Chapter 122: A Strange Mother-Daughter Relationship
Xia Feng looked up.
Mu Qingtong, dressed in a black dress, sat by the black and white piano. Her eyelids were slightly lowered as she played a brisk, lively melody that gradually grew more powerful.
She glanced at Xia Feng with her beautiful eyes, paying him little mind. Instead, she opened her red lips slightly to sing along with the music, as if about to belt out another tune.
Xia Feng’s expression changed. He quickly took out a milky white fruit and roughly stuffed it into her mouth, silencing her song.
Caught off guard, Mu Qingtong froze, her cheeks bulging like a pilfering hamster. She stared at Xia Feng with wide eyes.
“Gulp—”
The milky white fruit in her mouth melted, transforming into a spirit flow that was quickly absorbed. The black-dressed woman’s puffed cheeks deflated instantly, and she glared at Xia Feng, annoyed. “You—”
However, to her surprise, Xia Feng moved swiftly and shoved another milky white fruit into her mouth!
“This is a Spirit Treasure Fruit, a good thing~” Xia Feng said sincerely as he shoved it in, looking down at her. “It’s all yours~ I’m such a good person~”
“!!!”
The Spirit Treasure Fruit was large, its skin rough, but it melted in the mouth. After Xia Feng quickly stuffed a few in, Mu Qingtong soon felt a change in her body’s spirit particle structure. Her soul space was expanding, and her spirit particles were continuously condensing and increasing.
Mu Qingtong covered her mouth, glared fiercely at Xia Feng, and then began to absorb, stabilizing her spirit particle structure.
Under normal circumstances, a Spirit Master wishing to increase their spirit pressure could only do so by meticulously optimizing their internal spirit particle structure day and night, increasing the density of their spirit particles to store more within their limited soul space.
The more spirit particles stored in a limited space, the higher the spirit particle density, and thus the higher the spirit pressure.
To put it simply, everyone’s soul space is limited, like a 500ml water bottle. The spirit particles are evenly distributed within the bottle.
If a Spirit Master wants to increase their spirit particle quantity, they need to compress the spirit particles within the space to free up more room for storage.
This compression process leads to increased spirit particle density and pressure.
When the pressure reaches a certain level, the Spirit Master will advance, and their life level will be elevated.
Therefore, people often use stages of ‘spirit pressure’ to represent a person’s strength level.
However, spirit pressure and spirit particle quantity are not the same concept.
Spirit pressure represents a Spirit Master’s rank.
As for the term ‘spirit particle quantity,’ it actually refers to the amount of spirit particles, which is the energy consumed when releasing a skill. Higher-level Spirit Robes require more spirit particles to consume.
It’s just that later, out of habit, ‘spirit pressure’ was used to represent the energy level of a Spirit Master.
After all, it’s almost impossible for a Second-stage Spirit Master to possess the spirit particle quantity of a Third-stage Spirit Master.
But this can be achieved through Spirit Treasure Fruits. Eating one can expand the soul space, equivalent to increasing the size of the water bottle.
If the storage space is enlarged, there’s no need to painstakingly compress spirit particles to store more.
Spirit Treasure Fruit is an indirect method of increasing spirit particle storage.
Many “Spirit Second Generation” individuals use this method to quickly increase their spirit particle quantity, thereby widening the gap with ordinary Spirit Masters.
However, consuming Spirit Treasure Fruits also builds resistance, and eating too many will become ineffective.
Mu Qingtong’s absorption efficiency was very high, without any waste. As her soul space continuously grew,
Xia Feng also felt his spirit body expanding.
The spirit particles that could no longer proliferate began to proliferate slowly automatically upon sensing the extra space, as if a game’s mana bar had suddenly gained a small extension.
Xia Feng estimated he could now release one more C-class Spirit Robe.
“How does it feel?”
Seeing Mu Qingtong open her eyes, Xia Feng asked.
The black-dressed woman looked up and said softly, “Average.”
“Don’t be ungrateful. This is only a Level 1 Spirit Treasure Fruit, but it’s still very difficult to obtain.”
“Mr. Xia, I didn’t ask for it. Please don’t stuff things into my mouth in the future, or I’ll get really angry.”
“Oh, okay, I won’t dare to next time.”
Seeing the boy in front of her nod earnestly and obediently, Mu Qingtong pursed her lips helplessly. She knew that while Xia Feng was apologizing on the surface, he would definitely do it again next time!
But it was okay. Her research had recently made a breakthrough—gaining strength by inflicting pain on extraordinary lifeforms. Once her research was successful, she would beat up Xia Feng fiercely, every day!
With this thought, she sensed her soul space again.
Spirit Treasure Fruits were indeed good, but they had a significant drawback—the more Spirit Treasure Fruits one ate, the harder it was to increase their spirit pressure.
This was because with a wider space, the amount of spirit particles that needed to be compressed for advancement also increased. Therefore, it required optimizing a better and more sophisticated spirit particle structure for perfect compression, which heavily tested a Spirit Master’s talent.
Furthermore, if a Second-stage Spirit Master, by eating Spirit Treasure Fruits, possessed the spirit particle quantity of a Third-stage Spirit Master, but without advancing, their spirit particle density would remain at the Second-stage level. This would lead to weaker defensive capabilities.
For example, if Xia Feng attacked a Third-stage Spirit Master with the sharp tail of his Six-tailed form, it might be blocked by the high-pressure spirit flow around the Spirit Master, causing an obstruction. However, against a Second-stage Spirit Master with sparse spirit particle density, Xia Feng’s tail tip could instantly kill them.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, even the “Spirit Second Generation” wouldn’t dare to eat too many Spirit Treasure Fruits.
After all, Spirit Treasure Fruits could only raise the mana pool to the Third or even Fourth stage, but defensive capabilities, mental power, and physique would remain at Second-stage levels, and the difficulty of advancement would increase exponentially.
In summary: Spirit Treasure Fruit is a double-edged sword, with both advantages and disadvantages.
However, for Mu Qingtong, there were clearly only advantages, no disadvantages.
After feeling the benefits of the Spirit Treasure Fruit, she looked up and said, “If you have any Spirit Treasure Fruits you don’t need in the future, you can sell them to me.”
“Those three Spirit Treasure Fruits just now, at the recent black market price, were 30 million each. I’ll transfer the money to you tomorrow.”
Xia Feng was about to say “we’re friends, no need,” but upon hearing that he could get them for free, he immediately fell silent.
“Miss Mu, I greatly admire your business acumen.” Xia Feng took her small hand, a sincere smile on his face. “Happy cooperation!”
“…” Mu Qingtong always felt that the way this guy looked at her carried an inexplicable meaning. Although she didn’t know what that meaning was, it was definitely not something good!
Her expression turned cold, and she slapped Xia Feng’s hand away, pursing her lips. “I asked you here for something serious.”
“Oh, what is it?”
Xia Feng followed Mu Qingtong to the sofa.
“After Wen Zaiye’s body was taken back by the Holy Department, they didn’t find any useful information on him.”
Mu Qingtong picked up a document from the coffee table and handed it to Xia Feng. “However, I used my ability to recall Wen Zaiye’s remnant soul. After questioning him, I discovered some things.”
Xia Feng took the document.
It was Wen Zaiye’s personal information.
[Wen Zaiye, born in Junlin City, District 51. Joined the Black Moon Holy See two years ago for unknown reasons, becoming a Black Moon Knight. Stole the ‘Moon God Tear’ in March this year and defected. During his escape, he committed multiple crimes, resulting in the death of one Spirit Master and injury to three civilians.]
Xia Feng quickly scanned the information. At the bottom, under the confession section, he saw two entries.
[He Jianzhu, Orphanage]
“The remnant soul’s memory is incomplete, making it difficult to extract useful information,” Mu Qingtong said calmly. “But he mentioned these two terms many times.”
!
Based on the information he had just glimpsed, He Jianzhu was Mu Qingtong’s mother. The official cause of death was suicide. Xia Feng vaguely guessed, “So, you want to investigate the truth behind your mother’s death?”
“The truth about her death…”
Mu Qingtong paused, pursed her lips, and said softly, “Yes, something like that.”
“Something like that?” Xia Feng’s gaze was suspicious.
“In short, according to the information Wen Zaiye provided, He Jianzhu’s death might be related to a certain orphanage.”
Mu Qingtong picked up a tablet, swiped through it a few times, and brought up a map.
“And after studying Wen Zaiye’s escape route, I found that he kept circling around Yuanhe Town. Even when cornered and pursued, he refused to leave, instead heading directly into the Mi Jia Calamity Realm on the outskirts of Yuanhe Town.”
“So I looked up the orphanages in Yuanhe Town.” She zoomed in on the map with two fingers, her voice calm. “There’s only one, Yuanhe Orphanage. It was once funded by the Purple Magnolia Charity Foundation under an Earl, and it’s been in existence for nearly twenty years.”
“I understand, you want me to accompany you to this place?”
“Not entirely stupid.”
“Heh, I’ll take that as a compliment.”
Xia Feng clapped his hands and stood up, grinning. “Then let’s go. This great me will accompany you to find your mom.”
“…”
“Oh, right. Aren’t we reporting this matter to the Holy Department?” Xia Feng asked suddenly.
The black-dressed woman smiled slightly. “Mr. Xia, I want to investigate He Jianzhu’s matter in secret. I don’t want too many people to know.”
“Don’t worry, don’t worry, I’m the most tight-lipped.” Xia Feng made a zipping motion across his mouth.
After a brief preparation, the two began driving towards Yuanhe Town.
Xia Feng sat in the back seat, watching the streetlights flash by outside the window, his black pupils narrowed.
He Jianzhu—Mu Shen’s mother! The World-Ending Witch’s mother!
To be honest, Xia Feng was quite curious about what kind of person He Jianzhu was to give birth to such an odd daughter.
He had actually observed a detail earlier. People nowadays generally refer to their mothers as ‘my mom’ or ‘my mother,’ but Mu Qingtong directly called He Jianzhu by her name.
The relationship between these mother and daughter was clearly not right.
“By the way, where is your father?” he suddenly turned and asked curiously. The current head of the Mu Clan was not Mu Qingtong’s father.
Mu Qingtong glanced at him with her beautiful eyes. “I don’t have a father.”
“…Oh, is that so? It looks like it’s going to rain outside.” Xia Feng turned to look out the window, observing the sky with a serious expression.
“No father” clearly meant he was dead.
As everyone knew, protagonists and world-destroying villains in novels, despite their different roles, shared a similar upbringing: they were born with cheat codes, without fatherly or motherly love, yet they ended up on opposing sides.
Mu Qingtong’s fate, Xia Feng mused, would undoubtedly make her the protagonist of this world, or perhaps the world-destroying villain.
“Right, I almost forgot.” He suddenly took out Spirit Paper and spread it out in front of Mu Qingtong. “Miss Mu!”
Mu Qingtong looked up in confusion.
Knowledge was once again forcefully inserted into her brain in a crude manner.
“You’re doing it again!” Mu Qingtong was somewhat helpless. This guy always liked to force things upon her, as if looking down on her for not improving fast enough.
Very arrogant! This also made her very unhappy!
[You forcefully injected knowledge into Mu Qingtong’s body in a crude manner. You instantly memorized the Spirit Particle Structure Diagram of ‘Exoneration Mandate’.]
[After accumulating countless Spirit Particle Structures, you have long since mastered the Spirit Particle Structures of low and mid-tier abilities with ease. You quickly understood the complex Spirit Particle Structure of ‘Exoneration Mandate’—30%.]
Under Xia Feng’s astonished gaze, Mu Qingtong instantly memorized and learned it at an astonishing speed.
[39%]
[… ]
[59%]
The progress continued to soar wildly.
Mu Qingtong’s learning speed now far exceeded his imagination.
