Chapter 34- I Miss Them.

One year had passed since Long Ren lived with Nid, the Chaos Tiger. Every day he enjoyed a dish of torture in the form of qi exhaustion or plain ol' scars and bruises.

This one year had been torturous for Long Ren. He had to cut his sleep hours into 8, sometimes 7 since Nid, several times, got angry at his so-called "Laziness".

He's also not allowed to slack on his cultivation speed/pace. Although Nid did give him a way to increase his cultivation speed, it was torturous as well. Double torture for the win~ WooHoo!!!

After the first 6 months, Long Ren started to learn the duplication thingy. Nid told him his body was strangely ready to start, even though it was way too fast as compared to her initial estimate.

She initially thought Long Ren would need around 5 years to adjust his body to the technique but he didn't'. She could not find anything wrong or unusual with the technique nor with his body, so she chucked it off as Long Ren's good luck.

~6 months ago~

"Today, you'll start learning duplication," Nid said as she lazed on a giant butt pillow made out of extremely soft and comfortable material. Long Ren got it from the system.

It was supposed to be a bed for humans but it is now being used as her butt pillow. He gave it to her at the price of five payments. After all, He already has his futon, that bed is useless.

A good deal, if Long Ren must say.

She raised her paw, releasing a claw mark made out of qi. "Now, how do you think I duplicate this into two," Nid said, as she threw the claw mark into a wall, it exploded and then duplicated.

Long Ren scratched his head. "I don't know, maybe you split the qi inside to form another claw?" He said, only to be met with five face slaps across his two, now red, cheeks. He could only rub them slowly while pouting.

"Don't be a stupid brat. I said duplicate, not split. Why would I start with one if I would split it into two later on? I might as well throw two, or even ten at you immediately." Nid said as she rolled her eyes.

She then opened her other paw. "This is splitting." A claw mark appeared above her paw, She waved her paw a little and the claw mark splits into two. "You can't see it as my qi quality is too high, but here, it's the same as if I made two of that claws from the start."

She said, pointing at the levitating two claw marks beside the destroyed wall. "That, I only made with one portion, but now there's two." She said, only to meet with Long Ren's confused look.

Nid scratched her head for a while and finally said. "Do you know what a hydra is?"

"The one that duplicates its heads?" Long Ren said.

"Yes, that's the one. My ability works the same way as that. If the Hydra's heads need to be beheaded to regrow, then…" Nid said, her words trailed off as she looked at Long Ren, her paw moved in a circling motion towards Long Ren.

Long Ren noticed her gaze and his eyes gleamed. "Your ability needs to be used up before it duplicates?"

Nid's eyes smiled. "Yep, that's why when the first time I attacked and you dodged the marks, it slowed down. I inputted just enough qi to reach your initial location and if it missed, all of its energy will be used up and finally, duplicate."

"..."

"But how do you duplicate them without using more qi, that's impossible." Long Ren asked, still confused. You can't just make something out of nothing…

"Heh." Nid showed a smug smile. "Look at me brat." She stood up, pointed at herself, and released her aura.

*Fwoosh*

Nid, a white tiger adorned by black stripes and two tails, radiated two different opposing spectrums of qi as her eyes turned red and shone brightly in the dark cave.

Her two white and black tail caught black and white flames respectively, burning through the roof of the cave like paper.

She opened her mouth as puffs of white smoke appeared from her nose, her voice hoarse and cold, yet soft and warm at the same time.

Long Ren shivered. His body trembled, his hairs rose and his breath quickened. She slowly said…

"I am the Impossible."

…

…

(A/N: yeah, I'm not even gonna bother trying to create some mumbo jumbo bullshit about how she did it, just roll with it KEWK)

~~~~

~Back to the present~

…

Long Ren's duplication skill had improved by leaps and bounds. In just a mere 6 months, he had succeeded on duplicating his [Spatial Bullet] into a maximum of 8 bullets.

Every day since 6 months ago, he and Nid would always deplete all of Long Ren's qi by clashing their duplicated projectiles over and over again, and when his qi is fully depleted, he would train his body.

His unusually powerful body even shocked Nid as she did not expect it to be this strong and durable.

Each time they "spar", meaning Nid kicking the shit out of Long Ren and pointing out his flaws, he would correct and improve upon them.

Torture is the best method of training, after all…at least thats what Long Ren now believes in.

…

Today is quite a aunique day.

Today, the old man from the shack will be bringing in a recently rank-7 disciple who is, he said and Long Ren quote, "Stuck-Up Motherfucker".

He comes from a nearby Peng noble family, and has quite good potential. But sadly…being the member of the Peng family that he is…well.

You know.

Currently, Long Ren was sitting beside Nid, eating a porridge that he bought from the clan a few days ago.

Once a month or so, Long Ren would be carried like a kitten by Nid to the clan to restock on daily supplies. (A/N: Like how a mama cat nommed on its kitten's neck.)

Of course, with the precondition that he bought food for Nid as well. Nid will now happily munch on human foods such as porridge, chicken rices, etc after she tried a BIG bite out of Long Ren's lunch a few months ago and tasted them for the first time.

Now, she gets breakfast, lunch, dinner and then an earth food from Long Ren each and every day. It's like taking care of a pet, only this one could kill you with a simple "Hmph!".

Nothing special, really.

…

"So, do you just usually rest here until Xing Hui comes?" Long Ren asked as he slurped his porridge. (A/N: old man from the shack, yeah yeah, sry I forgor to give him name .3.)

"Yep, what else do think I'd do? I slept when we first met too,." Nid said. She took a whole roasted chicken and dipped it in a sauce, eating it whole. "Delish~! Human food sure have developed well."

"True." Long Ren nodded.

As they chatted for a while, a rustle was heard behind them. It was Xing Hui. He greeted them and said,

"The boy's coming, just scare him to death, he's really annoying." His eyebrows were scrunched as he said that.

Nid giggled while Long Ren was dumbfounded.

'Really? You want to break his mind just because he is annoying?' He thought. Now he wondered what Xing Hui told Nid before she met him…

Nid saw right through Long Ren's thoughts as she patted his head, "He said nothing bad really, just that you're a bit too prideful, so just a tiny scare will do, though, I probably should've gone harder since you decided to fight me and all."

Long Ren flashed a confused look. He did not feel like he was prideful when he first met her, but that didn't matter.

"Well, at that time, even though you're intimidating, I had the protection array from the token and Master, also Xing Hui was there, I thought I'll be safe regardless of what I do." He shrugged.

Nid chuckled, "And yet no one has ever attacked me even once, something must be wrong with your head."

Long Ren snorted, "Tch, yeah, maybe there was, I got scared by a giant zebra after all." He said.

…

Nid's aura started to pour out as a rustling sound was heard in front of them, "Ze…zebra?" Nid asked calmly.

Long Ren, not willing to back off. "Yeah, white-colored body, black stripes, and your tails are pretty bushy. Yep, a Zebra indeed." He said, staring back into Nid's fiery eyes.

Nid kept eye contact as she laughed maniacally, "Oh…Take that back…brat!" She said. Her eyes starts to glow red as she opened her paw and claw marks started floating above it.

Long Ren smiled. "Heh, you're just a glorified Zeb…" Long Ren said as his words got cut off by the two claw marks approaching him. He space stepped 20 meters away and arrived at the rustling sound.

"Huh? Why are you here? You're barely rank-5. Let this young master escort you back to the Peng Clan and you can be my sla....minion." A cultivator wearing stupidly overdecorated clans robes appeared from the bush

As he said his piece, he noticed Long Ren already moved another 5 meters away from his position while the two claw marks approached his unsuspecting face.

"Hmph! A mere Beast Claw dare approach the great me? I'll…"

*BOOM*

…

…

…

Long Ren appeared beside Nid, asking for a truce, to which she accepted,

"Look what you did, he's now dead!" Long Ren shouted. "Such a promising young man! Now wasted." He said as he wiped the completely genuine tear from his left eye.

He approached the cultivator and grabbed his deformed body. "I'm sorry my friend…sob…sob."

Nid rolled her eyes, "You do know that you don't say sob when you're actually crying right?" She said, done with this farce.

"How would you know, you're just a heartless Zebra!" Long Ren shouted, wiping another definitely genuine tear off of his left eye.

Nid's veins popped, as she finally snapped and clenched her paw upwards. "Listen here you little shit…"

…

…

…

"I'm sorry for calling you a zebra." Long Ren, all bruised up as his face, arm, and legs are now swollen slowly said. He did not feel sorry for calling her a Zebra at all, it was worth it.

"Tch, I dare you call me zebra again and you won't sleep for another month like last time." Nid threatened to which Long Ren quickly nodded.

Threatening his life isn't effective, but his sleep time, that's his reverse scale.

"You're evil." Long Ren mumbled as Nid laughed. "You just realized that now, brat?"

…

…

…

~Another 6 months passed~

Long Ren, was currently sending one [Spatial Bullet] per second towards the slouching Nid's back, He remembered to keep using his duplication as they collided with her fur.

"Yes, that's the spot, now another one but a little to the left," Nid said. She slouched her back even more and tilted her body so the bullet hit right where it felt the best.

"Aaaah~!" She whimpered, full of bliss.

Meanwhile, Long Ren does not know what to make of the situation.

All of a sudden, Nid just asked him to massage her back by…shooting her…Something he never ever thought would be doing right after he woke up.

"So, why do I have to do this again?" Long Ren asked.

"Mn? Why not, I just felt like it." Nid half-answered,

"...How long are we going to do this for?"

"Until I'm satisfied~," Nid said as she hummed a tune. Long Ren sighed and decided to stay silent.

At least this is better than being tortured in the name of training. For the greater good, she said. BS.

=Meanwhile, Nid PoV=

…

This past year has brought me way too much nostalgia for my liking. I can't believe I got attached to a human this easily…why?

I looked back at him, the human named Long Ren. A stupidly trusting boy. I can't believe he stayed with me after seeing my power and danger. He is too naive for his own good…

Usually, everyone would run away from me, especially cannon fodders like him, and yet…he didn't.

He's such a hassle to deal with. He's stingy, he's cheeky, he likes to blabber about how sleep is the best, it's just closing your eyes, no need to get that excited over it, geez.

At least the food he brought is good. The last time I tasted human food was a few hundred years ago, and it almost made me vomit.

That damn brat Xing Hui, not telling me that human food had developed so much!

…

But, something still confuses me. Where does he get all these weird-looking yet delicious foods out of nowhere?

His storage ring definitely doesn't have it, and yet every time he gave one of them to me, they appeared out of nowhere…

Strange… I'm still quite baffled that I can't see through it. it's the strangest thing I've ever encountered here.

I could've killed him to solve that but, I'm not that woman anymore

…

All of this happened because I took him in.

As a human, I thought he would be incompatible.

I would just laugh as he tried his best for years and take his food, maybe even the source but…who would've thought. He succeeded almost immediately.

How did he even succeed in duplicating his bullet in just a couple of months…It's like he was one of my children.

…

Oh.

Is that why…

Is that why I got so attached to him so easily.

Is that why I've been slapping his cheeks…constantly nagging him.

Is that why I've been training him with my all.

…

Maybe…No, I can't.

He won't let me.

But, it has been a couple of hundred years, maybe he would…maybe they would.

I looked at Long Ren as he shoots multiple bullets at me with a bored expression. Sights of my children massaging my back overlapped with his…

He's not mine. I said to myself

He's human,

He's weak,

He's nothing to me, and yet,

He reminded me of them.

…

I miss them,

My brats.

~

(A/N: 2.3k words…this chapter wasn't even supposed to be a thing. I just added it cause [REDACTED]...A/N will continue in the next chapter to avoid spoilers.

Also, can someone gift me a gachaphon or the like, I need to have a clear conscience to buy discord nitro KEKW. I'll dish out some more chapters if some madlad decided to.)