Chương 136: Meet Yggy

"I wanted to introduce you to someone." Elder Chen Yong raised an eyebrow up, and his hand paused while it was reaching out to grab another bottle of his spiritual wine.

"Oh? And who might that be?" I took this deep breath.

"Yggy? Would you like to come out and meet my Master, Elder Chen Yong?" For a brief moment there, nothing happened at all. I could feel Yggy's presence shifting around through our soul bond, and it was a mix of pure excitement and sudden shyness. After spending days begging me to let it explore outside my inner world, now that the actual moment had finally arrived, the little vine was having some second thoughts about it.

"It's okay," I mentally encouraged it.

"Elder Chen Yong is... well, he's mostly harmless. Except for whenever he's aggressively throwing formations at people for 'testing purposes.'" That managed to get a ripple of amusement flowing through our bond, and finally I felt Yggy make its decision. A bright shimmer of green light appeared beside me, and it coalesced down into its form. The vine materialized slowly and it looked almost hesitant about doing it, its leaves softly rustled around while it oriented itself in the physical world.

Elder Chen Yong's reaction to seeing it was... well it wasn't quite what I expected it to be. Instead of showing any surprise or shock, his eyes lit up. He leaned forward in his chair, and he nearly ended up falling out of it because of his enthusiasm, he began muttering his observations out loud.

"What a fascinating structure... and a unique energy signature too... Is that a small touch of demonic qi I see? No wait, it is something else... it has a reddish energy, except it acts different..." He squinted his eyes, and then they suddenly widened.

"And look there! There is a hint of that blue energy of yours hiding in it, except it is integrated differently..." I slowly gave a nod. That made sense because Yggy was originally an experiment done by Elder Molric. And he mainly used the red sun's energy during the creation process since he was a Skybound cultivator after all. All the blue energy aspects inside it were more experimental in nature. As for how he managed to get his hands on access to that energy, I didn't want to know.

"Mmm," Elder Chen thoughtfully hummed out, still studying Yggy intensely.

"It has no cultivation system of its own, it is being powered through the soul bond connection. That is an efficient design to use, though it must put quite a strain on your own energy reserves." It seemed like the elder mistook the fact that Yggy and me were sharing access to the energy coming from the two suns as Yggy being powered by our soul bond instead. Without having a giant red sun sitting up in the sky for Yggy to naturally draw its energy from, it had to rely on the miniature red sun in my inner world.

That shared access was something I'd been becoming increasingly aware about lately, since my own capacity for holding red sun energy wasn't large. And if we ever got stuck in a prolonged battle, having the both of us drawing our power from the same pool could end up becoming problematic for me.

"Master," Azure's voice chimed in my mind, "do you remember how some of Elder Molric's other creations were learning how to weave runes? Perhaps Yggy could develop similar capabilities." Now that was an interesting thought to have. I'd been considering exploring this possibility ever since we had that battle against the Queen Wasp where I realized how much I relied on using the Two Sun's system to survive. If Yggy could learn to weave its own runes, it would give me a lot more flexibility during combat.

I could focus my attention on using my qi-based techniques while Yggy called upon the solar energies. And I obviously wouldn't abandon using the suns' power entirely either since the Blink Step rune had become integral to my fighting style now, plus simply having more options was always a good thing. But while I was sitting there lost in my thoughts, something unexpected started happening. Yggy apparently managed to get over its initial shyness, and it had quickly begun to warm up to Elder Chen.

The little vine was extending its tendrils out toward the various wine bottles that were randomly scattered around the room and it began curiously examining their labels.

"You should be careful with those," Elder Chen warned it, though his tone sounded more highly amused than it was concerned.

"Because some of these specific vintages can pack quite a punch, even if you are a spiritual being." Yggy withdrew its tendrils back, and it sent me this strong impression that roughly translated over into saying 'I wasn't going to drink any of it... probably.' As curious as I was on finding out what effect drinking spiritual wine would have on a being that ran on a different energy system, I had zero intention of having to deal with a drunk vine, or worse. Love this story?

Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"That is very wise, Master," Azure said.

"Until we're sure that qi isn't poisonous to Yggy, we should be careful." Azure was right about that. Because despite qi being everywhere in the cultivation world and Yggy not showing any kind of adverse reaction to it so far, that was a different situation compared to willfully allowing a concentrated amount of it into its body. Hurting Yggy wasn't worth satisfying my own curiosity.

"So," Elder Chen Yong spoke up, "what can your little friend here do? Besides having an impeccable taste in good wine, of course." I looked over at Yggy.

"Do you want to show him, buddy?" The little vine perked up. In a quick flash, it extended itself upward, perfectly demonstrating its ability to rapidly change its size and its shape around. Its tendrils whipped through the air, and they started weaving complex patterns that showed off both its precise control and its combat potential. And then came the much more impressive displays.

Yggy demonstrated how it could harden its own exterior, creating solid armor-like plates that could absorb massive amounts of impact force. It showed how it could divide itself into separately controlled segments, where every one of them was able to attack or defend on its own. While it was doing the demonstration, Elder Chen Yong's face looked impressed.

"What remarkable intelligence," he muttered, while thoughtfully rubbing his hand against his chin.

"It possesses a great amount of independent judgment, and a deep tactical sense. I hadn't been looking forward to having to babysit brats whenever I finally get around to creating my own advanced beings, but seeing this..." He reached his hand out to gently pat against one of Yggy's leaves.

"Maybe it wouldn't end up being so bad after all." Yggy preened under the praise, and its leaves started rustling around with pleasure. Through our strong link, I could feel its delight at being recognized as being an actual intelligent being, instead of being treated like a random weapon or a simple pet.

"Where did you manage to find it?" Elder Chen Yong asked me. When I didn't say a word back to him, he let out a loud laugh and waved his hand at me.

"OK, I didn't think you'd say anything about it. You like playing the paranoid cultivator." He suddenly grew a lot more somber looking.

"But be careful, boy, because if you've stolen another cultivator's creation, things won't end well for you."

"There was no stealing involved," I told him, even though inwardly I had to suppress a wince. Elder Molric might beg to differ with me on that point. Since the old Skybound had seemed hurt when Yggy chose me over him. Though really, what did he expect to happen after he spent who knows how long experimenting on the poor thing?

"Whoever created this being," Elder Chen Yong mused out loud, "they clearly possessed remarkable skill. The integration of those different energy types, the level of autonomous intelligence, and the efficiency of the design... it is truly masterful work." I held back a smile, I knew that Elder Molric would have loved to hear those kinds of compliments.

Since for all of his many faults, the man was always first and foremost a dedicated researcher, and finally getting recognition for his hard work would have meant everything to him. It was pretty sad that he didn't get any of it in his own world. But I couldn't think about that right now because there was something I still needed the elder to clarify.

"So... no one is going to try to kill me and take Yggy away from me?" Elder Chen's expression grew serious.

"Those of us in the Life Realm might be interested in studying such an artificial being, hoping they could comprehend something that could help with making our own creations. But forcefully taking it from you?" He shook his head.

"There's no need for them to do that. There are plenty of advanced artificial beings available for purchase if you know where to look." That made a lot of sense. Since someone sitting at my low level wouldn't have access to entering such markets, but those higher-level cultivators definitely had their own secret trading networks specifically built for buying cultivation resources of that caliber. Why would they risk offending others when they could just buy whatever they needed?

"Speaking about studying things..." Elder Chen's eyes took on that familiar crazy gleam.

"Now that I've met your fascinating friend here, perhaps we could get back to examining that blue energy of yours?" I couldn't help myself from doing a smile because some things never changed.

"Alright. Yggy? It's time for you to head back inside." The little vine gave one last affectionate pat against a nearby wine bottle, and then it dissolved back into being pure green light, returning back into my inner world. I could feel its satisfaction through our bond – because it had showed off its abilities and received praise from a powerful cultivator. All things considered, it was a successful first outing for it. I closed my eyes and I reached out for the familiar presence of the blue sun.

When its energy filled me up, I opened my eyes only to find Elder Chen Yong sitting still, with his favorite wine bottle forgotten inside his hand as he stared at me with this crazy intensity I'd rarely ever seen from him before. There were no more maniac observations being shouted out, and there were no drunken ramblings happening, there was just silence. When the blue energy finally faded away, the elder looked like he might pass out.

"Master?" I quickly asked him, feeling concerned.

"Are you alright?" He gave me a nod, even though his face looked incredibly pale.

"I... I need to go into closed door cultivation. Immediately." He stood up, swaying slightly on his feet.

"You need to continue your studies. The guild library has some excellent resources. I'll... I'll contact you when I'm finally done." Before I could respond, reality twisted around me again, and I found myself standing in the middle of the Outer Sect area, alone.

"Well," Azure spoke up after a long moment of silence, "that was dramatic." I gave a slow nod, while absently turning my guild badge over in my hands as I thought about everything that had happened. Something about the blue sun's energy had affected Elder Chen Yong, and it was powerful enough to send the great Formation Master into seclusion. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

"Master, well at least we have guild access now," Azure said.

"That should help with our formation studies whilst the elder cultivates."

"Yes, but I can't help but wonder what he saw this time that affected him so strongly." I glanced up at the sky, where I knew the blue sun would be shining in another world.

"Whatever it was, I hope it doesn't cause too many problems."