Chapter 10: Chapter 10: Partner

After a few hours, Yamasaki woke up. He looked for the stones and heaved a sigh of relief after seeing them.

He stood up and jumped a little. He didn't know what Claire had done as he was no longer feeling that much cold. Looking around, he was in a simple room in the village.

Claire sat on a chair in the corner, her back straight and eyes closed. She was still wearing a dark robe with a hood and black cloth mask. He couldn't help but get curious about her true appearance.

Suddenly she opened her eyes and looked at him. They were silent, just like the first time they met. Now Yamasaki knew that she was not good with words so he started the conversation and got straight to the main point.

"Miss Claire, do you know how to use these renaissance stones?"

She nodded and said, "Just call me Claire."

She stood up and walked towards the bed, before sitting on it. Yamasaki also jumped on it and faced her.

"You only need to keep them with you for a certain period of time and the stones will themselves make a connection with your karmic luck."

"But how exactly will I find out their identity?"

"As far as I know, you will be able to see the memories hidden in their heart lake—memories of the reincarnated soul."

"Amazing!" He exclaimed and then asked another important question. "And how much time will it take to make the connection with the stones?"

She extended her hand and said, "If you can give them to me I'll be able to tell you the exact time."

He readily handed over the stones. That was when he noticed that she was wearing a black glove.

She looked at them for a minute before nodding and giving it back to Yasuo.

She said, "It is a good quality stone so it will not take much time."

He asked with anticipation, "how much?"

"A month."

"..."

She added, "you can use your arcane to nourish the stones and speed the process."

Yamasaki grumbled, "For that I need to be a cultivator."

"You are a cultivator."

He was stunned. Another brief silence followed until he said awkwardly, "How did I not notice this?"

"Your state of mind was too unstable to notice the flow of astral energy."

Her words surprised him once again.

"You are making it sound like I am still absorbing astral energy."

She nodded and said, "yes, but it is very little."

A cultivator absorbed the astral energy from the surrounding to cultivate. This was an active process. But according to Claire, he was doing this passively.

This was the specialty Alan was talking about? It could also be the unknown intrinsic demiurge he had formed.

There were two lifelines of a cultivator–soul and demiurge. Every lifeform was born with a soul and they had to absorb astral energy using various techniques and awaken their intrinsic demiurge–becoming a cultivator.

A demiurge could be of any form and any type. Offensive, defensive, or auxiliary, it depended on many aspects. There existed many different demiurge that helped in the absorption of astral energy. A cultivator could have one or more demiurge—either by awakening or by external refinement.

One could even become a cultivator if they found a suitable external artifact or anything and refine it as their own. But this process had shortcomings. Still to many, it was better than nothing.

He recalled the way to access the nexus which served as the foundation of a cultivator and the basis to promote their cultivation with the help of astral energy.

Nexus was a mysterious and enigmatic spherical space located inside a lifeform's body around the stomach's area. Due to it being ethereal it did not occupy physical space such as an internal organ would. Instead it created a special dimension.

Yamasaki closed his eyes and focused on a specific point on his lower abdomen.

In a dark area, he could see a blinking light in the distance. When he increased his focus, he could vaguely see a sphere but soon his vision got covered by a dense fog.

No matter how many times he tried, the result was the same.

He frowned and told this to Claire who didn't even think much and said, "it's because you still haven't accepted your new body."

He mumbled under his breath, "so you also know this."

Actually it was not that surprising.

He suddenly changed the topic, "By the way, why are you wearing gloves?"

He had to digest his condition first before asking about the previous incident.

She said indifferently, "They have runes that increase weight inscribed on them."

His lips twitched. "Even the robe?"

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"Yes."

Yamasaki sighed and then paused for some time before asking tentatively, "umm, if you don't mind, why have you still covered your face?"

Actually he wanted to ask this for a long time now.

"I don't want to distract you."

Hearing her, he laughed softly, "I have seen my fair share of beautiful women so I won't be distracted. Of course I am not forcing you to show your face."

Claire's green eyes narrowed a little as she observed him. After a moment, she nodded and removed her mask.

Yamasaki was speechless for a long time. He had already prepared himself but he didn't expect Claire's appearance to be so… perfect.

She wore no makeup, but it didn't matter, for heaven itself seemed to have done everything in its power to sculpt her countenance to perfection. Nothing actually could be used to describe her otherworldly beauty.

But then he frowned. There seemed to be something missing. He couldn't pinpoint it for some time until he understood the reason.

There was no emotional attachment between them. So even if Claire was really beautiful, she was not the best in his eyes.

His heart calmed down as his lips curled up in a gentle smile.

Claire, without any change in her expression, was observing him. But she was actually a bit surprised by his reaction in the end.

For the first time since they met she took the initiative to say, "This is the reason why I accepted you as my partner."

What partner? Yasuo was confused.

She explained, "Your heart lake is really unique. It feels like there is a small world in it. It has ups and downs, sorrow, longing, guilt, gentleness, and much more."

She shook her head, "I am bad with words so I can't really explain what I can see. Generally speaking, only a major event in one's life can change the heart lake. But in your case, slight emotional fluctuations cause your heart lake to change."

Claire's ability to see through someone's heart lake was incredibly rare but what she said was even more surprising.

Heart lake was as important as a person's soul. It was similar to nexus as it wasn't physical. Heart lake appeared to look like a never ending lake inside a dimension in the heart. It was also where the heart demon was born.

As far as Yamasaki knew, one of the basic requirements of becoming a god was facing the heart demon. He didn't know the exact stage, but a martial artist also faced one at some point.

Heart demons didn't have a fixed shape. A heart demon could be a rock, a blade of grass, a familiar person, a stranger, an enemy, an animal, a monster… or even things like darkness, the rising sun, or the bright moon.

In addition, the heart demon would target the weak points of a person. Eric had read a few examples of this.

Like if someone had an injured heart, the heart demon would create a beautiful scenery based on the wounded heart, causing that person to be infatuated with this scenery and making them unable to break away from it, ultimately crushing their will.

In short, if a person was afraid of something, the heart demon would transform into that thing and pester them.

When a child was born, heart lake was in its purest and clearest form. And with passing time, changes appeared in it depending on the person's personality and the path one walked on.

These changes could either strengthen the heart demon or the willpower—that also had different forms in the heart lake—or both.

One's personality and their path didn't change unless something life changing incident happened. So his ever-changing heart lake was really unique.

His personality was changing continuously? Certainly not. Was this a side effect of his strange reincarnation? He didn't know anything. More troubles just kept on piling on him.

Seeing that Yamasaki had started to get worried, Claire consoled him with her same old apathetic voice, "if you can find a way to cultivate this heart lake, it will give you big benefits."

He nodded and said softly, "thank you."

He continued, "I guess this is the reason you sided with me?"

She nodded without change in her expression. "Heart lake is much more profound than people think. It helps a lot in sharpening my sword intent."

He didn't ask the details because he knew that he won't be able to understand much.

He relaxed his back on the bed frame and probed, "So what was Alan talking about? What did we pass in?"

"I don't know."

She actually knew her situation but she didn't share it with Yamasaki.

Yasuo nodded in understanding and stood up. He walked to the door with his hand on the back of his head and stopped. He turned around and casually asked, "Oh and you talked about being my partner. What's with this now?"

Claire, who was still sitting on the bed, had a change in expression for the first time since they met. She pursed her lips ever so slightly and frowned a little as if contemplating something.

He couldn't help but think that she looked really cute until he got her answer. It blew his mind.

Her green eyes peered into his with an enigmatic glint in them. She said with a clear voice, "I was groomed to be your wife."

***

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