Ying plunged her hand into Fu Kang’s chest. Blood shot all over her arm as she searched around his insides. His screaming turned into whimpers and groans while she was looking inside. Ying ignored the organs as she looked for that strange object. But as she was looking, her hand clutched onto something... It felt solid and was shaped like a square on all sides.
‘What the hell was this?’ Ying pulled out the strange object and found that it was a purple cube.
It was resting near his still beating heart. The cube gave off a mysterious feeling to her. She didn’t understand what was so special about it but knew she just had to have it. Ying lit the cube on fire to clean all the blood off of it before having her sword eyeing the cube like a greedy hound. It begged her to feed it to him.
“Like I'd feed something as valuable as this to a hunk of metal like you! Who knows what this thing can do?” Ying insulted.
The sword continued to beg and plead for her to feed it while giving her a cutesy look with its single demonic eye. Ying refused to give in this time no matter how cutely it looked at her. It always did this when it wanted to eat something valuable of hers! She didn’t have the money to keep providing for this hungry slab of metal. She might be from a cultivation family but that didn’t mean her pockets were filled to the brim!
It promised her that this time was different. That the cube held a power that she couldn’t use unless she fed it to him. She thought it was total crap and it was just trying to feed on this magical treasure she found. Its feelings exploded inside her like a tantrum throwing baby as it begged and cried to have the cube.
“Shut up! Shut up! Alright! I’ll feed it to you if you can tell me why you want to eat it so badly. If you say you’re just hungry, I swear I'll get a blacksmith hit you with his hammer!” Ying yelled.
The sword responded by telling her that it could gain the essence of the cube if it eats it.
“Essence? Like with the storage ring from earlier?” It blinked at her, acknowledging that she was right.
It then went on to say how the cube wasn’t any ordinary object. It was something special and it could gain its abilities if it eats it.
“What abilities? I don’t even know what the cube can do. And wouldn’t it just go away in 10 minutes like all the other times I feed something with spirit energy to you?”
The demonic blade shared with her about how this entire Void World was because of that cube. It could sense void qi inside of it along with a myriad of other types of qi as well. What Ying got from it was that a place like this could become hers if she fed the cube to Hao Gang, her sword. She didn’t know what this Void World could do but she did know that Fu Kang could only have gotten as strong as he was thanks to this place.
And that’s why she dropped the cube into Hao's mouth. He loudly crunched on the magical treasure with relish and Ying could feel its bliss affecting her mood as well. Well if this was going to help her get stronger, she didn’t mind feeling a little bit happy about it. Hao started shining with purple and black lines similar to the one’s on the cube running down its sword body. The lines raced with each other, they intersected and interlocked forming a strange pattern onto Ying’s sword. Her wounds began healing as well.
Then everything went white. Ying couldn’t see anything nor hear anything around her. Her connection to Hao was still there. She could feel her limbs and her qi was working fine. But where was she now? Hao told her that he was creating her Void World. That was when the world started to come alive all around her.
The white space she was in before was now being taken over by life itself. The blank sky was now becoming a blue sky with clouds and a shining sun. In the far distance, grass began rolling in the world to cover all the whiteness. Seeing the sight made Ying wonder if the grass always belonged there or was something just made by Hao. Ying could even feel a cool relaxing breeze blowing on her skin.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
But that wasn’t all that was added. The same garden that was inside Fu Kang’s was inside her Void World. There were no plants inside it and that made Ying want to complain a bit but seeing all the other additions shut her up. She could just grow her own garden in the future that was better than Kang’s.
A shadow that resembled her body formed out of her shadow. It had the same figure, hair, and a giant sword just like hers. Why did Hao add this shadow in her world? Was it to be used as a sparring partner against herself? There was a pill cauldron by the garden too. Ying didn’t practice alchemy so, why would he make that?
A sudden figure tackled into her from behind and hung around her waist like a little monkey. The unexpected assault almost made Ying fall right on her face! She turned around with an angry look on her face just to see the sight of a strange boy hugging her legs with a gross look on his face.
“Mommy!” The young child happily exclaimed while he rubbed his face against her bare legs.
The small boy was dressed in an outfit similar to hers. He wore the Yue family’s outfit with her clan’s twisted fist symbol on the center of the robes. His hair was a mix of orange and purple while his eyes were a direct copy of hers. Who was this child she felt so familiar with? And why was he touching her so much!? She would feel disgusted if she didn’t feel so close to this kid.
“Who are you calling mom?! Get off of me already!” Ying knocked the boy on his head with her fist, dropping him to the ground with a silly grin on his face.
“Mommy it's me! Hao! I made a human body for myself inside your Void World!” Hao answered as he got up and took her hand.
Ying was at a loss for words. She didn’t know exactly how respond to this unexpected situation. Seeing her sword turn into child that looked eerily similar to herself? How many people could say they could prepare themselves for something like that!? So, Ying did the only thing she could do.
“Well, are you ready to explain this whole void world thing to me? And stop touching me!” She didn’t think about it.
“But we’re always together outside...” His bright happy face turned sullen.
“That’s different, you’re a sword out there and in here you are...” The look on his face was turning worse and worse as the little brat was thinking that him becoming a human like her was a bad thing.
“Forget it. You can hold my hand. Now explain what all of this is about for me.”
“Yay! Okay, okay, so that thing over there can help you master your martial arts.” He pointed at the shadow staring at the garden sadly.
“That brown dirt can help you grow whatever plants you want in there. The qi inside here is very big and good. Perfect for mommy to cultivate plants and cultivate for yourself.”
“That pot thing can help mommy make pills. The shadow can help mommy learn how to make pills and become the best pill maker.”
“That well over there can’t be used yet. I didn’t know how to get water inside it.”
“And this thing!” Ying interrupted him before he could continue.
“Let’s start back from the beginning and slowly work from there...” Ying was completely lost at Hao’s explanations and only had even more questions.
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“Hmm... This is quite the situation now, isn’t it?” Lei Zhi muttered as he looked around him. Quon was floating next to him and Xiurong was on his shoulder.
“We just had to run into these guys on our way to the tower...” Bing whined as his body beefed up.
“It is also unfortunate that Qing isn’t here either. She could blow these guys with a single swing of her fan.” Lei Zhi added.
“Heh, I bet you thought you were safe in here didn’t you, Fatty?” Shui Han smiled with fierce killing intent radiating off of his body.
“Not you again...” Bing muttered.
“I will get my revenge for last time. You and that girl will perish from my hands! You just walked into your own grave.” He laughed.
“We shouldn’t be so excited to kill each other as disciples from the same sect.” Lei Zhi added.
“Kill that old fool first for daring to speak without my permission.” Shui ordered.
“You can’t reason with someone like this Lei. He’s the type of person who will do anything to regain his lost face.” Bing said.
“Lost face?” Lei Zhi didn’t remember who this young man was.
“He was the guy who almost killed me and Ying a while ago. He’s an 8th stage while me and Ying are at lower stages than him. His pride couldn’t handle losing to us and now he’s gone crazy, I think.” Bing whispered.
“I’LL SHOW YOU CRAZY!” Shui screamed as he jumped forward.
“Sorry but fighting hopeless battles isn’t my thing.” As the vengeful youth charged with his sword, Bing slapped a teleportation talisman on himself and Lei Zhi. Disappearing from the entrapment and winding up somewhere completely unexpected!