Unruly Eyes-Drool

He was going to die.

He, Kexi-the Kexi doted on by all the senior and junior sisters of the Mystic Sect-hadn't died on Qiuyuan's belly, and he hadn't died at Christopher's hands.

And now he was actually going to be strangled to death by a naked pink-haired girl beside a lake, with his bare ass hanging out?

If word of how he died got out, he wouldn't be able to face anyone even as a ghost.

Huh? Wait.

I can fight back.

He abruptly came to his senses, grabbed the girl's wrists with both hands, and wrenched them apart.

She was weaker than he'd imagined, so weak that it took only a fraction of his strength to pry her hands from his neck.

Holding her hands, Kexi pushed her off him and sat up.

He gasped for breath. Several red finger marks stood out on his neck where she had strangled him, and his throat burned.

Still panting, he looked at the girl before him, who couldn't move with her wrists in his grip. His face was full of bewilderment.

"Miss, um-I didn't know you were down there. Sorry. I really didn't mean to."

Aemeath struggled desperately to free herself, but his hands were like iron, not budging an inch.

She pulled and twisted and yanked with all her might, until her wrists were rubbed red, but his grip showed no sign of loosening.

Against this man, her strength was like a kitten trying to push a wall.

Her eyes reddened.

Her family's bodies were barely cold, and their killer was sitting right in front of her, yet she couldn't even break free of his hands.

She was too weak.

Too weak even to have the right to take revenge, so weak she could only watch helplessly as the murderer who had killed her entire family did whatever he pleased to her.

"Why..." The words came from deep in her throat, hoarse and broken.

The rage in her golden eyes was slowly drowned by tears. Those beautiful eyes filled with bitterness and despair, and tears rolled silently from them, falling one after another onto the backs of her own hands.

"Why am I so weak... Why can't I kill you..."

She cried harder and harder, her shoulders shaking violently. Her whole body went limp, as if all her strength had been drained away, but she kept repeating the same words over and over.

"Why... Why can't I kill you..."

Looking at her like this, Kexi suddenly felt a little uncomfortable.

He was completely bewildered right now-who was this woman? Why had she been hiding in the lake? Why did she want to kill him?

But seeing her cry like this, he instinctively felt that he had probably done something to wrong her.

Could it be because I peed in the lake while she was bathing?

Surely not. It was definitely rude, but it wasn't worth killing someone over.

"Um, there's no need to go that far." He released her wrists, trying to soften his tone. "What grudge could be that deep? It was just a bit of pee. I apologize, I sincerely apologize. I'm sorry, I'm sorry-"

But the girl clearly wasn't listening.

Her head was still lowered, her shoulders were still shaking, and her tears were still falling.

Kexi suddenly noticed something he'd overlooked in his panic-

She wasn't wearing any clothes.

Her long, wet pink hair clung to her body, barely covering some crucial parts. But overall, the girl's current state could be summed up as completely naked and entirely exposed.

Kexi's face flushed red.

He hurriedly shifted his gaze to the sky, a note of genuine embarrassment entering his voice. "Um-you're not wearing any clothes."

"Ah-!!"

Aemeath looked down at herself. In that instant, all her grief, indignation, killing intent, and desire for revenge were overwhelmed by a crushing wave of shame.

She let out a scream so loud Kexi thought his eardrums were about to burst. Then she sprang off him and leaped like an arrow loosed from a bow into the largest, densest cluster of bushes nearby.

A good chance.

He had no time to fasten his belt. Grabbing his waistband with both hands, he pulled up his pants and turned to run, without even fastening them properly.

His flying sword streaked behind him in a flash of light. He flipped onto it and shot across the lake's surface, becoming a blurred shadow. The wind he stirred up traced a long ripple across the water.

The rustling in the bushes stopped.

A moment later, Aemeath jumped out of the bushes, now dressed in white leather clothes.

Her eyes searched everywhere for the scumbag, but the shore was deserted, without a single person in sight.

Only the large patch of flattened grass proved that everything that had just happened wasn't an illusion.

He had run away.

The murderer who had killed her entire family had run away after humiliating her so vilely.

Aemeath stood on the deserted lakeshore.

She looked down at her hands, covered in bits of grass, then turned to look at the silent stretch of grass on the other side of the lake.

Her family was still lying there.

She took a deep breath and ran toward the grass. Mud coated her feet, and branches scraped her arms, but she paid them no mind.

More than a dozen Snowy Velvet Seals lay scattered across the grass.

Some were belly-up, some lay on their sides, and some were piled on top of one another.

Aemeath stood among the silent "corpses," her fingers slowly clenching.

Then her knees gave way, and she slid to the ground, bracing herself with both hands. Her fingertips dug into the earth, and her tears fell again.

"Family..." Her voice was hoarse and low, as though she were speaking to the bodies on the ground, and also as though she were making a vow to herself. "I, Aemeath, swear to the heavens-I will kill that bastard and avenge you."

Gurgle.

Her stomach growled.

It wasn't loud, but on this deathly silent stretch of grass, it was especially clear.

Aemeath's expression froze for a moment. Then she slowly lowered her head and looked at her flat stomach.

Having just taken human form, she needed to replenish a great deal of energy.

Her strength was exhausted, her body was trembling, and her limbs were weak. The intense emotions she'd just experienced had burned through every last bit of energy she had left.

Hungry.

Very hungry.

Extremely hungry.

So hungry that her stomach felt as though it had been twisted into a knot. So hungry that, looking at her family members who had just breathed their last, an unworthy thought popped into her head despite herself.

She shook her head hard, trying to shake the thought away.

But the thought was like a seed: once it landed, it took root, and no matter how she tried, she couldn't pull it out.

Her stomach growled again, louder and more urgently than before, sparing her even less dignity.

"No..."

Her voice trembled with tears, as though she were struggling with herself.

"No... I can't do that..."

Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle.

Her stomach protested for the third time, this time in a long series of growls, as though it were crying itself hoarse accusing her of cruelty.

She knelt on the ground, head bowed, and remained silent for a long time.

In the end, she built a fire and put the Snowy Velvet Seal-Seals over it.

"Family, I will avenge you. You are all the strength behind my revenge."

She knelt beside the fire, pressed her palms together, and closed her eyes in anguish.

"Wah..."

She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand, then wiped the drool that had escaped at the corner of her mouth.

"Smells so good."