Chapter 85: Yixuan's Troubles (Patreon)

Watching the human and the Ethereal still locked in combat, Musachi couldn't help frowning.

He didn't know whether this was just his imagination.

He'd studied the fragments of the Creator's Authority far too little so far, so he didn't dare make up his mind about a number of things.

But right then, Musachi suddenly sensed another emotion stirring in his mind.

That emotion was… grievance?

Musachi looked around and confirmed it. The feeling was radiating from the Nineveh in front of him…

Huh… Ethereals have emotions now?

Musachi scratched his head. Strictly speaking, he was an Ethereal too, but the thing was, he was fundamentally human. Nineveh had been an Ethereal for so long. Surely her human personality had vanished ages ago?

He scratched his head again.

The next moment, though, he sent his thought across anyway.

"Stop moving."

As he said it, Musachi watched Nineveh's movements on the other side.

Then he saw it. Nineveh's body, which had been fighting Hoshimi Miyabi, froze up for a brief moment, and Miyabi seized the chance to slash her once.

For Nineveh, with her thick health bar, one cut was nothing. Even so, she sent her emotion straight into Musachi's mind.

Even more aggrieved…

Tsk…

Could he really communicate with Ethereals?

For a moment, Musachi was a little amazed by his new ability.

Then again, it made sense. This was the Creator's Authority. Talking to Ethereals wasn't all that outrageous, was it?

If he was being honest, he ought to be able to control Ethereals as well…

After all, the Creator's control over Ethereals should be fairly high.

Musachi looked at an Hornet in the distance and focused his mind.

Soon, he felt himself link into its consciousness.

Compared to Nineveh, who could convey emotions, this bee's consciousness was very faint, with nothing left but the most basic instincts.

Still, Musachi ordered it to attack the companion beside it.

Right after, he felt it falter, as if puzzled about why it had received such an order.

And then… it raised the spike in its hand and stabbed at another bee next to it.

"Pretty ruthless."

Watching the bee crush its companion's core outright, Musachi clicked his tongue.

But that confirmed it. He really could control Ethereals to a certain extent…

It wasn't like Geppetto's control, which used the power of Ether to treat other people like puppets. It was genuinely issuing orders to Ethereals.

Only, Musachi could also sense that these orders worked only on low-level Ethereals.

Probably around level three.

Above that, an Ethereal's sense of self grew too strong.

They might not attack him, but if he tried to order them to their deaths, it would still clash with the instincts in their base code.

Take Nineveh, for example. He had just ordered her not to move, but the moment Miyabi's attack landed, she still counterattacked reflexively.

Thinking of this, Musachi focused his mind again to see whether he could take further control of Nineveh.

Then he felt the emotion coming from Nineveh grow stronger and stronger.

The grievance kept swelling, with a trace of confusion and anger mixed in.

Still, feeling that emotion, Musachi found it a little hard to keep a straight face.

You're an Ethereal, and you're feeling wronged?

The corner of his mouth twitched.

Then Musachi realized he could perceive her emotions with precision.

From Nineveh's point of view, she hadn't done anything at all.

As a symbiote Ethereal, Nineveh had barely attacked humans since the day she was born.

She cared about only one thing: tending her little garden well.

To tend it well, she worked diligently, gathering nutrients everywhere, spreading fertilizer, and watching her garden flourish day by day.

As for these Hornets, they were her garden's gardeners.

From start to finish, this was all she had ever been doing.

But these wretched humans beat her up every time they came, trashed her home, and, worse, pushed their luck until they were coming to rob her every so often!

After feeling Nineveh's true emotions, Musachi's mouth twitched again. From an Ethereal's perspective, Nineveh really did have the right to feel wronged.

Musachi had read up on Nineveh's file. Compared to other Ethereals, this one was rather special.

She was special in that she showed little aggression toward humans.

Military investigators and Hollow Raiders alike had sighted her many times.

But the times she had actively attacked humans were few.

To Nineveh, humans were weak, unremarkable, and low in Ether content. They made poor fertilizer.

Large Ethereals were a different story.

Waste all over their bodies! Excellent stuff for growing flowers!

She truly wanted nothing more than to tend her garden well…

It was a pity that a powerful Ethereal, by her mere existence, posed an extremely high threat to humans.

This was a struggle for survival, with no right or wrong.

Setting aside that humans didn't know Nineveh's feelings, even if they did, they probably wouldn't care.

After all, she was simply too strong. As long as she existed and her flower beds kept expanding, she and humanity would be mortal enemies.

The only reason she hadn't been eliminated was that she brought humans more benefit than harm.

A level-six Ethereal wasn't especially hard for humans to deal with.

"Hah!"

While Musachi was lost in thought, Hoshimi Miyabi let out a light shout. In the next instant, her figure shot toward Nineveh, her blade burning with blue frostflame and tracing a streak through the air as she charged straight at her.

Nineveh wanted to resist, but her means of resistance were far too limited. Against Miyabi, she couldn't gain any advantage.

In an instant, the frostflame-wreathed blade came down on her hand, and her arm visibly scorched under the flames.

The concentration of Ether in her body also dropped considerably.

"That's enough."

Musachi took a look and called out a warning to Miyabi in the distance.

Seeing this, Miyabi nodded.

If she cut any more, Nineveh would drop to a level-five Ethereal.

A lower level wasn't necessarily better for Nineveh.

As a level-six Ethereal, Nineveh could heavily suppress the Ethereals around the outskirts of Hollow Zero. Even Notorious Ethereals fell prey to her.

But if she became level five, her position on the outskirts wouldn't be nearly as secure.

For humans, keeping her at level six was the most reasonable arrangement.

"Watch out."

Hardly had Musachi shouted when several Hornets spotted him and rushed his way.

But before they could land a hit, in a flash of blade light Hoshimi Miyabi appeared behind them and cut every last one down.

"So reliable, Lord Hoshimi."

Musachi smiled at Miyabi and gave her a thumbs-up.

Musachi had to admit that Miyabi really was a once-in-a-century genius. Even without using the power of the Demon Blade Tailless, she was strong enough on her own.

He did a rough estimate. If it were him back when he had just become an Enchainer, beating the current Miyabi would have been very difficult, and one careless slip might even have meant defeat.

Anyone who made Void Hunter was truly of the extremely strong kind.

He just wondered how far Miyabi could go if she truly unleashed the Demon Blade's power.

Musachi guessed she could probably reach around level eight? But that kind of power wasn't worth it, since the Karma Core would corrode her.

Of course, that was how things used to be. Now that Musachi had been probing the Authority, the Karma Core's side effects would only keep shrinking.

Maybe even…

Musachi had an idea.

Since the Karma Core's power was so great, could the Void Hunters be made to fully master it?

As for the worry that they'd turn into Ethereals and be controlled by the Creator?

Then why not just become the Creator myself?

It would be hard, but it didn't seem impossible.

With his own strength plus the seven Enchainers, anyone who saw them would have to say: you're the true Creator!

"Let's go. Time to leave."

Musachi's praise didn't stir much of a reaction in Miyabi. The corners of her mouth curled up for a moment, then smoothed out again, and she turned and walked off to one side.

Seeing this, Musachi followed her with a grin.

As for Nineveh, once she saw that Miyabi had no more will to fight, she drifted away, floating off.

Still, a faint, plaintive mood seemed to linger in the air.

She was like a bullied young bride.

Of course, only Musachi could feel any of this.

To Miyabi, this was just another routine mission.

"I didn't expect the mission to be this easy. Your Hollow Special Operations Section 6 handled the previous ones too, right? What was everyone else doing?"

Musachi looked at Miyabi, still gripping her blade and on guard beside him, and asked, curious.

"Yanagi and Soukaku back me up on the flanks, and Asaba Harumasa snipes the harassing Hornets from a distance. With their help, things go a little easier for me."

"But they aren't here today, and you still finished the mission without trouble, didn't you?"

Musachi honestly couldn't see where Miyabi had struggled.

"It's different."

Miyabi shook her head seriously.

"Without them today, I had to get serious. Otherwise Nineveh would have run."

As she spoke, Miyabi felt a flicker of surprise herself.

Compared to other Ethereals, Nineveh's will to fight had always been low, and one slip could really make her flee.

Yet today, she had unexpectedly not tried to run the whole time.

Hearing Miyabi say this, Musachi's expression turned a little subtle.

The reason Nineveh hadn't run today couldn't be that she thought he'd help her, could it?

Maybe it was the mindset of, someone's finally here to chase off the person who bullies me every day, only to discover in the end that the two of them were in cahoots…

Never mind. She was just an Ethereal.

Musachi quickly tossed the matter to the back of his mind.

"Hm? It's you two?"

Just as Musachi and Miyabi were heading for the exit, a familiar figure drew their attention.

"Shifu Yixuan, what a coincidence. I never expected to run into you here."

Looking at the white-haired figure before her, Miyabi smiled and greeted her.

Musachi raised an eyebrow too.

"Shifu Yixuan, did you take on a new commission?"

"Mm, nothing major. Mayflower said he'd found some intel on The Exaltists and needed a top fighter to deal with it. Sadly, it was only small fry, hardly worth my time."

Yixuan pursed her lips as she spoke.

Still, Musachi didn't quite buy it. Anything that required Yixuan herself to act could hardly be pure small fry. It was probably only small fry to Yixuan, and still difficult for ordinary people.

"Didn't leave a single survivor?"

Musachi was curious.

Beside Yixuan stood only a girl in the same Yunkui Summit attire.

Musachi didn't know her, but she was probably a Proxy?

"I wanted to, but they fought back too fiercely. One of them even jabbed himself with Sacrificial Beast serum and turned into an Ethereal on the spot."

Yixuan shook her head helplessly. Most of The Exaltists were true believers. They were convinced the Creator was the god who would save the world, so their religious fanaticism made them truly hard to handle.

Generally speaking, taking an Exaltist alive was genuinely difficult.

"What a pain. Those people."

Musachi sighed as well.

Then he extended an invitation:

"Want to grab a meal together after we get out?"

"Forget it, I have things to do. I need to hurry back to Yunkui Summit."

Yixuan shook her head lightly and said, a little helplessly.

The Yunkui Summit female disciple beside her looked at Musachi with curiosity. She hadn't expected Shifu Yixuan to be so close to this man.

As a Yunkui Summit disciple, she knew Yixuan had hardly had any close contact with men in all these years, yet the way the two of them chatted was nothing like ordinary friends.

And he was this friendly with Hoshimi Miyabi too!

For a moment, the gossip spirit in this disciple's eyes began to blaze.

"Something happened?"

Musachi paid no attention to the disciple's imaginings and frowned.

"Sort of. For some reason, Little Guang was chosen by Yunkui Summit's Qingming Sword as the new generation's sword master. One reason I took this commission was to have Ye Shunguang come over for a checkup, to see whether the Qingming Sword has affected her in any way."

Yixuan rubbed her head at the thought.

If it were just the Qingming Sword, it wouldn't be a big deal. She could just keep Ye Shunguang's use of it in check, and with two Void Hunters, herself and her sister, around, it wouldn't be much of a problem.

But the trouble was that Ye Shunguang herself had developed some troubling problems.

"Mind if I take a look too?"

Musachi was curious about the changes in Ye Shunguang.

"I suppose I can't say no."

Yixuan nodded and didn't refuse.

Soon, the four of them left Hollow Zero.

"Yuanyuan, go handle the commission for me. I'm taking Musachi along on an errand."

Once they were out, Yixuan turned to the female disciple beside her and said.

"Got it, Shifu Yixuan."

Yuanyuan nodded and left straight away.

Musachi turned to Miyabi:

"Sorry, something came up. How about I treat you to a meal another day?"

Musachi pressed his palms together in apology to Miyabi.

Bailing on her halfway to tag along with Yixuan really wasn't very decent.

But he was truly interested in Ye Shunguang's changes. This was the perfect chance to see her, since after today Yixuan and Ye Shunguang would be heading back to Yunkui Summit.

"No problem."

Miyabi nodded lightly, then left Scott Outpost alone.