"I’m not injured, Blue," she sighed, resting her chin on her hands. "I was just... thinking. About the logistics of the cultivation world."

"Logistics?" Blue echoed, tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah," Ji’an muttered, poking the fire with a stick. "It’s just... incredibly rare to find someone whose combat rhythm matches yours so perfectly. Back in my sect, everyone fights like they have something to prove. It’s all about flashy sword techniques and screaming about honor. But with you? It’s just... efficient. It’s quiet. It feels like we’ve been hunting together for years."

Blue sat perfectly still.

The words struck him with the force of a hard blow.

The validation of hearing her admit to their perfect synergy sent a fresh, blinding wave of fanatical devotion tearing through his disguised soul.

’We are perfectly synchronized because I have spent every waking moment analyzing your every breath, your every movement, your every thought,’ Blue’s internal self celebrated, metaphorically clutching his chest in joyous agony. ’I worked hard just to follow your steps, and finally! We are now two halves of the same whole. You feel it too!’

But externally, the rogue cultivator merely offered a soft, slightly melancholic smile.

"It is a rare alignment of fate," Blue agreed, his voice a low, mesmerizing hum. "The rivers of the world flow in chaotic directions, but occasionally, two streams merge seamlessly into one. I, too, have found our partnership to be... deeply fulfilling, Ji’an."

Ji’an groaned, tossing her stick into the fire. "That’s the depressing part! You’re a rogue cultivator, bro! Once we hit the border town, you’re going to wander off into the sunset to fight a dragon or whatever, and I’m going to have to go back to my sect and deal with a mountain full of absolute lunatics!"

Blue’s dark eyes flashed in the firelight.

The idea of her being distressed by his inevitable departure was the sweetest, most intoxicating nectar he had ever tasted.

"Perhaps," Blue murmured, leaning slightly forward, his gaze locking onto hers with that heavy, familiar intensity, "the rogue’s wandering path is not as fixed as you believe. If a stream finds a comfortable riverbed... it may choose to stay."

Ji’an blinked, her heart giving a sudden, confused flutter at the incredibly smooth, subtly loaded statement.

’Don’t tell me... Is he... is he hitting on me?’ Ji’an panicked internally, the fujoshi rumors suddenly flashing back into her mind. ’Wait, he thinks I’m a guy! Am I emitting some universal, cross-gender rizz?! Why does everyone in this world look at me like I’m a piece of premium wagyu beef?!’

Before Ji’an could stammer out a response to the dangerously charming rogue, the ambient atmosphere of the swamp shifted abruptly.

.

.

.

The erratic, buzzing symphony of the nocturnal swamp insects cut off instantly, as if a soundproof dome had been dropped over the lagoon.

The bioluminescent lotus flowers in the water flickered and dimmed.

​A sudden chill swept over the basalt outcropping, carrying the faint, incongruous scent of cherry blossoms and ozone.

Blue was on his feet in a second, the smooth, flirting rogue vanishing entirely.

He stepped directly in front of Ji’an, shielding her with his body, his hand raised, ready to unleash a barrage of kinetic needles.

"Young Master Ji’an. Please don’t move and stay behind me," Blue ordered, his voice dropping into a cold register that lacked any trace of human emotion.

Ji’an scrambled to her feet, drawing her spatula, her eyes darting across the misty lagoon.

"What is it?" she hissed. "A Beast King? Or a demonic horde?"

"Worse than that," Blue whispered, his dark eyes locked onto a patch of dense, swirling mist near the edge of the water. "Something doesn’t seem right. I can feel the aura of a high-grade beast. How come this place has an Enlightened Beast?"

From the thick, white fog, a figure slowly emerged, stepping daintily onto the muddy bank.

Ji’an braced herself, expecting a towering, multi-headed dragon or a horrifying, tentacled monstrosity.

Instead, she found herself staring at... a kitten.

It was small, roughly the size of a standard housecat.

Its fur was a brilliant, glowing, pristine silver, completely untouched by the filth and mud of the swamp.

It had large, expressive, crystalline blue eyes that radiated with intelligence.

And, swishing lazily behind it in perfect, hypnotic synchronization, were two distinct, fluffy silver tails.

The creature sat down on a mossy rock, curled its two tails neatly around its paws, and proceeded to fastidiously lick its front paw, entirely unbothered by the two heavily armed humans staring at it.

Ji’an lowered her spatula by an inch, her love for cute pet animals, even if they have little meat to use, overriding her combat instincts for a fatal second.

’It’s a cat,’ Ji’an thought, profoundly confused. ’There’s basically no meat on that little thing. It’s entirely inedible. Why is Blue acting like it’s a nuke?’

"Do not be deceived by the vessel, Young Master Ji’an," Blue warned, reading her confusion, his body remaining coiled with lethal tension. "Enlightened Beasts are anomalies of nature. They have bypassed the brutal evolutionary chain of the wild and achieved near-human sentience. That creature is Rank 7, at a minimum. Its aura is completely suppressed. It could vaporize this outcropping with a single touch."

As if to prove his point, the kitten paused its grooming.

It looked up, fixing its crystalline blue eyes directly on Blue.

«The red-haired fake man is entirely correct,» a voice echoed, not in the air, but directly inside both of their minds.

The telepathic voice was startlingly clear.

It sounded like a young, haughty, yet slightly bored aristocratic child.

«I could indeed turn you both into ash,» the two-tailed kitten projected, letting out a small, delicate yawn that revealed rows of razor-sharp, glowing white teeth. «But you mortals are making an awful lot of noise, and you are ruining the ambiance of my lagoon. The loud, smelly beast-man was roaring through here earlier, and now you two are having an emotional crisis by a campfire. It is deeply irritating.»