Three months later. Cozy house on a warm island shore.
"Master, did you finally decipher what Luo Mian crudely altered in your poison with his clumsy hands? I asked him personally, even pressured with spirit element; he's dead sure he just wanted to purge all poison from his body with his own counteragent. I gave you his samples long ago. I didn't spend much time, but couldn't parse that mess even with your teachings." Sunbathing in a lounge chair on the beach, I casually started chatting with Gu Daiyu.
Topic not new; we discussed weekly, but always stalled. Luo Mian's brew defied logic. At least with my vast but not infinite knowledge, I got zilch. Not like I tried hard. Why have partner/personal scholar otherwise? Let them work.
"Couldn't fully decipher the magic from my poison interacting with that substance. But I have research progress." Sunbathing in a pink micro-bikini, unashamed of me, the woman proud of achievements—radiating High-level mage aura—replied.
Though I didn't bother directly providing her with the resources to break through to this level, I just hauled in enough cheaper stuff so that Gu Daiyu, through her connections, could sell it and buy what she needed for it. Now, having broken through to High Tier and freed herself from the poison devouring her alive, she became much calmer and happier. But the master doesn't neglect her cultivation research either. Both because she enjoys it herself and because she owes me. I didn't go wrong with choosing a future partner back then, oh no, I didn't.
"Any progress? Can you tell me more?" I asked, intrigued. This was something new.
"I'll start from afar. As you know, changing appearance or even gender with my poison is no problem. Hell, I can even turn a person into something like a gorilla—what's changing eye or hair color to me? That's not what surprises me about the blood samples you provided and the test subject's description, oh no." This beast slyly smiled, as if building up the intrigue.
"Why are you dragging it out? I know that myself; I wouldn't have dragged you into it for something like that. Come on, get to the point." My eye twitched from this beast's antics. Damn, she knows how to get under my skin when she wants to.
"Fine, fine, my impatient one. To the point, so to the point. As you already know, the main mystery of this Luo Mian's condition is that his body rejuvenated. Literally. From a forty-year-old man, he fully physically became a twelve-year-old girl. And there are no negative consequences in his body from this process! None! Well, more precisely, there are, but within the norm, like everyone else's." Gu Daiyu faltered a bit.
"So, trying to figure out how to replicate that effect, after yet another failure, I stumbled on this guy's notes about creating a new element and his experiments in that field. Successful ones, by the way! And it hit me—what if he subconsciously, without realizing it, used parts of his previous project's developments, trying to create an antidote to my poison. After all, you said that demonization element he derived completely changed the body on a physical level. Even the blood became different. That's a full transformation into another species! Sure, not new if you consider vampires, but still a great discovery worthy of a prestigious scientific award." Gu Daiyu nodded, acknowledging my personal scholar as a powerful genius.
"But Luo Mian is a full human. Not a new species. And vampires don't rejuvenate their bodies either. The body just takes the age of turning into a bloodsucker as the base, and appearance can only go toward older. The maximum 'rejuvenation' a bloodsucker can get is smoothing out a few wrinkles." I pointed out the inconsistency in her words.
"Yes! That's exactly the current limit of my research. Though you passed on the full process of creating the antidote from that scholar's words, and he even prepared a few new batches that I could replicate, it didn't bring me closer to understanding the rejuvenation process. But now, we can start human experiments! Then everything will definitely become clearer." With a maniacal gleam in her eyes, Gu Daiyu started rubbing her thighs together. Damn, this woman is scary! Not like I didn't always know that...
"Teacher, what are you doing! That's indecent, Mu Bai is watching!" A cute girl a year younger than me, with dark gray hair, ran up to us. It was braided into a seductive ponytail trailing down her bare back. She was also in a mini bikini, but green. It covered her beautiful second-and-a-half-size breasts. Her brown eyes looked at my master with reproach and shame.
Heh-heh, wonder who brought only these bikinis to this island and didn't pack any others? Don't know the guy, but he's damn good. Heh-heh.
"Ooo, little Ding, I didn't know you were so jealous of your benefactor. So, I can do this when it's just you around? And no one else?" Not embarrassed in the slightest, Gu Daiyu spread her legs wider and demonstratively licked her fingers. Tsk, hot devil. Damn, don't look! Can't! You already have a girlfriend, Mu Bai! Maybe even three! Look at thaaat palm tree! Good boy!
"T-teacher, y-you pervert!" Covering the blush on her face with her beautiful clean palms, the girl bolted from here at full speed, afraid to even look back. Sigh, my master will corrupt this innocent angel, oh she will. And why did I even bring her here? Whatever, what's it to me? On the contrary, if it works out for her, I can enjoy her ripe... spit! Look at the palm tree, Mu Bai!
"Isn't she a cutie? Just makes you want to ruin her!" Biting her lip seductively, Gu Daiyu whispered huskily. Looks like they've already got their own chemistry here, and it's not even been a month since I brought this shy girl!
"I didn't give her to you as a student for that. Thought you'd teach her force control and become a close friend to her. After all, you both have almost the same problem of being natural Magical Calamities. I hoped that would bring you closer. And apparently, at least with that, I didn't guess wrong." Rubbing my nose bridge, I pretended not to approve of my master's behavior.
"You brought her to me just because you felt sorry for her humanely! Unlike my poison element, which I sealed within myself, her Magical Calamity manifested in the Spirit Element, automatically making this girl an outcast! Especially since when her magic awakened, she made her entire magic school lose consciousness. After that, even entering university, she didn't make friends. And considering her control issues... Anyway, I won't let her go anywhere from me now. She's my student, period. That university treated her badly anyway." Crossing her arms over her chest, Gu Daiyu snorted disapprovingly.
"But to think you're from a parallel world. Still can't believe that's possible. And from the future too, so many research opportunities..." Gu Daiyu licked her lips.
Shuddering, I involuntarily recalled how she found out. It all started with continuing my soul transfer experiments from one world to another...