Chapter 27 - Small Mastery(?)
The next morning came and a certain baby was still moving around in the same manner as she did the whole night.
'Whew. Finally, I'm done experimenting. I feel absolutely pooped.'
I deactivated『Ascendance』and sat down on the floor resting.
'Hmm? That's strange... Didn't I just deactivated『Ascendance』...?'
『Ascendance』, Deactivate!
...Nothing happened.
'Uhh. That's awfully weird. So I did deactivate『Ascendance』. But then why did nothing change? My perception of time and my senses have not dulled a single bit even after I deactivated『Ascendance』...
The only difference is that my body feels a little slow, but I probably will get used to it soon enough... Is it a side effect of using『Ascendance』for long periods of time? I did use it for about 8 hours, so it's possible...' I pondered.
"Let's check my body first for any changes." I decided out loud.
I closed my eyes and spread my senses towards all parts of my body, feeling out all parts of my body through my Qi.
'Hmm... I don't see any changes... But my Neutral Qi has dwindled just a bit. Considering all the things I did yesterday, I'm surprised.
I used Neutral Qi to curb my hunger, then I used『Ascendance』all night at 1% capacity, which should be quite taxing on my Neutral Qi reserves. I expected to have little to none Neutral Qi left by morning comes...
Come to think of it, I sense my body through my Qi, but what if there are parts where my Qi cannot reach? Those parts wouldn't get the baptism of Neutral Qi, so it would remain a weak point. It would be nice if I could see through into my body...'
'Right! I should test out the theory I just thought of. If I'm right, it should be the reason why I still have plenty of Neutral Qi left.'
『Ascendance』, 1% Activate!
'The world did not sharpen within my senses, and my body still moved at the same speed as before, so my perception of time has not changed... Let's see how's the movement of my Neutral Qi.'
As I cast my senses upon all the Neutral Qi in my body, I detected little movement towards the cells of my brain, which would be normal with the activation of『Ascendance』at any percentage.
'No changes in senses nor perception, and zero cost of Qi. There's an 80% chance I'm right, that Neutral Qi isn't being used as fuel at all, but rather, my cells have been using Neutral Qi to adapt to the burden my abilities, obtained from the formation of『Yin-Yang Cycles』, place on my cells.
Once my cells have got used to this burden, there's little to no cost at all at using these abilities. This is crazy, it's like an inborn heaven gifted ability for those legendary creatures of legend.
...Did I just repeat legend twice? Just a slip of the tongue. Don't mind it.
Anyway. Even those inborn abilities would place burdens on the bodies of those legendary creatures, so they usually use it as trump cards, but I have the power of Neutral Qi! OP! Yay! Ez laifu!' I celebrated on the inside.
*Sigh*
'Well, even if I say that, if I don't train or use my abilities, I would probably not get any stronger. Neutral Qi is just too damned passive. It's good, but you need to go look for it and push its ass for it to work for you. Haiz.
Well, more importantly, I need to find a way to slow down my perception of time, even if it's temporary. Well, best it's temporary. Permanent slow down would be stupid.
At this rate, either I get stuck living in a suuuuuuuuu-upppeeeeeer sssslllllllllooooww woooooorld, or I gather up a storage of Neutral Qi and attune my cells to all of the burden of『Ascendance』at 100% activation, and hope that I can control my perception of time more precisely afterwards. Still, with no assurance, I should hold off on that.
I can experiment with my eyes first, since there are absolutely no downsides at all to completely adapting to the burden『Truth Seeker』places on my eyes' cells.'
『Truth Seeker』, 1% Activate!
My vision sharpened to a considerably larger extent compared to what『Ascendance』does, and the flow of Qi between Heaven and Earth vaguely shows up within my retinas.
"Well, it's to be expected." I said to myself.
'『Ascendance』improves all senses while『Truth Seeker』only improves my vision. Of course, the boost is going to be larger. Since leaving『Ascendance』on at 1% barely makes any difference compared to deactivating it, I might as well just leave it o-
Hmm. I want to see it my perception of time will go back to normal or not, so I'll hold off on activating『Ascendance』for a while. But leaving『Truth Seeker』activated at 1% definitely has no drawbacks to me so I'll just keep it activated...wait.
『Truth Seeker』causes the Yin-Yang symbol to spin in my eyes doesn't it? I forgot about it! It looks kewl, but it's totally a dead giveaway! Sigh. I guess I can only keep it activated when I close my eyes.'
『Ascendance』, deactivate!
As before, no obvious difference was made, but it has yet to be seen whether the 'enhancements' are permanent or temporary.
*Sigh*
"I guess I'll just go open a book, and pretend to be asleep." I murmured to myself.
I crawled over to the carpet that covers a large portion of the middle of the living room, where plenty of books are stacked together in a pile at one side. I went over to a smaller stack, which seems to have been read before by somebody, since a dictionary was left opened halfway.
I picked the lowest book at the bottom, opened it a few pages in and placed it in front of me. I then placed my arm on the small stack of books, and lied my head upon it, with the dictionary in front of me still within my vision. I then closed my eyes, and went to sleep.
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"Hmngh... Is it morning already?"
An attractive, currently naked, lady opened her eyes, rose her body up and stretched her arms out. She then looked at the closed window and saw lights seeping in through the gaps.
*Gasp!*
"Yan Yan! I had too much fun and with that boring reading added in I just fell right into sleep! I need to feed her!" An Xin frantically shouted and got out of bed to check on Hui Yan in the living room.
An Xin opened the door and looked towards the table where she last remembered Hui Yan was.
"She's gone?!" An Xin shrieked, looking around the living room with her frenzied gaze, even resorting to using her perception to spread out all around the living room.
"Eh? Yan Yan?" An Xin found her daughter lying on a stack of books, with a dictionary opened up in front of her, with eyes closed and sleeping dreamily.
"Whew! You scared me there, Yan Yan." An Xin said to herself as she patted her chest, keeping her voice down low so she would not wake her daughter up.
"Eh? Right, I should go put on some clothes..." An Xin blushed as she noticed she was naked this whole time while searching for her daughter. Carefully tiptoeing, she went back into the room and put on her clothes.
"I should definitely prepare plenty of milk today, Yan Yan must be starving when she wakes up." An Xin said to herself with determination and sat down on the jade bed in a lotus position and started meditating on the milk improving technique, using all of the Yin Qi and Yang Qi from last night's 'fun' to spur on the production of her milk.
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*groooooowl~*
"Uuughh..."
'Being woken up by my hunger is not a good experience... whether it was my past life or this.'
"Yan Yan? Have you woken up? I bet you're suuuuper hungry, so I prepared an extra-large portion today~! Mommy's sorry about last night, I was too tired and just fell asleep, forgetting to feed you, so mommy decided to make up for it with plenty of milk this time!" Mom's voice apologetically rang out from behind me.
"It's ookay. I forgot about everything and was engrossed in the books until late at night..." I trailed off as I turned around to look at mom.
Mom's breasts were currently bulging way way way bigger than before, almost like balloons, and a few drops of milk were starting to leak out from her nipples and soak into the dress mom is wearing.
"D-don't stare too hard... Mommy's a little embarrassed about it. Mommy was too absorbed in making as much milk as possible for Yan Yan... that it just became like this..." Mom said in a small voice, twisting around in embarrassment.
"Mommy, Yan Yan's hungry~!" I cried out in a cute manner and raised my arms towards mom's chest.
"Okay okay, I've prepared this much milk for you, so be sure to drink it all up okay? It'll be a little embarrassing if daddy came back and saw me like this, so help mommy get her chest size back to normal, okay?" Mom gently smiled as she walked over to pick me up and carry me to her chest.
"En!" I nodded.
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An hour later...
"Whew~ Yan Yan can't drink anymore..." I muttered while gently patting my belly, absolutely satisfied.
"Ufufu~ Yan Yan is finally full for once! I was always worried that you didn't have enough milk to drink, that I wasn't making enough. So I'm happy that Yan Yan can drink her fill." Mom happily hummed while sitting on the carpet.
"Yan Yan was always full, it's just that I like mommy's milk a lot, so I wanted to drink more. That's all." I happily smiled back at mom as I explained myself.
"Is that so? Mommy's both relieved and happy!" Mom sighed.
"Mommy's chest is now much smaller than before. What happened?" I curiously asked as I gently poked at mom's now much smaller breasts, barely managing to make a beautiful curve for her body.
'Hmm. I would say about a solid C. Just entering the C range though.' I inadvertently thought.
"Oh! Ooh." Mom yelped, surprised and then depressed.
*Haaaaaaa~*
Mom hung her head low as she slowly explained,
"Mommy used to be...flatter. I was a little worried about this, that daddy likes bigger chests. It wasn't until I had you when my breasts starting growing larger, to prepare for making milk for you. I was so happy when that happened, and when daddy came back and saw me, he jumped straight to... making... love with me.
Afterwards, I asked him which he liked better, bigger or smaller. He wouldn't answer me until I threatened him to not make love for a few months and he immediately said bigger.
I was both angry and happy at the same time, and scolded him as I vented all my feelings of frustration at him. He just hugged me and said nothing." Mom then poured out all her words and went 'kya kya', holding her blushing cheeks and shaking her head around.
"Soooo... Daddy is a bad, perverted dad?" I muttered as I leaned my head to the side, with my finger supporting my cheek.
"Eh...? Uh, well, no, I mean, aah, d-daddy, is my husband, and we love each other, so it's normal for daddy to like me, and of course, I'm happy that he likes me better now and sooo... I think not?" Mom tried to explain with plenty of gestures, flustered and blushing to her neck.
"Soo...? It's okay to be perverted if 2 people love each other?" I innocently asked, intending to see more of flustered mom.
"I-I-I g-guess so..." Smoke started coming out from mom's face.
"Hey! Where did you learn so many big words?" Mom puffed her cheeks up and pretended to be angry at me.
"From the dictionaries, I read yesterday. It was kind of fun. Don't try to change the subject, mom."
"Oh! Yan Yan's language mastery has gotten very good!" Mom praised and patted my head, looking away from me.
But I still unblinkingly stared at her.
"...Fiiiine. You see, mommy and daddy liked each other, and it wasn't until a few years ago when he asked for my hand in marriage. I agreed, and we got married, becoming a couple. So a couple is allowed to do...I-I mean, make love, which is an act where couples affirm and exchange their feelings of love for each other. It is also the act where babies are made."
"I see... What about what you said before, about daddy 'coming back'?" I nodded, then asked, trying hard not to smirk at the cute, flustered side of mom.
"Oh. Well. Uh. How should I say this... Every 10 years, a war happens. We as a clan, need to send a representative to fight in the war. The war usually lasts for a year. Then a peace that lasts 10 years comes. Last year, when you were born, the war had just ended. Daddy fought in that war.
I found out a little after he went to fight in the war, that I was pregnant with you, so I sent him a letter about it. But the reply letter never came back. I was getting increasingly worried that daddy might've died in the war when just 1 month after I sent the letter, he came back to see me, saying he fought super hard and got war exploits and merits.
I was just so happy that he rushed back to see him and you know, things happened." Mom trailed off.
"What things?"
"Not yet, Yan Yan is still too young to know these things. This is mommy and daddy's private time."
"Fiiiiiiine. I won't ask anymore. What will mommy do today?"
"Hm. I will meditate here then. Yan Yan wants to read books right?"
"En~!" I agreed.
"Okay, then mommy will accompany you here. Just pat my knee if you need something, okay?" Mom gently told me as she crossed her legs into the lotus position.
"Ooookay~" I replied while moving to the stack of dictionaries and restarted the same process as I did yesterday.