CH18: Is power a thing gain, taken, or given?

Returning home, finding the place empty, I walk to the kitchen, finding Robin and Mia binge-eating Ice-cream.

"How come you look so sexy even after eating so much?", My voice break the silent binge.

"AYNNN!", they both yell, and come hugging me.

"Sorry, Xiao Wu was in kind of a situation, and a dilemma, so I stayed till she fell asleep" I tell them, and Mia shout "YOU ATE HER?", and I nod 'no way', shaking my head hard, but say "But she looks delicious, just too immature? Haha, she's copy mini you", and she smiles happily, but then ask "She live with humans?", and I nod 'yes', while starting to tell the whole tale.

Mia look conflicted about the situation Wu is in, a beast-kin living with humans, but she says it's a must for her growth.

"I think I'll go back there, learn more about the situation, and do this till I think she's safe. Is it okay?" I ask them, and they nod 'yes', while Robin says "You've got a week, then we party your birthday, and a week later return to our kingdom, so do your best, dear".

I nod, kiss them both, pick lots of food to my space-pocket, and *teleport* as I wave goodbye.

-

In the morning, Wu is sleeping, hugging me, her head on my chest.

She stretch and hit my face with her hand, waking me up, but she looks sorry, like it was a mistake, so I kiss her cheek and say "good morning. I ... it's a secret between us, okay? ... I went back to my house, where Mia, your mom, is, and told her everything. She's happy, but worry a lot, and says she loves you and wish to see you soon".

She smile like the sun, and *chuu*, kiss my cheek, saying "Awesome! Thank you! Good morning! and I love.. Tell her I love her too!" she tells me.

"TIME TO EAT... TIME TO EAT...TIME TO EAT..." we hear a shout from outside, so we get ready, and walk out.

Outside, We meet everybody, except the pinky-girl, Ning-rong, and the stalker, Tang-san, and having a chat while walking to find food.

When we get to the food district we see the 2 missing people, both happily eating together. smiling, in a couples-stool.

Wu hold the sleeve of my shirt tightly, like she's sad and angry.

The group walk to them, talk together, and when Ning-Rong raise her hand, a shiny bracelet seen on her arm, grabbing Wu's attention, and Wu get depressed as she see it, hugging my hand strongly.

They walk inside a restaurant, but me and Wu don't walk in, and a moment later Tang-San walks out, asking to talk to Xiao-Wu alone.

When they walk a bit far from me, while talking privately, I can see them argue, but hr suddenly run away, and Wu stand in place, looking at his back, crying.

I go quickly and hug her.

She hug me back.

I whisper to her "It ain't worth to dawdle in the pain and sorrow. You better look for the happy future ahead of us".

She nod and stop crying, look at me, grab my hand, and walk me back to a building.

"Help me get my things, let's go back to the forest, to Er and Da Ming" She says as she sits to write a letter.

I put all her luggage into a bag, and into my space-pocket, saying "done", and she put the letters she wrote down, with names on them, and few of her belongings, including a bracelet that looks just like what Ning-Rong wore on her arm, and we leave the room.

I hold her in a princess-carry, and using energy-burst-running, we get in a few hours back to the forest.

We sit on a tree near the lake, where we can see Er-Ming swimming in the lake, and wave 'hello'.

She goes talk to him and Da-Ming, while I choose a tree, and start turning it into a tree-house, making it into a giant-tree, and all the tree-branches creates an amazing villa, 3-story tall, modeling it after my house is Earth, and the 3rd floor as studio-floor for me. with a huge balcony.

Now, all that missing is running water, and electricity, for lights and machines, but I don't know how to get that done here, except bringing generators and ready-to-use-kits from Earth.

"WOW, I LOVE IT" Wu screams happily when she enters the tree-house living-room, and continue screaming happily in every room she sees.

"So am I a good husband?" I smirk at her, and she take her tongue out, *Blurghhh*, making me a face, saying "Barely a fiance".

Da and Er Ming also comes in, both are in a middle-aged-human-form, and after they tour the place, they sit on the living-room's sofas together with Xiao-Wu, talking, and I go to the kitchen, thinking 'how can I make tea? or food?', when my line of thoughts cut off.

<Hi, You know that you have the power of elements, like fire?>.

'No, Infi, I don't, You never tell me anything about Infinity's powers, care explaining?' I ask annoyed.

<You somehow got straight to space-energy, missing all the basic elements, but you can learn using them now. The world you in right now is filled with life-force, or rather mana, or soul-power, anyway, it is the perfect place for you to learn how to use it. You do it by ...>.

After a lot of explanations, and a lot of tries and fails, I succeeded in creating a small fire out of the palm of my hand, plus a weak water-stream above the cattle.

I burn the water, take tea-leaves and make 4 tea cups for us, before walking back to the living-room and give each a tea-cup.

"Uhm", Da-Ming catch our attention to start speaking, "it seems Xiao-Wu came back to us, and also you made this magnificent house out-of-nowhere, but is everything okay? What's the plan now?".

I think 'how can I make it a safe place for Wu?' and say "let's try to make it a safe place. I heard from Mia beast-kin are hunted, and she was almost killed, but saved by my mother's friend, a dragon, so maybe we should build a force here? get more beast-kin to gather like humans do? and start developing a force, like them, raising those with intelligence, helping them become stronger?".

They all look worried, but then nod 'yes' with their heads, so I add "I am new here, so I don't know where to find the others, nor the power balance, so I hope you all can manage it, and I'll do any work you need me to. Iv'e got few technique-manuals who can make you stronger, so that can help us, plus attract as a bargaining-chip to others".

They nod 'yes' again, and I pull a copy of the 'Haki-book' I made with a copy-machine, together with other techniques I thought can work here, telling them "try this out. If it works, we can change the beast-kin versus human balance".

Da-Ming takes it, start to read, and I call Wu to the side.

"What about those humans you left?" I ask, and she tells me "it's better if I'm without them, I don't belong there. Humans are too fickle".

I laugh, saying "I'm kinda human also, so maybe not all of them?", and add "And I want to talk to them a bit more, gather information, intel, and instruction how to use that soul-power ... I think I'll go back there, did you talked about me in the letters?".

"Yeah ... I said I'll go with you to meet my mother, and I don't know when I'll come back, and that they shouldn't worry" Wu tells me, a bit shy, like she said more than just that.

I just nod 'yes', and tell her "Okay, I'll go there and be back before night falls. Try that Haki power, it's really amazing, and can pass the soul-power everyone use in this land".

I kiss her cheek quickly, and *teleport* back to the guest-room in the academy they gave me yesterday.

-

Leaving my guest-room, I see no one's there, so I walk around, and reaching the lake, I see Zhu Zhuqing, the charming black hair beauty, swimming inside, wearing a Penguin-custom, catching fishes.

Our eyes meet, and I say "Beauty, I haven't seen nothing", and run away.

A bit farther, I see the blond-dude making bread dough, but breaks the bowl, throwing it to a huge pile of broken bowls, probably all broken by him, and say "didn't see anything", and quickly walk away.

I keep walking, and see that Tang San, but with spider-legs on his back, doing something, so I hide and watch him from afar.

'Is he mediating? what is that? it's more like cultivation than soul-power...', I think while watching him, taking out my notebook, sense his energies, and trying to learn his actions.

Pretty soon, I see how he rotate his energy in a different way, making the energy-channels to his limbs, hands and legs, and also eyes, much more efficient than mine, so I write and paint it all down, thinking how to integrate into my own training.

After an hour I go back to the guest-room, and meet a middle-age man near by, so I wave 'hi', and he calls me "Hi, I'm Grandmaster, aren't you Ayn? Didn't you leave with Xiao Wu?".

I tell him some crap about her taking a carriage to meet her mother, and asks "care showing me your library? I'm from far away, and before I leave I wanna see how's your knowledge is different from mine".

He smile widely and walk me to a room filled with books, saying "I'm number 1 theorist in the world, so you're in luck, got any question?".

"Yeah, I wanna raise my soul-power as fast as I can, plus check my soul-power level, and also know if there's a space or time powers I can assimilate or learn" I tell the Grandmaster, who nods, take a crystal-ball, and give me.

When I hold it, I see a number "30", appears, and he tells me "You need to assimilate a new spirit-ring before trying to raise your power. What's your spirit soul is?", and I answer "Fruit".

He look at me with narrow-eyes, thinking deeply, and say "interesting, amazing, never had the chance to guide one. Come, I've got a book you'd want", and out of a dusted-shelf he pull a huge book called 'The botanic soul', as he tells me "that reminds me, have you tried the Botanic academy in Heaven duo empire city?", and I nod 'no', taking the book, and saying "thanks, I'll return it to you soon".

He leave me there, so I grab all the books that seems interesting into my space-pocket, and *teleport*.

-

At home, in Earth, I'm running to a copy machine to scan them all, and Mia comes in, see my rush, and helps me, and soon Robin too.

"WOW, you stole a library? that's smart" Mia says, as we work on copying all.

"Yeah, it seems I'm level 30, so I wonder if to get that spirit-ring there, and how, so I took some knowledge, what you say?", and Robin answers "that's a good idea... 'devil fruits' are dangerous... maybe you can get something there that doesn't exist in Red-line, even getting an advantage".

We all nod to that.

Mia, who's shocked my soul-power reached 30 too fast, start asking me lots of questions, but I dunno what I did to get there,and in 2 hours we're done, getting 2 copies from each book, plus digital copy, and I kiss them goodbye, and *Teleport*

-

Back at the academy's library in Soul-land, I return all the books to their place.

When I finally finish, and walk out, I see Grandmaster sitting on a bench, so I go sit next to him, and say "Thanks. That was really helpful. I think I'll go visit there, and maybe find the answer for me".

He nod, and says "any time, come back with Xiao Wu when she returns, tell me how it was. If you ever need guidance, I'm not famous for nothing, just look at my apprentice, Tang San", but I narrow my eyes and say "he sure is abnormal. What's that spider legs he got now?".

He start explaining me about 'Spirit bones', external-spirit-bones, and how they replace human bones, but get called in the middle, walking away, and so am I, so he ask me to keep it all a secret.

I go to the guest room, and *Teleport*.

.

Back at the lake-tree-house, I'm looking to meet Xiao-Wu's gang.

"Hi, how you're doing? I've got us lots of things, ready for it?" I tell Wu, Da, and Er Ming, as I start piling books on all the shelves in the living-room, making them shocked-happy.

"Now we can get the knowledge they know, and see how's that works for us. By the way, what's a spirit bones? can we collect some?" I ask.

Da-ming nod, saying "it's what left when a spirit beast dies, so of course it's easy to get them, we just hide them all, or destroy them, so human won't have them. Hmm, I'll try get some good ones for you, a complete set, but you better be ready for pain, and get stronger if you want to assimilate them into you", and I nod back, thanking him.

"So, reading, learning techniques, training, and gathering forces. Also, if there's beast-kin gathered together somewhere, befriend them. That's our plan" I announce, holding a wine bottle and glasses, give all a drink.

"Let's call it Heaven. Cheers to future kingdom Heaven" I say as I raise my wine glass, and they all do the same, *cling*, and we all drink smiling.

...

At night, on a tree-balcony, Wu sitting alone, shedding tears, and I sit beside her.

"Changes are hard, huh?" I ask quietly, and she nods 'yes', trying to stop her tears.

"It's okay, cry, it's better to take it all out" I whisper, and she put her head on my leg, lying down on the bench, and I softly pat her hair to her cheeks, waving away her tears with my movement.

"Did you see him?" Wu asks, and I ask "who? I saw them all, I think".

"Tang San, you saw him?", and I answer "Yeah.. he was training, got a new spirit bone, that's why I asked about it... plus he train some very special cultivation technique, by what I saw... Do you use it too?".

Wu raise herself to sit, looking at me, and shaking her head to say 'no'.

"Really? he never told you about his cultivation technique? that's stingy" I tell Wu.

She gaze at me, then mumble "so that what it is?".

I pry her white-energies out, while saying "it's okay. You're young, and don't know humans well. Trickery and deception are second nature in their life. The surface never reveal the depth of souls. Luckily, you got out in time".

She looks really sad, so I tell her "here, that's my cultivation technique, try it".

I show her my latest version of techniques, as I keep updating my way, learning from all the techniques I get through, making it much better than any single one, as they're combined.

Wu read for some time, before getting into lotus position, and try it out.

"WOW, it's like twice faster, but so complicated, is that what Tang San also have?", and I nod 'no', saying "he's got some great points to his, I learnt a bit from his way, but it isn't complete, and it got no defense ... I bet he's a silent-killer-type... like moving fast, striking quickly, maybe using small knives, guns, secret weapons, even poisons".

Wu look at me in shock, mumbling "but, but, he is, but, a killer??", and I nod 'yes' slowly.

Wu cry again, and I hug her, till she fall asleep, so I let her sleep on my lap while reading books under the oil-lamp in the balcony, searching for my next spirit-ring power.

Suddenly, I see a giant white warm looking at me from a near-by tree.

I gaze back at it, and it seems smart, so I wave 'hi' to it, and it seems to wave back, signaling for me to come over it.

I rise gently, leaving Wu's side, and jump to it, saying/asking "Hello?".

I look around it, and see the tree it's on is frozen, like ice-breeze gets out of that giant majestic worm.

He suddenly speaks, saying "Hello human. You seem to have been mesmerized by my beauty. Let me introduce myself, I am GE, the most beautiful, smart, chivalry, heroic, intelligent, overwhelming, powerful, ... ".

"Stop, Stop, stop, Okay, You're the best ever, how can I help you, sir Ge?" I cut him and ask to the point, getting a headache from his nonsense.

"REJOICE, HUMAN, I WANT TO BE YOUR SPIRIT BEAST" Ge announce happily, but I stare at this creature, wondering 'is he mental?'.

<Yes, he is. He is a mental-attribute creature, and if he assimilate his power into you, you can expect a great advance> Infi interfere into my thoughts.

I smile really wide, leaving the mental-misunderstanding aside, and say to the worm "Sir Ge, it's my honor, ...why have I won such honor?".

He start blubbering, till he says "...In my 1 million years of life, you're the first human I met who can assimilate with me, LUCKY ME", and he jumps into me, bumping head to head, and I feel he's trying to somehow assimilate with my body.

As he start disappearing, I feel him sucked into my chest, into Infinity, and I raise my shirt, seeing a 3rd ring tattoo appear on my chest, golden-white beautiful circle, but I feel like an inside struggle, who quiet down after some time, while I meditate on the ground.

<Great success. This creature assimilate it power into you, and even kept his life. He is now living in Infinity space>.

'What power does it have? gave me?' I ask Infi.

<mental powers. Try opening your energy to the world, just beware, you can attack others with it, but also share your mental. Also, ice, not water, powers, who's more advanced, yet, different>.

I try release my mind-energy, and it's like I'm everywhere.

I 'see' everything, in a huge radios around me, all is visible, like my 6th sense evolved to a god-tier existence, nothing escape my mind, in at least 100 meters radius, or even more if I put effort into it.

I try using those ice powers, by channeling energy through Infinity, to my legs, and all the ground I'm standing on freeze, like I've turned the place to Antarctica.

'WOW. WHAT'S WITH THAT??' I think.

[HAHA, Ge is powerful. HEHE, who knew that you've got that world inside you? LUCKY ME], like the worm also exist in me, talking to me.

I think 'thank you sir Ge, you're amazing', letting his ego burst.

I hear him laughing in my head, saying [of course I am. Call me brother-Ge. We got a lot ahead of us. I'll talk with Infi, I wonder how lucky I am].

'Okay, Bro-ge' I think, as I *Teleport*, going back to Earth.