Xie Xuan's consciousness had been scorched and eroded by the sunlight from that single glance, almost to the point of complete collapse, just like when she was still alive... Every time she stepped into the sunlight, she would be hurt by that bright light.
She felt someone holding her, the arm around her waist strong and firm, but in her hazy consciousness, this was distorted into chains binding her.
No...no! Even if she dies in the sunlight, she doesn't want to be taken back and imprisoned in the darkness!
Xie Xuan gripped Feng Xun's arm tightly and pulled it down with desperate force. Her forearm and the back of her hand were covered with sunburn marks. Only the part of her soul that was wearing the clothes Feng Xun had given her remained intact. But the erosion from the sunlight in the human world was like a virus, constantly spreading deeper from the wounds.
Feng Xun felt the force of her resistance. His thin lips pressed together, and his gaze swept over the white light flashing on the mirror platform. A hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.
He then discovered that Xie Xuan's soul had been judged innocent under the Mirror of Retribution. Initially, he had shared the same thought as King Qin Guang: that Xie Xuan may have committed many evil deeds in her lifetime—perhaps not voluntarily, but she must have done them.
But the Mirror of Retribution revealed that Xie Xuan's soul was innocent.
Xie Xuan's resistance prevented him from thinking any further. He couldn't let go of her. Xie Xuan's soul was collapsing due to the deterioration of her consciousness. If he released her, her soul would disintegrate directly—not because she was shattered by something real, but because her own consciousness began to perish.
A soul detached from its body is so fragile; a single thought can damage it. Faced with this situation, Feng Xun could only try to relax his protective barrier and approach Xie Xuan more equally, which meant that he was no longer as strong and indestructible as before.
Xie Xuan found that she couldn't pry off the arm that was wrapped around her waist no matter what she did. Her fierceness rose under her slightly lowered eyelashes. She turned her head and used the most primitive way of attacking, biting his upper arm.
At that moment, she smelled a strong stench of blood. She bit through the clothes with her teeth, and warm blood flowed onto her tongue. Unlike the snake she had killed before, its blood was hot.
She was indeed unfamiliar with the taste of blood, and in an instant, a feeling of nausea rose in her throat. Xie Xuan clung to his arm and coughed violently. At this moment, with her consciousness relaxed, the blood belonging to the divine race came into contact with her body and began to heal her soul without explanation. All the marks burned by the scorching sun began to slowly heal.
Feng Xun's brows furrowed slightly in pain. He felt Xie Xuan's descent into unconsciousness finally begin to stop. At the same time, the bloody bite wound on his upper arm began to heal. Although he had lowered his defenses and been genuinely injured by her, he could recover quickly. After recovering, he looked down at Xie Xuan, who had collapsed into his arms, his compassionate gaze sweeping over every scratch on her face.
He thought he knew what was going on now.
Xie Xuan regained consciousness and opened her eyes to find Feng Xun's gentle gaze fixed on her with his eyes lowered. She squinted; her memories of the time before she fainted were hazy and fragmented, and she couldn't recall what happened after the Mirror of Retribution was exposed to sunlight. Her memory had always been poor; sometimes, she didn't need a good memory to forget the pain she had suffered.
Feng Xun didn't mention that she had bitten him. He simply handed her the hot water on the table and spoke in a soft but firm voice: "Is it an illness?"
These two words seemed to touch upon some forbidden taboo. Xie Xuan stared intently at him, silent as a deep pool, her gaze sharp as a knife, as if trying to dissect his head and probe his consciousness.
How did he know? Xie Xuan turned her head away without saying a word; she didn't take the cup of hot water.
"You couldn't be exposed to sunlight while you were alive, so even after you die, you feel that you should be afraid of sunlight. The light in the human world is just an illusion, but it can attack your consciousness because you feel that it is dangerous and will hurt you." Feng Xun revealed Xie Xuan's secret in just a few carefully chosen words.
"So, is it an illness?" He leaned forward and asked Xie Xuan again, his concerned gaze creating a strange contrast with the hideous ghost mask on his face.
"How should I know?" Xie Xuan raised her voice to shake off his persistent gaze. "I'm dead, I'm a ghost, isn't it normal for me to be afraid of sunlight?"
She stubbornly denied her past, but Feng Xun had already reached out and gently touched the hem of her clothes: "Have you forgotten what you're wearing?"
"Clothes." Xie Xuan thought to herself that she was no longer that wicked ghost who had just been pulled out of the water and knew nothing.
Feng Xun: "..." This is my tail hair!
"Fine," he sighed helplessly, "It can protect you from external harm. Even if you go to the human world now, nothing can hurt you under its protection."
Xie Xuan had to admit that the injuries she had just suffered were all psychological; the painful memories were so profound that they could almost transcend time and shatter her soul again.
She was unwilling to admit that Feng Xun had found the truth, and became awkward again: "I got hurt, probably because this dress wasn't good enough. If you resent me for getting hurt—which would damage your wise image as the Ghost King of Fengdu—I'll take it off."
After speaking, she directly ripped the silk ribbon wrapped around her chest, and the soft outer robe slid down her shoulder. Feng Xun's gaze swept over her fair shoulders, and he quickly turned his face away, a blush rising on his face.
"Don't do this—" He was genuinely startled, and although his words were somewhat flustered and helpless, they were still spoken slowly and deliberately.
"That's how it should be." Xie Xuan resented that he had imprisoned her in Fengdu and often disobeyed him.
She tugged at her clothes, which were in the way, but then touched a damp spot on the soft fabric of her outer robe. She rubbed it between her fingers and felt a sticky, wet sensation.
Xie Xuan smelled a familiar yet unfamiliar scent of blood. It was the blood that had dripped onto her body when she bit Feng Xun not long ago. Her clothes were black, and the crimson blood dripped almost without leaving a trace, so Feng Xun hadn't noticed it.
She paused for a moment, then began to carefully examine where the bloodstains originated from.
Feng Xun kept his face turned away from her and didn't look at her. After a while, he heard Xie Xuan stop making noise and quiet down—this quietness was incredibly peculiar for her volatile nature.
Therefore, he could only carefully shift his gaze back. When he saw the little bit of bright red blood on Xie Xuan's fingertip, he panicked for the first time. He didn't want Xie Xuan to know that he had been bitten by her while trying to save her.
"Dirty." He made up an excuse, pulled a white handkerchief from his sleeve, and wiped Xie Xuan's fingers several times with deliberate care.
Xie Xuan never thought the blood was his; she was just wondering if she would bleed even after becoming a ghost. Was this injury sustained at the Mirror of Retribution? Feng Xun leaned closer, muttering "dirty," and her eyes quickly darkened.
Yes, that's right, he's just a hypocritical, high-sounding "good person".
Xie Xuan let him wipe her fingers clean. Feng Xun was a little nervous. Just as King Qin Guang had said, he was just a very young little immortal. In some matters, he was no different from a young man who had never experienced the ways of the world.
He held the blood-stained white handkerchief, glanced at Xie Xuan, and pulled her outer robe up for her.
"My blood is on these clothes too, and you threw them away with them." Xie Xuan's temper flared up inexplicably; she now felt uncomfortable wearing the clothes Feng Xun had given her.
"No—" Feng Xun only managed to utter this one word hastily. He wanted to say "this is not her blood," but he swallowed the rest of the sentence back down.
No, no what? He won't let her throw away her clothes? What right does he have to control her like this?
Xie Xuan was best at going against him, and she knew that Feng Xun didn't want to see her take off her clothes—she didn't know what ethics and morality were, nor did she know what the separation between men and women meant; she only knew that she had to do what Feng Xun didn't want her to do.
So she tugged at the clothes that were in the way, and this time, her outer robe was completely off and fell to her side. Her movement was more like that of some insects molting—for wild beasts walking the wilderness, these clothes were a burden.
She certainly doesn't act with human thinking.
Feng Xun was startled by her actions, and then worried that she would continue to undress—what was he thinking? He had pulled this clueless little devil out of a sea of blood to torment him.
The close proximity between them made him so nervous that he forgot all the magical abilities that every god is born with. He wouldn't treat her roughly either; at a loss, he could only spread his arms and stretch out his hands, his wide black robe with dark gold accents unfolding to completely wrap Xie Xuan in his embrace.
She was stunned, frozen in place, as it was the first time someone had ever held her like this.
Her long, thick eyelashes trembled slightly, and her angry and agitated emotions were instantly suppressed. Her chin rested on his shoulder, as if she had been frozen in place by some kind of spell, and she did not move again.
She could hear his rapid heartbeat and his tense breathing beside her ear.
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