Chapter 18: Research on the Diet of Spider Spirits (Part 2)
As a kidna, Alexi is constantly fighting against the racial curse in her blood.
Ever since she was old enough to understand, she had felt a burning hunger in her blood, scorching her heart. If she didn't use all her strength and reason to suppress and restrain it, this fire would ignite the anger and darkness in her heart, burning everything in an instant.
Fighting this 'madness' was a never-ending battle, and this was true for her mother, her grandmother, and all the knitting girls around her. They were like barrels filled with kerosene, their fluctuating magic power and sudden mood swings potentially becoming the spark that ignited everything.
However, after tasting that small ball of soul fire, Alexi felt an unprecedented tranquility. Her heart was empty, without the fire burning her irritably, and there was no longer surging anger in her veins. Her whole body was filled with an indescribable happiness and peace.
"How strange." Alexi said, "I have a feeling... this soul fire seems to be the food we need."
Jiang You had a vague guess. She pulled out several different colors of soul fire from her head, taking out only a ball of each as big as a fingernail. "Try these again and describe your feelings in detail."
Alexi tried them one by one, and the amazing thing was that each kind of soul fire would make her react differently. Some soul fires could make her feel peaceful, while some soul fires would suddenly make her show the characteristics of a spider, and she had to use all her willpower to suppress the desire for alienation.
Jiangyou hooked his bone claws at Alexi and pulled out a ball of gray soul fire. Alexi instantly relaxed, all the spider characteristics on his body disappeared, and he felt that peace again.
"I understand." Jiang You snapped his fingers. "The emotions contained in soul energy will have a great impact on the knitting girls."
She pointed to the different colored soul fires on the table and divided them into two piles. "These soul fires represent positive emotions: happiness, comfort, satisfaction, love... They will make you feel particularly peaceful and fulfilled, replenish your energy, and make you feel full. Meanwhile, these are negative emotions: sadness, jealousy, anger, irritability... These will exacerbate your alienation. Once your excess emotional energy is removed, the alienation process will be interrupted and reset to zero."
Jiang You said happily: "Hey, now I know how to stabilize your condition!"
Alexi's face was filled with a blank expression of bewilderment, as she was so shocked. "Ah... no... wait a minute, so you're saying that the alienation that my clan has tried so hard to control, through so much restraint and suppression, can actually be solved with just a lich snapping its finger?"
"It should be more than that..." Jiang You tilted his head, "I think that in addition to eliminating excessive negative emotions, you also need to properly replenish positive spiritual power."
She tasted the gray soul fire she had drawn from Alexi. "Hmm, just as I expected, it contains a great deal of hunger and thirst... Is it because you are too afraid of alienation that you have never absorbed magic power?"
Alexi nodded vigorously.
In Jiangyou's view, magic power is extremely similar to the energy of soul, spirit, and emotions. They all belong to the energy of the netherworld and can basically be interchanged. The lich has a lot of say in this regard: before coming to this world and replenishing the soul fire, Jiangyou did not have the power to drive the Crucible of Time, but after she ate the soul fire, she felt that her whole body was full of strength, and using magic became easy and natural, as if she was born with the ability.
"I also feel a similar hunger after using a lot of magic power," said Jiang You. "Your situation is more serious, just like the burning feeling of someone who is dieting and rolling around in bed at midnight because of hunger."
"In other words," Aunt Wolf quickly understood the situation, "the katydids actually need to replenish peaceful, positive magical energy. Sufficient energy of this kind can suppress their irritability caused by hunger. And their transformation into demonic spiders is simply a result of their magic power being depleted and pushed to their limit, leading them to succumb to their instinctive hunting." She continued to speculate, "And it's only the katydids who transform into demonic spiders. Could it be that giving birth consumes too much magic power and doesn't replenish it?"
"That makes sense. I get irritable when I'm hungry too," Jericho agreed.
Naxia's mouth was full. She nodded hurriedly and scooped a spoonful of egg tofu into her small bowl.
"Food also contains magic power. This magic power is very peaceful, and it is safe to directly ingest this soul fire." Jiang You said, eating another soul fire. "As long as the food is not too unpalatable, it will be fine. However, compared to real soul power, the energy in the food will be less."
The lich has the most say on this point. Although Jiangyou can usually absorb energy from the soul fire of food three times a day, the quality is indeed not as good as the soul fire drawn from a living person - especially Andre's solid "steamed bun" soul fire.
"We were always hungry and needed to eat a lot," Alexi recalled. "Every day, besides weaving, we ate, especially meat and sugar. But even though our stomachs were bloated, we sometimes couldn't feel full. Most of the money we earned was spent on food... Therefore, our family didn't have much savings."
Jiangyou remembered the crazy shopping of the weavers at the market, and understood it very well - with that kind of shopping, 80% or 90% of the money they earned was probably exchanged for food, and once something happened, they would be stretched to the limit.
"It seems that not only do we need to develop the food business, but we also need to put the soul fire business on the agenda..." Jiang You pondered, "That's not difficult. The guests eat the food, and we eat the guests... It's the emotions that are paid voluntarily. Isn't that enough?"
Andre looked up and glanced at Little Bone. He seemed to have just heard some strange and violent speech.
"Although there are still many details to be studied, I think we can try this treatment plan for now." Jiang You's eyes flashed. "Stabilize your emotions, replenish positive and stable magical energy, and see if the situation improves. If it really works, perhaps we can promote this experience in your village."
"Does this mean that we can live freely?" Alexi murmured, her eyes full of hope. "Perhaps my children and I can also begin to learn words and magic?"
"I can help with that," Aunt Wolf volunteered. "When it comes to teaching, I'm a professional!"
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