Wordlessly sitting down next to her, he gently patted her back. Only now did she realize that he had returned, despite the fact that he had been standing there for a considerable while already.
"Th-Theo...! I... I...! They're just... gone. What do I...?!"
Stuttering incomprehensibly, she started to sob uncontrollably and threw her arms around him, hugging him tightly, crying her heart out. All she wanted was someone, anyone, to cling on to now that everything felt like it was slipping away. Her usual timidness was nowhere to be seen at this moment, as thoughts of the lewd variety had no place in her mind right now.
"... it'll be alright."
Softly speaking exactly the kinds of comforting words that she needed to hear right now, he lent her a shoulder–or rather, a body–to cry on. While he certainly didn't intend to become her pillar of support from now on, he would at least leave her in a state where she could take care of herself.
Eventually, she fell asleep in his arms, utterly exhausted. Very delicately, he laid her down to rest before joining her in slumber once it grew dark outside.
The following morning, he didn't find himself buried underneath a pile of vaguely Xie Mei-shaped limbs and body parts for once, as she had woken up before him and was lying next to him. She was staring at the ceiling and sniffling every now and then.
"... Mei'er, there's something I'd like to ask you."
After eyeing her carefully and realizing that she didn't look as profoundly devastated as before, yet still very depressed, he judged that she was doing as well as the circumstances allowed her to. Certainly, she should be able to respond to his inquiries.
"What is it?"
Unintentionally languidly, she moved to face him, her nose almost brushing against his. Considering that her cheeks turned a slight shade of pink in response, she was definitely doing a little better than yesterday.
"What kind of Talents do you have?"
No being indigenous to the Heavenly Dao would be born without a single Talent, so Theodore was certain that Xie Mei should also have one. There was a high chance that it was an appearance-related one, so in the past, he hadn't really felt it necessary to know the details. However, it was possible that she had another Talent or two, which she could then rely on to protect herself after getting a bit of guidance.
"Huh? Talents? What do you mean?"
Evidently befuddled, she furrowed her brows, thinking long and hard, until she finally recalled something.
"Are you talking about the ones on that... Status Panel? I think that's what it was called, right?"
Momentarily dumbstruck, he eventually nodded.
"Yes, I am."
"Oh, those? I don't know, I never checked."
Her innocently made revelation almost gave him a headache as he was yet again at a loss for words.
"... why didn't you?"
Shrugging helplessly, a self-deprecating look on her face, she explained herself.
"I mean, I'm just some random, ordinary girl from a remote village, not a descendant of someone special. What kind of Talents could I possibly have? I don't want to hope for something great only to end up disappointed instead."
Her line of thought was akin to someone who refused to play the lottery because the chances of bagging the jackpot were extremely slim, with the ones running it always winning out in the end. The only difference here was that there was no actual price to pay to look at one's own Talents. While her line of thought did make a tiny bit of sense, to Theodore, it seemed far too defeatist to be healthy.
"Then could you please check your Talents now and tell me about them? It's important."
Not very resistant to the idea, as she already felt terrible and didn't harbour any hope for anything good to begin with, she opened her Status Panel for the first time in more than a decade. Then, she glanced at the category which she had previously always deliberately ignored, before she froze, completely stupefied. A few seconds later, she refocused on him, her eyes clouded with confusion and a sheepish smile ever so slightly raising the corners of her lips.
"Uhh... Theo, there are too many of them, and I don't really understand what some of them mean."
Not anticipating anything groundbreaking, as while it was rare for regular people to have multiple Talents, it wasn't worth mentioning in the eyes of the Named Families, he made an offer he thought to be inconsequential.
"If you'd like, you can decide to make your Status Panel visible to me, just give it a mental command to do so."
"Okay... here you go!"
As he casually skimmed past its contents, he suddenly froze, then concentrated properly on what he was seeing, occasionally glancing at Xie Mei from the corners of his eye.
'It looks like I'll have to readjust my plans again. Not that I mind, though. After all...'
[ General Information ]
[ Name: Xie Mei ]
[ Age: 16 ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Affiliation: Shanxi Village ]
[ Cultivation ]
[ Realm: Ordinary Mortal ]
[ Attributes ]
[ Strength: 8 ]
[ Dexterity: 13 ]
[ Vitality: 12 ]
[ Endurance: 14 ]
[ Agility: 9 ]
[ Intelligence: 11 ]
[ Wisdom: 7 ]
[ Mind: 10 ]
[ Luck: 42 ]
[ Talents ]
[ Origin Lotus' Petal (Transcendent), Lunar Echo (Mythical), Reincarnation (Legendary), Cultivation Savant (Legendary), Connate Mistress (Superior), Ritualistic Dancer (Outstanding), Plotter (Outstanding), (See More) ]
[ Proficiencies ]
[ Agronomy (Intermediate: 3%), Cooking (Apprentice: 97%), Literacy (Apprentice: 19%), Housework (Apprentice: 12%), Commerce (Novice: 79%), Seduction (Uninitiated: 88%) ]
[ Special Statuses ]
[ Heaven's Chosen Level: 1 ]
Usually, one's Status Panel would differ from person to person. Other than the Heavenly Emperor and Heavenly Empress, almost nobody had ever come into contact with every possible category and item that could be displayed. That wasn't even taking into account that the Heavenly Dao or its controller could add new ones whenever they please.
Xie Mei's General Information, Cultivation, Attributes and Proficiencies could all be considered to be profoundly normal. The average person's Attributes were all at 10, so people usually had a couple of points more or less than that if there was nothing atypical about them. Therefore, her 42 points of Luck did indeed make her far more fortunate than ordinary folk. The only other part of these categories of her Status Panel that caused the corner of Theodore's mouth to twitch ever so slightly was that Seduction Proficiency. Most people would never touch the threshold for it to appear in their Status Panel, yet she had achieved it so easily...
But both this question and most other ones which he had pondered over in regards to her found an answer in her ludicrously anomalous Talents.
[ Origin Lotus' Petal (Transcendent):
• Supremely pure body and soul immune to all diseases, curses, poisons and contaminations at or below Transcendent-grade.
• Ineffably beautiful.
• Wards against evil, influencing every being into being more charitable and kind towards oneself than would be normal. Can be partially or entirely resisted based upon the target's Mind Attribute.
• A part of the Supreme-grade Origin Lotus Talent.
• Can be fused with additional Origin Lotus' Petals to increase its grade: 1/7 ]
[ Lunar Echo (Mythical):
• A clone created by capturing one of the innumerable reflections of the 'Moon' on bodies of water. Its consciousness and the connection to the 'Moon' have been purified by Origin Lotus' Petal.
• Lunar and Water Affinity: +999,900%
• Lunar and Water Technique cultivation difficulty: -99.99%
• Lunar and Water Technique cultivation speed: +999,900% ]
[ Reincarnation (Legendary):
• After death, one's soul will reincarnate with one's memories intact in the next life. Memories have been purified by Origin Lotus' Petal.
• Up to 10 Talents of one's choice will be retained within the soul and transferred to one's next life's body.
• There is no limit to the number of reincarnations. ]
[ Cultivation Savant (Legendary):
• Cultivation difficulty: -99.9%
• Cultivation speed: +99,900%
• Daily: 25% chance to enter a state of enlightenment ]
[ Connate Mistress (Superior):
• Beauty: +900%
• Romantic feeling intensity: +900%
• Greatly accommodating towards one's romantic partner.
• Inclined to advocate polygamous relationships.
• Selflessly puts the needs of others above one's own. ]
[ Ritualistic Dancer (Outstanding):
• Ritual studies difficulty: -25%
• Ritual efficiency: +50%
• Dancing difficulty: -25%
• Dancing efficiency: +50% ]
[ Plotter (Outstanding):
• Tactical acumen: +50%
• Scheming efficiency: +50%
• More easily overlooked by others. ]
[ (See More) ]
Theodore had never expected for there to be so much to unpack here, or for these Talents to spell out their own, untold story, which could possibly be of importance in the future.
From what he could gather, there was once an individual referred to as the 'Moon', which created a clone with its own almost entirely independent soul and consciousness. This replica also was fortunate enough to be 'born' with the Legendary-grade Talent of 'Reincarnation', that enabled her to live an infinite number of lives, throughout which she was indubitably of significant use to the 'Moon'. Acquiring more and more Talents as she reincarnated, she eventually got born in a body that innately possessed a Talent which spelt her doom.
The Transcendent-grade 'Origin Lotus' Petal' could be considered another sort of clone-type Talent, as the seven petals could be reunited to form a whole. Due to its supremely pure nature, it got rid of any and all things that it classified as a kind of contamination. Memories acquired before this Talent's acquisition, a pre-existing consciousness and strings attached to the soul by any other beings were all fair game to it.
As a result, the newly reborn clone of the 'Moon' was purified of its past memories and consciousness–returning it to a blank slate save for its Talents–and its connection to its creator was severed permanently. In essence, the replica was 'killed' by the body it had randomly been assigned to upon rebirth.
This showcased just one of many significant drawbacks to the Reincarnation Talent. There were numerous ways to counter it, and even a huge number of Talents which could potentially and accidentally make the revival in a new body fatally backfire.
Sighing at the fate of the effectively deceased clone, Theodore's lips curled into an amused, wry smile. The legacy that it left behind could definitely rival those of a relatively talented Named Family descendant. It was no wonder that the Heavenly Dao had chosen to give her the qualifications to step on the stage of this competition. She far surpassed the Regressor who had cost old Theodore his life, after all.
'Come to think of it, the first two people that I met in this world were both Heaven's Chosen. Huh...'
If he wasn't aware of his own Luck Attribute being quite high–even for a descendant of the Winter Family–then he would have been convinced that someone had meddled with these events somehow. Still, that possibility could not be entirely discarded either.
Putting that distracting thought behind him, he couldn't help but sigh at the effects of 'Connate Mistress' and 'Plotter'. He had long wondered how a person of such divine looks as Xie Mei hadn't become the target of every lecherous big shot in this corner of the world. Yet, being overlooked more easily did explain how the regular folk around her had not overly publicized or truly come to notice her charm to its full extent.
While her Outstanding-grade Talent certainly couldn't protect her when directly faced with someone capable of resisting its effects, it definitely wasn't a bad preventative measure which would allow for a less dangerous experience during one's early days. Most likely, this was why the clone had chosen to bring it along.
As for Connate Mistress, it perfectly explained why she had behaved the way that she did towards him, and how she had fallen for him to such an extent so quickly. While his own beauty, which was on par with hers, certainly played a part, the effects of her Talent had strengthened the feelings that she should have had to ten times of their initial intensity.
Couple the goodwill generated by being adorable plus absolutely lovestruck with him with the effect to ward against evil which was a part of Origin Lotus' Petal, and...
'I was wondering why I was treating her ever so slightly better than I likely would have if this Talent hadn't affected me. This explains it.'
While the Transcendent-grade was 'only' the third highest–well, now fourth-highest–grade that a Talent could have, and Theodore's Mind Attribute was outright stupidly high, even he could not escape the influence of a Talent of this grade completely.
'But that's not a bad thing. Only in this way does she barely make the cut.'
Showing an appreciative smile, he chose to be a tiny smidgen more forthright with this girl whom he had not thought much of until just now. Then, he looked her directly into the eyes and asked her a question that he hadn't expected to ask this early in the round.
"Xie Mei, do you want to become my first Follower?"