Chapter 191: Fusion with the Familiars
“My… a part of me?”
Xu Zhi was a little puzzled. Though on second thought, perhaps the Narrator meant that the familiars belonged to her—that they were her things—so wouldn’t they naturally count as part of her?
“What kind of change will happen after fusion?”
Xu Zhi definitely didn’t want to suddenly grow strange, furry limbs or anything.
As if sensing exactly what she was imagining, the Narrator’s tone turned helpless:
[That’s something you can control.]
“So… you mean I could turn myself into a little kitty?”
[…Once you get the hang of it, yes, if you want to.]
“Wow!” Xu Zhi couldn’t help exclaiming.
Now that sounded amazing!
Cats were so adorable—who wouldn’t want to become a little cat?
The Narrator sighed softly before continuing:
[Don’t get distracted.]
[After the fusion, your extraordinary energy reserves and your physical strength will both increase. More importantly, you’ll gain some of their traits, as well as access to a portion of their extraordinary abilities.]
[You know when and how to use them, don’t you?]
Although phrased like a question, the tone and wording left no room for doubt.
“Of course.”
Xu Zhi arched a brow.
Among all her familiars, the only two abilities that were immediately useful were the Nightmare’s power of intangibility and Xiao Zhen’s instant death ability.
Xiao Zhen’s luck was… mediocre. That instant death skill had yet to trigger successfully more than a few times.
But conveniently enough, Xu Zhi was pretty confident when it came to anything involving luck.
“So you mean I should use the Nightmare’s intangibility to get close to It, then rely purely on luck to slash It a few times?”
[Of course not.]
[Even if it depends on luck, you’d still need to land those hits first. As you are now, even with part of the Nightmare’s traits, you wouldn’t manage it.]
[Don’t rush.]
As soon as those words fell, Xu Zhi felt the extraordinary energy within her stir. A current of power—one that wasn’t of the moth attribute yet somehow felt familiar—flowed through her, linking her to the four familiars before her. The strange resonance between them grew stronger. A faint golden glow rose from the familiars, their bodies gradually blurring, until—like something out of an animation—they turned into golden light and streamed into Xu Zhi’s body.
At that instant, the gray of her pupils flooded with gold. For a heartbeat, her eyes were like those of a beast in the dark—radiant with majesty and a hint of menace. But when she blinked, the color faded, returning to pale gray.
The change in her eyes was fleeting, but her body continued to transform for quite some time.
She felt a warmth spreading through her limbs, her extraordinary energy intertwining with the newly integrated “power.” Despite being of different attributes, the energies did not clash; strangely, they coexisted in harmony.
Her muscle fibers strengthened, and Xu Zhi even felt an itch atop her head—if she pressed just a little, perhaps silver wolf ears or black cat ears might pop out.
…But no, thanks!
She had no intention of growing another pair of ears!
Still, if she did, her hearing would probably improve a lot.
Xu Zhi’s lips twitched slightly. Her teeth had grown sharper, scraping her inner cheeks—awkward and uncomfortable. Her nails had lengthened too. They still looked normal, but she could feel it—the hardness and sharpness now rivaled Xiao Zhen’s beak or the dog’s claws.
Even though her physique had already been excellent, Xu Zhi could clearly sense that after fusing with the four familiars, her physical prowess had stepped up another level.
When she stretched out her hand and willed it, her palm turned translucent—intangibility, from the Nightmare’s trait.
She wasn’t adept at it yet and could only turn parts of her body intangible, but it was enough to avoid fatal physical damage. There wasn’t time to practice anyway.
As for Xiao Zhen’s instant death ability, it still consumed a massive amount of energy when used—but fortunately, her reserves were now abundant.
A white feather silently appeared beneath a strand of her hair that was caught in the mutant’s branches, like an elegant ornament.
On her arm, hidden beneath her cloak, four small totem-like markings emerged, arranged in order of the familiars’ “birth.” Simple in design—just a few strokes—but unmistakably symbolic of each creature.
Her extraordinary level hadn’t broken through the current limit—still stuck where it was—but her strength had undoubtedly increased, and her arsenal of abilities had expanded.
“So this is… another path forward?”
More power without a price hike?
[You are now capable of surviving the Sun’s Fall. The familiars’ attributes are weaker than your own, and the Nightmare—whose level is closest to yours—shares your moth attribute, so there’s no elemental conflict. Moreover, since the world’s rules are broken, even if there should be conflict, it no longer exists. You can use them freely.]
“So if I were to leave this place and go somewhere where the rules are intact, would different attributes still conflict after fusion?”
[Of course.]
[Even if they’re part of you, elemental conflict remains inevitable.]
[It’s only thanks to the broken rules here that I can even—]
The Narrator stopped mid-sentence, then changed the topic.
[Let’s borrow the mutant for a moment.]
When Xu Zhi nodded, the Narrator directly issued a command to the mutant. To it, that voice was familiar—it had once followed this same voice’s guidance to devour the red fragment and become the false “Archbishop.” Now, as before, it obeyed, scampering off toward Zhong Lingfan and the others.
Xu Zhi, of course, heard the order given to it: Eat Yu Shenwei.
She blinked, surprised—but didn’t interfere. Instead, she asked after a moment’s thought,
“So that’s why you kept her alive?”
[Yes and no. A fake foundation is still a part of the true foundation. Falsehood exists because of truth.]
[It tore fragments from the true foundation to create a false Archbishop—there must be a reason. I wanted to see what that reason was. But even now, Yu Shenwei remains unharmed…]
For once, the Narrator’s voice carried something Xu Zhi had never heard from it before—confusion.
[There’s no time. We can’t keep her any longer. Let the mutant devour her and absorb the fragment of the true foundation within her—it will only strengthen it.]
Things had clearly gone beyond the Narrator’s expectations. Even it couldn’t see through the god’s recent actions.
But really, what was left that it hadn’t accounted for?
For the first time, the Narrator felt something rare—anxiety.
An emotion that belonged only to sentient beings.
It had never expected that one day, it would remember what worry felt like.
