Chapter 4: The Childish Voice in the Mind!
Translator: ryuxenji Editor: mjn0898
Ling Lan was putting a lot of effort into training this time around. Her whole body felt so comfortable, as if it were soaking in a hot spring, making her unwilling to end her training session. Unfortunately, some unidentified creature would not leave her alone and kept nattering on and on by her ear. She suddenly realized something she could never figure out before, the deeper meaning behind the monkey king Wukong's words in the grand epic Journey to the West : "It's as if there's a fly buzzing about every day ... sorry, not just one, but a swarm of flies around you, buzzing ... it really makes you want to scream for help!"
Right now, she wished that she could do as Wukong did and grab hold of the fly, squeeze it until its insides burst out, and then use its own intestines to strangle it. Ha, until its entire tongue stuck out! And then she would flip her hand and dump it on the floor. Phew —— and the whole world would be peaceful again.
Of course, Ling Lan could only fantasize about this because this fly was living in her head, so there was no way for her to bring it to justice.
Finally, Ling Lan could not take it anymore and was forced to end her session and wake up. Furious, she yelled at it internally, "Dammit, who the hell are you?"
As if frightened by her forceful roar, the childish voice only responded after a long while. Warily, it said, "Mecha learning device number 444444444 from the Mechanical Kingdom of the Mandora star system! Also your contracted long-term companion."
Ling Lan was stunned — could it be that every child in this world she was reincarnated into was equipped with a similar learning device? It looked like the technology of this world was very impressive. She wondered if there was a huge difference compared to her original world.
As if sensing Ling Lan's question, the childish voice rang out in her mind once again, its tone dismissive. "How could this world have such a progressive learning device such as myself? Also, you may have forgotten, but it was I who put you back in one piece when your spiritual self almost dispersed after your physical body died."
Ling Lan abruptly remembered the voice she had heard when she had died in her past life. Her expression changed dramatically, "What in the world happened?"
The childlike voice replied, "Your previous body could not support your powerful spiritual power, and so thoroughly collapsed. Luckily for you, a once in a blue moon wormhole happened to open up right then. I managed to gather your diffusing spiritual energy at the final moment and took the opportunity to absorb some local energy to carry your spiritual self through the wormhole to this advanced world 10000 years in the future."
"How does that work?" Ling Lan was very curious, what did this have to do with her luck?
The childlike voice sniffed. "If we had remained in your original world, even if I had taken your spiritual self and let you be reborn there, you would still have died in the end. The weak physical bodies of the babies there would never have been able to support your immense spiritual self."
As if sensing that it hadn't explained clearly enough, the childlike voice added, "Even an adult's body wouldn't have worked. The result would have been a replica of your previous body."
Ling Lan shuddered. She did not want to experience that pain — of all her organs failing and breaking apart, then healing only to break apart again — ever again.
At that thought, Ling Lan asked worriedly, "And there's no worry of that now?"
The childlike voice sounded pleased with itself as it responded. "That's right. 10000 years later, spiritual power has been successfully uncovered and developed. Now, the bodies of babies are strong even in their mother's wombs, and some may even be able to withstand tier-3 or tier-4 spiritual power from birth. So long as you take a little care, you won't die."
Hearing this, Ling Lan relaxed. Being able to live on was all she was asking for.
However, what the childlike voice said next made Ling Lan's heart leap into her throat once again. "That being said, I still have to help you restrain your spiritual power, or else your current body will still be unable to take it."
"Then, will there be any danger?" The learning device sounded so young ... was it really reliable? Ling Lan couldn't help but worry.
"I can only guarantee you two years without worry. If you don't work hard to increase your body's resilience within this time frame ... you will still end up dead as a doornail!" The childlike voice revealed hints of schadenfreude, causing Ling Lan to feel threatened and angry at the same time. Since they had already traversed through time and space, couldn't this fellow have chosen a better world that would have eliminated this problem completely?
The childish voice sounded put out at her thoughts. "No one knows where a wormhole will lead to. I already said that you were lucky — if we had arrived at a world worse than your own, you'd already be dead as a doornail."
Ling Lan felt a little sheepish after hearing this. She was only alive because of this fellow after all — she really shouldn't repay its kindness with ingratitude.
Wait a minute. Ling Lan recalled that even though she had been physically weak before the age of three, constantly sick and bedridden, her body had still been far from breaking down. It was only after age three that her body's condition suddenly deteriorated drastically. Could it be that —— Ling Lan's expression grew cold. "Is there anything else you haven't told me?"
The childlike voice sensed that the truth it wanted to hide had been discovered by its host, and so helplessly decided to confess. "I'm also not sure ... I just know that when I woke up, I was already contracted to you. I have tested your spiritual power before — in your world, your spiritual power was much, much higher than the average person's, registering at tier-2 ... perhaps that is why I was able to be bound to you. Of course, my awakening caused your spiritual power to directly jump up a level, and the bodies of your world then were incapable of sustaining tier-3 spiritual power."
At long last Ling Lan had found the true culprit behind her death. Her emotions were jumbled and she had no idea how she was supposed to react.
Seeing this, the childlike voice panicked, saying sadly, "I didn't do it on purpose. I'm not sure myself how we met. I thought I could only exist within the Mandora star system." Even now, it still had no clue how it had gotten to that primitive planet.
Ling Lan was a person who could not abide tears. She could not bear to see anyone cry, not even herself. The cause lay with her illness — though they tried to hide it, her parents had pretty much been in tears every day; she had noticed, but had no way of consoling them, and she hated that sense of helplessness. Thus, 'Crying is forbidden' became one of Ling Lan's life principles, one which she carried with her to this world as well.
"Alright, stop it, I'm not blaming you. All I can say is that this was all fate." Ling Lan gave up, deciding to let bygones be bygones. Although this self-titled mecha learning device had cost her her life in the past world, it had also given her another life, making them even.
Besides that, her parents in her past life would still have her younger brother to take care of them in their old age. Without the burden of caring for her, their lives should be much easier and also much happier. Considering this, Ling Lan decided to let things go.
Perhaps the suffering she endured in her previous life had given her peerless inner strength — very quickly, Ling Lan had thrown off the fetters of her past life, and her heart felt all the lighter for it.
Now that her doubts and worries had been addressed, she soon remembered that she had been pestered to wakefulness by this learning device. What did it want? It was hard to imagine that they had chattered on for almost half a day without even touching on the matter. Ling Lan sweat-dropped — could it be that her concentration and thought processes had been weakened since she had become a baby again?
Putting that thought aside for now, Ling Lan asked, "So, what did you wake me up for exactly?"