Chapter 18
Hearing those words, Su Muyao’s expression changed. She began to rapidly absorb the natural energy around her, forcing her ability to grow stronger. But it would take time. She couldn’t stake her safety on someone else. Even if Hua Linye were to turn on her, she had to be able to defend herself.
Hua Linye let out a bewitching smile. “She is my Wife Master. I will not allow anyone to harm her.”
As he spoke, Hua Linye forcibly drew the magical weapon in his hand, channeling all the power in his body. From behind him, Su Muyao could feel the scorching heat of his flames, a red aura that seemed to envelop him completely. Even as a silhouette, he was dazzlingly beautiful.
“Swoosh, swoosh…”
Arrows shot toward the three giant, sharp-beaked birds. One of the arrows suddenly changed direction mid-flight, striking the beastman who had spoken.
“Pfft—”
He coughed up a mouthful of blood, staring at Hua Linye in disbelief. “You… you’re asking to die!” He never thought Hua Linye would risk his own life just to kill him.
The man’s eyes widened as he fell from the sky, incinerated by the flames. The other two giant bird beasts were also struck by arrows and killed, leaving nothing but dust.
Only then did Hua Linye turn back to Su Muyao, carefully checking her over. “Are you hurt? Do you feel unwell anywhere?”
Su Muyao shook her head. “I’m fine!” She looked at Hua Linye; his foxy eyes were now glowing crimson. “Hua Linye, what’s wrong with you?” She had heard what the sharp-beaked beastman had said.
Hua Linye was desperately trying to control himself, to keep from going berserk. But a sharp, splitting pain shot through his head, and his body began to tremble. The fire poison surged through him, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. He could barely maintain his human form before collapsing to the ground, fully transformed into his beast shape.
“Don’t… don’t come near me. I’ll hurt you.”
“Run…”
He had wanted to get away, to avoid harming her when he lost control, but he had exhausted all his energy using his weapon. He was too weak to move.
Looking at Hua Linye in this state, Su Muyao roughly understood what was happening. In that moment, her heart was moved.
“I’m not running, and I’m not leaving. You’re like this because you saved me. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
While she wasn’t some saint, she cherished the kindness of others. If someone showed her an ounce of goodwill, she would repay it twofold, even tenfold. Not to mention, he had saved her at the risk of his own life. She couldn’t just abandon him.
Hua Linye still clung to a thread of consciousness. Hearing her words, his foxy eyes trembled. Had he heard her right? Through his blurry vision, he met her earnest gaze.
Then, Su Muyao stepped forward and tentatively placed her hand on his head, releasing her healing ability into his body.
Hua Linye finally lost consciousness.
Su Muyao entered his sea of consciousness. Inside, she saw a small, young red fox, looking to be about five or six years old.
“Beat him to death.”
“He and his father both deserve to die.”
“Getting medicine? What medicine? Your father is a bastard, and so are you.”
“Your father used his foxy charms to scheme against the family head. You all deserve to die.”
“With that lowly red fur, you’re a disgrace.”
A crowd of people was kicking and punching him, but he didn’t make a sound. He just carefully protected something held in his arms.
Finally, when they were tired of yelling and hitting him, he got up and limped back to a courtyard. He stood at the gate of a dilapidated yard, gasping in pain. Then, he forced himself into his human form, wiped the dirt from his face, and went inside to start a fire to boil water and brew medicine.
Once the medicine was ready, he went to the bedside. “Father, it’s time to take your medicine.”
The figure on the bed was shrouded in a mist; she couldn’t see him clearly.
“Cough, cough… Linye, did they hit you again?”
Little Hua Linye tried to make his voice sound normal. “Father, I’m really fine. Father, drink your medicine. You’ll get better after you drink it.”
“Linye, if one day Father is gone, you have to live on.”
“Father, don’t say that. Linye can’t live without Father.” He was still just a child, and the words terrified him. His voice trembled and choked with sobs.
The person on the bed gently stroked Hua Linye’s hair and let out a long sigh.
The scene suddenly changed. The dilapidated courtyard was even more run down, and Hua Linye’s father grew sicker on a snowy day. Hua Linye went to beg the family head, kneeling before her.
“I beg the family head to ask the shaman to save my father. Please, I’m begging you, family head.”
That was his mother, but he didn’t dare call her that. He could only call her ‘family head’. But when he went to beg his mother, he wasn’t even allowed to see her. He was kicked out by the guards. He knelt for a long time, covered in wounds, but it was no use.
His father died on a snowy day. When he returned to the courtyard where they lived, he cried with suppressed sobs, only to be viciously cursed and beaten by others.
“You little bastard, you and your father both deserve to die.”
“Useless trash.”
“The family head despises your father and you the most…”
“No, the family head doesn’t even acknowledge your existence.”
Watching these scenes, Su Muyao’s heart ached. So this is what he had been through. He was so young.
Su Muyao wanted to pull him out of his spiritual sea, to protect him, but a barrier seemed to separate her from the scenes. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t break through.
Finally, she shattered the barrier and walked up to Hua Linye. She knelt and carefully scooped him into her arms. “It’s okay. Everything will be okay from now on.”
As she spoke, all of her wood-elemental ability surged into his body.
…
After Hua Linye had fallen into a berserk state, his mind was trapped in that period of his youth. His whole body ached, and he couldn’t save his father. Time and time again, he wanted to die with him. But he remembered his father’s words, telling him to live on.
Just as he was in despair, thinking he would die in the snow and wind, a light suddenly appeared in the courtyard. A woman walked out of the light. She seemed to embody all the beauty of the world, as elegant as an orchid in a secluded valley, ethereal and beautiful.
She smiled at him, and it was like sunshine. The aura around her was so pleasant, so warm. It made him want to get closer and closer.
“You are a good person. Don’t listen to what they say.”
So he was this beautiful even as a child, Su Muyao thought. His foxy eyes were like a sky washed clean by rain, so clear and lovely.
Warm rays of light enveloped him. His sea of consciousness was gradually being repaired. It was as if the snow and wind had dispersed, and his spiritual sea was now surrounded by the warmth of the sun.
Then, the him in his sea of consciousness transformed into his adult self. He looked at her, and his spiritual body, the nine-tailed red fox, instinctively wrapped around her, holding her tightly. A fox tail seemed to wind its way up her leg.
His foxy eyes took on a bewitching glow, and a numbing tingle shot through Su Muyao’s entire body.
“No, don’t…”
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