VAP - Chapter 58
Chapter 58: The Supreme Sage Hopelessly Obsessed with Beauty (17)
Recently, quite a few new rumors about the First Dharma Saint, Nai Yin Galor, had been circulating throughout the empire.
Lord Galor had always been a magnet for gossip; it had been that way for the past century.
Her legendary beauty, her universally acknowledged and unrivaled power, her flamboyant and unrestrained nature, and her undisguised preference for beautiful men and women—all these elements made her an incredibly captivating figure.
However, the recent rumors seemed to diverge from their usual style.
Shocking! The First Dharma Saint has publicly announced that Galor Castle now has a second master—
A pity! The Dharma Saint has dismissed her three thousand beauties. Is it for true love, or is it all just an act?
What a lament! Countless beautiful non-humans now wander and weep outside the Dharma Saint's domain, no longer able to gain their former master's favor. Truly, a relationship built on looks never lasts!
And so on and so forth.
"So, what are your thoughts on all this, Miss Yue?" Bifula picked out the most widely circulated rumors and read them to Yue Du, unable to contain her laughter.
"Most people now—most practitioners, at least—know about you. They're all speculating about what kind of peerless beauty you must be to make Lord Galor finally settle down."
Yue Du, the heroine of these rumors: "..."
How else was she supposed to look at them? With her eyes, of course.
Miss Bifula had come to check on her progress, but after discovering that Yue Du had an excellent grasp of the material, she relaxed and turned the conversation to the rumors circulating outside.
Faced with Yue Du's uncooperative attitude, her enthusiasm for gossip didn't wane in the slightest; on the contrary, it grew even stronger.
"My decision not to let you call me 'tutor' was definitely the right one. See? Now you two are together," Bifula remarked with a sigh. "Seriously, when are you going to have a formal wedding?"
Yue Du closed her book. "You can ask Nai Yin, Miss Bifula."
"If I had the guts to ask her, I wouldn't be here talking to you!"
"My answer is: I don't know."
Bifula sighed in disappointment.
Yue Du pressed her temples. "So, are you going to continue trying to pry for firsthand information from the person involved, or are you going to teach said person the ways of a summoner?"
Bifula swiftly chose the latter.
Yue Du's rate of progress far exceeded her imagination, which gave Bifula, who excelled at a hands-off teaching style, a great sense of accomplishment. And today was the day Yue Du would attempt to summon her first non-human creature.
Yue Du was human, which meant that aside from humans themselves, every species on the continent was on her list of potential summons—as long as she had enough power.
"Empty your mind, send out a signal of invitation with your consciousness, and then silently recite the summoning chant."
Bifula repeated the instructions, then said expectantly, "Simple, right?"
Yue Du remained noncommittal.
On average, summoners on the continent failed dozens of times before their first success. Only someone like Bifula would find it simple.
Yue Du made her first attempt.
Since she was still in the initial stages, the power inherent to her summoner's constitution was relatively weak, so she could only summon small, weak creatures—like a kitten.
"It doesn't look cute at all," Bifula said with disappointment, eyeing the kitten trembling in the crook of Yue Du's arm.
Yue Du said, "Your little darling is the cutest, is that it?"
Bifula replied, "You know me so well!"
Yue Du said, "Oh."
Her face was blank.
A woman who likes giant spiders... our definitions of "cute" aren't even in the same dimension, thank you very much.
A simple summoning didn't result in a contract. Once the time was up, the kitten would disappear on its own.
As Yue Du stroked the cat, her thoughts couldn't help but drift.
She had owned a cat before, a ginger cat that was as round as a ball. Its favorite pastime was sunbathing on the balcony.
She said she was its owner, but the real caretaker was Yue Hao.
Yue Du was usually so busy she barely had her feet on the ground, so of course she couldn't properly care for a pet.
So Yue Hao was the one responsible for feeding and cleaning up after it, while her older sister's only duty was to give it a few pets.
But perhaps because they spent so little time together, the ginger cat wasn't very fond of her and would hiss at the slightest provocation.
"It's fine. Once you have more free time, you can be in charge of feeding it. You'll get close in no time," Yue Hao had suggested after gloating over her predicament.
Yue Du lowered her gaze, smoothing the kitten's fur.
Hao Hao...
"Where did this cat come from?"
Nai Yin's voice suddenly sounded from behind her.
Yue Du snapped back to reality and smiled. "I summoned it. It'll go back on its own tomorrow."
Nai Yin moved to stand in front of her. Yue Du glanced around; Bifula was nowhere to be seen. She had probably slipped away the instant she spotted her superior.
The kitten let out a tiny, weak meow at Nai Yin. Its adorable appearance immediately earned it a gentle stroke from Yue Du.
"So weak," Nai Yin commented, her tone laced with jealousy.
Yue Du chuckled. "It's my first time summoning. I can't exactly pull out an abyssal dragon, can I?"
Nai Yin pictured the scene and said with heartfelt disdain, "Dragons are ugly."
If something was beautiful, she mocked its strength. If it was powerful, she mocked its looks. As for a creature that was both powerful and beautiful? Don't be ridiculous. Only Lord Nai Yin could achieve such a transcendent state, could she not?
Nai Yin had a baffling level of confidence in this regard.
But no matter how powerful or beautiful she was, she wasn't the one currently being stroked and purring with satisfaction.
Envy was one thing, jealousy another, but it was just a kitten. Nai Yin couldn't very well just yank it away.
"Hold on a moment. Don't form a contract with a summon yet."
"Hm?" Yue Du asked, still stroking the kitten.
"Your rank isn't high enough yet. You can't sign a contract with a Dharma Saint-level summon, so you'll have to wait a while."
Yue Du's hand paused. "Dharma Saint-level... you mean yourself?"
"That's right," Nai Yin affirmed.
"Don't be ridiculous. You're still half-human. You're not in the category of summonable creatures."
Nai Yin blinked. "This should do it," she said.
As she spoke, two sharp fangs belonging to her vampire lineage slowly emerged, and a pair of black horns sprouted from her head—it was her vampire form.
Perhaps it was a conditioned reflex from having her blood drunk for days on end, but the moment she saw this form, Yue Du felt her knees go a little weak. She averted her gaze, suppressing the heat that rose within her.
"How about it?" Nai Yin said, casting a subtle, provocative glance at the kitten.
A change in appearance didn't mean her bloodline had changed, did it?
Refusing to believe it, Yue Du lowered her head to check with her senses and discovered that it was actually possible.
Yue Du: "..."
That was just cheating!
There was no scientific basis for it, let alone a magical one. Had she drained all the human blood from her body or something???
Nai Yin drew closer, deliberately lowering her voice in a seductive tone. "Will you save the first contract slot for me, my little summoner?"
Yue Du had no choice but to say, "Of course, it's yours."
Lord Nai Yin was satisfied.
Pinning Yue Du's hand that was resting on the kitten's back, Nai Yin gently cupped the nape of her neck with her other hand and happily began to enjoy her daily portion of fresh blood.
Soon, her prey began to grow dizzy, unconsciously tilting her head back to accommodate her.
The sensory experience was excellent for both parties. Only the small, helpless kitten was left out. "Mew, meow?"
But it received no comforting pets.
...What a pitiful little kitten.
As a System, Yue Du possessed an advantage in learning that ordinary people could hardly match. It only took her two years to grow strong enough to form a contract with a Dharma Saint.
A lot can happen in two years.
In that time, the First Dharma Saint's public persona, as told in the rumors among the empire's practitioners, had shifted from a promiscuous libertine who loved only beauty to a reformed rake who doted on a single person—it was like a real-life fairy tale.
In that time, the protagonist, Rand Abio, relying on the experience from his second life and the resources he'd scrounged up from all sorts of nooks and crannies, had successfully advanced to become a high-level mage and a mid-level warrior, earning much admiration at the royal academy.
In that time, the story's heroine—Lorins Phoenix, known as the "Wind Rose"—had also begun to make a name for herself on the continent.
That's right—the very same female mercenary, Lorins, whom the mission required her to prevent from falling in love with Abio.
Lorins was a classic independent powerhouse. Originally an orphan, she was discovered to have the constitution of a warrior with immense potential and joined the empire's second-ranked Red Moon Mercenary Group in her youth.
Lorins had survived several life-and-death struggles to climb to the position of vice-captain by the age of eighteen, becoming famous among mercenaries by the title of "Wind Rose."
Generally speaking, in novels aimed at a male audience, a woman with a humble background rarely becomes the female lead, and Lorins was no exception.
Seemingly an ordinary orphan, she was in fact the queen of the Bird Tribe—one of the nine great magical beast clans—who had taken human form. However, she had lost her memories in an accident and grown up as a normal girl.
Speaking of which, Lorins's choice between the protagonist and her own people after regaining her memories was a major highlight of the original story...
Just as Yue Du was pondering this, Nai Yin's hands landed on her shoulders. The Dharma Saint seemed unwilling to wait another moment, reminding her with eager anticipation, "The contract, the contract."
"Yes, I remember," Yue Du said.
Over the past two years, Yue Du truly hadn't contracted a single summon. Whether it was an adorable kitten, a demonic whale, or a giant serpent, she let them all return on their own when their time was up, without a second thought.
So, this was indeed her first time forming a contract.
The method was a blood contract... Well, for someone as well-versed in fantasy tropes as Yue Du, this was a familiar plot device.
She skillfully undid the top button of her collar, baring her neck and tilting her head back slightly. "Go on, bite me."
Lord Nai Yin happily transformed and bit down. Catching sight of Yue Du's reddening ears out of the corner of her eye, she mischievously reached out and gave one a pinch.
Yue Du: "..."
She said nothing, only breathing softly as she reached out and gripped one of Nai Yin's horns tightly.
The blood contract ritual was simple: the summon drank the summoner's blood, and then the summoner used a special pigment to draw a runic pattern on the summon's body, establishing the contract.
What kind of pattern should she draw?
In Bifula's words, one had to "let the heart guide the hand." As Yue Du understood it, that meant she could draw whatever she wanted, but it had to be spontaneous. It couldn't be planned in advance, or it wouldn't count.
This time, it was Lord Nai Yin's turn to open her collar. She licked the tips of her fangs in satisfaction, revealing a stretch of cool, snow-white skin, and allowed her summoner's slender, pale fingers, dipped in pigment, to paint near her collarbone.
"Make it look pretty," Nai Yin said.
"Hm?"
Nai Yin quickly corrected herself. "Everything my little goddess of beauty draws is beautiful."
Yue, the so-called "goddess of beauty," gave a soft laugh and began to draw, quickly sketching the outline of a crescent moon. The pigment was the same color as the red mole near the corner of Nai Yin's eye, creating a subtle, complementary beauty.
Nai Yin conjured a mirror of light to take a look.
"What do you think?" Yue Du asked.
"A brilliant concept. Unparalleled artistic skill," Nai Yin replied with a straight face.
Yue Du couldn't hold back a smile.
Whether her artistic skills were any good was another matter entirely. In any case, the blood contract was formed.
From that moment on, blood and magic bound the two of them together. Yue Du could now summon Nai Yin anytime and anywhere, as long as she had sufficient power.
It was like carrying a Dharma Saint around in her pocket.
"It's not really necessary, since we rarely have a reason to be apart," Nai Yin said pragmatically. "But I like the feeling of this connection, this bond."
Yue Du felt the connection and silently agreed with her host's sentiment.
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