Miko widened her eyes in horror. She was literally just warned not to go there! But how could she refuse?? There are very powerful masters there, and it would be impossible to hide her aura from them! She could only hide from those her stage and below, possibly up to third stage maximum. But... it wasn't entirely impossible... just risky...
"Sure," Miko smilled, trying to hide her nervousness. She was certain her plan could work out.
"Alright, I'll go cook now," Tashi said before heading to the kitchen. Miko's smile dropped as Tashi walked away. Sure, there were many ways to hide. In the past, humans and spirits lived more harmoniously. However, after the war, humans began to distance themselves and make an enemy of the beasts. Humans began gaining more power, such as the ability to cultivate and more special bloodlines. History was also rewritten, as if they had always been this powerful and above the beasts and spirits. However, the gods supposedly meant to maintain balance between both worlds did nothing. They seemed to accept the humans' way, and this lead to beasts comming up with more creative ways to blend in and stay hidden. Human lives were filled with tragedy, sadness, and many negative emotions, with eventual death. As such, purifying these remnants of emotion and malicious spirits would be beneficial as they could be converted to them to spiritual energy, which could help once advance in cultivation quicker than just absorbing it from the environment. However, humans could do so as well, leading to competition. They would hunt down other natural spirits, not only for their body parts but also to reduce competition for evil spirits and demons. As such, spirits had invented many ways to stay hidden.
Firstly, they could do something called spiritual possession. As spirits, they are either half or complete life forms of made of pure energy. Spiritual beasts are half spirits, while nature spirits are complete spirits. As such, both of them could possess a human, using his aura to cover their own. However, the human must be living, and they could not use their own powers during such a possession or their aura will be released, and they could be recognised by other cultivators.
Miko thought to herself, surely this wouldn't work? If the humans there were that skilled, she was sure they would be able to see through such a simple plan. Many spirits have also probably tried to stay there with this method, yet how many succeeded? Probably not many, after all, this method had many flaws. Even if the aura, looks, and everything was the same physically, the person's personality could only be replicated to a certain extent.
Miko pursed her lips and thought a little harder. It would be convienent to just refuse, but it would be hard to find an excuse. Wait, what if she just possesed a cultivator? It wasn't going to be easy, since the cultivator's body and energy would try to reject her. However, it wasn't impossible. Human cultivators could be possesed by half or full spirits, although it was very rare. This was exactly why it was perfect, since nobody would suspect it. After tricking and gaining control of that body, she could use his energy instead of hers. This would also prevent her from accidentally revealing herself in the event she needed to use her powers as well. Perfect! She was set!
That night, after dinner, Miko and Tashi headed to sleep. Miko could feel Tashi's arms wrapped around her, and his chest heaving up and down as he slept. The window screens could not block out all of the moonlight, which appeared to make his hair glisten like silver. He really looked so similar to Takei, his resemblence almost uncanny. However, he carried himself more sophisticatedly, more properly. He also seemed to lack the fox marble she placed with Takei's soul, which was long ago by now. By right, it should be with him. This made Miko somewhat doubtful. Tashi could be just someone born with a similar appearance, and the familiarity she felt could just be a sense of deja vu, or her longing.
Miko wriggled out of his grasp, carefully, so that he did not wake up. He stirred a little, but Miko pulled the covers up to keep him warm. She would need to be back by morning.
Miko snuck out, covering her thin nightgown in a layer of spiritual energy, such that it appeared to be a black, hooded cloak. The silver moon hung high in the sky, its dull light illuminating the world for the night creatures. A breeze blew by, cooling the air. It was going to get much warmer soon. Miko immediately headed off in the direction of the town. Using the speed of her cultivation, she could arrive at the town in half an hour.
At this time, the town was sound asleep, aside from some cultivators who stayed up on watch. It was no surprise after this incident, since many were injured or killed, that they needed to increase security. Some buildings served as makeshift shelters for those who had their homes destroyed. Now that Miko was here, the only issue would be finding a weak enough cultivator to reduce the chance and effect of rejection. Hopefully, she could find a second stage like her, so she would not become too weak when using his strength, since she couldn't use hers if she wanted to stay hidden.
Miko waited for a long while on the rooftop of a building some houses away. She could roughly feel the strength of the cultivators from the distance, since they were not even bothering to hide their aura. One was too weak, a first stage, while the other was third stage. She would not be able to possess a third stage, Miko thought... Then, two guards came round the corner and conversed with the two guards on watch. After that, those previously on watch left, and those guards that came took over.
Perfect. One of them was a second stage, while the other was unfortunately, a fourth. Miko would definitely lose if she were to go head to head with them. After all, a cultivator experiences a boost in prowess everytime he acends, and a bigger boost at bottle neck stages. Fortunately, Miko had a plan, although it couldn't be called the best one since she vowed it would be one of her last resorts...