29 Legendary Crystal (2)
"Here." Iona's mind was flying off to the clouds again, when something shiny suddenly appeared in front of his eyes.
His eyes were dazzled and he came back to his senses, and saw the luminous crystal in front of him.
Iona titled his head, and looked at the baby monkey not understanding what she meant.
"This one is for you." She said, "That big bird's body has a mountain of these things."
Iona's eyes widened in disbelief when he heard her words. He can't believe it, a mountain of these things?
How many is a mountain? Isn't this the legendary crystal? Demon core?? Crystal core...???
Did he misunderstand something? What the hell...
"The lion king dragged the big bird into his cave to kill. The monkey king said that the big bird's heart and brain were the most precious, and the big bird's heart was already reserved for the lion king." She said, "The monkey king said that the lion king didn't want anyone to disturb him since he liked eating the heart while the prey was still alive, so he dragged the big bird into his cave."
Iona shuddered. Such a horrible thing, how can you say it as if it was nothing.
"The lion king dragged the big bird's body again after eating its heart. You don't know, it was still alive even with a big hole in its chest!" Said the baby monkey while thumping her chest as if to demonstrate what she saw.
"Then the lion king stepped on the big bird's neck. With a crack, it died! And then bang! It became a crystal bird and fell to the ground. It was like a piece of dry mud, the moment it touched the ground it became like this!" The baby monkey once again showed the two luminous crystals in her hands.
"The monkey king took a big red crystal in the mountain of crystals, and the lion king said——" The baby money tuck her stomach, and deepened her voice as if to imitate the lion king's voice: "Divide the small crystals to others, but remember to give the red crystal to the lake king."
Iona wanted to scratch his head in confusion, he doesn't understand, ah!
Anyway, it's none of his business.
Iona happily took the luminous crystal in the baby monkey's hand with his mouth, then placed it down on the ground and observed it closely.
It was like just an ordinary crystal, except that it looked perfectly polished, ready to be made into jewelry. Aside from this, Iona didn't see anything special in it.
There was no 'cold sensation when touched', or 'the power leaking in the crystal was so obvious that it could be seen in the form of a mist'.
Iona didn't see any dramatic description often seen in the novel with his current situation right now, which made him feel a bit disappointed.
He was staring at the crystal intently that the baby monkey felt that he was stupid. She called Iona many times, but Iona didn't respond, so she smack Iona on the head.
Iona was smacked and was forced to kiss the ground, he shook his head, feeling dizzy for a while, then he raised his head and looked at the baby monkey with clear inquiry in his eyes.
"You eat this." She said as she pointed at the luminous crystal.
After she finished her sentence, she immediately demonstrated it in front of Iona, by directly putting the luminous crystal left in her hand into her mouth, and with a 'crack', the baby monkey bit the luminous crystal like a candy, and chewed then swallowed.
She repeated this series of action until nothing was left in her hand.
Iona stared wide eye at her crazy action, and was dumbfounded.
Are you supposed to eat this kind of thing?!
This fantasy world! You failed me! Those novels were so deceiving!!
There was no 'absorbing the crystal till it disappears', or some shitty thing like muttering magic words while absorbing the crystal. She didn't even close her eyes and meditate to feel the power of the crystal and guided it to her body, fuck, she just, she directly ate it! It was not elegant at all!!
There wasn't any magical feeling whatsoever!
This is so deceiving. Iona felt as if his belief was crumbling.
Iona was an otaku. It was unknown how many of these cultivation system he has read. And all of them were the same! Be it in the apocalypse, interstellar, modern, even in the stone age, they use the same principle of cultivation techniques——forming a core either in the stomach or in the brain.
They absorbed the crystal cores by transferring the energy trapped inside in their body. They did it solemnly, with poise and elegance, not this barbaric way of devouring it.
Iona recalled that only mutant zombies in the apocalypic novel would do this kind of thing.
Even the demonic beasts in cultivation novel won't bite the crystal in half and chew them.
Such vulgar thing, it was not elegant at all.
As a child, Iona wanted to be Tuxedo Mask. There were always magical girls but no magical boys. There were Kamen Riders, Ultraman, Voltes V, or the Power Ranger.
Iona grew up watching these, but he didn't want to be them, he didn't like their costumes, it didn't look elegant at all.
He didn't like their helmet, and their fitted rider suit. Iona tried one of those before, and he didn't like the feeling of the clothes hugging his body tightly, especially on his crotch...it was ugly.
Even Superman, Batman, Spiderman were the same.
At that time, only Tuxedo Mask was different.
Magical girls have the privilege of transforming in glitters under a colorful spotlight, but not boys.
Iona loved this things in childhood, and often he was teased by his older brother, calling him gay and even forcibly made him wear girl's clothes.
In Iona's memory, only Detective Loki has that magical girl privilege, always transforming with his staff. Well, there was also Li Syaoran in CardCaptor, he was cool too, but he wasn't the protagonist after all.
In his previous life, Iona's world wasn't that open to many things in his childhood, they didn't even have a computer back then. They're not really poor, in fact his parents can afford it, they just didn't think it was worth it.
After all, back then everyone used books in everything.
Only after graduating Elementary did they have a computer, and it was a second hand given by his uncle.
Therefore, all the anime he watched were all from TV, and it was limited.
He didn't even have a cell phone till he got into high school.
It was because of this that Iona liked to read books. Anyway, when Iona was introduced to western novels by his older brother, he realized how gay it was, so he climbed over the wall and became a fan of more western magical settings.
That was how Iona read the Turtle Island he liked very much. This was his starting line.
Then when Iona watched Lord of the Rings for the first time, he became fascinated by such fantasy world.
He went from liking Tuxedo Mask to loving Legolas. He remembered growing his hair back then, and posing as Legolas with his plastic bow and suction cup arrow, attacking the target ring hanging at the door.
Then there was Harry Potter, Morgan Rice's books series, and Rick Riordan's books.
Because of that, Iona's favorite event became graduation―― he can wear a robe in that occasion, just picked up a branch and his cosplay was complete.
In college, Iona was recommended to read Chinese novels for the first time, and he fell in love with martial arts and cultivation novels.
His addiction went high at these that time.
Iona almost failed his subjects in that semester because he just couldn't stop reading.
Well, all these years, Iona has been a Buddhist, with no desire nor greed, just living and surviving in this wilderness. Still, he still has some expectations in his heart, after all, he saw and experienced 'those dreams.
No matter how much he denied that great and powerful turtle in his dream was him, deep in his heart, Iona still expected something in the future.
Who wouldn't. It was the same as wanting to become Tuxedo Mask.
He didn't like troublesome things and just wanted to be a salted fish, but who didn't want to be an OP character.
Then the baby monkey told Iona that he has to eat this crystal to become Tuxedo Mask?
No way, he's not Darna, swallowing a stone to become a superhero...
Can he even digest this thing...
Iona didn't know why he felt repulsive in his heart.
Isn't it just eating crystal, what's the big deal. But for some reason, Iona didn't really want to.
Moreover, he never saw the great turtle in his dream eating crystal.
Iona wanted to refuse the baby monkey, but seeing her sparkling eyes looking at him with expectation, Iona bit the bullet, and swallowed his disgust.
He slowly opened his mouth, and took the crystal again, then under the baby monkey's eyes, he clenched his teeth and bit the crystal.
Clank——
Iona screamed silently, with crocodile tears hanging on the corners of his eyes.
Man, it hurts. He bit a little hard, now it hurts.
Then he looked at the culprit now laying on the ground, and couldn't help gritting his teeth.
The hell, he just saw the baby monkey eating this crystal like candy. How could it be so hard.
At the side, the baby monkey looked at the crystal on the ground with a confused expression. She saw how hard the turtle bit it hard, but seemingly like a hard stone, the crystal remained intact.
The baby monkey doubted it, she stretched her hand, and took the crystal on the ground, and put it in her mouth.
Then she closed her mouth, and bit——
Crunch...
Like a brittle candy, the baby monkey ate the crystal as easy as eating a piece of cake.
Iona: What the hell…
