When Lin woke up he found the three female elves in his room, two of them were sitting on each side next to the bed while the third one was sitting on her folded knees and holding his right-arm between her hands.
A steady stream of wood-energy of the purest form within the crystalized-tier was entering his right-hand, that wood-energy kept flowing up and down between the tip of his fingers and his shoulder.
Like it did before when it helped him regenerate his right-leg, the same thing happened with his right-hand.
Mela : "Stay still or you'll disturb sister Odla."
Orime : "Yeah, you better thank her properly when she's done fixing your arm. She's been up all night and-"
The wood-elf looked to the pregnant elf and glared at her while saying : "You're distracting me." Odla firmly interrupted her sister and prevented her from saying anymore.
Lin : "I already knew that she's amazing during the first time when I saw her use her wood-energy to form my bones and muscles, I said to myself immediately... this big sister is an expert in what she does."
The green-haired woman blushed slightly when she heard what the boy just said, her feelings intensified once she noticed the princess smiling widely at her.
"It's not all me. I knew that you're a body-refiner before being tasked with the order to heal you, the qi-vitality within a body-refiner should aid me to heal you but... I wasn't aware that you'll make it such an easy job for me!" Odla looked down and focused on what she's doing before continuing to say : "I don't know what kind of body-refinement technique do you cultivate, however... I can sense it clearly within your blood. Your blood is jam-packed with different types of elemental energies, in the beginning I thought it was your weapon-intent but that unique-energy doesn't seem to play any other role within your body except helping you survive."
"What do you mean by that?" The shadow-elf asked while leaning forward and extending her hand to get a feel of the great-sage's black hair.
"I'm guessing that it means his body-refinement technique is one that focuses on helping its user recover much faster, but that must've been achievable if this technique sacrifices its abilities on other areas to gain an edge compared to other body-refinement techniques." The startling beauty held her chin while giving her conclusions.
Odla : "Indeed it seems that way, I'm guessing that his blood could help him reconstruct these bones and muscles back if he got the opportunity to focus on doing it by himself."
Lin shook his head. "I'm afraid it isn't that easy for me to recover an arm and a leg by myself, I haven't cultivated that indestructible-ashura technique for more than a month. Not to mention that my attainments in the system of body-refinement are severely lacking, my experience on that area is a really embarrassing topic for me to talk about." After a short pause the boy looked towards the gorgeous blonde elf and continued to say : "Big sister Mela guessed it right though, this technique doesn't focus on strengthening my bones, muscles, and skin. Instead it focuses on making its users increase their survival-capabilities, honestly I doubted these claims in the beginning. But my opinion changed after encountering that decree, that indestructible-ashura technique does seem like it carries more secrets and surprises for me to discover within its teachings."
Orime : "You mean the formation within your body?" The raven-haired beauty suddenly decided to get a feel for the texture of the skin on his cheek, her curious eyes suddenly lit up when she sensed how soft and moisturized it was.
"Indeed. I'm still an inexperienced body-refiner of the major-circle, right now I'm miles away from reaching the point of perfecting the abilities within this technique. Not to mention that my version of the indestructible-ashura technique is incomplete." The great-sage rested his head on the pillow and shrugged after giving that answer.
Mela : "Since this indestructible-ashura technique is capable of affecting your blood to this degree despite being incomplete, then... I bet its ranking is quite elevated among qi-refinement techniques."
The green-haired woman nodded. "His special-physique and his wide variety of weapon-intents within the elemental-section further increased the potency of this technique, like he said... his attainments are a bit too shallow at the moment."
The gorgeous elf had this breathtaking expression on her face when she frowned and thought to herself : 'Big sister Odla. You've been involved in this conversation for a while now, yet you don't seem distracted at all.'
Lin : "I'm sure that I'll be able to figure something out in the future." After a short pause he looked towards the green-haired beauty and said : "Big sister Odla. There's something that I want to ask you."
Odla : "What is it?" After a short pause the wood-elf continued to say : "If it's something perverted then I'll break every single bone in your body."
"Hehehe... I don't know if I'll be able to handle the pressure if you seriously come after me, especially when you look so delicious... these eyes would make holes through my poor heart." After a short pause where she stretched the boy's cheeks and forced him to make funny faces, the shadow-elf said : "Even your silly expressions look so cute, poor Ode forgive me... I couldn't help myself." The raven-haired beauty was slowly moving her head closer and aiming her lips towards his!
Mela : "Stop it!" The princess glared at her personal-maid.
Orime : "Why should I do that? What has that got to do with you?" She had this puzzled expression all-over her face when she looked at the startling beauty.
The blonde elf gnashed her teeth and waved her fist in the air while saying : "Did you idiot forget that you're already pregnant with Ode's child? How dare you act so slutty? And you even dare to make a move on a kid! Tsk... just how far low have you fallen?"
The shadow-elf tilted her head to the side slightly as if to ruminate these thoughts before looking downwards towards the boy who she's been suffocating with her chest during her conversation with the princess and said : "I'm sorry handsome, you see... this big sister is already taken, someone else beat you to it and marked me with the baby-brand." After a short pause where she apologized by kissing her finger then putting it on his lips! she continued to say : "But don't you worry, this big sister got your back... there's this supreme beauty that I have in mind. I'm certainly going to help you get between her legs, I promise to do my best for you my knight. Too bad you arrived late... sigh." The raven-haired beauty whispered these words at the end but both women heard it.
The wood-elf didn't seem to care about what this naughty elf is saying, on the other hand... the princess was blushing so deeply while feeling so embarrassed that her shoulders began to shake!
"You two better stop being a distraction and let the boy say what he wants to say." The green-haired woman warned the two ladies in the room before looking towards the great-sage and saying : "Let's hear it then."
Lin nodded and moved his head away from the shadow-elf's fingers before saying : "I don't know if you're aware that I'm also a soul-cultivator."
Odla : "I'm aware, we all are."
The boy smiled and said : "Excellent! You see... I'm in the clone-realm, during the time where I had to sever my soul in half there was an unexpected complication during the process and the attempt resulted in me losing control which resulted in six fragments breaking loose from my primordial-soul."
Mela gawked and said while feeling disbelief : "S-six! How exactly are you still alive?"
Orime : "If I'm not wrong then after someone loses a fragment of their primordial-soul they lose the ability of controlling their emotions, if it's two fragments then signs of madness and severe mental-instabilities would be visible to all those who deal with that person." After a short pause in her words where she double-checked if the great-sage is affected at all by emotions of lust or anger when she stuffed her breasts in his face or when she strongly held his head and began to deform his expressions however she liked, "Those who lose three fragments are no different from feral-beasts and wild-devils, all they do in life if follow their basic instincts... lose four and your primordial-soul begins to slowly dissipate."
Odla : "Sister Orime is correct. Now tell me, did you really lose six fragments?"
Lin : "I did. They're stored within my body, the holy-envoy told me to swallow them and look for a wood-elf to make a container for these soul-fragments... that way I'd be able to look for suitable hosts for these soul-fragments in the future. According to what the holy-envoy said, each and every one of these soul-fragments does have the potential of growing to become cultivators with similar or equal standards to myself."
The shadow-elf gawked and asked : "Really? How do you define a suitable host?"
The boy looked at the raven-haired beauty and noticed the excitement within her eyes, after giving it a moment of thought he said : "The most suitable method is by injecting the soul-fragments into a fetus in the initial phases of its creation, that way the fetus would lack a soul and the soul-fragment would completely take advantage of this matter to develop along-side the fetus before the time of birth." After a short pause he resumed his explanation by saying : "The other method is a lot more difficult for the soul-fragment to seize the host but the gains would increase alongside the danger, the soul within the host would fight the soul-fragments to death and the winner would absorb the loser's soul-source to grow stronger. Honestly, I don't recommend this brutal method but I wouldn't hesitate to try it if there's no alternative method."
Mela : "Wait a minute... you're saying that there could be six more people with latent-potential similar to yourself in the world!"
The great-sage smiled and shook his head before answering : "Not six, seven. You see... I do have a twin-sister, one more soul-fragment apparently left my primordial-soul within my mother's womb and seized my sister's body. Once we were born we each had our own individual thoughts and wills, but... I could always sense deeper attachment towards my twin-sister which is unlike anything I could feel towards my younger siblings. Not to mention that Lily is like myself in almost everything, she's extremely talented in spirit-cultivation, soul-cultivation, and body-refinement! I always held a small advantage over her in some areas but she edged-over me in some of them... I can still remember that she could control her martial-spirit almost to perfection while I struggled to do the same with my wings, it all happened despite me awakening my martial-spirit slightly ahead of her."
*Hiss...*
The princess drew a sharp and cold breath inwards when she imagined seven other monsters walking behind this freak of nature.
The wood-elf nodded and said : "I get it now, you're asking for my heart-wood."
Lin : "Heart-wood! What's that?"
Orime : "Wait! Wait, wait, wait... big sister Odla, let me say something first." The raven-haired beauty suddenly stopped the green-haired beauty from explaining anything before looking downwards towards the boy and saying : "The fetus within my belly was just formed a few days ago, it still lacks a soul. Would you be able to inject one of these fragments into it?"
Mela : "Orime! Are you sure of what you're saying?" The startling beauty looked at her sister seriously after asking this question.
The shadow-elf shrugged her shoulders carelessly and said : "It's going to be my child and I'd love it the same anyway, not to mention it's a guaranteed thing that my child's talent would tower a few ranks over other kids of our race, it might even inherit the good looks of this handsome devil... it's a win-win if you ask me. Especially when I'm sure that Lin would always protect and look after my child in the future!"
Odla : "You might've given him a solution for one soul-fragment but, it's me who got to sacrifice her heart-wood to make containers for the rest of the five soul-fragments." The green-haired beauty frowned slightly after saying that, she seemed conflicted.
The blonde elf nodded and said : "Indeed. Orime stands to gain from this exchange and shouldn't lose face by being greedy or asking for more from Lin, but... the situation is extremely different with you sister Odla. You'd lose your almost all of your most valuable belonging in exchange for nothing." The gorgeous woman was clearly against her agreeing to this request, not when there's nothing to gain.
"First of all, I wouldn't dare take advantage of sister Odla. She's my benefactor, alright! Second, just what exactly is that heart-wood? Where it grows and how valuable is it?" The boy was clearly annoyed when this princess painted him as someone who's taking advantage of her sister.
Orime : "Don't worry about it, you're going to be the big brother of my child so I have an alternative solution for you."
Lin : "Really?"
The shadow-elf smiled and patted her sister while saying : "Of course! Trust me, big sister will take you out once you're healed and comb through the entire forest for five more hosts."
The great-sage shook his head once he heard her suggestion and said : "It's a really tempting offer but I can't do that."
Mela : "Hmm... why not?" Even the princess seemed surprised when the boy refused the offer.
Odla : "I know why, if you think about it then the answer is simple... resources." The wood-elf completed her work on the right-arm and covered the skin with a layer of healing-sap before releasing a breath and admiring her work, then she looked up to meet the boy's pair of golden-eyes and waited for him to confirm or deny her assumption.
Lin : "To some extent this is the main reason but your analysis isn't far off from the truth, of course if there's five more hosts available then I wouldn't hesitate to inject all the soul-fragments. The parents only need to be able to give their children enough love and care while providing them with enough resources during the first few years, I'm sure these soul-fragments would be able to take care of their parents afterwards without any problem."
Orime : "Great. Let's do this then, I can't wait to meet that adorably-cute thing." The raven-haired beauty said so before straddling the boy's waist.
The startling beauty blushed so deeply and looked away while saying : "J-just what are you doing to him?"
"Nothing, I'm just sealing the deal."
