Who Said A Mosquito Can't Cultivate?

As I asked that question to Yang Bailian…no wait, she wanted to be called White Lotus. Let me try that again. As I asked that question to White Lotus, the only response she gave me was that of silence. It was a type of silence that I knew very well. A silence that screamed out the words 'I don't have anything to do with it, so why do I have to help you out?'

Then again, that silent response would be the most expected response from her, seeing as I was the one who killed that guy who tried to have his way with her. To be honest, if I was a human, I would've definitely cleaned the corpse up already, hiding all traces of evidence as I make my way towards another part of this cultivation world. But since I'm a mosquito, it's inevitable that I'm going to have to ask some help from humans…unless I fight them in the wilderness, then I don't have any need for evidence hiding.

"Oi, White Lotus," I said through my proboscis, before continuing, "Did you hear me?"

"Mm, I did." White Lotus nodded in response to my question. She then said, "Why are you asking me about a problem that seems to be under your full responsibility though?"

"Well I'm a mosquito, I don't have any way to dispose of the dried up corpse," I replied after pondering for a bit. "I also wanted to know if you have any other ideas regarding the dried up corpse."

"Hmm…" Hearing my response, White Lotus closed her eyes as she pondered, rubbing her chin with two fingers for a short bit before pointing a finger upwards in slight elation. She then replied with a slightly happy tone, "How about you ignore the disposal of the corpse? Since you're a mosquito, the people that are connected to the corpse don't have any way to track you down…I think."

"That's what I was thinking actually," I answered back after hearing her suggestion. "But for some reason, I just have this hunch that if I don't dispose the corpse properly, greater troubles will befall me. You know what I'm talking about, right?"

"Well…" Just as White Lotus was about to deny giving me help by the looks of it, she went in a daze for a short bit as the first word she said was extended quite a bit. It took a while for her to continue her words, replying with, "Yeah. I know what you're talking about."

After that, she stood up and walked towards a certain portion of her house, grabbing what seemed to be a few seeds for planting, a fire starter, a small log of wood, and a bit of oil. She then turned around to look at me with all of those items on her hands, tilting her head with a smile as she said, "How about we go dispose of the corpse?"

"Sure." Even though I was not expecting her attitude to change all of a sudden, I agreed at the very instant she asked. Nonetheless, it made me quite suspicious, wondering as to what her reasons were for suddenly accepting my request to dispose of the corpse. And so, as we left her house with a few items in tow, I thought about why she decided to accept as we traveled towards where the dried corpse were. Fortunately, it was night, so we could rest easy that people wouldn't be able to see the items White Lotus was holding, almost all of them being in their homes around this time. Then again, in the off chance that one saw her at this time, they would just think that she was going to plant some seeds at night.

Surprisingly, even though we were heading towards where the dried corpse was, the corpse that was the man that was about to defile her body, she was happily skipping along the way, as if she had no memory of who that corpse was. The thought of her having a few screws loose slightly solidify in my mind, knowing very well that people would be walking slower than before rather than skipping along once they knew they were coming closer to the perpetrator that was about to defile their bodies.

Nevertheless, I did not look into it that much, focusing back on the reason as to why she suddenly accepted my request, taking around 20 minutes or so for us to arrive at the place.

"Ah, I see why." At the very moment we arrived at the place where the dried corpse was, it was then that all of the thoughts related to it clicked and converged into one, allowing me to easily come to the conclusion as to why she accepted. Unfortunately, I spoke without thinking, alerting White Lotus as she dropped the items she was holding near the dried corpse, looking back at me and asking, "What's wrong, Amaranth?"

"Ah. Nothing," I hastily replied, sighing in relief inwardly as I noticed that she just turned her head around to find where the noise came from. "You can continue what you were doing."

"Right." White Lotus nodded before turning her head back to look at the corpse, grabbing the oil she brought along before dousing one edge of the log of wood in it. After that, she positioned the fire starter just slightly above the doused portion of the log, making sure that the sparks made by the fire starter would light the oil on fire. After about three strikes or so, enough sparks fell onto the oil, hastily lighting up the log on fire.

She then stuck the log onto the ground, looking at the fire every so often to make sure that it did not go out. While looking at the fire, she looked for dried sticks, leaves, as well as slightly bigger pieces of wood that would allow the fire to spread. Oh…I think I know what she's doing.

After gathering enough flammable items, she poured it on top of the dried corpse, kicking the dried and decapitated head towards its torso as well as she made sure that every part of the corpse was covered in the flammable items she had obtained. Soon after that, she grabbed the oil she brought and splashed it on the dried corpse and flammable items here and there, before grabbing the lit log and throwing it, allowing the fire to hastily spread.

In an instant, the fire enveloped the corpse's body, gradually turning the layers of skin on the corpse's body into ash one by one. It only took around half a minute for the fire to go through all of the layers of skin, probably due to the fact that I might've s.u.c.k.e.d the water out of the man's body as well. Anyways, after the skin was the bone, and although I expected the fire to not burn the bones into ash, what I was seeing in front of me had been the exact opposite.

Fwoosh! Fwoosh! Crackle!

I know very well that bones are resistant to fire, but what is this? Are people in this world actually this weak wherein even their bones would turn to ash if they were burnt by fire? With this question in mind, I could not help but think about the two paths of cultivation in this world, especially the body cultivation path. I had some sort of epiphanous moment there while I was thinking about it, but I can't really put it into words.

Anyways, just like the corpse's skin, it took around half a minute for the fire to turn the bones into ash. Noticing this, White Lotus, who was looking at the fire with eyes filled with focus all this time, had changed her look towards the fire, her eyes now being filled with relief instead. With that, the conclusion I got to a while ago seemed to be correct. She thought that if she didn't leave the corpse, she would eventually be connected to the corpse, becoming accused of poisoning the person to death even thought she didn't do it. Then again, what kind of poison would siphon blood out of a person's body.

Hmm…maybe a poison like that exists in this cultivation world. I still have a lot to see.

Seeing as the corpse had been fully burnt, White Lotus went over and stepped over the small flames that remained, putting out the fire in about ten seconds or so. After that, she grabbed the seeds she brought before dropping it down on the ashes from the flammable items that were burned. Of course, the corpse's ashes was mixed in this as well.

After this, she turned to look at me and asked, "I've disposed the corpse successfully. Are you satisfied with it?"

"Very," I replied back, before saying, "And so, with that out of the way, we can now talk about plans regarding your escape from this village."

After hearing what I've said, her eyes, which were filled with relief a while ago, were now filled with elation. It's definitely because she knew that she was getting closer and closer to her dream of finally escaping from the shackles of her family. Hehehe. Wait until she sees what I have planned in store for her.

With a light smile on her face, she responded, "Let's talk about our plans back at my house. We don't want any of my parents' guards to know about this."

I shrugged inwardly, not caring whether we talk about it here or at her house. But since she wanted to talk about it in her house, I decided to just follow along, hovering beside her as we made our way back to her house in around 15 minutes. Was she intentionally getting faster and faster every time we moved? Or was it because of the excitement?

…

15 minutes have passed since White Lotus burned the corpse off the face of this world. With the door to her house firmly shut, she lit up a candle to light up the inside of the home quite a bit, before sitting on the chair near the window, looking outside every so often. As for me, I landed on the table in front of the chair she sat on and went silent for a bit, looking at the night sky as well.

"How beautiful," I can't help but mutter out. While looking out at the night sky, I can't help but think that I haven't taken some time off to relax my mind from what I'm doing. Ever since I was born, all I aimed for was to become stronger. Don't get me wrong, getting stronger is the goal I've set in this life of mine, but there's nothing wrong with relaxing every once in a while, right?

Nevertheless, I can't relax for too long. As I relax, there are beings out there who are assiduously cultivating, making sure that every second they live in their life ends up improving their combat power, allowing them to get closer and closer to the perk of immortality. After a couple of minutes or so, I faced away from the night sky, looking at White Lotus to say, "Alright, let's start talking about your plans to escape the village."

Hearing my words, White Lotus stopped looking at the night sky, turning her head around to look at me. She then nodded her head before asking, "What plans do you have in mind, Amaranth?"

"The plan I have in mind is related to the guards your parents have," I replied to her question. After that, a moment of silence occurred between the two of us before she broke the silence, asking in slight confusion, "Are you telling me you're going to kill my parents' guards?"

"Yes, I could do that," I replied, before adding, "But that's just unnecessary bloodshed, don't you think?"

"For a mosquito, you sure talk big," she could not help but say after hearing what I've said. Not long after that, she then asked one more time, "So? What about the guards?"

"Have you ever thought about drugging them? Putting them to quite a long sleep with drugs?" I asked her. At this point in time, her eyes lit up as she responded, "I got to say, that hasn't crossed my mind before. It's a way for me to escape the village without needing to kill anyone, which is what I'm aiming for."

She went silent for a bit as she pondered. It took a few seconds for her to come up with a question, asking me, "Are you implying that I should drug them at the very instant they bar me from leaving through the gates?"

"No, that's stupid," I answered her question, adding on, "Plus it's risky. After they know what you're holding, I'm sure you'll be restricted from ever setting foot out of this village until you marry your fiancee."

"So…where should I use it?" she asked with a hint of curiosity.

In response, I let out a hint of malevolent intent as I replied, "Of course, before they keep watch over the gate to prevent you from leaving. In other words, your parents' household. That's where they sleep, right?"

In response, White Lotus remained silent. I'm pretty sure she's contemplating the idea. Well then, let me make sure that she accepts.

"Not only that, you could drug your parents as well. With you just drugging the guards, there's still a chance that you'll be found out by your parents. You can easily resolve that by just drugging them as well. Well? What do you think?"

Hearing my next statement, her pupils slightly trembled before returning back to normal after a few seconds. She scratched her head quite a bit before slowly nodding.

"Okay then. Where do I start?"

"Oh how heartless you are," I could not help but mutter inwardly in slight disgust, seeing her approve my suggestion.