Chapter 125: Brother and Sister

The moment Ling Mo appeared, the young boy on the screen became visibly tense. Seeing that Vise was less than three meters away from him, his face turned deathly pale, and his hands began to tremble slightly. A thousand dark thoughts raced through his mind, leaving his expression flickering with uncertainty.

"Hi, it's me. Surprised?" Ling Mo greeted the boy with a smile. "Katos Windwhisper, we meet again."

"If you have a grievance, take it out on me. What kind of honor is there in targeting my daughter?" Katos, as Ling Mo called him, spoke in a grave tone. "If you still hold a grudge over what happened a dozen years ago, you are welcome to come find me!"

"Such high-sounding words, but you're hiding behind at least a hundred thousand troops. Do you expect a poor wretch like me to charge in alone?" Ling Mo’s voice carried a hint of mockery, though he did not dwell on the topic. Instead, he shifted focus: "Let’s leave it for now. The unfinished business with the Rift Sect and the Obedience Sect will be settled sooner or later, but not today. For now, you had better talk to your daughter."

Hearing this, Katos finally breathed a sigh of relief. No one understood the terrifying nature of the human-shaped monster before him better than he did. If a fight truly broke out at such close range, even if his daughter could be considered a Saint of Magic, she could hardly be guaranteed a hundred percent chance of survival. He turned his gaze to Vise and asked, "Vise, what happened? I still have two projects to finish!"

"At a time like this, you're still worried about those damn projects, Dad?" Vise blurted out, uncharacteristically using profanity. "Auntie followed the research team to investigate the World Tree, was attacked by the Obedience Sect’s 'Blue Brain,' and now she’s dead—she’s become an earthbound spirit!"

Vise quickly and concisely explained the current situation to her father, focusing on Misseya's state and the problems she faced. Upon hearing this, Katos fell into a long, heavy silence. His entire body trembled, and even through the screen, one could feel the repressed, volcanic rage building within him.

After a long while, Katos spoke in his clear, boyish voice: "The Obedience Sect... one day, I will root out those madmen entirely! But let’s put that aside for now. Vise, tell me, what do you need me to do?"

"Start by talking to Auntie. Give her hope, and keep her focused on you," Vise said, surrounding herself with a distortion of psychic energy that confined her voice to a one-meter radius, preventing Misseya from hearing. "Dad, you know Auntie is in love with you, right? Don't be coy at a critical moment like this. Reciprocate her feelings, tell her you love her, and keep her steady with your words. Then, use hyper-spatial teleportation to come over. Let her possess you and become your 'guardian spirit.' We can figure out the rest later. Do you understand?"

Katos blinked his wide, limpid eyes, staring at Vise for a long moment before asking in shock, "What? Misseya loves me? Since when? How did I not know this?"

"..." Vise had been about to explain further details, but she was so stunned by his question that she rolled her eyes in exasperation. After a long pause, she roared, "By Aeon! Dear Father! Is there anything in that brain of yours besides those damn projects?! Even a fool could see how Auntie felt about you! Have you really been avoiding her feelings all these years, or did you honestly never even notice?!"

Stunned by his daughter's sudden outburst, Katos stammered weakly, "But Misseya has been like that since she was a child. I just assumed it was normal sibling affection; I never even considered..."

"Dad, I’ve finally realized what a patient person Auntie is. If I were in her shoes and had a father as thick-headed as you, I would have already chopped you into sixty-four pieces!" Vise snapped. "We'll talk about this later. Right now, you must reciprocate her feelings. Tell her you love her, even if you’re lying, do you understand?"

Seeing Katos give a slow nod, Vise smiled with relief. She waved to Misseya, who was nervously tidying her appearance not far away, and said, "Auntie, Auntie, Dad wants to talk to you!"

Misseya took a deep breath and slowly stepped toward the screen, keeping her head slightly bowed, not daring to meet Katos’s eyes. Katos studied her carefully for a long moment before sighing softly. "Misseya... so you really have become a spirit."

"Yes, it’s thanks to the Starry Secret Arts you taught me, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to see you one last time," Misseya said, sounding bashful. She didn't seem sad about her transformation, only embarrassed. "I feel like I’ve become uglier since turning into a spirit. Brother, don't stare at me."

Katos was speechless. To be honest, he couldn't see any change at all, so he changed the subject: "Now that you're a spirit, how does it feel compared to when you were alive?"

"Different?" Misseya frowned, clearly thinking hard. "Well... first, the sensory changes. I don't actually have a sense of hearing, taste, smell, or touch anymore. Even my vision is subtly different from before. The strangest thing is that even though I know I’ve lost those 'senses' and am perceiving the world through some other method I can't yet understand, my heart doesn't feel it’s strange at all, as if it were always meant to be this way."

"Is this a displacement of the fundamental sensory units..." Katos pondered seriously. "If this is happening, could it be that the basic structure of your world perception has been replaced, leading to a shift in your thought process? Aside from that, what else is different?"

"Also... the biggest difference is likely the change in my worldview," Misseya answered more quickly this time. "From my perspective, Mr. Ling here has a soul I cannot understand at all, while Vise’s soul looks like a giant cloud. Miss Catherine’s soul strength is much lower; it’s just a small cloud. But regardless of whose soul I look at, I have an urge to pounce on them and consume them. When I first woke up, this urge wasn't very obvious, but now I have to force myself to suppress it. The scariest part is that, in my current state, I don't think consuming other souls is evil. Talking about it feels more like discussing what to eat for the next meal, just like we used to do with colleagues."

"Not just the sensory units, but even the basic logical units have been completely distorted?" Katos muttered to himself, fully immersed in the subject. He began again: "Then, try this experiment. First..."

"Ahem! Dad! Is now really the time for this?"

His train of thought was interrupted. Seeing the conversation veering toward a serious academic discussion, Vise coughed loudly and complained with dissatisfaction, snapping Katos out of his trance. An awkward look crossed his face. "Old habits. After all, a ghost that is completely lucid and capable of pure logical communication is extremely rare. I just lost myself for a moment..."

Misseya, however, was completely indifferent. She looked up and said to Vise, "It's alright, Vise. Don't blame your father. As long as I can help Brother, I'm very happy... Oh!"

As Misseya looked up, the image of Katos on the screen caught her eye. She gasped and walked quickly to the light screen, reaching out a hand to stroke his holographic form, her face full of heartache.

"Brother! Why has your waistline shrunk by another zero-point-seven centimeters?"

"Oh, your cheeks are sunken by zero-point-one centimeters too. Brother, have you been staying up late again? Or have you been living in the project lab and not eating properly?!"

"I've told you so many times, the experiments will never end, just set them aside for a while. If you don't take care of yourself, how am I supposed to answer to your wife..."

"Ah, your arms are also thinner by zero-point-three centimeters. Brother, you're being too much lately! Don't you know that I... that we would be so worried?"

"Your goal for the next stage is to gain three point five pounds. You are not allowed to do any more experiments until you reach that goal!"

"If your team leader comes to the house to call you, I’ll chase him out with a broom!"

"Brother, are you daydreaming? Don't think you can use that trick to brush me off!"

"Hey! Brother! Are you listening?"