Dim morning light filtered through the window, gently falling upon Shen Ye’s sleeping face.
The girl’s features were delicate, her long eyelashes casting a lovely shadow over her eyelids. Beneath her refined nose, her pale pink lips parted slightly, as if she were lost in a sweet dream.
“Mm… ah~”
Her lashes fluttered as Shen Ye slowly awoke, greeted by an unfamiliar ceiling.
‘…Where am I? Right, I came here looking for my junior brother.’
Shen Ye propped herself up, the blanket draped over her slipping away to reveal her upper body clothed in thin fabric.
**’Is this… Junior Brother’s residence?’
She surveyed her surroundings. A sofa, a coffee table, a television, and a desk not far away made up the room’s entirety.
Simple arrangement.
**’Just like something he’d put together,’ she mused.
The window was open, and the morning breeze drifted inside, making the girl instinctively shrink back. Feeling that the room’s temperature was nowhere near as warm as the blanket, she pulled it back up and curled into it, leaving only half her head poking out.
‘This body really is frail. Even a little cold wind makes me feel awful.’
Shen Ye stared at the ceiling, half her face visible beneath the blanket, her small eyes blinking as if pondering something.
‘When Master just saved me last night, I think I was staring at the ceiling like this too?’
‘I really thought I was going to die back then. But Master is truly Master—even in a situation like that, she managed to pull me back.’
Shen Ye closed her eyes, her mind filled with the painful memories of last night—like diving into a bottomless sea, her body sinking uncontrollably.
She reached out her hand, gently clenching it in the air, but caught nothing—only air slipping through her fingers.
‘I almost never got to see you all again.’
Master, Junior Brother, and… Junior Sister.
The brush with death made Shen Ye realize just how precious the ordinary days she’d always taken for granted truly were.
Her mother*’s final gaze before passing had carried a dying person’*s reluctance to leave the living. Now, she understood—it was more the regret of not being able to walk alongside loved ones to the very end.
‘Will I be the same?’
**’Will I leave this world clinging to my loved ones with reluctance and longing when I’m on the brink of death?’
The girl opened her eyes, her gaze filled with confusion and unease.
Last night’s pain still lingered in her mind. The physical agony was nothing compared to the torment of her soul.
Having cultivated for over a decade, Shen Ye knew full well that as a half-demon, this day would come eventually. That was why she’d worked so hard. But she never expected it to arrive so suddenly, so completely catching her off guard.
She lowered her gaze.
‘Master should be dealing with the Association right now. She probably won’t be able to return to the sect grounds for a while. I hope she’s okay.’
**’At least I’ve already seen Junior Brother. I wonder how his Life Spirit System cultivation is coming along.’
**’If he can’t cure me either, then…’
Shen Ye drew out a thread of spiritual power to inspect her inner body, only to notice something unusual.
She tried circulating her spiritual power and found that the anticipated pain never came.
**’Strange. Why does it feel like everything’s flowing much more smoothly now?’
Tap, tap, tap.
As footsteps approached, the fragrance drifting through the air seemed to grow richer with the sound.
Shen Ye followed the noise and saw a young man in loungewear walking over with a cup of tea.
The young man was around eighteen or nineteen, with regular, handsome features, sharp and refined eyes, and a pair of clear, easygoing eyes beneath his tousled hair.
‘It’s Xiangyi. He looks like he’s in good spirits.’
Seeing her junior brother after so long, a wave of relief washed over Shen Ye.
She flared her small nose, the rich aroma in the air stirring familiar memories.
‘This is… my favorite Clear Tea?’
A smile curved at the corner of her lips. She felt a warmth of joy at the sight of that cup of tea.
On this cold morning, this thoughtful gesture dispelled the exhaustion of traveling through the night. At this moment, even the cold air outside the blanket no longer seemed like an obstacle. She sat up, wanting to greet her junior brother in better form.
“Xiang—”
Shen Ye straightened and reached out to take the teacup. But when she shifted her body out from under the blanket, a sense of wrongness from her physical form reminded her that something wasn’t right.
And the reaction of the man before her only confirmed her suspicions.
Lin Xiangyi set the tea down and sat on the sofa across from her. His indifferent gaze shifted the moment he saw her awake.
What replaced it was coldness and scrutiny, as if the person sitting before him wasn’t his senior brother, but a complete stranger.
The tea she’d assumed was brewed by her junior brother for his senior was placed on the far side of the table, just out of reach.
**’Something… isn’t right?’
Shen Ye’s outstretched hand froze mid-air. The eerie atmosphere threatened to solidify the very air around them.
As her emotions grew unstable, a fluffy cat tail began to flick anxiously behind her.
Her expression changed drastically.
‘When? When exactly did I get exposed?’
**’Before I passed out, my spiritual power balance was perfectly fine—there’s no way my ears and tail should have been revealed!’
The unfamiliar sensation of her tail sent Shen Ye’s danger alarms to their highest level. Anxiety and dread coursed through her heart, flooding her limbs and settling into a heavy stiffness.
“Who are you? What’s your purpose in coming to see me?”
The man*’s voice was steady and composed, carrying an unyielding tone of interrogation. The final word he uttered made Shen Ye’*s heart pound violently.
“Spirit being.”