Chapter 18: Chapter 18

As Lan Xiaohui draws the formation, by using me as her brush and the forest floor as her paper, my excitement only grows. The prospect of using this formation, not only to feed my hunger, but later to use my [Critical Analysis] ability on will surely prove to be fruitful. There are many things I stand to learn from the flow of Qi, consumption of the soul and the interaction of ambient Qi flow when modified by this array.

Knowledge makes me happy, too. Knowledge, after all, is the foremost tool of becoming useful. Feed a man a fish, or teach him how to fish.

But Lan Xiaohui also surprises me. Her understanding of this Dao is not so shallow as she led me to believe. I only had to explain to her once how deep her strokes need to be, how wide, and how long. After that, she builds the Qi channels almost without requiring my input.

It seems she also understands or perceives, to some extent, the predominant Qi in the environment and acts accordingly to balance the forces.

My input, for the most part, is to tell her how much of each energy each side of the Eight Trigrams needs. And to orient it properly, of course.

But it is not a simple, easy, or quick process. Covering a circle with a radius of 100 meters in Trigrams, arrays and symbols is a lot of work.

My hardness and sharpness makes it easy for her if she has to carve me through stone or wood — and the wood here is very tough — but there is simply so much work to do.

Perhaps it is also because of her cultivator nature; even so diminished from what her peak once was, she can exert this effort unceasingly. I know she is not indefatigable which only reinforces my belief that she understands how important this task is.

Even though she doesn’t understand the true nature of it.

By the time she has completed one half of the grand formation, the sun had already set. Even with only one half of the formation, the Yin energy — strongest at night — becomes magnitudes more powerful than before.

The grass around her feet absorbs this energy and begins to glow, very faintly, with a light blue energy. The Qi in the area also becomes denser, but not by much. However, it is a very clear indicator that it is working, and that the efforts so far have been without errors.

“It is strange,” she remarks, as she takes the prescribed five steps with perfect precision to keep the distance between each consistent. “Something about this formation doesn’t quite feel right.”

I am surprised that she can tell. Her intuition can deduce the purpose of this formation — by feel, at least — even with only one half of it present. For me, it is a simple matter — I remember every detail of every day since my sentience awakened — but for her to remember the shape and diagram of the earlier parts of the formation is quite an achievement. Her brain is made of meat, after all.

Furthermore, this is not the true [Soul Harvest Formation], but an approximation I developed to reduce the resource cost. On top of that, it is not the formation itself, but the trigger for the spells and diagrams I will provide.

“It feels evil,” she says. “The Yin energy is so strong, nourishing life, but it feels malevolent. Maybe it’s just this Forbidden Ancestral Hunting Ground. Many beings have died here.”

I don’t provide her with the answer that it is not just the forest itself. She may be from an Evil sect, but I am not convinced yet that her heart is prepared for doing what needs to be done. She even expressed that she did not feel the need to attempt to join the Core Disciples, because her future in the sect had already been determined.

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I don’t want to expose my strategem to her, only for her to grow a conscience and decline to create the formation. If she wants to kill the Black Tiger and get her revenge, then this would only be the first of many unpleasant things she will have to do.

Besides, I don’t find it unpleasant myself. I had already determined in my sentient heart that I would carry out Wukong’s wishes, and take him and his demonic ape society to the farthest reaches of Creation, and to the realms of Heaven and beyond. In the form of Blood Points, of course. My storage space is still rather limited, and I’d rather not waste it on primates.

Every now and again we come across one of the monkeys. Whenever we do, she grips me tighter and stops in her tracks, as if waiting for the beast to move through before she makes any sort of motion. They keep a distance from her, and me, but not always.

Sometimes the monkeys approach to inspect her formation and I get to feel something like a grim determination and killing intent from my sentient transportation method. The monkeys do not reciprocate her defensive, hostile nature. They get bored of staring at lines in the dirt and trees and move on.

I wonder if the monkeys know what I wish to do, like Wukong did. If they did, would they assist in creating the formation of their own demise? Whatever aberrant physique, bloodline or method Wukong possessed to allow him to read my thoughts, I am glad the other monkeys do not seem to share it.

Perhaps, it occurs to me, it is related to his third eye. From what I remember, I only saw one other monkey with such an eye, but that one did not seem to have the same ability or perhaps it was still too early in its cultivation.

Either way, I am glad that it has turned out this way instead. I cannot with any certainty claim that the monkeys would permit us to draw this formation without interference if they knew our intentions. But I think it is just as likely that they would help us.

After all, they kowtow to me and respect me, as if I am their leader.

Naturally, I do not share such social connection with the monkeys, or acknowledge their hypothetical hierarchy. We are not the same. I cannot be their leader — that would require me to be their equal, up to some point. We are not equal.

They are food.

Lan Xiaohui could be their leader. She is closest to them in terms of potential, future, strength and biological function. Which makes this thought of hierarchy all the more confusing. If the monkeys are too below me for me to be their leader, and Lan Xiaohui is low enough for her to be their leader, but she is my so-called leader… then this gets really complicated, really fast.

I don’t want to think about it.

I just want to eat.

“This side needs a stronger presence of water Qi,” I tell her.

She purses her lips, thoughtfully, then nods. “I’ll see what I can do.”

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