13 That Means You're Still Human

Bathed under the faint glow of the moonlight, the woman's nostalgic face brought Hikari a sublime feeling.

The lush lips softly parted. The voice that came out was flirtatious, but also brimming with innocence like an endearing child.

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

Crying?

She was crying?

Hikari touched the edge of her eyes with a finger. It felt slightly damp.

Ah, indeed, a lone tear had escaped without her noticing.

She had been living in this strange world for a whole year. Although she wasn't particularly lonely, the fact was that nobody in this world knew about her old self. Not even Kokuo, who knew about her reincarnation.

They only saw her as Hikari, not Yao Huang.

To suddenly meet an old acquaintance once again, to hear her real name spoken out loud... even if it was by that old vixen, she would be lying if she said that she wasn't affected at all.

"My dear Huang'er!"

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

She was squeezing her so hard to the point that it was difficult to breathe.

"Daji... get off… you're killing me!"

After some difficulties, she finally managed to push the woman off. Daji pouted at her apparent rejection.

"Boo~! You're still cold as always, Huang'er. At least play along with me~"

"Yes, yes, whatever," Hikari mumbled while gasping for air. "Also, get some clothes, won't you?"

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

Daji's fair, slender fingers playfully crawled over her own chest, massaging her two sacred mountains seductively.

"...Not interested."

It wasn't as if she had never seen it before. She had already grown numb.

"Boo~! You're still cold as always, Huang'er. At least play along with me~"

With a poof, a set of clothes appeared on 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.

In a way, it was even worse than being naked...

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

"Huang'er, you've become really cute, hmm~? I didn't know that you like this kind of thing."

Hikari narrowed her eyes dangerously.

"...Daji, you know full well how chaotic the pool of reincarnation was back then… It's out of my control."

The woman giggled, deliberately ignoring her retort.

"Didn't you tell me before about that time when you disguised yourself as a woman in order to infiltrate Mount Emei and meet up with Lan'er? Don't tell me that it's actually your hobby? Fufufu~"

"Shut it."

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

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

She snuggled coquettishly, unwilling to part with the girl even when she was getting pushed away.

In the end, Hikari was the one who relented first.

"...Don't worry about it. It's a matter of the past."

She gently patted Daji's head.

"Hmm~ pet me more~"

"Yeah, yeah..."

Pat, pat, pat...

"Still, this is an expertly-done disguise. I see... you're continually emanating chakra to create a visual projection, aren't you?"

Hikari commented after scrutinizing the fluctuation of energy emanating from Daji's 'body'.

"Fufufu, interesting, isn't it? The people of this world called this technique 'Henge'. Not just appearance, I can also simulate physical attributes by manipulating the density of chakra."

When she pressed on Daji's skin, the flesh sunk a bit before elastically springing back up. It was truly lifelike.

"Unfortunately, it takes a lot of concentration just to keep it up. It's not a technique that you'll want to keep up permanently. Usually, people of this world utilizes it for disguise or misdirection during a fight. That's what the dogs in this household had told me."

Dogs.

Oh, 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!

"...Do you have to remind me about that? Booo!"

The woman puffed her cheeks.

"I was also frightened to death when I found out. Then again, I just fully regained my memories since a few days ago, so it didn't bother me that bad. I might have gone insane if I started as a dog from birth."

"A few days ago?"

"Hmmhmm."

Daji leaned her face closer to Hikari.

"Our first meeting was the event that triggered my memories to resurface. Since then, I have always been teetering at the border of existence, watching things unfolding through the dog's eyes as if I was trapped in an unending dream. A few days ago, the fog that obscured my soul finally cleared up, allowing me to once again form coherent thoughts."

When a human soul was reincarnated into a lower-ranked being, their soul tends to degenerate. It usually wasn't a problem, as the soul would have been purified beforehand by Five-Fragrance Tea, giving the soul a blank slate to accumulate karma anew.

"...You didn't drink the Tea, did you?"

"Of course not!"

She scowled.

"In the first place, I only jumped into the pool because I was trying to save you! How could I have the leisure to take a cup of Five-Fragrance Tea from that hag?"

So Daji really entered the pool to help her…

That might explain why it took a whole year for her soul to restore itself. Not to mention, she must have been wounded by the deluge of karma swirling inside the broken reincarnation pool.

No wonder Akamaru was so attached to her. It must have been Daji's influence.

"It's great, isn't it?"

The woman pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Even when we were separated in the beginning, we still managed to find each other. It must have been fate! Huang'er and I are fated to be together!"

"Fate, huh…"

That was such a convenient way to put it. Even though it was all just a big coincidence.

Still...

"Daji."

"Hmm~?"

Hikari stared at that pair of sapphire-blue eyes, that rare enchanting allure which had entranced countless Lords and Emperors in the past.

"Why were you in the underworld at that time?"

Back then, she wasn't considered as an intruder by King Yama, which means that she had entered through the official means.

The Yang Dynasty was an era of peace. Coupled with her fearsome reputation, there shouldn't be anyone, mortal or not, stupid enough to threaten her life.

Which means, she had forsaken her immortality by her own choice.

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

"..."

"Don't you dare pull that face!"

Daji growled in frustration as she pounded on Hikari's chest.

"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 this time? What's the point of those long years of cultivation?"

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

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

"Daji, back then, you were queueing for Lady Meng's Five-Fragrance Tea as well. Did you see him? The intruder who had torn down the wheel of karma-"

"...I saw."

The vixen nodded. A trace of melancholy flashed within her eyes.

"Was that really..."

Daji sighed.

"Those were Revolving Sun Needles. Who else could use that technique aside from you and him?"

"..."

Hikari had made up numerous excuses in her mind during bouts of sleepless nights. Perhaps that guy had a disciple somewhere. Perhaps it was just a similar-looking technique. Anything would be fine, as long as it could prove that he had nothing to do with it.

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

"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 for regret.

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

"Huang'er... do you still blame yourself, even 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 we aren't the only ones? And some of them might have ended up in this world as well?"

...If that truly happened, the additional karma burdening this world would be gigantic. It would be a disaster waiting to happen.

Oh, but there was also the chance that they would end up as cockroaches. In that case, maybe it would be fine?

"By the way," Daji continued. "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 has managed to stir my soul."

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

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

"I'll be on my way."

"Ah."

When Daji slid the door open, moonlight shone upon 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?"

Hikari shrugged.

"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. As a cultivator living 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 as immortals, unbounded by the passage of time, we tend to forget that we were once but another mortal, just like 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 was replaced with a pure, childish grin.

"Perhaps, that's why I had fallen for you a long time ago."

At that moment, she was not the terrible vixen that had brought destruction upon countless dynasties. In that brief moment in 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, wasn't that supposed to be that stupid boy's pet dog? How did it become so intelligent? Why were the two of you talking as if you had known each other for your entire lifetime?"

Because they did know each other for a lifetime.

...This was getting tiresome.

"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 the beast's incessant questions.

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

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