Chapter 272: I’m Here to Join You
"No."
Yu An said sternly, "Your body is what’s most important. I’m very powerful, and besides, Feng Xuan and the others are here. You need to hurry back and merge."
"It doesn’t matter if you can’t get out. Once I get to the Upper Realm, I’ll come find you. We’ll figure something out together then."
"An’an..."
Yu An covered his mouth. "Don’t you dare argue with me. Just say yes!"
Mo Yan relented resignedly. "Alright, alright. But you have to take this."
He glanced at his clone. After a moment’s hesitation and a final look at Yu An, the clone walked over and merged back into Mo Yan.
A flash of light crossed Mo Yan’s amber-gold pupils. Then, he produced a Token.
"This is condensed from a portion of my spiritual power. If you’re in danger, take it out. It can protect you, just like the Feather your Female Mother gave you."
Speaking of the Feather her Female Mother, Yu Huang, had given her, Yu An touched the hairpin in her hair.
Those two Feathers, along with a Dragon Scale from her Beast Father, Ao Jin, had been forged into the hairpin she always wore.
Mo Yan saw the hairpin, too. With a single thought, the Token transformed into an Ink Serpent Necklace, which he personally fastened around Yu An’s neck.
"Don’t you dare take it off," he said, pulling Yu An into an embrace and nuzzling against her ear. "While I’m gone, it will protect you in my place."
"Okay," Yu An said, rising onto her tiptoes to give him a quick kiss. "I won’t take it off."
With that, she let her arms fall from around Mo Yan’s neck. "You should go. I need to find Feng Xuan and Lan Ying."
"In such a hurry to send me away?" Mo Yan sounded a little hurt. "At least let me say goodbye to the Zaizai."
Yu An sheepishly touched the tip of her nose. "I completely forgot. I’ll bring the Zaizai out now."
Before Mo Yan could even nod, the ground began to shake violently. Yu An lost her footing and stumbled right into his arms.
The swarm of snakes scattered in a panic, dodging the rocks that rained down from above. He pulled Yu An to safety beneath a giant stone serpent statue, where they remained unscathed.
"An’an, it’s summoning me back."
Mo Yan’s arm tightened around Yu An’s waist. He gave her one last, lingering look, taking with him all the photos his clone had just taken of her.
"I’m leaving now. This place is an Illusion Realm; it should vanish after I’m gone. An’an, take care of yourself..."
His voice grew fainter as his form became increasingly transparent, until he vanished completely from before her eyes.
Just as Mo Yan had predicted, the scenery vanished and the tremors stopped the moment he left. Yu An found herself standing in a grassy field, feeling a bit wistful.
’Still, a long life together was more important than this brief separation.’
She composed herself and was bracing for the next part of the Illusion Realm when she suddenly heard a faint hissing.
Looking down, she found herself staring into countless pairs of serpentine eyes.
The black snake in the lead let out an ingratiating hiss. *Hey, Female Master, would you mind keeping one... hundred million snakes?*
Yu An: "..."
Her lips twitched. "Mo Yan didn’t take you with him when he left?"
The black snake nodded, looking wronged, and the swarm of snakes behind it followed suit.
’Master left in such a hurry, he forgot all about us!’
Ahem. Or rather, Master hadn’t given them a single thought. He only had eyes for his Female Master.
Yu An sighed and pressed a hand to her forehead. She couldn’t just abandon this swarm of Little Serpents to fend for themselves. Luckily, her storage dimension was large enough. ’I’ll just put them in there for now,’ she thought.
The little black snake seemed to be their leader. It had been at the very front when they had "attacked" her earlier, and it had several burns on its body.
Fortunately, the burns weren’t too severe. Yu An had one of her Cloud Beasts summon a light Divine Spring Rain over them and then got them something to eat.
With warm raindrops showering their scales and a large steamed bun for each of them, the snakes instantly lost any desire to return to the temple.
’Heavens, we’ve wasted the first half of our snake lives!’
While the snakes ate and healed, Yu An entered the next Illusion Realm.
Mo Yan had briefly explained things before he left, so Yu An had a general understanding of how the Illusion Realm worked.
As long as her will was strong enough, she could find a flaw and break out of it.
’I have no idea where Tian Fu ran off to. It would be best to catch him here in the Illusion Realm. If he escapes to the Upper Realm, where am I supposed to find him?’
Yu An clenched her fists. ’My will is strong. I won’t be swayed by outside influences.’
But when she saw the scene that materialized before her, she nearly got a nosebleed.
On a massive seashell bed, a Merfolk with blue hair lay on his side, propping his head up with one hand. His beautiful, matching blue fishtail rested on the edge of the shell.
His scales were vibrant and lustrous, and his magnificent fin drifted up and down like a colorful ribbon in the water.
Yu An was momentarily stunned. The Merfolk’s lips curled into a smile. "Female Master, aren’t you going to come closer?"
His voice was ethereal and filled with temptation, and Yu An found herself walking toward him irresistibly.
As she drew near, she noticed that the Merfolk’s torso was draped with a pearl chain.
Each full, lustrous pearl was strung together. The largest, a pink pearl, rested just below his Adam’s apple, with a delicate, thin chain dangling from it.
The Merfolk held the thin chain in his free hand, offering it to her. Yu An took it, and with the slightest tug, he fell into her arms.
Then, the Merfolk wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her onto the seashell bed with him.
The sight was alluring, but Yu An was not just anyone!
She placed one hand on the man’s cool abdominal muscles and used the other to pinch the pressure point beneath her nose, forcing herself to snap out of it.
’It’s fake, it’s all fake. This isn’t Lan Ying, it’s not... I can’t be tricked...’
’A mere Illusion Realm can’t fool me. Lan Ying is terrible with his hands; he could never make a pearl chain like this. Yes, this Merfolk must be a creation of the illusion.’
’But... why does he feel so real?’
Muttering to herself, Yu An forced her gaze away and completely missed the exasperated look on the Merfolk’s face.
"Who’s fake? Me?"
The Merfolk’s gaze was intense. "We’ve been apart for so long, and the first thing you say when you see me is that I’m fake? An’an, you’re going to break this poor fish’s heart~"
Yu An froze. She took another look at the Merfolk and finally realized he was actually Lan Yin.
"Lan Yin? You’re out!"
She threw her arms around him joyfully, but Lan Yin struggled. "Don’t hug me! You didn’t even recognize me. You thought I was Lan Ying... If you like him so much, then go find him!"
"What are you muttering about?" Yu An said, pretending not to hear his complaints. "Let me have a taste of those fishy lips."
With that, she leaned in and kissed him. Lan Yin instantly froze, as still as a zombie sealed by a talisman.
They hadn’t seen each other in ages. His tough talk was just for show. Right now, all he wanted was to hug and kiss Yu An, and perhaps even...
"Well now, are we in the middle of something?"
Just as things were heating up between them, a sarcastic voice sounded from behind the seashell bed.
The voice sounded familiar to Yu An, but she was still light-headed from the kiss and couldn’t quite place it.
When Lan Yin finally released her, her head cleared. She sat up, turned around, and came face-to-face with a pair of blood-red eyes.
Her gaze shifted from Lan Yin on the seashell bed to the man leaning nearby—a man who looked exactly like him. Yu An was dumbfounded.
"You... you’re both..."
"Don’t stop on my account."
Lan Ying’s lips curved into a grin, his eyes full of mirth. He walked over and pulled Yu An into his embrace.
"I’m here to join in, not to interrupt."