My Host Only Marries the Strong

[Task: Reconcile with Seraphine]

[Status: Complete]

Breathing a heavy sigh of relief, Echo rushed to complete her log, then shut her eyes in quiet exhaustion.

The inner chamber fell silent except for the gentle chirping of autumn insects outside their window.

Moonlight poured in like liquid silver as the Profound Turtle beneath the academy opened its ancient maw to drink in the celestial energy. Its enormous claws pushed through the ocean of stars above, suddenly accelerating as it carried their floating mountain toward some distant destination.

Wind whipped past with renewed urgency, rushing excitedly through the valleys and peaks. The phoenix tree groves swayed with soft rustling sounds in the darkness, while the vermilion palace behind them had dimmed its lights, gazing tenderly down at the rolling landscape below.

A shaft of moonlight stretched across the floor like a silk ribbon. Wisps of clouds drifted past the bright orb, their shadows flickering across the eyes of a certain young woman who was quietly rising from bed.

Seraphine’s ink-black hair cascaded down, falling across Echo’s arm as she lay beside her.

Maybe it was because she’d finally let go of her worries, but the system who once claimed she never got tired and didn’t need sleep was now completely unconscious.

Echo’s silver hair spread across the pillow in slight disarray from their earlier reconciliation, but sleeping, she looked utterly docile—none of her usual infuriating attitude showing.

“Heh.” Seraphine let out a soft laugh, tucking her hair behind her shoulders. When she’s asleep, she can’t make me angry. I should make her sleep more often.

But then she stared at Echo with a contemplative expression.

Echo was sleeping so peacefully. Panic really didn’t suit that face at all.

Come to think of it, this was the first time Seraphine had seen Echo this worked up, and definitely the first time she’d seen her cry.

Remembering how Echo had stared at her while apologizing and tearing up, Seraphine couldn’t help pressing her lips together, wondering if maybe the clever system had just gotten wise to using tears as a weapon after seeing her own eyes go red.

After all, Echo was supposedly a fast learner who could adapt on the fly. Using tears to win sympathy wasn’t impossible—but she’d only been gone for half a day, and when she came back, this dummy had suddenly gotten all clingy like she’d unlocked some hidden wisdom.

Where exactly had she learned all those techniques?

The things Echo had said were a complete mess too. Used all wrong.

Seraphine narrowed her eyes and raised her right hand. With her index and middle fingers pressed together, she gave Echo two air-pokes from a distance.

“Dummy,” she whispered. “Three strikes and you’re out. If you ever dare risk your life again and leave me this angry, this worried—don’t expect my forgiveness to come so easily next time!”

Echo seemed to catch the murmured words in her sleep. She rolled over, blinked drowsily, gave Seraphine a sleepy smile, then closed her eyes again and drifted back to sleep.

This time though, a faint smile lingered on her face.

Seraphine’s lips curved upward as she slowly lay back down, closing her eyes face-to-face with Echo.

⁂

“Tweet!”

“Tweet tweet!”

A bird with elegant tail feathers perched on a phoenix tree branch, calling to its companions.

The Insight Academy Palace was absolutely saturated with spiritual energy—a blessed cultivation paradise. Maybe that’s why even the birds here looked plumper than elsewhere.

A little dragon drooled as she gazed longingly at the fat birds, already imagining them roasted golden brown in her mind.

Food was life! Dragons who took human form were still people, and people wanting to eat birds was perfectly natural!

Wagging her tail eagerly, the dragon coiled her serpentine body and launched herself at the fattest bird in the flock.

“Whoosh—” Follow current novels on novel·fire·net

Feathers drifted down as the white birds scattered in panicked chirping. One flew blindly into the corridor, its wing smacking against the window with a loud thwap.

Echo’s eyes snapped open. “Enemy attack!”

Seraphine’s gaze shifted from the novel to Echo, drawling lazily, “You’re finally awake.”

An exclamation point practically materialized above Echo’s head as she checked her internal clock, marveling, “Yes, yes! Slept for ages. No dreams either.”

She crawled out of bed, feeling absolutely refreshed.

A stretching emoticon appeared in her status bubble, and Echo copied the motion, giving a thumbs up.

Being fully rested felt amazing! This system was firing on all cylinders!

“Good morning, Seraphine!” Echo said cheerfully.

“Morning.” Seraphine tossed aside her novel and gracefully leaped from bed to floor. “Get ready. We’re visiting Elder Uncle Jing today.”

“Roger that!” To demonstrate what an obedient system she was, she actively fetched water for washing up. As she passed by Fire Rock Dragon, who was still holding a bird in her mouth, she hung a string of steamed buns on her horns to toast.

Error’s big green eyes rolled upward as she spat out the bird with a ptui.

Cooked food definitely tasted better.

Echo bounced back inside, calling, “Seraphine!”

A lazy response came from behind the pearl curtain separating their rooms. “What are you shouting about? It’s not like I could abandon you and run off in such a short time.”

Echo pushed through the curtain with a grin. Seraphine sat at the window-side vanity, combing her hair.

Since the Insight Academy Palace didn’t allow outsiders, the palace servants from Luanyang Palace naturally couldn’t follow to help with her grooming. She had to manage everything herself.

Having been waited on since childhood, Seraphine could handle simple hairstyles but was nowhere near as skilled as her attendants. For someone who loved looking beautiful, this was a minor blow.

She huffed softly and simply pulled her hair into a high ponytail like Echo, securing it with a red jade crown.

The jade crown had been found in Yunong Velka’s former chambers. Although she hadn’t returned to the Insight Academy Palace since the battle with the Nine Heavens Sect, everything left behind at Phoenix Perch Terrace remained untouched.

Now, the jade crown passed on to Seraphine, another phoenix-blooded heir who came to the Academy seeking enlightenment.

The crystal-clear jade crown was carved with large hibiscus flowers. Seraphine glanced at it, remembering the cloud-like hibiscus blooms she had seen outside Brocade City in the Twin Dragon Secret Realm, along with those strange soul remnants.

“Later, when you see Elder Uncle Jing, ask him about the Twin Dragons Secret Realm.” Seraphine mused, opening a rouge compact and picking up a fine brush.

Echo nodded. “Got it. I also have questions for Jingxing about the Twin Dragons Secret Realm.”

As she spoke, she moved behind Seraphine and gently touched her hair before gathering a section to braid.

“Call him Venerable Jing,” Seraphine corrected, watching Echo warily through the mirror. “Don’t be rude and say something like ‘I’ll have you defeated within a century’ in front of him!”

“Oh!” Echo said brightly. “I won’t. During our boat journey, I read tons of human books and learned many social techniques.”

Back when she was just a system, she only needed to communicate with her host about missions and rewards.

Now she had to interact with multiple people and somehow kept making Seraphine angry.

As an excellent system, she should apply book knowledge to real-world situations.

Seraphine’s hand paused, and a red dot appeared on her forehead. She clicked her tongue, wiping away the rouge and staring at her crimson fingertip suspiciously. “Those things you said last night…… did you learn them from romance novels?”

Echo held the book she had already read, but she’d never seen any lines like “please~~” or “pretty please~~” in any of them.

Echo gave a thumbs up. “They’re wisdom crystallized from eons of experience!” And they’d successfully saved her relationship with Seraphine.

“……Speak plainly!” Seraphine scolded.

Echo said modestly, “My excellent fellow systems taught me—along with some newly created but very wise system friends. They were extremely helpful.”

Seraphine snorted. “What a load of ‘helpful’ advice they gave you!”

However, Seraphine rarely heard about Echo’s world directly from her.

Those occasional fragments revealed glimpses of another realm, both wondrous and terrifying.

Were all the powerful beings there as foolish—I mean, pure—as Echo?

“If I get the chance, I’d like to meet these relatives and friends of yours.” Seraphine said lazily, setting down her brush. A simple flame pattern now adorned her forehead, complementing her red robes perfectly.

Echo smiled and pointed to her own forehead. “I want a flower too. Right here.”

Seraphine stood and pressed Echo into the chair, tilting her chin up with her fingers.

“Too lazy to mix other colors. I’ll just use the leftover rouge for a cinnabar dot.” she said.

“Thank you, Seraphine!” Echo said happily.

“Next time I’ll draw flowers for you!”

Do you want to make me into Seraphine the Beautiful or Seraphine the Hideous? she thought, but said aloud, “Fine, once you improve your calligraphy.”

Sure, sure. I’d practice diligently. Echo obediently tilted her head back, and after a cool sensation flashed across her forehead, a flower bloomed above her brows.

Red and lovely.

Seraphine thought it looked good too. The otherworldly girl in blue robes and silver hair now had a touch of mortal red on her forehead, as if she’d fallen from heaven to earth. She couldn’t help smiling as she dipped her finger in rouge and dabbed it on Echo’s lips, gently spreading it.

Echo stared intently at Seraphine’s face. The warmth from her finger on her lips was soft and gentle. She couldn’t help sticking out her tongue to lick her finger.

“!”

Seraphine jerked back a step, clutching her hand. The spot where Echo’s wet tongue had touched burned like fire, the sensation racing through her bloodstream straight to her heart, making it pound wildly.

“What are you doing?!” Seraphine demanded, flustered.

“Huh? Seraphine, you don’t have a taste?” Echo asked with a purely innocent expression.

“Ha! What do you think I am, some candy sold on the street?” Seraphine’s face turned redder than the rouge compact, so vividly crimson it seemed ready to melt and drip.

And you expected me to have a flavor!

Echo thought she was helping Seraphine save rouge, smiling as she explained, “I figured since you’re fragrant and soft, you should be sweet too.”

“……Idiot!” Seraphine snapped, glaring coldly at Echo. “Forget all that ridiculous nonsense you learned! Get up right now—we’re leaving!”

She spun around and strode out without looking back.

The pearl curtain she’d pushed aside jingled and swayed in the air.

Echo tidily organized the vanity before unhurriedly standing up. “Seraphine’s feeling shy.” She observed.

“Shut up!” came the embarrassed voice from the corridor. “Keep being inappropriate and you can sleep in the mountains!”

Oops, my mistake.

Echo emerged from the room and reached for Seraphine’s hand, but she wouldn’t look at her or let her hold her hand, walking down the mountain alone.

Echo hurried to catch up, grabbing the toasted buns from Error’s horns—giving her the burnt ones and offering Seraphinethe perfectly golden ones.

Seraphine refused to eat, saying coldly, “Perfect for plugging up your mouth.”

“Aw,” Echo said, holding the buns and laughing. “Seraphine’s so hard to please. Please~~ just eat this bun—for me. Pretty please~~ okay?”

“……”

Seraphine rubbed her fingers, deciding to start fasting immediately.

The Insight Academy Palace’s main buildings sat in the center on level ground, surrounded by spiritual grain fields that swayed emerald green in the breeze.

The structures weren’t ornately decorated but resembled mortal scholarly institutes, though much larger than Seraphinehad expected. You could imagine how lively and glorious it must have been when brilliant minds from across the realm gathered here to debate philosophy and cultivation.

Now the white walls and black tiles showed few signs of life. Throughout their journey, they only spotted a handful of new disciples curiously flying around the academy grounds. The original students and masters were nowhere to be seen.

Echo stopped by the roadside, fascinated by the spiritual grain. After scanning it, her eyes lit up as she plucked an ear and gently rubbed it in her palm, revealing white rice-like grains that she popped into her mouth.

Crunch crunch.

Sweet!

Her eyes grew even brighter as she surveyed the field, picking the largest ear to shell for Seraphine.

Seraphine shot her an exasperated look but accepted the grains, putting a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture.

Got it.

Echo sealed her lips and followed behind her.