Slowly, as if afraid of something, Wu Yijun watched as her small hand moved closer and closer to Bai Zemin's comparatively larger hand.
Bai Zemin, on the other hand, was a lot calmer than she was. As he looked into her eyes he noticed uncertainty, revealing that the beautiful woman at his side was afraid of discovering or not being able to understand what he wanted to show her.
But he believed that once she viewed the effects of his Stone Heart skill, she would come to understand that getting into his heart could very well be classified as impossible.
'No, not impossible' Bai Zemin thought as in his head appeared for the thousandth time the shadow of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his entire life and whose smile was so dazzling as to oppress the rays of the sun.
As the image of Lilith appeared in his head and in his heart, as he secretly wondered what she could be doing and if she was doing well, Wu Yijun's hand finally touched his.
'Then, let her see…. Let her see and decide for herself.' Bai Zemin immediately started moving through his records and skills.
When he found the record of the skill Third Order Stone Heart, he wanted to share that record with Wu Yijun and let her see that tiny part of his soul.
However, what happened next perplexed them both.
As if they had been electrocuted by an electric shock of several thousand volts, Bai Zemin's and Wu Yijun's faces changed at the same time as they hurriedly pulled their hands apart as a reflex action.
"Ugh…" Wu Yijun grimaced slightly as she used her trembling hand to tightly clutch her chest.
Bai Zemin wasn't much better off than her either as he also felt a sharp pain that was hard to describe. While he didn't complain as she did due to his much higher pain tolerance, that didn't stop the pain that made him feel as if someone had replaced the blood running through his veins with burning lava from scaring him.
It was as if his soul were burning him from the inside out!
When he finally felt himself regaining the breath that had been abruptly stolen from him, he looked at Wu Yijun and asked worriedly, "Are you all right?"
Wu Yijun could not respond immediately as it was still extremely difficult for her to breathe. It was the first time in her life that she had experienced pain of such magnitude, to the level where even breathing caused her pain. The pain she felt while absorbing the various drops of Second Order blood was nothing compared to this!
Bai Zemin hastily supported her and carefully let her lie down on his bed. He waited for a couple of seconds but just as a precaution decided to go find Kang Lan.
"I- I'm fine…"
Just as he was thinking of leaving to look for the strongest healer of his faction, Wu Yijun finally found enough breath to utter a few words.
"Are you sure?" He asked with a slight frown.
Wu Yijun did not respond immediately and instead took several deep breaths. A few seconds after repeating the same process several times, her pale face immediately began to return to normal and about a minute later she finally reverted to her optimal condition.
"I'm really fine now. I really am. Don't worry." Wu Yijun smiled warmly as she could feel genuine concern from him toward her. She felt that even if she had to experience the same thing several more times, she would be willing to multiply it a couple of times even if it was worth a gentle look like the one he had at this moment as he looked at her.
Love was undoubtedly one of the most powerful emotions that existed. A double-edged sword that could lift one to the top or plunge one to the bottom of an abyss and at the same time an emotion that could affect the rationality of the most string person in the world in just a second. Wu Yijun, who was always rational but was experiencing such a powerful emotion for the first time in her life, was a clear example of this.
Bai Zemin had no idea of the inner thoughts of the beauty on his bed, in fact, he had no time to think about it. Right now, his preoccupation was with what had just happened a minute or two ago.
What on earth had just happened? Bai Zemin had an extremely deep frown on his face as his doubt-filled eyes stared at a fixed point in search of answers.
If Lilith were present, he might be able to get the answers he was looking for. But with her so far away and somewhere unknown in the vast universe it was absolutely impossible for him to know what had just happened.
What was that shock earlier? Why did something like that happen? Bai Zemin was completely clueless.
In the past, he had shared his records with Lilith on many occasions, and yet nothing even remotely similar to what had just happened when he tried to do the same with Wu Yijun ever occurred.
"Just now, you wanted to show me a record of your soul, didn't you?"
Wu Yijun's voice brought him back to reality and when he raised his head to look at her he nodded as he said in puzzlement:
"Yes… A skill to be specific."
"No wonder for an instant I felt as if part of your soul joined with mine." Wu Yijun nodded with a 'so that's how it is' expression on her face. Then she smiled sweetly and said in a soft voice, "Even though it only lasted an instant, I clearly felt as if that part of your soul wanted to embrace mine."
Bai Zemin was not surprised by this as every time he shared his records with Lilith he felt something similar. Although it was not as exaggerated as Wu Yijun described, the feeling was somewhat similar.
Seeing his still confused expression and even though Wu Yijun herself had doubts as to how Bai Zemin had learned to do something like this and more so, how he had such knowledge, she instead said calmly:
"Don't overthink it. It's probably because your soul is much stronger than mine so as security, my soul didn't accept your records temporarily moving to me."
After listening to her words and analyzing them for a moment, the frown on Bai Zemin's face gradually began to recede. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that what Wu Yijun had just said made sense. Therefore, a few seconds later, his expression returned to normal.
"… I think you're right." Bai Zemin sighed and sat down heavily on his bed, letting his body bounce gently due to the springs.
"You seem quite surprised by what just happened?" Wu Yijun couldn't help but point out with slight suspicion, "Could it be that you've already done this in the past?"
Bai Zemin knew that there were some strange things about what had just happened and that trying to hide it would only do more harm than good so he said half-heartedly, "Yes, I have done something similar in the past as an experiment."
"Mmm…" Wu Yijun looked at him unable to detect lies in his clear eyes so she finally shrugged her shoulders.
"Okay, I've taken up a lot of your time for today." Bai Zemin stretched his hand forward and chuckled as he jokingly said, "Don't worry, it won't hurt this time."
"Even if I were to burn alive in hell I would still take your hand." Wu Yijun said as she looked into his eyes with a slight blush on her lovely face, taking his hand an instant after.
"You…" Bai Zemin used a bit of strength to help her stand up gently and sighed as he heard her words.
"What? It's not like you don't know anyway." Wu Yijun stuck out the tip of her tongue playfully before saying, "There's no point in hiding it when it's too glaringly obvious."
Realizing that it wasn't possible to avoid the point and at the same time feeling that it wasn't right to keep a good woman like her on hold for something that had little chance of happening, Bai Zemin finally decided to broach the matter.
"Look… Sit here, let's have a little chat. I think it's necessary for you to know a few things." Bai Zemin sat on the edge of the bed again and carefully patted the place beside him.
Since he could not show her his Stone Heart skill, then there was no choice but to explain things slowly and in words so that the girl next to him would understand and would have a better idea of what she was dealing with. Only then she could decide more wisely what she wanted to do and if the effort was worth it or not.
Wu Yijun felt her heart begin to pound as she saw the complicated look Bai Zemin was giving her as he looked at her. Although she had been waiting for this moment, now that the time had finally come she couldn't help but feel apprehensive.
Bai Zemin seemed to understand her fears for as he saw her hesitating on whether to sit next to him or flee the room. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry as he said in a helpless voice, "Don't overthink it, I will simply tell you a few things about my past and about me. I'll also explain one or two things you need to know, that's all."
"O- Okay." Wu Yijun nodded, finally gathering courage and letting the weight of her light body rest gently on the elegant mattress.
Bai Zemin didn't even feel the bed sink as she rested beside him, that's how light the woman next to him was.
Neither of them said anything at first, but Bai Zemin knew perfectly well that he had to be the one to start the conversation. Therefore, after thinking a bit about what he wanted to say, he slowly stated:
"To be honest with you, I still find it kinda hard to believe that a girl like you has feelings for me…. I know that the world has changed, I also know that if I were my past you would probably never develop emotions for the Bai Zemin of that time. In this span of almost two months, less than sixty days of time, my personality took a tremendous turn…. and believe me when I tell you that if you knew me before the apocalypse you would definitely not be able to associate me with my current self."
Taking advantage of the brief moment of silence he decided to take, Wu Yijun asked:
"Would you mind… Telling me about your past?"
Bai Zemin turned his head slightly and looked at her with a small smile as he nodded, "Mhm. That's what I plan to do. I want you to understand who I once was and the biggest reason why I am who I am today."
Wu Yijun nodded silently and took a deep breath. The palms of her hands began to sweat as a sign of how nervous she was, nerves and anxiety slowly growing due to the uncertainty and waiting.
"You see, as you may have already noticed, I don't have much experience with girls…. Sure, even though my physical appearance was never particularly outstanding, I did have my strong points even before the Soul Record made me what I am today so naturally, there were a couple of girls who asked me out. Unfortunately, because in the past a girl broke my heart in a rather cruel way, I always feared getting hurt again, but I feared more not being able to get back on my feet."
Bai Zemin slowly began to narrate small fragments of his past that were necessary for Wu Yijun to know in order for her to eventually understand the crux of the whole issue he wanted to get to.
A girl hurt his heart? Wu Yijun wondered what kind of girl could be so cruel and so simple-minded to hurt a man like him.
Even without her knowing the past Bai Zemin, even if the present him was different, his essence as a person definitely could not have changed a lot. What made him who he once was, his identity must still be present somewhere. Therefore, from the point of view of a woman in love like Wu Yijun, whoever that girl was, she was definitely not right mentally.
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Thank you very much to everyone who voted for Blood Warlock with Golden Tickets! <3
