridiculous, but somehow it made sense. Yue Yang, the novel's protagonist, dual-cultivated with his harem and he managed to make them break through their limits easily due to his Innate Qi and cultivation technique.
If the Natura Aeterna Nirvana was anywhere as close to that, and with the soul shenanigans involved, then it would make a lot of sense.
I had no idea on how to think about that. It was just ridiculous that I could apparently touch one's soul and supposedly bless it to gain a cultivation technique just like that.
Even if my mind could understand, my heart couldn't do the same so easily.
And more importantly... This Narcissism of mine...
"Let me ask you a question, Jiko Ai..." I shuddered as I breathed, trying to calm myself.
Her eyes sharpening at my tone as I asked her.
"You are a pseudo-soul or a full-fledged one already, aren't you? Don't tell me that you are also being touched by my soul and already painting your own Qi and cultivation technique as well?"
She only closed her eyes.
"Yes."