Chapter 2486: Uncle and aunty

"You don’t understand young lady, you’re interrupting a very sensitive process," said Vinei as he looked at the tiny human female. Were this back in the Crystal realm, Vinei would have just banished her into a dark corner. Now he dared not. It wasn’t just because this little girl’s parents were very strong, or because the Inn’s rules prohibited it.

Yes, they were contributing factors, but the largest factor remained that it was well known that Lex was very protective of her, and recently Lex looked much too scary for Vinei, lord of darkness and monsters, to mess with.

"I know exactly what I’m doing," Almira responded as she rested her hands at her hips and looked at the black bird with the kind of expression her mother took when explaining something basic. "Uncle Lex needs this aunty’s help. You don’t know these things because you’re not smart like me."

Mary’s eyes flashed open, all drowsiness, all fatigue gone. Had she just been called an aunty? What the hell?

"A lot of people need a lot of things, that doesn’t mean you can just come in and disturb people," Vinei said dismissively of the little girl’s remarks. Perhaps he should call for an attendant or her mother or something. What kind of parent just lets their kid run around alone?

Yes, there were a few undead body guards hidden around the girl, but what could they do besides protect her? They couldn’t stop her from barging into sensitive, secure areas.

Vinei suddenly realized something. This was a very secure area - how did the little girl get inside?

Almira was no longer paying attention to the black bird. Instead, she looked at the glass cabin within which Mary was sleeping, and found that the aunty’s eyes were open.

"Wake up aunty - it’s already past lunch time. You have to wake up in the mornings. Only bad girls sleep late - that’s what my mom says," Almira said, explaining the basics of being a good girl to the aunty. "Besides, uncle Lex needs your help."

Mary felt weak. Her soul and body had not finished fusing completely, nor had the body grown to its maximum capacity. None of that affected her as much as being called aunty!

Mary tried to lift her hand and found that it felt pathetically weak. She barely had enough strength in her arms to lift 50,000 pounds worth of weight, or the equivalent of 2 million ketchup packets - give or take.

It was enough, however, to lift the glass over her, fortunately. Mary had not yet even processed the fact that she was awake, in a new body, disconnected from the system. Between her weakened body and being called an aunty, she could think of nothing else.

It wasn’t her fault, really. She no longer had the same spirit or mental capacity she used to when connected to the system.

"First-" Mary paused, coughed a little so that her voice didn’t sound so hoarse, and more importantly masculine, before speaking again. "First of all, I am not some aunty. You can call me Big Sister, or your majesty the queen. Aunty is definitely off the table."

Mary didn’t actually care about being called majesty, she just figured it was the kind of thing that would resonate with a child. She was wrong.

"I’ve heard people call my mom ’your majesty’. Are you a mom too? Where’s your baby? And your husband?"

For a moment, Almira was intrigued. She hadn’t met anyone else who dared take her mothers title. But before Mary could get over the shots fired at her by the little girl, Almira shook her head.

"No, that’s not important right now. Uncle Lex needs your help. You should quickly go help him. After that you can tell me about your baby."

Almira nodded, proud of herself for keeping her priorities straight.

Mary did not know how to respond to Almira, and looked up at Vinei and saw that he was speechless too. In truth, the phoenix was more concerned about the fact that the body was already awake. That didn’t make sense - it was too soon!

Mary dismissed all other concerns, though she had many, and focused on the one thing Almira mentioned multiple times.

"What do you mean uncle Lex needs my help? Did you overhear him say something like that?" Mary asked as she stood up, testing her body’s balance. It was pathetic - all it would take was a magnitude 9 earthquake for her to trip over.

"No, I felt it over here," Almira said, pointing at her heart. "Mommy says that whenever I feel something here, my instincts are talking to me and I should listen. Well, I can feel it here that uncle Lex needs your help."

Mary raised an eyebrow, and evaluated Almira once again. She had no idea how long she’d been down, and what had happened while she was gone. But it was certain that Lex must have grown a lot stronger in the meantime. The fact that Almira’s instincts could pick up things related to Lex... was scary. Or maybe Lex had completely lowered his guard against her to the point where she could sense him easily.

"Alright, thanks for waking me up in that case," said Mary as she clenched her fingers into a fist, getting the feel for her body. "I’ll go find your uncle. But remember, I’m not an aunty!"

Almira completely ignored what Mary said after stating that she would find Lex.

"Oh, no need to find him. I’ll take you to him! Quickly follow me!"

Almira grabbed Mary’s forefinger and began running at her full speed. Mary had to actually walk quickly to keep up with a baby that was at the Nascent Soul rank. Truly, she had been weakened a lot. Never in her life had she felt this weak - probably because she was born directly at the Celestial Immortal cultivation level.

Vinei remained frozen the entire time, not speaking or interfering in any way. He did not recognize Mary - she looked too different right now since the body hadn’t properly acclimatised to her soul. He did, however, feel an intense danger radiating from her body which was still not yet complete.

It couldn’t be helped. Even though her Dao had been shattered, with barely anything of it left, that did not change the fact that she was a Dao Lord!

The weakest Dao Lord in the history of history, yes, but a Dao Lord nevertheless!

That was also why Mary woke up much quicker than anyone anticipated. Previously, all Dao level energy she produced was absorbed by the system. Now, it was finally being used by her own soul to heal itself. That was much better than anything Vinei could do for Mary, once again leaving phoenixes with an unimpressive performance. Lex’s bias would only grow stronger when he found out.