Chapter 156

——From a life of wandering and displacement……

——To speak again of why one would begin such a life of wandering and displacement……

——And thus bring forth one's own origins, as well as the background of the world from which one came……

Like pulling up a radish and bringing the mud with it, many matters were thus dragged out in one fell swoop, and spilled out in a single breath by Ciri.

Among them was the intelligence regarding that "Ancient Blood".

In that world, Ciri was originally born into a royal family; her parents loved her dearly, and her maternal grandmother was a great Queen. The court she lived in was guarded by hundreds of Knights, and everyone believed she would grow up to become a powerful Queen, but fate had other arrangements.

She possessed powerful magical talent, and was a Source Artisan — this was because her mother and great-grandmother had both inherited the power of the Ancient Blood, making them natural sources of magic.

This bloodline could be traced back to the Elven Sage Lora Dolen. She was originally arranged to marry the Elven Sage Avarak from another world, but she encountered a human Wizard. They developed from friendship into love, becoming a pair of legendary lovers, and then died tragically because of the arrival of an age of contempt.

Although the ending of the two was extremely tragic, the bloodline managed to continue.

However, this continued bloodline has always been coveted and spied upon by evil men.

This bloodline possessing the ability to traverse time and space, no matter how you look at it, is an unimaginable priceless treasure.

Evil schemers, villains with ulterior motives, and the source race from which this bloodline originated, were all continuously hunting Ciri. They all wanted to obtain her, to obtain the ability she possessed, so as to realize their own grand visions — such as ruling the world, ruling the world, or ruling the world……

"It is because of this reason that I am practically a living weapon; almost everyone wants to control me……"

When she spoke to this point, the white-haired girl gave a slightly self-mocking laugh, her smile filled with helplessness, weariness, and vexation.

Immediately after, her gaze grew bright, turning to stare fixedly at the Magician opposite, as if her eyes contained some hope and expectation.

"……"

"……"

"Killing for possession, I can more or less understand…… After all, it is the ability to actively traverse different worlds, and the kind that can stably traverse while carrying large amounts of matter — just hearing it sounds enough to make one salivate."

The Magician youth on the opposite side exclaimed with such emotion, his eyes revealing deep understanding and sympathy.

He paused for a moment, also noticing the other party's gaze and hope, thought slightly, then spoke with a firm and sincere voice: "You can rest assured, I am also quite curious about your ability, but this is purely out of interest in exploring the unknown…… I will not think of utilizing you!"

These words were spoken with such resounding force.

Guaranteeing it so directly face-to-face carries, more or less, a hint of putting on a show; generally speaking, following a normal person's logic of thought, one would surely not believe such words so easily because of it.

However——

Right now Ciri's logic of thought is clearly not very normal; or rather, this scene is precisely what she wanted to see.

Hearing his solemn guarantee, the white-haired girl instantly felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted, as if the boulder in her heart had finally settled. The corners of her mouth curled up, revealing a brilliant smile: "That's good! I knew I could trust you!"

"……"

"……"

emmmmm…… How should I put this?

Xia Zhi couldn't help but pull at the corner of his mouth, also intentionally or unintentionally averting his gaze, not meeting the girl's eyes.

He naturally knew this result was to be expected, because the Divine Being-level charm ability was still very effective. After intentionally avoiding the parts of caution and wariness deep in Ciri's subconscious, choosing to enter from where her will was weak, there was almost no resistance aroused at all.

As a matter of course, the girl gradually inclined toward him, from emotion to spirit, just like now, she practically poured out all her secrets, and then seemed as if as long as the latter made a simple guarantee, she could completely breathe a sigh of relief, not worrying about consequences at all.

Basically——

It has reached the extent that whatever Xia Zhi says, Ciri will believe.

Although it cannot be said to be a guilty conscience, or rather he probably doesn't have much of a thing called conscience left, he still feels more or less like he's bullying a fool. — Although strictly speaking, this cannot be called wrong either, after all, charm power of this intensity……

emmmmmm…… Actually it's indeed about the same as an "Intelligence Halo".

One could even say that what Xia Zhi currently grasps is still a weakened version.

Because this power, or rather trait, is an application technology extracted from the resonance between the wreckage of that half Machine God True Body and the damaged Divine Core of Aphrodite, one of the fallen Olympus Main Gods.

The power form of its predecessor belongs to the domain of Divine Authority——

Tracing further back to its essence, it is the pre-designed programs and functions of an alien spaceship——

Very obviously, his race belongs neither to gods, nor can it be classified as silicon-based life existence, so the forms of these two abilities are not very suitable for direct rigid application.

Just like a console platform game ported to PC, it still needs proper porting adaptation and optimization; he is actually not unfamiliar with this, after all, the simulated Divine Weapon Circuit and simulated Divine Spear Circuit are the same. Divine Weapons and flesh bodies ultimately have differences, therefore a tailored transplantation plan adapted to local conditions is needed.

——It's just that the simulated circuits of the Divine Weapon and Divine Spear concern his core foundation and roots, so they need to be perfect, achieved in one step.

——As for external ability manifestation, there's no need to be so stingy with details; they can be used first, then slowly adjusted to optimal state later.

Like the difference between "internal arts" and "techniques".

Therefore, the charm power Xia Zhi currently displays surpasses in intensity what humans can exercise in terms of Mystery — magecraft, rituals, curses, sacraments, etc. — yet it probably still does not reach the level of Authority, at least definitely not reaching the prototype values of Aphrodite who possesses a Machine God True Body.

Otherwise, Ciri would probably have absolutely no possibility of resistance.

Even at that time, Xia Zhi wouldn't need to simply deceive her — she would deceive herself.

Even if Xia Zhi made it very obvious that he also wanted to utilize her ability, and harbored ill intentions toward the "Ancient Blood" flowing in her…… she might still strive to convince herself, think in the better direction, unwilling to suspect whether Xia Zhi had ulterior motives, or intended harm to her.

Xia Zhi silently estimated for a while, couldn't help but also shake his head repeatedly in his heart.

The way of charm is not the kingly path, but one must admit…… it's really too useful.

He had previously also considered whether to analyze a certain unlucky spearman's signature skill "Love Mole (C)"……

Looking at it now, not acting at that time was correct; compared to the signature Authority of the God of Love and Beauty, what is a mole! Dogs wouldn't even use it!

"Actually it's fine now too, the Wild Hunt can't find me either……"

At this time, Ciri also raised her teacup and drained it in one gulp, letting out a long breath; the gloom between her brows seemed to have all been vented. Regardless of whether her current state is normal or not, at least she had a good pour-out, and because of that became relaxed a lot.

She put down the cup, continued speaking: "In other worlds no one knows me either, generally there won't be any danger…… it's just that I similarly can't find the way back, no matter how I search I can't find it."

Xia Zhi raised an eyebrow, collecting his thoughts: "Can't find the way back? Do you have no mark or sensation or the like toward your original world?"

"……None."

Ciri shook her head, explaining very honestly, her tone also carrying a hint of embarrassment: "I can actively cross into different worlds, but I also don't know what world the opposite side is; this is completely up to luck……"

"Then you indeed will have a hard time going back……" the Magician frowned.

"Can only take it one step at a time, that's what I think; as long as I keep traversing different worlds, with a bit of luck, I should be able to return to my own world!" The white-haired girl explained seriously, showing she still had some ideas.

Ciri had not given up hope of returning.

Xia Zhi's gaze toward her was somewhat subtle; this girl was perhaps a bit too optimistic.

But that was fine too — it also gave him an opportunity to take advantage of the situation; if a cooperative relationship could be reached simply through negotiation, there was no necessity to use violence... He pondered slightly, gently raised his fist to his mouth, coughed once, and drew the girl's attention:

"In that case, I have a suggestion—"

"What suggestion?" Ciri froze for a moment.

"How about you take me along from now on? I'm quite interested in world transmigration as well..." The Magician showed her an incomparably brilliant smile, once again leaving the girl's mind completely blank.

"..."

"..."

"Eh! C-can I really?"

After a good half moment, Ciri finally reacted, asking somewhat stammeringly in disbelief.

Her inner heart was naturally subconsciously overjoyed; after all, her favorability was directly locked at an extremely high level, just like a foolish boy meeting a goddess, fundamentally unwilling to part. And to receive a goddess's favor was something she didn't even dare to imagine.

She naturally also wanted to agree in one breath, but she also had to consider the other party, worried this would have a bad influence on them.

If it were truly like that, she would definitely have to refuse through gritted teeth.

"Of course no problem. I am a Magician, but this world is no longer suitable for people like me to survive. The mana in the atmosphere is growing increasingly thin; I can only rely on my own mana to linger on. If this continues, probably not a few hundred million... cough cough, not a few years left to live."

The Magician wore a face full of sighing regret, as if lamenting his limited time.

"Before there was no choice, so I resigned myself to fate, but now Ciri, you have appeared, bringing me another possibility... If possible, I still hope you can take me along."

He didn't care in the slightest about verbally acknowledging the girl's leading position.

After all, the other party's transmigration ability features randomness and is temporarily uncontrollable. In this situation, whether it's "Ciri joins the team" or "Xia Zhi joins the team," there is fundamentally no difference; better to use this to reinforce the suggestion to the girl—

Make her feel she possesses the initiative, that she isn't being utilized, thereby weakening her wariness.

And this effect was very significant.

Ciri bit her lip, carefully scrutinized his expression, then nodded vigorously and clenched her fist: "I understand... If you don't mind, then let's set off together!"

"Set off... that phrase is a bit inauspicious."

Xia Zhi coughed lightly: "Then it's settled. But no need to be so rushed; I also need to make some preparations. You can rest well here tonight first, recover some spirit, then we'll talk."

He still needed to verify one thing, so he also didn't plan to let Ciri depart immediately.

But Ciri's performance also satisfied him greatly, because it could be seen that she was truly seriously confirming his situation, judging whether bringing him along was good or bad, and only then made the decision. This isn't to say she produced suspicion, merely that she worried this would have an unfavorable influence on herself.

This is probably also the terrifying aspect of the charm ability he possesses; the charmed will wholeheartedly be good to the charmer, like unilateral deep devotion—

If not for this point, it would probably be the Fujiang version...

Under loving to the point of madness, the charmed cannot restrain possessiveness; any impulsive behavior is possible. Isn't Fujiang's classic death exactly like that, killed and dismembered by a group of men...

Xia Zhi rapidly thought, strangely reaching a conclusion—

Does this imply...

Abusing this ability also doesn't require worrying about triggering a Equator Ending?

(Chapter End)