Anxing frowned slightly at this. She knew Luo Shuangyue and Zheng weren’t exactly passionate about their world-destroying plan.
If they split up for half a day, that was fine, but if they were apart for a long time, would these two kin really not just run away?
“Don’t look at me like that! You make it sound like I’m some sort of promise-breaking villain. I’m literally asking if you have a way to know where I am, aren’t I?”
Getting stared at like this by Anxing, Luo Shuangyue immediately showed her displeasure.
She was asking Anxing to figure out a way to track her location—if Anxing couldn’t, how was that her fault?
“Yes. As long as I have a certain amount of your Demonic Energy, I can track your position.” Anxing nodded, pointing at Luo Shuangyue’s blackened right hand.
“Just give me your right hand.”
Only monsters could be so casual about hands like this.
Among humans, wouldn’t “leave your hand behind if you want to leave” basically mean you’re not coming back?
But Luo Shuangyue didn’t mind handing over this almost-useless hand to Anxing as a signpost.
For now, she only had some mischievous ideas—if she ever decided to act on them, that would take time and preparation.
During this period of gathering strength, she didn’t mind acting like a trustworthy collaborator.
Grabbing her right wrist with her left hand, Luo Shuangyue snapped her right hand off as if it were nothing, and handed it to Anxing.
“Just point us in the right direction. You go ahead, and we’ll catch up at our own pace.”
“I’ll be heading this way. I hope you won’t deceive me or break your promise.” Anxing pointed in a direction, giving Luo Shuangyue a meaningful look.
With Luo Shuangyue’s magic in her hand, Anxing could track her location.
The moment Luo Shuangyue even thought about running, she could swoop back and drag her off.
“Relax, I just want to slack off a bit, not run away.” Luo Shuangyue raised both hands, laughing twice.
“I hope so.” Anxing stuffed Luo Shuangyue’s hand into her chest and flew off toward the distance.
Before long, she vanished beyond the horizon.
Don’t be fooled by her clean departure; Luo Shuangyue guessed Anxing would be lingering nearby for the first few days.
If she tried to run, Anxing would come back and finish off this turncoat in no time.
“But honestly, I never planned to run.” Luo Shuangyue giggled.
She just had some things to do, some suspicions to verify.
And these things weren’t suitable to do with Anxing watching.
“Xiaozi, come here, let your big sister have a sip.” First, she needed to take a little blood from her well-fed little lamb.
These past few days, Xiaozi had been diligently absorbing Demonic Energy from the air to strengthen herself.
Plus, she’d eaten some scraps at Zheng’s birth site not long ago, so she wasn’t lacking in Demonic Energy.
She still hadn’t returned to her peak state, but she was far better off than when Luo Shuangyue first drained her half-dead.
Now, she could offer Luo Shuangyue a lot more magic.
“By the way, is shrinking down more energy-efficient?” Holding Xiaozi in her arms, Luo Shuangyue called out Little Butterfly, watching as Little Butterfly bit Xiaozi’s neck while pondering this question.
Little Butterfly confirmed it: shrinking the body does save some energy, but compared to a larger body, the stats of a small body aren’t as good.
This was something ingrained in monsters’ instincts, so even Little Butterfly could answer.
Luo Shuangyue then consulted the veteran Demon Emperor, Phantom Thorn, who gave her the same answer.
But Phantom Thorn also told Luo Shuangyue something else: a body can’t be shrunken without limit.
The total Demonic Energy a monster has is proportional to its optimal body size. Too big or too small, and the magic needed to maintain the body increases.
For example, Royal-class monsters are gigantic, and shrinking to human size takes extra Demonic Energy.
“So by monster logic, shouldn’t a Demon Emperor like Anxing show up in her real form?”
“All the knowledge I know is about monsters from our world; I have no idea what the monsters of this world are like.” Sitting cross-legged on her Thorn Chair, Phantom Thorn rested her chin in her hand.
Monsters from the two worlds were like entirely different species—there was no such thing as a monster born in human form in Luo Shuangyue’s old world.
“In fact, the form a monster takes at birth is its optimal size. When I was born, I looked like this, but I quickly realized that if I stayed that way, I’d die with no grave left behind.”
Phantom Thorn snapped her fingers, and a phantom of a plant Demon Emperor larger than a skyscraper appeared before Luo Shuangyue.
That was Phantom Thorn’s form at birth.
The moment she was born, several Full Bloom-Class Magical Girls were waiting at her door for a fight, all going all out.
Phantom Thorn wasn’t too clever back then, but she knew if things kept up she’d be finished, so she used her plant-Demon Emperor powers to slice off a bit of her Original Magic Power and sent it deep underground.
The body on the surface continued to fight desperately against the Magical Girls, and in the end, a joint strike purified her completely.
The battle was so intense that nobody thought the Demon Emperor was throwing the fight.
While everyone was celebrating their victory, Phantom Thorn’s bit of Original Magic Power escaped in the magical chaos after her main body died.
After that, Phantom Thorn lay low, slowly recovered in human society, and built her own organization.
To blend in, she stopped using her gigantic true form and used a human-like disguise instead.
That body actually used more energy than her huge original form.
“But monsters in this world have human-like bodies as their real form. Maintaining this form is their best choice.”
“As for you… Honestly, I don’t really know what you are.”
For ordinary monsters, Phantom Thorn could easily give an answer, but Luo Shuangyue was another story.
She still had no idea what Luo Shuangyue truly was. She only knew Luo Shuangyue should count as a monster, but was different from the rest.
“If you want to try, go ahead. This kind of minor body change barely costs any energy.” Phantom Thorn felt Luo Shuangyue could experiment a few more times—maybe she’d find an even more energy-efficient form.
“Oh, then I’ll give it a try!”
Her consciousness surfaced, and Little Butterfly was still slowly absorbing Xiaozi’s energy.
Now that she wasn’t so hungry, the little creature was a lot more graceful.
Luo Shuangyue and Phantom Thorn had been talking for ages, but Little Butterfly had only managed to drain half of Xiaozi’s energy.
…Huh?
Wait a minute, why is my perspective lower than before?
Sensing Luo Shuangyue’s awareness had returned, Little Butterfly let go of Xiaozi’s neck and proudly announced that she had already adjusted the body to its most energy-saving state.
Compared to when she was a regular human who knew nothing about monsters, Little Butterfly knew much more.
At the very least, she stored all the instinctive monster knowledge. The moment Luo Shuangyue thought of altering her body, Little Butterfly had quietly helped her.
Cutting costs is just part of saving energy—reducing the body’s upkeep is one way to do that.
Little Butterfly wholeheartedly agreed with Luo Shuangyue’s idea of shrinking her body and immediately did it first, asking permission later.
“Oh no, I’ve turned into a loli!” Once she regained control, Luo Shuangyue compared her height to Xiaozi’s and let out a lament, clutching her forehead.
Before, Xiaozi had regressed to the appearance of a seven- or eight-year-old due to lack of energy, and now Luo Shuangyue was only a head taller—about the age of an eleven- or twelve-year-old girl.
After shrinking, even her clothes changed.
The elegant Underworld Butterfly dress was gone, replaced by a strip of black cloth like Xiaozi’s.
If Little Butterfly didn’t know Luo Shuangyue had a sense of shame, she probably wouldn’t have left even the black cloth.
Clothes, after all, were unnecessary—a waste of energy.
Nothing else really changed. Luo Shuangyue adapted quickly to her smaller body.
And to be honest, now that she’d shrunk, her Demonic Energy consumption had definitely dropped.
Her old form really was pretty inefficient.
“Smaller, but cute.” The trio’s only big sister, Zheng, came over and poked Luo Shuangyue’s cheek, clear delight shining in her eyes.
She thought she really liked Luo Shuangyue like this.
Though she still couldn’t remember much, as soon as she saw Luo Shuangyue, two words popped into her mind.
“Cute.”
So cute.
She even wanted to scoop up Luo Shuangyue and hug her tight.
But in the end, she resisted that bold idea, because some voice in her head told her that wasn’t a good thing to do.