Chapter 1685: Rianna Who?
When Logos and Pathos first brought up the fact that Rianna and Serena had relatively similar auras, it was when Zhen Liu first made contact with the latter.
At the time, Zhen Liu simply marked that as a sign that Rianna was originally from the Sacred Flame Theocracy and had magically ended up in Spider Hell via unknown means.
It wasn’t the weirdest case of translocation, given his own circumstances, but it did make Zhen Liu wonder if Rianna was simply a victim of war.
However, once Zhen Liu had invited Serena to the library and properly introduced himself as the Kaijin Lord of the modern era, Logos and Pathos began to notice even greater parallels.
When two people radiate similar auras of energy, it could be attributed to them either having grown up in similar environments, cultivating the same formula, or due to being related to each other on a more personal level.
For example, despite Zhen Liu cultivating [Chaos] due to his formula, he was still able to mimic aether cultivation whenever he needed it. During these times, aura had a distinct quality to it that could also be found in his entire family tree, up until his grandfather.
However, there were also some similarities between himself and the main clan relatives, due to their bloodlines.
Rianna and Serena had entirely different aether formulas and vastly different environments growing up, so the only logical explanation as to why they were radiating similar auras was due to being related.
An idea which was then cemented and coasted in a paint of finality once Serena had shared her fairytale-like backstory.
The math might’ve been off, but it sounded as if Serena and her late sister, Alfina, had been separated from their parents and Rianna when the latter group was sent flying elsewhere.
And from what Zhen Liu could remember about Rianna, the girl had been found abandoned in the middle of a jungle...or was the only survivor, either was terribly sad.
"On the plus side, maybe this meant she wasn’t being abandoned for being albino?" Zhen Liu mused.
In his old world, genetic anomalies, birth defects, and the like were either seen as blessings or curses depending on the region or even family unit.
Speaking from experience, Zhen Liu could confirm Valresta had similar practices. Granted, physical anomalies weren’t as discriminated against as cultivation anomalies.
Regardless, now that the battle was over and the curators had confirmed that Serena and Rianna were in fact related...now came the question of what to do with this information.
"Once again, I can’t help but notice some parallels between myself and the people I’ve met," Zhen Liu said to himself as he thought about the albino amazon who he had stumbled upon in the middle of a jungle filled with giant insects.
Not everyone would become immediately ecstatic over reuniting with a lost family member, especially if the circumstances for such separation were anything but pleasant, a category Zhen Liu technically fell under.
Alternatively, the separation happened so suddenly and violently that there’s absolutely no chance the reunited individuals would actually feel anything upon meeting with one another again, which technically applied to Jin Fang.
Ultimately, the decision came down to Rianna if she wanted to stick around with Zhen Liu and the library or go and spend time with her long lost sister.
"Wait, now that I think about it...didn’t I leave them alone with each other in the prison?"
...Perspective shift...
"Rianna, are you okay? You’ve been staring pretty hard at the Hearth Tender for quite some time now," Jinju Ren asked with curious concern in her voice. "Is this the part where you tell me you have just fallen in love at first sight?"
"Nothing like that," Rianna clicked her tongue, unamused by the dragon girl’s innuendos or whatever the term was. "It’s just...something about her feels really familiar..."
Rianna was well aware that she was adopted.
Her father’s last will and testament to her had detailed to her the tale of how she was found in the middle of the jungle while in the arms of a dead woman, but other than that, there was nothing else.
He didn’t know who the woman was, or if she had a living father, all he knew for certain was that she was a baby in need of help and that was enough.
However, after she had met up with Zhen Liu and started making use of the [Library of Nowhere], she started to wonder a bit more about her own origins.
Well, that and several other questions that had only fully realized themselves once she had become more educated about the wider world and the vast knowledge of the library.
Why was my skin so pale and my eyes such a deep red?
Albinism: a genetic condition where the body
I learned how to fire arrows like a cannon, apparently, but that’s because of the formula I learned from a salvaged beast core...so what the fuck is my formula?
Analysis: Your aether formula is known as the [Siege Cannon Spider’s Doctrine], a formula meant to mimic the power of the Siege Cannon Spider, an evolution of the Slingshot Spider.
Is there a better way to cook giant grasshoppers?
Yes, but you’re going to need an even bigger vat of sunflower oil and a whole fuckload of spices.
Once she had addressed these questions, though, Rianna began to ask herself the one question that had been nibbling at the back of her mind for years.
"Who am I?"
Unfortunately for her, this question was much harder to answer.
The [Library of Nowhere] had a nearly infinite archive of information from all over the world, but it didn’t have access to everything.
Well, even if it did, the information pertaining to one small orphan girl turned insectile amazonian warrior was... surprisingly little.
Rianna’s only leads into her past was herself and the blanket, which turned out to be a flag,that she was wrapped in when she was found.
The blanket, disappointingly, turned out to be a dead end.
The flag was apparently a remnant from a nation that collapsed not due to war, disease, or any other form of natural disaster.
Rather, extremely poor financial decisions from the leading figures led to complete societal collapse and violent revolution.
Not only that, but this nation collapsed a solid five years before Rianna was born, so it was very possible the flag she was wrapped in was being sold as memorabilia or a funny blanket.
Her own body turned out to be a slightly better font of information but not by much.
For starters, the curators were able to determine that Rianna wasn’t originally from Stampeding Bison. In reality, she had somehow come from the Dozing Salamander continent.
Around the time she discovered this bit of information,though, was right about the time that Zhen Liu had gotten caught in a busted teleportation array and ended up getting sent to the aforementioned continent.
A part of her couldn’t help but think this moment was destiny in the making, and immediately tagged along once it was determined that Zhen Liu was in need of a rescue...or at the very least, someone to find him.
Evidently, she thought that once she reached her so-called homeland that something would click and she would be able to learn more about her past.
But...that didn’t happen.
Travelling through the Dozing Salamander continent was fun, as was seeing all the exotic locale that could’ve been her domestic life in another timeline, but that was it.
There was no grand revelation.
There wasn’t a great epiphany.
All she felt was...nothing.
Just...nothing.
Honestly, a part of her thought that she was going to go through the entire continent with nothing more than a slightly elevated cultivation level and maybe some interesting souvenirs she would remember the trip by.
However, that feeling changed when she arrived to Emberona, the capital of the Sacred Flame Theocracy.
Something about this place, she wasn’t sure why at the time, spoke to her own a spiritual level.
Rianna wasn’t religious, but there was something about this place that felt...oddly familiar.
And then, once Zhen Liu had made contact with the Hearth Tender, she finally felt that "click" she was looking for.
Rianna had never met Serena before now, but everything about seemed so oddly familiar that she couldn’t help but to wonder if there was some hidden connection.
There wasn’t a good time to investigate this particular feeling nor was it a good time for to ask the Hearth Tender questions about her past, what with all the fighting, intrigue, sentient aether treasures, and undead motherfuckers.
However, now that all of that was over, Rianna found herself standing across from this familiar strange just a mere ten or so feet away.
And all she needed to do now was to simply walk over and talk to her.
It was a task that sounded easy on paper, but seemed nigh impossible.