Cultivating in Honkai!

Chapter 416: Irresponsible Teacher

Before leaving the Cave Heaven, I did a swift divination. The bronze coin in my hand flipped over midair seven times. Once it landed, it showed several sides of the coin, amounting to 11. It represented harmony amongst others. Looks like their talks would result in a good outcome.

The sound of robes fluttering came from behind. I looked back and saw Griseo. Unlike the mature form I am familiar with, she looked like a child. Her pure-white dress reached up to her ankles as its rustling came to a halt. Several blue flowers could be seen across her dress. Her dark blue beret hung limply atop her head. Her dark purple pupils stared silently at me.

“...It is our first time meeting each other… Little Griseo.”

“Hm. The world became more colorful when you arrived.” She paused as her special eyes saw through all sorts of ‘colors’. “You are like an abstract painting that has everyone’s colors… a true .”

The Griseo in front of me is not the Griseo I knew—the one I accepted as my student. She is the Griseo who hasn’t experienced reliving the same day for thousands of years. Gone is the part of her that ‘broke’ during that torment… at least temporarily.

“Can I ask you for a favor, Big Brother?”

“Yes?”

“I want to paint you.”

*****

Immortal cultivation seeks to affirm one’s mental state over and over again. Mistakes and wrongdoings that do not conform to one’s true self would continue to become detrimental to oneself, birthing heart demons and the likes. Surpassing them grants a stronger mental state; their progress on immortal cultivation going further. Otherwise, it becomes the maggot gnawing away at their life.

Such was what happened with Mei. She only found meaning in life Shi Tian brought her back from near-death. His validations became her comfort. From thereon, Mei reforged a stronger mental state, all but with the highest priority of obtaining Shi Tian’s praises. She did not become independent; she went all out and tied her life straight to his!

Griseo had it differently. Her obsessions stemmed from her mental state caused by Sa’s ‘Eternal Samsara’. It could no longer be described as ‘deteriorating’ due to its severity. Seeing Shi Tian’s nature was akin to light in the darkness. It was something that could never be found in the universe. Nobody could have the same nature as him.

He was a masterpiece in Griseo’s eyes. A person, no matter how much she paints, could never be mimicked. The moment she met him, she wished to have him for herself. To have Shi Tian serve as her model all day long. To talk with him about trivial things. To know more about him. Only then could she understand the unique colors he brought to this world.

In terms of instability, she surpassed Mei by a large margin. Griseo seemed to be the quiet one between the two, but her actions suggest otherwise. For once, she was the one who snooped around the private matters between Shi Tian’s wives. Griseo discovered the ‘Nine Yin Sealing Talisman’ used to nurture one’s innate yin. She also knew that it was the item that pushed Shi Tian into confirming Bronya’s position as his wife!

All it took was a simple leakage to provoke Mei into taking action. She went off and asked Sirin about it, leading to the physical confrontation between the two Mei’s.

Griseo herself how her current state was, yet she cannot do much about it. Her restless mind could only calm down once she thought of Shi Tian.

Things would have been fine if she hadn’t met him. Griseo would have eventually fixed herself over time. That was what happened in the original timeline. Shi Tian is a “bug” that prevented her from doing so… which was why she chose another way.

Griseo barely succeeded in her breakthrough in the Void Refinement Realm. She consumed numerous spiritual materials to surpass her Heart Demon Tribulation. Compared to the rest, Griseo had the worst performance.

Hence, after she reached this realm, she “shed” the version of herself that experienced the ‘Eternal Samsara’. She placed a seal on her soul, reverting her mind back to the time she was in the Previous Era. Atop that, Griseo used her ability to become ‘others’ by understanding their ‘colors’. Only, she transformed into her ‘younger self’.

Over the past decades, Griseo lived with curiosity and innocence. When she came across Fu Hua, it felt as if she hadn’t changed one bit since Griseo left Earth. These experiences gradually mended her broken mental state. Nonetheless, she could not recover. The one who was responsible for it was none other than Shi Tian.

“..”

From the moment Shi Tian made a ‘move’, all sorts of alarms and pre-arranged surveillance artifacts came to life. Though puzzled, Griseo tracked down the presence responsible for her “forgotten” self’s arrangements, leading her right back to Shi Tian.

Her reaction towards his nature remained unchanged. Griseo was captivated by the ‘color’ Shi Tian gave off. It was akin to the Sun high up in the sky. Its brilliance was blinding enough for the eyes to begin hurting. Hence she did not hesitate to ask whether he could be a model.

‘Big Brother is very easy to talk to…’

After giving a few nods of approval, Griseo resumed her work. She looked at the man beyond the canvas. He looked utterly serious, not moving even an inch. Days passed before it turned into a week.

Aside from posing as a model, he answered Griseo’s questions every now and then. Her questions were rather simple; things like “where do you live?”, “what’s your favorite food?”, “what’s your favorite hobby?”, and so on.

‘No wonder she pushed through with it.’

At this point, Shi Tian had realized what had happened to Griseo. It wasn’t exactly a secret as he had heard about it from Kiana.

‘I am an irresponsible teacher.’

Her situation was worse than Mei’s. Griseo was made to experience the same day in an endless loop for at least a thousand years. Seele’s experience back in the Sea of Quanta could not compare with it. At least, she had “Shi Tian” to help her over and over again; Griseo had none.

As a teacher, he had failed to help his students’ plight.

‘Why did I even take up…’ He sighed inwardly. ‘This is no time for regrets. I need to help her with the final push, too…’