It was hardly strange for Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy to investigate Shrek's main lineup before the tournament. More than that, what Ju Zi most wanted to know was Huo Yuhao's news.
Bei Bei saw Huo Yuhao's expression and asked quietly, "Someone from Sun Moon?"
Huo Yuhao nodded.
Xiao Xiao frowned. "They want to figure out our order of appearance in advance?"
"Probably." Huo Yuhao put away the communication formation interference pattern without mentioning Ju Zi's name. "The tournament hasn't even begun, and Sun Moon is already preparing to target us."
Wang Dong'er understood Huo Yuhao too well. When he recognized that Sun-Moon Conduction Pattern, the brief, complicated yet familiar pause in his eyes suddenly made her realize that Wang Qiu'er had never been the only one around him.
Ju Zi had been the senior student who had taken great care of Huo Yuhao during his exchange at Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy. She was now the Crown Princess of the Sun Moon Empire.
Dong'er knew very little about their history, but she could still tell that they had never been ordinary friends.
Her thoughts churned, and unconcealable jealousy appeared on Dong'er's face.
After the review ended, Xuan Zi called Huo Yuhao to Sea God Pavilion to ask about Sun Moon's possible Soul Tool arrangements. Dong'er remained alone in Soul Tool Laboratory No. 3, where the Soul Tool Recording Formation from that night at the Abandoned Post Station lay on the table.
She did not need to use Soul Power to examine what had happened that night. She already knew the answer. Dong'er sat before the experimental table without moving for a long time.
She remembered when she had still been Wang Dong and shared a dormitory with Huo Yuhao. Back then, he had been terribly foolish. After cultivation, he would come back and collapse into sleep, and in battle, he would always share Spirit Detection with her first. Later, when she had returned to her female form, she remembered the delighted look in his eyes when he saw her by Sea God Lake.
They had not only fallen in love today. They had come this far little by little through countless times fighting side by side and countless brushes with death. That was why she had been willing to wait. But now, she was suddenly afraid. Afraid that if the person who came first kept waiting, fate would still push her behind everyone else.
When the laboratory door was gently pushed open, it was Huo Yuhao.
He saw Dong'er sitting alone at the experimental table in a daze, and his heart ached slightly. "Dong'er."
"Yuhao." She paused.
"Dong'er, why are you here alone..."
"What happened between you and her in the inner room of the Abandoned Post Station that night?" she interrupted his concern.
Huo Yuhao's throat felt clogged as he said softly, "I didn't mean to hide it from you."
Dong'er smiled faintly. "Then why didn't you tell me?"
Her words were soft, yet heavier than any roar.
Huo Yuhao fell silent for a moment before finally saying, "I was afraid you'd be angry, and I thought it was an accident." He wanted to say it had been the formation, that Qiu'er had used her Soul Power to purify his Spirit Sea, that the backlash in his Spirit Sea had been too severe at the time.
Wang Dong'er's eyelashes trembled lightly. She did not immediately lose her temper, only looked at him and asked, "Was it only a kiss?"
Huo Yuhao's fingers slowly clenched, and his voice grew lower. "Yes."
The laboratory was so quiet that only the faint operation of the soul tool formation remained. Dong'er stood and walked before him, her fingers gently touching his lips. "I used to think there would only ever be each other between us. I never had to worry about anyone taking you away. Because I came first, I understood you best, and I was the one you would turn back to without needing an explanation."
Her eyes reddened, but she did not cry. "But now I'm afraid. Afraid someone will take you away, afraid that if I keep waiting, even what I treasure most will be taken before I can have it."
Huo Yuhao reached out to pull her close, but Dong'er stepped back.
Huo Yuhao panicked.
"Dong'er."
"Don't call me in that voice." Dong'er looked up. "You know I'm not here to listen to you apologize."
Huo Yuhao's outstretched hand stopped at once.
Dong'er gathered Soul Power and swept her hand behind her, activating an Isolation Array. Then she slowly approached Huo Yuhao, grabbed the front of his clothes, and brought her nose close to his face. "If you only feel guilty tonight, then don't touch me."
Huo Yuhao's entire body stiffened. Dong'er's voice was low, but every word was clear. "I'm not here to compete with her, and I'm not here to force you to compensate me. I only want to ask you this: do you love me?"
Huo Yuhao looked at her as countless scenes flashed before his eyes. During her days as Wang Dong, she had squeezed into the same dormitory with him, complaining that he cultivated like a madman while always guarding the door for him. At Sea God Lake, when she returned to her female form, his heart had raced with delight. Every time they fought side by side, her aura of light had been like a beam shining into the coldest part of him.
He loved her not because he had met her first, but because she had long since become part of his life.
"I love you... I love you, Dong'er." Huo Yuhao's voice trembled slightly.
"Because you feel guilty?"
"No."
"Because I've been with you longer?"
"No."
"Then why?"
Huo Yuhao took her hand and gently pressed it against his heart.
"Because you are Wang Dong'er."
As those words fell, the coldness Wang Dong'er had been forcing herself to maintain finally cracked.
She suddenly kissed him. A faint flush colored the corners of her eyes as she gazed at Huo Yuhao through misty eyes and pressed on, "Then do you want me now?"
It was not a test, not reconciliation, and not tender coquettishness. This kiss carried the grievance, jealousy, and possessiveness she had suppressed all night, as though she wanted to forcibly reclaim from him the golden traces left by that night in the inner room of the Abandoned Post Station.
Huo Yuhao remembered the promise he had made to return with Dong'er to the Clear Sky Sect. He had kept restraining himself, yet his breathing still grew heavier as he answered, "I do."
Dong'er noticed and became a little angry instead. She bit the corner of his lips, then pulled back half an inch when his breathing became uneven. "Are you still going to hold back now?"
Huo Yuhao's Adam's apple bobbed. "Dong'er."
"Don't just keep calling my name." She gripped his collar, the corners of her eyes deeply red. "Aren't you good at enduring? Then when she came close to you that night, why didn't you push her away?"
Huo Yuhao froze, yet he still could not suppress his increasingly heavy breathing. Dong'er's chest ached with bitterness, but she reached up and touched the fine beads of sweat on Huo Yuhao's forehead.
"Are you suffering?"
Huo Yuhao did not answer.
"Have you ever thought about how much I've suffered these past few days?" As she spoke, her tears finally fell. "So tonight, you're not allowed to hide. You're not allowed to go anywhere."
The Isolation Array lit up, and blue-gold Soul Power sealed the windows and door inch by inch. The lake breeze, the footsteps of the night patrol, and the low hum of soul tools were all pushed far away. Dong'er's hair ribbon fell to the floor, but she stepped on one end of it, refusing to let Huo Yuhao bend down to pick it up.
"Don't worry about useless things like that." Her voice remained cool, but its final note had already become unsteady.
Huo Yuhao lowered his head and kissed her. His kiss was slow but heavy, as though he wanted to show her, little by little, all the feelings he had not dared speak of over the years and all the desire he had not dared admit these past days. Dong'er would push him away and complain that he was too impatient. Yet when he truly slowed down, she would seize his collar and refuse to let him retreat. This back-and-forth entanglement tormented Huo Yuhao until his whole body burned, and his breathing became impossibly deep.
"Do you understand how torturous this is now?" Dong'er teased. "This is how I've suffered these past few days."
Those words were like the final spark falling into Huo Yuhao's reason, which was already on the verge of snapping. He clasped her wrist and pulled her back from the formation wall into his arms. Dong'er drew in a quiet breath, her fingers instinctively tightening around his collar. She saw that Huo Yuhao's eyes no longer held only guilt and restraint, but something deeper and hotter, a possessiveness that made her heart go numb. She wanted to retreat a little, but the moment she turned away, Huo Yuhao followed—not roughly, but without leaving her room to prop herself up with cold laughter and old grievances again.
"Yuhao..." she murmured. Her body had already gone soft as she lightly grasped his hand.
Huo Yuhao said softly, "Dong'er... look at me... it's you now. Only you."
Tears fell from her eyes, yet the corners of her lips lifted slightly. "Then remember that."
Wang Dong'er bit her lip, her breathing wildly uneven as more tears fell. Yet she slowly released his hand, allowing his fingers to continue undoing her buttons. The sound of fabric slipping away was especially clear in the silent Isolation Array. Her snowy shoulders were exposed to the air, carrying a faint scent of sweat. Huo Yuhao's kisses fell upon her shoulder and slowly moved lower.
Dong'er trembled as she held him tightly, her fingertips leaving faint red marks on his back. "Yuhao... don't..."
Huo Yuhao sensed her tension and fear. His throat tightened as he forcibly suppressed his nearly uncontrollable heartbeat and asked quietly, "Are you afraid?"
Dong'er bit her lip and did not answer immediately.
Of course she was afraid.
This was not the brief tenderness of leaning against one another after fighting side by side countless times. This was her truly deciding to give herself to him. She had imagined it many times. It should have been after the Clear Sky Sect gave its approval, after everyone acknowledged them. It should have been more proper, gentler, and without so many thorns.
But it was not like that now. Now, there was pain in her heart, jealousy, unwillingness, and the fear that if she kept waiting, fate would push her away. Dong'er raised her eyes to him, her voice so low it was almost inaudible.
"I'm afraid."
Huo Yuhao's heart paused, and his breathing slowed. He loosened his hold on her slightly, resting his forehead against hers without going any further.
"Then we'll stop."
Wang Dong'er was stunned. She reproached him softly, "Now you know how to stop?"
"Dong'er, I want to... I want to so badly... but if you're taking this step only because you're afraid Qiu'er will take me away, because you're unwilling to lose, then I can't..."
She looked at him for a very long time before asking, "Will you take responsibility?"
Huo Yuhao barely hesitated. "I will."
She lowered her head to look at their clasped hands. She saw that her fingertips were still trembling, and she saw that although Huo Yuhao was suffering terribly from restraint, he had truly stopped. Suddenly, she was no longer so afraid. He had not treated her fear as something to be taken for granted. Dong'er raised her hand and gently pinched his handsome face.
"Huo Yuhao."
"Yes."
"I'm still afraid." Yet she moved closer, took his hand, guided it downward, and kissed his lips again. Her voice trembled softly amid their mingled breaths.
"But I've thought it through."
At that moment, Huo Yuhao's reason completely wavered. He picked her up and placed her on the soft cushion beside the experimental table, his movements gentle as though he were handling his most precious treasure. As their bodies intertwined, Dong'er trembled lightly, crying as she bit Huo Yuhao's shoulder and said it hurt, yet in the next moment, she tightly embraced his broad back. Huo Yuhao soothed her in a low voice, but he did not stop. Blue-gold light intertwined with Ultimate Ice, slowly flowing where they joined, like the gentlest and most fervent response.
The light of the Isolation Array closed completely.
That night, there was no battle formation review or fate deduction in Soul Tool Laboratory No. 3.
Much later, Wang Dong'er lay against his chest, her hair scattered over her pale shoulders. Her voice was terribly hoarse, yet she still gave him a light bite, carrying a hint of satisfied nasal softness.
"Do you remember?"
Huo Yuhao held her tightly and kissed her sweat-dampened forehead. "I remember."
"Remember what?"
"It's you, Dong'er. You are the first person I wanted to protect, and the one I most want to protect."
Dong'er closed her eyes and blinked softly. "That's more like it."
At the end of the corridor, Wang Qiu'er was drawn over by the final lingering ripple of light from the Isolation Array.
She had not heard everything, but she saw the platinum light spilling through the crack in the door gradually dim, and she also sensed that a deeper mark of light than before had appeared in Huo Yuhao's Spirit Sea.
This time, she only stood there for a long while, gripping the Golden Dragon Spear before turning and leaving.
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