Safe Word?

Su Ming observed a few seconds of silence for Stanton.

He asked a question. "If you lost the White Bone Fortress, could your Ailisha form survive on its own?"

"Barely. After all, the life core is in Ailisha."

Su Ming fell silent for a moment. Zijin had hidden her Ailisha form, so she had clearly been prepared to abandon the White Bone Fortress at the time.

"Why?" he asked, looking up.

The scholar's gaze wandered slightly. "Because your plan gave me hope of escaping, and carrying it out required Ailisha's power."

"But once you unsealed Ailisha, your life would be on a countdown, right?" Su Ming grew agitated.

Back then, Zijin hadn't known Su Ming had a way to treat her. So she hadn't intended to survive.

"Su Ming, this body has serious flaws. Its resistance is weak, and it's plagued by illness. Without the White Bone Fortress's magic power to sustain it, I wouldn't be able to stay active for more than a few months," Zijin said. "At the time, whatever I chose, there was little hope.

"I'd originally wanted to make myself useful one last time. I'd even thought of my last words, but I fell ill before I finished writing them." The scholar recalled what had happened. "I was still wallowing in self-pity over all the things I hadn't had time to do when you suddenly pulled me out of that desperate situation. Meeting you was my good fortune!"

"I'm clearly the lucky one," Su Ming said.

"So you have one soul and two bodies, with the human form as your primary body?" he continued.

"That's right."

"Then you can switch to the White Bone Fortress form and move around, can't you?"

"The Ailisha form is better at controlling magic power than the White Bone Fortress," Zijin