Lin was surprised and looked more closely at the girl.
She was still wearing animal hides, her face remained beautiful, and her hair was just as silky, even though she hadn't washed it for a long time. Everything was the same, unchanged.
"Something wrong?" asked Yulan, noticing Lin's intense gaze.
"Where did you disappear to?" Lin didn't answer and asked his own question.
Yulan frowned at the question and replied:
"I should be the one asking you that. Why did you suddenly vanish when we entered the house?"
"House? Vanish? Weren't you with me in the forest? You were standing..." Suddenly realizing something, Lin fell silent. He looked at the girl and said:
"Purple flowers cause hallucinations. In my vision, when we met the mouse, I took your hand and we ran into the forest. But you had already disappeared."
Yulan nodded and added her version:
"And for me, after we saw the mouse, I suddenly ran into one of the houses and hid. Then you came and tried to comfort me. And then disappeared..."
Lin sighed.
"If you're not a hallucination, then I'm glad you're okay. Now, we need to get out of here before something else happens," he said, then turned away and headed toward the collapsed wall.
Yulan followed him and asked with interest:
"What happened here? How did you manage to kill it?"
Lin looked at the debris and gripped his sword tighter. He walked over the rubble, explaining to Yulan what had happened:
"After you vanished, I was killing those mice, but then I saw a figure that could ignite itself and melt everything in its path. Luckily, I came up with a plan and killed it." He pointed at the rubble and continued: "It's in there, inside."
Yulan was very surprised, then showed joy.
"Does that mean there might be a Soul Shard in there?"
Lin nodded.
"Yes. If we're lucky, there might be a Soul Shard and a Beast Chest inside its head."
"Great!" Yulan smiled and stepped up beside Lin, looking at the debris.
Lin smiled back and suddenly twisted his body while swinging his sword.
Whoosh!
Clearly startled, Yulan didn't understand what happened, but then she noticed her point of view shifting until she saw her own body.
Only one question was in her mind:
"How?"
She shifted her gaze and looked at Lin, who had a cold expression. His hand gripped the sword tightly, and his face looked like he was tired of it all.
She slowly opened her mouth and smirked:
"How? How did you manage to recognize me?"
Lin didn't reply and swung his sword again, completely killing "Yulan."
"You don't need to understand anything for that, just be a little cautious," said Lin and looked at the two blue windows in front of him:
[Distorted Creature: Violet Parasite of Imitation.]
[Rank: Beast.]
[Abilities:
— Imitation(Lvl. 1).]
[Description: A randomly appeared parasite that can form a perfect copy of its victim using violet flowers. It can also see the last memories of the victim through the flowers and use them in its acting.]
[Skill Name: Imitation(Lvl. 1).]
[Skill Type: Active.]
[Description: Find a victim and use this skill on them. Countless violet flowers will appear and extract their last memories for you. When you get the memories, use the violet flowers to create a body identical to the victim. And that's it — you can impersonate them!]
Looking at them, Lin sighed.
He was truly in danger. But fortunately, his alertness and sense of caution hadn't faded, which allowed him to eliminate the threat. Still, Lin had to praise the parasite for its performance — although it was rather poor, it still managed to fulfill part of its role.
"If not for the overly strong emotions and obsession with Soul Shards, I really might've thought that was Yulan. But..." Lin looked at the creature's stats.
"Just one thought to check Yulan's stats defeated it. Intelligent Distorted creatures don't know that we can look at their stats. If this were really Yulan, there would be no stats displayed," he sighed and looked at the body of "Yulan," which began slowly dissolving into violet flowers and falling to the ground.
Unfortunately, nothing dropped from this Distorted creature.
Sighing, Lin quickly moved to the spot where the fiery figure had stood and began clearing the area. The stones were really heavy, but it took Lin only a few minutes to move several stones and clear a small space.
This small area was completely covered in violet blood, and it emitted a very pleasant smell, the kind you'd want to breathe in forever. But Lin quickly held his nose and used some hides to cover his hands, forming makeshift gloves.
He plunged his hands into the violet blood and began moving them to feel for the Soul Shard.
A minute passed.
But nothing happened.
Lin frowned and decided to clear more nearby stones. When the search area increased, he again plunged his hands into the blood and began to move them. Suddenly, he felt something — something crystal-shaped...
Lin quickly pulled out what he had found — and it turned out to be… a rock.
"..."
To hell with this search!
Lin got up and quickly threw away the gloves. He looked around and sighed.
"I need to find Yulan. If that parasite used its skill on her, she must be surrounded by violet flowers now, which could Distort her." Lin quickly headed in the direction the parasite had approximately come from.
Running along the path, Lin checked every house, and if he didn't see any violet flowers inside, he immediately moved on. This way, he could save as much time as possible and scan each house for Yulan.
After checking about fifteen houses, Lin turned a different way and started inspecting the houses there. While passing one house, Lin suddenly noticed an abnormal number of violet flowers inside!
Lin quickly ran in, holding his breath. And saw a shocking scene:
Yulan was lying on the floor surrounded by violet flowers, their stems tightly intertwined, giving a sense of entanglement. But at the same time, they were mesmerizing due to their beauty.
Lin swung his sword, cutting through the tangles. Then, reaching Yulan, he lifted her onto his shoulder and quickly ran out of the house.
Setting her down, Lin checked her pulse — and she had one. He exhaled.
"At least she's alive, and that's a relief. But..." he looked at the house: "spending so much time inside that kind of place... she's really on the verge of Distortion."
Lin slowly took out a violet crystal from his pocket.
"Looks like I'll have to use this to prevent her from Distorting." Lin looked at the Soul Shard in his hand and sighed.
He was spending too much.
This was his first Low Soul Shard, which he had obtained in the Magic World. But now, he planned to use it to reduce Yulan's distortion.
"One way or another — it's a future investment. She's already Awakened, which is good, but if she also develops feelings for me, I can use that to my advantage. So the value of a Low Soul Shard compared to the future benefits from her… is just laughable." Lin smiled and placed the Soul Shard on Yulan's forehead.
He didn't know exactly how energy transfer from the Soul Shard to the body worked, but as they said, the most important part was placing it on the forehead, to connect the Awakened's brain to the Shard's energy.
And indeed.
After a few seconds, the special crystallized soul energy inside the Low Soul Shard slowly began to be absorbed by Yulan's consciousness!
The light from the crystal began to fade, and its size shrank. When the crystal completely disappeared, Yulan slowly opened her blue eyes.
She looked around and saw Lin standing nearby, and asked:
"Lin?"
"Yes."