Chapter 12: Discovering Advantages
The day after the star disaster.
In the rest area of the Red Hare Guild, Gu Yinyue and his two weapons immediately saw Beichen lying in a pile of mud in the corner. Longyun laughed loudly and dragged Naraka over to him.
“Yo!”
Longyun's slender fingers playfully poked Beichen's cheek as he lay on the table, but Beichen didn't react at all.
"Master, it's Senior Longyun and Senior Naraka. Oh, and Mr. Gu Yinyue is here too."
Xiang Ying lowered his head and reminded in a low voice.
"I know, hello everyone. But I'm so tired—even tired of talking. I won't say anymore."
Beichen squinted her eyes and continued to lie down. No matter whether Longyun pinched the flesh on her cheeks, pressed it down, or twisted it, she remained unmoved.
Naraka looked at Xiang Ying sympathetically, who wanted to stop him but didn't know how to start.
"Oh! It feels so good! It's like jelly—Brother Xiangying, don't you want to come and play?"
"Eh!! H-How can I do that?! The delicate skin on my master's face is not something I can touch──Stop playing around, Longyun-senpai!"
"You don't understand this, little brother Xiangying. A woman's skin exists to be touched by men!"
"That's just your wishful thinking, a scum whose head is full of rust and will sink to the bottom immediately if thrown into the water." Naraka complained mercilessly.
However, Xiang Ying refuted with a serious face: "No, the master is not a woman, and you are not a man. You are a male war weapon, Senior Longyun."
Longyun suddenly didn't know how to fight back, so he asked stammeringly: "If your master is not a woman, then what is she?"
"Of course! She's a goddess!"
“…”
Naraka rolled his eyes, as if he felt that he would rust if he stayed nearby. He walked over to the next table and sat down opposite Gu Yinyue, but he continued to speak mercilessly and relentlessly:
"It's interesting to have a goddess who can pee, fart, and collapse into a heap in a tavern."
"Hmph!" Xiang Ying snorted loudly, "If it's the master! Even peeing is holy water and farting is a star spirit cannon! Paralyzed like this... that's the master meditating!"
"Xiang Ying, what kind of perverted thing do you imagine me to be?!"
Beichen finally couldn't help but jumped up and grabbed Xiangying's collar, shaking her back and forth: "Please, please treat me as an ordinary girl, don't treat me as a goddess! A goddess who can launch a star cannon even when farting is too scary, who would want to be one!"
“I’m… sorry…”
Xiang Ying didn't seem to know what he said was wrong, but he still bowed his head and apologized honestly.
Naraka on the side rubbed his brow and sighed: "I feel like I've become dull."
As he said this, he kicked Longyun, who rolled to the ground laughing.
"Hahahahahahahahaha... I... I can't take it anymore, how can you guys be so fun!!" Longyun rolled on the ground while dodging the flying kick from Naraka's boots, then stood up with a jerk - the action was full of rogueness, which made Beichen feel very disillusioned.
"Please, Xiaochen, and little brother Xiangying, please become the partner of our dead monk! That way we can have fun watching shows every day!"
Beichen felt a dark cloud drifting over his head: "Longyun, do you think Xiangying and I are just portable jokes? And don't call me Xiaochen."
"What does it matter? I think it's cute to call you that." Longyun laughed heartily with an expression of "Don't mind it".
"Why would he think of you as a convenient joke? He probably thinks of you as stress-relieving henchmen A and B."
Naraka sneered on the side.
Beichen and Xiangying both gave Longyun a hateful look when they heard this. At this moment, Gu Yinyue let go of the straw in his mouth and spoke.
"Five riels (= minutes) is up. End the teasing immediately."
Longyun actually obediently put away his playful expression and walked towards Gu Yinyue, while Naraka nonchalantly stirred what looked like coffee in the cup with a spoon and turned to explain to Beichen:
"In the eyes of the dead monk, there is a time limit for joking. Otherwise, you will be beaten badly and starved."
...Even jokes have to be timed. Longyun and Naraka are really having a hard time. ——Just as Beichen was thinking this, Naraka spoke again.
"There's nothing we can do. If that dead monk doesn't set a time limit, Longyun will continue to cause trouble without restraint, and then things will be difficult to deal with."
...How playful are you, Longyun?
"Let's get down to business."
Because they were at the table next to her, it wasn't too difficult to talk. As soon as Gu Yinyue opened his mouth, Beichen turned to face him. As a result, she saw the old man drinking juice through a straw with a fierce and murderous look on his face. She was so choked that she almost choked to death on the air - she finally experienced the feeling of wanting to laugh but not daring to laugh.
Fortunately, Gu Yinyue put down the cup quickly.
"Has the Disaster Emperor's Star Spirit Core been sold?"
"Yes, it was sold. Pinhua helped me sell it, and it sold for more than 78,000 riyals." Beichen smiled, and she was secretly happy when she thought of this. This was the first pot of gold she had made in this world. If she calculated it this way, she felt that all the hard work she had done last night was worth it.
"Well, that's a pretty good price."
Naraka raised an eyebrow.
"Have you ever retested your strength?" Gu Yinyue continued to ask.
"Huh? But I just took the test when I came to town."
"You still don't understand anything, Xiaochen." Longyun shook his finger. "Star Disaster is a great opportunity to improve your strength and be reborn. Didn't you realize how extraordinary your performance was yesterday?"
Beichen was stunned for a moment, then nodded.
Indeed, yesterday she seemed to have killed many high-level possessed Moon Messengers in one breath in the melee, and her body often moved faster than the brain's command, performing some amazing movements.
Normally, she probably wouldn't be in such a good state, but because of the influence of the environment, the cooperation and encouragement of her companions, and her extremely boiling desire to survive, her body instinctively entered the best fighting state - maybe that's how it is.
Thinking of this, she stood up and walked over to the ability detector - the crystal ball - and placed her hand on it.
The crystal ball emitted light again, but this time the circle that appeared under Beichen's feet was not white, but blue, with only one ring on it.
She was stunned and turned to look at Gu Yinyue. After a brief moment of stunned silence, the latter pursed his lips and gave her a super electric smile.
Wow, someone who never smiles can be so destructive when he smiles──wait, now is not the time to think about this.
"Xiang Ying, what on earth is this..."
Xiang Ying's gaze towards Beichen was very subtle, half of it was excitement and joy, and half of it was bitterness:
"Master, you have been promoted twice in a row, skipping the ninth level of the Spiritual Martial Division... and directly promoted to the Holy Spirit Martial Division."
Beichen was a little confused: "The Holy Spirit Martial Division... is it more advanced than the Spiritual Martial Division?"
"Yes, Lingwusi is a general term for weapon users, but there are actually four levels. From low to high, they are Lingwusi, Shenglingwusi, Huanlingwusi, and Wusihuang. Each level is divided into nine levels, and you can advance to the next level after reaching ten levels."
"I see... I understand. However, I still don't quite understand how the level of the Spiritual Martial Division is determined?"
"Let me tell you."
Not willing to be ignored, Longyun came closer again.
"The ability of the Spiritual Martial Master is determined by the contractual force within the Spiritual Martial Master. In other words, it is the ability to control the weapon. To put it more simply, it is the ability to judge whether the weapon is compatible with the Spiritual Martial Master.
This ability is innate. Some people are naturally more attracted to weapons, like you, Xiaochen, so you can use weapons that are not normally usable at your level. Some people, on the other hand, are still repelled by weapons even if they are at a high enough level. However, this ability is not completely uncultivable. Generally speaking, the higher the level of the Spiritual Martial Division, the slightly higher the contract strength will be.
After speaking for a long time, Longyun let out a breath and continued.
"The other is resonance. This ability, how should I put it, is something very subtle..."
"If you can't speak, don't come out and embarrass yourself."
Naraka, who was not far away, hit Longyun on the back of the head with a dried fruit:
"Resonance means that after you obtain a weapon, through using and becoming proficient with it, you can transform the inscription into your own ability. This ability can affect the power of all weapons you use.
Let me give you a more concrete example. You used Xiang Ying, and through the inscriptions he gave you, you learned how to wield a longsword. And since you've used these methods to hunt so many possessed Moon Envoys, your physical strength and your rapport with Xiang Ying have increased, right? So, your resonance has also increased, making your body stronger and more adaptable to combat, more easily integrating with the weapon. So, later, when you used Ling Shuang and Huo Mei, you didn't experience any noticeable discomfort, because your resonance was sufficient."
"Uh, so, if the resonance force is not strong enough, there will be discomfort when using the weapon?"
"It will feel very awkward. At that time, even if your contract strength is sufficient and the weapon is willing to let you use it, you won't be able to use it with ease. Even if you do use it, your physical strength will decrease very quickly."
Beichen nodded, not quite understanding: ...Maybe it means something like the overall experience of using weapons?
"However, the relationship between the levels of the Spiritual Martial Division and the weapons is rather vague. Generally speaking, Spiritual Martial Divisions of levels one to five can sign two five-string weapons, levels six to nine can sign three six-star weapons, Holy Spirit Martial Divisions of levels one to five can sign four to five six-star weapons, and levels six to nine can sign one to two seven-scar weapons. The Phantom Spirit Martial Division can generally sign all levels, but the quantity is surprising. ―Of course, this is just a statistical average; the specific number varies from person to person."
Naraka said, looking up and down at Beichen:
"As for you, signing two seven marks is no problem at the moment."
As soon as the young man finished speaking, Beichen noticed that Xiang Ying's body beside him shook.
"Xiang Ying, what's wrong?"
"...Master, there is a fact I have to tell you."
Xiang Ying smiled bitterly and twitched the corner of his mouth.
“…I…even though I killed the Disaster Emperor, I didn’t advance.”
"Huh."
Now, not only Beichen, but also Gu Yinyue, Longyun and Naraka looked at him in surprise.
"No." Longyun frowned in surprise. "If the three-mane weapon kills a disaster emperor, it is possible to upgrade to the fifth string. How can you-"
Xiang Ying lowered his head and shook it expressionlessly. "Someone told me before that I needed twice as much Star Spiritual Power as others to advance...but I didn't expect the gap to be so huge."
As he spoke, he turned to face Beichen, stared at her for a few seconds, and then spoke seriously.
"Master, please abandon me. At this point, it's no longer reasonable to make up for the gap with hard work. I'm truly a defective product that can't even advance after killing the Disaster Emperor. I'm not worth training. ... I'm not feeling inferior, but I'm objectively making plans for you. I've been a drag. I know you won't blame me out of your kindness, but I will hate myself for not being able to protect you... So, abandon me. Choose a better weapon."
As he spoke, he gently placed his hands on Beichen's shoulders.
"You are my goddess. In my heart, you are far more important than anything else, including my own life. Therefore, I hope more than anyone else that you can live safely in this world. Please fulfill my wish."
“…”
Beichen lowered his head and thought for a few seconds, then shook his head.
"Master, please don't be so stubborn. Even if you miss the feeling of being my partner, you should seriously consider how to survive in this world. Having experienced the star disaster, you should understand this, right?"
"Yeah, I understand."
Beichen said softly, pulling down the hand on his shoulder.
"Xiang Ying, do you remember what I said when we first met?"
"……yes?"
"I said, since you can't find your own strengths, let me find them for you."
“……!”
"I think I've discovered it."
The girl raised her head and gave her weapon an exceptionally warm smile.
"Together with Xiang Ying, I killed over 500 Level 3 Possessed Moon Envoys, and soared from zero to Level 8 Spiritual Martial Master. If this can be explained by my strong innate contract power, then what does it mean to kill several high-level Possessed Moon Envoys and a Disaster Emperor, and even advance two levels to become a Holy Spirit Martial Master?"
Beichen said this, looking at the people around him who were looking at him.
"Is it really because I'm exceptionally gifted, exceptionally talented, and a genius with extraordinary abilities? No, I know myself. While my learning ability isn't terribly bad, it's definitely not this good either. So, what's the reason for my level skyrocketing?"
"Ah... Could it be that..."
Naraka murmured as if he had thought of something.
"...Hmm. Yes, I figured it out. The reason is you. Xiang Ying."
"……ah?"
"Your strength—no, your unique ability... probably something like resonance transfer. You've transformed the astral energy within you into my own abilities."
Beichen couldn't help but sniff when he said the latter part.
"What a damned power! You're incredibly dedicated, sacrificing your own growth for the master's advancement."
“…”
Xiang Ying was completely stunned and had no idea how to start or what to say.
Then Beichen took a slightly trembling breath, smiled and punched his chest.
"Do you still want me to abandon you now?"
“…No. …Don’t do that. …I…I still have my strengths!!”
Xiang Ying said in a heavy voice, pulling Beichen's hand tightly.
"Thank you, Master. ... Thank you, thank you."
"I should be the one saying thank you. You helped me get promoted twice in a row."
"Ahem."
Longyun appeared with his hands raised.
"I'm sorry to interrupt your flashbangs, but I want to say that you're blocking others who want to have their abilities checked."
“…”
“…”
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