Seeing Linglong lower her hand, Hua Jian immediately latched onto her like a stubborn piece of sticky plaster, wrapping herself around Linglong’s body like a snake.
No—she moved even more flexibly than a snake. Anyone who didn’t know better would genuinely think she was a snake spirit that had taken human form.
Linglong felt a bit shy being clung to like this by Huajian, and couldn’t help gently pushing Huajian’s face away from hers. “Don’t be like this.”
“Haha, finally it’s your turn to say that. Weren’t you the one being all forward before? Why are you backing down now?”
Huajian had a real gift for changing the subject—in just a few words, she shifted the focus of the conversation from mischief to the relationship between the two of them.
Mentioning that made Linglong even more embarrassed. Saying these things when their bodies weren’t touching felt completely different from saying them while pressed tightly together.
“I was never that forward! Don’t talk nonsense!”
Although a few of their overly intimate encounters had been initiated by Linglong, she had to admit those two times were both accidents.
In truth, Linglong was still quite a conservative girl. The half of her bloodline inherited from the Dragon Race hadn’t given her their generous, open disposition.
Of course, the Dragon Race didn’t actually have that kind of misunderstood personality either.
Most dragons were quite proper, honestly. It was just that the ones the world got to see weren’t so proper, which gave the Dragon Race a slightly muddled reputation.
And this whole “dragon nature is lustful” thing Huajian kept saying was definitely a rumor. Linglong suspected Huajian had made it up just to tease her and get a reaction.
“You took my first time and now you’re acting like you don’t know me. Sigh, such is the noble Dragon Race. This humble little flower never should have hoped to be cherished forever by the great Dragon Lady.”
Veins popped on Linglong’s forehead, and electric sparks began to flicker through her bangs.
Huajian immediately knew her teasing had to stop—if she kept it up, she’d be getting electroshock therapy.
Knowing when to back off was her specialty, after all.
In an instant, Huajian climbed off Linglong and returned to where she’d been sitting, putting on a serious face as she began analyzing the current situation.
But doing that now was too late. The little dragon girl had to maintain her dignity in front of outsiders and wouldn’t lower herself to bickering with Huajian.
But there were no outsiders here, were there? And there were plenty of things a little dragon girl could do. Giving Huajian a minor punishment wouldn’t hurt, right?
Soon, Huajian found herself wrapped up by Linglong in exactly the same way she’d wrapped around Linglong.
And because Linglong had an extra tail, her hold was much tighter. It was as if Linglong was showing her, through actions, what true initiative really looked like.
“Sometimes I really want to eat you in one bite. I feel like you’d taste delicious.” Linglong nibbled Huajian’s earlobe and whispered softly.
As she spoke, her teeth grazed lightly across Huajian’s skin, sending a rather delightful shiver through her.
‘Unexpected! Linglong, with your honest, upright appearance, you’ve got kinks like this too!’ Huajian coughed in a show of feigned composure, insisting she wouldn’t taste good at all.
“Why don’t you try those teething sticks I gave you? They have my taste on them.”
Those fruit shells came from fruit Huajian had produced, so naturally they carried Huajian’s flavor. If Linglong wanted a taste, those shells would do just fine!
“But those are gifts you gave me. How could I dispose of them so casually?”
Linglong said very seriously, insisting she wouldn’t cast aside tokens of affection like some people would. She treasured them carefully.
It wasn’t like she was some foodie who wanted to take a bite out of everything she saw.
Though Huajian could technically be classified within the category of “food,” probably no one would actually dare treat her as such.
That wasn’t a joke. Huajian wasn’t from the Human Clan—she was a spirit item that had taken form. To humans, that was indeed something edible.
At best, the danger factor was quite high. If you weren’t careful, Huajian might just eat you instead.
By comparison, Linglong didn’t fall under the usual definition of food. Being half-dragon had its advantages—she was a bit more noble than a plant.
“Ugh, you’re bringing up old grudges again. I didn’t want to do it either! I had no way to resist back then.”
Huajian was at a complete loss for words at Linglong’s habit of dragging up the past at the slightest provocation.
Linglong had seen how pathetic she was back then. The two of them had been putting on a tear-jerking performance of “tears at the iron window”—Huajian on the inside, Linglong on the outside.
In that state, there was nothing she could do at all.
“Fine, fine. Let’s not talk about it. Just let me soak you in for a while.”
Linglong buried her face in Huajian’s hair and took a deep breath.
The faint floral fragrance drifting from Huajian gave her a comfortable feeling, like she was floating in the sky.
Once she caught that scent, she didn’t want to leave Huajian’s side.
“Why are you acting like a cat with catnip?” Huajian couldn’t help but sigh.
Her constitution was pretty unreliable—it seemed to have a powerful attraction for all sorts of creatures.
The little spiritual civet sniffed her like catnip, and Linglong sniffed her like dragon mint. Who knew what that was about?
Could it be that her fragrance had this powerful an attraction for all living things?
“It should be related to your true form… Do you still not know what your true form is?”
“Mhm. The Valley Master’s theory is that I might be the last of my kind. No one like me has ever appeared before, so there are no records of me anywhere in the Human Clan’s archives.”
“This world is too vast. Even the Human Clan, who consider themselves the masters of the world, wouldn’t dare claim to know all its secrets.”
“It’s perfectly normal for strange treasures to be hidden in obscure corners. The Human Clan has gotten used to it.”
“Maybe you’re an immortal flower that fell from the Celestial Realm?” Linglong said jokingly.
Things from the Celestial Realm naturally couldn’t be known by the mortal world.
Huajian didn’t think that was very likely. What immortal would raise a plant as dangerous as her?
Her true form wasn’t exactly pleasant to look at—it wouldn’t work well for decoration.
And if they wanted her to do work, when the Valley Master first found her, she’d barely had any intelligence.
Even if the immortals gave her tasks, she wouldn’t have been able to complete them.
So why would the immortals keep her? To throw her down and cause trouble for mortals?
“How could that be? If I were an immortal flower that fell from the sky, wouldn’t that make me a little fairy?” Huajian burst out laughing.
She didn’t see a single thing about herself that was even remotely celestial.
Besides, she’d come through a soul crossing. She had no memory of anything before that, and she had no desire to revisit that uncomfortable part of her past.
What, was she supposed to ask the Valley Master how she’d outwitted Wanhuagu back then, devouring those secret realms and nearly half of Wanhuagu’s core combat strength?
Bringing up that topic might not embarrass the Valley Master, but Huajian would absolutely die of awkwardness.
“Thinking about it too much won’t help anyway. Even if I really am a little immortal flower that fell from the sky, I still have to train diligently now, right? What happened before has no meaning to me anymore.”
Huajian’s answer caught Linglong off guard. She hadn’t expected Huajian to be so open-minded about this.
Almost to the point of being carefree.
She’d thought Huajian would care a lot about her original identity. She never expected this outcome.
“I didn’t expect you to be so magnanimous.”
“Being petty about it would be the real problem, wouldn’t it? Mm… right, you’re a dragon. You’re different from me.”
Huajian wriggled a little and answered Linglong in a tone that made it sound utterly obvious.
“Hm?”
“Because dragons are actually pretty similar to humans. You have clear family structures and strong racial identity. But do you see intelligent spirit plants having those kinds of thoughts?”
Linglong looked up and thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head.
The only intelligent spirit plants she’d ever met were White Flower Venerable and Huajian, and neither of them seemed to care about such things.
Those two flowers, who weren’t even the same species, viewed each other more fondly than they viewed their own kin.
“For plants like us, searching for a race or a family is completely meaningless. By the time we gain sentience, our ancestors are already long gone.”
Huajian spread her hands, stating what was basically common knowledge.
“Plants gain sentience far less easily than spirit beasts. Often, by the time a plant develops consciousness, several hundred years have already passed.”
“And by then, the previous generation that produced the seeds has long since vanished without a trace.”
“And I’m even more special than that. You know this—my memories don’t include any experience of having a true form. From the very beginning, I’ve thought of myself as a person.”
If someone had directly told Huajian she wasn’t human, she might have been a tiny bit surprised, but that would have been it.
Wasn’t the only issue just that she couldn’t be human anymore?
She’d already gone from being a boy to a girl with a transmigration experience thrown in as a bonus.
What did it matter adding “not human” to the list?
And she hadn’t even found out directly. Along the way, she’d experienced a fortuitous encounter that had already shifted her self-perception.
Right, that time with the Illusory Dream Flower. After fusing with it, she’d already been treated as a non-human existence.
By the time she fully learned she wasn’t human at all, the impact just wasn’t that big anymore.
“But I’ve already found my mother. I know where I come from. That’s enough. As for anything else, I’m sure I’ll learn it in time.”
After listening to Huajian’s entire speech, Linglong couldn’t help but hold her tighter.
She felt herself liking Huajian even more. This attitude of openly accepting both past and future filled her with a quiet pride—’Just as I expected from someone I took a liking to at first sight.’
Her judgment really was excellent!
“Huajian, you’re wonderful.” She said softly.
“Huh? What do you mean I’m wonderful?” Huajian was taken aback and was about to say more when Linglong pressed her tail tip directly against Huajian’s lips.
Linglong knew Huajian too well. She knew that at this moment, Huajian would inevitably say something to ruin the mood.
So she cut off Huajian’s casting before it could begin.
“Don’t speak. Just be moved.”
Huajian’s eyes went wide. ‘Wait, why should I be moved? I don’t even know what you mean by that!’
‘That’s just you being moved by your own feelings, isn’t it!’
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