Chương 47: Chapter 46: BLOOD REVEALED

CHAPTER 46 BLOOD REVEALED —∞— The first thing Jieyuan did after stepping into the next pocket was cast a quick look around. The avenue stretched wide and crooked in front of them, same as before. Same warped street, same swollen, twisting buildings looming on either side, walls heaving in slow, uneven pulses like something half-asleep and restless. The roots underfoot hadn't stopped moving just because they'd crossed into a new zone.

But the glance he took was enough to confirm it; this was the same pocket they'd passed through on the way in. The buildings, even in their current agitated state, were the same ones they'd crossed earlier. Given how the Dome worked, that hadn't been a sure thing, even with Meiyao leading. The biggest proof, though, lay far ahead. The city walls. But Jieyuan barely managed a glance at them before catching sight of thick roots slamming down onto the avenue behind them.

The roots below weren't the only ones still active. As the nearby buildings rocked and swayed on their foundations, pale, trunk-thick limbs stretched from sidewalks and doorways, lunging, recoiling, then snapping forward again in wet, cracking bursts of motion. By his side, Daojue didn't slow, still swinging Gleaming End in brutal, methodical arcs, shearing through any root that reached too close. Each strike landed with a heavy crack, green sap spraying in violent bursts.

Seeing that Daojue had it handled, Jieyuan dragged his gaze back toward the distance. Far ahead, visible past the shifting bodies of wood and mist, the city's outer wall rose: massive, towering, the same twisted barricade of living wood they'd entered through. Behind them, farther out, the green curtain of mist marked the edge of this pocket. But what really drew his eye was the city's entranceway: a huge gap carved into the wall, well over a hundred feet tall, standing directly ahead.

The avenue led straight for it, a clean, unbroken path. And beyond the entrance, the forest. The area outside the city. That was what mattered. Just this last stretch left—though stretch was optimistic, given the size of the pocket—and they'd be out. Jieyuan didn't let himself dwell on what it'd be like once they were through. Whether the city's influence really stopped at its walls or if it stretched farther out. Whether Meiyao's stunt had set not just Viridian Death City, but the whole Viridian Dome against them.

Whatever it was, it couldn't be worse than what was behind them now. They'd be better off trying their luck outside. He fixed his gaze farther ahead, scanning for any new signs of danger. They were already back at the center of the avenue now, out of reach of the massive roots still stretching for them from either side. There shouldn't be any big trouble—no more death traps like the Sacred Garden, just the city's more common dangers—but he wasn't about to take anything for granted.

Huaxin pulsed in his chest now, throwing waves of warning through his chest, making it perfectly clear through their bond that they needed to get out of here as fast as possible. It'd been doing this from the moment they'd entered the city, with occasional spikes, and it had gone full throttle the moment Meiyao had activated the Viridian Source. But Jieyuan hadn't been paying it much mind. He could already see the danger perfectly well. Trust me, buddy, Jieyuan thought, you're preaching to the choir.

They kept running; Meiyao in the lead, Jieyuan and Daojue just behind, almost side by side. Soon they reached the spot where the avenue split, the same intersection that led off toward the smaller, deformed bridges and growth-choked ponds they'd passed on their way in. Things—long and thick, green and brown, slick and feathered—stretched out from those mounds as they passed, grasping toward them. But the three of them were faster, and that particular little burst of trouble amounted to nothing.

Now the entrance stood fully in sight, dominating the far end of the avenue. Already Jieyuan could make out the tall, gnarled spire with those finger-like protrusions on one side of it. Not even a minute of running. That was all that stood between them and—not exactly freedom, no. The forests of the Dome still waited on the other side. But freedom from Viridian Death City at least. That was, of course, when Viridian Death City kicked it up a notch and proved the death in its name was more than well deserved.

It started with the garrison. It had been shaking before (every inch of it trembling like all the other buildings around) but then, with one great lurch, the building tore free from its foundation in a spray of dirt, sap, and shattered roots. It pitched forward, ripping itself fully upright, thick waves of roots flailing beneath it like the legs of some massive centipede.

The ground trembled beneath their feet as it crashed forward in a lurching, tentacled sprint, plowing straight down the avenue toward them, riding the current of roots already surging underneath. Like the ambulant viridian oakwillows from earlier, but on a completely different scale. Jieyuan didn't need Huaxin to scream at him for this one. But the three of them didn't retreat (there was no retreat, not while inside the city), and instead charged at it head-on.

Other clusters of roots swung from either side of the building like vestigial arms, and as it drew closer, those roots shot forward toward them. But it was nothing they hadn't faced so far. Almost as one, they dodged the barrage of roots. Meiyao jumped on top of one and started scaling the wooden lengths, and Jieyuan was about to do the same—when movement came from the other buildings. They didn't rise off the ground, not like the garrison.

But the viridian bulges he'd noticed before, on the way in—tumor-like swellings dotting their structures, now just barely discernible amid all the vibration—burst all at once. Hundreds of them. Each explosion came with a wet pop and a billow of green dust. Clouds of fine, drifting green flakes fanned outward with the mist, pushed by the churned air stirred up by the garrison's charge, straight toward them. Worse were the ones that came from the garrison itself, bursting right in their faces.

"DON'T TOUCH!" Meiyao shouted as she kicked off the root, jumping back toward them, away from the garrison. They did the same, drawing back. And where the flakes—soft, almost harmless-looking—settled on the ground and on the garrison's roots, the area began to bubble. These bubbles were green like the flakes, and from them sprouted pale green tendrils: worm-thin, crawling, stretching outward, and growing fast. Daojue moved first—faster than Jieyuan could track—putting himself at the front.

A burst of rainbow radiance bloomed from the tip of Gleaming End, splitting the air ahead of them and sweeping through the thickest parts of the cloud. The green powder burned away on contact—scattered to ash in the wake of the blast. And with it, most of the garrison—only its lower level and roots remained, and those crashed down a moment later. The three of them didn't waste a second. They resumed their run.

But then, a fresh gust—too well-timed to be natural—came rolling in, shoving a new rush of powder straight toward them. Jieyuan ducked low, waving the Shifting Sisters in front of him, trying to fan it away, but it didn't stop all of it. He felt the dust cling wet and cold to the hem of his robes. The fabric started to writhe. A sick, prickling cold chased along his leg. Not physical, but felt with his soulsenses: red spiritual bodies blooming at the edges of his clothes. And spreading. Growing. Fast.

Jieyuan didn't think; he grabbed the hem, ripped it free, and hurled the whole strip of fabric aside. It hit the roots across the street with a wet slap, already crawling with small, twisting threads of green. But then he found himself with a bigger problem at hand—a much bigger one. That jagged, broken-fingered spire by the wall was joining the fray. The entire upper half bent, slow but deliberate, its broken peaks curling inward like clawed fingers closing into a fist.

Then the whole structure dipped forward on a creaking, cracking joint that hadn't existed a moment before. Like some massive arm, it wasn't reaching for the sky anymore—it was reaching for them. The three of them jumped almost in unison (they couldn't have done it better if they'd rehearsed it) as the massive, warped wooden hand slammed down where they'd been. They touched down on the other side of the spire and broke into a dead run forward.

Behind them, the spire was already drawing back, moving again, but too slow— Maeva had Jieyuan throw his body off to the side as one of the lampposts just ahead suddenly came to life, snapping toward him with lightning-fast lashes of branches and vines, long, thin limbs cracking down across the avenue like whips. Right afterward, Maeva put him back on track, and Daojue and Meiyao cut down the next surge of glowing tendrils snapping toward them. Jieyuan joined in, Shifting Sisters swinging and singing.

But then he noticed more movement further ahead—at the entrance—and risked a glance toward it. The entrance was closer than ever (barely a hundred feet left now) but from the looks of things, it wouldn't stay an entrance much longer. Jieyuan's stomach dropped as he saw the roots rising from the ground at the base of the gate. Thick ones. Thousands. Twining fast; an interlocking weave shooting upward to seal the exit shut. Not just fast, but stupidly fast; within a second, almost a third of it was covered.

They didn't stop running, though. As they closed in, the living lampposts already left behind, Daojue angled Gleaming End forward. Another bright beam of spectral, prismatic light surged, ripping a hole in the rapidly forming wall wide enough for them to see the outside again. But already, new growth was surging in to fill the gap. Too fast. A blink later, and it was closed again. At the same time, the roots finished sealing the rest of the entrance at the top. But Daojue kept moving.

As they closed the last few yards, Jieyuan wondered if Daojue would go for another blast. The walls were thick, though, and the passageway was a short tunnel in its own right. If they tried to squeeze through after another blast from Gleaming End, they'd be caught halfway, the way these roots regenerated. Climbing, then? Jieyuan glanced up at the several hundred feet of wall in front of them. That didn't look like a good idea—but it seemed like their only one. Unless…

maybe if they used Radiant Light Blasts, together with Gleaming End's beams? They reached the wall, and Daojue still didn't stop; he charged forward, and thrust Gleaming End into it. There was no blast; but where the spearhead pierced the wall, crystal formed. Gleamstone. A sheet of it, spreading outwards quickly, like blood dropped on water. A second later, and several dozen feet of root-wall had crystallized; and then, starting back where Gleaming End had struck, the crystal began to crumble.

Even as the wave of crystallization spread outward, so did the crumbling—like a second wave—opening a new path in the wall. One that didn't regenerate. Another spiritskill, Jieyuan realized; but there was no time to think on it. Daojue went through the growing gap, and Jieyuan and Meiyao did the same.

Rushing into the hole, Jieyuan saw that the crystallization wasn't just superficial; the entire inside of the wall had turned to Gleamstone, and even as they passed through, it was crumbling into fine, gleaming powder. They came out the other side, feet touching the forest floor. And they didn't stop running, Meiyao taking the lead again as they charged straight into the curtain of mist ahead.

As they rushed into the next much, much smaller pocket of mist (about two dozen feet across, instead of over a mile) Jieyuan barely had time to register that the forest wasn't animated and actively trying to kill them like Viridian Death City before they were on the opposite side, breaking into the next one. And they kept going, not stopping, into the second pocket. Then the third. On the fourth, Meiyao stopped very briefly midway, then veered sharply to the right and crossed into the next one from the side.

It wasn't the first time Meiyao had done something like that, but it rarely happened; most of the time, she'd stop and wait before taking them through the front to the next. Jieyuan and Daojue followed. The next few pockets they crossed straight through. Then Meiyao did another side-entry and then three more turns—left, left, right—back to back, before she had them going forward again.

They'd never gone so fast through the pockets before (today was the first time they'd run at all in almost a month), but this time they kept it for a good few minutes. Jieyuan kept his attention as much on their surroundings as on Meiyao. Though she didn't stop, she was constantly looking around. Her head and eyes whipped frantically in just about every direction, moving about as rapidly as her feet. This time around, he made sure to track exactly where she was stepping into the next pocket.

At this speed he couldn't check for brambles or any immediate dangers on the other side when crossing, so he could only follow her trail exactly. Or rather, so Maeva could—she was still in charge of the running. More than twenty pockets later, and with Meiyao still not stopping, Jieyuan checked in with Huaxin. It'd long since stopped sending feelings of imminent doom—as good a sign as any—but he wanted to be sure. How are things looking, bud? SAFE, Huaxin threw back.

But there was so much uncertainty packed into it (plus a great deal of frustration, which Jieyuan was coming to realize was about par for the course where viridian mist was involved) that he wasn't all that reassured. The possibility of danger was better than the certainty of it, though, so he'd take it. And the forest still wasn't trying to kill them, which was even better news. Nor had they run into any beasts yet.

They went through five more pockets before Meiyao stopped, raising a hand into the air, her back to them. Maeva ground his feet into an immediate stop, and as Daojue came through just moments later he also came to a sudden halt. Meiyao stood still in the middle of the pocket (this one was a clearing proper, with just half of a tree peeking out from the curtain of mist in the corner) only her head moving as she turned in just about every direction.

She kept that up for a while before she turned back around and nodded at them.

"We're good," she said. Jieyuan had already expected as much, but a rush of relief still washed over him, the tension draining out of him. There was shimmer around Meiyao, and then the thick coat of green goo over her body vanished. For a moment Jieyuan caught flashes of skin—a great deal of skin—before he looked away, turning his attention to himself. Partly out of respect, partly because he didn't need the distraction, partly because he needed some cleaning himself.

He pumped some chroma into his all-cleanser, and then the sap on him also vanished. Unlike Meiyao, at no point in the past hour had he grown several feet between shrinking back down, so his robes were mostly intact, even if rather ruffled. He patted them down, smoothing out the creases. Looking back up, he found that Meiyao had already put on new robes—green, like the ruined ones, but in a lighter shade, with slightly different patterns—and was running her hands through her hair.

In just a few passes, it was perfectly styled again, leaving her looking as fresh as it gets. Then she bent down, picked up the length of makeshift rope that had dropped by her feet—probably when she was changing–and started tying it around her waist. While she did that, Jieyuan sent his attention inward. Maeva, I'll take it from here. Maeva stepped out of his body, and his awareness over his lower body returned to full strength.

The image of his sister took a few more steps, turned around, and came to a stop just in front, her yellow sundress and lab coat fluttering in the breeze.

"You'll stay safe, Amyas?" Sure will, he thought at her. In fact, I'll do it like my life depends on it. She gave him that half-reproachful, half-fond smile of hers, and he let the command go. She vanished. Turning back to Meiyao, he saw that she was looking at him. And the look on her face wasn't one that he'd ever seen before, not on her. Grave, taut, eyes downcast, frowning. He moved closer to her.

"Meiyao?" She took a step in his direction. If anything, she only looked more contrite. She wrung her hands together, then let them drop, like she didn't know what to do with them. Like she didn't know what to do with herself.

"I— I'm sorry." The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Ah. That. Jieyuan hadn't thought about what would happen once they were out of the danger—he'd been far more concerned with the getting out of the danger than with what came after. But now that he thought about it, he reckoned he had a fairly good idea of just what was going through Meiyao's head right now. And sure enough, she went on, saying, "I should've listened to you about—""Don't," he said.

She gave him a startled look.

"What?"

"You were the one who wanted to head inside. It was your idea, sure. But it was our decision. We all chose to go inside; and if I'd really pressed the issue, I could've probably convinced you otherwise. Except I didn't." Meiyao's frown deepened, but it was more out of confusion now, that sad, guilty look fading, slipping away.

"But—""The only reason we're alive so far is because of you," Jieyuan cut her off again.

"Daojue and I, by ourselves, would've probably died long ago. And as dangerous as what happened was, we still got out just about unscathed. So your balance with us is still well in the positive." He paused.

"Of course, I can't speak for Daojue, but…" He glanced over at Daojue, who hadn't moved from the entrance of the pocket but had also cleansed himself. Daojue wasn't looking at them. Instead, he was holding Gleaming End out in front of him and staring at it intently.

"I figured as much," Jieyuan said, looking back at Meiyao.

"Just one thing, though."

"Yes?" Meiyao was still frowning, but not as strongly. She looked more unsure now than anything else, like she didn't know what to make of all this. Jieyuan wouldn't be surprised if Meiyao hadn't done much apologizing in her life. She struck him more as the type to just move past any mistakes she made and pretend they didn't happen and expect everyone else to do the same. He could empathize. He wasn't much different.

Owning up like that and apologizing— Well, it wasn't quite on the level of the Pains, but for proud folk like them, it was its own sort of agony.

"Next time, if I get a bad feeling about something? We trust my instincts, not yours." Jieyuan gave her a pointed look, then tapped his chest.

"Your bloodgift works wonders—there's no denying that—but clearly you've got a few blind spots yourself."

"Agreed," Meiyao said, and Jieyuan realized she really was hung up over this, to put up no resistance whatsoever. Her gaze moved to his chest.

"It's really awakened, then? You brought it up earlier, but…"

"It is," Jieyuan said.

"But the mist's screwing up Fatebloom Intuition. As it is, it can't predict anything with any level of precision, but as long as something is in the same pocket, it can still get a general sense for it, I think." Meiyao nodded. She worked her jaw for a bit, pursed her lips.

"Well, that aside, there's still some things we should talk about. About what happened." She cocked her head toward the side of the clearing, where the tree was.

"Sit over there? Sure," Jieyuan said.

"I've got some questions myself. But before that, there's something else to address. Daojue?" Daojue looked up from his inspection of his spear—or whatever it was he'd been doing—and fixed his violet eyes on Jieyuan. Jieyuan nodded at Gleaming End.

"Earlier, those two powers you used. That beam of light and that crystallizing touch. Those were spiritskills, right?" Daojue didn't answer.

"I'll take that as a yes. Is there any reason why you only used them now?" Jieyuan asked. He kept his tone neutral.

"Not that I'm not grateful, but I think they'd have come in handy back during the ambush at the palace entrance."

"I did not use them." Honestly, Jieyuan had expected Daojue to stay silent, in true Daojue fashion. Given the answer he got, though, he reckoned silence might've actually been better.

"What do you mean, you didn't use them?" Daojue looked back down at Gleaming End. Jieyuan followed Daojue's gaze. Then he glanced back at Daojue. Then back at the spear. He recalled how Daojue had been staring at it, earlier. And he recalled how Daojue had said Gleaming End was alive, and how Daojue shouldn't have been able to bond with it in the first place, being a Redsoul. And though Daojue didn't say anything else, an answer came to Jieyuan's mind all the same.

"It was Gleaming End who used them?" Jieyuan asked.

"Not you, but Gleaming End?" Daojue's gaze shifted back to him. Jieyuan waited a beat, but Daojue remained silent. That was all the answer he needed, though.

"I see," Jieyuan said.

"Well, that's— That's that, then." He gave Gleaming End a longer, more thoughtful look. Daojue had really lucked out with it. Then again, he couldn't think of anybody else that'd be more worthy of it, Daojue being the best spear artist he knew by a long shot. Jieyuan didn't know if that was what Gleaming End had based its choice on, but even if it wasn't? Daojue had everyone Jieyuan knew beat in just about every regard.

"Can you make it use them?" Jieyuan asked, just to get a better idea of the situation.

"No," Daojue said. So they shouldn't be making any plans around Gleaming End's spiritskills. They were a last resort, and even that was a stretch.

"And has it got any other spiritskills?"

"No."

"All right," Jieyuan said.

"I'll leave you to it, then." Daojue sat down where he was, propping Gleaming End on his lap, and closed his eyes. Jieyuan then nodded to Meiyao, who looked away from Gleaming End. They walked over to the opposite side of the pocket. Jieyuan eyed the tree warily as they approached; it should be safe, and neither Meiyao nor Huaxin were raising any alarms, but he didn't reckon he'd ever look at a tree the same way again. It was an oak, too, which didn't make it any better.

Jieyuan had had enough of oaks and willows (and Heavens forbid, oakwillows) for a lifetime. The tree did nothing, just stood there like the tree it was (like a tree was supposed to do, in a sensible world), with half its body hidden by the mist. They settled down next to each other under its canopy, right by the trunk. Or at least that was Jieyuan's idea, but as they were sitting Meiyao turned to fully face him. He did likewise.

"You first," Jieyuan said. It was hardly his first time sitting with Meiyao like this; they did it more often than not lately when they stopped for the day. Having Meiyao's full attention on him like this—her green eyes boring into his black ones—was intense. Jieyuan had grown used to Meiyao's looks, but he didn't think he'd ever grow numb to it. At least now he knew her beauty was unnatural, that the Linzushen Bloodline was behind it. That didn't detract from it any, though.

If anything, it only emphasized the otherworldly nature of it.

"I need you to tell me exactly what happened, with the Sacred Source," Meiyao said.

"All I know is that one moment I'd turned to look at it—and the next moment the whole Viridian Cradle had come alive, and you were carrying me up the steps, and my robes were ruined. What you told me at the time was a bit lacking in the details."

"That wasn't exactly a situation for long explanations. But what I said back then is basically it, though. You fell into a trance and started walking toward the Sacred Source. I tried to pull you, but then you launched me into the air—""I what?"

"You launched me into the air," Jieyuan repeated. She looked at him in disbelief.

"If you are surprised, how do you think I felt?" Jieyuan shrugged.

"You were using Divine Nature Unison, I think. And I don't think it's ever been that strong. Your green aura was like a blaze. You moved like a tenth-step Redrealm, picked me up, and sent me flying. Daojue was the one who caught me, actually, and— No, that doesn't matter." He decided against telling her about Daojue's warning, that Meiyao would've killed him if he got any closer. He wasn't sure what had made Daojue think that, in the first place.

"Anyway, when I looked at you again, I saw that you were… different. And getting more different by the second. Changing." Meiyao leaned forward.

"Yes?" No doubt about it; this was the part she was really interested in. Her transformation. Jieyuan would've just summed it up, but seeing that this was what she wanted to know, he recalled the scene and properly put it into words.

"You were getting bigger. Taller and wider too. Your hair was also growing longer. The color of your skin was also darkening, turning the same shade of brown as the Sacred Source. By the time you reached it, you were over eight feet tall. Over nine, maybe, though not ten feet. Your shoulders had also broadened to the point you'd make Daojue's look narrow." Meiyao said nothing, just kept looking at him expectantly, and he went over the scene again in his head, looking for anything he might have missed.

"Your waist had also thickened," he said.

"It'd become… Well, trunk-like. Your hair was at your thighs, too, and flaring to the sides, turning bushy. And…" As he summoned the scene again he noticed something he hadn't really paid much attention to at the time. He saw it again in his mind's eye, Meiyao standing there, towering, wholly inhuman. More plant, more tree, than person.

"I think your hair might have been turning green, too. Or at least greenish." Nothing else came to mind; that seemed to be it.

"Anyway, that was when you touched the tree, and the Dome came alive. I tried to grab you again then, and this time you didn't resist. Then you started shrinking and just seconds later you were back to normal. So I picked you up and set off running. The rest you already know." Meiyao nodded.

"Hmmm." She didn't say anything, though, so Jieyuan asked, "Does that— Do you know what happened, then? Because it didn't look like the same thing that happened to the other Linzushen there. Those ones had trees grown around them. You were turning into a tree, which is a bit different."

"I don't… I don't think I was turning into a tree." Jieyuan wasn't sure if she'd said those words to him or to herself. Meiyao had the look of someone only half paying attention to the conversation. Of someone busy concentrating on their thoughts.

"Really?" Jieyuan asked.

"Because that's what it looked like, to me."

"I was becoming like a tree," Meiyao said slowly. Tentatively, like she was still working through it in her head.

"But not a tree." She turned toward the tree beside them. The trunk wasn't even a foot away from them, and she reached out, pressing a hand against the bark. She closed her eyes.

"I think… Maybe…" Jieyuan had a bad feeling about this even though Huaxin didn't bring up anything. That feeling only got worse when Meiyao began to change. It happened just like in the Dome. Her skin began to darken, and she started growing upward and sideways. Except it was much faster now than back then. Jieyuan had barely blinked and her skin was already a deep, dark brown, she was sitting over a foot taller than he was, and her hair was turning a deep green. Her eyebrows, too. Jieyuan lunged, reaching forward.

But as he grabbed to pull her away he found he couldn't move her. She wouldn't budge even an inch. And then Meiyao, with that kind of gentle strength only someone vastly stronger than you could wield, effortlessly broke his hold, pushing him off softly with her arm. Her eyes were open again. And they were glowing, vibrantly green. Her hair, fanning out behind her in great curls all the way to the ground, was glowing green the exact same way. Her skin was glowing too, but brown.

"Not a tree," Meiyao said, in a low, deep rumble. Her body had expanded to the point of bulging against her robes in virtually every way, but not to the point of tearing it." Like a tree." Jieyuan stared at her, wide-eyed.

"What in the Heavens?" A sound like rolling stones came out of Meiyao's mouth. It was only after a moment that Jieyuan realized it was supposed to be a chuckle. There was a wooden quality to her face now, her skin almost bark-like, but she still managed to give him a teasing look. The glowing eyebrows gave it a rather unsettling—though borderline comical—flair. Then Meiyao shrunk down, her skin lightening, her hair pulling back in. As quickly as she'd transformed, she turned normal again.

Her expression remained the same, though.

"What do you think?" she said.

"What do I think?" Jieyuan repeated. His heart raced in his chest, but that was all his own doing. All Huaxin was sending him was AMUSEMENT.

"It's a bloodgift, isn't it?" Meiyao beamed at him, wide and bright and impossibly lovely.

"A fourth-order one. One that the Linzushen lost."

"It… It turns you into a tree?" Jieyuan asked, then he remembered the distinction she'd insisted on earlier.

"Or, well, like a tree?" But the moment the words left his mouth, Jieyuan realized that wasn't quite right. Because the transformation just now was different from back then. Meiyao hadn't glowed when she'd transformed back inside the Cradle, and she'd also gotten much taller. Her skin had also turned a lighter, more pale shade of brown, matching the Sacred Source's trunk. What did match the shade of brown Meiyao had turned into just now, though, was the tree right beside them.

This tree was also glowing the same way Meiyao had just now, trunk and leaves. And it was much smaller than the Sacred Source.

"Divine Nature Resonance." Meiyao was still smiling widely. Jieyuan doubted he'd ever seen her this happy, this excited.

"Now that I know about it, it's like I've unlocked it. I know its name and what it does. It grants me the properties of what I resonate with. So it does make me like a tree, if I'm resonating with one." Divine Nature Resonance. Nature.

"You can… resonate with other things. Other plants…" Her smile got wider, her eyes expectant. Nature.

"Not just plants," Jieyuan corrected himself. But then the realization really set in.

"You mean chromal beasts?"

"Yes." Jieyuan had thought Meiyao's other fourth-order bloodgift, Divine Nature Unison, was already stupidly powerful. But if he'd understood correctly what Divine Nature Resonance did…

"When you say it gives you the properties of what you resonate with," Jieyuan said, "you mean…?"

"All of it," Meiyao said. She rapped her knuckle against the trunk of the tree.

"With this tree, it was strength, and weight, and durability. But if I were to resonate with a chromal beast? That'd also include any spiritskills it might have. They wouldn't be quite the same, the same way I didn't turn completely into a tree, but a diminished version, I think."

"That's…" Jieyuan searched for a word that'd fit, even as he thought of the possibilities. The Heavens really didn't play fair, did they? Meiyao laughed.

"It's not all blooms and blossoms, mind you. I get the properties good and bad. Resonating with this tree would also slow me down considerably. So greater strength and durability, but slower speed."

"I don't think there'd be as many drawbacks with a chromal beast, though," Jieyuan said.

"It'd depend on the beast, but you're right. Probably not." Meiyao smirked.

"It's not all good, but it's still very good." Jieyuan was feeling all sorts of things, then. Envy and surprise, sure, but happiness too. Because Meiyao being stronger increased all their chances of survival. And he found he was happy for her too, for becoming stronger, and even for unraveling more of her heritage, considering how much that clearly meant to her. But he put all that aside for now, and let reason take hold.

They couldn't count on Gleaming End's spiritskills, but they could count on Meiyao's new bloodgift. Now they needed to figure out exactly how it worked, so they could properly account for it.

"You said you can tell its name and what it does," Jieyuan said.

"It's like when you sprout a skillseed, then? How good a grasp do you have on its mechanics? Does it use chroma? Can the target of the resonance resist it? What about range? The sooner we figure out exactly how it works, the better, I think." As he spoke, Meiyao's expression had turned more and more serious, and by the end of it she was nodding.

"Right," she said.

"It's exactly like sprouting a skillseed, yes. I only have a general sense of how it works. But when I tried with the tree, I got a better idea. Let's see… It doesn't cost any chroma. And I think there is a range limit—I must be within some distance of what I'm resonating with—but I'm not sure how high it is. As for resistance…" She frowned.

"I don't think so, but I'd have to try it with a chromal beast to know for sure."

"That's a start," Jieyuan said. Already he was coming up with ways to fill in the gaps and other questions in need of answer. He'd be calling up Maeva later, too. She was the scientist, this kind of stuff would be well in her realm of business.

"What about realm limitations? Does it work like a bondskill, and you can't use it on a target at a higher realm?" Before Meiyao could answer, Jieyuan recalled the first thing she had used her bloodgift on, even if at the time he hadn't known what she was doing.

"Wait. No. You used it on the Sacred Source… which is at Orangerealm." Meiyao's eyes widened, and Jieyuan realized that probably hadn't occurred to her yet.

"I think there's a limit," Meiyao said.

"I get the sense that there should be one, but it's like with my other bloodgifts. They're more powerful inside the Viridian Dome, and on the Dome's plants and beasts. Even then, Orangerealm should be the limit." Jieyuan was fairly sure their chances of survival had just shot up considerably. Depending on the extent of the resonance with Orangerealm plants and beasts… Up until now, the only thing they had that could do an Orangesoul any damage was Gleaming End, which was at Orangerealm itself.

But that might not be the case anymore. Their brief and terribly unfortunate trip into the Viridian Death City hadn't been for nothing, after all. They kept at it. Jieyuan thought of other questions, and Meiyao answered to the best of her ability. She came up with some questions herself, and Jieyuan started making a list of all the things they'd have to test. They built up a fairly long list before both of them ran out of ideas.

"That's about it, then," Jieyuan said. He glanced over at Daojue, who hadn't moved an inch from the last time Jieyuan had looked his way, then said to Meiyao, "I can take first watch." It was half offer, half asking for permission. Meiyao closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded, "Sure. I'm feeling rather tired, too. I think… I think Divine Nature Resonance doesn't use chroma, but it does drain my stamina."

"Good to know," Jieyuan said. He then shifted his body around, turning to rest his back against the tree to give Meiyao some space. He was more than a little surprised when Meiyao followed suit, leaning back against the tree beside him, close enough that their shoulders brushed each other's. He didn't say anything, though, and Meiyao closed her eyes. The biggest surprise came a few moments later, when he felt a weight—a soft, warm weight—settle on his shoulder.

And he looked over to see Meiyao's head resting on his shoulder, her long, flowing hair falling across his chest and ribs. This close he could smell a soft, floral scent coming from her, piercing through the forest's moist, earthy smell of intermingled growth and rot. He went still, then focused on her breathing. It was the even, rhythmic one of someone asleep. But this was Meiyao. There was no way this wasn't intentional. She wouldn't have done this if she wasn't comfortable enough with him.

Jieyuan just sat there, basking in both her warmth and the warmth blooming in his own chest. It was only a while later that he snapped out of it. As much as he'd have loved to just bask in Meiyao's presence, learning about her new power had lit a fire under him. She'd just widened the gap between them. He needed to close it again. And he already had an avenue to pursue.

"See Maeva," he whispered. Maeva appeared on his other side, in her yellow sunsundressd white lab coat. Sitting on the ground, leaning against the tree. Blue eyes peered at him, flicked over to Meiyao's head on his shoulder, then back to him. She grinned, her face lighting up.

"Oh, you two are just adorable." Shush, he thought at her. Focus. We have things to discuss. She rolled her eyes but nodded.

"What do you want to know, exactly?" The way you controlled my body. Tell me exactly how it works and what I can do to move like that myself.

"Well, you already have the general idea," Maeva said.

"See, the human brain is much more powerful. What your conscious mind is capable of is only the surface. Behind the scenes, you're running all sorts of calculations and simulations. Say you get into an argument with someone." An argument? She gave him a shushing look.

"Throughout the discussion, your mind will be taking all the information you know on that person, processing it, and then telling you what to say next. All in a snap. It's the same thing when someone throws something at you. Your mind will unconsciously crunch a bunch of physics and mathematical calculations before you react and catch it. What I do when I'm fighting—alongside you using your soulforce or in your body—is fully optimize your mind for movement and combat." Jieyuan nodded.

That was along the lines of what he'd assumed. Meiyao shifted slightly against his shoulder, and he went still, realizing that physically reacting to Maeva wasn't a good idea right now. He glanced at Daojue and confirmed the man still had eyes closed, not paying him any attention. Maeva wasn't that big of a secret, but it was still rather weird and he'd really rather not have to explain. All right. What I'm getting from that is that it's something I should be able to do it as well.

If you can do it, then I can also come up with a Command that replicates that effect.

"Correct," Maeva said, though she wore a slightly hesitant look that there were caveats to it.

"But it's not that simple. You saw how much difficulty I had speaking in that state. It's not as bad when I'm controlling your soulforce, because that's much more straightforward, but when I'm controlling your body, if I want to push it to the limits, speech is an ordeal. You see, I may be a product of your unconscious, but think much like you do, to a certain extent." What do you mean?

"The Command you use to summon me, as you use it, essentially allocates a portion of your brain's processing power to sustain me. Almost like a second mind. And while the brain's power is astounding, there are limits to it. Higher reasoning is almost entirely beyond me. Even when I'm just using your soulforce, even though I can communicate rather normally, I don't. Because there's no point; all of me is focused on the moment, so I cannot contribute with advice or tactics." That's... Jieyuan blinked.

He hadn't noticed it before, but she was right. Maeva was highly intelligent. This wasn't the real Maeva, but he'd already gotten plenty of proof that her hallucination was smarter than he was. Probably because she could tap into his unconscious like that. And yet she never contributed to any tactics mid-combat. Never made any plans of her own. Whenever he used her in a fight, she just followed his directions.

"If you were to use a Command to repurpose your mind entirely toward movement and combat," Maeva continued, "you would actually fare better than I do. Because you'd have your brain all to yourself, rather than sharing it with me. But if you wanted to reproduce the things I did earlier with your body, you'd still have to give up much of your higher reasoning." She gave him a firm look.

"And that's not worth it. Not when your biggest edge over Meiyao and Daojue is your ability to strategize." Jieyuan frowned as he mulled it over. But he didn't have to consider it long; he'd known Maeva was right as soon as she'd said it, really. There was a lot he was willing to do to measure up to Meiyao and Daojue, but if he used a Command like that, while he'd be closing the gap between them considerably in combat, he'd lose his tactical mind. And he couldn't give that up.

It was just as Maeva had said: it was his greatest advantage over Meiyao and Daojue. But… You also said that what you were doing, I could also do with enough training. That you were just tapping into my potential. Maeva smiled. It was a smile he knew well, the one she gave him whenever he said something she approved of. There was an almost parental quality to it. And Maeva had been more of Amyas's parent than his real mother and father had ever been, which only contributed to that impression.

"I was getting to that," she said.

"You still have a lot of room for improvement, Jieyuan. You practiced martial arts as well as you could have growing up, but I suspect that still doesn't measure up to the training clan-born children get." Maeva's blue eyes glanced meaningfully past him, at Meiyao, and then over to Daojue on the other side of the clearing." If nothing else, I can tell you have yet to fully realize your talent.

You can train your body—train your mind—to naturally do everything I did today, without relying on a Command, without sacrificing your higher reasoning. And that's what I propose you do. What I propose we do, in fact. Because while we've discarded one particular use of Absolute Will Command, that doesn't mean we can't use it for training, and I can help you with that." Jieyuan didn't particularly mind shortcuts to power. He cared more about the ends than the means.

But he'd be lying if he said he wouldn't rather earn his power, and that was clearly what Maeva was proposing here. All right, Jieyuan thought at he. Ambition, fiery and bright, surged within him, coursing through his veins, blazing in his heart. How do we start? Maeva grinned at him.