Somewhat drained from providing the spirit qi, the Phantom Mirko hid back into Noxtis' mind space to recover.
Watching over the two beastkin who had closed their eyes at this point due to a function of the contract to prevent the two from disturbing the process and wasting his efforts, the Phantom Mirko found the formation of the bond to be going smoothly.
Sighing in his phantom heart, Mirko was glad that the companionship contract worked just fine between two beastkin as it did in his own world between two humans. Mirko was confident that nothing drastic would occur, but make sure to keep watch over the entire process regardless.
Just as the companionship contract was about to finish, a sudden burst of dark black aura radiated out. As soon as the aura passed over the bond that was forming between the two beastkin, it paused and as if enraged, the aura concentrated upon the talismans on their dantians.
Absolutely taken back by the sudden emergence of the dark aura, the Phantom Mirko shielded the bond forming between the two against any foreign energies and used his spirit qi to scan the area to figure out who was attempting to attack the two beastkin youths.
Surging past the barrier as if it didn't even exist, the dark aura transformed the bond forming between the two and reforged them. The original sigils turned an Onyx black and became much more ornate and immensely more complex.
While the sigils on both dantians were similar, it became increasingly evident to the Phantom Mirko that the controlling force between the two was Noxtis. No matter what Mirko did to try and stop or prevent the changes from occurring, it seemed to do absolutely nothing in the face of the dark aura.
Already somewhat drained from supplying the spirit qi for the contract in the first place, the Phantom Mirko quit trying to prevent what clearly would not be stopped. Instead, he spread his senses over the two beastkin and saw that neither of them appeared to notice any harmful changes to their bodies.
Phantom Mirko couldn't find any negative effects within either of their bodies. Instead, the aura seemed to be forging an incredibly strong bond between the two that even his true body might not be able to do without the assistance of a Spirit Master.
Of course, as intelligent as the Phantom was created to help guide his pupil, it had failed to recognize what had truly happened between the two and how it would change their futures. This is no fault of the Phantom nor its creator, but rather such a bond has never been seen outside of the halls of a long-forgotten era.
As if finally satisfied with its handiwork, the dark aura retreated as fast as it appeared and the two targets of the entire affair fell to the ground with their bodies drained of all their stamina. Already peering over their bodies, still a bit wary should the dark aura appear again, the Phantom Mirko could find absolutely nothing wrong with either of their bodies nor figure out where that dark aura had come from. He couldn't figure out what the function of the newly formed bond was at all, but from searching their bodies, the phantom was able to find some odd changes.
Firstly, Noxtis previously favorable dantian and mind spaces were entirely reforged and became immaculate. Even many cultivators from the human world would put more emphasis on the quality and/or quantity of their dantians and completely ignore the 'container'. Unlike the body in which pretty much all cultivators understood to the various extent that cultivating their body and mind somewhat was important, but overlooked the form of their dantian and mind spaces.
There are an uncountable amount of theories as to exactly what are the dantian or mind spaces were or how they worked. But some just realized that they could harness and concentrate the qi of their world and in turn, become stronger.
Actually, the only reason why Mirko realized the gravity of the quality of those spaces was due to his time being taught by the Grand Elder of the Noxtis Assassinorum. Having higher-quality spaces would in turn allow the cultivator to absorb, condense, and even contain the qi energy at a rate far surpassing others.
His Grand Elder was the one that attributed the so-called geniuses of qi and spirit cultivation largely be due to the quality of their dantian or mind space.
Thankfully despite the change to his disciple's spaces, the still-forming Qi Core was intact, it not purer than before.
Finding no other large changes in Noxtis' body, the Phantom looked towards Embervesent and saw very similar changes done to its spaces as well. However, unlike his disciple, the dragonkin lass seemed to have a lesser quality mind space as well as a pattern of onyx sigils marking it.
'If only my true body were here, not that I know if it would've changed anything."
Viewing the two younglings sleeping contently, the Phantom sighed and would continue to watch over them vigilantly to see if anything should happen. But from the changes he already saw occurred, such changes could only be an immense boon to the both of them.
His main concern was how Noxtis had such an aura on him and why it only decided to come out now of all times. The phantom had many theories but decided that the entire situation was something that he didn't know about.
'Just who are you, my disciple...'
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"ughhhh..."
Groaning, Noxtis first thought was that he was lying on his bed.
'Huh, Teacher didn't say that the contract would make me fall asleep.'
Still a bit groggy just due to the sleep, Noxtis did feel that his body felt much more energetic. Rolling over a bit to get out of his bed, he was suddenly stopped by a semi-soft mass blocking his way. Feeling around to get a sense of what was blocking his way since his eyes were struggling to wake up as well, he felt a large mound of firm softness in his grasp. Much bigger than what his palm could hold.
Rubbing his eyes to figure out what was going on, he saw the semi-clothed dragonkin from before sleeping next to him, blocking him from rolling off the bed like he usually did. And considering that the bed wasn't necessarily designed for two beastkin to sleep on it, they were practically skin to skin. And to make it worse, the firey beastkin had felt his movements and turned her body towards him.
Extremely scared of what was going to happen, Noxtis flustered and struggled to get his still groggy body out of that situation as fast as he could.
Unfortunately, before he could escape, the dragonkin girl wrapped her arms around Noxtis and squeezed him into her embrace. Finding his black-furred ears, Embervesent grinned in her sleep and nuzzled into his hair. In an extremely precarious position, Noxtis was face deep into a pair of firm but equally soft mountains. Stiff in more places than one, Noxtis had no idea what he should do should the dragonkin girl wake up and find him neck-deep in her generous chest.
"I'm not suffocating you with my bunnies, am I? You're the first one to get to feel them by the way."
*cough* "So you were awake this entire time?"
Still nuzzling his ears, Embervesent shrugged. "I was awake earlier. But I felt a bit tired so I went to sleep in your bed and didn't feel like kicking you out. Although I did just wake up again when you grabbed my boobs. Quite bold of you to do so by the way."
"I..I...I..."
A bright laughter rang out and broke Noxtis' nervousness.
"You're reactions are so cute. Relax shadowcat, trust me when I say that if I didn't trust you enough to see my body, then you wouldn't ever get the chance."
'Alright, alright you two lovebeasts. Now that you're both awake I wanted to let you know the plan for now and what goal you should go for. I have chatted with Miss Embervesent a little already.
We have focused a lot on forming your Qi seed and tempering layers to create your Qi core. You already know what to do for now until your Qi core is fully tempered. Until then I will help teach Miss Embervesent about true sword cultivation and help her gather qi and form her own Qi seed. For as novice as she is in true sword cultivation, she is incredibly strong in her body tempering so you will need to put a bit more focus on that for now.'
Noxtis knew that Embervesent is much stronger than him in terms of her body stages, but for as much as he had focused on his training from his phantom teacher, he was still an intitial bone stage beastkin.
"What body stage are you?"
"Hmmm? Oh I'm a muscle stage beastkin."