VAP - Chapter 64
Chapter 64: The Supreme Sage Hopelessly Obsessed with Beauty (23)
Yue Du appeared in the Villain Awakening Project Group chat, rubbing her neck.
It was probably psychological. Even though this was just a form condensed from data, the strange sensation of being bitten and having her blood sucked still lingered.
Meeting the curious gazes of the other group members, she felt a little uncomfortable and shifted her gaze slightly.
“Why are you covering your neck?” Turasu asked bluntly.
Yue Du: “...Oh, a cat scratched me. I’m still a bit out of it.”
She lowered her hand as she spoke, paused, and felt that her attempt to cover it up was only making it more obvious.
However, the group members were all easygoing, and no one questioned her.
Jian Mingtian adjusted his glasses and said nothing. Xiao Yi's gaze drifted away from her. As for the thick-skinned Turasu, she said cheerfully, “I have experience with cat scratches! I’ll share a type of ointment with you. It’s super effective—heals in half a day, guaranteed no scars!”
Yue Du declined, “I appreciate the thought, but I’m in a magical world. I won’t be needing it for now.”
Turasu thought about it and agreed. What kind of strange and wonderful medicines didn’t a magical world have? It could probably heal in an instant.
Yue Du smiled.
The Ayers Continent did indeed have many rapid-healing potions, but the “cat” that had scratched her came with its own healing effect, leaving no room for expensive magic potions to be used.
She sat down next to Turasu.
Ever since meeting her senior group members for the first time, Yue Du would enter the group chat channel every few days to listen to them chat.
Over the past two years, they had become quite familiar with each other. They would talk about their hosts, mission content, and interesting things that happened in their respective small worlds.
Turasu especially loved to chat, managing to make a four-person group chat feel like a thousand-person supergroup. It was truly worthy of respect.
Today’s group chat background was set by Jian Mingtian. It was another dynamic background—an empty amusement park.
Colorful little balls bounced all around, and every kind of amusement ride was present. A cheerful children’s song echoed through the channel.
Only four strings of data sat in a giant teacup ride, spinning and spinning with the machine’s operation.
Yue Du: “…”
Surprisingly childish, Jian Mingtian.
Turasu complained to her companions about a problem she’d recently encountered in her mission.
“Killing the demon general is practically impossible. To complete this mission, I have to use points. But if I use points, everything I’ve earned from missions in this small world will go down the drain.”
Turasu was grief-stricken. “My host is having such a hard time, and so am I. What kind of crappy mission is this?”
Jian Mingtian calmly advised her, “You have to give something up to gain something.”
Turasu: “The problem is, the points I’d get are less than what I’d spend. I suspect the Main System just wants to empty my point bank!”
Yue Du gave her a look that said, “I’d love to help, but I can’t.”
She thought of her own points—well, Qi Jiu rarely used points for anything other than eating, drinking, and having fun, while Nai Yin hadn’t touched a single point, relying entirely on her own formidable strength to complete missions.
As expected, it was nice to have a powerful backer.
She had thought this topic would pass quickly, but Xiao Yi, who was always in a daze, suddenly spoke up.
“How are your missions going?”
She was asking all three of them, but her gaze was fixed on Yue Du. Her eyes seemed to be covered by a light veil, misty and hazy.
“They’re all going okay,” Yue Du said.
Xiao Yi: “Really? I heard the small world you’re in right now is very tricky. Are you sure there’s no problem?”
Yue Du smiled. “Yes.”
Xiao Yi said as if to herself, “That’s great, then.” The end of her sentence was so soft it was almost inaudible.
After speaking, she clamped her mouth shut again, like a clam.
Yue Du gave her a thoughtful look, then seemed to quickly put the conversation behind her and started chatting with Turasu about the correct way to kill a demon general.
“A mission this difficult is really a thankless task.” Yue Du concluded with this sentence, then suddenly remembered something and turned casually to Xiao Yi. “By the way, Xiao Yi, where did you hear that my world is very difficult?”
Xiao Yi said, as if sleepwalking, “...Huh?”
Yue Du patiently explained, “I never mentioned what my mission was before, yet you knew it was tricky. That means you must have a channel for information about the small worlds, right?”
As she spoke, she shrugged. “It would be great if we could know the difficulty of a small world in advance. Even if we get a high-difficulty world, we could prepare a little.”
Hearing this, Turasu strongly agreed. “Yeah! If I’d known this mission was such a trap, I wouldn’t have squandered my points in the space. Sigh, only now do I understand what ‘you’ll regret how little you have when you need to use it’ means!”
Xiao Yi was silent for a moment. “A friend told me. She has connections with customer service.”
Turasu got excited. “Oh?? Do I have the honor of meeting your friend?”
Xiao Yi: “…”
Xiao Yi: “She doesn’t know much. It just so happened that this was a world she knew about, so she told me.”
Turasu sighed in disappointment.
Yue Du also showed a look of disinterest. Xiao Yi’s hazy gaze swept over her half-lowered eyes before retracting, calm and undisturbed.
After listening to Turasu ramble for a while longer, Yue Du said her host needed her and logged off first.
It was nighttime, but not late. A crescent moon hung askew in the eastern sky, half-hidden by wisps of cloud.
The room was silent. Yue Du opened her eyes.
She subconsciously snuggled against the soft, fluffy sheets, then rolled over and sat up, lost in thought with her slightly messy, shoulder-length hair.
By now, Xiao Yi’s words held little credibility for her.
Yue Du had seen the “inventing a friend out of thin air” trick many times. However, Xiao Yi wasn’t bringing up a friend to hide herself, but to hide something more…
Besides, she herself was full of suspicious points: a name so casual it was baffling, a sleepwalking-like attitude during group chats, and an overly mysterious background—she had never once talked about her host or her missions.
Especially during the self-introductions at their first meeting. Back then, the other Systems had all stated their serial numbers, a habit developed as a System in the Main God’s space.
Only Xiao Yi hadn’t mentioned a single number.
Is she really a System?
If not, what did she want by infiltrating the Villain Awakening Project Group?
Yue Du thought for a moment, a vague guess forming in her mind. She decided to wait and see for now.
No matter what the other party wanted to do, she just had to be on guard.
After lazing around the castle for a few days, Nai Yin, true to her word, took Yue Du for a trip to the northern part of the continent.
The northern end of the Ayers Continent was a vast ice field, a paradise for ice-type magical beasts.
Few people ever came here. To ordinary people, the ice field was a dangerous land of death. Generally, only mages with an affinity for the ice element, warriors who needed to train their bodies in the severe cold, and summoners looking for summons would come to try their luck.
…Of course, there were also people who were bored enough to come for sightseeing, like Yue Du and Nai Yin.
“The last time I came here was about a hundred years ago.”
Nai Yin recalled.
She stopped in front of an ice peak covered in snow. Her red, thick-soled long boots stepped onto the pure white snow, leaving only very faint prints.
A biting wind swept up the snow on the ground, howling between heaven and earth.
Yue Du, wrapped in a cloak made from the fur of a fire-type magical beast, said leisurely, “Revisiting an old place, huh.”
Nai Yin, who had cleverly arranged for her and the System to wear matching cloaks: “Yes, but I didn’t find this place particularly interesting back then. A bear from the ice field was always looking for trouble. That fellow fought and lost, lost and fought, over and over again.”
Yue Du: “And now? How does it feel?”
Nai Yin’s eyes curved. “Today, I’m accompanying my Little Rose on an outing. The two situations aren’t comparable.”
Yue Du felt a little like laughing. She raised her head, searching for the peak of the ice mountain, but couldn’t find it no matter how she looked.
The ice peak, having existed for hundreds of millions of years, was incomparably magnificent, silent and majestic. Before it, one’s entire being seemed to become clear and transparent.
Everything before her was pure white, almost enough to cause snow blindness. Between heaven and earth, only Nai Yin was the sole vivid color.
Nai Yin Galor was truly a miracle of aesthetics. Her standing there was living proof of the beauty of nature’s creation. Especially in a scene like this, the allure of her beauty was simply doubled.
The wind lifted her slightly curled long hair, like a bolt of bright silver satin, which, along with her cold, pale skin, made her eyes seem even darker.
Yue Du averted her gaze and took a deep breath. The cold air poured through her mouth and into her lungs, confirming that she was clear-headed at this moment.
Without looking at the person beside her, she called out softly, “Host. Nai Yin.”
Nai Yin said, “I’m here.”
“I’ve been thinking for a long time about us.”
“You know, I’ve never been able to understand why you like me. It’s truly a baffling matter.”
Nai Yin felt that things were heading in the wrong direction and quickly said, “I—”
“Wait a moment, let me finish,” Yue Du said calmly.
“Love has always been a strange emotion. Humans experience love due to physiological functions; the body secretes substances that make them feel affection, which is why they pursue desired partners, hope to have a mate, and crave the feeling of being surrounded by those substances.”
“From a certain perspective, different species should define their feelings for a mate differently. Many of them might not even have emotions, due to differences in racial physiology.”
Yue Du paused, looked into Nai Yin’s pure black eyes, and said slowly, “You, you don’t think of yourself as human, you don’t think of yourself as a vampire, nor as half-vampire, half-human. You don’t believe you belong to this world, do you?”
Nai Yin pressed her lips together and nodded slightly.
“Qi Jiu is the same,” Yue Du smiled. “So it’s really strange, to have such feelings. Not knowing your true self, yet clearly understanding that you aren’t any of the races you know… it must be like looking at the world through a layer of fog.”
Nai Yin unconsciously moved a little closer. She suddenly realized what Yue Du was trying to say. “Perhaps. But you’re different.”
“‘Special.’ That description is very moving,” Yue Du said in a cool tone that was completely at odds with her words.
A scene suddenly appeared in her eyes.
A cramped rental apartment, a yellowed old newspaper, and a bold headline that read:
The Once-Envied Cinderella of a Wealthy Family, Now a Pitiful Failure in Marriage—Recounting the Decade of Grudges and Romances of the Yue Clan!
You can believe in anything but love, a voice said in her ear.
Yue Du lowered her eyes.
In fact, she never doubted her host’s feelings.
Even if expressions and eyes could deceive, the mental space could not.
During her System training, Yue Du had learned long ago that it was normal for a host’s mental space to feel a sense of rejection toward the System.
Whether severe or mild, it was something that required gradual adaptation.
However, Yue Du had never experienced this sense of rejection in any of her hosts. Their mental spaces treated her with such gentleness, even cherishing her. The feeling was like lying under a warm, fluffy quilt that had just been aired in the sun, so comfortable it made one sigh.
…So Yue Du had no doubt that Miss Qi had actually been interested from the very beginning, she had just been hiding it.
Nai Yin was much more direct, claiming love at first sight one moment and “you’re so cute” the next, flirting with her at every opportunity.
Thinking of this, a hint of helplessness appeared in Yue Du’s eyes.
“…” Nai Yin keenly sensed this helplessness.
Whether as a Dharma Saint or as a half-vampire, she shouldn’t have felt cold.
But now, Nai Yin felt a chill setting in, a coldness that seeped out from within her body.
Yue Du looked at her seriously, then suddenly her lips curved into a slight smile. “What’s with that expression?”
Nai Yin: “Ah.”
The Dharma Saint was momentarily stunned, a rare occurrence.
Yue Du: “I’m not finished. Do you want to hear the rest?”
Nai Yin: “Let me prepare myself mentally first.”
Nai Yin closed her eyes. “I’m ready.”
Yue Du looked straight at her and said, each word clear, “I like you.”
“Although I don’t particularly like the word ‘unique,’ I have to admit it’s the most fitting.”
“I like you.”
She repeated it.
Nai Yin’s expression froze: “…”
Yue Du was face to face with her, very close. Seeing this, a rare playful impulse struck her, and she raised a hand to wave it in front of Nai Yin’s eyes. “So, what do you think?”
In an instant, the waving hand was grabbed tightly. Nai Yin looked at her and confirmed, “There will be no chance to take it back in the future.”
Yue Du retorted, “Do I look like someone who doesn’t keep their promises?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt it wasn’t quite right. She didn’t want her host’s thoughts to stray to “she’s only with me because of a promise” later on. That would be a huge misunderstanding.
“The feeling of love will be engraved in my data. As long as the System isn’t damaged, the emotion won’t change,” Yue Du said after a moment’s thought.
Nai Yin lowered her head directly.
When her crimson lips touched the skin of Yue Du’s wrist, Yue Du trembled reflexively. But Nai Yin didn’t transform into her vampire form; she only placed a kiss there, as light as a feather.
Yue Du took the opportunity to give her an equally soft hug.
Perhaps out of joy and a strange desire to show off, Nai Yin used light element to carve one golden rose after another onto the ice peak—buds, half-bloomed, and fully blossomed flowers. They were especially conspicuous in the vast, snow-white world.
She seemed to want to write her own name and the name of her newly-confirmed lover as well—
But after Yue Du asked how long a Dharma Saint’s elemental traces could last and received the answer “ten thousand years, at a minimum,” she decisively stopped Lord Nai Yin’s actions.
Nai Yin was still trying to justify it:
“People will know that Nai Yin Galor and her greatest love pledged their hearts to each other at the foot of this ice peak. Perhaps a hundred years from now, this place will be called Love Peak, revered by the world as a sacred site for love.”
Yue Du said expressionlessly, “And then they’ll wonder if the First Dharma Saint left anything here, and they’ll come one after another to explore and hunt for treasure. Do you think this ice mountain will survive?”
Nai Yin said as if she’d discovered a new continent, “You’re blushing.”
Against the backdrop of the white snow, the gradually spreading red was especially noticeable.
Yue Du: “…”
I’m blushing from embarrassment because of your weird title! What the hell is ‘greatest love’? Is that how you use the word ‘great’?!
Nai Yin was in a great mood today. On the way back, she decided not to use a spatial portal and instead strolled across the ice field.
It wasn’t a big deal. Neither of them could feel the cold much; wearing fur robes was mainly for the atmosphere.
Strolling in the snow was quite romantic, leaving four rows of shallow footprints behind them—though they were quickly buried by the wind and snow.
Nai Yin held her hand openly and righteously.
Yue Du squeezed back. With their fingers intertwined, she could feel the other’s delicate, soft skin to the fullest. The sensation was addictive.
“Coming here today was truly the right choice,” Nai Yin said happily. “My goddess of love, how you favor me.”
Nai Yin was different from the inhabitants of this continent, who would say “my so-and-so god” for everything. She had never prayed to any deity.
The few times she had mentioned gods, it was always the goddess of love and the goddess of beauty—referring to Yue Du.
Yue Du let out a sigh-like laugh.
Actually, there was a lot she hadn’t said just now, such as how many reasons she had considered for refusing to start this relationship.
She understood Qi Jiu, she understood Nai Yin, but she knew nothing about the real Her.
What did this “different bodies, one heart” situation truly mean? The closest thing she could imagine was multiple personalities in humans.
But even the different personalities of a patient with multiple personality disorder wouldn’t necessarily like the same person.
This was just one point; there were many other factors.
The disparity in their power levels, the restrictions of the mission, whether the Main System would cause trouble, the eventual necessity of leaving the small world and being separated, whether she would ever meet Her other individuals in the future, how to treat those individuals…
But after agonizing over it, Yue Du discovered that all this thinking was pretty damn useless.
Could thinking about these problems make her stop liking Nai Yin?
No.
Could thinking about these problems let her be a good System with no distracting thoughts?
No.
Could thinking about these problems change the current situation?
Still no.
Then what was the point of thinking so much?
The moment this thought occurred to her, Yue Du had an epiphany.
Thinking back on the two years of indecision, she even conducted a self-criticism.
She had undoubtedly revealed a selfish side.
She liked Nai Yin, yet she had rejected her multiple times due to her own considerations.
Despite rejecting her, she had grown closer, numbing herself by indulging in their intimate interactions, subconsciously jumping back and forth between attitudes of coldness and indulgence.
Being treated like that, Nai Yin must have felt hurt.
Such a powerful existence, dominant in every aspect, only appeared vulnerable when it came to emotions.
When she realized this, Yue Du felt self-reproach. No matter the reason, it was indeed her responsibility that she had made Nai Yin feel hurt.
…How to put it? Her heart ached for her.
So, the decision to confess was something Yue Du had already made, just within the last few days.
It was just that today’s scene was particularly suitable, so the words came out naturally.
Judging by Nai Yin’s reaction just now, she seemed very insecure. Since she had decided to face all the sweetness and all the hidden dangers, she would have to be more proactive from now on.
Yue Du thought seriously.
However.
Nai Yin, who had never felt hurt at all, was already floating like a firework in the sky.
When she unconsciously detected the small ice field creatures under the snow layer not far away scurrying to escape, she even found their fleeing appearances to be festive.
I must be even better to my Little Nightingale from now on!
Right, from now on I can call her by pet names openly and justifiably. “My”—that word is simply too wonderful!
I must be better to her—the two of them made the same resolution without consulting each other.
Just then, a dull rumble came from the distance, like thunder cracking at the edge of the sky, and it was getting closer.
Nai Yin snapped out of her romantic reverie and frowned. “It’s that fellow.”
“Who?” Yue Du thought for a moment, then realized. “Oh, the snow bear you mentioned before.”
Nai Yin had said before that she had been to the ice field several times, and almost every time she ran into the king of the ice field snow bears. In her words, he was “a battle maniac with a brain the size of a crow’s eyeball.”
The first time, Nai Yin had come looking for ice amber crystals and had a narrow encounter with the Snow Bear King, who was also looking for the same thing.
The great bear: “Human, how dare you touch this king’s treasure!”
Nai Yin ignored it. The great bear roared and was about to charge forward to snatch it.
Without even looking, Nai Yin cast a dark forbidden spell that trapped it in a nightmare cage it couldn’t escape.
After that, the Snow Bear King considered himself to have found his lifelong combat goal. He mobilized all his underlings to lie in wait for Nai Yin. Whenever they spotted her coming to the ice field, he would rush over to offer up his bear head.
And every time, he would end with the same line: “This king will definitely defeat you next time!”
This bear was the spitting image of Big Big Wolf.
But even Nai Yin would get annoyed after being pestered by a paramecium for so long. The last time she came to the ice field, a hundred years ago, she had coldly issued an ultimatum:
“You’re welcome to try. Next time will be the day you die.”
Yet this time, the Snow Bear King still came trotting over.
“In the past hundred years, this king has made progress you cannot possibly fathom.” The great bear let out a roar. “Today is the day you become this king’s defeated foe.”
Nai Yin cast a light protection spell on her own fur cloak, specially set it to warm mode, then tenderly draped it over Yue Du, wrapping her lover into a fluffy ball with eyes full of love.
“Be good and wait for me here.”
The fluffy ball Yue Du: “…Okay.”
The great bear was furious and launched its attack.
Nai Yin took out her staff and, turning around, unleashed a Great Light Spell.
It should be noted that for ordinary light mages, the Great Light Spell was actually a forbidden healing spell, also known as the Holy Light of Redemption.
However, Nai Yin’s Great Light Spell was quite simple and brutal. The free-floating light elements in the air were summoned, condensing into massive pillars of light that filled the sky and aimed at the snow bear from all directions.
The great bear: “?!”
Its running footsteps even faltered for a moment.
Then, Nai Yin waved her staff with a look of disgust.
The pillars of light, like arrows being shot—no, light was much faster than arrows—slammed viciously into the bear’s body.
A rather large spray of white mist bloomed from the ground—it was the kicked-up snow.
“…”
Yue Du silently covered her eyes.
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