Heavenly Illusions

An awkward silence fell over the two youths as they sat in the low grass near the lake.

Xai Lin cast a side glance at An Mo, who was curled up a distance away, and saw that he was still acting embarrassed. She carefully examined his skin and finally realized that when this brat blushed, his entire body heated up. Just like his personality, even his physical expression of his emotions was loud, without any subtlety.

After a moment, Xai Lin sighed and spoke up to break the silence.

“Let’s both take a step back, okay?”

An Mo looked over at Xai Lin but quickly looked away. He then nodded slightly while letting out a soft “Mn”.

Impatient to change out of these soaked clothes, Xai Lin hurriedly stood up and walked over to An Mo.

An Mo, with his knees pressed against his chest, looked up at Xai Lin with a confused expression.

“Come on, stand up.”

An Mo hesitated for a moment but still stood up. He stood in front of Xai Lin in a slightly slouch posture, with both hands awkwardly covering his lower half.

Xai Lin was a little bit shorter than An Mo, so she had to tilt her head slightly to look up at him. With hands on her hips, she looked at this boy in front of her with a bit of doubt in her heart.

‘His appearance is completely different from any human I’ve seen since reincarnating in this book. Even for Spirit Beasts and Demonic Beasts who have taken human form, they usually look no different from regular humans. Was there a Spirit Beast with a human form like this in the book I read before?’

The book she had reincarnated into “Heavenly Illusions” was actually several books combined into one, with different main protagonist for each story.

Xai Lin tried hard to recall the story of each protagonist if they ever stumble upon a Spirit Beast like this in the Demonic Realm, but no matter how hard she thought, she couldn’t recall any Spirit Beast name An Mo.

‘This isn’t even mentioning the fact that he has more than one bloodline from a Mythical Divine Beast! Such an abnormal Spirit Beast was never in the book. No, wait...’

Xai Lin immediately stopped this train of thought.

‘Sigh... I decided long ago not to wholeheartedly rely on that book. Afterall, this world is real. It’s unrealistic to think everything would strictly follow a book meant for entertainment. At the very least I can only use it as a reference to steal some of the main protagonists’ opportunities and change my fate as a cannonfodder female character.’

Thinking of her fate in the book, Xai Lin felt deeply distressed.

“Hey, are you okay?”

An Mo looked at this person, who had been staring at him in a daze for nearly a minute straight with tightly pursed lips.

Xai Lin finally snapped out of her thoughts upon hearing An Mo’s question. She turned her head to the side and coughed awkwardly in her fist before saying somewhat embarrassedly.

“Sorry about that, I was distracted for a moment.”

An Mo’s eyebrow twitched, and he resisted the urge to let out a curse. What could possibly be on him that made her so lost in thought? He did not want to know. He was already so anxious to change out of this form he couldn’t be bothered by anything else.

“So, what do we do now?”

Brought back on topic, Xai Lin’s expression became a bit serious as she suggested.

“How about we make a deal? You give me your Divine Beasts’ bloodline, and I’ll unconditionally fulfill one of your requests.”

“Huh?! Wait, you want my bloodline?! Is that why you were trying to eat me?!”

An Mo almost jumped three feet into the air when he heard that.

Xai Lin heard a buzzing sound in her head due to An Mo’s loud voice. She couldn’t help but think internally.

‘Great, his personality is back to square one.’

Enduring the faint headache coming on, she nodded and replied.

“Yeah, you just have to give me a drop of your blood.”

An Mo froze when he heard that. He slowly turned his head to look at Xai Lin with an indescribable expression before he squeezed out in a small voice.

“Just a drop of blood?”

As if sensing something, Xai Lin hurriedly covered her ears and turned her head to the side.

Immediately after, An Mo’s soft voice rose to a booming level.

“YOU CHASED ME FOR SO LONG JUST FOR A SINGLE DROP OF MY BLOOD?!!”

The air in the surroundings seemed to vibrate due to An Mo’s voice, before the sound was carried by the wind for several kilometers.

The beasts in the great forest upon hearing his voice all shrink back into their hiding place, not even daring to expose a single strand of fur.

“Damn it. Why don’t you scream louder, you almost blew out my ear drums.”

Xai Lin cursed as she rubbed her aching ears. Her premonition was correct, this thing in front of her was no cute looking Spirit Beast. It was a walking nuclear reactor at supercritical mass!

With pursed lips, An Mo glared indignantly at Xai Lin with moist eyes. That feeling of grievance came back, and it came back even stronger than before.

“Hmph! If you go deaf, it’s what you deserve! Why didn’t you tell me you only needed a drop of blood instead of chasing me across half the Forest Region?!”

“Tsk... If you hadn’t run, I wouldn’t have chased you. Not my fault you misunderstood the situation.”

Seeing how Xai Lin was still being unreasonable, An Mo was even more aggrieved but extremely frustrated as well. Especially, when thinking back on his state of mind when he was being chased.

“Damn it. I really thought that you were some crazy human girl who wanted to eat Spirit Beast meat! Do you even know how scared I was?”

“Pftt! Hahahaha!!”

Xai Lin couldn’t help but let out a laugh while clutching her stomach when she heard An Mo’s words. It was crisp and clear, like two silver bells jingling together.

Despite the fact that he was being laughed at, An Mo’s ear turned a shade of red when he heard her. He freed up one of his hands to scratch at the tingling sensation in his ear, before saying begrudgingly.

“You’re actually laughing at me... Just you wait, I definitely won’t suffer this loss for nothing.”

Xai Lin recovered from her laughter, and seeing An Mo’s expression she playfully stuck out her tongue at him.

An Mo saw this but simply pursed his lips and looked away. Without looking at Xai Lin he said.

“Didn’t you want to make a deal? Fine, I agree!”

With a smile on her lips, Xai Lin swept her gaze over An Mo’s ear that was slightly hidden by his half soaked, fluffily bright orange hair, and saw that they were slightly red. This caused her smile to deepen slightly.

“Okay, a gentleman’s words are as precious as gold! So, no going back on the deal after I unseal your cultivation, okay?”

An Mo snorted and replied.

“I won’t, so just hurry up and do it. How long do you want me to stand here like this?”

Not minding An Mo’s words, Xai Lin approached and place a hand on his shoulder. Immediately, black runes appeared across An Mo’s body before snapping like chains being broken.

After all of the black runes broke, An Mo finally felt the suppression on his cultivation base and bloodline dissipated. With a thought, he transformed into his tortoise form.

‘Finally...’

An Mo thought internally as he let out a sigh.

God knows what kind of means this human girl had to have sealed the bloodline of all his Divine Beast Forms. But he could tell it wasn’t her power. At the very least she must have borrowed the power from some treasure on her.

From the ground, An Mo looked up and met Xai Lin’s smiling gaze. His little heart immediately skipped a beat.

It was absolutely not because of that beautiful face, but rather a reflex reaction caused by severe trauma.

“What’s that look for? I don’t go back on my promises!”

After saying that, An Mo urged his Divine Tortoise bloodline ability to undo the seal on Xai Lin. At the same time, he began considering what request he should make. He had an idea, but he had to make sure he worded it right when the time came.