Chương 56: Chapter 55: STAKE YOUR CLAIM

Jieyuan had thought he knew what kisses felt like. Pleasant little sensations. Warm, tingly. He'd fooled around with maids from his household before and with young ladies from prominent families, but now he was realizing he'd never kissed before. Not really. All those times he must've been doing something else, or maybe something wrong, because they had felt nothing like this.

It didn't take even a moment for Jieyuan to lose himself in the sensation of it. Of her. His blood sang under his skin, fire coursing through him. Meiyao's entire body was melded against his. He felt every inch of her with searing clarity through the thick robes she wore. Her breasts pressed against his chest, her thighs hugging his legs. Her arms cradling his back, pulling him into her, just as tightly as he pulled her into him. His eyes were closed but he could see her clearly. See and feel her.

Her heat, her breath, her strength, her presence. Smell the scent of her, too—soft and floral, of summer and spring. It filled his lungs, replacing the rotten sweetness that clung to the air in the Dome. The entire time their lips stayed locked, struggling against each other. Her hands traveled up his back, reaching into his hair, and he found himself doing the same, his fingers tangling in her tresses as they each just kept trying to press further and further into each other. But then Jieyuan felt something else.

Something slender and furry, pressing into his neck. And then Meiyao released him, gently pulling away, and he let go, despite his every instinct screaming at him not to, to keep her in his arms and never let go. Taking a step back, he blinked, half-dazed, still caught up in the lingering phantom of the kiss, as he took in the creature that stood on Meiyao's shoulder. Its body was long and sleek, streamlined. It had a thick coat of fur, the top half of it a snowy white, the underbelly a deep, vibrant green.

Tiny, beady green eyes stared straight at him, set in a long, triangular face. Wrapped like that around her neck, the little beast could easily have passed for a scarf. Its body was about as long as his forearm, and its tail, hanging down from Meiyao's shoulder, almost doubled its length. Jieyuan wasn't sure what it was supposed to be, or even what its mundane counterpart was. A ferret, maybe? It could be some sort of weasel, too. Meiyao laughed gently as she reached up with her hand to rub the beast's head.

"Xiaohu? What's wrong, girl?" Before Jieyuan could speak, the beast jumped, and the next thing he knew there was a weight settling around his shoulders, little claws treading softly against his skin as the creature perched itself on his shoulders. It then raised its head to his, looking up into his eyes from just inches away. Jieyuan just stood there, looking between the beast and Meiyao, entirely unsure what he was supposed to do now.

As if the little beast had reached some decision, it gave a sharp little yip before nuzzling its head into his neck. And then it just stayed there, fully wrapped around his neck, its tail gently swaying against his bare chest.

"I think she likes you," Meiyao said. She was smiling, clearly amused. Jieyuan just stared at her. He wasn't sure what to make of the situation. He wasn't even quite all there, to begin with. Half of him was still stuck in the very recent past, reliving their kiss. And the other half wasn't any better, urging him to just take Meiyao into his arms again and pick up from where they left off. He wasn't sure how long the kiss had lasted. But he did know it was nowhere near long enough. And that he wanted more.

It took considerable effort to push those thoughts aside and focus on the present. He only managed it because he knew that the sooner he dealt with the current situation, the sooner he could get back to what really mattered: having Meiyao's lips on his again.

"Right," Jieyuan said.

"So. I'm guessing this is some new friend you made?" He didn't reckon it was particularly safe to have a chromal beast this close to him, even more so an Orangerealm one. But Meiyao didn't seem at all bothered or concerned, and he trusted her judgment. So after a moment's hesitation, he reached a hand up and tentatively ran his fingers through the creature's fur. It felt… soft. Soft and warm. Plushy, almost.

He didn't appreciate how it had interrupted him and Meiyao earlier, but he'd be lying if he said the little ferret-like beast didn't make for an awfully comfortable scarf. The beast purred, coiling tighter around him.

"You could say that," Meiyao said. She took a step closer, raising her hand, brushing the back of her fingers against his cheeks.

"It's… Heavens, I've got so much to tell you. I still can't believe— I can't believe you're here. That I'm seeing you again." She had an expression that he couldn't quite describe, her eyes deep and fathomless and glistening, like she was halfway to tears. There was a scared sort of tenderness to her gaze and touch, like she was touching something fragile. Jieyuan swallowed, her every touch setting trails of fire on his skin. He tried to find something to say, but he kept drawing blanks.

But then Meiyao looked down, past his face, past the beast wrapped around his shoulders, to his naked chest and stomach. She blinked. Her brow furrowed. She took a step back, and then another. She was still looking at him, but she wasn't staring anymore; now she was meticulously running her eyes over his body, scrutinizing every inch of exposed skin. The more she looked, the deeper her frown grew. It took Jieyuan a moment to realize just what had set off this reaction.

He recalled how Meiyao had looked at him much the same way once before. Back in the infirmary at the Gleaming Stone Palace, when she'd seen him shirtless the first time. Seen his scars. He had a great deal more scars now than he did back then. Not to mention a number of fresh, still-red wounds. Clearly, that hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Jieyuan… You…" She looked back up at his eyes, her lips drawn tight.

"Rotting Heavens. It looks… It looks like you have much to tell me, yourself." He forced out a chuckle. The Heavens knew how much Meiyao's concern meant for him. But he also didn't want to see her concerned. He couldn't quite explain it, only that he wanted her frown gone, and her smile back.

"Oh, I've had a blast and a half," he said.

"Daojue and I—" Jieyuan froze. Right. Daojue. He looked to the side. Daojue was standing some feet away, facing the other direction, Gleaming End held to the side. Keeping watch, unless Jieyuan wasn't mistaken. The wound on his chest had already stopped bleeding; no doubt he'd already taken a healing pill. The beast on his shoulder—Xiaohu, Meiyao had called it, unless he'd heard it wrong—stirred, and Jieyuan saw it lift its head in Daojue's direction, its little green eyes focusing on the man's broad back.

And then it began to growl. Daojue turned around. Violet eyes trained on the beast. The beast's growl intensified. Jieyuan felt it as it flexed its legs, standing up on his shoulders, like it was preparing to pounce.

"Xiaohu!" Meiyao snapped, and the little beast whipped its head toward her.

"Stop it!" Xiaohu looked between Meiyao and Daojue, its growl dying out. Then it made a little sound that Jieyuan could only describe as a hmph before it settled back down, wrapping itself around Jieyuan's neck again. Meiyao turned to Daojue.

"I apologize. She… She doesn't take well to strangers, I think." Daojue stared at Meiyao. Then he moved his eyes back to the beast. The beast currently wrapped around Jieyuan's neck. Daojue turned back to Meiyao. Even if Jieyuan hadn't spent the last two months getting the hang of Daojue's unconventional approach to communication, he'd have still understood just what exactly it was the other man was trying to convey here. Jieyuan only barely kept himself from laughing.

Meiyao clearly got the message, too, if the rather awkward look that came over her was any indication. Jieyuan had never seen her make that kind of face before. It was adorable.

"That's… Xiaohu's rather attuned to my own feelings, I'm afraid." She shot the little beast a glare. All Xiaohu did was shift its position on Jieyuan's shoulders a bit, like it was making itself more comfortable. Daojue stared at Meiyao for a few moments longer, then turned back around without a word, resuming his watch. And Jieyuan was suddenly reminded of just where they were. In the Viridian Dome. He'd been so caught up in his reunion with Meiyao that he'd forgotten just what this place was like.

He glanced at the headless corpse of the mimic beast that not even minutes ago had been wearing Meiyao's face and body, lying just behind Meiyao. And then at the head—fox-like, he realized now—a bit off to the side. There were a thousand and one things he wanted to say to Meiyao right now. A thousand and one things he wanted to do to her, too. But there were other things that needed dealing with first.

"Meiyao," Jieyuan said, catching her attention.

"Are we safe here, or do we need to move?" To his surprise, Meiyao didn't even need a moment to answer.

"We're fine for now."

"Are you sure?" He didn't doubt her, but he remembered how she'd always spend a good few minutes before coming to a decision. She nodded.

"I'm much better at sensing the viridian mist, now. Moreover, we've got Xiaohu. She's an even better lookout than I am."

"Is that so?" Jieyuan glanced down at the beast. As if sensing his attention, it opened its eyes, peering back at him, and then purred softly. Without really thinking, he reached up and rubbed its neck, just under its head. It purred louder. He felt the vibrations through his fingers. Jieyuan had never really been one for pets, but he could get used to this.

"Well, rot," Meiyao said.

"You really stole her from me, didn't you? Just like that." Jieyuan quirked an eyebrow.

"You did say it liked me. Like owner, like pet?"

"I think she likes you a little too much," Meiyao said, glaring at the beast.

"And Xiaohu's a she —not an it. Though I suspect you could call her anything and she'd be fine with it, the little traitor."

"Oh?" Jieyuan's smirk widened.

"Does like owner, like pet still apply here? Can I call you whatever I—""Finish that sentence, Jieyuan," Meiyao said, her glare now firmly on him. She was smiling. Darkly.

"Finish that rotting sentence. I dare you."

"Heavens, how I've missed this," Jieyuan said, the words slipping out of his mouth before he could stop them.

"Missed you."

"I…" Meiyao seemed caught off-guard, for a moment.

"Not as much as I've missed you."

"Oh, are we competing now? Who missed each other more?" Jieyuan said, stepping closer.

"Is that the game?" He cupped her chin with his fingers, staring into the emerald of her eyes. She stared right back at him, smiling, challenging. He didn't even know what he was doing anymore, only that it felt right.

"Because I'm warning you now," Jieyuan said.

"I don't think you'll be winning it." Meiyao's response was to lean forward, faster than he could react, pressing her lips against his for just a moment before she pulled back.

"Well," Jieyuan said, licking his lips. Tasting her.

"Now that's just plain cheating." Meiyao laughed.

"And what do you know about playing fair?"

"Nothing at all," Jieyuan admitted. And he leaned down, kissing her again. She welcomed it readily, hungrily. And then they were lost again. In the moment, and in each other. In warmth and breath. This time Xiaohu didn't interrupt, seemingly content to rest on his shoulders. But after a while, Jieyuan regained enough of his senses and pulled away. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He didn't want to stop, but they really needed to get other things done first.

Judging by the way Meiyao's fingers clung to the back of his head, she wanted to stop as much as he did. But she still let go—though with a pout on her face that made her displeasure perfectly clear.

"You said Xiaohu's a better lookout, right?" he asked, getting to business before he could get distracted again.

"Is it— she, sorry—some kind of sensor?"

"She's a viridian prowler," Meiyao said.

"Part weasel, part mongoose, part badger. One of her spiritskills is sensory in nature. It gives her something like a human's soulsenses, more than double the range of a tenth-step Redsoul. And it's not affected at all by the mist." Jieyuan let out a low whistle. That meant a range of at least a hundred and twenty feet.

"That's good, all right." Meiyao nodded.

"Finding her was the best thing that happened to me, after… Well, after we got separated."

"I can see that," Jieyuan said.

"There's a story there, I'm sure. But first…" He turned to Daojue, who was still standing to the side, doing his best impression of a statue.

"We'll be setting up camp here for today. That fine with you?" Daojue turned back, said nothing.

"I'm taking first watch," Jieyuan continued.

"Well, Meiyao and I, anyway." Still silent, Daojue moved away, further off into the pocket, about as far as the length of rope connecting them allowed. Then he sat down and closed his eyes, Gleaming End cradled in his lap. And that was that. Jieyuan turned back to Meiyao. She'd moved while he was talking to Daojue, and was now standing over the mimic beast's head. Jieyuan walked over.

"There's another story there, I'm guessing," he said quietly, stopping beside her, staring down at the head.

"It's a wildshape fox," Meiyao said, just as quiet.

"I met it about a week ago. It was wearing the form of another beast. It was Xiaohu who warned me something was wrong. If not for her, I wouldn't even have been able to tell."

"A week ago?" Jieyuan frowned. That would have been around the time he and Daojue had found the jackal's cave. Just a coincidence, or was there more to it?

"About that, yes," Meiyao said.

"Why?"

"It's probably nothing," Jieyuan said.

"I'll tell you later. Anyway, that was when the fox transformed into you?"

"That's right," Meiyao said. There was something off about the way she was looking at it. Like she was troubled over something. Conflicted, even.

"It's… When it transformed, I got a clear sense of what kind of beast it really was. They don't just take the form of other creatures, but also their lives." Meiyao crouched down and took up the head between her hands, holding it up. Blood dripped from its severed neck. Jieyuan watched on from the side. Xiaohu wrapped her body around his neck tighter, the viridian prowler's little eyes fixed firmly on the fox head.

"They roam around until they find an interesting enough target, transform into it, and then kill it—and then they'll find their way to their victim's kin and take over its place among them. And they'll keep up the act until they grow bored or find a new victim."

"Disturbing," Jieyuan said.

"What step are they at?"

"First-step Orangerealm, like Xiaohu here. Usually wildshape foxes go after Redrealm beasts—or at least that's the impression I got—because when they transform into a lower-realm creature, they get a stronger version of its abilities. I think they can mask their realm too, but probably because it's never mimicked humans before, it didn't manage to do it when copying me." As Meiyao spoke, she turned the beast's head this way and that, like she was committing the fox's features to memory.

"It tried to kill me after it transformed. It didn't get Eternal Viridescence Ruin, my bondskill, but it did copy my bloodgifts. A stronger version of them. It didn't know how to use them at first, but whenever I used one, it'd figure out right afterward. It almost killed me, but then I realized I could use Divine Nature Resonance on it."

"But if it was copying you, and you used Divine Nature Resonance on it…" Jieyuan suddenly understood how Meiyao had been so fast earlier and able to harm the Orangerealm realm mimic beast even though her appearance hadn't been altered. Also why her green aura had been so strong.

"It copied you, getting a stronger version of your bloodgifts—and you resonated with it, copying it in turn?" Meiyao shot him a smirk.

"I'm not sure who was more surprised by that, myself or the fox. It was still a bit stronger, but I had the overwhelming advantage in skill, so I drove it back, and it ran away. But I realized what it intended. It did what its nature told it to do—take over my life. So it looked for you." Her smile faded, and she returned her attention to the head in her hands.

"It had my bloodgifts but stronger. And like all the other beasts of the Dome, it can expertly navigate the mist. So it managed to track you down, while I followed. I spent a whole week chasing it." She gave a wry, quiet laugh.

"In a way, I have it to thank for our reunion. I… I guess part of me wishes I could have spared it. I would have, if it hadn't been so much of a threat." Jieyuan tried to look at it her way, but he just didn't see it. The beast had brought them together, sure. But it'd done so with the intention of taking over Meiyao's life.

If the real Meiyao hadn't arrived, then he might have fallen for the shape-shifter's ruse, convinced himself that it was Meiyao, that something had happened to her, maybe some bloodgift gone wrong. The thought of kissing that creature the way he'd just kissed Meiyao, of being intimate with something impersonating her… He shuddered. The way he saw it, the beast was dead, and good riddance to that. Sighing, Meiyao gently set the head back down on the floor.

Her eyes and fingers lingered on it for a few moments longer before she stood back up. She nodded at him. It was only then that Jieyuan felt Xiaohu relax again.

"But enough about that," Meiyao said.

"What has it been like, on your side? Tell me everything. Starting at the beginning—when we got separated, fighting that rotting snake." —∞— Awareness hit Jieyuan like a punch to the gut. All lingering hints of sleep were pushed off in an instant as he tensed, sending his senses out for threats, readying himself for danger— And then it struck him just how soft the surface he was lying on was.

Confused, Jieyuan twisted around, only to find two pairs of green eyes staring down at him, one of them much bigger than the other. Meiyao. Leaning forward, hanging over him. Fingers trailed over his scalp, gently prodding at the tangles in his hair. The viridian mist swayed and shifted softly between them, licking at their skin, casting Meiyao's face in its dim green glow. A furred, white-green shape—Xiaohu—jumped from Meiyao's shoulders, landing as softly as a feather on his body.

The little beast then curled up on his chest, making herself at home. The tension drained from Jieyuan as he realized just where he was. And whom he was with. His head was propped up on Meiyao's lap, cradled between her thighs. He didn't know how he'd gotten there. He searched his mind, thinking back. They'd put away the wildshape fox's body, then Meiyao had gone to pick up the saber the fox had thrown away—she could travel the mist much better now, and he'd tied a rope between them again, just to be safe.

Next he'd spent some time telling Meiyao of what he and Daojue had gone through these last few months. He'd kept it short, briefly going through the more challenging encounters they'd had. The highlight of it all had been their discovery of the greenseeker jackal's cave. Meiyao had been very interested in knowing just where the Orangerealm saber from before had come from. She'd also been curious about ego artifacts and the cannibalization ritual. Both had been news to her. And then…

And then he'd gone and done some refining, to show her how much he'd improved, how he'd kept practicing the craft in her absence. But at some point—his recollection got vague, there—Meiyao had cleared up some space, then had him lie down, guiding his head into her lap, and… And sleep had taken over. Wholly and thoroughly, from one moment to the next. Like his body was making him pay back—with cutthroat interest—the weeks he'd spent without a semblance of proper rest.

"Rather jumpy, aren't you?" Meiyao said, softly. She kept moving her fingers through his hair. Jieyuan wouldn't have believed it if anyone had told him how good something so simple could feel.

"I guess," Jieyuan murmured. He wasn't tired anymore—now that both the shock and confusion had worn off, he felt perfectly awake, rested, nothing short of energized—but he didn't make any attempt to move away or sit up. Part of him was still a little dazed, though. Struck dumb with the realization Meiyao was really here. And that she was holding him like this. Now that he wasn't running on fumes anymore, it really struck him just what Meiyao being back meant. His and Daojue's days of barely surviving were over.

The sleep he'd had just now was all the proof he needed. A day ago, he couldn't have imagined falling asleep and letting down his guard like that. Jieyuan didn't mind fighting. If anything, he loved it. Loved the challenge, the thrill of victory. But there were limits to that. And he… He'd probably been nearing his. If Meiyao hadn't appeared, he wouldn't have stopped fighting. He'd have kept at it until his very last breath, and he'd have made damn sure to take down whatever beast it was that finally did him in.

But he'd have died all the same. Not necessarily tomorrow, or even a week from now. A month later, maybe. The when didn't matter, though. One way or another, he'd been on the fast-track to death, and each day that passed was another line carved into his funeral urn. Meiyao bent low and kissed him softly on the lips. She barely moved her head away, just stared into his eyes from barely an inch away, while her fingers worked away at his temples, brushing his hair back.

"This rotting forest has sunk its roots into you, hasn't it?" she whispered.

"Don't worry. Whatever it's done, I'll undo. You're fine now, Jieyuan. I'm here. And I'm not going away." Jieyuan felt something stuck in his throat. He clenched his teeth, his fists, feeling something hot and bitter rush through him. He wasn't— He wasn't something to be protected. Something fragile, something broken. He was— He was—"You're mine." Meiyao took his lips again, keeping him from voicing thoughts he was still struggling to put into words.

"And I'm yours." She pressed her forehead down against his, and he felt her warmth bleeding into him.

"And one day," she promised, "the world will be ours." —∞— Jieyuan was still coming to his senses, recovering from the agony he'd just been under, when something warm and soft wrapped around him from behind, holding him tight, pulling him toward it. Eyes still closed, he took long, deep breaths as he leaned back into that warm embrace. Waves of something soft and ticklish—hair? —fell around him, draping over his head.

He felt something slightly hard press against his forehead, the warmth behind him growing even closer. He opened his eyes. A curtain of brown locks filled his vision; past it he caught glimpses of the glowing foliage of a tree's crown, wreathed in viridian mist. He tilted his head back, eyes shifting upwards, and saw bright green eyes peering down at him; Meiyao, her chin propped on his forehead as she leaned forward, her face filling his vision. Her smile was radiant.

"Back with us, Jieyuan?" Something green and white and furry flashed past the corner of his eye, before a weight settled in his lap. He didn't need to look at it to know it was Xiaohu. The viridian prowler spent as much time with him as she did with her actual owner. She'd even relaxed a bit around Daojue, although she refused to come too close to the man. Jieyuan hummed softly, closing his eyes again, sinking back into Meiyao's embrace. It felt heavenly, being held like this by her.

Even more so considering the other embrace he'd been in just moments before—that of the Second Pain. It'd been about a month since they'd reunited with Meiyao. And as of now, Jieyuan was a seventh-step Redsoul. Not just that, he was the only seventh-step Redsoul in their group. He'd done it. He'd beaten Meiyao and Daojue to a breakthrough. Jieyuan's body tensed, his hands tightening into fists, as a heady sense of accomplishment shot through him. He was, for the first time, in the lead.

The unbridled surge of energy he felt whenever he made a breakthrough only added to it.

"Jieyuan?" Meiyao's voice, questioning, concerned.

"It's nothing," he murmured, forcing himself to relax. Meiyao shifted her hold on him, gently pressing him down until his head was on her lap. The next moment he felt her long, soft fingers press into his scalp and run through his hair. He tried to focus on it, on her fingers and the feel and on her body, but it didn't work. Normally when he was in Meiyao's arms like this, he could only think of her, but not now. He just couldn't help it; he'd longed for this day since the moment he'd become a cultivator.

He'd known, since the moment he'd figured out the trick of having Maeva gather chroma for him, that this would happen eventually. He'd also been antsy all day up until he'd gone for his breakthrough, knowing that the time had finally come. But it was different now that he'd actually done it. Now that it was real, now that it was fact. It wasn't that he was stronger than Meiyao and Daojue; in fact, he was sure that if he were to challenge them to a spar right now, he'd lose despite his higher step.

The difference between sixth-step and seventh-step wasn't that big. But he didn't care; he'd finally surpassed them in something, and that was what mattered to him. The road to gold was paved in copper; he'd get there, one step at a time. He opened his eyes. Meiyao was still looking down at him lovingly, humming softly to herself as she ran her fingers through his hair. She smiled as their gazes met, but didn't stop humming.

He drank in the sight of her, heart skipping a beat, before forcing himself to look away; flicking his gaze to the side, he found Daojue sitting cross-legged on the ground, turned away from them, facing the mists. For all his excitement at taking the lead in cultivation, neither Meiyao nor Daojue seemed particularly bothered about his breakthrough; Daojue didn't seem to care at all, while Meiyao was clearly just genuinely happy for him. His enthusiasm took a hit, then, feeling a little childish all of a sudden.

But he wasn't too surprised; he'd always known that the competition between them was one-sided. Jieyuan felt a soft weight move up on his body; glancing down, he saw Xiaohu settling down on his chest before curling into herself. He reached up and began stroking the little beast's fur. It let out a soft, pleased purr. He'd give the little beast all the rubs it wanted. Meiyao hadn't been kidding about Xiaohu's sensory abilities. With the viridian prowler around, they hadn't been caught by surprise again.

The few they couldn't avoid, Meiyao usually drove off. He and Daojue were even wearing robes again, despite Meiyao's best efforts to keep him in the pants-only look. That didn't mean that there hadn't been any fights since their reunion, though. Meiyao's ability to pacify beasts always worked—except when snakes were involved, in which case it never did. Whenever they came across a snake, all bets were off.

And they were coming across the slithering little rotters more and more often these days, ever since they'd entered this new area of the Dome: damper, with thicker vegetation. As far as Meiyao could tell, Gleaming End was the problem, just like it had been with the two-headed snake four months ago—which Jieyuan still replayed killing and skinning in his head from time to time.

But they hadn't been willing to give up on the crystal spear then, and they certainly weren't about to give it up now, after Daojue had raised it to tenth-step Orangerealm. Jieyuan spent a good while basking in Meiyao's warmth, but as nice as it'd have been to stay in her arms forever, that wasn't an option. Sighing, he lifted his head off her lap and gave her a quick peck before pulling away and sitting up proper.

While he'd been on Meiyao's lap he'd already done all his usual post-breakthrough checks (the color of his soul was still darker than it should have been but to a lesser extent, while the Fatebloom Heart had gone up a step to match his, silvery sheen notwithstanding), but there was something he still needed to do. He'd just broken through, and that meant a new Redtalent. It was time to try it out.

Jieyuan thought back to what he knew about his newest power—and the moment he did so he saw, in his mind's eye, a page of a book. It was one of the first books he'd read after joining the Gleaming Stone Sect, one that described each of the Redtalents. It was like he was back in the past, in the Outer Sect's library, in the reading corner, the open book propped in front of him on the table.

He could recall it all, in perfect detail: the feel of the grain of the paper under his hands, the way the air had felt rather chilly that day. He could even recall his own thoughts and emotions at the time, how expectant he'd felt as he read the description of all the powers he'd unlock. The page the book was opened on described the very Redtalent he'd just unlocked. The seventh-step Redtalent, Mental Augmentation. At that very moment his eyes were on a particular paragraph.

Upon reaching the seventh step, a cultivator's mantle now exerts its influence upon the cultivator's mind, augmenting it much as it augments one's flesh and bones. Mental Augmentation is of a passive, permanent nature, much like how the mantle heightens one's body's durability and stamina. This augmentation primarily concerns a cultivator's memory, rendering their recall absolute. Jieyuan pulled himself out of the memory, blinking as his awareness shifted back to the outside world.

It took him a moment to understand what had just happened; he'd accidentally put his newest Redtalent to the test. Perfect recall … He wasn't too affected by what just happened; it'd felt just like reading one of those full-memory higher-realm jadebooks. He'd also experienced something similar when he'd been assimilating Amyas's memories. He fell silent, considering this new ability of his. If he was right about how Mental Augmentation worked, then perfect recall did not mean he couldn't forget things.

Just because he now had the power to perfectly recall anything did not mean he was always aware of all his memories. So he could remember anything at any time, but he didn't remember everything all the time. It's still a significant ability, though. He'd always had good memory, but he wasn't even twenty yet. As a cultivator he'd live for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Mental Augmentation would be absolutely crucial in the long run. Jieyuan nodded to himself, satisfied.

He'd still need to experiment some more, but he had a good grasp on his new power already. Jieyuan opened his eyes; his gaze fell on Meiyao, still sitting opposite him. He found she was looking at him, smiling. He couldn't help but smile back. A breakthrough, a new ability, and Meiyao by his side. They might still be stuck in the Viridian Dome, but beyond that, Jieyuan found himself awfully pleased with how his life was turning out.