13 That Means You'sre Still Human

"Awh, Huang'er! Do you really miss me that much? Why are you crying?"

"Eh?"

She was crying?

Hikari touched the edge of her eyes with a finger. It was a bit damp. Ah, indeed, a lone tear had escaped without her notice.

Aah. She had been living in this strange world for almost a year. While she wasn't alone, there was nobody who knew about her old self. Even Kokuo, whom she had told about her reincarnation, never addressed her by her real name.

To suddenly meet an old acquaintance once again, to hear her name spoken out loud... even if it was that old vixen, it still made him sentimental.

...How embarrassing.

"Hehehe~ I'm soooo happy!"

The naked beauty collapsed onto the smaller girl, enveloping her in a bear hug.

"Daji... get off me... no, wait, first of all, get some goddamn clothes!"

With difficulties, she finally managed to push the woman off.

"Hmm? Don't like what you see~?"

The woman's hands playfully crawled over her own chest, massaging her two sacred mountains seductively.

"...Not interested."

She had seen this display so many times in the past thousands of years that she had literally grown numb.

"Boo~! Huang'er is still cold as always!"

With a poof, a set of clothes descended upon her. It was a piece of loosely-tied robe, with the collar opened up to show off her chest and shoulders while leaving the rest to the viewer's imagination.

Ugh... in a way, it was even worse than being naked, wasn't it? She suddenly felt her well-tempered resistance slowly crumbling.

Showing a mischievous grin, Daji scrutinized the girl from head to toe.

"By the way, Huang'er, you've also become cute, hmm~? I didn't know that you actually like this kind of thing."

"I-It's not like I wanted it. The pond was extremely chaotic at that time!"

"Is~ that~ so~?" She giggled. "I remember that time when you sneaked to mount Emei to see Ying'er, so it's because of this reason, hmm~?"

"Shut it."

Her tone turned cold in an instant, causing Daji to shiver from fright.

'Ah, that topic is still taboo, huh...'

"Huang'er, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up. Please be lenient to this sister, okay~?"

She hugged the girl from behind, unwilling to part even after being pushed again. In the end, Hikari was the one who relented first.

"Okay, fine... don't worry about it."

She gave the woman's head a gentle pat.

"Hmm~ pet me more~"

"Yeah, yeah..."

Pat, pat, pat...

"Still, this is an expertly-done disguise," she remarked. "You're applying chakra around your body to create a material projection?"

"Fufufu, interesting, isn't it? Unlike us cultivator that could change our entire physique after reaching immortal stages, the people in this world changed their appearance in this way. I think they called it Transformation Technique."

"Hoo..."

When she gave the skin a push, it sunk in a bit before elastically springing back up. It felt real, as if they weren't made out of chakra.

"Actually, I just mold them to mimic how our qi bodies were made. It takes a lot of concentration, though. The people of this world doesn't bother to keep it for long, they just use it as distraction during battle or intelligence gathering. At least, that's what the dogs in this household had told me."

Ah, right, all this time, she was actually...

"You... out of all the people that you could reincarnate into, you ended up as a dog..."

A male one, even!

"Right? I was surprised when I found out. Then again, I just fully regained my memories a few days ago, so it didn't strike me too hard. If I started as a dog from birth, I might have gone insane!"

Made sense, she also didn't drink that Five-Fragrance Tea before reincarnating, so...

Hmm? A few days ago?

"You know that a human's soul degenerate whenever they reincarnated into a lower-ranked beings, right? When we first met, my soul was still that of a mere dog. When I found you, however, something within my soul resonated with yours, causing my memories to resurface. At first, it was just a sudden desire to get closer to you. As time went by, however, the image within my mind grew clearer."

"So that's why you're so attached to me!"

Everything suddenly made sense now. Hikari suddenly wanted to laugh.

"It must've been fate! Fate dictates that me and Huang'er can never be separated!"

"Yes, yes, whatever you say..."

Fate, was it? That's such a nice way to put it.

...

Fate...

"By the way, Daji..."

"Hmm~?"

She stared at that pair of sapphire-blue eyes, the rarity that had entranced countless Lords and Emperors in the past.

"Why are you reincarnating too? The Yang Dynasty is supposed to be an era of peace. I don't think any major fight had broken out by the time I descended to the underworld."

"...Huang'er, do you really have to ask? I did it because of you."

"Huh?"

Daji pouted, clearly dissatisfied with her dumbfounded response.

"You left without telling me. When I found out that you're going to enter the circle of reincarnation, I quickly went down to the underworld as well. Life without you... I don't want to think about it."

"You can just enjoy your time in the new era..."

"Hmph," she snorted. "Why are you still so dense after all these times? Those years of cultivation must've rot a part of your brain."

Why was this woman getting so uppity all of the sudden...?

Nevermind. There was still something that she had to find out from her.

"Daji, back then, you were queueing for Lady Meng's Five-Fragrance Tea as well, right? Did you see the culprit who'd torn down the wheel of karma?"

"I saw. Though, I had immediately jumped into the pond after you fell, so I didn't know what happened after that."

"That guy, was that really..."

Daji sighed.

"You've seen those rays of light. Those were genuine Revolving Sun Needles. Who else could use that technique aside from you and him?"

"..."

She wished there was another. Perhaps that guy had a disciple somewhere. Perhaps it was just a similar-looking techniques. Countless possibilities flashed in her mind as she tried to find excuses to single him out from the list.

However, if Daji herself said so, then there was no other way to deny it.

It was indeed, him.

"Damnit... that idiot..."

Regret.

There was neither anger nor sadness, just a sense of regret as deep as the abyss of the underworld.

Unfortunately, even if they searched every nook and crannies until all the realms were turned upside-down, there still wouldn't be any cure.

She tightened the arms circling around the girl's waist, as if wanting to pull her in and shelter her from the pain.

"Huang'er... do you still blame yourself, after all this time?"

"...If I say yes, would you think that I'm a fool?"

"Hmmhmm~"

Gently, she planted a tender kiss on the nape of her neck.

"Keeping up this form is tiring. I think I should get back."

The two separated, although Daji seemed reluctant to do so. Her hands lingered on the girl's back for a few more seconds.

"You know... I vaguely remembered that some other souls had jumped into the pond as well. Whether it was done deliberately or by accident, I'm not sure."

"...You're saying that there are more people reincarnating from our homeland with their memories intact?"

God, the karma burdening this world must be gigantic!

Oh, wait, they could be also be reincarnating as cockroaches. In that case, maybe it would be fine?

"Worrying, right? By the way, I've tried to walk around the village whenever I could, but I didn't feel anything worth mentioning. You're the only person who'd managed to stir my soul."

There was two possibilities there. Either the two were the only reincarnators in this village, or she was the only soul that could resonate with her, considering their past relationship.

Actually, Hikari was leaning toward the second answer. With Daji's personality, it just felt more natural.

"Well, I'll get going, then."

"Ah."

When she opened the door, moonlight shone on her, painting an enchanting picture.

"A beauty unrivaled, even by the Moon," Hikari remarked.

"Ufufu... glib-tongue."

Daji turned her gaze toward the girl sitting in the middle of the room. Her lips slowly curved upward, forming an alluring smile.

"Huang'er, to be able to shed tears upon meeting an old friend... do you find it embarrassing?"

She shrugged.

"Well, getting sentimental never bodes well. I'm speaking from experience."

As a man raised by the old-fashioned era, she found it unthinkable to cry. Shedding tears was a sign of weakness. Living as cultivator in a world where the strong devoured the weak, it was the greatest taboo.

Daji's smile softened. Her words turned more polite, as it was proper when an expert spoke with a peer of the same level.

"Venerable Yao, as we passed our lives with no regards of time as immortals, we tend to forget that we were once but another mortal, just llke the rest of the world. In my opinion, what you called sentimental doesn't mean that you're weak."

Yao Huang raised an eyebrow.

"What is it, then?"

"That means you're still human."

The smile on her lips were replaced with a pure, childish grin.

"Perhaps, that was why I had fallen for you since long ago."

At that moment, she was not the terrible vixen that had brought destruction upon countless dynasties. In that brief period of time, she was but a woman who was looking at the dearest person in her heart.

"I pray that you will have a good dream, Venerable Yao."

With a poof, the woman was gone. What was left was the afterimage of a puppy who had nimbly scaled the wall before bolting off toward the main house.

"Haa..."

Hikari sighed, and then let herself fell onto the soft mattress.

"Sentimental as always..."

Closing her eyes, she tried to push Daji's words away from her mind, to no avail.

---

Meanwhile, Kokuo was sulking.

"Venerable One, what is it?"

It opened and closed its mouth, but no sound came out. In the end, it grumbled.

"...I have no idea what you two were talking about."

Well, they did speak in the language of their homeland, after all.

"Also, isn't that that stupid boy's pet dog? Why are you two talking as if you had known each other for your entire lifetime?"

Because they did know each other for a lifetime.

Haa...

"Venerable One, I'll explain..."

Thus, she was forced to tell Kokuo the abridged version of their relationship, which still ended up taking a few hours to complete thanks to its incessant questions.

It seemed that in the end, she still couldn't sleep tonight...

Darn it, it was Daji's fault! That damn vixen!