At the moment that the demonic fox dies — a mere few seconds after its head separates from its body — its body turns into a black mist and rushes towards my vessel.
My
aperture
opens to such a catastrophic degree that not only do I devour the black mist, but the ground beneath the fox, the branches and leaves severed by Lan Xiaohui’s mystical sword, and even the fundamental principles of her
Sword Domain
, all rush into my inner sphere.
[
World Eater
: 8,954
BP
; 4,614
SP
]
The
Devoured Worlds Sphere
within my internal vessel pulses and I feel my consciousness expand but in a manner that I cannot quite comprehend. It is not that my
sea of consciousness
is deeper or vaster, but a transformation certainly took place.
Something changed and I am not sure
what
.
Even if I had the opportunity to record such a change, I am immediately distracted by the fact that this devoured vitality has the effect of repairing my internal systems to a degree that my life is no longer in danger.
Furthermore, the tiny cracks in my vessel heal themselves, metal fusing together, and the slightly duller regions of my blade repair themselves and become sharp once more.
This does not happen instantly and at first Lan Xiaohui watches me devour the corpse and the environment with a mix of both fascination and horror. She even helpfully holds me up in the air, as the surroundings slowly decompose and flow into my center — even though this gesture is completely unnecessary and irrelevant.
She even holds a satisfied, but apologetic, smile on her lips.
“I didn’t realize until just now: You must’ve been starving,” she says with a strangely affectionate tone which raises some questions in my sentient core.
She does understand that I am a demonic sword that consumes the life of living things, yes?
“For months you watched over me and even helped me recover from my injuries, putting me before yourself,” she says, though I disagree with her sentiment that I put her before myself. It was a calculated risk. “From now on, I will feed you lots and lots. I promise.”
The affection in her tone is overwhelming; I’ve never heard her speak like this but I attribute it to the post-battle excitement of defeating a powerful foe.
“What do you want to eat next?” she asks with that same kind of happy hum in her voice.
I did not expect to have this conversation with a
demonic
cultivator that follows a path of
righteousness
. Though, a distinction should be made between
righteous
cultivators and those that possess
righteousness
due to following the path of the sword. I just don’t know what that distinction yet is.
“Cultivators,” I tell her.
She purses her lips at my reply and nods. “Okay.”
Okay?
That’s it?
I expected some kind of resistance or conditions. I was ready to make all kinds of concessions in order to encourage her to kill more of her own kind — of course, if it turns out that she had reservations about this kind of killing — but perhaps I should’ve known better.
Other than Zhao Wei whom she spared — apparently because he fixed her dress and gave her wine — she has so far displayed no reluctance towards slaying her own kind.
I did not expect there would be
much
resistance to the idea, but I did not expect
no
resistance.
When my
aperture
finally closes and the devouring is complete, she looks upon me with a faint smile. I can tell that she is admiring me and her gaze goes over every minute change that this feeding has produced in me, including the slightly deeper sheen of red in my black jade.
“Will you promise me one thing?” she asks.
Ah, so it was just a delayed resistance.
“What is it?”
“Do not consume Yu Shun,” she says.
“As you wish,” I tell her. I do not want Yu Shun’s replica wandering around my Inner World, causing continuous damage to my owner’s psyche.
Lan Xiaohui nods. “All right,” she says. “I’ve made up my mind.”
Even though she says these words, I do not feel any change in her Dao Heart.
“About what?” I ask her.
She shrugs. “I don’t know yet. I just have a feeling.”
She lets go of my hilt, allowing me to float in the air next to her.
“Embracing the devil in my heart — kind of like that,” she says.
“Explain,” I encourage her, as I bring up the
Point Exchange
and immediately obtain the [
Flight
] talent.
Immediately, I feel a change occurring within my external and internal body as a new array begins to take shape. I pay close attention to this change and record the new array. It has several inputs for Qi, sword energy, and even consciousness. I also detect that it outputs this energy but my Dao is not yet sufficient to comprehend how it is able to overcome gravity or accelerate to hypersonic speeds.
“I am not sure how to explain,” she says, unaware of my internal changes or at the very least not interested in them. “You are an evil, demonic sword.”
I am not sure if that is a question or a statement, considering her tone. “I am,” I tell her, to stay on the safe side.
She hesitates here, her finger dipping into her hair to twist a lock of hair around her digit. “I want to go with you,” she says. “If that turns out to make me evil, then I am glad I am evil too.”
Her choice of words fails to make coherent sense to me, but my sentient core reacts to it with warm feelings of approval and affection which is a complete shock to me.
One day if I find a way to delete my sentient core — perhaps through the
Emptiness Prana
that empties the heart and mind — I may consider the advantages to outweigh the disadvantages.
I consider explaining to Lan Xiaohui that changing her outlook and morality in a single day — or even a single year — is far more complicated than making up her mind to overlook my
evil
ways. To begin with, I do not even consider my ways to be good or evil.
I am a sword. My function is to devour life. I am no more evil than breathing air makes Lan Xiaohui evil. It is the nature of our existence.
Ultimately, I do not understand what Lan Xiaohui wants to convey in the way of information other than she will overlook the fact that I am a demonic sword. That is already more than good enough for me. A working relationship requires trust and compromise.
I decide to say nothing, and after a few minutes, Lan Xiaohui realizes that the conversation is over and, accompanied by a happy hum, continues deeper into the forest.