When You Die You Become A Star

There was the sound of someone entering the room so Ye Qing spread out her spiritual sense again. Two of the giants walked up to one of the babies laying down. They seemed to be discussing something before one of the giants picked the baby up. The way the giant interacted with the baby made it seem like they held affection for him or her--it was impossible to tell its s.e.x through her spiritual senses unless she focused on it. The two left afterwards with the baby so Ye Qing withdrew her spirit once again.

{It seems like the babies are only held here temporarily. I wonder if they'll be moving me soon.}

That was the only baby between Ye Qing and one of the places that had a hole leading to the energy. Now was the perfect time to act. These giants could overpower her because she had lost her strength but the old her would have been able to crush them with ease. She needed to get that strength back and she needed to do it fast.

Ye Qing used her spiritual energy to slowly create a path for the energy to move from the wall to the space above her box. In order to convert the energy into qi, she created a complex spiritual formation that would purify the energy and allow her body to absorb it.

As the purified energy entered her body she could begin to feel the familiar flow of qi circling through her body and collecting in her belly. There was such an abundance of energy that Ye Qing began to pull more and more of it; unlike the energy stones she had gotten used to using, Ye Qing couldn't see an end to the energy flowing through the walls. The qi in her dantian was already reaching the first major breakthrough and she felt that familiar feeling of it hardening, a sign that she would be forming her first core soon.

The lights began to dim and suddenly the energy cut out. The last remaining energy couldn't be controlled by Ye Qing as it thrashed around before exploding out. The shock of the blast caused the box that Ye Qing was in to overturn and everything between her and the energy source was scorched by small bolts of this lightning-esque energy.

Qi helped to augment the body's strength and defense in its earlier stages so Ye Qing wasn't injured by the fall even if the tumbling made her become dizzy. The blast itself caused her to lose around three percent of her spiritual energy but it was well worth it. Ye Qing could feel the first core revolving in her dantian and with it she could feel a small trace of qi in the surroundings. The heavens had not abandoned her. Even in a weird place like this she could still power up.

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Tatyana greeted her father as he entered the dining room. "Good evening, Dad. How was work?" Her relationship with her father felt more like one between an employer and their employee at times. It wasn't always this way; when she was younger he would actually dote on her.

"Not bad. The business is doing fine. What about you? Have you finished your homework yet?" Tatyana nodded and the normal part of their conversation came to an end. If her mother was the last family member to enter the dining room then they would have a short conversation much like the one they just had before sitting in silence.

This time, Tatyana was determined to continue the conversation before he got a chance to open up his newspaper. "Talking about schoolwork, the final exams are coming up." With the trap placed, Tatyana waited for her father's response.

"Only a couple more months and you'll be graduating." He held his chin while thinking about something.

"Right. My friends decided that since they would be busy with studying next month that it would be a good idea to spend the night at one of their homes. I was wondering if you would allow me to go with them." As long as he asked about it then she knew what her response would be.

"When will it be?" His attention was completely on Tatyana now.

"It's a bit sudden but they decided on having it today. It's the one day of the month that everybody is available." That was not entirely correct but it was close enough to the truth that Tatyana didn't feel like she was lying.

"That's more than sudden. Have you talked to your mother about this?"

"Yes. When I was helping Mom with work we talked about it. She gave me permission which is why I'm asking you." Tatyana got up and walked around the table with her phone. "They were the girls that you saw me with when you picked me up last month for my birthday. Remember them?"

Yuri held his daughter's phone to get a better look at her friends. "I didn't get a good look at them at that time but I recognize this girl. Her father is on the board of directors at the company. I think that he said that her name is Abby."

Tatyana was excited to hear that her father knew one of the girls. That would make it much easier to convince him. "Her name is Abigail Goldstein. She's one of the smartest girls in the entire school. The teachers say that she's pretty much guaranteed to get a full scholarship to MIT since she got perfect scores for both the Math and Reading practice SATs."

Yuri thought about something before slowly turning to Tatyana. "If I remember correctly, he told me that he didn't know what to do because his daughter had picked up smoking and started becoming rebellious."

RED ALERT! RED ALERT! Quick, find some way to salvage this situation! A light bulb suddenly flashed above Tatyana's head. "She started smoking because she was bullied back in middle school but we've been trying to get her to quit. Did he mention that she started taking nicotine patches recently?" Tatyana didn't mention that it was temporary but she wasn't lying.

"I'll have to ask him about that." Yuri looked over and saw Natasha entering the dining room. Whatever conversation they had would have to wait until after dinner.

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The food was simple. Salisbury steaks with mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, and gravy. It didn't really suit Yuri's palate but both he and Natasha came from humble beginnings so he learned from a young age to not care much about taste. As long as his wife and daughter liked it then it was fine with him.

Yuri called up his business associate after to confirm what Tatyana said about his business associate's daughter. After the call he realized that Tatyana was telling the truth. The man's daughter hadn't touched cigarettes all week long and the man expressed how happy he was to hear that his boss's daughter was a good friend of hers.

"Hey, Dad? About what we were talking about earlier. I was just thinking that since your anniversary with mom is coming up next week you could go out to dinner with just the two of you tomorrow. If I can stay until tomorrow night then you can pick me up afterwards." It seemed like Tatyana really wanted to go. He had always been strict with her because that's the way that he was raised but she never caused any trouble and where they lived was much nicer than where he was from. Her friends seemed like nice people so there was no real reason to say no to her.

"Alright. You can go as long as your mother actually said yes. Do you need a ride over there?" She was technically an a.d.u.l.t now so she didn't legally need his permission. Perhaps he was too protective of her if she looked so happy from just being able to stay at a friend's house.