16 Chapter 16: Don't upset me~

A pair of beautiful women sitting together on a bench would have attracted anyone's attention yet not a single person glanced at them.

Unexpectedly, and phenomenal to Xiu Ye if he were here, Yu Fei's normally thinned mouth was now a wide smile as she answered the unknown woman.

"I would say he got it from both of you milady."

"Correct~" Both of them let out giggles.

"...Fei'er, when are you going to tell him?" The woman's asked, her voice filled with sadness and regret.

"..." Yu Fei turned silent.

"You know when you leave him that soul communicator, you'll leave him from now on and won't meet with him until he's a soul sage."

"..."

"Fei'er..." The woman held Yu Fei's hand in concern. "Please, tell me. You're like a daughter to me, heck, I raised you as one so you can tell me anything that worries you. Come, tell mother dearest here the problem."

"M-Milady..."

Yu Fei's cheeks flustered in embarrassment. She opened her mouth for a brief moment, hesitation clear on her eyes, and shook her head.

"...I just don't want to make this anymore harder than it already is."

At first she thought that this mission shouldn't be so hard, not until she became so attached to Xiu Ye. She had been the caretaker, bodyguard and older sister figure of him for the last six years. She went through almost every single moment of his life together.

Yu Fei knows that if she continues being at Xiu Ye's, the young master's side much longer she wouldn't be able to finish her true mission in her life.

"I see..." The mother of Xiu Ye mumbled, letting out a resigned sigh, already expected the answer from Yu Fei.

"Well I can't really force you, if that's really what you want." Which is entirely not. "But at least give him something else before you go, that soul communicator was my gift to him after all, oh and add our other presents for him as well. We missed a lot of his birthdays for him after all."

Yu Fei glanced at her.

"Milady, why aren't you and the Master go and meet Xiu Ye yet? They–"

"They're still watching us Fei'er." Xiu Ye's mother's simple nonchalant answer made Yu Fei quickly closed her mouth, her eyes taking an angry glow of gold.

The Federation, Spirit Pagoda and the Holy Spirit Cult.

Although the tone of her milady's voice was nonchalant, as someone who knows her for mostly a decade of years under her family, Yu Fei can tell the fury and hatred concealed within her.

The three factions has been hunting them like they were soul beasts for the last twelve years, and instead of hunting them out of justice or righteousness, they're hunting them down to enslave them.

Yu Fei and Xiu Ye was sent here in this small-sized remote city because the influence of all three factions are extremely low, making it so the former was able to infiltrate the local federation government and get a job in the orphanage for an indefinite amount of time to lay low.

But it also came with some restrictions as well, as Yu Fei couldn't just simply use her savings, when she was still in active service, due to her current job as a nun. She can easily infiltrate a small government, but tricking a computer system? She's a soul master, not a nerd.

That soul communicator she gave Xiu Ye wasn't bought by her, no, it was from the woman besides her. She gave it to her years ago and told her to only give it to her son when he could finally handle himself in his own.

"...When are we going to go milady?"

"The day after tomorrow. The feds, the traitors and the crazies are going to take action if I stay any more longer." Yu Fei glanced at her milady, witnessing her lips quivering and hands shaking.

Milady... She's taking this so much harder than me. After finally seeing her son after so long, only to watch and not touch him, it really must hurt her inside. Thankfully we're in a slightly populated area, otherwise, milady would have gone into a berserk tantrum around here.

Yu Fei's eyes were sad and filled with pity as she looked at Xiu Ye's mother, but her face expression was grim.

After all, you don't want to deal with a Titled Douluo making a tantrum. Especially one whose a battle armor master.

"Milady, I have a question. Xiu Ye's pretty talented and has a hybrid martial soul between you and the master's. So why haven't you both given him a cultivation method to help him?"

Xiu Ye's mother shook her head.

"Hubby and I wanted our son to walk his path all on his own. From what you described him to us about his personality, one day, he would side with us and try to fight against our enemies. But that wouldn't be possible, especially since he'll be fighting almost the entire world. But he got his stubbornness from both his parents, so he wouldn't just back down. The only way for him to stand with us, is if he becomes a monster like us." Yu Fei's eyes widened in shock. To others, it may be meant that Xiu Ye has to become a evil soul master or something to stand together with his parents but that's wrong. For the deeper meaning in Xiu Ye's mother's words could only understood by people whose close to her, or those who were her former classmates and teachers.

"In order for one to grow strong as a soul master, one has to have 1% of innate talent and 99% of unrelenting determination and stubbornness to go through hell itself. My son is very talented, I cannot deny that, especially in blacksmithing; I wonder if he got that from his uncle? However, he still needs to be pressured a lot so he could learn, adapt and overcome others and himself to become ridiculously strong so he could help his family face against the world." Xiu Ye's mother smiled widely, simultaneously, under the veil of darkness covering her eyes, a pair of glowing purple eyes shone.

Turning towards Yu Fei, she said with a sweet smile on her face.

"But I'm not such a cruel parent to pressure my precious child like that. So I, and my husband, has left him a couple of presents that you be sure to give him tomorrow, okay? I'll be very, very, very upset if you don't." She stated, her eyes shining purple, the background behind her turning entirely in black.

S-Scary! I forgot about milady's temper and her way of "asking" people to do what she wants.

"Yup! Sure!" Yu Fei nodded her ferociously and obediently.

"Oki doki! Now that that's done, how about you guide me around the city? I've been here for a couple of days and I haven't really toured the place much, so, Fei'er, guide me around okay~"

"...Okay." I wonder how's Ye is doing?

Meanwhile...

"Achoo! Ugh, this is the tenth time I sneezed! Am I coming down with a cold?" Xiu Ye wondered as he rubbed his nose.

"Hmm." Suddenly, Tang Wulin and surprisingly Na'er, who introduced herself a while ago after they walked away from the thugs, put both of their palms over Xiu Ye's forehead. "You're slightly warmer than me, so you're probably are coming down with a cold! We better get you going to my home, ASAP! My parents can help you. Especially you Na'er, you need to take a bath."

Na'er directed a glare at Tang Wulin.

"What about you? You smell funny."

"Huh?" Tang Wulin blinked in response. Raising his right arm up, he took a swift sniff at his armpit and frowned. "You're right! Come on guys, let's hurry!"

Xiu Ye let out a chuckle as he watched his cousin and Na'er, hands clasped with each other, walked hurriedly towards the former's house.

Although Tang Wulin wasn't the one who heroically saved Na'er, they looked to be close to each other.

'Why am I coming with him again? Oh right. I accepted of teaching him how to fight.' He let out a sigh.

Earlier back when Tang Wulin begged Xiu Ye to become his cultivation master, the latter refused. That position belonged to a certain icy prince. But he would accept in teaching him on how to properly fight.

He couldn't remember much of the story, but he could at least remember that Tang Wulin, at the start, didn't know how to properly fight with his Blue Silver Grass and would mostly opt in using his divine innate strength and later on the Golden Dragon King Arm to fight against other opponents.

Xiu Ye doesn't know how to teach Tang Wulin how to be a proper control system soul master with his martial soul, Blue Silver Grass, but he sorta does know how to teach him to fight.

'Boxing. Huh, can't believe that'll actually come in handy.'

Speaking of fights... Xiu Ye glanced at his right hand, now devoid of the trench knife that he traced. It crumbled and turned into mots of blue light after he punched that delinquent.

He didn't know why he'd traced something like that, a soul powered fist should have been enough, but he traced it.

Was it due to adrenaline and reflex of using something over my fist to punch something? I did some boxing for a year after all. There wasn't any boxing gloves or brass knuckles in my inner world for me to use, so the trench knife was the next best thing. But why did it crumble so easily?'

'Fool. That's because you skip almost the entire process of projecting the object.' A voice suddenly resounded in Xiu Ye's head, making him pause his feet to listen. 'What you projected was only the basic structure of it and the composition it's made of, completely dismissing the rest which lead to it crumbling into pieces. A weapon is not simply about what's it made of off and how it looks, it's more than that. It's made out of complexity and is alive, like how I and others more are in this world of yours.'

'Listen closely brat, your ability, projection, is like forging. If you skipped a single process of forging a weapon; the weapon would easily be damage and broken, hence, the weapon would be trash. So if you skipped the process of projection, the weapon becomes trash. Be thankful that youngster was a weakling. If it was someone else, a powerful soul master, he/she would have crushed that sorry excuse of a projection and killed you and your friends.'

'...' Xiu Ye hung his head low, feeling ashamed of hearing Ryūjin Jakka's depth explanation of his ability and reprimanding him at the same time. If that thug earlier was someone powerful, he and his friends would have been in trouble. Really, what was he thinking? Charging in like that... Didn't he planned to let the story of this world process naturally so it won't get fucked up? So what was that?

Sa҉͢v̧͞҉̸̨į̵̕͟͜n̸͝͞҉͘g̀ ̷̸͢͝ś̸̕҉̕o҉ḿ͟͠͏͠e̴̛o̷ņ́e͟,͢ ̀́͘͝i̡̧s̀ ̧͢n̸͟͡͏̡ot̴̨̛͢ ̧̛́͞͠ẁ̛͟r̷͠o͡͞ņ̵́͘͟g.͘̕͝͡.̀̕͞.͏̨̛

'Hm? Old man, did you say something?' Xiu Ye frowned, his brows scrunched down as he heard something in his head.

'Its nothing.' Ryūjin Jakka denied, his eyes glancing behind him. A obscured figure momentarily flickered into existence at the top of the hill before completely vanishing.

'It was just some nonsense this old man was mumbling about.'

Ryūjin Jakka let out a sigh.

'Though back to the subject. The bad part, even if you projected it perfectly, it would have still been a inferior object.'

'I know, so what? It should still be the same, right?' Xiu Ye shot up his head up curiosity, what is he on about?

'Huh, are you not bothered about that?' His brow raised. Does he not understand the implications of a inferior, a fake object? 'It is a fake, whatever you do about it, unless you truly understand the object intimately, the weapon you project will never be real.'

Xiu Ye bit down his lower lip, lowering his head.

'...You're right. They're fakes, inferior to the original, but that doesn't mean fakes can't surpass originals.' Ryūjin Jakka's eyes widened in surprise. That phrase...

'But wait, does this mean that all of the weapons, even you, are fake?' Xiu Ye widened his eyes in shock of a theory entering his head.

Ryūjin Jakka shook his head.

'Yes and no. Almost all of these weapons here are fake, copies of the original, but I and along with a very few others are real. The only reason why you could only used a inferior version of me is because I haven't acknowledged you as my true master just yet. When you gain my recognition, you can finally use the real me in battle. Also, if you're very familiar with a weapon and physically examined it yourself, you can copy and store a perfect version of it in your inner world and project it into the real world.'

Xiu Ye let out a relieve sigh. He didn't know what he would do if his martial soul, or future weapons he'll copy, were all fake, as he needed all the power he could need for the upcoming unknown future of this world. Also, there's a possibility he would be able to perfectly trace a weapon in the future.

'Wait, I've been using a fake version of yourself this entire time?' He blinked at the revelation, not knowing what to really feel about it.

The old man let out another sigh once more.

'Yes, haven't you notice that you've been following the aria of your projection? The Trace On should have been a big hint.'

Xiu Ye's face twitched.

"Hey! Cousin! Oi!"

"Huh? What?" Xiu Ye shook his head, staring at two pairs of concern eyes looking straight at him.

"Are you alright?" Tang Wulin asked in worry, Na'er nodding her head to say that she as well was worried.

Xiu Ye blinked his eyes and let out a chuckle.

"Yeah, I'm alright, just had something to think about. Hey Wulin, where's your house? Let's go and meet your parents."

"Hm! It's just close by, come on!"

He'd think about his troubles in the future, for now, he'll enjoy his childhood that only a few many are capable of having.