The Outer God Needs Warmth – Chapter 74

When night fell, the child grew feverish.

Well, with bugs having been inside her body, taking medicine and vomiting them out wouldn’t immediately make her better. Rather, it wouldn’t be strange for there to be backlash proportional to how much the bugs had parasitized her body.

She vomited quite a lot of blood too.

I quietly watched the child thinking I’d take her warmth if she died.

The child was also tightly gripping my clothes.

So I sat beside her and observed through the four harvesters’ views.

First, Gapjae.

This person seemed to have some plan after seeing the previous cult leader’s daughter, and as soon as his guard duty ended, he walked to a place that wasn’t his room.

According to the four’s memories, he headed to the best among the 10 halls.

The halls are Sun, Moon, Mountain, Stream, Bamboo, Pine, Turtle, Crane, Deer, and Elixir Plant. In short, they’re named after the ten symbols of longevity.

There’s a ranking among the halls. Like how every city in Seoul has an unofficial ranking. Surprisingly, Elixir Plant ranks highest, not Sun.

Why?

Pharmacy has been a lucrative profession since ancient times. Of course, they say pharmacy but use it for other purposes too.

It says everything that humanity’s first farming wasn’t for grain but hallucinogens.

Gapjae headed there.

He called people saying he had urgent matters to report to the hall master. And he really met the hall master.

The hall master is a middle-aged man.

Meeting him, Gapjae immediately sold the information he obtained at dawn about the previous cult leader’s daughter entering.

Hearing this, the hall master thought deeply then asked what he wanted.

Gapjae demanded an elixir that could let him reach a realm called Golden Dan.

The faded man’s memories shine. He’s throwing a fit asking why mix xianxia into wuxia.

Isn’t it all Eastern fantasy?

Like Investiture of the Gods or that type, I suppress the rising memories in my head thinking it’s not worth getting upset about.

The hall master said he’d give it in exchange for becoming his hands and feet. Gapjae nodded in agreement.

Then the hall master called someone and had them bring an elixir with a very unique name. And gave it to Gapjae.

Gapjae received the elixir and examined it carefully. It looks like a piece of meat coated in gold leaf.

Suddenly Gapjae got angry at the hall master, saying this was an elixir that would be lucky to reach the Crystal realm.

The hall master responded he’d give the proper one after successfully completing the next task. And then, as if there was nothing more to say, he drove Gapjae out.

Gapjae left shouting that he better give it after the next task is done. Of course, the hall master didn’t respond.

Surprisingly, a smile appeared on his face as he returned to his room.

He muttered that he got what he wanted.

It’s a technique of demanding something difficult, then accepting something easier.

And after returning to his room, he ate it and sat cross-legged. Then something from the elixir seeped into his body unusually quickly.

Looking at the body’s reaction, it wasn’t nutrients being absorbed. If it were, it should seep from the intestines into the body, but as soon as it entered, an unknown power seeped into his body.

The unexpected point was that the edges of the light that had been dark purple changed to white. The light grew.

So it covered that area.

Crack. Along with the sound of twisting, Gapjae’s body improved slightly.

Oh ho.

A medicine that affects light.

Yes. Right. This is a world with enough technical capability to summon me through targeting. But I’m surprised. Such technology.

As the light increased, the warmth increased slightly too.

That’s tempting.

I can increase the warmth more and take it. There’s a high chance these medicines don’t improve in effect just by taking more. If it could be solved simply by quantity, they could just make more, right? Since that’s not the case, each elixir must have its limits.

This world.

I thought since it was just like a wuxia novel world, the only technology worth getting would be the technique to summon me. But I need to explore this world more and gather lots of information.

While being careful not to break the world as much as possible.

Hehe.

Yes.

It’s truly a good night.

Eunchun and Byeongil are sleeping now, and Jeonyang is intoxicated with his newly gained power and sparring with Heavenly Demon.

The location is quite far from the building where he lives, in an isolated place.

There they spar while jumping around almost like flying through the air.

It’s fascinating.

When they swing swords, purple sword qi flies.

With strange footwork they instantly leap great distances, and when stamping the ground with their feet, exactly the same technique Byeongil used comes out.

As Jeonyang’s power grows, Heavenly Demon’s power looks even more amazing.

But there’s something strange.

Heavenly Demon’s movements and Jeonyang’s movements are different. Not movements that started from the same root, but completely different movements.

Come to think of it, they say the current Heavenly Demon can’t use the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique at all. That means he knows how to use different martial arts.

Though the term “Guihua Baodian” rises from the faded man’s memories, I left that out since it’s not certain.

I thought it was wuxia, but there are elements they call xianxia. Then it wouldn’t be strange if other things were mixed in too. We shouldn’t try to fit this world using knowledge that’s not from this world.

Heavenly Demon and Jeonyang sparred until just before sunrise.

Though I couldn’t see more since Jeonyang passed out, I still gained a lot of information.

It seems I can obtain many things from this world.

* * *

Morning.

The child who was moaning all night is sleeping with quiet breaths.

“I thought you were a monster, but you act like a human.”

While I was wondering what to do with her, suddenly a voice was heard.

Turning my gaze that way, Heavenly Demon who still looks like a cross-dressing man is standing there. Honestly it’s funny how different the attire is from what I saw through Jeonyang’s view at dawn.

“Is this child yours?”

If he thinks I’m human-like, I should make him feel that thought is correct. I’m thinking of trying to claim ownership of the child.

“That’s right. Everything in this Heavenly Demon Divine Cult is mine. What, do you pity that child?”

Here, lying about feeling pity would probably raise suspicion.

Rather than discovering a monster has human-like aspects, isn’t it more plausible that someone thought to be a monster actually had humanity?

“No. This one can’t even cook properly and doesn’t move well.”

Heavenly Demon leaned against the doorframe.

“For saying that, you’re keeping her quite preciously. And you have things I never gave you.”

Heavenly Demon pointed at the blanket covering the child. That’s true. But this isn’t very important.

Actually, Heavenly Demon isn’t thinking about it very seriously either.

“This child has warmth.”

I’m going to speak only truth.

Heavenly Demon stares at me.

“Imitating humans is disgusting. Is there something you want now?”

Imitating humans.

In other words, it means I appear human-like? Excellent.

Hehe.

Heavenly Demon. Then, I’ll be greedy.

“This is your possession so I’m cherishing it. May I keep it?”

At my words, Heavenly Demon first made an expression like “so that’s how it is,” then looked at me and the child with a questioning expression, before making a bitter smile.

“I’ll give her to you. Take her.”

“Wow, warmth!”

I didn’t say I needed human warmth.

Since he thought so himself, it will be harder to be suspicious in the future. A monster yearning for human warmth.

Do I appear that way?

Then it’s successful. Of course, given what’s happened until now, he’ll continue to look at me with suspicious eyes. But the level of suspicion should be much lower.

Moreover, I gained an easy-to-understand hostage.

Though this person doesn’t seem like he’d care about hostages, having one or not makes a big difference.

Doesn’t it make your heart much lighter to have means of control when needed?

“Ah, and I need food and warm blankets. The nameless child is suffering.”

With each of my words, Heavenly Demon’s gaze grows softer.

Though it’s concerning that his disgust is increasing oppositely, we can adjust that gradually.

Just then the child trembled and shook.

Then she slowly started to get up from her spot.

And after looking back and forth between me and Heavenly Demon, she was startled and tried to stand up but fell back down.

She still has no strength.

I caught her and laid her back down on the blanket. While I was patting the child, Heavenly Demon leaned against the pillar at the entrance asked me.

“What do you mean by nameless child?”

“She can’t speak.”

Heavenly Demon made a surprised expression. Seeing that, it seems he didn’t know the detailed situation.

Ah.

Seeing how the parasites have disappeared from the child’s body, this could be dangerous. There are still many events that need to happen for the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult to become chaotic.

Then, here’s my chance.

I should show what becoming a harvester means.

I grabbed the child and made her sit up.

And while looking at the child staring at me with her swollen face, I asked.

“I’ll give myself to you. In exchange, when you finish everything later, I’ll take everything you have then. How about it?”

I hear Heavenly Demon quietly saying “incantation.” Come to think of it, it is an incantation. An incantation to create a harvester.

The child hesitates. So I explained in an easy-to-understand way.

“If you want to become mine, nod.”

The child slowly nodded.

Yes.

Good.

I made the child into a harvester. Her skin changed like porcelain, then cracked as pure white skin emerged.

And when the outer skin that had been covering her disappeared into dust, a girl with purple hair sits there with a dumbfounded expression.

While covering the child with the blanket, I turned to look at Heavenly Demon. His eyes are opened very wide. Right. The meaning that it’s not just giving power, but can also heal – it’s hard to understand without experiencing it.

Now that you know what harvesters can do, use it well.

“This is limited to three people per day. And it can’t be used on the same person again. Be careful.”

Heavenly Demon nodded with a dark expression.

A satisfying morning.