After that little interruption with the Dark Mage, Xue Ji ended up finding an unexpected bonus.
She had discovered the third boundary stone, but this one had already turned into nothing more than an ordinary rock, having lost all of its original power.
“Triggering a secret realm, colluding with vampires, seizing the power of the boundary stone while chaos reigns, and using the dark matter from those corrosive creatures… Looks like this organization’s danger level needs to be raised yet again.”
Xue Ji couldn’t help but speculate about the true purpose of this organization. The most important question was: did they know about the World Will and that great terror’s existence?
If they did, then this organization was nothing but a bunch of lunatics, trying to stir up trouble in the struggle between the World Will and that terrifying entity. What’s more, there’s a good chance they were being controlled by that very existence.
After tying up the half-dead Dark Mage and collecting the boundary stone fragments that had turned into stone, the two of them hurriedly left without wasting any time.
“Are you feeling something too?” Xue Ji suddenly asked.
“It feels like the ground is trembling,” Shaya said, every hair on her body standing on end as if she had sensed danger. “Run! Something big is coming!”
Shaya immediately hoisted Xue Ji onto her back, transformed back into her wolf form, and turned into a blur of speed, sprinting with all her might. In just that instant, she had covered several kilometers.
Xue Ji held up a shield and glanced back. A black snake head, a hundred meters tall, burst out from underground. Its hissing sent chills crawling up their scalps.
The creature’s body kept surging out from beneath the earth as the ground continued to collapse around them.
“Wait… was this entire secret realm just a disguise draped over its body? You’ve got to be kidding me!” Even though she had already witnessed the even more absurd true form of the Monarch Deer, Xue Ji was still startled by this thing.
That sky-obscuring, sun-blotching figure was simply too overwhelming, and the constantly collapsing ground kept shattering Xue Ji’s understanding of reality.
Fortunately, the snake didn’t seem hostile toward them and simply let them escape.
After half an hour of frantic running, they finally reached the exit of the secret realm. Only then did Shaya begin to regain some of her composure.
The situation earlier had completely overwhelmed her thoughts; her survival instincts had left her with only one idea in her mind: run.
In the final moment before leaving the secret realm, Xue Ji turned her head and looked back.
Those eyes looked like two moons, but what they radiated was not gentle moonlight. The mere act of locking eyes with them made Xue Ji feel as if she were being constricted by a serpent.
Like a prey caught in the coils of a giant python, the suffocating sensation made her vision grow hazy and blurred.
Just as her consciousness began to drift, Xue Ji saw a lonely island surrounded by a black tide.
On that island, a woman in a white dress with the lower body of a snake stood gazing back at her through a veil of mist.
“Klotho? Is that you?” Xue Ji called out the name of that goddess from another world.
But the woman didn’t respond. She simply stared at her.
A puff of mist drifted by, covering Xue Ji, and she instinctively reached out her hand in that direction.
“A-Ji, wake up! Come on, don’t sleep anymore.”
Her consciousness returned to reality. Her face felt a little warm and moist. Xue Ji opened her eyes to find herself resting on Shaya’s lap.
The first thing she saw was Shaya, who had transformed back into her little girl form.
“A-Ji, you’re finally awake! You suddenly passed out earlier, and I was so scared!”
“Ah, I must have dozed off for a moment.”
Xue Ji reached out to pinch Shaya’s cheek, but then realized her right hand was clutching something.
She opened her hand and saw a snake scale, about the size of a chicken egg.
“Huh? What’s this?” Shaya leaned in and sniffed it, but there was no smell.
“How did this end up in my hand?” Xue Ji sat up, staring at the scale in her palm with confusion.
With no other choice, she tucked the scale away to study it when she got back.
Xue Ji stretched lazily. That nap had actually been pretty comfortable.
“How long was I asleep?”
“About half a day. And I’m starving,” Shaya said, clutching her stomach with a pitiful look in her eyes. Her intention was crystal clear.
“Alright, alright. When we get back, I’ll treat you to some barbecue,” Xue Ji said, finally pinching Shaya’s cheek. It was soft and squishy, with a wonderful texture.
“Yay!” Shaya bounced into Xue Ji’s arms, latching onto her like an octopus. “I want a whole roasted lamb!”
…
Two hours later, out on the grasslands, Xue Ji and Shaya were feasting on a whole roasted lamb, its skin crackling with grease and every bite leaving a fragrant aftertaste.
Shaya devoured the food with great relish, her belly swelling up from all the eating.
One advantage of her transformed form was that her appetite had shrunk too. If she were still in her original body, this entire lamb wouldn’t even be enough to get stuck between her teeth.
And if that were the case, the atmosphere she had planned for later would be completely ruined.
Ling Xiaoxiao called, but Shaya’s quick hand action sent the call straight to voicemail. When they didn’t have anything urgent, they used their phones. For real emergencies, they used the Superpowered Forces’s communication terminals, so hanging up didn’t cause any problems.
Back at the mountain villa, Ling Xiaoxiao stared at the rejected call and smirked coldly.
Xue Ji never hung up on her calls, and Lilith didn’t have the guts to do so either. That meant there was only one person who would do something like this.
“Shaya… very well. So you’ve learned to make your move ahead of schedule, have you?” She tossed the novel on her desk to the ground, equal parts amused and furious.
The butler, Xia Jin, witnessed the whole scene from the sidelines and felt an inexplicable excitement bubbling up inside him. Looks like more drama was on the menu.
On the other side, Shaya, who had just hung up the call, smiled with confidence.
There was no way she was going to let Ling Xiaoxiao come and ruin things tonight. Shaya had made up her mind: tonight, she was finally going to say what was in her heart.
After they finished eating, the two of them lay on the ground, gazing up at the starry sky. It was incredibly pleasant.
Shaya pulled out her phone to take a selfie of the two of them lying on the ground. To make sure her plan succeeded, she forcibly pressed Lilith back into the shadows, even though the latter kept trying to pop out and cause trouble.
Down in the shadows, Lilith did whatever she could to torment Shaya’s tail.
“Did something just happen?” Xue Ji asked.
Shaya pressed down hard on the shadows where Lilith was still struggling and forced a smile. “Nothing. Let’s take a photo.”
“You look a bit pale. Did you eat something bad?”
“Not at all. It’s probably just the lighting. Hahaha.”
Xue Ji looked at the sweat dripping from Shaya’s forehead and asked skeptically, “Really?”
“Of course it’s really,” Shaya ground out through gritted teeth, one word at a time.
The two of them lay on the grass and took a selfie together.
The warm glow of the campfire painted the white-haired girl in her long robe with a soft light. That warmth peeled away her naturally cool exterior, revealing the gentleness within all too clearly. The slight curve at the corner of her lips made it impossible to look away, as if the goddess of the moon herself had descended.
But the other person in the photo had a funny, goofy expression on her face. Her smile looked worse than crying, and her features were twisted into something almost frightening.
If it weren’t for her naturally striking good looks, this photo would have been a perfect shot of Beauty and the Beast.
‘Damn you, Lilith!’ Shaya turned her head and silently cursed in her heart.
‘Damn you, Shaya!’ Lilith complained from within the shadows. ‘If you’re sneaking off to eat without me, fine, but blocking me like this? What’s your problem!’
These two rivals had just added another grudge to their growing list.
But Xue Ji, standing right in the middle of this storm, had no idea what was going on.
She looked up at the countless stars scattered across the sky, and her mind couldn’t help but wander back to that figure who had gazed at her from afar.
But then, a soft sensation on her cheek snapped her out of her thoughts.
Shaya had transformed back into that young girl form again. She darted over and planted a kiss on Xue Ji’s cheek, then quickly pulled back, holding Xue Ji’s right hand with both of hers.
“A-Ji… I… I like you.” The beast-eared girl’s eyes shimmered with emotion, like rippling water under the moonlight.
Today wasn’t any special occasion. But with the campfire, the starlight, and the fireflies keeping them company, that was more than enough.
She wasn’t willing to just sit back and let Ling Xiaoxiao claim Xue Ji all for herself. If she didn’t have an opportunity, she would create one.
Xue Ji grew flustered by the sudden confession and tried to sit up, but Shaya stopped her.
“I… I…”v
