I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 409
Chapter 409: Diwu Diwu, Super Strength
During the days I spent with Xiao Mo, especially when she taught me about magic and the worldview of Grandis, I occasionally pondered how reality somewhat limits our imagination of the “unknown.” The other world is quite complex if you delve deep into it.
Take “magic” for example. Before I encountered it, I always thought it was like in movies and anime, where as long as the caster remembers the spells and has a certain talent, they can silently chant the spell in a fight and shout something like “Fireball,” and the magic would appear.
Or even more imaginatively, like explosive magic, where a long chant ends with “Explosion!” and a huge magical vortex appears in front, blasting the target to smithereens.
Going even more fantastical, it’s like the “Shinra Tensei” of Pain from Naruto, making the world feel pain and carrying a sack of rice up three floors.
However, I never considered how much impact magic would have on the entire world if it existed in a place.
Is magic matter or energy? Does it follow the law of conservation of energy? Does it appear out of thin air or is it synthesized with some external force? Is it transferred by the caster’s will?
These are all questions a qualified author needs to consider.
Of course, this doesn’t include web novel authors, who don’t need to understand or research so much. A general setting is enough, as web novels focus on the plot.
When Xiao Mo handed me the Magatama, my imagination of its specific effects was quite limited.
I really couldn’t imagine that the function of the Magatama was to create a “clone” similar to Xiao Mo, which would then possess my body and control me to escape danger.
In terms of its effect, Xiao Mo was indeed not lying to me.
If, at the time when I was just teleported to the lizardmen’s island “Maha,” I had used the Magatama without any hesitation, according to Xiao Mo, the consciousness controlling my body would possess many of her memories.
In that case, she would definitely recognize the island and know how to get out. She could probably have gotten me off the island within a day, perfectly resolving the “crisis situation” at that time.
In a sense, this solution is all-purpose.
“I know right now, little kitty, you must have a lot of questions, or are you meowing and getting ready to bite me?”
Under “my” gaze, Xiao Mo reached out and pinched my face while smugly saying, “But you can’t control the body, right? You can feel all the senses of the body but can’t interfere with them because the control of the body has been taken over.”
Who would meow like that!
You, this person, are always thinking of setting traps for me every day!
I thought unhappily in my heart.
But come to think of it, this kind of feeling is quite novel.
Unable to control the body, but with a clear consciousness, watching the body move on its own the entire time—it’s a very… well, it can be said to be a refreshing experience for me.
The premise is that I’m very clear that the consciousness controlling my body doesn’t have any malicious intent, otherwise, most people would probably panic.
Also… the effect of this magical device seems a bit too powerful, like some kind of trap? Luring others to inject magic power into it, then falling into a trap, having their body’s control rights taken away, and being at the mercy of others?
At least in the current situation, I can’t think of any way to break the control.
Although my consciousness is still connected to my body, it seems to have become one-way. The various feedback from my body can be transmitted to me, such as when the clone controlling my body breathes with my lungs, I can feel the rise and fall of my chest.
When standing, I can clearly feel the subtle curve and weight of the round-toed Lolita shoes under my feet. When the breeze blows, I can feel the slight itchiness of the dress and clothes gently brushing against my body.
The sensations from my body can be transmitted back, but my commands can’t get through.
This means I can’t control my body’s movements or use magic or inscribe magic runes. I can only wait for the effect of the magical device to end or for the magic energy Xiao Mo left on it to disappear. There is no other way.
“Let me guess, little kitty, are you thinking about the principle of this magical device or how to escape?”
Even though I can’t control my body and my thoughts don’t show on my face, Xiao Mo immediately guessed what I was thinking.
“Given the way you, as an author, like to delve into various rules and principles, maybe you’re even considering other uses for this magical device? Like using it to control others?”
Why can you always clearly state what I’m thinking! Can you read minds? Normally it wouldn’t matter, but now… now I’m being controlled!
Xiao Mo once said that her most important skill in reading people is her senses being more sensitive than any human’s, and that after thousands of years of experience with many people, she deeply understands human nature.
She knows what expressions appear on a person’s face and what changes happen in their body when they are thinking.
For example, some people blush, their skin turns rosy, or their body temperature rises when they are shy. Others have their heart rate speed up when they are happy. These subtle body changes are not noticeable to ordinary people.
For instance, no human hearing is so sensitive and meticulous that it can immediately detect and sense someone’s heartbeat speeding up, but Xiao Mo and Filo are different. They can genuinely feel these changes and can therefore roughly guess a person’s current mood and thoughts.
The problem is… the current “Yin Nuo’er” doesn’t have any bodily changes because of my will.
If it were usual, with Xiao Mo teasing me like this, my face would probably turn a bit pink, and my cheeks would show a “blush,” with my heart rate slightly increasing. But now, the one controlling me feels like an emotionless machine, with my body’s metrics being very stable and showing no fluctuations at all.
And yet, Xiao Mo can still see through that?
“Don’t worry, this kind of magical device can actually only be made by me.”
Knowing that I couldn’t speak, Xiao Mo proactively explained, “Nuo’er, your body has been with me for hundreds of years, so I understand it very well. Moreover, to create a similar magical device, one must master life spells and soul spells, be familiar with the target’s physical condition, have the ability to generate a simulated personality, and most importantly, the device cannot be proactive—it must be activated by the user injecting their own magic. With so many conditions, it’s almost impossible to use it as a malicious tool.”
Ah… so that’s how it is. I thought it could easily control someone’s body, making it a very powerful magical device.
“But this thing does have a similar trap prototype. Calling it a cursed tool wouldn’t be wrong.”
After saying this, Xiao Mo added, “It’s just like the mimic monsters often found in RPGs on Earth.”
Mimic monsters?
“For this kind of magical device to be effective, the biggest challenge is how to induce the user to voluntarily inject their magic into it. The creator’s skills and knowledge are subjective factors, but getting the victim to activate the trap is the most important part. Without activation, all the setup is meaningless.”
Xiao Mo wore her trademark mischievous smile as she continued, “So, similar mimic magical devices appeared thousands of years ago. They look like a big chest, with the lock designed to house the magical device. Some rather foolish wizard or adventurer might try to inject magic into it, and then… whoosh, the chest turns into a tentacle monster and grabs them in an instant!”
That sounds really scary…
“So, Nuo’er, make sure not to expose your magic circuits out of curiosity, okay?”
Xiao Mo continued to explain, “When you were injecting your magic into the Magatama earlier, did you feel a creepy sensation? Like walking down a dark path at night and your body instinctively warning you not to go any further because there might be monsters or danger ahead? That’s the uneasiness your body feels when your magic circuits are exposed, making it easy for malicious magical devices to latch onto you and cause trouble.”
“But you don’t need to worry too much, Nuo’er. There are almost no magical devices here that could pose a threat to you. Even if there are, the people who made them are either my friends or old acquaintances, and we can just find them when needed.”
“If it were the real Nuo’er, she’d probably be like a little kitten with its fur all fluffed up, insisting she isn’t a fool, right? Speaking of which… why don’t you imitate her?”
Seeing that “I” still didn’t react, Xiao Mo smiled slightly, “How about acting cute?”
Act cute? No way! How could I possibly act cute!
I shouted in my heart with dissatisfaction.
I’m a tough guy from the 21st century, even if I starve here or die in the garden, there’s no way I’d act cute!
“Meow!”
However, my mouth didn’t obey at all. After Xiao Mo’s words, my legs stepped forward, standing pigeon-toed. My hands formed fists and posed as “cat paws” next to my face: “Meow!”
Huh?
I was dumbfounded.
Wait, is this even possible?
“So cute!”
Xiao Mo stepped forward and hugged me tightly, like a customer at a cat café snuggling a kitten, and took a deep breath against my chest.
“Ah! Say a few more lines. You know how little kittens act cute, right?”
No, I protest…
“Meow!”
Completely unable to control my body, I could only watch as I nudged Xiao Mo twice, spread my arms, slightly opened my mouth, and closed my eyes slightly, seemingly adopting a very coquettish expression. Then my vocal cords vibrated, producing a soft, cute voice that I would never normally make.
“Nuo’er meow, wants a hug—”
Hey, my image! What’s with “wants a hug”! Xiao Mo, are you sure this is your clone? How is she so good at acting cute too? What about the cool assassin? The battle-hardened warrior?!
“Mhm, good, good kitty.”
The Xiao Mo in front of me played along, rubbing my head and smiling radiantly.
“Nuo’er, I didn’t force you, you came over on your own.”
What do you mean, “I came over on my own”? This isn’t me at all!
I wanted to protest but still couldn’t control my body. I could only let the person controlling me use “Yin Nuo’er’s” image to lie in Xiao Mo’s arms, purring contentedly.
Since that “clone” was using my exact body, controlling my vocal cords to speak with my voice, in both appearance and sound, the “Nuo’er” in front of Xiao Mo was indistinguishably me.
“I need to capture this historic moment.”
While rubbing my head, Xiao Mo took out her phone from her pocket and seemed to activate the recording function.
“Nuo’er, what am I to you?”
“Master Momo is Nuo’er’s most beloved and adored master.”
The clone controlling my body also played along, using my voice to gently say, “Nuo’er is Master Momo’s little pet, little wife, and with Master Momo, Nuo’er is happy every day and wants to give Master Momo lots and lots of babies…”
“Since you’re a little pet, can Nuo’er now show how a kitty acts cute?”
“Yes, Master Momo!”
As “I” spoke, I waved a small hand, and a light blue “Mobius Circle” appeared in front of me. At the same time, I could clearly feel my magic power slightly decreasing.
It can even use my magic?!
“Meow…”
After walking onto the “Mobius Circle,” Xiao Mo’s clone controlled my body to sit down obediently in a duck-like position. It extended a hand, licked the back of it, and tilted its head towards Xiao Mo’s phone camera. “Can you take Nuo’er home? Meow?”
“Pfft! I can’t take it. Nuo’er’s face and body are too deadly…”
After saving the recording, Xiao Mo waved at me. “Alright, alright, you can come down now. Let’s stop this.”
“I” dispelled the magic circle and jumped down, standing there obediently.
“The effect of this Magatama usually lasts about three to four hours. If we were on Earth, I could use divine powers to forcibly cancel it, but here I have no way to do that, so Nuo’er, you’ll have to bear with it for a bit.”
Putting away her phone, Xiao Mo, dressed in a black gown, gestured toward the entrance of the “palace” in front of us.
“In the meantime, let’s take a stroll around here and I’ll introduce you to this country and the place where you used to live.”
At this point, I finally noticed the style of the clothes Xiao Mo was wearing. It had a mature, “queenly” vibe, reminiscent of the “Witch form” dress worn by Homura Akemi in “Puella Magi Madoka Magica.” Since it was otherworldly attire, the design was quite open, blending elements like lace, black roses, and bridal fashion in a uniquely beautiful way.
The most striking part was that Xiao Mo was barefoot.
A luxurious black gown paired with bare, white feet… this…
If Xiao Mo had been dressed like this when we first met in the rental apartment, I wouldn’t have dared to say something like “your chest is too small” even with ten times the courage. Her queenly aura was overwhelming.
“The name of this country is ‘Diwutith,’ which translates directly to ‘Land where Light and Darkness Coexist,’ commonly abbreviated as Diwu, which is your name here, Nuo’er, symbolizing a land of morning dew and hope.”
Xiao Mo gave me a look that said “follow me,” and she walked ahead toward a small path between two angels.
“However, because this continent is mostly our former conquests and has no neighboring countries, and because the people of Diwutith generally keep a low profile, most outsiders only know of this small country. Figures like Ophelia and Vivi, who just came to pick you up, currently claim to be free individuals to the outside world. Few people know they are also guardians here.”
“This continent is quite large, almost the size of the Americas on Earth, with good environmental and ecological conditions. We achieve internal self-sufficiency without much difficulty. Even in the need for diplomatic relations with other countries, the wealth accumulated during the Allied period is sufficient to handle it. Therefore, over the centuries, Diwutith has been steadily developing, and many people see it as an ideal paradise and seek ways to immigrate here.”
Under the control of the alter ego, “I” moved my legs and followed behind Xiao Mo.
“This large garden was designed by me for you, Nuo’er. Its full name is the ‘Diwutith Central Garden.’ Theoretically, the garden is open to the public up to the area we just passed. Ordinary people can enter, but due to strong faith in the Goddess Diwu, very few people usually enter the garden. Even if they do, it’s often because they’ve encountered a bad situation or have done something wrong or criminal, hoping that Queen Diwu will forgive their mistakes. Most people only enter up to where we stood just now, beyond that is an official restricted area.”
Xiao Mo pointed to the two angel statues at the entrance and said, “This is the boundary between the Diwutith Central Garden and the area we’re in now. Outside is the outer garden, named the ‘Temple of Myriad Gods.’ In the four directions of east, south, west, and north are the temples of Thunder, Water, Fire, and Wind, respectively.”
“These temples house most of the artifacts and advanced magical devices in this world, as well as some ancient books and sacred relics. The path we’re walking on leads to the Water Temple’s corridor. At the end of the corridor is a barrier, only accessible to those whom I absolutely trust.”
It seemed that my alter ego, controlling my body to let me better appreciate the scenery, occasionally turned its head while walking.
It would glance down at the water elemental gemstones embedded in the corridor floor, then turn outward to observe the surrounding flowers and grass.
Here, within this enormous garden, are intricately built temples and corridors. There are four main entrances, with corridors intersecting to form a cross. Each corridor leads to its respective elemental temple, creating such a structured layout.
Moreover, the garden itself isn’t just flowers. Like the outer garden, some areas here feature beautiful fruit trees, others are arranged with neatly trimmed bushes reminiscent of medieval noble estates’ back gardens, and still others are vast fields of stunning flowers.
Frankly, walking in the corridor of the temple and looking outside, I couldn’t mentally visualize the entire garden’s structure. It’s just too vast, and I’m quite short. Without a map, I might easily get lost if I were to venture out alone.
“Master Momo!”
As we walked, two small creatures resembling fairies with pink wings flew out from a nearby flower bush ahead, waving at Xiao Mo.
These fairy-like beings were less than fifty centimeters tall, with translucent pink wings resembling cicada wings that seemed capable of fluttering thousands of times per second. They wore tiny dresses and floated directly in mid-air, each holding a wooden watering can, apparently watering the flowers around them.
“Good afternoon!”
Xiao Mo waved back at the two fairies. “The sun is quite strong today, remember to stay hydrated!”
“Okay!”
The two fairies responded, casting curious glances towards me.
“Is that Lady Diwu?”
“It must be Lady Diwu, right?”
“Definitely! Such a lovely girl, there’s no one else like Lady Diwu in the world…”
“Lady Diwu has actually awakened?”
“Shh… Let’s not gossip behind someone’s back, it’s not polite.”
“……”
“Their names are Sisi and Lanlan, both fairies. Fairies are a branch of elves characterized by wings, flight, timidity, and proficiency in wind magic and life magic,” Xiao Mo explained proactively.
“During the war, fairies were mainly responsible for logistics, such as inventory management and food categorization. Now that the war is over, some fairies chose not to return to the Elf Forest and came with me instead. They mainly work in this large garden.”
Under the warm sunlight, Xiao Mo’s small white feet made soft “pat-pat” sounds on the slightly cool water element gems of the corridor.
“These fairies handle all the pruning and maintenance of flowers and plants here. Currently, there are 437 similar fairies in the large garden.”
“Over four hundred?!”
Wow, that makes this garden quite large. We’ve been walking for so long and only encountered two fairies. With over four hundred fairies at this density, how big is this garden exactly?
Come to think of it, the fairies who fought alongside Xiao Mo back then… They must be over a thousand years old now, right?
“Don’t underestimate them because of their small size. Sisi and Lanlan are both high-level mages. Any one of them can easily defeat the Cote Pirates who troubled you before.”
Any one of them is a high-level mage?!
No, with such a large garden and over four hundred little fairies, all starting as high-level mages, I wonder how terrifying the actual “combat personnel” must be…
“We’re almost at the center of the Water Temple,” Xiao Mo said, walking along the beautiful corridor for a while longer and pointing ahead to a massive palace.
“Inside, there are many items, weapons, and books related to water magic. If you’re interested, after we sort out the teleportation magic issue in the next few days, you can come over from Earth and visit here whenever you’re free. It should suit you well.”
The entire palace inside is filled with magical items and books?
The person controlling me also glanced ahead at the enormous palace gate, which alone towered nearly twenty meters high. Just looking at this palace made me feel small and young, like when I was a child and first entered the downtown area of Shenzhen City where I barely reached the thighs of adults.
Okay, I guess I underestimated Xiao Mo’s efforts over these thousands of years.
A rich kid might have their parents buy the entire school for them from birth, while Xiao Mo, from the moment I was born, seems to have bought the entire world directly.
“Lastly, there’s the Crystal Palace at the center of the Four Temples. In fact, the main purpose of these gardens and temples above ground is to conceal the Crystal Palace underground, which belongs to you, Nuo’er.”
Passing through the avenue beside the “Water Temple,” it seemed we crossed some kind of barrier. Xiao Mo led me to a round “botanical garden”-like area behind the temple.
After passing through the barrier, I could clearly sense that the various bird calls and insect chirping around had significantly diminished, as if some powerful force was preventing people from outside from entering here.
“Your birthplace, and also the place I have always hoped to bring you,” Xiao Mo sighed softly in front of the botanical garden. “I finally brought you here.”
I walked forward and entered the botanical garden surrounded by various vines. I sat down on a swing made of vines and some sparkling crystals at the entrance.
This place gave me the feeling of being in an elf paradise often found in fairy tales. Inside were all sorts of flowers, vines, pools of water, and sparkling magical elements. I wasn’t entirely sure what those glowing things specifically were, but I could sense a distinct magical fluctuation inside.
A large area filled with particularly dreamy plants and magical items, some fruit trees were already bearing fruit, with various small fruits hanging from the branches.
Some small vines had just bloomed, with many leaves as red as Earth’s bougainvillea. Occasionally, green, sparkling little stars would rise in the air, twinkling. Sitting here on the magical swing, I felt like a little princess from a fairy tale.
If I could control my body, I might have been running around curiously at this moment, poking and prodding to inspect what those sparkling things floating in the air were.
And these beautiful and fresh plants, even the vines gave off a feeling of being as juicy and tactile as pomegranate seeds inside an Earth pomegranate. For a writer like me, it truly felt like a paradise stimulating inspiration.
“Only from here can you reach the underground Crystal Palace.”
After wandering around the botanical garden, I picked a cherry-like fruit and popped it into my mouth. Xiao Mo waved her hand, and suddenly, a faint humming sound came. The open space ahead of us suddenly transformed into a texture akin to water, and soon revealed the scene underneath—
A very large… underground chamber filled everywhere with crystals.
Seeing the scene below the “water surface” beside Xiao Mo, I instinctively began to “analyze” it.
It didn’t seem like just a basement, but rather a very large space with high brightness, much like standing above a huge stadium specially designed for the “Olympics” in the country where Shenzhen City is located on Earth, sparkling everywhere with what seemed like many crystals or gemstones.
“Let’s go.”
After giving me a glance, Xiao Mo jumped down first towards this “water surface.”
I followed closely behind and also jumped down.
*Plunk—*
Although there was a sensation of falling into water the moment we touched the surface, there were no splashes around. Xiao Mo and I passed directly through the water surface and landed inside the enormous space below.
“Using the Life Forbidden Spell, I obtained Nuo’er’s embryo, guarded beside the Spring of Life for three years. When Nuo’er grew into a baby, I brought you here.”
In this sparkling world, Xiao Mo took my hand and walked towards the largest and highest rhombus-shaped aquamarine crystal ahead.
“Now, let me say to you the words I’ve waited over two hundred years to say…”
Then Xiao Mo turned around and cupped my cheeks.
“Welcome home, my… beloved.”
“……”
……