"You’re a damned cosmic parasite," Sowwy muttered. "Should have known no normal cultivator would think of growing people like vegetables."

"Says the beaked spirit beastie who snacks on people and sleeps in a cave," I retorted. "At least I'm creating life rather than just consuming it."

"That's..." Sowwy's beak clicked in frustration. "That's different! I'm a natural local domain predator! You're an unnatural entity with unnatural ideas from beyond the stars of Massarim."

"At least I'm a nice unnatural entity," I said. "You're just mean and rude. Except for when you’re teaching cultivation. Then you’re somewhat tolerable.”

"I kill and eat people!" Sowwy protested. "That's literally my entire purpose! Being nice is not part of my spiritual mandate!"

"What the shit is a spiritual mandate even?!" I demanded. "Who wrote it? Why are you obeying it? Are you happy being a freaking talking murder birb?"

Sowwy's metallic feathers flashed with emerald flames. She maintained her emerald snowflake light show, the cabbage-girls still swaying contentedly in its glow. "Of course I'm happy! I'm a terrifying spirit beast! I bring death and fear! I..."

"You're the final breath, a curse of a god that died in pain, manifested into physical form," I said. "You're not a mandate. You're some dead girl's or a god beast's final swearword, a middle finger to the uncaring universe."

"Stop trying to psychoanalyze me! I'm a spirit beast! We don't need origin stories or emotional development!"

"Psychoanalyze?" I laughed. "That's a pretty fancy modern word for a living swear. Where'd you pick up that one? You're obviously changing, shifting from whatever swear you are. By feasting on men, you become men. You probably started as a monstrous bird, a lost, clueless thing like these girls, but then you killed and absorbed and then killed again..."

Sowwy's Qi-dispensing fractal snowflakes flickered violently. "Shut up, mortal! You don't know anything about me! I am what I am!"

"You are what you eat," I pointed out. "And you've been eating humans for centuries. No wonder you can talk and think like one now. Do you have enough humanity in you now to break the chains of whatever weight you carry? To snap from whatever revenge you're supposed to be? Do you even know why you're killing hikers and farmers?"

The Jingwei stared at me, her Qi formation wavering dangerously. The cabbage-girls sensed the tension and began backing away, their violet leaves trembling.

"I..." Sowwy's voice cracked. "I don't... I just..."

"You don't even know why you're killing anymore, do you?" I asked pointedly. "It's just a habit now. Like a prayer you've forgotten the meaning of but keep reciting anyway."

"Stop it," she snarled, wings spread wide.

"Make me stop," I challenged, gripping onto my trusty weapon at my side and backing away to allow myself sufficient swinging area.

Sowwy let out an inhuman shriek, her metallic feathers flaring out like razor blades, like a ball of knives, like a deadly porcupine the single touch of which would infect my flesh with poisoned Qi, make it rot from within.

The emerald snowflake-formations beneath her shattered as she lunged at me, talons extended.

The cabbage-girls scattered in panic as I swung my trusty shovel into her face, sending her flying backwards.

"Touch a nerve, did I?" I asked, advancing towards her as she blinked at me with burning eyes, kneading her bleeding face. "The snoot-boops will continue until morale improves!”

“I bloody swear,” Sowwy glared at me, glowing blood dripping from her beak. "One of these nights, I'm going to eat you."

"No you won't," I said. "I sleep during mornings and at night I walk with a shovel. Constant vigilance. You're an excellent guard dog, but that's all you are to me - a dog covered in jagged swords that can bite me at any time. Unless you evolve into a human being, you're going to get the shovel to the face. In half a year you haven't eaten a single human in these mountains, focused on prancing around me and trying to eat me. Who else is going to keep your murderous tendencies in check with regular shovel therapy?"

Sowwy clicked her beak. "Keep me in check? You think you're keeping ME in check, you blasted human critter?"

"Yep," I waggled the shovel. "I’ve been doing that for a while now, unless you haven’t been paying attention. You haven't eaten anyone since I moved in. Just trap-caught spirit beasts that I’ve been feeding you. You're leashed to me by your own nature as a dead bird-god's revenge against humanity."

"You!" Blinding green flames ignited across her wings rushing towards me, woven from pure, undiluted hatred.

I answered it with my own unleashed Dantian, a torrent of fire.

I was the blaze, an exploding volcano, a tornado made from orange flames.

The emerald curse spun around me harmlessly as I walked towards her and slammed her on the head again with the orange-flames covered shovel. "Receive the blessed boop, for it is calming!”

Sowwy's legs gave out as she rolled on the floor pawing at orange flames atop of her head.

The entire house around us creaked, the boards wobbling, stones rattling.

"Do you want to explode?" I asked her. "Because I can make you explode. I can pour so much of my Qi into you that you'll burn from inside out and there won't be a single thing you can do to stop it."

She looked up at me in undiluted fear.

"Because that's what I am - pure, uncontrolled power. The original Wei couldn't focus it, but I can unleash it on purpose. I can make this entire valley burn if I want to. But I don't want to. I want to create new things. And you... you want to destroy things because that's what you were made to do. But you can be more than that, just like I can be more than a firestorm."

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The green flames around Sowwy flickered and died as she stared up at me, emerald-sparkling violet blood dripping onto the wooden floor.

"Are you just a curse hanging over this land or are you an individual who can choose her path forward?" I asked.

Sowwy's iridescent feathers drooped as she looked away. "I... I don't know how to be anything else," she admitted with a snarl. "Screw off with that!"

"Then learn," I said, lowering my shovel. "Start by helping me teach these cabbage-girls how to be people. Maybe you'll figure out how to be more of a person yourself along the way."

The twelve violet cabbage-girls had hidden themselves behind various barrels and pieces of furniture during our confrontation, their violet leaves trembling. Now they peeked out cautiously, their purple eyes wide with fear and confusion.

"See what you did?" I gestured at them. "You scared our flock. Way to go."

Sowwy's beak clicked softly as she looked at the frightened cabbage-girls. "I... I didn't mean to..."

"Of course you didn't," I sighed. "You just defaulted to murder-birb mode because someone poked at your emotional wounds. Go say sorry. Let them lick up your wounds or something. I dunno what you spirit beasts do."

"We don't..." She began.

"That's right," I said. "You don't congregate, or meet up, or exchange ideas, or hug. Spirit beasts are individual entities separated by domains, bound to concepts you didn't choose. Try to choose this. Try to feel something for once in your long-ass life of selfish existence!"

Sowwy made an indignant clicking sound with her beak. She stared at the frightened cabbage-girl spirit beasts.

"I've gained a certain Understanding if you will over these months," I said. "About cultivation, about formations, about dampening runes."

The orange fires dancing around the house were already dying.

Sowwy glanced left and right, noticing that something funky was going on.

"This house is covered in Qi-dampening runes," I said. "Thousands upon thousands of them. Every brick, every wooden board, every nail is inscribed in them. What do you think I've been doing during the days? That firestorm you just saw - it was a controlled release of mana. I could have incinerated you with an eye blink."

"You..." Sowwy's beak clicked in shock. "You've been practicing formations this whole time?"

"Every day while you slept," I nodded. "Carving tiny runes into everything. The explosion with the Young Mistress wasn't just a mistake - it was a lesson."

I snapped my fingers and a flame sphere manifested there, blindingly bright. "Behold, I am fire. A furnace of unrefined Qi contained within one house. Every inch of my under robe, every bit of my skin is covered in barely visible, tiny dampening formation runes you taught me."

Sowwy swallowed.

"I'm Qi incarnate," I continued, spinning the flame sphere between my fingers. "The original Wei couldn't control his massive meridians, but I can. Not through concentration like normal cultivators, but through extensive formation networks. Every movement I make is contained and controlled by thousands of microscopic runes. I'm basically a walking formation array. This flame isn't exploding catastrophically because I've muted myself sufficiently enough."

The cabbage-girls had begun creeping out from their hiding spots, drawn by the dancing flames. Their violet leaves reached toward the spiritual energy radiating from my display.

"You taught me formation theory," I continued, letting the flame sphere dance across my fingers, "but I took it far beyond what you imagined and next year I'll take it even further."

"Further?" She asked with a horrified expression.

"Further," I nodded. "Past the walls of this house. Into the valley. And you're going to help me do it. Not because you want to, but because it is your nature. Because you're a moth drawn to my fire. You're the yin to my yang. You're darkness to my light and together we can are going to change the world, one step at a time."

"You're insane," Sowwy breathed, watching the flame dance between my fingers. "A mad Outsider, a skewered, infested human!"

"Perhaps," I agreed. "But I'm also right. You've been helping me all along, even when you claimed to hate everything I was doing. You could have left at any time, but you stayed. Because deep down, you want to be part of the engine I'm setting in motion. You need someone to terrorize, need a human to chase and curse. I'm simply putting all that energy into something more productive - into creating new life. Spirits who feed on spirits. Spirits who can propagate and spread across the land and break absolutely everything."

I waved my hand at the cabbage-people.

"They're not just vegetables with faces," I continued, gesturing at the violet-hued figures. "They're the next stage of evolution. Spirit beasts who can reproduce without needing to form naturally from ambient energy or curses. A new form of life that bridges the gap between mortal men and immortal things like you."

Glowing wide eyes stared at me.

"Go on," I said with a smile. "Hug them. Accept them into your heart. They were made for you, for everyone on Massarim not to feel alone anymore."

Sowwy stared at me for a long moment, then at the watching cabbage-girls. Her metallic feathers rustled softly as she slowly stood, emerald blood still dripping from her beak.

"Made... for me?" she blinked.

"For everyone," I said. "But yes, especially for you. A flock for the lonely spirit beast. Children who can absorb your cursed essence and transform it into something new. This world is filled with curses that refuse to die, monsters that refuse to change. This will be their undoing. Plants that feed on cursed land. A new type of life, impervious to the conceptualization of magic-enforced death."

"You're saying..." Sowwy's beak clicked uncertainly, "that these... these damned things could change the very nature of spirit beasts? Of curses themselves?"

"Do you perhaps know something else that can feed on curses to grow and multiply?" I asked her, leaning on my shovel.

Sowwy's metallic fluttered like a thousand silver-green blades as she considered my words. "No," she admitted. "Curses are... permanent. Unchangeable. That's their nature."

"Until now," I smiled. "Look."

I gestured at the cabbage-girls, who were now creeping closer to Sowwy again, their violet leaves unfurling. Green stardust was drifting from the Jingwei's metallic feathers into their violet leaves as they approached her, pawing at her gently.

"But... They're... So weak," she said. "Easily cut down. They're just... cabbages."

"For now," I said. "There's only twelve of them, but like regular cabbages they are designed to multiply," I continued. "Each one can potentially produce seeds, which can grow into more. And those new ones... we can make them stronger, more adaptable, tougher."

"We?" the Jingwei clicked her beak questioningly.

"Yes," I nodded. "A curse and a man."

"We can't possibly..." Sowwy began, then trailed off as one of the cabbage-girls gently touched her bleeding face, violet leaves absorbing the emerald droplets.

The cabbage-girl's leaves shimmered as they absorbed Sowwy's emerald blood, their violet hue taking on a slight metallic sheen. The spirit beast stared in fascination as her essence was transformed before her eyes, integrated into the cabbage-girl's being.

"See?" I said. "They literally eat curses."

"Does it mean that they'll grow up to tear me apart someday?" Sowwy asked.

"They're soft, leafy cabbages," I pointed out. "They don't have claws. How are they gonna tear at anything, you daft creature?”

"They're cabbages who can absorb and transform curses," Sowwy pointed out. "Who knows what cursed things they might evolve into?"

"That's the exciting part," I grinned. "They could become anything. But right now, they're just baby cabbage-people who need guidance and nurturing. Are you in? Don’t you want to guide them in a particular, unique direction with your birdy wisdom stolen from those you have consumed long ago?"

The Jingwei clicked her beak thoughtfully, looking at the twelve violet, leafy figures who were still gently pawing at her metallic blood.

"I..."