Chapter 135: Parting the Mists of Divinity, the Recipients' Godfather, and Xue Wan's Disquiet (4K)

Chapter 135: Parting the Mists of Divinity, the Recipients' Godfather, and Xue Wan's Disquiet (4K)



"Something's not right..."

As Ah Qin spoke, she suddenly realized something was amiss.

"Huh, I think my mutation rate has... decreased." She said, sounding uncertain.

Xue Jing untied the steel cable jump rope from around her as he nonchalantly replied, "Oh? Is that so?"

A hint of pleasure appeared on Ah Qin's beautiful, mature face as she said, "Although I didn't specifically check, this clear-minded feeling is unmistakable... Is it because, by breaking free from your control and regaining my Stigmata, I'm now more relaxed?"

"Probably..." Xue Jing casually replied, "So, where's the stuff you promised me?"

Ah Qin smiled mischievously, intending to tease the handsome young man, but he spoke in a detached tone, "I advise you not to have any unnecessary thoughts. The distance between us is less than a step... You, a martial artist, should understand what that means."

Ah Qin stiffened, embarrassed, and said, "You're no fun..."

As she spoke, she shook her head, and her right hand rose.

The floor of the room split open, and a vine as thick as an arm wriggled out of the crack, twisting and turning until it reached Ah Qin's side.

At the tip of the vine was a budding flower. As Ah Qin turned her wrist, the flower bloomed, revealing a walnut-sized, dark red seed at its center.

She picked up the seed and handed it to Xue Jing, saying, "This is the 'Nagosum Charatoth' seed you wanted... Although I don't know what you plan to do with it, I must warn you.

"This is a plant from another world, and the nurturing environment it requires is completely different from what we have here. It won't survive in this world. I can control its growth because of the Mother of a Thousand Reds' power..."

Xue Jing took the seed, his fingers brushing over its rough, uneven surface.

He glanced at the floor, split open by the vine's emergence.

"You're paying for the floor repairs."

Ah Qin's eyes widened slightly. "I had to do this to get you the seed!"

Xue Jing frowned. "You could've just told me it would damage the floor, and I would've gone with you to get it. And do you always have to summon it from underground?"

Ah Qin moved her mouth. "Yes, from underground... The Lord of a Thousand Reds and Myriad Colors is the source of all flora. Her birth stems from the fusion of 'earth' and 'water' among the four elements that make up the world... That's why all flora in this world grows either in the earth or in water."

"As a symbol of her birth, we Recipients have restrictions when using her power. We can only summon flora from underground or water; we can't manifest it out of thin air."

Xue Jing stroked his chin. "This is good intelligence. Because of this information, I'll forget about the floor repairs. Now, you can leave."

With that, the hostility between the two dissipated, and Ah Qin heaved a sigh of relief.

As she relaxed, her thoughts became more active.

Looking at Xue Jing's flawless handsome face, she couldn't help but speak, "Xue Jing, are you really not considering joining the faith at all?"

"I think if it were you, the Mother of a Thousand Reds would favor you even more than your sister..."

Xue Jing glanced at her and walked over to the sofa, sitting down with the dark red seed in his hand. "You're really persistent."

Ah Qin shook her head. "I value talent... For you to possess such formidable strength at such a young age, you must be ambitious and unwilling to settle for mediocrity."

"It's a waste to practice martial arts..."

Xue Jing shook his head. "That again? I'm tired of hearing it."

"I know better than anyone if the path of martial arts is feasible or not. On the contrary, all of you, whether you're cyborgs implanted with exotic plants, users of banned drugs from the New Martial School, or Recipients who believe you're favored by a deity..."

Xue Jing paused here. "Never mind, I really want to refute you, but I'm probably the least suitable person in the world to say these things to you."

He waved his hand. "You should leave now."

Ah Qin tilted her head, puzzled.

She had expected Xue Jing to spout cliches like 'the power you use isn't truly your own,' 'unnatural power comes at a cost,' or 'martial arts is the only path that truly belongs to humans.'

She was prepared for a debate, but Xue Jing simply brushed it aside.

Ah Qin nodded. Seeing that Xue Jing didn't intend to continue the conversation, she said, "Alright, if you change your mind, you can contact us anytime through your sister.

"After she left, Xue Jing lay on the sofa, twirling the dark red seed in his hand.

He shook his head and muttered to himself, "Old martial arts are truly despised by all..."

The fact that he liked old martial arts that much couldn't be said for sure.

He had always been aware that old martial arts were merely a means for him to develop his skill panel, and his true strength had never lain in martial arts but in the panel.

The reason he felt annoyed when others looked down on it wasn't because he had any sense of identification with old martial arts.

It was more like when you choose a major you quite like in university, and then everyone you meet shakes their heads and sighs, telling you that your major is no good...

Xue Jing did have some feelings about this, but he couldn't deny their words.

Even a simple retort like 'I like it, so what?' was something he couldn't say with conviction.

Because he possessed something others didn't, he could, of course, walk the path of old martial arts without hesitation or worry, and he was well aware that he was different from others.

If he didn't have the skill panel, could he still refuse exotic implants, banned drugs, and divine blessings and insist on the path of old martial arts? He couldn't be sure.

And as long as he couldn't be sure, he couldn't refute others convincingly.

Shaking his head, Xue Jing stopped thinking about these irrelevant things and thought,

"From what that woman said just now, the mutation rate of the Stigmata has indeed decreased after I extracted its divinity."

The reason he returned Ah Qin's eyeball so easily was to confirm this point.

Ever since he found out that his sister, Xue Wan, had become a Recipient and was at risk of contamination and mutation, he had been thinking about this.

"Now it seems that the so-called 'divinity' has lifted a layer of mist."

Xue Jing's eyes sparkled.

Ever since he obtained the [Cat Tail Ring] and came into contact with divinity, none of the objects or people from whom he had absorbed divinity had their powers affected in any way.

The god-relics still functioned, Cat still possessed her divine abilities after merging with Bastet, and the Flower Goddess, Ah Qin, could still control plants after he sucked out her Stigmata's divinity. There were no hindrances at all.

And now, he had finally discovered an anomaly in the divinity he had absorbed.

Mutation rate...

The power of the gods permeated and polluted the spiritual consciousness, causing mutation, but extracting the divinity reduced the mutation rate without affecting the abilities it brought.

In other words, the so-called 'divinity' was not the power of the gods themselves but something attached to that power.

"I can't be 100% sure yet, but I'll confirm it with my sister later. She's a Recipient too, and she has Stigmata. I'll suck some divinity from her and see if her mutation rate decreases."

"If that's really the case, then I don't have to worry too much about her mutation."

"Also..." Xue Jing stroked his chin.

If absorbing divinity really worked like this, reducing the mutation rate without affecting anything else, then wouldn't he be the... father figure to all Recipients? If this were made public, he'd probably be chased by a bunch of people calling him their godfather.

With divinity so readily available, his mouth was practically watering at the thought of the harvest.

However, his rationality slapped away the surging desire, telling him that he must not do this.

"There will definitely be many people calling me godfather, but among them will surely be some Lu Bus..."

Although he didn't know how many Recipients there were in the world, he was sure there were plenty.

The world was deep and murky, and among the Recipients, there were bound to be some terrifying monsters that he couldn't even imagine.

If it were revealed that he could reduce the mutation rate without any side effects... What huge interests would that stir? The consequences would be completely uncontrollable.

Perhaps he could benefit from it, but he didn't want such uncontrollable situations.

With the skill panel, he would eventually become a true god among men; there was no rush.

Suppressing the greed in his heart, Xue Jing opened the panel and took a look.

"Hmm? Why isn't it showing any signs of recovery?"

He looked at the [Plant Pact] in the divinity skill column, puzzled.

Ever since he made a contract with that pot of golden devil's ivy, the name of the [Plant Pact] had been rather dim.

The color was blue, and dim meant light blue, but Twin Stars and Shadowflame would gradually brighten back to a pale golden color after use as time passed.

However, there was no sign of the [Plant Pact] recovering at all, even though nearly an hour had passed.

"Impossible..."

Xue Jing took out the seed that had transformed from the trailing plant from his pocket.

With a thought, the contract seal engraved on the trailing plant seed instantly disappeared.

At that moment, the [Plant Pact] on the panel lit up, turning a pale golden color.

"So it was as I thought..."

Understanding dawned on Xue Jing's face.

"The limitation lies in the number of contracts... I guess I can't play around with an infinite plant army after all." He sighed.

"Lv1, I can only contract with one plant?"

Xue Jing placed the trailing plant seed on the table and picked up the dark red 'Oxygen-Absorbing Tree' seed.

With a thought, a circular contract seal appeared on the dark red seed.

When he checked the panel again, the color of the [Plant Pact] had dimmed, and it was even dimmer than when he had contracted the trailing plant, almost completely black.

"The more powerful the plant, the more energy it consumes?"

"So it seems that it's not a limitation on the number of contracts but an issue with the consumption of contract energy. The total is 100, contracting the trailing plant consumed 30, and contracting the 'Oxygen-Absorbing Tree' consumed 99... It's probably something like that."

Xue Jing tossed the contracted dark red seed onto the ground.

The sound of clicking and wriggling echoed as several dozen green stems as thick as arms grew from the seed, becoming longer and thicker by the second, filling half the hotel room with their constant writhing.

At the same time, Xue Jing felt the stems breathing, absorbing oxygen from the surrounding air at a frenzied pace.

The air thinned, and Xue Jing began to feel short of breath.

With another thought, all the stems' breathing halted abruptly, forcibly stopped by him.

Outside air rushed in through the windows, and the oxygen density quickly recovered.

"Not bad." Xue Jing nodded, quite satisfied.

This 'Nagosum Charatoth' plant still had a lot of room to grow, far superior to the trailing plant. It was just that the hotel room couldn't contain it anymore.

"I'll try it out again some other time."

He controlled all the stems to shrink and reverse their growth, and the dozen or so thick stems soon retracted, turning back into a dark red seed.

Xue Jing put the seed in his pocket, took out his phone, opened the dial pad, entered his sister's number, and made the call.

...

At the entrance of Fengcheng University, Xue Wan hugged Cat as she looked at the mess in front of her, the beautiful cracks in the ground. Her usually gentle and calm expression was now blank, almost cold.

The wailing of fire engines and police cars filled the air, and the surrounding area was packed with onlookers curious about what had happened, wondering if there had just been an earthquake.

Several of Xue Wan's classmates who were familiar with her wanted to greet her, but when they saw her expressionless face, the words stuck in their throats.

"What's wrong with Wanwan... She looks so scary."

"She was just called away by Professor Lu, wasn't she? Maybe she got scolded by the professor..."

"She looks like she's in a bad mood. Let's not disturb her for now..."

Cat stayed in Xue Wan's arms, its face wearing a very human-like thoughtful expression.

It had just gone with Xue Wan to meet that Professor Lu and had learned a secret.

Just as it was considering whether to immediately report this to Xue Jing...

At that moment, Xue Wan's phone rang in her pocket.

She answered the call with a blank expression, seeing the 'My Silly Bean' remark on the screen, and her icy demeanor melted, relaxing a little.

"Brother."

Xue Jing's voice came from the receiver.

Xue Wan took a deep breath, calming her originally anxious and unsettled heart, and said as calmly as she could:

"Ah Jing... Where are you now?"

"I'm at a hotel... Don't worry, I'm fine." Sensing that something was amiss with Xue Wan, Xue Jing reassured her.

"Give me the hotel address and room number... I'll come to you."

Xue Wan couldn't rest easy until she saw her brother in person.

"Also... There's something I want to tell you."

On the other end of the line, Xue Jing smiled and gave her the hotel address and room number before continuing, "Come over. I also have something to tell you."

Xue Wan hung up, placed her phone on her ample chest, and relaxed a little.

She turned to look at the direction of the Fengda Garden Institute, then turned and left.

...

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end