After that short conversation with the demon, Ruminas gradually fell asleep. While she slept, she constantly felt a gaze staring at her and the cold air around her made it impossible for her to sleep deeply for even a minute.
In the end, Ruminas decided to get up because she couldn't sleep, and her spirit had recovered quite a bit so there wouldn't be any problems.
Just as the woman with the torn mouth said, if all of them did not watch the mission, this train would run forever in the tunnel like this. After a long sleep, all four of them had returned to their healthiest state.
Renji stood up and stretched a few times while Achlys just moved his arms back and forth slightly, but only Aoi was still sleeping soundly, it seemed that the shirt Ruminas had covered her with was very effective in making her not feel the cold at all.
Ruminas woke up to find the Parasol Lady still sitting next to her, but motionless. She couldn't even hear her breathing. However, the cold aura radiating from her didn't lessen at all.
Ruminas felt fine at first but now she was starting to feel cold but she couldn't move because Aoi was still sleeping.
"I can't take it anymore!"
Because it was so cold, she had to shake Aoi to wake her up. Aoi was sleeping normally, but when she woke up and found the cold air around her, she shivered even though she was wearing Ruminas's coat.
"Rumi-chan, what's so cold?" she asked.
Ruminas did not reply, just pointed to the side.
"Is this the woman… And is this what you covered me with? Why didn't you call me, I'm so cold!"
Aoi said then quickly sat up, she took the coat and covered Ruminas and herself too, because the coat wasn't too big so the two of them had to sit close together.
"Hehe, like this no one will be cold," Aoi said with a laugh.
Ruminas was silent for a moment, then said, "We can go somewhere else…"
"…"
Aoi's face stiffened slightly, then she quickly reacted.
"Oh yeah, how could I forget?"
So the two of them moved some distance away from the demon umbrella, the cold atmosphere also decreased but not long after, it increased again. Ruminas turned her head and saw that the demon umbrella was still right beside them, the distance between the two sides did not change at all.
"Hallucination?" she said to herself.
Ruminas and Aoi moved away once more, but the result was no different from the first time.
At this moment, Ruminas understood that she couldn't move away anymore. She turned to look at Aoi and said: "Go somewhere else. I can't escape this woman."
"Why is that? I wanted to be with you, but why is that person following you..?" Aoi asked softly, as if afraid that the ghost would hear.
"…Because we are making a deal." Ruminas replied after a moment of silence.
"Is it dangerous?"
Ruminas thought for a moment then shook her head.
"Then if you need any help, call me," Aoi said.
Ruminas just smiled wryly and said nothing more.
Aoi then left and went to Renji to talk, but not long after she left, someone else came to take her place.
It's Achlys.
"Looks like you're being tailed," he said, sitting down, holding a box of pre-made food in his hand.
Seeing this, Ruminas suddenly remembered that she hadn't eaten anything for almost two days and when she remembered that, the feeling of hunger also came over her.
She also took out some food from her storage space, quickly ate a few spoonfuls, and then replied, "Nothing fun."
"How long have you been using qi?"
Achlys didn't continue that topic and went straight to the main point.
Ruminas started thinking, she didn't know the exact time because it had been about four months since she was trapped in the death loop event but Ruminas still estimated a number.
"About 3 months, what about you?" she asked again.
"Four months"
"So it's been a bit longer…" Ruminas muttered softly.
"How did you learn it?" Ruminas asked again.
"I was told this through a system message by someone calling himself the 'Illusion Master'," Achlys replied honestly.
"So you're starting with the gentle side first?" Ruminas asked.
Achlys nodded.
"You started it with the strong side?"
Ruminas scratched her head and nodded slightly.
"So what is your condition? I vaguely sense that the flow of energy in your body is very chaotic and inconsistent."
"Can you see it?" Ruminas asked in surprise and then sighed. "That's right, how did you evolve your aura? It's very consistent."
Achlys gently extended his hand and a green stream of air appeared and covered it. It looked very gentle and stable, the level of unity was also high and Achlys could completely control it.
"The illusion master said that when you first evolve your qi, you have to do it yourself so that the qi doesn't get contaminated and you can control it more easily. As for the method, he only said that you use the qi while thinking about your special ability, turning it from pure thoughts into matter that exists outside the world, and then slowly combine it with the white qi."
Ruminas frowned.
"Is it possible to turn thoughts into physical existence?"
Achlys just shrugged.
"The world now is not the normal world of the past, so even if something strange happens, I wouldn't be too surprised."
"So how did you do it? It wasn't easy to say that, was it?" she asked.
Achlys nodded.
"Thinking about special abilities here is not just simply thinking about it, but also imagining how far it can develop, this imagination will be the premise for you to develop later. If you can't imagine anything, it means you will be limited in the future, but your imagination is not limitless, to a certain extent is fine."
"Also, when performing this action, you must have absolute concentration. Just one other thought will break the process and you will have to start over."
"Is that really possible?" Ruminas asked again, her thoughts still quite vague.
Just then a message from the system appeared.
[The Heroic Queen confirms that it can be done, but it is only one of the ways and its difficulty level is also very high. Your case is now a bit different, so the Heroic Queen advises you not to follow that way]
"So what should I do?" Ruminas thought.
[Either you completely eliminate the black qi before thinking about controlling the yellow qi or you use both]
"I know, but I have no clue how to do it…" Ruminas sighed again.
"So what is your condition?" Achlys repeated the question.
Ruminas was silent for a moment, then she told Achlys her story, of course skipping some unnecessary parts.
"Using foreign objects… this is also the first time I have encountered this situation." Achlys rested his chin on his hand and began to think.
"If you say so, the reason why white and yellow qi repel each other might be because they have nothing to do with each other. You create yellow qi through black qi, and black qi comes from white qi. In other words, if you want to completely control your qi, you have to start with black qi first."
Ruminas understood a little more now, but the problem was still how to control that black qi.
"How much control can you have over it now?" Achlys asked.
Ruminas thought for a moment and replied, "Under five minutes, it'll just be a slight headache, at most it'll probably be about an hour… or a little less."
"It's not that you can't control it at all, so you should use it for a certain amount of time to get used to it. Only when you use it will you know its properties and if you get used to it, you might be able to gradually increase the time you use it. As for the golden qi, let's put it aside for now. You should focus on one thing first."
Ruminas nodded, feeling that this method was not bad.
"Thanks, I will try it."
Achlys suddenly smiled and said: "Do your best, I really look forward to having a match with you."
"For what?" she asked, frowning.
"Just practice, see how far I've come"
"…That's OK" Ruminas replied after a few second.