Xueji once again found herself within the mental space. Constructed by Lilith, it was now furnished identically to Xueji’s own home.
The moment Xueji opened her eyes, she was met with the sight of the raven-haired mischief-maker Lilith, puffing out her cheeks and glaring at her with a resentful pout. As Xueji’s cultivation level had advanced, Lilith’s appearance had also undergone a subtle transformation, becoming even more whimsical and mischievous than before.
The corners of Lilith’s eyes were still damp, tinged with a faint redness. This change in her appearance, combined with her tearful look, instantly stirred a pang of guilt within Xueji.
“You useless sage! You dummy sister! You bully!” Lilith suddenly lunged forward, pinning Xueji against the wall. “I’ll bite you to death!”
She promptly sank her teeth into Xueji’s cheek. Since they were in their mental forms, the sensation of pain was more muted than physical pain, yet it was sharp enough to make Xueji suck in a hissing breath.
Xueji shot a pleading look towards Xueji, who sat nearby in meditative posture, adorned in a traditional ruqun dress. But the other girl merely pretended to be deeply engrossed in her cultivation, squinting her eyes as she watched the scene unfold, showing no intention of intervening.
Alright then. Better to rely on myself than beg for help.
Xueji glanced at Lilith out of the corner of her eye. Seeing the anger still smoldering in the girl’s gaze, Xueji reached out a hand, intending to pat her head.
Lilith, however, wasn’t having any of it. She jerked her head away to dodge the hand, then chomped down on Xueji’s forearm instead.
Ow!
Yowwwwwwwch!
“Lilith, let go! Let go right now! Stop this nonsense!” Xueji’s voice held a note of anger. She pinched Lilith’s nose, hoping to force her to release her bite.
Trying to make a mental form hold its breath? This ridiculous move finally broke Xueji’s composure, drawing a snort of laughter from the meditating girl.
“Little Xueji, even though you’re a sage, you can be quite silly sometimes,” Xueji said, standing up and using her fan to hide half her face. Even without seeing it, the trembling of her shoulders betrayed how much she was laughing at Xueji.
Left with no other choice, Xueji directly exerted her control over the mental space, forcibly shifting Lilith away from her.
Lilith, teleported a short distance away, landed on her bottom with a soft thud. She stared up at Xueji, looking utterly wronged.
Tears instantly welled up in her eyes, cascading down her cheeks like a waterfall.
“Sister, you’re bullying me! I want to get out of here! Waaah~” She sat on the floor, grabbing whatever objects were within reach and hurling them haphazardly towards Xueji in a fit of pique.
“Xueji, you can’t handle her like this,” Xueji chided. “When you manifested that divine spear earlier, it placed a huge burden on Lilith. And then you suddenly forced a massive amount of spiritual energy into it! Lilith almost passed out!”
“Sister Ji, why didn’t you tell me sooner?~” Xueji pleaded, watching the now thoroughly distraught Lilith, unsure of what to do.
“You never asked,” Xueji replied with an innocent expression, though inwardly she was delighting in the chaos. “Besides, Lilith threatened to kick me out if I dared help you.”
For Xueji, witnessing her reincarnation forming connections with various troubled beauties and then causing all sorts of hilarious havoc was her greatest source of amusement.
“Hurry up and think of a way to console her, or her tears are going to flood this place again!”
“A way? What way am I supposed to come up with?”
Xueji blocked the flying objects with one hand while wading through water that had already risen past her thighs. She struggled to get closer to Lilith, but just as she finally neared her, Lilith turned and fled into her room.
“Hey, wait!” Xueji called out, but Lilith’s figure had already vanished.
“Xueji, you truly are a sinful woman,” came the teasing voice from behind.
“Stop gloating and help me, or I’ll kick you out right now,” Xueji retorted, turning the threat back on her.
The girl in the ruqun was momentarily stunned, then chuckled helplessly. Her expression sobered as she muttered, “You two are really cut from the same cloth, aren’t you?”
“Less talk. Are you helping or not?” Xueji pressed, her tone growing sharper.
“Alright, alright, I’ll help you.” With a long sigh, she added, “Living under someone else’s roof leaves one with little choice, doesn’t it?~”
She handed Xueji a miniature spear. It was clearly something forged from Lilith’s own power.
“What’s this? Gungnir?”
“No. This is a part of the little one… or rather, a piece of her flesh and blood,” the ruqun-clad girl said, her expression turning serious. “Xueji, you truly hurt her this time.”
Hearing this, Xueji was shocked. The small spear in her hand felt like a thorn piercing her heart, making even her heartbeat feel irregular.
“You understand far too little about the little one’s abilities. Replicating such a divine artifact is not something that can be done casually.”
“In order to help you simulate the divine spear, she had no choice but to painfully sever a part of herself.” The girl pointed an accusing finger. “And you’ve been neglecting her lately, haven’t you?”
“I… I’ve just had too much going on in the real world,” Xueji defended, though even she knew the excuse was meaningless.
“And then what? You plan to explain it to her with that kind of reasoning? The two of you share a certain connection, so why do you act as if you know nothing about it?”
Faced with this questioning, Xueji was left speechless.
“What you need to do, you should already know.” Having said her piece, the ruqun-clad girl also retreated into her own room. She had intervened this time to help share Lilith’s pain, nearly dissipating herself in the process, but at least she had managed to convey the message.
Xueji walked up to Lilith’s door and knocked.
“Lilith, can I come in?”
“Do whatever you want!”
The little one’s hysterical voice echoed from within, startling Xueji.
As she opened the door, a massive torrent of water gushed out, instantly turning the living room into a vast expanse. Xueji fought against the current, swimming into the room.
Lilith was curled up in a corner of the room, crying with her legs hugged to her chest. Xueji approached slowly, careful not to startle her further.
The door closed behind her, and the scene around Xueji suddenly transformed.
Xueji now found herself in the midst of an ocean. Pitch-black fish swam lazily around her.
She had no mind to observe her surroundings now. Looking around frantically, she spotted Lilith sinking deeper below her, curled into a ball.
With every bit Lilith sank, the ocean around them grew darker and more gloomy.
“Lilith!” Xueji tried to call out, but no sound escaped her lips. This sea existed independently from her mental space.
She tried to swim downwards, but no matter how hard she struggled, the distance between her and Lilith refused to diminish.
Gradually, Xueji lost her visual field. Pure darkness saturated this void-like sea.
A fish bumped into her, sending her spinning disoriented. Now, she couldn’t even tell which direction was which.
“It’s so dark… Lilith, is this what you’re feeling?”
Loneliness, dissolving into this boundless darkness, wrapping tightly around a throbbing heart, oppressive enough to make one forget to breathe.
“The two of you share a certain connection.”
At her wit’s end, Xueji remembered the ruqun-clad girl’s words.
Their connection… it was like the time when facing the dark mage, when Lilith’s inner voice had crossed space and time to reach her.
It had always been Lilith reaching out, while Xueji had never taken the initiative. Recalling her past actions, Xueji finally understood why the girl was crying so bitterly.
“I should have responded to her actively. After all, I’m the only one who can pull her out of this sea.”
Xueji closed her eyes, allowing her body to drift within the darkness.
Back in the real world, black marks began to inexplicably appear on Xueji’s body.