Chapter 108: Sharing Stories
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"!!!"
Immediately escaping his arms and backing away with the vase held close to her chest, a crimson color crept up her face. Then, with a soft and meek voice, she mumbled, "...Thank you…".
"Hmm? Ahh, yeah, don't worry about it. After taking a moment to analyze the formation, I realized that you likely did it to hide someone's presence. And seeing as you didn't previously have it activated, you probs did it for us, right?"
Embarrassed that she was found out so easily, Xue Lan's blush became even more defined. Backing a few feet further from the human man, she lightly bobbed her head and kept silent.
Not finding her behavior all that unusual, Lucifer walked back toward the couch and reclined into his spot. After which, he looked toward the nervous spirit and said, "If you don't mind, could we keep things quiet…?" Sticking his long index finger to his soft lips, Xue Lan couldn't help but get lost in the sight for a moment.
However, upon realizing that he was expecting an answer, she turned her pretty face off to the side and murmured, "Mhmm… I don't speak loudly…".
Secretly pleased with this response, Lucifer flashed an almost imperceptible smile and patted the spot right beside him.
"???" Confused on what he wanted, Xue Lan tilted her head in a confused manner.
"Ai… You don't have to overthink absolutely everything. Why don't you just come and sit down? I feel like we should have a good talk about something, no?" A little bit amused over her cute, flustered reactions, Lucifer decided to tease her a bit.
And without even needing to overwork his extreme level of charm, Xue Lan looked at the ground and scuttled her way to the couch before sitting down on the opposite side of Lucifer.
Clearly even more amused over this action of hers, Lucifer was about to mess with her a little more. But that was when he saw the vase still tucked in her slender, almost illusory arms. "That some sort of keepsake?" He asked.
Following his eyes, Xue Lan knew what he was asking about; thus, she said, "...It's the ashes of my only family member…"
"Spirits can have family…?"
"...No… By family, I meant..-"
"I know what you meant."
Keeping the silence between them extra awkward, Lucifer broke the air by saying, "Well, thanks for the help with that formation, and err… sorry about your loss…"
He wasn't one to exhibit many friendly emotions, but he at least knew when to be grateful. Being a side effect of having a similar mind to his main body, there was not much he could do to change that part of himself.
But regardless of that information, he turned to look at the anxious Spirit woman. "What sort of family member was it?"
"...A pet… a white northern fox from the Glacier Rings…"
"Died by…?"
"An evil apparition in the Void Refining Realm caught her while she was traveling in the outer layers of the swamp… She didn't come home for days, but I just a-assu-mmedd th-that she…" Becoming cracked toward the end of her answer, her voice ultimately stopped functioning altogether.
Sigh…
"Come here." Beckoning her with his hands, Lucifer patted his left thigh. "You can lie down and tell me whatever you've been keeping to yourself, or you can stay silent. Either way, we have a long night ahead of us, and I don't really like sleeping these days."
Listening to the terrifying howls originating from all directions, Xue Lan realized that his words were correct. The powerful Evil Apparitions would be searching around for a while, and there was no way to slip past them. Therefore, it was with great hesitation that she schooched over to the human without ever looking him in the eyes.
Then, with extreme shame and a rosy complexion, she laid her head down on his thigh, letting her long black hair spread out on his lap.
"So, silence for now?" Lucifer asked.
"Mhmm…"
"Very well."
Letting his benefactor do whatever she wanted, Lucifer focused on improving his various cultivation bases.
Even though his Body Cultivation was capped, and it would still be another few hours before he could attempt a breakthrough into the Golden Core Formation Realm, his Mind Cultivation still had some room for improvement. Thus, with an industrious mindset, he circulated |Mind Fuck| and further refined his mind energy.
…
After a few minutes of advancing his Mind Cultivation into the Late Gold Rank, Lucifer suddenly felt some rustling from Xue Lan's position. Realizing that she wanted to talk now, he said, "First, let's start off with your name."
A little bit spooked by the out-of-the-blue raspy voice, Xue Lan jumped out of her skin. With flickering pupils and a nervous expression, she looked away from the face that she had been staring at for a while now. Then, with a low voice, she said, "My name is Xue Lan…"
Pat, Pat, Pat.
Patting her head like a puppy dog, an inexplicable gleam passed through Lucifer's gaze. "That is a rather fitting name for a Spirit," he mused.
"Mhmm…" Biting her red lips a little in embarrassment, Xue Lan wouldn't lie and say that she wasn't a fan of the soft head pats…
Although a foreign sensation to her, who had been alone since waking up in this world with her mind as a blank slate, she quite liked whatever it was that she was feeling…
"So, what is it that you want to talk about?"
Being put on the spot, Xue Lan snuggled her face even deeper into his thigh, then she softly murmured, "Actually… I wanted to ask about your story… M-My life, it wasn't all that exciting… Spirits start out with no recollection of their past lives, and I am no exception… The only other living being I've ever known was Little White, a-and now she…-"
"Ahh, so you wish to know of the great retelling of my mighty upbringing? Are you sure you are ready for that!?"
Although spooked a little by his outgoing outlook on the subject, the saddened expression on Xue Lan's face was replaced with a look of anticipation. She really wanted to know someone else's story.
Lucifer wasn't shy,, so without further ado, he got right down to the grand retelling of his story of ultimate proportions!
From the very first moment he was cloned all the way to the day that he ultimately escaped his main body. Even going so far as to tell her what happened thereafter—he left virtually nothing out. He figured there was no harm in telling a harmless ghost girl of an unbelievably awesome backstory.
Xue Lan's response to everything he said was, "I like it…"
"You like what?" Lucifer asked.
"The story… I like it a lot."
With her eyes practically shining in happiness, Xue Lan beamed from her expression. She didn't know why she liked his story so much, but she felt a lot closer to him after hearing all that mumbo jumbo.
As for why she wanted to be closer to him…? Well, she didn't even know that herself…
Lucifer noticed the weird behavior of Xue Lan as well, and he may or may not have gotten ahead of himself inside his mind.
Well, knowing my impeccable, stupid OP charm, this chick has likely fallen head over heels in love after hearing of all the superb deeds I committed before arriving in this swamp. Hoho! I'm simply too goated!
Even though Lucifer thought this in jest, he might actually have been onto something…
But regardless of his narcissism and the flustered demeanor of Xue Lan, he suddenly got serious. His expression became as blank as an empty piece of paper. "Why do you like it?" He asked in a neutral tone.
"...W-Why do I like it…?" Becoming even more nervous after hearing this question, Xue Lan squirmed around on his lap. Then, out of nowhere, she slowly turned her reddened face up toward Lucifer's overly handsome face and said, "I-I just like it because I like it… okay…" After which, she dug her face back into his robes and pretended to go to sleep.
'Hmm… this ghost chick is definitely an odd one…'
Treating her like a golden retriever, Lucifer continued to lay down pat after pat, and they didn't stop coming for the rest of the night.
For the Nightmare Realm, a night lasted roughly 36 hours, and then there was a period of 12 hours where it could be considered 'day'. Though, in reality, this 'day' was just nighttime but less dark. Instead of pure darkness, the atmosphere was more along the lines of dawn. The semi-intelligent beings of this world also just so happened to call these 12 hours 'The Dawn'.
For most, the Dawn was the time frame they had to make use of if they wanted to do stuff without the ever-looming presence of terrifying Nightmare Monsters.
Although most of the intelligent organisms in this world could easily take on low-level and mid-level Nightmare Monsters, they weren't the most powerful things lurking in the forests…
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