Qingxue had been about to dismiss her Dharma Aspect back into her qi sea, but when she caught the look on Alexei's face, she hesitated.
The kid clearly wanted to see it up close.
With a sigh, she lowered the tiny fox from where she'd been holding it and placed it in his outstretched hands. Her expression, however, carried more than a hint of melancholy.
On the Profound Sky Continent, once a cultivator reached the Dharma Aspect realm, they could summon their Aspect to fight alongside them in battle. Some could even hide their true body within the Aspect's consciousness space and control it remotely, using it as both shield and weapon. Unlike the main body, which drew upon personal spiritual power, a Dharma Aspect channeled the power of the world itself. The same technique released through an Aspect could be dozens of times more powerful than when cast normally.
Except...
She stared at the palm-sized white fluffball currently acting cute in Alexei's hands. Its only practical combat use would probably be to release it mid-battle so the enemy would laugh themselves into a hernia, giving her the perfect opening for a sneak attack.
She felt like crying. Her Dharma Aspect was essentially useless.
Moreover, by all rights, her Aspect should have manifested as a half-human, half-demon form. Instead, she'd gotten this tiny fox. Adorable, yes. Terrifying? Not so much. Sure, unlike other people's Dharma Aspects that could only manifest as massive illusory projections, hers was disturbingly real. It had flesh and blood, a functioning consciousness, and what seemed like intelligence. But that didn't change the fact that this little fox was about as threatening as a stuffed toy.
Curiosity overrode her embarrassment. She reached out with her divine sense and synced her consciousness with the fox to see what it was experiencing. The instant the connection formed, a wave of sensation flooded through her. She could feel every touch transmitted directly through the spiritual link. Her emotions were affected too. An inexplicable happiness bubbled up, making her feel oddly content. Then her face started burning.
Because Alexei had just lifted the fox up to examine it from different angles, and through the spiritual link, she was experiencing the entire inspection in detail. She hurriedly controlled the fox's body, making it curl into a defensive ball with its tail wrapped protectively around strategic areas.
Alexei blinked in confusion as the tiny fox suddenly went rigid in his hands, curling up tight and shooting him what could only be described as a glare.
He loosened his grip slightly, and the fox immediately leaped back into Qingxue's arms.
"I was just trying to check if it was male or female," he said defensively. "I didn't mean to offend your... beast."
Qingxue's face was faintly pink. "I'll be putting the fox away now. I need to focus on healing my remaining physical injuries."
The sensation of having two bodies with one consciousness was extremely strange, though controlling it felt surprisingly natural. But she was not letting this guy "examine" her Dharma Aspect any further.
"Wait, could I maybe watch over the fox while you're healing?" Alexei asked, still clearly fascinated by the tiny creature.
"No," Qingxue said immediately.
She'd been distracted for literally five seconds and he'd already conducted a full-body inspection. Who knew what would happen if she left the fox in his care for extended periods? The feeling of being examined had transmitted back to her the instant she'd synced with the Aspect. No way was she risking that again.
With a flash of white light, the fox transformed into a stream of energy and shot back into the space between her eyebrows, disappearing from view.
Alexei's eyes widened. "You can store living things inside your body?"
"It's my Dharma Aspect," Qingxue explained. "Not a separate creature. It's an extension of my cultivation, manifested in physical form."
"I see. That makes sense."
Qingxue couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or genuinely impressed.
"Go do whatever you need to do," she said, pushing him back. "There's nothing more to see here."
"Fine..." He didn't have much to do at the moment.
The wheat farm upstairs wouldn't be ready to harvest for another day or so. Which meant his only real option was to keep fishing.
Truly, the exciting life of a Minecraft survivor.
---
Over the next few days, Qingxue spent most of her time repairing her remaining physical injuries. In her spare time, she found herself watching Alexei fish. And somehow, without quite meaning to, she got drawn into the strange addictive quality of it... that feeling of never knowing what you'd pull up next.
She even tried it herself a few times.
And to her shock, she managed to fish up all sorts of bizarre items she'd never seen before from that water block. Bows, tools, and even a saddle, though what use a saddle would be in the middle of a forest was beyond her. And why the fuck was there a saddle? Just… why?
Meanwhile, Alexei was closing in on his goal. He now needed only twenty-five more iron ingots to craft his first anvil since arriving in this world. If he broke down the iron bucket, iron helmet, and shield for their materials, he'd only need sixteen more.
During this time, he'd also let Qingxue sample various Minecraft foods. They worked, which was good, but unfortunately, they weren't very useful. Compared to the mooshroom milk, which took up literally zero stomach space, regular Minecraft bread was almost impossible for a normal person to eat in significant quantities. Not because it tasted bad. The bread was quite good. The problem was that there was so much of it in such a small package.
Since the bread felt like normal bread when he held it, he hadn't noticed anything unusual. But when Qingxue tried to pick up a loaf, she'd nearly dropped it.
"This weighs over two hundred kilos," she'd said, staring at the twenty-centimeter-long bread loaf.
"What?"
"The bread. It weighs over two hundred kilograms."
Alexei had stared at the bread, then at her, then back at the bread.
This single loaf contained the full weight of all its crafting materials, compressed into this form. Which meant, by extension, that a single bundle of wheat weighed at least eighty kilograms. And he regularly ate three loaves of bread in one sitting without feeling uncomfortably full.
Qingxue had taken one small bite of the bread and declared herself completely full. Meanwhile, Alexei could demolish three entire loaves without even breaking a sweat. Judging by that, he was effectively consuming the caloric equivalent of six hundred kilos of bread per meal.
As for the healing effects of eating bread to restore the hunger bar?
They did exist, but because Qingxue hadn't eaten the entire loaf, the recovery was pretty mediocre. Far slower than her own medicinal pills. Which made sense, really.
---
"What are you doing?"
Qingxue stared at Alexei, who was currently wearing full leather armor but had topped it off with an iron helmet that looked slightly ridiculous with the rest of the outfit.
"I want to go outside and look around."
Specifically, he wanted to check on the zombies and skeletons that had been spawning outside for the past seven or eight days. There had to be at least forty or fifty of them by now, maybe more.
In Minecraft, naturally spawned mobs had a 15% chance to spawn with equipment. Most of it were gold or leather sets with terrible durability. But to him, who could deconstruct anything for materials, it was all treasure. And if his luck went supernova and he got that mythical 0.04% chance of diamond armor...
Even the 2.5% chance of carrots or potatoes would make him happier than diamonds. It was an obsession carved into the soul of every Russian kid who'd grown up playing farming simulators, the undying urge to cultivate crops.
Qingxue watched the flames of passion blazing in his eyes and felt utterly baffled.
What was there to see in the Silkspore Basin? It was nothing but massive trees and giant mushrooms. Spiritual energy was thin, and spiritual fruits or herbs were practically nonexistent. But then she remembered he was still only sixteen, and young people needed stimulation. Keeping him cooped up in a treehouse for over a week was asking a lot. Still, to make sure he stayed safe, she decided to accompany him.
As for that Grey Wraith from before? Just a despicable opportunist who attacked while she was down.
Now that she'd reached the Dharma Aspect realm, even if her Aspect was basically crippled, her combat power was far beyond what any Nascent Soul cultivator could match. If that Grey Wraith showed his face again, even if his true body was a thousand kilometers away, she'd drag him out and tear him into pieces.
Her expression must have shifted into something dangerous, because Alexei, who'd been preparing his stone axe to dig a tunnel, suddenly went still. He looked up at her. She was gritting her teeth.
"Uh, you okay there?"
Qingxue's expression immediately smoothed out. "I'm just thinking about unpleasant people."
Over the past week, Alexei had discovered that she wasn't the classic "ice queen" type from cultivation novels at all. She was closer to what he'd call socially awkward. It wasn't that she disliked talking or interacting with people. She just didn't know how to do it naturally. Centuries of cultivation had apparently not included any lessons on small talk. That contrast between her powerful cultivation and her complete inability to navigate normal social situations was oddly endearing. A cultivation expert like this was way more interesting than the typical aloof master types.
She was just a bit old. Over three hundred years, after all.
Qingxue's eyes narrowed. She stepped forward, leaned down, and stared directly into his face. "I have a feeling you're thinking something incredibly rude right now."
His guilty expression was way too obvious.
"What? No. Never. I would never," Alexei said unconvincingly.
Qingxue felt an odd warmth in her chest. This kid was terrible at lying, which was somehow... She stopped that train of thought immediately.
"I'll let it slide this time." She straightened up. "Let's go."
Alexei grabbed his stone axe and approached the wall, ready to mine his way out to the surface.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk.
Under Qingxue's gaze, he swung the axe repeatedly. Cracks spread across the wood block in front of him, growing larger with each hit.
Crack.
With a muffled thud, the one-cubic-meter chunk of wood that broke off instantly shrank and flew straight into Alexei's body, disappearing as if absorbed.
She was curious but didn't ask questions. She figured it must be some kind of storage artifact. Over the past week, she'd noticed that the three seemingly ordinary chests in the treehouse each possessed absurdly huge internal storage spaces. If those chests were already that impressive, it wasn't strange at all for him to have an even better storage artifact on his person.
She made a mental note to ask about it later. For now, she'd just follow along and make sure he didn't get himself killed.