Chapter 128: Drunk on Her Master’s Scent
A long time ago, in an unknown world...
A little girl watched as her sister was brutally sacrificed so that her brother could improve his talent. Luckily for her, she had not been born with a Dao Heart that could be extracted to form a genius; but the helplessness of seeing the only person who gave her a bit of warmth in that house die completely killed her will to live.
From that day on, the little girl began to grow under the ostracism of her own family, who treated her like trash or a stain on their name.
However, her beauty did not take long to be noticed, and her talent, which seemed useless at first, began to stand out.
Her older brother had joined long ago one of those ostentatious sects that her parents bragged about all the time.
But when another sect approached, interested in her —one even more renowned than the one her brother had joined—, the relative tranquility she had managed to maintain was completely destroyed.
Her parents were happy to sell her, although the disbelief and suspicion on their faces were obvious.
The young woman, now older, looked toward the man who was going to take her away from that place.
She couldn’t understand why someone like him would be interested in her; they had only had one previous contact.
Her lifeless eyes grew even duller as she remained still, not knowing what to do.
It was then that the memories of her first encounter with him resurfaced.
As usual, she had gone to the lake near the surroundings of her family’s mansion.
She always took refuge there to avoid being bothered or found by the servants who usually mistreated her. Sitting, leaning against a tree, she stared fixedly and lifelessly at the birds that occasionally landed to drink water. Every day was the same, only the animals that passed by changed; but that day, the one that would change her future forever, brought something different.
There were no birds in the water, nor small animals to observe. The calmness of the place was incongruous, which led her to make a decision she didn’t usually make: to venture a little deeper into the forest to see if she could find any sign of life.
And that’s when she saw him.
A green meadow full of life, where a pleasant breeze flowed that felt good to the touch and the energy of the place felt denser than usual. What the young woman liked most was the scent of wet grass that filled the air.
Likewise, she didn’t have time to process everything, because her gaze quickly shifted to the other side, where a man lay resting, relaxed, in the middle of that scene taken out of a painting.
He had a perfect face and clothes that looked impeccable despite the place where he was resting. The animals she hadn’t seen at the lake were scattered everywhere in the meadow, but they weren’t the only ones; core monsters were also there, peaceful, as if paying respect to the man sleeping in the center.
The memory faded with that striking scene.
The woman came back to her senses in her neglected room in the mansion, agitated and with her heart beating strongly once again after so long.
That had been the encounter that would change her life forever.
And her parents, seeing that she remained there still, lost in her thoughts and without giving a proper greeting to the man who had come to take her away, began to shout at her with deep anger:
"Xingyue! Xingyue! XINGYUE!"
...
The calls from the past faded away, replaced by the effusive shouts of the present that now echoed against the stone walls of the room.
Cassian, with Xingyue in his arms, couldn’t prevent the coldness in his eyes from softening for an instant.
Around him, the dwarves were completely lost and scared.
Celestia, who still hadn’t been able to free herself from the mud technique, found herself helpless in her place; although she wouldn’t take long to be able to move, since the person who had immobilized her in the first place was now completely focused, with a mixture of shock and fury, on the embracing couple floating not far from him.
"I missed you so much, Master! So, so much!" the woman continued rubbing herself against him enthusiastically, even to the point of starting to inhale deeply to better catch the scent of the man who held her with subtle resignation.
At that moment, as if she had remembered something important, she pulled away a little to look at him. "The sisters miss you a lot too! Siyin acts strong, and even though Lanying encouraged me to come see you, I know she was dying to come with me. Master, when will you return? When?"
The weight of those words began to show on Cassian’s face. He knew he couldn’t give too many explanations at this moment.
Thinking about the women waiting for him in Demor —especially Adela, who never left his side, and Caelia, who was extremely possessive—, a genuine shiver ran through his body. He knew perfectly well that if Xingyue and they met in the future, his life would become a monumental headache.
Nevertheless, he shook his head to dispel those thoughts and focused on the woman in front of him.
"Calm down, Xingyue," he requested with a soft and patient voice, a tone rarely seen in Cassian.
At that instant, he finally seemed to notice that there were more people in the room. His eyes swept over each of those present with cutting coldness.
It didn’t take him long to partially decipher the situation, but with absolute indifference, he decided that the best thing was to continue ignoring them.
Xingyue’s emotion finally seemed to diminish with her master’s words. Her eyes fixed on him, as if waiting to see what decision he would make. Cassian stopped for a moment, thinking it would be better to be in a more comfortable place to catch up with her. Thus, with Xingyue still in his embrace, both figures disappeared from the place in the blink of an eye.
Celestia opened her eyes wide with total surprise upon realizing she had been abandoned. She looked at the terrifying faces of the people sharing the room and felt her legs weaken at that very instant.
The three hooded men, especially the one acting as leader, remained frozen in place, with contained fury and confusion that had nowhere to vent.
The man who had the fetish with elves spoke his first words of the entire day.
"Raymond..." he called with a hoarse and raspy voice, pointing at the elf as if nothing more needed to be said.
The leader simply nodded his head without giving the matter much importance. Then, he shifted his gaze toward the dwarves, who had remained in deathly silence throughout the entire altercation.
"Three days," Raymond sentenced coldly. "We will wait right here until the batch is finished."
No one dared to mention a single word about the two people who had vanished without a trace.
Raymond simply let his companion do whatever he wanted with the elf, without stopping to think if that would bring consequences later.
The absolute confidence in the strength of the three, and especially in his own, completely blinded any hint of caution.
"Xingyue... you will come back, right? You can’t forget about me..." an inaudible whisper drowned quietly in the cold stone room.
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