Chapter 243: Not Yet Over
In a chaotic realm of consciousness.
Luxianbei gazed at the flickering flame for a long time with a heavy heart, sighed silently, and stepped forward.
Although the people of Z Country have always liked this, often avoiding troubles in minor details, there are always those who step forward when it is necessary, which is an admirable tradition of Z Country.
If I must obtain this power to prevent some terrible calamities, perhaps I too can only self-sacrifice like Celestial Maiden Ya? Luxianbei thought.
As she contemplated, she reached out her hand toward the flame that seemed to hold endless power.
As her fingertips approached the flame, feeling the Spirit Energy Fluctuation and incredible high temperature imbued with Celestial Maiden Ya’s powers, Luxianbei recalled the image of Celestial Maiden Ya descending from the heavens, repelling the Wind Master, Rain Master, and the Urban Legends hiding in the floods.
Though it was just a fleeting glimpse, the immense phantom that appeared behind Celestial Maiden Ya at that moment, freely wielding spirit energy as if to smelt everything with the world as its furnace, left a very strong impression on her.
What kind of impression was that?
An extraordinary size and terrifying spirit energy removed it from the realm of ordinary beauty and ugliness. Beautiful, hideous, eerie… any adjective lost its meaning when applied to that phantom, leaving only a soul-shaking impact and unbeatable divinity.
Recalling such a scene felt like a hallucination. Luxianbei could sense an unusual and weak spirit energy within her body, like a very faint electric current stimulating her nerves.
That feeling was somewhat familiar…,
Wait! It seems like I don’t necessarily have to advance into Calamity like this?
Luxianbei thought, pulling her hand back just before touching the flame.
She felt that perhaps she had found a way to acquire Celestial Maiden Ya’s power without having to transform it into her own…
Proxy Player Sister, watching through the projection above the sky, tightened her pink fist nervously when she saw Luxianbei arrive in front of the flame that contained nearly all of Celestial Maiden Ya’s powers.
Her nerves were taut; she was more anxious and tormented inside than a husband waiting outside the delivery room for his wife to give birth.
And when Luxianbei suddenly withdrew her hand and returned to a hesitant state, Proxy Player Sister felt her bl**d pressure rise instantly, and her fists clenched.
It had been a long time since she experienced such a strong emotional fluctuation.
After an unknown amount of time waiting, the knuckles of her clenched pink fists began to ache, yet she still saw no expected images.
In her line of sight, Luxianbei lingered around the flame, sometimes observing intently, sometimes sighing, and at times bringing her hands near the flame, feeling the spirit energy and temperature radiating from it…
“Just take it if you’re going to take it, and leave if you’re going to leave. What are you hesitating for?” Proxy Player Sister gritted her teeth, like a father who was disappointed in his child.
Since Luxianbei appeared in front of that brilliant flame, she had thought several times that Luxianbei had made up her mind, but every move that tugged at her heartstrings turned out to be just a feint, quickly returning to a position not far from the flame.
If it weren’t for her certainty, Luxianbei wouldn’t have sensed her spying. She even began to suspect that Luxianbei was intentionally messing with her mind.
So annoying! It was like a long-awaited movie suddenly got postponed without telling the audience why.
To unknowingly put others through tremendous torture while advancing towards Calamity, it was hard to find a second person besides Luxianbei.
“d*mn it! Just go with whatever you want, I don’t care anymore!”
As long as she had not embraced that will, there was still a chance…
Finally, Proxy Player Sister couldn’t stand the endless torment anymore, stood up angrily, leaped off the crumbling rooftop, and left.
Although Luxianbei’s every move was of utmost concern to her, that didn’t mean she had nothing else to do.
The environmental transformation experiments led by Pure Water King and Light Leader, along with the creation of new “unique little things”, were all very important matters for Proxy Player Sister.
After leaving the rooftop, Proxy Player Sister first went to observe the situation of Pure Water King purifying sewage, which had been set up in a dark swamp dozens of kilometers away.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Pure Water King, the toxicity of that swamp had decreased by 9.2%. Once it declines by another 20-30%, they could attempt to introduce some microorganisms that have strong resistance to toxins and vitality.
Although… she hadn’t figured out where to find microorganisms in such a world where life was almost completely extinguished.
After observing Pure Water King, Proxy Player Sister returned to the rooftop, stayed briefly, and then left again.
Luxianbei was still lingering in front of that flame, seemingly without any change.
After leaving the rooftop for the second time, Proxy Player Sister went to an underground mine also located dozens of kilometers away, where she had placed Light Leader to conduct ongoing lighting experiments.
The results of the experiment were very optimistic; the light produced by Light Leader was extremely stable, and during the three-day uninterrupted lighting, it had not emitted much abnormal spirit energy that could cause decay and degeneration of life.
As long as they made a few more modifications to stabilize Light Leader’s abilities completely, it could temporarily replace the sun before the endless clouds in the sky dispersed.
When Proxy Player Sister returned to the rooftop for the second time, the projection of Luxianbei above finally showed a change.
She no longer wandered around that flame.
In her hand was a small dog with pure white fur, summoned by the spirit imprint created using the powers of the White Wolf God and the Hundred-Armed Giant.
Luxianbei had her back turned to the flame, cradling the small dog, playing with it as if she were checking its body.
“Stay still, let me take a look!”
“Hey! Don’t lick me, it’s all slobbery!”
“Holy cr*p! What is this organ? Is this something a dog should have?”
“…”
Proxy Player Sister, “…” Oh, come on! At a time like this, you’re still in the mood to play with a dog?
For a moment, she even thought about forcibly seizing control of Luxianbei’s consciousness and body to grab that flame.
With Luxianbei’s personality, sometimes, unless pushed, she would never extract her full potential!
However, just as that thought gradually twisted in her mind, she suddenly heard Luxianbei talking to herself.
“So that’s how it is? I think I understand…”
“Thank you for displaying all your past before my eyes, Celestial Maiden Ya.”
As her voice fell, Luxianbei returned to that flame, sat down, and fixed her gaze upon it, fully concentrated.
That splendid flame, ignited in a distant era and still burning bright as if it would never extinguish, reflected in her golden eyes, as if leaving a mark, flickering deep within her pupils.
Seeing this, Proxy Player Sister briefly showed a look of confusion, but quickly regained her composure and lightly exclaimed, “Wait! Is she…”
“When did she think of this method?”
“Haha! No wonder it’s you, Luxianbei, always doing some audacious things in unexpected places.”
She finally understood what Luxianbei had been doing, lingering by the flame, even taking the time to play with a dog.
Luxianbei was visualizing…
She was visualizing Celestial Maiden Ya, much like visualizing “The Dog-tribe Hunting Scroll”.
She caught a remarkably complete glimpse of Celestial Maiden Ya’s experiences, and with a memory surpassing the average person, her mind held enough images to serve as visualization objects, aided by the flame radiating Celestial Maiden Ya’s spirit energy, theoretically, she could successfully condense a spirit imprint.
Although doing so would almost certainly not yield the complete powers, it would minimize the negative effects associated with Celestial Maiden Ya’s powers.
Spirit imprints differ from the core of Urban Legends and the spirit patterns that blend directly with the owner; from a certain perspective, they resemble the implanted cybernetic bodies often found in cyberpunk works. As long as they aren’t used, they won’t have a significant impact on the user.
Just as Luxianbei wouldn’t be affected by the powers of the White Wolf God when summoning the small dog.
In simple terms, the former was like walking into a specialty store, paying money, and taking away the corresponding items, whereas the latter was like crafting high-quality replicas by hand or stealthily pocketing things when the store owner isn’t watching…
The only flaw was the risk of having incomplete functionality and being caught on the spot, but… as long as it works, isn’t that enough? After all, it doesn’t cost anything!
“But…” As if recalling something suddenly, a frown appeared on Proxy Player Sister’s originally delighted face, “Doesn’t she have any self-awareness of her artistic skills?”
It is well known that condensing a spirit imprint requires supporting visualization images.
Although the requirements for drawing visualization images aren’t particularly high, a mature visualization image usually takes countless people’s insights and prolonged revisions to complete.
This is one of the reasons why spirit imprints gradually fell out of favor, eventually being almost entirely replaced by spirit patterns.
And Luxianbei faced not only the completely counterproductive drawing skills necessary for condensing spirit imprints but also the progressively corrupted and distorted image of Celestial Maiden Ya due to the transmission of related legends, as well as the unforeseen events that may have occurred to her body during the lengthy process of condensing spirit imprints…
Given all these unfavorable factors, failing to condense the spirit imprint would be a minor issue, Proxy Player Sister was more worried about what bizarre thing Luxianbei might accidentally create.
When she reconstructed her body using the flesh and bl**d of the Inheritance Beast in Dream City, the ancient god body she crafted was a stark lesson; had it not been for the photo left by Mrs. Wang Meili, she would have long been doomed!
After gazing at Luxianbei for a moment, Proxy Player Sister sighed silently, “Why not choose the easier open-book exam online instead of the hellishly difficult closed-book solo exam?”
She suddenly realized that the torment of Luxianbei’s mentality towards her was not yet over; at least, it wouldn’t end until Luxianbei successfully condenses a decent spirit imprint…
