Chapter 405: Pain… Suffering…

Chapter 405: Pain… Suffering…

“Why is this thing not extinct already! Get it away, get it away!” Annie stared in disgust at the pockmarked object Zheng Yichen had produced, her face full of revulsion. She showed not a shred of intense interest merely because it was an endangered species; she radiated only intense loathing. Zheng Yichen stared blankly at her reaction; he truly hadn’t anticipated Annie reacting like this.

In his mind, this eldest Sorceress maintained a research attitude even towards glaringly disturbing creatures like tumor monsters, not this utter rejection and aversion. It was extremely rare! This immediately made Zheng Yichen think of one possibility: “Could it be… you’ve been burned by this thing before?”

“You know too much!” A flicker of ferocity flashed in Annie’s eyes, before she smiled at Zheng Yichen with a Little Witch-style expression. “Have you ever experienced the sensation of your Mana itself being contaminated by this thing’s smell?”

“…I can probably imagine.” Zheng Yichen froze. Mana contaminated by this smell? Wasn’t that just awful! He knew Mana existed perpetually within his own body. Cultivation required borrowing external power , but once cultivated, the body could generate it itself. Though, due to conversion rates, relying on self-generated Mana to recover expended Mana was very slow… but that wasn’t important. The key point was that Mana could be considered an extension of one’s own senses.

This made it easier to understand, right? If Mana became tainted with such a smell, it meant you would be subjected to the deep torture of this super-strong, pungent odor constantly. Much more intense than just sniffing it directly!

“That… that sounds like Hell… But this thing probably can’t actually do that, right?” Mana wasn’t physical matter; the possibility of it getting stained with a smell seemed far too low. At most, it could be polluted by some kind of force.

“That just shows your unfamiliarity with this thing! Once this thing is stimulated by Mana, the scent it releases transforms,” Annie stated, her eyelid twitching incessantly. It clearly pointed to an unbearable past experience. Probably her black history?

“Understood. But that makes it even better! Can you cultivate large quantities of it?”

“I don’t know where you got this thing… but… do you know why it’s endangered?” Annie looked expressionlessly at Zheng Yichen, keeping her small face taut. The black and white twin ponytails framing her head swayed gently. “I did it!”

Zheng Yichen jolted in surprise. “That’s just displaced anger.”

Then he felt even more satisfied with this thing’s potency. If it could cause such a reaction from the Sorceress before him, wasn’t it practically an Anti-Sorceress Noble Phantasm? Though using it himself would likely get him killed, if someone else used it… they’d probably emit the most glorious light of their life. Using a mortal frame to truly incite a Sorceress’s wrath…

Wasn’t that quite an accomplishment? Though afterward, not only would they likely face death, it was more probable suffering worse than death.

“Displaced anger?!” Annie raised one eyebrow slightly as she studied Zheng Yichen. “Eat one of these things, and I’ll provide you with my related research notes. Mind you, the environmental conditions for its growth are somewhat demanding. But using my method makes it very easy to cultivate. Plus, this thing has incredibly powerful effects.”

“But if you want to gain something, you need to pay some price!”

“That’s not really like you, is it?” Zheng Yichen looked somewhat conflicted at Annie, unable to help swallowing nervously. The potency of this thing had once even made him cry. Bear in mind, a dragon’s eyes naturally have a protective membrane. The strength of the film currently covering Zheng Yichen’s eyes was such that even small-caliber firearms from Earth couldn’t pierce it. Such powerful eye protection had been defeated by one small fruit.

He had to admit defeat!

“The Soul-Loss Fruit makes me irritable,” Annie huffed, puffing out her cheeks. It was then Zheng Yichen learned the fruit’s name: Soul-Loss Fruit. “Make your decision quickly. If today passes, I might just destroy those research notes.”

“People shouldn’t be so utilitarian, should they? If you’ve already suffered misfortune, why try dragging others into the water?” Zheng Yichen attempted a persuasion tactic with Annie.

“Three!”

“Two!”

“Alright! Negotiation successful.” Zheng Yichen suppressed the unease in his heart and nodded, accepting the task. With Annie reacting like this to it, Zheng Yichen truly didn’t want to miss studying the Soul-Loss Fruit. He had investigated much about it before, yet found nothing. He hadn’t encountered anything related elsewhere. If a Sorceress deliberately wanted to eradicate a species’ existence… and its related records… it really wasn’t too difficult given enough time.

“Good. Just give the seed back to me afterward. You deal with the rest.” Inside the Underground Base, Annie drooped her eyelids as she tossed the processed Soul-Loss Fruit to Zheng Yichen. The fruit itself reeked of an intensely nauseating smell, but the seed within remained strangely pure, emitting no odor at all like a stone.

Zheng Yichen stared slightly conflicted at the fruit in his hand for a while, frowning deeply before finally letting out an “Om nom!” and swallowing the Soul-Loss Fruit that was, at best, a grain of sugar compared to his size. In that instant, he comprehended the origins of the name Soul-Loss Fruit.

Zheng Yichen’s eyes went blank. His tail, which had been twitching nervously, abruptly stiffened straight up. Simultaneously, he felt every single cell in his body screaming madly. His brain shuddered violently. The whole world seemed to grow hazy, everything moving in startling slow motion.

Within this slowed world, his actions weren’t hindered at all. An amazing sensation, wasn’t it? Yet this feeling was accompanied by an unbearably strong, death-wish-inducing shock. Like… onion juice dripped into the eye, menthol balm applied front and back, herring can juice snorted up the nose – all multiplied many times over! And yet, Zheng Yichen remained acutely conscious!

The architect of this state, Annie, had already pulled out several containers the moment Zheng Yichen entered it. She collected copious amounts of dragon tears and dragon saliva… then silently observed Zheng Yichen’s shifting condition.

“Oh… gods, it truly was a nightmare!” The effects of the Soul-Loss Fruit didn’t last long, only about two minutes. But in those two minutes, Zheng Yichen genuinely felt his soul leaving his body multiple times. Now, he lay utterly limp on the ground. Not from exhaustion, but from the overbearing shock of the sensation itself. The feeling wasn’t lethal, but it was utterly maddening! As time pooled, this unreleasable frustration built up relentlessly.

Crucially, Zheng Yichen’s Mana was unavoidably tainted with the Soul-Loss Fruit’s pungent odor. Forget Annie, even Zheng Yichen himself now harbored the thought that this thing absolutely should not exist in the world!

“Well?” Annie walked to Zheng Yichen’s side, looking levelly at the dragon head whose chin rested on the floor.

“…” Zheng Yichen rolled his eyes, conveying he had no desire to speak. Seeing his reaction, Annie offered no taunts. After all, she’d experienced that heaven-like descent firsthand. “The reason the Soul-Loss Fruit has such an intensely offensive smell is primarily a form of self-defense. This plant bears only a single fruit. Any given plant bears fruit at most three times before withering.”

Listlessly, Zheng Yichen gave a tiny nod, wanting to speak, but Annie pressed a hand against his head. “Hold it in. Words would choke me.”

“…” Zheng Yichen snorted forcefully through his nose, trying to expel some of the pungent taste from his mouth. Even now, his palate felt no numbness. Combined with the smell clinging to his Mana, which offered no chance for acclimatization, it didn’t impede his thoughts. A plant fruiting only three times, always solitarily – given these traits, producing such an overpowering scent didn’t seem particularly strange anymore.

“As for the benefits, you’ve also experienced them. It thrusts the user into an unnatural state of excitement. In that state, the user’s Mana efficiency or physical power exertion can increase by over half. Further processing could enhance its effects even more… but… the scent cannot be removed!”

“Due to its rarity and inherent protective traits though, no brave warrior would dare to try…”

Who would willingly ingest something so obviously mortiferous? Zheng Yichen rolled his eyes internally. He had been tormented so severely; an ordinary person eating it truly might choke to death… no! They definitely would choke!

“Holy hell!” Inside the shower room, Zheng Yichen, filled with lingering anguish, scrubbed his teeth ferociously with a large toothbrush. Several Ghost Maids outside trembled. They too had been overwhelmed by Zheng Yichen’s potent breath. Their usual service during Zheng Yichen’s showers was forgotten; for once, they neglected their duty.

Regarding these Ghost Maids’ reactions, Zheng Yichen was helpless. The odor of the Soul-Loss Fruit adhered to Mana; clinging to an ethereal body was trivial. This time, he had to act alone. Not only brushing his teeth, he continuously downed a particular kind of ‘soap water’ hoping to entirely cleanse the scent. As for the taint clinging to his Mana, Zheng Yichen had no solutions. Releasing all his Mana and abandoning it entirely? Impossible!

Beyond the smell, his Assimilation Ability proved utterly useless against it. Zheng Yichen experimentally performed a simple Magic spell. As anticipated, the forming Magic Rune Array reeked potently. Later that night, Loris came to Zheng Yichen’s room, pillow in hand. But after hovering hesitantly at his bedroom doorway, she called out, “An occasional night alone is fine,” before turning away.

Zheng Yichen felt utterly miserable. Pain! Suffering… My anger… Ah, perhaps I should have armored myself with steel plates or conjured some fire around me…?