"That pink dolphin. Hand her over." Shangguan Bing Xue stretched her arms forward as she said in a deep voice. She looked into Bai Zemin's eyes and said earnestly, "I will take care of her for you."
Bai Zemin unconsciously pulled the little pink dolphin closer to his body, hugging the little creature tightly. The little dolphin gently wiggled in his embrace and her slippery, soft back helped her find a position to her liking again.
The eyes of Shangguan Bing Xue twinkled slightly as she watched the cute movements of the little animal in the embrace of Bai Zemin. She, like most girls in the world, loved cute things and added to the affection Shangguan Bing Xue had for small pet-like animals, the little pink dolphin met all her criteria for a cuddly animal begging to be hugged.
Bai Zemin coughed to clear his throat when he finally came to his senses and realized that he had misunderstood the reason behind the fiery gaze of the ice princess. But then again, this was not his fault either, after all, this was a side of Shangguan Bing Xue that Bai Zemin didn't know about until now.
He looked at the little pink dolphin that had her eyes closed and then looked at Shangguan Bing Xue, who still held her arms outstretched forward and looked at him as if she was asking him when he was going to hand the little animal over to her.
With a resigned sigh, Bai Zemin loosened his embrace around the little pink dolphin and while holding onto her tiny body with both hands from the sides began to move her towards Shangguan Bing Xue slowly.
Just like in a movie when an incredible scene was about to happen, time seemed to slow down as Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the little dolphin closer and closer to her and her eager gaze revealed that she could not wait to have the dolphin in her embrace.
Possibly sensing the movement around her or perhaps as a consequence of losing the warmth that was surrounding her, the pink dolphin named Xiao Xiao opened her eyes in slow motion and looked forward while blinking a couple of times as if she was confused about something.
Then, in that strange feeling that everything was moving in slow motion, the sky blue eyes of Shangguan Bing Xue met the deep pink eyes of little Xiao Xiao.
The hands of Shangguan Bing Xue had barely reached out to touch the body of the little pink dolphin when the animal suddenly began to go crazy.
First, the little pink dolphin let out a cry that was not different from a baby's cry and then immediately opened her mouth and splashed out a jet of cold water.
Of course, with Shangguan Bing Xue standing only half a meter distant, the sudden "attack" of the little pink dolphin caught her off guard and she could not avoid it in any way.
Splash!
The jet of cold water hit the face of Shangguan Bing Xue creating a splashing sound identical to that of a water-filled balloon hitting the ground. The water soaked her beautiful face and forced her to close her eyes as the aftershocks of the "attack" drenched all of her hair and the top of her leather armor.
"…"
The sound of the transparent water droplets running down the curves of her seductive body gently dripping onto the concrete ground was the only thing that could be heard in conjunction with the light sound of the sea breeze.
Shangguan Bing Xue slowly opened her eyes and her gaze met the pink eyes of the little pink dolphin who seemed to be looking at her as if she had done something evil.
The little pink dolphin let out intangible sounds similar to any other normal dolphin as she squirmed in Bai Zemin's grip. It sounded as if she was scolding Shangguan Bing Xue or as if she was telling her not to do it again or else she would throw another jet of cold water at her again.
The little creature went so far as to puff out her soft cheeks as if she was showing that she had more where the previous one came from.
Bai Zemin looked at Shangguan Bing Xue's completely wet face and noticing her dumbfounded look, something inside him finally burst.
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
For the first time since the apocalypse broke out two months and a week ago, Bai Zemin laughed out loud without worrying at all that it was anything other than releasing all the urge to laugh that overwhelmed him inside. While it might not be that long compared to Shangguan Bing Xue, it was true that Bai Zemin also could not remember precisely when the last time someone or something had made him laugh the way he was laughing right now.
His laughter was carried away by the winds blowing from different directions, but before it could get far enough away, another new one came.
The little pink dolphin squirmed in Bai Zemin's grip and let out more cute sounds as she turned her head slightly and stared at him.
Weirdly and even though he did not understand what Xiao Xiao was saying to him, Bai Zemin somehow felt that he could understand what she wanted him to do. So, he retracted his arms, and with the little pink dolphin in his hands, he hugged her close to his chest again, much to the delight of the little animal who soon closed her eyes again as if relieved after returning home after a long and dangerous trip.
Shangguan Bing Xue stared at Bai Zemin as drops of water fell down her face. She seemed to be waiting for him to stop laughing and when he finally stopped she slowly said, "Funny?"
Between laughter and tears, Bai Zemin didn't hesitate to nod with a big smile, "I'm sorry, Bing Xue. But I couldn't help it. It was stronger than me."
"Yeah… So I see." Shangguan Bing Xue said as she nodded and looked at the little pink dolphin resentfully.
"This treacherous little beast really doesn't know what's good." Shangguan Bing Xue snorted and without giving the little dolphin another glance pointed at the pile of Soul Stones beside her, "What are we going to do with these?"
"So you're overlooking what just happened?" Bai Zemin said with a teasing smile.
"What are we going to do with these?"
"You got mad at the little dolphin just because she splashed a jet of water in your face?"
"What are we going to do with these?"
"Maybe it's because the little dolphin is female and I'm male?"
"… Do you want to die?"
…
As they chatted, mainly with Bai Zemin joking about what had happened to Shangguan Bing Xue, he waved his right hand and easily absorbed all the Soul Stones inside his spatial storage ring.
The Soul Stones, despite being in the millions, were so small that they only took up 1/3 of the total space in the ring. With the remaining 2/3, Bai Zemin had no problem storing the corpses of several thousand beasts before he had no choice but to stop.
After filling his ring to the brim, Bai Zemin walked towards Shangguan Bing Xue and took off his ring as he said, "Bing Xue, I will give you my storage ring to carry these things to the base. Leave 1,000,000 Soul Stones in the ring and the rest leave it in the vault. As for the beast corpses, take them all."
"Alright, I'll be back as soon as I can." Shangguan Bing Xue nodded calmly, now completely dry.
Despite what had happened, Shangguan Bing Xue occasionally stole glances at the little pink dolphin. Her blue eyes shone with tenderness but at the same time with hatred; complex emotions that battled in her heart.
Bai Zemin tried his best to restrain the urge to laugh again as it was really funny to see the proud and arrogant Shangguan Bing Xue being scolded by a small dolphin less than half a meter long that was not unlike a baby.
He cut the blood connection with his storage ring and handed it to Shangguan Bing Xue, explaining how it worked. Then, she nodded without saying a word and after giving one last glance at the little pink dolphin sleeping in his arms, she turned into a silver shadow that disappeared in a southerly direction seconds later.
Once Shangguan Bing Xue left to free up space in the storage ring, Bai Zemin lifted the little pink dolphin to the level of his face to take a closer look.
The little dolphin Xiao Xiao seemed to notice something and slowly opened her two beautiful eyes. The little creature blinked a couple of times and looked around as if searching for someone, but finding no one she nodded as if satisfied with something before looking back at Bai Zemin with her clear eyes.
Bai Zemin didn't know whether to laugh or cry seeing the attitude of the little beast in his arms.
"Xiao Xiao, could it be that you don't like Bing Xue?"
"Pupu…" Xiao Xiao made some cute but incomprehensible sounds in reply to Bai Zemin's question.
(A/N: No, it's not Ling Long :v >Samsara Online's readers understand it<)
"She is a good person. Besides, she likes you a lot."
"Puupu…"
"What do you mean, you don't like humans?"
"Pu…"
"I'm human too, you know."
"Pupu?"
"Excuse me?"
…
The craziest scene of all unfolded on top of the bridge that a few hours ago had been the battlefield chosen to fight one of the fiercest wars with four races as participants; a human and a little pink dolphin casually chatted while the sun was slowly rising and the temperature was climbing.
In the end, Bai Zemin could find no response from Xiao Xiao. It seemed that the little animal simply did not like the idea of being hugged by Shangguan Bing Xue as strange as it seemed but she did not seem to have a problem with Bai Zemin; in fact, Xiao Xiao was comfortable enough in his embrace to sleep like a baby.
Although the little pink dolphin did not like the idea of being hugged by others, it was clear that Xiao Xiao was smart enough to not hurt Shangguan Bing Xue. After all, Xiao Xiao was, at the end of the day, a Second Order existence; regardless of whether she was not a creature fully focused on combat, her strength was more than enough to crush the head of Shangguan Bing Xue considering the distance and how sudden the surprise attack had been.
"By the way, don't you need water or something?" Bai Zemin asked as he sat on the edge of the bridge and swung his legs freely.
The little Xiao Xiao in his embrace looked away as she rested on his lap and let out a series of low sounds for a couple of seconds in reply. She seemed quite agitated for some reason.
"Sorry about that friend, no offense." Bai Zemin apologized as he sensed that Xiao Xiao seemed to feel offended as if someone had touched her pride.
Xiao Xiao accepted the apology from Bai Zemin easily and the two continued chatting casually.
Bai Zemin understood the reason why the mermaid princess had told him earlier that the most remarkable ability of Xiao Xiao was communication. This little pink dolphin seemed to be able to understand human speech and even had the ability to imply her intention through those strange sounds she made when she "spoke".
"Mm?" Suddenly, Bai Zemin felt that he had discovered something but before he could investigate further about it, that flash of inspiration disappeared. He frowned as he somehow felt that what he had lost was so important that if he didn't remember it soon he would probably regret it for a long time.
However, despite thinking deeply about it for more than half an hour, he failed to figure out what it was that had slipped his mind.
Bang!
Suddenly, the ocean water exploded as a huge swordfish over 10 meters long and almost 3 meters high jumped mightily. Its bright eyes were focused on Bai Zemin as if it was watching a good meal and the teeth inside its mouth reflected danger under the rays of the sun.
Bai Zemin noticed that this swordfish was a First Order beast and was about to casually kill it, but suddenly, he felt Xiao Xiao stirring in his lap.
Before he could even look down, a huge jet of water flew out of his lap area and struck the approaching swordfish in mid-flight.
Boom!!!
The body of the swordfish exploded into a mist of blood and fragments of broken organs fell noisily into the water, staining the surface with a light blue that was soon washed away by the churning waves.
A small rainbow formed in the sky as the sun pierced the water particles floating in the air and silence once again reigned supreme over the area.
The First Order swordfish didn't even have time or the opportunity to cry out in pain or much less demonstrate its might before it turned into a pile of meat paste under the seemingly casual attack of the little pink dolphin.
"A Second Order existence is a Second Order existence no matter what…"
Bai Zemin patted Xiao Xiao while in his heart he sighed for Shangguan Bing Xue. Fortunately and the little dolphin was smart or otherwise…..
Just as he was thinking of the possible consequences of what might have been, a familiar rose scent that he hadn't felt in over a month assaulted his nostrils, being swept away by the strong breeze of the wind in an instant as if it had never been there in the first place.
Bai Zemin froze for a moment before shaking his head and smiling bitterly in his heart, feeling that it was just an illusion of his mind.
Then, a slightly mocking voice sounded from behind him:
"It's been a month since I left and I expected to see something amazing at our reunion… But I didn't expect to see such a powerful spurt from your crotch as welcome. Little brother Zemin, did you miss this big sister so much?"
* * * * * * *
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