Chapter 149: Sera Phina!

Seeing Sara so shocked, Feng Xue was truly surprised—so this dog didn't know everything either?

But when Phina heard this, she smiled with a distinctly yandere expression.

"Didn't you say it yourself? You're Sera, I'm Phina, Lupu is the Wild Wolf—so the three of us together are Sera Phina Lupu."

"No, I'm Sara, not Sera! And I'm clearly the Phantom Beast Taming AI!"

Although Sara deliberately adopted an AI tone, Feng Xue clearly detected traces of panic in her voice; Phina crouched down, reached out, and rubbed the dog's head.

"That's right, I never said otherwise! So, do you remember why we wanted to die?"

"Because you killed your mother… wait! No! Your mother died because you wanted to die… Error! Error! Error!"

Watching the dog roll around frantically glitching, Feng Xue suddenly smelled the fresh scent of melon; he reached into his gourd pouch, pulled out a table, chairs, and tea set, even lit a small stove, and as he brewed tea, said:

"Tell me more! Tell me more!"

"Actually, the story is quite simple. Although this glowing Wild Wolf is indeed a true phantom beast, I didn't establish a bond with it through the Phantom Beast Taming AI. In a sense, I used somatic synchronization technology." Phina sat across from Feng Xue, her posture elegant, utterly unlike her earlier emotionless, bloodthirsty warrior persona; she even picked up the teapot resting on the stove and poured him a cup of tea.

Hearing this, Sara immediately rebutted:

"Impossible! The Phantom Beast Taming AI technology of the Blue Lake Archipelago is highly advanced; no one would use somatic synchronization links on precious phantom beast individuals—it's an enormous waste! Because…"

Here, Sara fell silent; Phina's smile grew even sweeter. She poured herself a cup of tea and spoke calmly:

"Because human consciousness can retroactively erode the phantom beast? Leading to the beast being unable to bond with a new host if the original dies? But what if the synchronized individual has no consciousness at all?"

As she spoke, she suddenly lifted her head to look at Feng Xue:

"Don't you think forty-seven is an excessive number for a daughter count?"

At this, Feng Xue—having read countless novels, films, and anime—already had the answer forming in his mind:

"Human experimentation?"

"Correct. The last head of the Lupu clan bred countless nanite-unit-free fertilized eggs, injecting them with activated phantom beast cells (Note ①). Of those, six thousand successfully developed into embryos implanted into mothers; fewer than a hundred survived to birth. Among those hundred, I had the highest nanite-unit activation rate, so this glowing Wild Wolf became my phantom beast—and my personality became the Phantom Beast Taming AI."

Phina's tone was calm, so calm it sent a chill down Feng Xue's spine; yet he still didn't fully grasp the purpose of such an act. He frowned:

"So your other surviving siblings didn't benefit from this experiment at all—some might even be unable to bond with other phantom beasts? Then what was the goal? To produce just one phantom beast user who, even as an adult, only reached average excellent-tier levels? Or is this glowing Wild Wolf with exceptional potential truly that valuable? But if it were, wouldn't such a near-suicidal method be counterproductive?"

"I didn't understand it at first either, and…"

"Didn't she say her nanite-unit activation rate was the highest?" Liu Yunxi, who had just tossed the processed corpse into the sea, suddenly interrupted.

Perhaps due to her complete lack of presence, her voice made Phina's eyelid twitch; Feng Xue frowned, then only belatedly realized:

"But didn't the dog say nanite units don't erode humans… wait! Holy shit. Holy shit? Holy shit!"

Overcome with sudden excitement, Feng Xue blurted out three "Holy shits" in a row, his eyes bulging wide.

For he finally understood the purpose of injecting phantom beast cells into the fertilized eggs—

It wasn't about fusion rates or improving compatibility with phantom beasts; it was because this way, the embryo had a chance of not being recognized as human by the nanite units!

Realizing this, Feng Xue suddenly stood up in a fit of manic laughter, a grotesque, unhinged cackle, then shouted at the dog:

"Se↑ra↓!"

"Why do you become more human every time you merge with Phina?"

"Why do you always insist you're not human?"

"Why does a Phantom Beast Taming AI have a function to disguise itself as human?"

"Stop talking!" Sara screamed, as if hearing something she desperately wanted to forget; Feng Xue, as if venting all his accumulated frustration over this dog repeatedly denying his humanity, shouted loudly:

"Se↑ra↓ Phi↑na↓! You're the only humanoid phantom beast in the world!"

"Impossible! Wait—" The nearly crashed Sara suddenly turned to the calm Phina, uncertainly asking:

"Why are you so composed, while I, the AI, am the one getting shaken? Isn't it fine that I turned from AI into a phantom beast?"

"Didn't I already say?" Phina reached out and stroked the dog's head, her smile chilling:

"Together, the three of us are Sera Phina Lupu."

"In short, you've got dissociative identity disorder—you're the nihilistic personality that emerged after learning you were merely your father's weapon, while Sara is the one who refused to accept reality and redefined herself as a taming AI?"

Feng Xue deduced this based on countless films and shows he'd consumed; Phina nodded gently:

"Close enough. More precisely, I'm the emotional personality; she's the rational personality that spontaneously formed when my emotions turned toward self-destruction. As for that dog, just treat it as our instinct."

"Then your emotional side turned into a blank-faced zombie from medication, your rational side got forced into emotionality, and only the dog remains a white-haired husky…" Feng Xue thought to himself, pondering why Phina had revealed this secret; Phina calmly crossed her legs and said:

"Let's make a deal?"

"Go ahead." Feng Xue knew the real matter was coming; he lifted his teacup and took a small sip. Phina smiled at this.

"I want to destroy the Blue Lake Archipelago. Help me, how about it?"

"Why should I help you?" Feng Xue narrowed his eyes. Though he suspected this woman had motives deeper than mere revenge or suicide, he still wanted more information.

"Aren't you curious why the Lupu clan chief, already one of the Twelve Family Lords of the Blue Lake Archipelago, would risk creating a human phantom beast? Or further—do you really believe a human phantom beast, one with only average excellent-tier power, is valuable enough to justify the other eleven families targeting a clan with considerable influence across the entire archipelago?"

"…" Feng Xue pursed his lips, rolled his eyes, and said:

"It's probably something like having both human and phantom beast traits, or being able to control nanite units, right? You're not seriously claiming you found the Earth God, are you?"

"…"

"Wait… what's with that smile of yours?"

(End of Chapter)