3 Itachi and Jasmine

Itachi walked outside the clan compound after the treatment. It was moon-lit night, Itachi stared at the sky full of stars with a slightly pensive expression on his face. The night sky was full of stars, blinking like a glittering blanket over the silent earth.

After a few of moments of patiently waiting, Itachi relaxed and sat down on the grass while he reminisced about the incident that happened while he was opening Xia Qingyue's profound entrances, although it was just for a minuscule moment but he could still remember the feeling. It was like he wasn't seeing Xiao Che's memories in the third person perspective anymore, like he wasn't just an observer….in fact it felt like he was actually going through that pain. Everything that Yun Che felt, he could feel too.

Itachi shivered as he thought of the implications this fact entailed. He wasn't just watching Xiao Che's memories any more….No! He was experiencing them, his emotions were being overlapped with Yun Che's, like they were trying to balance each other out.

Itachi sighed while he pensively recalled what Yun Che's soul told him just before his parting from that soul dimension.

Itachi's mouth whispered the words he was told by Yun Che, "You are not just you any longer….you are me and I am you"

Does that mean that in time, Yun Che's memories will start fusing with my own. But, that would mean I won't be Yun Che or Itachi…. I will become an entirely different person!!

Itachi chuckled, there was no point thinking about this now. Even if it was true, there wasn't much he could do to change that fact.

Eh!, Itachi clutched his hand as the sky poison pearl in his left hand starting throbbing. He stood up instantly while trying to feel the sensation the Sky Poison Pearl was providing, he ran towards the towards Xiao clan wall in the back mountains. Itachi did not hesitate and directly climbed over the wall.

The mountain area was quiet and somber, the moon in the sky was still hanging up high and the countless stars there were also not that dim. Itachi went in the direction the Sky Poison Pearl was pointing toward.

Star Concealing Grass

Itachi quietly arrived at the location of the treasure that the Sky Poison Pearl was pointing towards. He crouched near the star concealing grass, as he plucked all the available grasses found in the plain. Although, he had many ways to disguise himself, even so, it was helpful to have multiple escape routes especially since he didn't know the effectiveness and efficiency his chakra provided him.

After storing all the available star concealing grass in the Sky Poison Pearl Itachi vaguely glanced around him.

Just 50-metres ahead of him he could see the silhouette of a white clothed person, lying in the middle of nowhere obscured in haziness.

There she is …..Jasmine…the Heavenly Slaughter Star God….Yun Che's master and someone who had a special place in his heart.

Itachi cautiously approached Jasmine, who was lying at the same place as last time. As he closed in on her, Itachi suddenly felt a strange sensation coming from under his robes, when he took a look at the cause of it, the Mirror Of Samsara which had remained dormant since his awakening was throbbing, while giving off the same silvery-white radiance.

Itachi was instantly on alert, as he was probably the only person who truly understood the true power of this supreme attribute Heavenly Profound Treasures, the Mirror Of Samsara continued to give off that strange glow of light as it suddenly separated itself from where it was tied around Itachi's neck. Itachi didn't try to stop it, since it would have been useless anyways. Although, Mirror Of Samsara had acknowledged Itachi as his master, Itachi couldn't command it to do anything. Hell, he didn't even understand what it was. The only person to probably understand the machinations of Mirror Of Samsara, would have been…Yun Che.

The Mirror Of Samsara went towards the white silhouette as it's silvery light instantly illuminated the darkness cast over the red-haired girl lying in the middle of the pitch black wasteland.

Itachi stepped forward towards Jasmine while keeping an eye on the flashing Mirror Of Samsara hanging directly above the red-haired girl, as he squatted near her he could sense the devastating poison in her veins. Jasmine was just as beautiful and young as he remembered her to be. Her face didn't contain any sort of blemish, her body although undeveloped could still cause tremble in the hearts of mortals and immortals alike. But, contrary to her beauty, the feeling she gave was ice cold like the darkest night of winter. Her legs had hints of bruises as black miasma overflowed thrashed around them.

The absolute god slaying poison

Looking at Jasmine in this state, Itachi was suddenly overcome with a sense of terrible rage. His eyes transformed into the Mangekyo Sharingan while he went into a daze. He could hear a faint whisper in the back of his mind as it gradually became clearer...jas..as mi..mi…mine…le..t…me…

The Mirror Of Samsara came down to hover above Jasmine at his level. It suddenly began pouring a silvery-white radiance over Jasmine's body as the black miasma constantly retreated towards her back. Slowly, Jasmine's spirit became rejuvenated as her complexion gradually became better.

Itachi's sudden rage went away as quickly as it came. While he came out of his dazed state, Itachi noticed the Mirror Of Samsara's effect on Jasmine's spirit body. He was instantly shocked as he tried to wrap his head around this fact.

What was that sudden rage that came over me? Could it be Yun Che's will acting…like that time with Qingyue? It must be. I need to learn to distinguish our wills or it could create a problem.

Itachi chuckled while he said in a low voice, "This is not how it went last time. So, that means the Mirror Of Samsara is the variable changing things as they move along. Mirror Of Samsara has rejuvenated Jasmine's spirit, it simply means that she could recover earlier, it fits with my time table perfectly….now"

Itachi stretched out his left hand to press his palm against the girl's cold chest. The Sky Poison Pearl then quickly started to detoxify the poison in her body. His palm continued to shine, purifying the poison in the Jasmine's body. Soon after, Itachi felt a slight fluctuation in the Jasmine's chest and saw the girl slowly open her eyes. She had a pair of exceptionally very black demonic-looking eyes that flashed mysteriously as she blinked. As Itachi stared her eyes, a sincere smile appeared on his face.

In contrast, Jasmine met Itachi's gaze with a cold piercing gaze as she firmly seized Itachi's wrist saying in a whisper…..

"Sky… Poison… Pearl…"

Itachi had been prepared for it so he didn't even stop her and instead got into a more comfortable position for Jasmine to bite into.

Jasmine bit Itachi's wrist as she started sucking his blood while the Sky Poison Pearl in his palm released its purifying light.

She continued to suck his blood as the poison in her blood was continuously suppressed, after a while Itachi started feeling exhaustion seep through his body…..

Just as he thought he might pass out from the sheer exhaustion of continuously loosing blood, she stopped her movements, as her body became completely still.

The Mirror of Samsara that was blinking furiously until now also ceased it's doing, as it dropped on jasmine.

Itachi retracted his hand from her mouth as he took pensive deep breadths while observing jasmine state.

Suddenly, a green light shined upon her figure as jasmine's silhouette vanished form that spot while the Mirror of Samsara fell off which was caught by Itachi. Her white skirt and shoes along with her remaining accessories also dropped on the ground.

Itachi appeared inside the vast world space of the Mirror of Samsara as he found jasmine lying on a patch of space. His hand flashed with a light as a blanket appeared in his hands. Itachi instantly covered jasmine's perfect jade body with the blanket. He extended his hands again as a simple bed revealed itself near him. Itachi carried jasmine's completely still body and placed her in it while covering her up with the blanket, Itachi decided to keep the Mirror of Samsara near her since it could help heal her spirit form.

With that done, Itachi reappeared in the desolate place where he retrieved jasmine from. Since he already knew the fact that jasmine isn't going to wake up anytime soon, he decided to leave her be, for now.

However, Itachi wasn't sure whether the Mirror of Samsara 's effect would decrease the amount of time required to purify the Absolute God Slaying Poison. Thus, he decided to leave the Mirror of Samsara with her, for now. If it could intensify the speed of her recovery, then that would be the best case scenario.

After purifying the poison on the ground to the best of his ability, Itachi started to leave. In the dead of night, he could only hear his own footsteps. When he had already climbed over the Xiao clan wall and was waiting for Xiao Lingxi to appear here as he wanted to console her since he already knew what was in her heart.

The shadow in front of him also discovered him and stopped, vigilantly asking, "Who is it?"

Itachi said in a calm tone, "It's me…Xiao Che. What are you doing here at the middle of the night and this late"

"Ah?" The shadow let out a quiet gasp, then quickly ran over. Coming closer, the moonlight revealed a dainty but charmingly elegant cheek. It was precisely Xiao Lingxi. Upon clearly seeing Xiao Che, she opened her eyes wide. "Xiao Che? Why are you here?"

Itachi gestured towards the sky as he mused, "I came to rescue a princess who came from a distant star so that I could get a reward from her."

"Rescue a princess?Hmph…. Tonight is your wedding night, you aren't with Xia Qingyue, but instead came out here to satisfy your stupid fantasies?!" Xiao Lingxi grabbed Xiao Che's arm, an angry pout on her face. "Don't you know that it's dangerous here? Profound beasts roam here in the night, you shouldn't come out here at night without me or father."

Itachi gave her a deadpanned look before sighing as he said, "Nobody believes the truth now-a-days….I won't come alone next time. Why did you come here at this time?"

Xiao Lingxi expression turned sour for an instant but she smiled saying, " I couldn't sleep so I just came to gaze at the night sky….like we used to do when we were little children."

Itachi said with a smile, "We used to do come here frequently when we were little then we would get scolded by grandfather. That holds true even now, we can still come here, like we used to in the old times.…I quiet like it even as I am now"

"Hm." Xiao Lingxi responded, then quietly said, "I also thought about that, so I thought I'd see how it felt to come out by myself to stargaze… Because in the future, I might not be able to stargaze with little Che because little Che is married! In the future, you should be accompanying your wife, Qingyue, to bed at night, rather than coming out to enjoy the evening wind and stargaze." Xiao Lingxi coldly glanced at him and then pouted for some reason.

"No. we can still come here to stargaze whenever you want to…after all, me being married to Qingyue will not change our bond?" Itachi said with a smile.

"You! She is your wife, you can't be out here with me."

"You don't need to worry about her. I have already told her I am here, and no.. I wasn't forced out by her. "

After sometime Itachi and Xiao Lingxi sat quietly with each other, talking.

"Just because I am Xia Qingyue's husband now doesn't mean that I should discard my only family aside from grandfather. Xiao Lingxi….I know you love me. But, at the moment, I am not inclined towards pursuing anything other than the mission that I have set aside for myself. Maybe, I will change my mind along the way, but until then, I can still be just your little Che"

"…" Xiao Lingxi had a dumbfounded expression on her face and the look in her eyes blurred, " You mean it?"

"Of course." Itachi nodded without hesitation.

"Hehe…" Xiao Lingxi happily smiled, her hands hugging Itachi. She rested her head on his shoulder. "As expected, my little Che is the most well behaved, most obedient."

With that, Itachi and Xiao Lingxi continued to talk in the beautiful night sky.

Itachi, from the day he realized the truth of this world, was able to understand that life had no meaning if people had nothing to safeguard, life would stagnate if people stopped caring for anyone. That is what led him to massacre his entire clan because he wanted to protect what was most precious to him. People called him cold, arrogant, kin-slayer, and evil but Itachi never cared about any of that because the world wasn't supposed to be purely evil or purely good. He just wished to protect what was precious to him. He and Yun Che didn't have many common traits apart from that.

Now talking with Xiao Lingxi had been refreshing. She was untainted by the evil of this world, her heart was completely pure with no ill-intent. That's why Itachi wanted to defend her smile and innocence, if he was able to.

Itachi stayed there with her until she fell asleep meanwhile, he sat there overlooking the valley down below. It was quiet a beautiful sight, but peace like this was never meant to exist infinitely.

Itachi took out his other hand forward in a grasping motion while he thought about the purpose of his existence in this world, other than being Yun Che's replacement. He tried to grasp the visage of the glowing moon while asking himself, "Do I need to do things as Yun Che did? But I only have 20 years until that thing appears again.. That means that I need to get stronger rapidly while at the same time be stronger than Yun Che was at his peak. Only then, will l stand a chance of defeating it. And I don't even know what that thing is, since I can hardly see anything in his memories up to that point in time."

Itachi eyes blazed with a strange darkness while the pattern in his eyes started twisting to morph into moving pinwheel, "But I have the Sharingan. And if my theory is correct than the Sharingan has no limits. It can be evolved, provided that there is sufficient energy for it to grow. Chakra is an internal energy while the profound energy found in this world is inherently different from it."

After observing Yun Che's memories, Itachi came to the conclusion that chakra wasn't inferior to profound energy. In terms of quality, Chakra is qualitatively superior to profound energy. Chakra naturally reforms inside the bodies of the Shinobi but the profound energy is externally accumulated in the profound veins, which results in it exhibiting lesser control but due to profound energy being present in the surroundings, it could be recovered very easily. The endurance and raw power that profound energy provides, makes it more destructive than chakra but if chakra techniques could be utilized by using profound energy then it will provide Itachi with vast amount of profound energy along with ability to perform Jutsus.

Itachi closed his eyes as he contemplated his next move, tomorrow the information about the branch sect's arrival would be provided. There was not much point in cultivating until he had the evil god's divine veins but he could still try to connect his profound energy and chakra system.

Itachi sighed as he stood up while carefully carrying Xiao Lingxi in his arms. She had already went into her own little dreamland.

In the dead of the night Itachi carried her back towards her courtyard while he decided to meditate in his room and check up on Qingyue.

Xia Qingyue, the number one beauty of floating Cloud city, was meditating in her room while a small smile could be seen on her exquisite face. If any of her countless suitors could see this they would most likely die from shock.

Qingyue slowly opened her eyes, while she glanced outside the window. Itachi had already been gone for a few hours while she was trying to get used to her cultivation speed. She still couldn't help but be amazed at the way things turned out. She had thought that she was fulfilling the favour she owed the Xiao clan by marrying him, but just after the marriage he had already given her such a precious gift.

As she circulated her profound arts she had a feeling that she would soon have a breakthrough. The pain she had felt while she cultivated the Frozen Cloud arts had vanished while she could deploy her Frozen Cloud arts much faster which would definitely increase her combat power to a whole new level.

Qingyue couldn't keep her curiosity in check any longer as she stood up to see where Itachi had went although due to her belief in not showing her emotions she tried to tell herself that she just wanted to get some fresh night air.

Qingyue wandered towards the north of the courtyard-the Xiao clan mountains,Since Itachi couldn't hide his weak elementary profound level one profound strength. She followed him towards the path of the mountains, as her brows tightly knitted together, "Why did he go to the mountains with his current strength"

Just as she turned around the corner, she saw Itachi leisurely walking carrying a woman in his arms.

She was instantly dumbfounded, while Itachi too noticed her as he kept pace towards her.

At the same time as Itachi came in front of her, a sudden cry grabbed their attention.

Lingxi who had been asleep until now, groggily opened her eyes as she saw Xia Qingyue looking her way. She instantly cried out in surprise.

Itachi casually put her down as he said,"You woke up"

Xiao Lingxi dumbly nodded her head which had already become completely red. She angrily smacked her against Itachi's shoulder replying, "Why didn't you wake me up"

She stared at Qingyue out of the corner of her eye as she started her sprint, "Anyways, I am just going to go on my own. You take miss Xia back"

Itachi tried to say something to her but she had already disappeared around the corner.

Itachi sighed as he turned towards Qingyue saying, "Well….what are you doing here"

Qingyue eyes which have been narrowed up to now became tranquil as she replied in a monotone voice, "I just came here to take some fresh air"

"Did you?..and here I thought all you liked to do was cultivate all day. Or I would have called you out too."Itachi said as he started walking with Xia Qingyue.

Qingyue retorted with a cold look, "Apparently, you like to carry woman all night"

Itachi gave her a confused look as he replied, "Not really….but if she is the only family I have…my aunt then yes, I must carry her to her room, although I don't get why it has you all riled up?"

Qingyue's face relaxed a bit as she turned her face away while saying, " Is that right. I misinterpreted…..the situation. Was that Xiao Lingxi?"

Itachi nodded his head,"Yes…we just talked and she fell asleep so I carried her here."

Qingyue simply nodded her head as both of them walked in silence

Itachi inclined his head to the side glancing at Qingyue. She was completely identical to the one in Yun Che memories but as he observed her more closely he could see subtle differences in her behaviour towards himself as compared to Yun Che. That gave him at least a bit of hope that he could probably change the terrible future that awaits all of the inhabitants of this planet and even this dimension. The one thing that he learned from his failures would be to not overestimate one's own capabilities. Of course, individual strength is still important.

At the moment, the problem that he must overcome is to repair his profound veins but that is not possible until jasmine wakes up so that problem couldn't be solved in the short term.

Apart from his crippled profound veins, he also has to deal with that foolish brat Xiao Yulong. Although, he was a bit hesitant about how to proceed on that front but still if he was allowed to repeat the tragedy of last time then it would become a lot more troublesome for Itachi to operate independently.

Yun Che's family was now his family as well so he had to take care of them no matter what. But he couldn't erase his connection with Xiao Lingxi and Xiao lei. So the only thing that he could do now was to protect them to the best of his ability.

He was thinking about leaving before the arrival of the Xiao sect that way he could avoid contact with them altogether but the problem with Xiao Lingxi still remained. Xiao Yulong would surely try to target her in his absence since he couldn't touch Xia Qingyue and with earth profound cultivators from the Xiao sect Xiao lie would not stand a chance against helping her. the only way that he could see now was to find a safe asylum for her until his strength grew considerably.

Itachi pensive thinking was broken as he saw the outline of his courtyard. He glanced sideways at Qingyue who was walking soundlessly by his side.

Just then they reached their room and stepped inside.

Qingyue kept quiet as she went into the changing room.

Itachi shrugged his shoulders while taking out his red cloak and hanging it by the side. He had already changed into more comfortable clothes so he simply took a seat by the window and continued his previous musing although he had already thought of a solution.

It all depended on whether he could find that purple veined divine crystal mine before the arrival of the Xiao sect members. The only sect in the entire blue wind empire where she would be relatively safe in this dangerous world would be the all female sect-----the Frozen Cloud Asgard.

His planning was cut short by the sound of slow footsteps.

Qingyue left the changing room while wearing a simple light blue robe that couldn't hide her elegant jade like skin that was shining because of the slight moonlight coming through the window. Her pure white skin glistened like a white pearl in a lake . She still hadn't matured yet the shape of her body, even in that loose and simple robe provided little to the imagination.

Itachi retracted his gaze from her while he sighed in his heart. It appeared that even his stoic heart was not completely immune to her incomparable charm.

Qingyue gazed at Itachi and took out a mattress as she said in a neutral tone of voice, " Since it is due to my problem, I will sleep on the floor and you can take the bed."

Itachi shook his head simply replying,"It's fine. Although, I don't see the point in any of us sleeping on the floor. We could just take the bed, its big enough for the both of us with plenty of space in between."

Qingyue eyes narrowed slightly while she contemplated his offer. Well it was true that the bed was big enough for the both of them considering that Itachi didn't try to sneak to her side.

Itachi stood up as he walked up to the opposite side of her as he simply laid on the bed while muttering, "Well, your welcome to take the other side, anyways, good night."

After that, he simply closed his eyes facing the opposite side.

Qingyue stood still for a few seconds but eventually laid on the other side while forming a line of pillows to create a partition as she followed Itachi and closed her eyes.