Fates Parallel Chapter 288 - Corruption

The flood of information almost overwhelmed Yoshika. It wasn’t just memories, but emotions and physical sensations as well—as if she was re-experiencing the entire day all at once. Even with Absolute Awareness to help her process it, Yoshika could barely hold on to her own consciousness as Li Meili merged back into her.

Jianmo hadn't warned her about this, the bastard. Her feelings were crashing together in an tumultuous storm of emotion, the likes of which she hadn’t known since her very first attempts at spiritual joint cultivation. She felt the rage she’d taken out on Luo Mingyu, the indignation at the way the sect treated Pan Jiaying, the distress caused by her lack of identity, the panic and fear of Pan Jiaying’s rejection, and something else that she desperately tried to push aside and isolate.

The number of thoughts and feelings centered on Pan Jiaying were concerning, but they were hers now, and Yoshika had to deal with them. To say nothing of the girl herself, who was bearing down on Yoshika with furious tears in her eyes.

“You bitch! You killed her! She needed your help and you just fucking erased her! How could you?!”

Yoshika caught Pan Jiaying’s wrist and cringed. Now that she had her empathy back—not that she’d ever lost it—Pan Jiaying was an open book to her. The grief and loss stung as acutely as if it were Yoshika’s own.

“Jiaying, calm down! We’re not dead—she’s not dead. She didn’t—just give us a chance to explain, alright?”

Pan Jiaying responded by trying to kick Yoshika, but only managed to hurt herself—she was so weak.

“I don’t care about you! You’re not Meili, no matter what you call yourself! You were her parents and you just killed her!”

“That’s not—please stop trying to hit us, you’re going to hurt yourself worse—that’s not how it works, Jiaying. Look at us—at me. I am Li Meili. Not just her creator, or her mother, I’m her. The same Li Meili that visited you for tea, the same one that enjoyed watching you passionately gush about your precious ginseng patches, the same one that taught you the Body Lightening technique.”

Jiaying stopped thrashing and blinked at Yoshika, frowning.

“What? But that’s—how do you—?”

“We didn’t kill her. She just returned to being part of us—her memories, thoughts, and feelings are ours. She still lives inside of us.”

“But...she was hurting, she needed help.”

Yoshika grimaced.

“Yes, we were, and we do. Unfortunately, I think she may have inherited a problem from us that we’d long since forgotten about, but never truly resolved. That’s a story for another time, though.”

“If she’s still alive, can you bring her back?”

“That’s—yes, in theory we should be able to. We’ve preserved all the most important parts within us, and it wouldn’t be difficult to form another avatar.”

Pan Jiaying glared at her fiercely.

“Do it, then! Prove it! Show me that she really isn’t dead.”

Yoshika sighed and shook her head.

“We don’t think that’s a good idea. Not until we’ve resolved the problems that led to her crisis at the very least.”

Jiaying scoffed.

“Coward! I won’t pretend to understand everything about you, but I don’t think you’re taking responsibility by absorbing Li Meili, I think you’re running from it! You created a new life, whether you like it or not, and you have a responsibility to that life! Bring her back.”

It was a different perspective, and Yoshika took a moment to try to understand it. Pan Jiaying’s view was different from either Jung’s or Master Ienaga’s. Unlike either of them, Jiaying thought of Li Meili as a completely distinct entity. When she spoke of taking responsibility for Meili, she didn’t mean as an extension of herself like Ienaga did—she meant something closer to parental duty.

“This is such a complex issue, Pan Jiaying. We’re not even sure the avatar we create will still be exactly the same Li Meili, as you remember her. And we don’t think—no, we know we won’t appreciate being made into a non-living thing again.”

“Just give me a chance to talk to her. Please?”

Yoshika wanted to protest that she was her. Pan Jiaying was already speaking to the Li Meili she knew. Instead, she just sighed.

“Give us some time to think it over, please. We have other matters that need to be addressed.”

Recognizing his cue, Luo Mingyu stepped forward and bowed.

“I didn’t want to interrupt. You’ve certainly made quite the impression on my junior.”

Pan Jiaying shook her head.

“I’m not finished!”

“I’m afraid you are, junior sister. The Li Meili you know could have easily overpowered us, but this one and Miss Jing Yi are in an entirely different league. They put even some of the core disciples and elders I’ve met to shame. I doubt any but Master Qiao himself could stand up to them.”

Yoshika frowned.

“We’re not threatening you, for the record. I know we fought earlier, but that wasn’t about forcing your hand—we were just upset. It was wrong of us to take our anger out on you, and we apologize.”

Luo Mingyu scratched his cheek awkwardly.

“Ah well—I suppose I was the one who struck the first blow. I’m willing to forget it if you are.”

“That works for us.”

Pan Jiaying crossed her arms and pouted, but didn’t protest any further. The expression was so adorable that Yoshika—violently shoved that thought aside and locked it away for later examination. She grimaced internally—that was going to be a problem, but she had more pressing matters.

“Luo Mingyu, allow us to reintroduce our sister, Li Zhen. She’s the one we brought you here to see.”

Jung bowed, and Luo Mingyu returned the greeting.

“Well met, Miss Li Zhen. Li Meili, are you going to give me all of the crucial information now, or will I have to infer it? You already dropped some rather significant hints earlier during your...crisis.”

Yoshika sighed—time to get it over with.

“Promise us that you’ll tell nobody about this.”

Luo Mingyu raised a hand.

“I swear it on the emperor’s name.”

Pan Jiaying gave him an incredulous look.

“That easily?!”

“Junior Pan, if our guests don’t kill me at this point, my curiosity just might. We’ve nothing to lose here. Go on.”

She grumbled irritably, but mimicked his gesture.

“I swear on the emperor’s name not to tell a soul about what I witness here tonight. Happy?”

Yoshika nodded.

“Thank you both. The truth is that we are not people of Qin. We come from the nation of Goryeo, beyond what you call the frontier, and we are half-spirits.”

Her illusions dropped away, revealing her true forms as well as Jung’s. Pan Jiaying was stunned, but Luo Mingyu was utterly unperturbed.

“I thought it might be something like that. There are only so many ways a mortal could survive an advanced case of corruption sickness. This is my first time encountering beastkin in person.”

Yoshika gave him a warning look.

“Half-spirits, not beastkin. That’s considered a pejorative where we come from.”

“Ah, my apologies. Well, that’s one piece of the puzzle—for now, why don’t you tell me everything you know about Li Zhen’s illness and her treatment so far?”

—-

They spent the next hour or so discussing everything they knew, from the doctor’s diagnosis to their own treatments and observations, to the way her condition had been worsening over time as she grew increasingly reliant on regular treatments from Eui’s qi healing. Luo Mingyu had a severe expression on his face by the time they’d covered everything.

“This is a very complicated case. First, let me say that I’m surprised that Miss Jing Yi is such a talented qi healer. It’s a vocation even rarer than my own, and you look like someone with a...different skill set.”

Yoshika smirked and answered with Eui’s voice.

“We’re multi-faceted.”

“Indeed. Well, first let me try to explain what corruption sickness is. Qi exists in all things and in many forms. The exact nature of it is the subject of scholarly debate that goes well beyond my purview, but one of the forms in which qi can exist is corruption.

“Corruption forms naturally within us as we age, and it is through the purification and excision of such corruption that we cultivators attain immortality. But there is a darker side to this—since corruption is a form of qi, it can behave very much like it. There have even been records of renegade cultivators trying to create techniques fueled by it—but they inevitably ended in disaster.

“In rare cases, a heart of corruption can form within the body or soul. In cultivators, such a condition can result in heart demons or deviations, impede progress, or even cause sickness until it can be purged—hence the name. In mortals, it is almost invariably fatal. The blood disease my father described is a broader symptom of the condition, and may indeed be hereditary. The corruption sickness itself, however—I’m no expert on half-spirit physiology, but I doubt any infant would survive it.”

Jung frowned uneasily.

“If there’s any possibility of my daughter being sick because of me...”

“Of course, I can examine her if you trust me to meet her. I assume that you’ve left her somewhere for safekeeping, for now.”

Yoshika crossed her arms and glared at Luo Mingyu.

“She’s safe, yes. What we’d like to know is whether Li Zhen’s condition is treatable.”

“I don’t know.”

That wasn’t the answer Yoshika had hoped for.

“We’re going to need something better than that, Luo Mingyu!”

“I’m not sure where to begin! In a cultivator, I would treat corruption sickness with qi suppression pills and a strict regimen of purifying meditation. Even with a half-spirit’s constitution, qi suppression powerful enough to halt the spread would be lethal to a mortal, the meditation would do nothing without first awakening, and she’s far too old to awaken now even without the heart of corruption propagating itself through her meridians.”

“There has to be something!”

Luo Mingyu let out an exasperated sigh.

“Perhaps there is, but I don’t know it! You’re asking me to invent a solution to a problem I’ve never seen before! I need time and resources to research it properly.”

Yoshika tried to contain her frustration. A cure wasn’t what she had come here for anyway, even if it was disappointing to hear.

“Can you at least stop or delay it? More than our treatments already do, that is. Enough to give us a year, or even just a few extra months. We have other leads but we need more time.”

Pan Jiaying, who’d mostly been staying out of the conversation glanced up, suddenly interested.

“Your trip north? I thought you’d just made that up.”

Luo Mingyu coughed awkwardly.

“I uh, had actually been meaning to ask about that, but didn’t know how to bring it up without...”

Yoshika rolled her eyes as he trailed off. Speaking in Eui’s voice.

“Without revealing that you’d been watching us all day like a creepy pervert? Don’t worry, we already figured that part out. We only mentioned Yan Hao for your benefit.”

Luo Mingyu blinked, glancing back and forth between Yoshika’s bodies in confusion.

“Miss Li Meili I can understand—she would have inherited her avatar’s memories—but I’m curious about when she had the time to relay it to you, Miss Jing Yi, or why you speak as though you experienced it first-hand.”

Yoshika realized her mistake and opened her mouth to make an excuse, but Pan Jiaying was faster.

“It’s because they’re the same person.”

Pan Jiaying blushed slightly as everyone’s attention fell on her, but continued speaking.

“I’ve been trying to understand what happened with Li Meili—the real one I mean, not you. Why do you have to use that name anyway, can’t you just tell us your real one?”

Yoshika smiled and shook her head apologetically.

“That would be unwise for a number of reasons, sorry. For what it’s worth, the alias came first.”

“That’s not very reassuring. Anyway, it’s because she’s not you, Miss Li. She’s both of you, isn’t she? You’re...combined somehow. You have been for a while. I noticed you using ‘us’ and ‘we,’ and the way you referred to your so-called avatar by her name, but never used it with each other. When you look around, both of you move at the same time...once you start noticing it’s hard to stop.”

Luo Mingyu raised both eyebrows.

“That’s...quite the theory.”

Pan Jiaying gave Yoshika a challenging look.

“I’m right though, aren’t I? Li Meili isn’t just one of you, she’s both of you combined—like you are right now, but in just one body.”

Yoshika sighed heavily and met Jiaying’s gaze.

“Yes, you’re right. We can discuss it later, but right now we need to know what, if anything, Luo Mingyu can do for Li Zhen.”

Luo Mingyu held his hands together over his mouth and focused for a moment, his eyes flicking back and forth like someone deep in thought.

“It’s...possible. In theory. Not a cure, per se, but a way to stem the tide. I don’t know how effective it will be, or how long it will last, but I think I might be able to create an elixir that will work. There’s just one problem.”

He looked up and met Yoshika’s eyes with a serious expression.

“I’ll need resources from the sect that are typically restricted, even from me.”