Chapter 236: Connections

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This time, I didn’t see any visions when I touched the stone; it seems the two beasts share the same vision and background. However, I am fairly sure of this! While the first one was the Primordial Martial Beast of Yang, this is the Primordial Martial Beast of Yin!

I don’t know why I am even getting these gifted through the quests, but I am fairly sure they must be useful and strong, so I can’t really reject them. The Beast of Yang has already been really useful, and with one of Yin here, we have the whole team.

Perhaps it is part of the restoration of this world to let these two Ancient Beasts that created this Murim world recover it from its destruction. Or so I hope!

But for now, I have to use it for the primary purpose I brought it out for to begin with, which was to heal the Heavenly Demon.

Because he’s someone who cultivates the dark spectrum of elements, he was more compatible with the Yin Element than Yang. And no, it doesn’t matter if he’s male! In this universe, it seems that gender has little correlation to the affinities and the “spectrum” that Yin and Yang encompass.

It is one of the few things I appreciate about it because I always saw in every other degenerate story about “dual cultivation” where they used Yin and Yang as an excuse for people to just have… sex and cultivate through it? I never liked that, to be honest.

If the characters have sex, so be it, but don’t make it some sort of “way to grind to the top.” That’s so odd and weird; it is like weaponizing affection and love, and—wait a second, my Little sister abilities do that.

Ahem!

Anyway, as I was saying...

“Puppy, can you imbue your Yin energy into the Heavenly Demon?” I asked the Primordial Beast. “He’s a useless old crow, but he’s my master at the end…”

“Woof!” The puppy, made of dark purple jewels, barked cutely, wagging its tail.

“Old and useless crow?!” The Heavenly Demon barked. “Y-You damn- Cough, ugh… Maybe you’re not wrong…”

As he complained, the little primordial beast sat over the Heavenly Demon’s stomach and then imbued its energies into his body, just as I asked him.

The results? Better than I thought, dozens of streams of dark purple energy entered his body; he gasped at first, vomiting blood dramatically.

However, over time, he healed as I touched his chest, head, and shoulders with my Healing Touch Skill.

I made sure to massage and heal his pressure points, where the Meridians was located, and then where his Core was.

Slowly, the Heavenly Demon felt better and better.

It ended up taking me a whole day, and I did nothing but heal him.

He had already fallen asleep while murmuring that he would make up for it later.

Ying Shen stayed with me too, bringing me food or other herbs and elixirs that I used to make into unguents to better heal this old bird.

“Look at him, sleeping like a princess.” I sighed. “I never thought the most terrifying and villainous cultivator in this entire world would be below my mercy in such a way.”

“Y-You’re scaring me when you say it that way, Lady Anna.” Ying Shen was overreacting.

“You’re overreacting; I’m fine.” I giggled. “I am just appreciating the moment more than anything. Ying Shen, you have to simply realize the fragility of life and how precious it is. Even the mightiest of beings dies, and what would happen after that? The world goes on, and even if a world ends, the worlds go on, and if the worlds end, the universe continues. It’s an endless constant.”

“H-Huh?” Ying Shen looked at me with even more confusion on his cute fox face.

“Hahah, forget it.” I smiled. “I think he’ll be fine now; let’s leave him sleeping for the rest of the day. Tomorrow, I’ll give him a sponsorship. Oh, right, how do you feel yourself?”

“I-I’m good. I feel kind of weird though; those powers you helped me awaken are ever-present within me.” He said. “Like, if I think about them, pictures appear inside my head.”

“I see, you probably awakened the ability to see parts of the Integrated System.” I nodded. “It is what everyone has; some could call it just the “quantification of your Soul and Existence”. It is the “System” that everybody has—a universal power ever-present within the laws of creation. My ability simply helped you awaken the powers already within such a Status screen.”

Of course, my System and my brother’s System are unique in the regard that we can level up, learn Skills through Skill Points, distribute Stat Points, and more. I suppose it is the classic “personal all-powerful system” trope against the “everybody has a simple system” trope. Was that what the Author was going for? Well, whatever the case, it worked pretty well, I would say.

“S-So that’s how it is. Some sort of primordial strength everybody possess…” Ying Shen nodded. “I-I think I get it? A bit, but still confusing. Did you learn all these things from the world you came from, Lady Anna?”

“Kind of.” I patted his shoulders. “Now that it’s gotten late, let’s have dinner and go to sleep, alright?”

“Sure… Thank you once more for your consideration in taking care of the Venerable.” He bowed his head. “You are indeed a worthy disciple of him, not only helping him fulfill one of his many wishes but also taking care of your master. I admire your tenacity and your gentle heart.”

“Ahaha, you’re exaggerating again.” I giggled. “Wait, did you say I fulfilled one of his wishes?”

“Ah, yes… One of the wishes the Heavenly Demon always talked about was… to know defeat.” He said. “Even in his battle against the Heavenly Empress, both were equally matched and were unable to kill one another as they would be risking the balance of the world if they further unleashed their powers... It was a silent agreement they made, or so I’ve heard, where both Venerables decided to coexist, learning and understanding that without light, there can’t be darkness, and without darkness, there can’t be light.”

“Huh…” I nodded. “So he wanted to taste defeat... And I gave him that wish. But why?”

“I-I don’t know; he’s just an insane battle junkie, I guess.” Laughed Ying Shen. “Perhaps he got bored of being at the peak.”

“…” I remained silent as I glanced at the Venerable.

I guess I wouldn’t think the same if I were in his shoes; I would probably try to use that power to save my world and maybe other worlds. But at the same time, I guess he just did that when the Apocalypse here began.

I wonder how he felt when he had to employ the powers he had cultivated only for his own selfish desires to save his world, which he didn’t realize he loved so much. It was probably a weird feeling, I suppose.

We moved to have dinner with Ying Shen, where I asked him about a lot of things about this world, the culture, and also his family. He provided as much information as possible and further told me what he had learned about the ancient clash between the heavenly demon and the heavenly empress.

I think that dream I had might not have been just a weird dream; it was as if I watched a part of the past somehow. I don’t know how I did that; I don’t think my dreams have ever been about looking at the past, nor do I possess any skill for that.

The only thing that was there was… The Primordial Beast of Yang, right! Maybe that rascal injected those images into my head to help me better understand the past? But why?

And if that dream was really the truth.

Then, there’s something in history that has never been shared.

That last part of the dream.

"Hey, Ying Shen, do you… Remember if it was ever mentioned if both Venerables…” I muttered.

“What?” He wondered, tilting his head as he twitched his cute, big, fluffy, and pointy fox ears.

“Err, you know…” I said. “Em, they got to it? Like… Love.”

“Huh?!” He muttered. “What? Hahaha! Why would that EVER happen? Both Venerables hate each other to death! Yeah, they might be a man and a woman, but I doubt in the minds of such ancient beings that’s ever a thing to consider. They probably already transcended the need for any of the trivialities that mortals desire.”

“Aha…” I sighed. “So it wasn’t recorded…”

“Lady Anna, why are you asking this?” Ying Shen wondered.

“N-Nah, nothing.” I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it… Anyway, thanks for the meal! Tomorrow, let’s begin training your skills, got it?”

“O-Oh, alright.” He nodded. "Goodnight, Lady Anna!”

“Goodnight!” I waved my hand as I ran back to my room.

So it wasn’t recorded—the little thing they had together? Or maybe it never happened, and my dream was just some weird fanfiction I built in my own consciousness?

Maybe the damn cat had nothing to do with it.

Ah, I’ll have to figure that out once I ask them directly, though I don’t know if I should dare do that right away.

Let’s build more trust between me and the Venerables before doing such a thing, alright?

“Welcome back, Lady Anna.” Fang Shuan greeted me; he was looking through the window when I got inside my room.

“Fang Shuan! So there you were; why weren’t you around?” I asked. “I kind of missed your bickering.”

“Haha, you flatter me.” He laughed. “I’ve been simply trying to cultivate my energies. Coming back to a Murim World has given me the inspiration to cultivate and improve myself… My current situation isn’t bad, and being able to level up is not bad either, but…”

“Hmm, I see what you mean.” I nodded. “Even my other Familiars are cultivating. Violet, Snow, and even Shiro are cultivating their Ki in the ways they’ve invented. The Death Apostles cultivate their own Demonic Energy already and are progressively getting stronger and recovering their former strength too. And Goldie... err, he’s just a cicada that’s been sitting on my head this entire time. Do you even move, little buggy?”

“BZZTT!”

Goldie got annoyed. I touched his little eyes and bit my finger very strongly.

“Ouch! Hey, you’re so mean! Jesus!”

I retrieved my finger, and Goldie simply went back to rest.

Such a short-tempered bugger! My cute Violet is much nicer!

I am beginning to wonder why the Heavenly Golden Dragon even gifted me this cicada; they’re so annoying and aren’t’ cooperating on anything.

Is there something I need to do to gain their respect or something?

“Haha, yeah, everyone is cultivating.” Fang Shuan continued the conversation. “Except me. This body of mine, my own soul... Even though I can feel the souls of my many soldiers within me, we can’t do anything. We possess Ki, yet we can’t refine it. It simply doesn’t work no matter what method we employ.”

“Hmm…” I sighed, feeling a bit bad for them. “Maybe after dying, becoming an Undead, and then becoming my soul-bound Holy Undead, your entire structure changed, Fang Shuan. Perhaps no method you knew from your past life will help you cultivate...

“That’s rather true.” He gasped. “I hadn’t thought about that, but then which method could help me?”

“That’s something we’ll have to find out! We’ve got a lot of days here, so we can search and discover new cultivation methods. The Heavenly Demon’s a genius when it comes to cultivation, so maybe we can ask him.” I said.

“I hate the idea of asking that evil demon anything…” Fang Shuan, who belonged to the orthodox faction, didn’t like that idea.

The “Heavenly Demon” Title is abhorred by the orthodox faction in every Murim World, I see…

“Come on now, let’s do our best!” I tried to cheer him up.

“Hah, if you insist, I shall do.” He nodded. “I’ll keep watch outside your room. Have a good night, young lady.”

“Thank you, Fang Shuan.” He quickly walked outside the room, although he still looked rather sad.

“Come on, you three, cuddle with your mommy.” I called Violet, Snow, and Shiro, as all three of them cuddled with me in bed.

Hmm, they were so warm and fluffy.

Except for Violet, he was very hard and rough.

But he was the most enthusiastic about sleeping in bed, so I can’t really throw him away now.

Ugh…

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