20 Ultimate Beauty (4)
It felt like a dream. A very long dream.
I didn't know how long I was asleep—minutes or hours—before the scorching sunlight felt warm on my cheeks and woke me up. At some point my whole body was feeling stiff and sore. The next, my head was pounding miserably. I cracked my eyes open, squinted at the bright light seeping into my vision. Again I closed my eyelids as the exhaustion overwhelmed me.
It took a few minutes to realize that I was no longer in presence with the water kylin. The creature told me that people came up with many names for her—sage, protector, ruler—but none of that was hers. According to her, calling her direct name would be considered as disrespect. After all, she was the mighty being that once was the stallion of the first god that had ever existed on Three Worlds—the Heavenly Father.
Now, I had learned that I was chosen by herself to be the successor of her powers. But I was in a mortal state, as she said, so I couldn't possess it in flesh. I didn't quite understand that, but she told me that I would come to apprehend in the future.
As a result, the creature was living inside my inner core and bestowed me the honor to call her 'Kylin'. She had warned me to never tell anyone about her existence in me. Kylin said that it would only lead me to danger, that evil spirits and demons might come after me to suck away her power.
Protector. Yeah, it was kind of weird to know that there was a creature living inside you, especially when it was a dragon species. A living myth. How cool and unbelievable was that? But considered there was Kylin inside me could mean in a good way. At least, for my current situation with these whole magic fantasy happening around me.
Despite my fatigue, I let out a sigh of relief. Well, I supposed I already had one riddle solved—the cure and that Goddess of Souls. But before finding them, the most important thing was to focus on getting my stamina back.
I jerked to get up but my arms couldn't move as though I was pressed by a heavy burden. And it made me slumped back to the bed. My strained lazy eyes moved along my right arm, and I noticed a man was sleeping on it—Jie Moshu.
I sucked in my breath at the realization. No wonder my hand felt numb all along!
My throat felt dry, I swallowed hard. "Mo... Jie Moshu..."
To my slight of horror, I wondered whether my voice was mine. It sounded so hoarse and husky that I couldn't even recognize myself.
I cleared my throat, and nudged him like a fish out of water. "Jie Moshu..."
He practically didn't even budge an inch—he was sleeping like a log! I was very much annoyed. How there was a guy like him that didn't move a bit to my struggle? Bloody hell.
Ho—hold on... What was happening?
I started to lose my senses on my right arm. The tingling effect was creeping me as though I was pricked with icy needles. My eyes widened at the color of my skin that was becoming bluer and bluer. Damn. Blood vessels on my right arm wasn't working properly. For God's sake, my hand was lacking of oxygen. I had to save my arm from getting entirely maimed. And all because of Jie Moshu's stupid big head! Just what on earth did he eat to be this heavy?
My head was sweating with stress. This was bad. Bad! Enough with a tattoo-like cancer, now I had to lose my right arm? What should I do now? Call him out? No good; my mouth was too dry to let out a voice. Pull out his hair by force? Ugh, even worse; I barely could even move my body, in short I was paralyzed. There was no good way out of this situation. None!
Instinctively, I shook my head a little, using all my strength to roll over. I was counting deep inside my heart, encouraging myself that I could do it. I bet my face looked as sour as someone who was toiling from dusk to dawn.
... 50... 55... 56... Eek!
I immediately regretted. This was a dumb move because half-side of my body was all numb from shoulder to leg... I was now in a position where I couldn't roll to left or right. To be exact in numbers, I was probably tilted around 25 degree and practically frozen on spot.
What else I was supposed to do? Nervously, I did a little eye roll to the sides, unconsciously bit my lips. Frustration tightened my chest, making every breath was an enormous effort.
"Jie... Moshu...!" My voice came out even worse than I thought. It sounded more gravelly and croaky, making the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I was this close on calling him that I could cry.
If anyone said about living hell, this situation was the perfect analogy for that.
"Huayu?" Jie Moshu jolted as he started off softly. "You're awake."
That was supposed to be my line anyway. But thank God! Thank Heavens! Finally, the dead log was awaken! Instantly, I could feel the weight on my hand lifted. A warm sensation began to flood my veins. My heart filled of joy. I felt like throwing confetti or sing the "Gong Xi Gong Xi" song to Jie Moshu. And for a brief moment, I could see the chance of a sliver happiness.
"Why are you lying like this? Are you feeling uncomfortable?"
Gosh. My face was burning with humiliation. Who wouldn't? I was sensitive enough to feel that Jie Moshu was clearly oblivious to the awkwardness of my current position. But none of it matter, I made no bones about it. In fact, I didn't actually manage to see how he looked at me—I was facing somewhere else with my back facing him. Like they said: ignorance is bliss.
"Tu—turn..." I tried to say, but my voice came out strangled and hoarse.
"What?" Jie Moshu leaned forward and raised his ears to listen. "What are you saying?"
I screamed with all my might, even the vein on the back of my head twitched. But to my surprise, it came out to be a teeny, tiny voice, "Tu... turn!"
Gah! That was hard. It was as though you poured all of your energy just to articulate a word. I felt like banging my hands on the soft mattress and dictated every word of my command: 'Turn! Turn!'
Jie Moshu nodded gravely as though my request was something critical. And when he adjusted my position, I was electrified… the buzz went all over from my head to toe like trapped fireflies.
My face jolted with alarmed. Feeling weak and disjointed, I sank back to the bed again and started doing unmovable crunches, groaning with effort. As for Jie Moshu, he was too taken aback, he didn't know what to do.
"Are you okay?" I felt a genuine panic in his voice.
I squinted against the unbearable buzz. My mouth gaped open. This time my voice utterly didn't come out. I was basically mouthed in a breathy mute tones, "W... water..."
"What? What is it?" Again he leaned his ear close to my lips, which nearly brushed them.
The simple word felt like marbles crowding on my throat, almost make me choked from dehydration. "Wa-ter!"
"Oh, right!" Jie Moshu said. His panic was contagious, as he scurried to the table to get me some water I felt hyper-vigilant. I was never this desperate in my whole life like every inch of body was practically screaming for water.
Seeing I was struggling to sit up, Jie Moshu dropped the glass on the bedside table and hurried toward me. He put his hand under my shoulder to help me. I rested my head back on the head bed, panting a bit from the effort.
Jie Moshu settled himself in the bed beside me. He then gently lifted my head and carefully dribbled water from the glass through my parted lips.
Everything was perfectly normal—until the door banged open and startled me, followed by a yelling so loudly, "FEMALEEE HUMANNN!"
I was practically choked on my water before realizing I had actually spilled them all over Jie Moshu's face—and he closed his eyes briefly. Hell. Bloody hell.
I swallowed the revolting rest water with an inward shudder. My nose twitching and my throat hurt.
Jie Moshu finally looked up at me, gave me a guilty jump as his eyes met mine.
"S-sorry..." Somehow I managed to say, there was a stiffness on my expression. I saw that Jie Moshu had stiffened too.
A second later, I saw Huashe strode into the bedroom. Still wearing a human clothing, his twig-like horn and black pupils narrowed to slits were visible. He glared at me in forbidding fury, flicking his snake-like tongue. "You have to res'sssponsible, human!"
