"Ah! Strategist, that's where you're wrong!" Ji Feng hurriedly argued.
"Take the Raiden Shogun. Cruel and heartless, she stubbornly insisted on her own way. Despite wielding peerless divine power, she plunged her nation into peril. Within her court, corrupt officials threw their weight around, while treacherous villains defied their superiors and stirred up rebellion, leaving the people suffering and unable to make a living. Could she possibly be called a wise ruler?"
Kokomi answered without a moment's hesitation, her words as firm as severed iron. "Of course she isn't a wise ruler!"
Good! Kokomi really does hate the Shogun's guts!
Secretly delighted, Ji Feng curled his lips into a smile and continued, "Yet didn't our Divine Priestess, pure as ice and flawless as jade, ultimately choose to shake hands and make peace with her? Watatsumi Island submitted to the Shogunate and remained nominally under the Shogun's rule. If you can accept and coexist with such a cruel, dictatorial tyrant, then look at me. All I want is to build a harem. By comparison, wouldn't I count as innocent and harmless?"
Kokomi froze for a moment at his words. She realized she genuinely couldn't refute him!
She raised her eyes and studied Ji Feng with an extraordinarily complex, peculiar gaze.
He looks like such a flighty, shameless fool, yet he's surprisingly eloquent when it comes to sophistry. Clearly, writing all that smut wasn't for nothing, she mused inwardly.
To have earned himself a spacious residence in Douluo, a land where the strong devoured the weak, as an ordinary person with zero Soul Power, he clearly wasn't simple either.
Ji Feng, meanwhile, looked thoroughly pleased with himself, his head held high and his chest puffed out in triumph.
Turning the matter over in her mind, Kokomi had to admit that, if they compared only the extent of their wrongdoing, Ji Feng, who merely dreamed of building a harem, really was an unquestionably good person next to the Raiden Shogun, who held the power of life and death and threw an entire nation into turmoil.
But the logic behind that comparison was simply too bizarre and outrageous.
Kokomi puffed out her cheeks again. She really couldn't get past this hurdle. She, the esteemed leader of Watatsumi Island, had actually been reduced to traveling to another world to help someone build a harem!
Other than disgraceful, she couldn't think of another word for it!
Besides, she glanced at Ji Feng again. At first glance, the man before her looked mature and dependable, but underneath, he was flighty and downright bizarre. He even seemed a little mentally unwell. Kokomi almost wanted to suggest that he see a doctor.
Just thinking about serving someone like him made Kokomi feel she could barely keep her composure.
She closed her eyes with a complicated expression. After thinking for a while, she sighed again, her expression shifting uncertainly as disgust, calculation, concern, and helplessness mingled together-a jumble of every flavor.
A moment later, she slowly opened her eyes, her gaze calm and solemn. "Very well! I'm willing to assist you, but I certainly won't join your harem."
Kokomi had to hold the line! Helping was one thing! Falling into it herself would be far too tragic!
She added, "And you must ensure that every woman in your harem is happy. You mustn't force any of them!"
Kokomi had no intention of helping him abduct innocent women!
"Wonderful, wonderful! With Kokomi at my side, I'm a tiger granted wings!" Ji Feng was naturally overjoyed. Then he asked eagerly, "Since you have my memories, Strategist, you should know what we ought to do now. Do you have a brilliant plan?"
Why isn't this man reacting at all to hearing that I won't join his harem?!
A faint trace of resentment flickered in Kokomi's eyes, only to vanish instantly as she returned to her poised, wise demeanor.
She quickly settled into her role as well. After a little thought, she said, "As the saying goes, know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be imperiled in a hundred battles. For now, my lord, you must understand your Martial Soul as soon as possible. If my suspicions are correct, your Martial Soul cannot be this simple."
"Try returning me to the roster of your Genshin Impact Martial Soul."
From the memories Ji Feng had shared, Kokomi knew that his summoning list currently contained only Aether. Since she herself had been summoned into this world through this Genshin Impact Martial Soul, she could, in theory, naturally be drawn back into it as well.
Considering that Ji Feng had never possessed supernatural abilities before, she carefully elaborated, "First, close your eyes and silently focus on recalling me. Try to engage your mind and imagine the process. If that doesn't work, open your eyes, look directly at me, and concentrate solely on recalling me. If that still fails, touch my body directly and try activating it with your thoughts again. We can use this opportunity to test the capabilities of your recall ability."
Ji Feng did as instructed. Closing his eyes, he concentrated, desperately filling his mind with the thought of returning Kokomi to the roster.
Since he couldn't see with his eyes closed, he had to ask aloud, "Hey, hey, hey, are you still there?"
The corner of Kokomi's mouth twitched. Why did something so ordinary become so comical whenever he did it?
"I'm still here. Please keep trying, my lord," she said evenly.
A little time passed, but nothing around them changed.
Kokomi's expression remained unchanged, her composure unbroken. "Failure. Try the second method."
Ji Feng opened his eyes and fixed his gaze firmly on Kokomi's figure. All his mental energy focused on the person before him, the intent to recall her echoing repeatedly in his mind.
Hum-
Ji Feng felt a faint, colorless glimmer slowly rising from within his body.
At the same time, Kokomi suddenly felt her clothes flutter gently around her as a pulling force tried to drag her toward Ji Feng.
Kokomi immediately summoned her power to resist, but in barely an instant, her figure abruptly vanished into thin air without leaving the slightest trace.
The entire process took no more than a single breath, and Kokomi was completely drawn into the Martial Soul.
"A summoned character within his field of view can be recalled in roughly less than a second, and resistance from the summoned person is meaningless. In fact, if I hadn't been watching Ji Feng the whole time, I probably wouldn't even have realized I was being recalled."
Ji Feng muttered to himself in a clear, soft voice as gentle as water, his fingertips habitually twirling the pink-and-blue ends of the hair hanging beside his ear.
"An exceptionally high degree of enforced control."
"And Aether inside the Genshin Impact Martial Soul has already been replaced by Koko..."
Ji Feng's voice stopped abruptly. The soft, sweet female voice beside his ears finally made him realize something was wrong.
That voice had come from his own mouth!
He hurriedly lowered his head, only to see an ornate outfit in shades of blue and purple.
The wide, layered ruffled sleeves swayed gently with his slightest movement. The sapphire ornament at the neckline gleamed with a soft, subdued light. His slender legs were clad in lustrous white stockings, and blue-and-purple wooden sandals adorned his feet. Behind him, a translucent fishtail skirt gently unfurled and fluttered.
"I-I turned into little Kokomi?!"
At that moment, the lovely body belonging to Sangonomiya Kokomi wore a panicked expression the real Kokomi would never have shown. Flustered and at a loss, he spread those delicate, jade-like hands. The two small, pale hands hung in midair, with him utterly unsure where to put them. His panicked manner somehow lent him a different sort of innocent charm.
"I recalled Kokomi, and somehow I turned into her myself?!"
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