Chapter 80: The Flower of the Departed

Time slipped by, and in the blink of an eye, another five days had passed. During those days, nothing of great consequence occurred between Ji Yu and his avatar; the path to power proceeded in an orderly fashion.

Yet, there was one piece of unwelcome news: just as the radiant sun set over Lyon today, a strange purple moon surged swiftly to the very center of the sky. Ji Yu had been by the oak tree, using his buffs to hasten its growth, when he heard the call of the fawn and immediately switched consciousness, entering its body.

He lifted his head and gazed up at the enormous purple moon. Instantly, he sensed the seemingly endless cascade of violet-black particles streaming down from the heavens. Because the fawn’s body had been altered by the energy of the purple moon, Ji Yu could perceive its presence with unusual clarity.

It was the first time he felt the purple moon’s energy so distinctly—a color that was either dual-hued or a pure, unbroken shade of black-violet. For aberrant creatures, the energy was a powerful tonic; for the fawn, though, it was both nourishing and toxic.

The fawn’s only means of retaining clarity of thought was the suppression of the purple moon’s energy by the life force coursing through its body. Within, the life energy surged like a torrential flood, while the purple moon’s energy mingled within, as if its dark outer shell had been stripped away. The black faded to an ashen blue-gray, and as the life force surged, a sense of assimilation took place.

Ji Yu had long harbored the idea of experimentation, and now, with the purple moon’s appearance, he was not about to let the opportunity slip by.

The Ridgewater Mountains were eerily quiet, and the entire herd had taken shelter in the shadows of the ancient trees. Surveying the scene, Ji Yu stood up from the ring-shaped treehouse in the Fawn Forest Park. He strode forward, pushing past trees as he made his way toward the transverse ridge by the waterfall.

Guided by Ji Yu, the fifty-meter-long fawn thundered up the slope, mounting the cliff face in a cacophony of sound. The escarpment, about four hundred meters above the forest park below the cascade, offered an unobstructed view of the entire woodland corridor. Even the diminutive army encampment ten kilometers distant could be faintly seen.

Beneath the purple moon, no one dared venture out. The darkness, too, rendered night vision equipment useless—none could see as far as the fawn’s eyes.

At that moment, the great forest seemed to contain only this one living creature.

Standing at the edge of the precipice, feeling the breeze against the cliff face, Ji Yu calmed himself.

“Take it slow, no haste, always remain clear-headed.”

It was common knowledge among the Blue Star’s people that the purple moon muddled the mind. Ji Yu, too, understood this: absorbing its energy in hopes of allowing the fawn to evolve along two paths might not succeed.

But every endeavor requires a first attempt.

After all, one could not forever rely on brute force to counter the purple moon’s power. If a being like the fawn could achieve dual evolution, Ji Yu would have a valuable new method for dealing with matters tied to the purple moon.

Fear alone was not reason to flee. Besides, the fawn was just one of Ji Yu’s avatars. Such a stance might seem cold or heartless, but someone had to take the first step.

He would remain vigilant. Even if the purple moon’s influx caused disaster, he could rely on the forest’s boundless vitality to make amends.

Thus, the risk of this trial was not so great.

Drawing a deep breath, Ji Yu finally lifted the barrier that shielded his body from the purple moon’s energy.

The global radiation from the purple moon was not as intense as imagined. Unless Ji Yu actively absorbed it, the violet-black motes would not seek him out.

So when he lowered his guard, he only drew in the scattered particles within a kilometer’s radius.

The flow of these energy particles was unhurried, gathering far more slowly than Ji Yu had expected.

Was it because the fawn was already a creation of the purple moon? Did the invasive energy simply lose interest in it?

Ji Yu was left momentarily perplexed.

But how could that be? Would his concerns prove needless?

So, casting aside all doubts, Ji Yu focused on a single image in his mind: the fawn absorbing the surrounding purple moon energy.

He was no stranger to meditation, and as he entered that state, the blue-gray energy lurking within the torrent of life force in the fawn’s body ceased to flow with the current. Instead, it leapt out, forming an invisible, net-like suction.

High above, the purple moon’s energy stopped drifting aimlessly and began to course toward the fawn. Thick streams of violet-black energy gathered, like tendrils of smoke, and poured into the fawn’s body.

Within a minute, blue-black stellar whorls reappeared on the fawn’s surface.

After two minutes, the fawn’s form began to mutate. Along its flanks, where the starry whorls spun furiously, flowers bloomed—gorgeous as black roses.

One after another, the blossoms unfurled. Before five minutes had passed, Ji Yu dared not continue meditating; he opened his eyes at once.

He kept control well: when the violet-black energy filled a fifth of the fawn’s reserves, he halted the process. Any more would have been the limit—the energy was already beginning to assault the fawn’s head.

With the influx, the fawn’s form grew larger, stretching from fifty meters to around fifty-five, though its total vitality remained unchanged.

All in all, the experiment was an undeniable success.

Not only had the fawn grown, it had also gained a new trait.

The very sight of this trait would chill the blood.

Trait: Flower of the Departed (Intermediate)

(The resting place of lost souls; each flower of the departed may house a single soul.)

(Note 1: To use this trait, proximity with the deceased is required; success rate is average.)

(Note 2: The host has total control over the souls dwelling in the flowers, able to erase, manipulate, or view memories at will.)

Gazing at this new trait, Ji Yu could not help but recall Old Lady Li from the dormitory—a ghostly scene that was not easily forgotten. It was then he first realized that even souls could be polluted by the purple moon.

This realization startled him, but what unsettled him even more was what he saw after closing the data panel overlaying his vision.

Unbeknownst to him, the fawn he controlled was no longer in the forest but had reached a desolate plain.

Directly ahead, across the wasteland, rose the ruins of a shattered city.