"Are you blaming ?" This was the first ti Wamiya had ever seen Ze Sheng so cold and aggressive. She had to admit, she was frightened.
Her eyes welled with tears. She blinked hard, pitifully squeezing out a couple of drops. "I missed you. I missed you so much. I woke up and you were gone without even a word. I just wanted to find you and bring you ho..."
Ze Sheng, "..."
The anger he had painstakingly built up began to deflate the mont the female before him said, "I missed you." By the ti she said, "I just wanted to find you and bring you ho," it had all leaked away without a trace.
His icy expression began to crack. He held it for a mont, but ultimately couldn’t stop his features from softening. He pulled her into his arms. "I... It was my fault. Sothing urgent ca up, so I forgot to tell you beforehand. I’m so sorry."
She wiped her tears away, aggrieved. "I thought you were going to abandon ."
Ze Sheng’s throat tightened. He paused, then sighed with a small laugh, reaching out to soothe her bristling back. "How could I possibly abandon you?"
From the very beginning, his greatest fear had always been that she would be the one to abandon him.
"Then from now on, you can’t just leave without a word. You can’t let not be able to find you. I get anxious when I can’t find you, and when I get anxious, I just want to run out and look for you..." The accused quickly turned the tables, becoming the accuser.
Ze Sheng was at a loss for words and could only chuckle and nod. Just as he was about to get up, a sharp pain shot through his body, forcing him to suck in a sharp breath.
He clutched his arm, his expression turning cold.
"You’re hurt." She quickly wiped away the two tears she had forced out, noticing the wound on his arm. Blood had already soaked through his fresh clothes, dyeing them red again.
He grunted in acknowledgnt. "A rather troubleso Beastman. He was difficult to deal with."
"Who was it?" she asked without thinking.
But an image of that Snake Beast flashed uncontrollably through her mind. Those blood-red eyes still filled her with a lingering fear.
Ze Sheng pressed his lips together and didn’t answer. He grabbed so dicine from a nearby wooden box, planning to apply it himself.
"Let help." Wamiya imdiately got off the bed and took the bandages.
He obediently stayed still, his eyes lowered, quietly watching her bustle about. Thinking about how weak she still was, he hesitated for two seconds before stopping her. "The wound is fine. You should rest. I can handle it myself."
But Wamiya ignored his protests, cleaning his wound and wrapping it with a bandage. Her voice was low and muffled. "You’re the one who shouldn’t be moving. Getting hurt this badly... I don’t like it."
A flicker of emotion crossed Ze Sheng’s eyes, and a faint warmth spread through his heart. He averted his gaze slightly.
Then she noticed the red mark at the corner of his lips.
In the span of a breath, the female’s soft, shapely body climbed into his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her slender fingers tracing over his thin lips before finally settling on the mark.
’A wound on such a handso, exquisite face is really a blight on the view. It makes one’s heart ache to see it.’
She frowned, then pulled his long neck down and pressed her own soft, delicate lips to his. After rubbing against them for a mont, she took his lip between hers and gently licked it.
There was blood.
She froze for a mont, then found herself hopelessly captivated by the taste, like a long-parched fish finding sweet dew.
Losing control of her hands, she pulled him down even further. What began as a soothing caress turned into a demanding suction.
Ze Sheng took a deep breath, the tips of his ears flushing red. "Don’t... don’t do this. Stop, Wamiya..." Her dense, exploratory touches made his heart race and his breath turn hot. His Adam’s apple bobbed several tis.
Reason told him he should stop her imdiately, but his body was helplessly addicted to the tingling numbness of being teased.
His breathing grew ragged, and his vision blurred.
As his blood passed to her lips, his Energy also began to drain away rapidly.
After months of continuous depletion.
His Energy was already far from what it was at its peak.
This was originally a thod of Energy exchange unique to their clan—
The original purpose was for partners to exchange Energy and advance together. But over generations, the males’ Energy generally beca far stronger than the females’, so it gradually transford into a one-sided taking.
Especially during a female’s childbearing period, they could unconditionally draw upon the male’s Energy.
With the loss of blood and Energy, Ze Sheng’s vision went black, and his head grew dizzy.
A short, soft moan escaped his throat.
"What’s wrong?" She finally stopped to look at him, blinking in confusion.
"...I’m fine."
He shook his head lightly, forcing himself to appear calm. Seeing her complexion turn rosy, he quickly forgot his own discomfort.
A respectful knock sounded at the door. A Beast Servant delivered a docunt.
A large trade agreent.
Wamiya changed into her beast form and curled up in his arms, her front paws struggling to climb onto the edge of the table. She strained to widen her round, enchanting purple beast eyes to read the docunt with him.
"Sheng’an Royal City?" Ze Sheng clearly hadn’t taught her to recognize many characters, yet she read the three words aloud with perfect clarity, as if she had said them countless tis before.
Ze Sheng’s fingers, holding the paper, tightened, creating faint creases. His voice was tinged with an imperceptible tension. "...What is it?"
"It’s... it’s so strange. That na, I..." She shook her head in confusion, trying to shake off the bizarre sense of familiarity. She lifted her chubby little chin, rested it on his arm, and mumbled, "The na of this city is so unusual. It’s different from the nas of other cities."
"Oh? How is it different?"
"It’s so obvious." Her words ca faster. "For example, look at Ice Bear City, Fiery Fla City, Beast Glory City... Oh, right, and your Unicorn King City. A lot of cities are nad after the ruling race or the local terrain."
"Perhaps the City Lord of that city hoped for it to be prosperous and peaceful?" Ze Sheng said after a mont of thought.
He reached out and carefully smoothed her ssy white fur, which had gotten rumpled after she rolled around. "What do you think?"
"I think it’s a great na! It’s so much more aningful than the nas of those other cities. If it were , I’d na a city like that too! So aningful!" she said, elated.
For once, Ze Sheng didn’t reply.
After a long mont, he said in a low voice:
"It is indeed a very aningful na."
...
「Deep Sea. Altar.」
The blue-haired rfolk’s eyes snapped open. He looked down, clutching at his chest where his heart was pounding.
A gap in his once-empty heart was suddenly filled with warmth again.
’Shark Pearl...’
’My Shark Pearl... it’s appeared again. I gave the Shark Pearl to An Jin long ago. After rging with her for so long, the pearl had already beco a part of her body.’
’The mont she died, the Shark Pearl’s power was extinguished along with her.’
’To sense the Shark Pearl again now... there’s only one possibility. Could it be... But how is that possible?!’
The elderly priest looked at the Shark King, whose expression was shifting indeterminately. Ten years ago, after returning to the sea, the boy Xi’s temperant had changed overnight, as if he had matured in a single day.
He had rarely seen him wear such a panicked and bewildered expression.
"What exactly has happened? Please, tell in detail," he said with a bow.
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