Ears used this chance to take care of the spirit beast. He nimbly avoided the razor-sharp claws of the beast as he aimed to slice the lotus off of the beast's head. It seemed as if the rabbit could sense his intentions and grew desperate. The giant beast screamed with enough force to knock Ears into the air before he could slice the strange plant off with his daggers. The others caught the Vice Commander before he fell and the rabbit was getting back up!
"d.a.m.n this thing just won't stay down!"
"It's bleeding like a b.i.t.c.h but it's still just as strong as before!"
"Aim for the flower you stupid b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! The flower on its G.o.d d.a.m.n head!" Ears yelled.
Wenling leapt up high and dove down with her glaive to separate the flower from the beast's head. It bared its teeth and readied itself to bite the Commander once she gets close enough. Zihao used his new lightning sword and shoved it deep into the neck of the mutant beast. Although it was completely by luck, he managed to wedge his blade into the spine and completely lock its head in place. This allowed Wenling to cut off the lotus attached to the head of the rabbit.
Red fluid squirted out of the stem and splattered all over Wenling's chest but this didn't bother her. She raised the flower up high in a stance of victory! The battle was over and no more lives needed to be lost!
"h.e.l.l yeah!!!"
"f.u.c.k you stupid rabbit!" He was repeatedly kicking the dead beast in its side.
"About d.a.m.n time..."
"Hey Commander why is that thing still moving?" Someone pointed out.
"What are you---" The lotus in the Commander's hand started to rapidly grow in length.
Wenling tried to throw the spirit herb away but it was clingy. It covered her in its roots and tried to reach her head with its main stem which was the thickest. Jing used this chance to partic.i.p.ate in the event. So far, she's done really nothing but watch as she was acting as if she was still tired from creating the barrier. But with this, she could say that she's done something.
Jing actually was quite interested in the parasitic plant. This could be an easy way of gaining 100% loyal followers if she could find out a good way of growing them and after refining them with SCP-914, she would have those infected with the plant to completely follow her commands. Maybe she would even be rewarded with more tickets like what happened with Hu Tao. It was a thought worth exploring.
Jing clumsily and desperately rushed over to Wenling and pushed her out of the way, freeing her from the grasp of the plant but also allowing the plant to latch onto her own head.
"Jing no!" Wenling cried out. "Why did you try to help me?!"
Jing didn't hear her. She wasn't in the Treasured Plains anymore and was back in that place from before. The same place where she was taken when she refined herself. The black s.p.a.ce with the white sphere that felt linked to her. If she tried harming it or affecting it, it would have the same result to herself. Of course, that was just Jing's gut feeling talking and not something she knew for sure.
She was naked again just like last time but that wasn't the important thing here. It was the nasty foul presence above her that didn't belong here. She looked up and met eyes with the parasitic lifeform that wanted to take over her being. Jing was slightly surprised looking at the figure. It was like she was looking right at herself!
It had her exact same face and body but with a few extra parts. There was the beautiful light blue lotus attached to its head and several lotus petals floating around it. The qi leaking from the copy was strong and seemed to get even stronger the longer it stayed here. It looks like it didn't even need to attach with that strange orb over there to strengthen itself. It smirked at her.
"You don't truly believe you can take over my mind, do you?" Jing asked, amused.
The flower continued to grow in strength while smiling at Jing. It was trying to pressure her with its ever-increasing qi. The qi that was being sucked straight from Jing's dantian. It was laughable that it believed that taking her qi was going to help it at all. By inviting itself to this realm only hastened its death. If they were back in the physical world, Jing would have to restrain her power and techniques but here, there were no witnesses at all.
"You've doomed yourself once you stepped foot in here." Jing told it. The qi she kept restrained within herself was no longer held back.
She unleashed the deep and unstoppable qi onto the plant in full force with a mocking laugh. The doppelganger's face changed in an instant as it was launched flying into the air. It tried resisting with the qi its stolen from Jing but it was useless. What it took from her was nothing more than a drip from the bottomless well that was Jing. Its face was now morphed into a confused and horrified scowl.
It needed to run. It needed to flee if it wanted to survive. This host wasn't a good host! It would be killed if it stayed here any longer to try and take over this host! The lotus quickly flew towards the top of this black s.p.a.ce. It knew there was an exit there because it entered from the same place! It would have to try and take hold of a different host! A host that isn't a freaky as this one!
But how could Jing allow it to escape when she still had a use for it? A giant blue being appeared in front of the flower. It had feminine features, no definable face, and was completely transparent. The being swiped the copy out of the air and brought it inside its chest. It kind of reminded Jing of herself when she was refining...
'Could this creature actually be SCP-914!? The subconscious that aids me in refining objects I have no knowledge of?' Jing wondered.
It was a very high chance of it being so. But if SCP-914 is here then where is SCP-222? If there was a representation of this SCP then there had to be another for the other one. Jing looked around for anything else inside this other world but couldn't find anything. Even with her superior senses, she couldn't find it. Maybe it was because SCP-222 was a physical object on a different level than SCP-914. It was hypothesized that the refining machine could have been secretly run by a being on a higher level of existence from humans. Like some sort of Divine Blacksmith.
Jing locked eyes with the giant as it took out the refined parasite and pushed it out of the exit of this place. That was also when Jing found herself back with the Wolfeng Gang. She shot up and immediately looked around. Li Li cried out in relief and rubbed him face on her face. Wenling was next to her and the other were eating around a campfire, joking around. Ears noticed her awakening and started walking towards them.
"Looks like you're finally awake my protégé." Wenling smiled with relief as well. It seems she was allowing her to rest on her thighs this entire time.
"What happened...?" Jing asked while comforting Li Li with plenty of rubs and petting.
"After you saved me from that plant, it attached itself to your head instead. Then you just fell unconscious and been out ever since." She told her.
"I didn't hurt anyone did I?" Jing said worriedly.
She chuckled in amus.e.m.e.nt before saying, "No. You didn't hurt anyone sweetie. Like I said before you just fell unconscious and we couldn't get rid of that flower on your head no matter what we did."
"Even Zihan's stellar-ranked spirit weapon couldn't remove it from you," Ears spoke as he arrived. "Here's some meat from that b.a.s.t.a.r.d from earlier. Whatever that thing on your head did to it made its body much better." Ear handed her a stick with a cooked part of the rabbit's meat stuck at the end.
"Its meat is good for strengthening the body, enhancing your qi, and it tastes good as well." Wenling explained.
"Only those from wealthy clans can eat spirit beasts that give benefits as good as this." Ears added.
"Thank you!" Jing bowed her head towards Ears and grabbed the stick.
The lotus flower attached to her head shot out and latched onto Ear's head, quickly drilling into his brain with its tendrils and becoming one with him. Jing visibly panicked and screamed at what was happening while Wenling reached out as fast as she could to try and pull it out of his head. But she was too slow even with her speed. It was the perfect timing as no one could have expected this. One would think it would attach itself to Li Li or Wenling due to their close proximity with Jing but no, it grabbed Ears.
Ear's body was visibly transforming at a rapid rate. The muscles on his body were enlarging, his eyes were turning red, the qi within his dantian was expanding, and his regular qi was transforming into a different type of qi! He grabbed his head while clenching his teeth in pain. By the end of his transformation, his power was raised to a completely new height as he broke past the barrier of the 8th stage and entered straight into the 9th stage along with gaining a pretty little lotus resting on top of his head.
