Day 14

This morning, Moshi started a conversation for the first time. “Where did you get that katana?” he asked out of the blue while Ace made breakfast. 

I took out a piece of paper and tried to write it down, but my memory was hazy all of a sudden. I couldn’t recall that day.  

“Why?” I wrote down. They had searched for it a few days ago already and came back empty-handed. I thought they had already pocketed it.  

“We couldn’t touch that sword at all and had to leave it in the wall that day,” he said.  

I was slightly stunned. F*ck, that katana was too damn cool! I wanted to swing it one more time, but the blade had disappeared without a trace. 

*** 

Swish! Sss—Thud! 

Jiushi fell to the ground after failing to deflect the oncoming thunder attack. It was their usual sparring session where Ace would aim several low-level attacks at Jiushi.  

They were far from reaching one hundred dodged attacks when Jiushi slipped up. His nails dug into his skin as he made a fist out of frustration. That count was laughably pitiful. Any warrior that trained for two or three years could easily surpass that score.   

It wasn’t that Ace was too hard on him, the pace he set was normal with few tricky attacks in between at most. The problem lay with Jiushi. His overall performance had dropped due to his slowly deteriorating magic core.  

“Are you okay?” Ace inquired immediately after canceling his stealth mode.  

“I’m not dead, so I’m fine,” Jiushi retorted with a hint of impatience. “Let’s start again.” 

Ace helplessly shook his head. “We should take a break.” 

“I’m not tired, you don’t need to mind me.” Jiushi stubbornly looked at Ace.  

In response, he sighed softly, nearly imperceptible. 

“But I need a break. We’ve been training for two hours already,” he paused. “I also think we need another training method for your current state.” 

Jiushi went silent. His eyes dropped to the ground and dozens of thoughts crossed his mind. It was graver than he thought. Before, he could still somewhat bring out 100% of his original potential; although it was only for a short period it was more than enough to change the tides of a fight. But it was different now.  

Even if it was frustrating, he had to accept that the current him couldn’t display the same abilities as before. Be it strength or endurance, he was lacking both at the moment.  

“I…understand.” Jiushi looked up to Ace with a calm face. “Since when did it show?” 

Jiushi naturally referred to his worsening combat ability.  

“...I’ve been observing a decline since the last drop on the other side,” Ace replied rather hesitantly. 

“Drop” was the term on the other side that referred to a decrease in an ability user’s level.  

Hearing his answer, Jiushi’s head sagged down and he sighed. The last time this phenomenon happened to him was half a year ago. Still, Ace had kept quiet and covered him to protect his reputation. 

“Thank you for putting up with me for so long.” The desire to train like a fool diminished completely and was replaced by a wave of self-reproach and embarrassment. He plopped down to the ground and sat with stretched legs. 

“Don’t thank me for that. I want you to thank me when I finally cure you,” Ace said softly while following suit to sit down. 

Jiushi gazed at him. “And what do we do if the third artifact is useless?” 

The question came out of nowhere, but it was an uncertainty that had loomed over them the whole time.  

They didn’t know anything about the legacy that was left behind the ancient goddess and could only rely on the legend that was passed on along with the other legacies that were found. 

A wry smile adorned Ace’s sweaty face. By now his body had already cooled down, but the perspiration didn’t stop and chilled his temperature just as his mood. 

“We need to bring it back first, then we can figure out how to cure you.”  

“Hm.” Jiushi sank into deep contemplation. 

Both of them had nothing more to say and a weird awkwardness arose. Without training, the two didn’t have much to do and their only clue to the artifact was off to do sinful things.  

At that moment, a hero clad in colorful feathers appeared between the two without them realizing it. 

Sin tilted his head at Jiushi without a sound. Ace became aware of the rooster first. The familiar sight of his Jiushi being lost in his thoughts and Sin patiently waiting to be detected forced Ace to smile. 

Jiushi only noticed the chicken after three seconds had passed, then greeted the rooster with a neutral face.  

“Good afternoon, Sin.” 

Sin clucked once in acknowledgment. 

“Is he close?” Ace chipped in. 

The chicken clucked again. As a result, both his comb and wattle wiggled. 

At some point, the two subconsciously started to rely on Sin to get information. Unlike his owner, the chicken was more likely to answer them. Of course, they could only ask simple ‘no’ or ‘yes’ questions, and whether he actually understood them was also unknown. But so far, his answers were quite reliable. Sin was also more intelligent than the other chicken Harem God reared. 

The atmosphere relaxed a lot thanks to Sin’s appearance. Three heads waited for Harem God, who arrived just half a minute later. He held a stack of books in his hands and the unmistakable stoic expression on his face. 

“How was your harvest?” Ace tried to socialize with Harem God.  

Unfortunately, the responses he had gotten so far were lukewarm at most. This time wasn’t different and the latter answered with a nonchalant shrug. 

“Isn’t it time for you to talk to us, or does it still hurt?” Jiushi asked. 

At his question, Harem God furrowed his brows slightly in confusion. Wasn’t he completely fine? Harem God’s gaze wandered back to Jiushi and seemed to indicate, look at me, isn’t it obvious that I’m healthy? 

“There is really nothing?” Jiushi asked for confirmation. 

Harem God shook his head and the former slightly furrowed his brows in the same manner as Harem God did, but it disappeared quickly. 

Jiushi found it odd that Harem God still hadn’t talked properly to them. There wasn’t a deep seething grudge between them nor were they total strangers at this point. The only reason Jiushi could fathom was that Harem God had a physical problem that prevented him from conversing with them. 

“But why aren’t you talking to us?” Ace asked again.  

Harem God flinched slightly like a child that was being caught doing something naughty.  

Without bothering to answer, he grabbed Sin and retreated.  

Sigh— 

Sin, who got picked up against his will, sighed while rolling his eyes. He first pecked Harem God into the hand then jumped down. The rooster turned to his big fledgling and began clucking in a reprimanding way.  

“...” Harem God opened his mouth but shut up before saying anything, because Ace and Jiushi already encircled him.  

After they struggled for half a day, the two men successfully confined Harem God in one place.  

“I think you have something to tell us,” Ace cut right to the chase.  

Harem God reluctantly took out a piece of paper and wrote something down. 

—I can’t speak. Except for calling Sin.  

Ace raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Have you hurt your vocal cords before?” 

He shook his head. 

—Just spoke less.  

—Couldn’t talk one day. 

His answer was as expected: absolutely not helpful. Thus, Jiushi appraised him with his ability. He placed his fingertips below his jaw and sent his energy into Harem God. The latter furrowed his brows. 

F*ck. 

He stared into the lilac glowing eyes of the youth across him. 

Why didn’t a chick come with them? I don’t wanna stare at a guy with a flat chest. 

Even though he looked like he would start cussing any second, he remained quiet and didn’t resist the other’s touch. Jiushi inhaled deeply before sending in gentle waves of his spirit. 

A rare spectacle unfolded when their spiritual energies met. Normally, there would be resistance between unfamiliar spirit types, there was even the possibility of a backlash happening when incompatible energies encounter each other. However, not only could Jiushi scan Harem God without a problem, there was even a sense of guidance and support from the patient’s soul.  

“How does it look?” Ace asked. Jiushi’s face seemed a bit perplexed.  

“There is nothing,” he spat out.  

“He has no injuries?” 

“That and there’s also no resistance.” A nearly imperceptible emotion surfaced in Jiushi’s gaze. The only other time he had a similar experience was with Ace… 

“You’re joking, aren’t you?” Ace was visibly shocked. It just showed how incredulous the revelation was.  

The two men fell into deep contemplation and left the person in question hanging with some cryptic words. Jiushi didn’t want to admit that he and Harem God shared similar spirit types. It inevitably meant that Ace and Harem God were compatible too.  

No matter how good their current relationship looked, that was only on the premise of being temporary teammates. In fact, he hadn’t a very good impression of this guy who would behave like a manchild most of the time. Something about Harem God irritated him to no end. 

If Ace were to know what his Jiushi was thinking, then he would tease him that he most likely was feeling jealous, even if it resulted in being ignored for a couple of hours. 

Meanwhile, Harem God who looked at the two statues, got bored to death and snapped his fingers once for each klutz to get them out of their trance. 

Jiushi and Ace looked simultaneously at Harem God whose face was darker than the night. It was clear that he ran out of patience and wouldn’t play along with them. Rather than sitting together with the two, he’d use the daylight for more exciting things.