Chapter 296: After the Battle

Xue Wei was slightly stunned as he glanced at Luoluo. She was not human? In fact, this should not come as a shock to him—he himself was not human either, and she had already lived for a very long time while having the body and mind of a child. This was not like humans at all.

But spirits were the rarest amongst all species, so rare that not even every continent had them. “Tell me about spirits,” Xue Wei asked Bai Tianyi. The only thing he knew about spirits were from the sword spirit himself, but just before, he had said that while he was an artificial spirit, Luoluo was the genuine article.

Bai Tianyi nodded his head and gestured for them to leave the room. They would have to talk a lot, and neither of them wanted to interrupt Luoluo’s rest. Although she was a spirit, she had just executed an Earth Saint. It could not have been an easy task, even if she made it seem effortless.

As they left the room, they both slowly went towards the lounge area where they sat down and faced one another. Bai Tianyi did not speak at once, and he hesitated slightly before he sighed and shook his head.

It was obvious that he was also rather affected by the realization that Luoluo was a spirit.

“Spirits are different from other species. Other species came from a union between humans and beasts long ago, which has given them the special traits that they are known for.

“Spirits are not born by other spirits; in fact, they are incapable of reproducing at all. Spirits are created by nature itself.

“They can be anything; they can be people or man-made objects, or even a tree, a mountain, a river or something else.

“It can happen when something has been located in a place where the heaven-and-earth essence or soul power is incredibly dense and stayed that way for a long time.

“When the spirit’s original shape has been shrouded in this energy for so long that the energy has penetrated to the very core of the original shape, it awakens its own consciousness.

“While it does become conscious, it is not capable of moving, but as long as the energy is present in the same location, then it will be able to cultivate. After cultivating to a specific level, it will be able to create a spiritual body like I did, and then leave the original host, and become a being that is formed purely from energy.

“She is one of these spirits that has cultivated to a high rank. She has become a wonderful spirit, however, something clearly has gone wrong in her life.

“Unlike humans, beasts, and all the other races, spirits do not have dantians. Their entire body is the container for their energy, and this is also the reason for her to appear and act like a child.

“She has used too much of her energy; she has been drained so much that not only her body but also her consciousness has been impaired.”

“Is there a way to solve this problem?” Xue Wei cut in, his brows furrowed and his heart clenched at the thought of Luoluo never maturing. Although he would forever be her older brother and look after her, he was worried.

Even more so when he saw that Luoluo had shrunk even further after the fight against the Baili grand elder. In fact, it looked like she had lost almost a whole year of age, both physically and mentally.

“Of course there is a way for her to mature again,” Bai Tianyi consoled him. “It is just that she needs to cultivate again. Although we artificial spirits are different from the genuine ones, both of us have to cultivate.

“There are some differences in being an artificial spirit than a genuine spirit. Genuine spirit’s bodies will grow naturally as they get stronger, or shrink as they get weaker.

“Their mind and body go hand in hand. The smaller they are, the younger their mental state, and the larger their bodies, the older their mental state.

“We artificial spirits are both fortunate and unfortunate to not be the same. Our bodies can not grow on their own. No matter how strong we become, we are stuck with the body we created unless we create another spiritual body and change our host. Our only other way is to temporarily change our body structure with a constant use of Spiritual Energy.

“On the other hand, our mental state will never regress or advance from the time we became a spirit. I will never become like a child.”

Xue Wei pondered on Bai Tianyi’s explanation, and he felt much calmer now than before. Hearing that Luoluo would be fine and mature normally if she just cultivated made him feel much more relaxed.

At the same time, he also swore to himself that he would never let Luoluo use her power unless absolutely necessary. When he fought, he was only emptying his dantian, and he would be capable of restoring it after a short rest.

If Luoluo were to fight, she would end up losing some of her age and mental stability.

Now that he understood what a spirit was, Xue Wei was not too shocked. Instead, he felt it explained a lot of things, and at the same time, he also felt even more sympathetic towards his newfound little sister.

She had no parents or kin close to her; she had never had anyone close to her. From the moment she had gained consciousness, she had been alone, cultivating on her own until she could create her own body to enter the world.

Although Xue Wei did not know what had happened to her when she was wandering the continent, he understood that Luoluo had somehow encountered danger which had caused her to be a young child for many years.

This helped Xue Wei understand Luoluo’s unique situation, but there was still something bothering him, causing him to frown. “You said that she would have healed and matured after cultivating for some time, but looking at Luoluo, it seems more like she just keeps shrinking.”

“This is something I do not understand either,” Bai Tianyi said as he furrowed his brows. “If anything, then I think the forbidden area would have something to do with it. She was locked in the forbidden area for millennia, and even I was incapable of entering when I tried last time. There is likely something hidden there.”

Xue Wei was reminded about how Bai Tianyi had felt weak and was forced to stay outside when they entered the forbidden area the first time and nodded his head. His eyes flared with coldness as he thought about how the Garden of Shadows might have harmed someone he now considered dear to him.

“I will stay and wait for Luoluo to awaken,” he decided after a bit of contemplation. “After having fought such a battle and even shrunken in age and size, I can imagine that she will feel very depressed and maybe perhaps even scared if she wakes up all alone.”

Bai Tainyi looked at Xue Wei with a bit of an impatient expression on his face. Although Luoluo was a young child, she was not unreasonable. If just anyone stayed back, then that would be fine. There was no reason for Xue Wei to stay back, but considering that the Sovereign Beast had become a mother hen, Bai Tainyi said nothing and just snorted in reply.

Like this, the days went by. Xue Wei was worried as Luoluo did not show any signs of awakening at all. He stayed holed up in the pill room concocting pills, or the bedroom cultivating, but Luoluo showed no signs of awakening.

The King had tried to visit them a few times, but Xue Wei was never in the mood to entertain, so she left rather quickly.

The rest of Yan Dalu should have been in chaos after the death of the Baili family, but because Gu Bing’er had released information which shed light on their misdeeds, everyone was happy to see them extinguished.

As the ruckus died down, the smarter people started looking towards the Yuan and the Gu families. Although they had worked together to eradicate the Baili family, now they were against one another to take the open position as the most influential family on the continent.

Everyone with a bit of brain expected that another battle would break out, but contrary to everyone’s expectations, this did not happen. Instead, news about an engagement that would unite the families started circulating in the capital.

The Gu and Yuan families were about to become in-laws. One of the candidates to become the new heir to the Yuan family, Yuan Bailong, was getting engaged to Gu Bing’er, a direct descendant of the Gu family.

This showed that the two families had no intention of fighting one another, that they would stay on friendly terms, and that they were willing to support one another so that they would remain standing side by side as equals instead of rivals.

Another thing that they started speculating about was how long it would take for Yuan Bailong to be named as the new heir to the Yuan family.

Although he had never had much of a chance before, he was now the link that united the Yuan and Gu families together. Soon, the news about their link to Xue Wei was also sneakily announced, making it common knowledge that it was Yuan Bailong who was responsible for the Yuan family’s newfound rise to their current strength and status.

It was naturally Gu Bing’er who wisely shared the information to further solidify their position. She was a great schemer who could use the public’s opinion in her favor, and while it was a help to the couple, the rest of the Yuan family’s heirs were all pulling out their hair in despair.

They had still thought they had a chance even though Yuan Bailong had been the one to establish the connection between the Yuan family and Xue Wei, but now they felt completely helpless due to Gu Bing’er’s engagement and her clever scheming to put him ahead.

The engagement news soon cooled down after the date of the engagement party was set, and although everyone started looking forward to it, the main subject on everyone’s lips had suddenly changed.

The Gu and Yuan families had begun acting charitable and started donating specific Qi cultivation scriptures to the royal treasury. From their deals with Xue Wei, they also donated some of the weaker martial art techniques, and formulas for some Qi increasing pills.

Once more, this brought out a massive stir in the continent. The King was similarly rather magnanimous about it, but for different reasons—and made the officials make all methods and formulas public so that everyone would be able to cultivate.

The King was aware that things had changed. Although the Baili family was gone, this was actually no benefit for the royal family and the court of officials.

Now that the Yuan and Gu families held onto the best resources for Qi cultivators, anyone who was incapable of cultivating their spiritual energy, or simply preferred to cultivate Qi now that it was a comparable option would flock to these families to pledge their allegiance in return for better resources.

The Gu and Yuan families would become the true rulers of the continent, and they would be impossible to overthrow as Xue Wei had given them all the best he had.

While this was a big issue for the court—who had been eagerly discussing it day in and day out, the King often sat casually on the throne, leaning slightly to one side with a bored expression on her face as she observed her pale and frightened officials.

It was truly an example of ‘the emperor is not worried, but his eunuchs are worried to death.’ They did not know what they should do, but the King remained calm and unphased by the issue.

Finally, after three weeks of waiting, Luoluo awoke from her slumber. Her clear eyes were slightly dazed as she looked at the ceiling above her, her mind was slightly fuzzy, and she felt a splitting headache.

Tears welled up in her eyes, as she heard a gentle and magnetic voice sounding right by her side with a hint of urgency, “Luoluo, you’re awake!”