Cultivation Online

Shiva silently stared at Yuan with disbelief written all over her face. Never in her life had she imagined meeting a mortal like him—someone who was not only unafraid of Eternals, but who seemingly went out of his way to offend them.

’Even as Eternals, we tend to avoid offending each other, but this crazy bastard...’ she sighed inwardly.

”Fine,” Shiva eventually spoke out loud. ”If you’re really going to help me recover my true body, I’ll stop bothering her.”

Yuan nodded, ”I promise I will recover your body.”

Without saying another word, Shiva relinquished control of the body back to Mu Xuelian.

”...”

After regaining control of her body, Mu Xuelian silently stared at Yuan with a confused expression on her face.

”Are you wondering why I’m doing this?” Yuan suddenly asked, as though he could read her mind.

Mu Xuelian quietly nodded in response.

”I don’t have a special reason,” he calmly said. ”However, if I have to give a reason, it’d be that I pity you.”

”You pity me...?” Mu Xuelian’s eyes widened slightly, unsure how she should feel about being pitied by someone else, as she had never once considered herself pitiful.

”I don’t understand,” she said a moment later. ”Why do you pity me?”

”You were born for the sole purpose of becoming a tool for someone else,” Yuan replied calmly. ”Nor do you have true free will. How is that not pitiful?”

”So what if I don’t have free will? I’m perfectly satisfied serving Lady Shiva! That is my purpose in life!” Mu Xuelian exclaimed.

Yuan shook his head and sighed, ”You’re just brainwashed.”

Mu Xuelian gritted her teeth and shouted, ”Lady Shiva! There’s no need to listen to him! I’m willing to continue training! Please... allow me to remain useful to you!”

Yuan then calmly said, ”If you still want to continue training, then go ahead. However, I’m not going to let you die under my watch.”

He then added, ”After all, I promised your grandmother that I would take care of you.”

”You heard him,” Shiva spoke directly into Mu Xuelian’s mind. ”You may continue training at your own discretion. After all, there’s no guarantee he’ll truly be able to recover my body, so we may ultimately have to rely on ourselves in the end.”

Some time later, Mu Xuelian asked Yuan, ”Lord Shiva asked what you’re doing in this place.”

”I have somewhere I need to be. Want to tag along?”

”Of course,” she immediately responded.

Thus, Yuan resumed his journey toward the fifth level, with Mu Xuelian following him.

”So, what’s the real reason you’re helping them?” Zi Xuan’s voice suddenly echoed inside Yuan’s head. ”I highly doubt you’d help an Eternal just because you pity that little girl.”

A subtle smile appeared on Yuan’s face as he replied, ”It’s true that I pity her, but the real reason I’m helping them—helping Shiva—is because she can help me obtain an Eternal’s blacksmithing techniques.”

”Oh?”

”Actually, it’s more like she knows someone who can help me. Unfortunately, we do not have the time for that right now.”

”Then what about my upgrade? Are we not going to do it right now?”

”No, we’ll do it right now, but it’ll be a partial upgrade instead of a full one.”

”What a pity... not that I am complaining,” she said.

As they continued traveling together, Yuan decided to strike up a conversation with Shiva—or more accurately, use the opportunity to extract information from her.

”Hey, Shiva, what do you know about humans? And I don’t mean the ones Eternals cloned for their selfish experiments.”

The moment she heard those words, Mu Xuelian’s body trembled slightly before Shiva abruptly took control once again.

”How do you know about that?!” she demanded in a shocked voice.

”How else? I learned about it from another Eternal.”

”I don’t believe you!” Shiva immediately retorted. ”This is a sensitive subject that most Eternals avoid discussing altogether!”

Yuan raised an eyebrow after hearing that.

”Sensitive? I’m surprised you Eternals even understand the meaning of that word.”

Since Eternals could experiment on humans and use them like disposable tools without batting an eye, Yuan was genuinely surprised to learn that there were topics even they considered sensitive.

”So, what do you know about them?” Yuan continued to ask.

”Then tell me what you know first,” Shiva quickly responded.

”Well, I know that Eternals once cloned humans for their experiments, but something eventually happened that resulted in those humans being wiped out.”

”Seriously... which idiot would reveal something like this to a mortal?” Shiva sighed aloud in disbelief.

”That would be Deemo,” Yuan suddenly revealed.

”Huh?” Shiva immediately froze with a bewildered expression on her face.

”D-Did you just say Deemo? Prime Eternal Deemo?” Shiva asked in a nervous voice.

Even among Eternals, the strong were revered with awe and respect. However, what truly shocked Shiva was not the fact that Yuan had met a Prime Eternal, but that he somehow had connections to one of the most reclusive Prime Eternals in existence.

”That’s right. Deemo, the Demon God. The creator of the Demonic Realm,” Yuan confirmed.

”W-What is your relationship with Deemo? I cannot imagine someone like him being on friendly terms with a mortal.”

Yuan shrugged, ”It’s a bit complicated. Although we’re not friends, we’re also not enemies.”

”It’s practically a miracle that you even managed to speak with him. Deemo is infamous for being extremely reclusive, always remaining within his own territory and almost never stepping outside of it,” Shiva remarked. ”Not only that, but for him to share such sensitive information with you... Honestly, I’m a bit envious.”

”Envious? You are?” Yuan muttered with a surprised face.

”Do you even know what it means to be a Prime Eternal?” Shiva suddenly asked.

”Isn’t it just a title for the strongest Eternals?” he replied.

Shiva shook her head and sighed, ”You need more than just raw strength to acquire the title of ’Prime’.”

”Care to elaborate?”

Shiva then said, ”In order to become a ’Prime Eternal, ’ one must satisfy three requirements.”