Without realizing it, Ah Yin had wandered to the grassland outside the city. She sat with her knees drawn up, wrapping her arms around her fair, slender legs, a hint of distress showing on her exquisitely beautiful face.
The wind swept across the wilderness, tousling the long hair beside her ears. Her tresses danced gently as bright moonlight spilled over her, lending her already breathtaking beauty the ethereal grace of an immortal descended to the mortal world.
Ah Yin was at a loss as to what to do. Some things, even when she understood them, were not something she could simply do because she wanted to.
"I probably shouldn't have left just now. Ugh..."
Ah Yin buried her face in her knees and could not help sighing.
"When you want to escape the world, you find somewhere deserted."
A clear male voice suddenly sounded behind Ah Yin. She instinctively turned and saw Ji Feng standing several meters behind her, though she had no idea when he had arrived.
"Sometimes, I also feel..."
He was just about to launch into a lengthy speech...
"Pfft!"
Once Ah Yin got a clear look at Ji Feng's face, she could not help laughing. Her laughter rang as sweetly as silver bells. "You even went out of your way to shave before coming to find me?"
"...I thought it would make me look a little younger."
Ji Feng looked somewhat awkward and embarrassed. Before heading out to find Ah Yin, he had decided he looked far too much like a middle-aged man and shaved first. With Nahida's dream authority and that conspicuous yellow exclamation mark, finding Ah Yin had not been difficult.
"You're already very young."
Ah Yin smiled faintly.
Although she had not actually lived a full hundred thousand years, she had indeed experienced tens of thousands of years. To her, the entire human race could be considered young.
"But you're right. Shaving made you look more than ten years younger all at once. You're very cute!" Ah Yin's eyes curved with her smile as she offered her heartfelt praise.
As she spoke, however, a question stirred within her. He came to see me with all that stubble the first time we met. Was it because he wasn't attracted to me and didn't care what I thought?
Her thoughts began to wander.
"I see. But appearance is only something external."
Ji Feng did not care about that. He walked straight over to Ah Yin and, without the slightest reservation, sat pressed close beside her.
Ah Yin blinked and tried to shift away a little in embarrassment, only for Ji Feng to catch her. As though it were perfectly natural, he said, "Don't move too far away. I'm cold."
"Oh!"
Hearing that, Ah Yin obediently leaned closer of her own accord, trying to warm him with her body heat.
"I have a secret I want to tell you, Ah Yin."
He spoke without expression.
"..."
Ah Yin did not know what to say and could only remain silent. She vaguely sensed that something about Ji Feng's entire demeanor had changed.
"I'm not human."
"Huh?!"
Ah Yin's eyes widened. She instinctively grabbed Ji Feng, circulating her soul power to examine his entire body. There was clearly not the slightest trace of a soul beast's aura. He was a genuine human!
Even if he were a mature-stage Human Transformation soul beast, another soul beast like her should have been able to detect some clue at such close range. Besides, he was only a Soul Scholar.
"You're lying! You're clearly human!"
After a moment, Ah Yin tossed his hand aside in annoyance.
She thought Ji Feng had come to trick her. As a deity, Nahida had most likely realized she was a soul beast, and Ji Feng had come to amuse himself at her expense!
At that thought, a touch of embarrassed anger colored Ah Yin's eyes.
"I'm not human, but I'm not a soul beast either. Do you really think a human could awaken a martial soul capable of summoning a deity?" Ji Feng asked in return.
Ah Yin felt that seemed reasonable, too, and asked curiously, "Then what are you?"
"...I..."
His brows slowly drew together, as though the question had stumped him. His gaze shifted slightly, settling on some nonexistent point in empty space. The corners of his lips moved as if he wanted to say something, but in the end, he merely sighed.
"Don't know either..."
"Although I have a human appearance, I can't understand human feelings or comprehend human suffering. To fit into human society, I keep thinking about what it means to be human, keep imitating, keep learning... But I understand that, in the end, I'm not human. I'm merely a creature that resembles one without truly being one."
Ji Feng's description sounded absurd, yet Ah Yin listened thoughtfully, even feeling that she shared his experience.
She quickly thought of herself. A nonhuman being imitating humans-that summed up every problem she had encountered after her soul beast transformation. Imitating their bodies, their appearances, and finally their culture, their language, their emotions. Yet for soul beasts, once their outward forms became human, human emotions soon flooded their hearts.
Ah Yin thought of soul beasts whose Human Transformations had failed. Perhaps Ji Feng had successfully imitated a human exterior but failed to imitate what lay within, leaving him empty inside.
"No matter what I do, I can't feel human emotions. I can't understand what joy means or what it means to cry. Living like this in human society, the only emotion I've learned is loneliness."
Ji Feng's voice remained so flat that it barely carried a ripple, yet Ah Yin sensed profound sorrow within it.
"Compared to noisy crowds, I prefer the quiet of night. Compared to festivals crowded with people, I prefer cool, deserted summer nights."
"When I first followed my instincts across mountains and rivers and reached a silent place without a soul in sight, the peace and the ache in my heart taught me what loneliness meant."
Ah Yin's eyes reddened slightly. Without a word, she gently took Ji Feng's cold hand and interlaced their fingers, trying to give him a little warmth through her own body heat.
"It's all right. From now on, I'll stay with you."
Ah Yin felt that the beauty before her was unbearably endearing. This soul, lonely in the mortal world, needed the tender care of someone like her, someone of his own kind!
She could hardly wait to make that promise. When she noticed that Ji Feng offered no resistance to her touch, wild delight became even harder to contain within her.
Her breathing grew a little heavier, but the refined, elegant Ah Yin suppressed the flames of her desire through sheer willpower, remaining outwardly calm and composed.
Her hand, however, naturally grew increasingly restless, following her heart as it slowly crept upward from his hand.
Feeling Ji Feng's masculine vigor, Ah Yin felt desire coil around her.
Before she knew it, Ah Yin had wrapped Ji Feng in a gentle yet lingering, firm embrace, letting him rest against her bosom. Her slender fingers, tender as young scallion shoots, brushed his face with utmost affection.
"Speaking of which, Feng, did you know I was a soul beast the very first time we met?" Ah Yin lightly pressed her cheek against Ji Feng's face. Feeling his cheek gradually heat up so close to hers, pleasure and satisfaction rose within her.
It seems you're not quite so devoid of emotion after all~
Ah Yin guessed that Ji Feng had most likely come to find her because he already knew, so she no longer tried to hide it.
The loneliness of a soul beast living alone in human society-who besides her could share that solitude with him? His coming to find her was precisely that-fate.
Ah Yin's face flushed peach-red, and she felt as though even her body had grown more alluring because of it.
Now, she was simply curious whether he had seen through her identity at their very first meeting.
"No, I didn't lie. Back then, I really did find you because of my martial soul's reaction." Enjoying Ah Yin's warm, soft embrace, Ji Feng felt as though he were floating into paradise and wanted to simply lose himself in her warmth.
Ah Yin ventured a guess. "In other words, your God of Wisdom martial soul only told you after our second meeting?"
"Mm. Well then, that's enough about me. Now it's your turn, Ah Yin!"
Before his words had faded, he suddenly turned, stretched out his long arm, and swept Ah Yin's graceful, soft body into his embrace. His movements were clean and decisive, without the slightest hesitation. Caught off guard, Ah Yin tipped forward with his pull, her forehead bumping lightly against his chest.
His body already held a fatal attraction for her. Ah Yin offered no resistance and even willingly nestled into his embrace, sinking her delicate body against that firm chest.
"Ah Yin, I want to know about you, too. And..."
A little displeasure and frustration seeped into Ji Feng's voice.
"Why exactly don't you want me to help?"
Ah Yin found it rather funny. It was just an offhand remark. Why does he care so much? How adorable~
"You really are still brooding over that."
Ah Yin smiled sweetly, her honeyed voice brushing Ji Feng's ear with wisps of warm breath.
"It's all right. I'll tell you everything, too. There, there~"
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