MORIC - Chapter 140

Chapter 140: Whose Fever Rivals Their Heat?

The enchantress released her hands. Chi Yueshan took a moment for her eyes to adjust to the light before cupping Xi Zhoumeng's face in the dim, natural glow to take a look.

"You haven't turned into some green-faced, long-fanged monster."

"Are you trying to get me to praise you again, saying you're so beautiful you could make someone drool a river?"

Perhaps because it was a rare opportunity to manhandle Xi Zhoumeng's face, Chi Yueshan couldn't resist giving it a few extra squishes.

Xi Zhoumeng blinked. "Really? Then why aren't you drooling?"

Perhaps because they were all alone, or perhaps because the torrential rain still poured like a waterfall outside the cave, Chi Yueshan threw her shame to the wind. "You kissed all my drool away."

Xi Zhoumeng laughed out loud and suddenly ducked her head to wrap her arms around Chi Yueshan's waist.

Caught off guard, Chi Yueshan was pushed straight down, only to find that Xi Zhoumeng's jacket had been laid out on the ground behind her.

The woman's mysophobia was truly ingrained, not diminishing one bit even out in the wild.

But as she fell, Chi Yueshan got a clear view of the tail behind Xi Zhoumeng, still fluffy despite being soaked by the rain.

Chi Yueshan: "Holy crap! What kind of monster are you!"

Xi Zhoumeng buried her face in Chi Yueshan's chest and whimpered, "I'm not a monster."

Her tone was light, but her mind was still in a daze. The Zerg Queen's consciousness invasion had ceased, but perhaps due to a chain reaction from the earlier mental struggle, Xi Zhoumeng discovered she could now sense the Zerg's approach.

She wondered if Xi Mingguang was on her way.

She wondered if Wen Xinghuo and the others would be alright.

I really don't want anyone else to see me like this.

The snow-white tail that had sprouted on Xi Zhoumeng out of nowhere was still visibly fluffy despite being soaked, and it even seemed to have its own shimmer, brightening the dim cave.

Chi Yueshan let out a "wow." "Can it double as a flashlight?"

She reached out to touch it, curious about where it had grown from, only to discover that Xi Zhoumeng's pants had somehow turned into a skirt.

Xi Zhoumeng was like a limp noodle draped over her. She grunted, "Don't touch it, it feels strange."

Chi Yueshan replied, "But you're poking me in a strange way, too."

The tail was thick, and its fur was silky smooth. It was actually quite nice to touch.

Chi Yueshan looked down but didn't notice any changes to Xi Zhoumeng's face.

"Didn't you tell me you were a normal person? You can't be a monster. What interstellar year are we in? Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio is from five thousand years ago."

"Although, I guess I could be considered a poor scholar."

Chi Yueshan looked at Xi Zhoumeng's ears, a little disappointed. "How come they didn't turn into those floppy, droopy ears?"

Xi Zhoumeng hadn't expected this kind of reaction from her.

It was one thing for her not to be scared, but to actually find it unsatisfactory was another.

But Xi Zhoumeng didn't know what the previous God's Arbiters had been like.

In any case, their power had been mostly drained by the Magnetic Star Meteorite, and they had all died young.

The Queen had said she was the most powerful God's Arbiter in generations, but Xi Zhoumeng had no idea how many more years she herself could hold on.

She didn't particularly want to live, but she couldn't die even if she tried.

A normal person could die by suicide, but she would survive any torment until she reached the natural end of her lifespan.

If it weren't so nauseating, Xi Zhoumeng might even think that being a God's Arbiter was a bit like being a janitor.

Xi Zhoumeng asked, "Aren't you scared? That I might eat you, for example."

Chi Yueshan suddenly reached out and slapped her butt. Xi Zhoumeng let out a yelp, her voice suddenly taking on a melodious quality. Anyone who didn't know better might have thought she was moaning in pleasure.

Chi Yueshan coughed. "I'm not a child. Why would I be afraid of things like that?"

She cupped Xi Zhoumeng's face again, trying her best to ignore the tingling sensation on her chest where the other woman had taken the opportunity to bite her, and gave Xi Zhoumeng a once-over.

Her fingernails were much longer, and fluffy, upright ears had sprouted from her head. Her hands and feet were still hairless, and the only other change was the tail at her coccyx.

Chi Yueshan said, "It doesn't seem like that big of a deal."

"And why are you biting your lip? Don't you spend millions of Star Coins on lip masks every month?"

Xi Zhoumeng kept her mouth tightly closed, and Chi Yueshan sensed something was wrong.

"Open your mouth, let me see."

Xi Zhoumeng shook her head.

Chi Yueshan said, "You don't have a super long tongue, do you? Are you some kind of snake-canine hybrid? Ugh, I've never even seen a real canine. It's so annoying. Why don't we have any in our galaxy?"

Xi Zhoumeng grew angry. She wanted to curse at her but couldn't bring herself to open her mouth too wide.

Chi Yueshan gave her waist a hard pinch.

She was naturally strong, and even though Xi Zhoumeng was powerful herself, she was no match for Chi Yueshan's strength.

Otherwise, the two of them wouldn't have been able to go at it for three hundred rounds, trading blows back and forth.

Xi Zhoumeng still cried out in pain. The next second, her chin was seized, and Chi Yueshan saw her fangs.

She asked thoughtfully, "Are you a legendary... dog?"

Xi Zhoumeng rolled over to the side. Both of them were soaking wet. The cave was dry, but when the wind and rain blew in, it was still very cold.

Xi Zhoumeng's body was burning hot. Thinking she had a fever, Chi Yueshan reached out to feel her forehead.

She was terrified the young lady would burn up and die from a fever out here in the wilderness.

Xi Zhoumeng retorted, "You're the dog."

Chi Yueshan asked, "Then what are you?"

Xi Zhoumeng was suddenly at a loss for words, because she didn't know what the hell she was either.

Chi Yueshan didn't press the issue. After all, her whole body was uncomfortable, and yet, while pinned to the ground, she somehow still had the presence of mind to tug at Xi Zhoumeng's unconsciously swaying tail.

She called out again, "Hey! Your pheromones are going wild! They're so bitter!"

Xi Zhoumeng tried to calm down, but her senses were too powerful. Resisting the Zerg Queen's consciousness had been a touch-and-go situation, and the tremors in her soul, along with the Secondary Differentiation of her secondary gender, had instantly begun to trigger changes in her body.

Xi Mingguang had been right. She would change when the Zerg Tide arrived.

Normally, a Zerg Tide wouldn't reach the capital planet unless the entire front line had been annihilated.

Xi Zhoumeng just felt hot, itchy, pained, and miserable.

Her vision blurred, and the high fever made scenes from her past flash before her eyes: the censure she faced in her youth, the bitter curses from her birth mother and father, the cold reprimands from the woman who was both her grandmother and her mother in name.

And finally, the hypocritical blessings.

Can people really be so heartless?

And how can they be so compassionate, all for the sake of humanity?

Compassion is just another form of indifference.

Everything in this world comes at a price.

The lives of the people in the ZR-Galaxy were what Xi Zhoumeng had traded herself for.

So to have Chi Yueshan, what price must I pay?

Chi Yueshan never heard Xi Zhoumeng's answer. She turned to find that the person who'd just had the energy to bite her was now deliriously muttering nonsense.

"A price..."

"Do I need to pay a price?"

Xi Zhoumeng's body had gone ice-cold. Chi Yueshan sighed. "Are you in heat? Because I'm not."

"That can't be right. We saw Dr. Hongsa before we left, didn't you have her give you an injection?"

"Here..."

Chi Yueshan glanced outside. Unfortunately, it was difficult for her to avoid being affected by Xi Zhoumeng.

After all, they were so intimate, and so were their souls.

Only I know how good Xi Zhoumeng is.

Xi Zhoumeng clutched Chi Yueshan's hand. Her tail seemed to droop in response to its owner's state of mind, lying to one side like a broom that had swept the surrounding dust away.

Chi Yueshan stared at the tail, then at Xi Zhoumeng's flushed face.

She reached out to brush a stray strand of hair from the other woman's face, sighing, "I've lived this long, and I still haven't... still haven't..."

Even with no one else around, she was too embarrassed to say it out loud.

"When will you get over this problem of yours!"

"Every time, it happens without warning, and you look like you're on the verge of death. I worry myself sick."

She even threw a punch at Xi Zhoumeng, but it landed as a gentle pat on her back, as if she were soothing a child. Finally, she pulled Xi Zhoumeng into her embrace.

Xi Zhoumeng was still murmuring. A person with S+ spiritual power was actually quite weak after having their consciousness invaded.

At a time like this, the pheromonal imbalance triggered by the Zerg Tide, combined with the tremors from the Magnetic Star Meteorite and her soul, nearly sent Xi Zhoumeng back to the night she had slaughtered her own people.

Killing isn't hard at all.

There's nothing wrong with being driven by hatred. She'd had enough, anyway.

But happiness was always fleeting. The phrase "day in and day out" looked terrifying; when Xi Zhoumeng was five, she would just skip over it whenever she read it.

At fifteen, she felt no one in the royal family was worthy of it.

After all, the more magnificent something was, the more rotten it was within.

This year, she was twenty, and upon meeting Chi Yueshan, "day in and day out" finally seemed like a tangible possibility.

At this moment, as the storm raged and a tide of passion churned, the Secondary Differentiation from the reset timeline arrived once more.

In that future, her union with that other Chi Yueshan had been a bloodbath. Compounded by the urgent circumstances, it had been terrifyingly brutal.

That Chi Yueshan had been terrified, too. There had been no preamble, and their one-hundred-percent compatibility rate made refusal impossible.

She had called Xi Zhoumeng a beast. Perhaps a woman with a wagging tail really was a beast.

Without a word of explanation, she had driven forward, her fangs breaking past the lips of her former love rival. It was just like their destiny—even though that Xi Zhoumeng had no interest in love, she was still drawn to Chi Yueshan.

Their union was an inevitable bloodletting in each other's lives. Through biting and grappling, they carved an intersection into their separate paths, one that signified both absolute submission and a constant struggle.

As she fell into her depths, an irreversible, blood-soaked future was destined to be born.

Right now, Xi Zhoumeng couldn't distinguish the future from the past.

Reminded by the system, she had made full preparations, even packing her own bag, all to avoid hurting Chi Yueshan.

But subconsciously, she was still afraid—afraid of a future where a new life would be created.

But more than a new life, Xi Zhoumeng feared a future without Chi Yueshan.

Then what's the point of my existence?

Chi Yueshan held Xi Zhoumeng in her arms, shyly coaxing her in the dim cave. "It's okay."

She could feel Xi Zhoumeng's fear.

And she was a little happy, too. This vulnerable side of Xi Zhoumeng belongs to me as well.

Only I get to see it.

Xi Zhoumeng's breath ghosted over Chi Yueshan's chest, her collar having been pulled open at some point. The tattoo there had long since changed; Chi Yueshan had carved the other woman into the depths of her heart.

Xi Zhoumeng squinted, sweat rolling down her cheeks and dripping onto Chi Yueshan's skin, so hot it made her tremble.

She asked in a low voice, "Will you be scared?"

Chi Yueshan shook her head. In truth, even when she and Xi Zhoumeng were together, sleeping in the same bed and doing intimate things, they rarely spoke words of love.

Perhaps her turbulent childhood had taught Chi Yueshan the inadequacy of words, or perhaps it was because the elder she had relied on in her youth was as silent as a mountain.

And yet, Chi Yueshan was naturally a chatterbox, full of nonsense but unable to say the right sweet things.

She would only feel regret after fighting with Xi Zhoumeng, reflecting afterward that she shouldn't have been so impulsive.

But...

But with Xi Zhoumeng, it's okay to just be my true self, right?

She's the only one in this world, the only person who belongs to me.

She lowered her gaze, placing a peck on Xi Zhoumeng's eye before kissing her cheek, right on that blood-red mole.

It felt as if it were searing Chi Yueshan's very soul.

It was clearly the brand Xi Zhoumeng had left on her.

"I'll give you anything."

Xi Zhoumeng bit down on her tattoo, her fangs piercing Chi Yueshan's skin. The sharp pain was accompanied by the empathic link triggered by their one-hundred-percent match.

In almost the same instant, Chi Yueshan, too, was set ablaze with an unbearable heat.

The passion that was stirred up was even more torrential than the downpour outside the cave. Before they had even begun, the clothes they had laid out were already soaked.

Xi Zhoumeng let out a low laugh. "Don't you regret this."

---

Thunder rolled amidst the torrential rain, and mist settled once more over the valley.

Wen Xinghuo picked up the pen Chi Yueshan had dropped, while Ling Xun picked up a card from the ground. She found that aside from illustrations of plant seeds, it was covered in Xi Zhoumeng's name.

Chi Yueshan's handwriting wasn't particularly beautiful, just neat and proper.

It was a bit like a child's script, yet it conveyed a sense of immense earnestness, every single stroke a heartfelt sentiment.

Ling Xun lowered her eyes, feeling a little envious of such fervor.

She had been dreaming frequently of late—dreaming of the past, or rather, what wasn't quite the past.

After all, the protagonist was her, yet not her.

That Ling Xun didn't attend Guyun Academy, had no ability to pilot a mecha, and had no family to support her studies.

That Ling Xun had nothing, having even lost her own sister.

The only person who was close to her was her cousin, Xi Shuang.

The cousin who, in the elders' words, was both promising and yet couldn't seem to let things go.

With A+ spiritual power, there was no need for her to join the military. She had passed up the best finance academy to insist on testing into Guyun Academy, getting into the Alpha division through both practical and written exams.

Her family couldn't control the stubbornness of their only daughter, and since Xi Shuang had always been good at coaxing people, the elders were helpless and just let her have her way.

Xi Shuang was beautiful, a very spirited Alpha who seemed to be perpetually brimming with energy. Her charming, almond-shaped eyes always held a smile, and anyone who saw her would think she was blessed with unfairly good looks.

But it was hard for Xi Shuang to maintain this air; the moment she was around someone she knew, she'd lose all her composure.

She was like that in front of the Ling Xun in her dreams, which wasn't much different from how she was now. She had a good temper and always brought something with her when she came to see Ling Xun.

The latest popular mechanical toys, an antique clockwork ring from some master's auction—whatever other children had that her family wouldn't give her, Xi Shuang would find a way to get for her.

She was only a cousin, and after Ling Xun's mother died, their family ties had all but been severed, yet Xi Shuang still took great care of her.

Knowing her health was poor and that she was only ever accompanied to her hospital check-ups by inattentive servants, Xi Shuang would take time off to go with her.

Xi Shuang lacked for nothing, especially not money. Money could buy services, yet she still fretted over why her younger cousin never smiled.

At first, Ling Xun felt the dream was too fake, but later, it began to feel all too real.

Because when she considered her own disposition, the dream became entirely plausible.

For example, suicide.

Not to mention that kind of regret.

At this moment, as the mountain rain swirled, an unfamiliar roar made one's heart pound. Something unknown was approaching from all sides, capable of sending a sudden, hair-raising chill down one's spine.

Xi Shuang leaned over to look at the card in Ling Xun's hand, then snuggled up to her affectionately and took the paper. "Xiao Yueshan really likes Zhoumeng, huh."

She sighed. "I guess feelings don't care about secondary gender. That's nice."

Ling Xun didn't push Xi Shuang away. She asked in return, "Then does status matter?"

Xi Shuang let out a little "ah," but before she could answer, she heard Wen Xinghuo yell—

"Watch out!"

Another loud roar echoed. In an instant, Wen Xinghuo had activated her mecha. She instantly maneuvered the 【War God】 to draw the long sword from its flank and slice through a giant insectoid that had appeared out of nowhere.

Green ichor, accompanied by a foul stench, corroded the pavilion's floor tiles. The severed limbs of the low-grade Zerg were still twitching. Sheng Yangkui's face went pale, but she didn't flinch, and even looked as if she were about to charge forward.

The next second, Wen Xinghuo grabbed her and tossed her into the mecha's cockpit.

Xi Shuang's back slammed against a pillar. She watched in horror as another low-level creature was hacked to bits by Wen Xinghuo.

"Holy crap, you guys weren't kidding! This is actually dangerous???"

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