Chapter 7 VII. Her Copy

Mistress, are you sure about this?

Langzhi asked with imaginary sweat dripping down his small forehead. His eyes anxiously shook as his legs clung onto the arm of Hu Jia to pitifully stop her.

Please don't do this! Please don't cause us any trouble! Langzhi pleaded as his grasp on Hu Jia's arm tightened.

He even considered spinning a web to stop her, but realized that the kind of spider he was, a wolf spider, didn't and couldn't spin webs so he could only cry in defiance.

His mistress was bound to get them in trouble, lots of trouble! And as always, he, Langzhi, would have to clean it up for them and keep them safe.

Hmm... since when have you cleaned up my troubles? Hu Jia interrupted his thoughts that he had unknowingly said out loud. He paled and quickly skittered back into her dimensional space, breathing a breath of relief.

Once he was in the Everlasting Lacunae, he frowned as his eyes narrowed with a few stray tears as he thought of forgotten memories pushed to the back of his mind, Mistress, I have sacrificed more for you than you can image...

Luckily, Hu Jia hadn't allowed her thoughts to be in the Everlasting Lacunae or else she would've heard Langzhi. And once she heard Langzhi, she would've asked him what he meant by such words.

***

As Hu Jia tightened the silk sheet and wrapped it to become a loop, she remembered the look Chen Liwang had given her the night before.

At first, she wasn't positive if she should go along with her plan, but as she noticed his gaze getting more intense, Hu Jia felt somewhat squeamish as his eyes held an emotion she couldn't decipher. Hu Jia then understood that this person was dangerous.

Sure he was only dangerous in terms of power, but that still was very dangerous to Hu Jia as she didn't have even basic cultivation in this world. It was really pathetic and motivated her to begin cultivation quicker.

She knew that the man had ulterior motives that would cause Hong Tingxing, the body she was occupying, plenty of problems. So Hu Jia decided on a method.

Sure it was a cowardly method, but at this point, she was desperate for anything. She was weak and a weak person would use any method to get rid of their problems, especially when it concerns such a dangerous foe.

She would commit suicide.

Hu Jia snorted at that thought. Not literally commit suicide, but an act of suicide to get her away from these people.

Hu Jia knew her so-called suicide would devastate an abundance of people, including her mother and older brother, but it was the only way. Once she was strong enough to protect them, she would return. For now, she had to endure being buried alive, or at least her body. Her soul would be watching via dimensional space to ensure everything goes well.

Hu Jia hoped everything would go well. Otherwise, there would be a lot of issues if her suicide didn't go well.

Mistress! Please don't do this! Langzhi tried to reason with her, there is another way! He said right as Hu Jia was going to kick the stool underneath her. She paused and pulled the loop apart and lied down on the bed, transmitting her soul into her dimensional space to give her pet a lecture for going against her plan.

Before she could open her mouth to speak, Langzhi threw a miniature old, dusty book in her direction. Once she picked up the tiny object, it expanded and became the size of her hand. Hu Jia brushed off the dust and saw 碳體拷貝. She subconsciously read it aloud, "Carbon Copy Body?"

She looked in the direction of Langzhi with suspicion that he had kept such a book from her for so long and the little spider shamefully averted his gaze. He nodded and repeated, "Carbon Copy Body."

"What does it mean?" Hu Jia asked with genuine curiosity. She had never heard of such a spell which meant it must be either an ancient, forgotten spell or a legendary, hard-to-seek spell.

By the way that her loyal pet had kept it from her, Hu Jia knew it was both.

Langzhi avoided Hu Jia's eyes that were full of accusation and distrust and sighed. "Carbon Copy Body is exactly as it sounds. It is a spell capable of creating an exact replica like the user. All you have to do is use a drop of your blood while chanting the spell and it'll be created. Then, you have to give the copy a very similar name so that it wouldn't stray from its path of obeying only you."

Hu Jia's eyes gleamed with excitement but noticed Langzhi didn't share the same joy as she. "What's wrong?"

"Mistress, " Langzhi glanced at the spell book in her hand with a cautious behavior, "the reason I kept the book and spell from you is clear. This is very dangerous and has a high chance of failure if the user is weak."

Hu Jia shook her head at her pet's unnecessary worry. She wasn't weak in her true form, so Langzhi didn't need to panic. Besides, this was an interesting spell that she couldn't wait to use and test out!

Hu Jia exited from her dimensional space and began chanting the spell. Once she was on the final word, she pierced one of the finger's of Hong Tingxing and allowed the drop of blood to soak into the page.

As she was flipping the page herself, she flinched as she received a paper cut. Not wanting to worry about a minor injury, Hu Jia the drop of blood on her index finger not bothering to look to where it went.

As she closed the book, her eyes failed to see not one, but two drops of different blood being absorbed into the spell page.

A whirling wind appeared and chilled the room that the spirit and body were residing in. The wind used the gathered dirt to create a human-like body with undefinable features. A few minutes later, Hu Jia could see an exact copy of Hong Tingxing staring at the body of Hong Tingxing with dull eyes.

Hu Jia quickly took over the body of Hong Tingxing as she stared at the carbon copy with silence. A few minutes later, not able to bear the silence, Hu Jia slowly spoke, "Do you understand me?"

The Hong Tingxing-copy nodded. "You are the one that gave me life." It was chilling how exactly identical her voice was to the original Hong Tingxing. It was like staring into a mirror.

Hu Jia nodded back, pleased at the copy, and answered, "Indeed. I will bestow you the name Hong Mingxing. Are you pleased with your new name?"

Hong Mingxing opened her mouth and mumbled a soft yes. Truly, Hu Jia didn't expect for the copy to be so submissive. It seemed like Langzhi had nothing to worry about. The carbon copy was alright, especially Hong Mingxing.

She began to instruct Hong Mingxing, "You are to take the place of Hong Tingxing, which is me, until I am finished with my business. You will report everything, even the smallest details, to me and make sure to protect your so-called mother and older brother, Wen Bingbing and Hong Bingjia."

A strange emotion flashed across Hong Mingxing's eyes until it fleeted away. Unfortunately, Hu Jia wasn't able to see it and only saw an emotionless copy doing exactly as she demands. Hong Mingxing nodded with obedience and bowed her head at her mistress and creator. "Mistress does not need to worry. This servant will make sure to obey all of mistress' demands."

"Good." Hu Jia paused, "One more thing, " she walked forward until she was only a few centimeters away from Hong Mingxing's face, "you must delay marrying Chen Liwang as much as you can. No matter what, you cannot marry him while you're pretending to be Hong Tingxing. Understand?"

Despite their close distance, the copy didn't seem to be intimidated. In fact, she kept her apathetic behavior and only nodded again.

When Langzhi opened up his window to view the outside world from the dimensional space, he was able to see his mistress attempting to intimidate the copy in which the copy didn't even respond with fear. Langzhi couldn't help but grow suspicious, so he questioned, mistress, other than the process of one drop of blood from the original Hong Tingxing's body onto the spell page and spell chanting, did anything else happen?

Hu Jia thought long and hard and didn't seem to remember anything particularly suspicious. She didn't understand why her pet was acting so anxious. He saw how Hong Mingxing was submissive and obeying. Why was the little spider fretting so much?

No, she finally responded after a while, nothing else happened. Langzhi, you're worrying too much.

Langzhi sighed and murmured inside the space, "I sure hope so..."

***