Just at that moment, she felt something, something faint but unmistakable. She looked down at the baby whose death she was just about to declare, and that moment would be etched in her memory forever. The 'dead' baby was breathing. Slowly, her tiny chest rose and fell, and those wide, unblinking eyes stared up at her.
Her pupils dilated in shock as she met the gaze of those purple eyes, alive and vibrant, a clear sign that the child lived.
'Purple?' she thought, bewildered. 'I could have sworn her eyes were blue…'
Before she could dwell on it, Xuan Zhen hurried over, gently taking his swaddled child from the midwife's arms.
"Purple eyes, huh? Perhaps a special physique?... But no matter what, she is my child, and that is all that matters."
Between tears, Xuan An stretched out her arms, voice trembling yet firm.
"Xuan Zhen! Give me my children before I come and take them myself!"
While Xuan Zhen gently placed the babies into his wife's arms, the midwife asked softly,
"Have you thought of names for them yet?"
Xuan An was completely entranced by the newborns, her gaze fixed on them with quiet wonder. Seeing her lost in the moment, it was her husband who answered in her place.
"The boy will be named Feng," he said, his voice gentle. "So that he may grow to be as free as the wind."
He paused, eyes softening as he looked at his daughter."And the girl shall be Mei—in the hope that, like the plum blossom, she will endure even the harshest winters and bloom with grace..."
Unknown to all else in the room, little Xuan Feng was having the shock of his life at this moment.
'Xuan Mei?! Impossible! She was born dead in my previous life!'
He couldn't move, nor express his shock because of his yet undeveloped body, but his mind screamed in disbelief.
'This shouldn't be happening. In my past life, she never drew a single breath. I watched my parents grieve a child they never got to know. But now… she's alive?'
His newborn eyes, still unfocused, shifted slightly toward the soft cooing beside him. Wrapped in delicate cloth, his twin sister squirmed gently, her tiny mouth letting out what could only be described as a soft chuckle, light and knowing, as if amused by the situation.
Xuan Feng, already on high alert because of the unfamiliar situation, was certain that there was an interference of some sort. Using his vast knowledge and experience accumulated in his previous life, he was quickly able to calm down and deduce a few things.
'The most common reason some babies are born dead is because the body sometimes fails to accommodate the soul, so this must mean that somehow Xuan Mei has a soul now... The only one who can do such a thing is the Soul Goddess herself, she must have bestowed a soul to my sister's body.'
His nonexistent eyebrows furrowed in thought, uncertainty crawling beneath his calm calculation.
'The soul is the partial host of memories along with the brain, but considering the Soul Goddess had a hand in this matter, I'm certain she has transferred all of the souls memories instead of the usual fragment.'
'The biggest question comes down to of whom the soul belonged to before she came here, and what should I do with her?...'
------------------------------------------
After being transported by the Soul Goddess, Marlene found herself above an enormous planet, countless times larger than Earth.
'So this is the world that Goddess spoke of huh, Arkhaval...'
Without Marlene's control, her soul floated towards one of the four huge continents on the planet before heading towards one of the villages on the southern side. She flew until she reached an unassuming farmhouse, inside which she saw a woman giving birth.
'I assume this will be the family I'm born into.'
She contemplated while watching the woman struggle to give birth.
'I wonder, what kind of method would benefit me the most? Should I simply act like a normal dumb baby, showcase my extraordinary nature allowing me access to more resources for furthering my growth, maybe something in between?... Eh, I'll just decide as I go, it should be fine either way.'
After she saw a beautiful baby girl with a lifeless look in her eyes and another, unexpected boy that was born with her, she snapped out of her deep thoughts.
'A twin? And not someone normal either, looking at his actions. This will be interesting...'
She deduced with an imaginary cheeky smile.
'I do wonder what cheat that stupid Goddess gave me though.'
Marlene was completely absorbed in her thoughts as she flew towards the chest of the apparently dead newborn girl. When she entered inside her chest, the sight there was not what she expected to see.
The non-beating heart of the girl was actually tightly wrapped in ethereal, purple chains!
These chains didn't seem to be of a physical nature as they clearly phased through the many veins and arteries around the heart, as well as giving off an eerie aura.
After Marlene saw these chains, a shiver went through her spine and her thoughts froze. She was completely unable to function just because of the sheer evil aura emanating from these chains!
Instinctively, she wanted to escape, to run away from this incredibly vile thing. There was no thoughts behind this reaction, just pure instinct that warned her of complete annihilation...
'T-This thing... What the hell is it?!'
Finally regaining some autonomy over her conscious mind, Marlene tried her best to get away from the motionless heart, yet she wasn't able to control the movement of her soul. Without her consent, she was moved closer and closer to the chains as warning signs blared in her mind constantly, warning her of certain annihilation.
'Think Marlene, think!'
Almost as if time itself had given her a break, everything around her slowed down while her mind went into overdrive, functioning like a computer. Temporarily suppressing all unnecessary emotions and focusing all effort into thinking of any way she could get out of this situation the Soul Goddess had put her into.
'The crux of the problem lies within my inability to control the soul. The movement of my soul should be in accordance with the wishes of the Soul Goddess, and I doubt she would want the helper she enlisted to be gone just like this. There has to be a way out!'
She finally came to a conclusion after deliberating over the nature of this seemingly impossible tribulation.
'The cheat! I asked the Soul Goddess for a cheat ability as advance payment for helping her resurrect, but I don't know what it is, or even any clues that give me remote ideas on what it could be at all.'
The pride of a genius of the millennia should not be underestimated. Simply because of the fact that such pride is not unfounded, and comes purely from ability and skill!
At that moment of life-and-death, Marlene revealed why the Soul Goddess had chosen her out of the countless other souls in the infinite universe. She had to find out the cheat ability given to her, and she had to do it fast.
'Deciding factors of the ability: Personality of the Soul Goddess, usefulness in the quest of her revival, and overpowered enough to be considered a cheat.'
'This Goddess has existed for an incomprehensible amount of time, she must have an infinite amount of experience, but since she somehow died, that means even she has a weakness!'
'What this weakness is does not matter, what matters is that weakness would undoubtedly cause even an inkling of insecurity. The shameless and somewhat overbearing way I communicated with her would have definitely caused a chain reaction with that tiny piece of hidden insecurity since the matter also concerns her life-and-death.'
'Thus, I can conclude that whatever ability she has given to me would be a double-edged-sword, but she is way too prideful to do that openly, the drawbacks of the ability would have to be perfectly blended in with the advantages of the ability so that it wouldn't be immediately realized. That would have to mean that I can eliminate one-dimensional abilities such as immunity to damage, more powerful attacks, elemental affinities and so on.'
She was coming closer towards the chains slowly but surely, and unless she figured out her ability and its usage within the next few seconds, her soul would die!
Her deductions continued on many fronts, analyzing the overall psychological behavior of the Soul Goddess, using probable experiences, meaning and reasoning behind her each word, the tonality and possible thoughts as well as her objectives, she quickly narrowed down her choices.
'The cheat is either Immortality, Regeneration, Transmutation, or Adaptability!'
'Immortality can be ruled out because it has no incentive for me to continue on my quest. She has definitely realized I want to ascend to being a God, so the ability would have to have enough potential and growth room without the weaker version being one-dimensional and completely beneficial. I can also eliminate Regeneration with that logic.'
As she got closer to the chains, she was able to see that the chains themselves weren't purple, it was the aura they were giving out that was purple. That aura was formed of countless miniscule purple strings that couldn't be seen with the naked eye.
These purple strings of aura were currently stretched to their maximum trying to grasp her, like a hungry beast that had found its delicious prey after years of starvation.
'The choice is between Transmutation and Adaptability!'
Just as they were about to touch her, Marlene screamed in her mind, focusing on the strings that were a moment of time away from her.
'TRANSMUTE!!!'
And... Nothing happened...
The ability did not activate, and the purple aura finally reached her.
However, mysteriously, Marlene was not the least bit worried, and instead her sigh of relief echoed in her mind.
After the first purple string was able to touch her, it broke its connection with the chain and burrowed into her soul-body that stood like a speck of dust in front of the purple string.
The purple string brought with it immense pain for Marlene. This pain was not something one could feel with nerves as it struck directly at the soul itself. Like a dagger stabbing at the location that string had dug into.
One after another more of the purple strings reached her as she kept moving towards them unwillingly, and the pain only intensified. What felt like the stab of a knife turned into ten, and then hundreds of knives stabbing all over her body at the same time while her expression twisted with agony.
Without any outlets or paths of escape, all she could do was endure the pain.
As the amount of strings that forced their way into her increased, the pain she felt subsequently decreased.
From the stab of a knife, to the sting of a bee, and then a simple scratch.
When all of the purple aura was gone and it was embedded in every inch of her soul, the pain completely disappeared. Letting out an imaginary turbid breath, she felt a sense of victory and accomplishment draft over her, just like when she had solved one of the problems that bugged the scientists on earth for centuries.
'I was right! Adaptation!'
'There was no way to eliminate the powers of Transmutation or Adaptation from among the choices. However! The only way that the power of Adaptation would have real uncontrollable drawbacks would be if it was a passive ability.'
'In that sense, Adaptation can be divided into Passive Adaptation and Active Adaptation. I can rule out Active Adaptation from the list since if I can activate and disable it at will, I can also control the drawbacks of it being used, or not use it at all if that's what it takes. Only Passive Adaptation and Transmutation were left after that deduction.'
'Since Transmutation is likely to be an active ability, I didn't have to gamble on choosing one, if Transmutation failed, then Adaptation would have been my ability with an 80% chance, and sure it was!'
Marlene relished in her triumph over the mysterious purple aura as she got closer and closer to the center of the heart, before the darkness around her was replaced with the image of a worried old woman looking at her with a pity, and she was able to hear real sounds and voices for the first time after she left Earth...