Note: This side story has no real connection to the main plot. Don’t read it as canon.

———————————————

When he woke up, Xia Yan felt his body unusually heavy, like someone had poured lead into his limbs.

His head was fuzzy too, like he’d been forced to chug several bottles of strong liquor the night before and blacked out.

Normally that kind of feeling would fade after a bit. Even so, he still felt it was strange—why had he woken up like this several times recently?

On top of that, he didn’t remember when he’d fallen asleep, or what he’d been doing right before that.

“This is weird. Am I just too tired lately? But it’s not like I’ve been doing anything special… so why can’t I even remember when I fell asleep?”

Muttering to himself, Xia Yan shifted his gaze to Xueyin, still sleeping peacefully beside him.

“How did this girl sneak out again? Wait… don’t tell me… this is her doing?”

…

Time rolled back to about a week ago. Xueyin had personally witnessed what her master and Cai Lingyu had done after she woke up.

Xia Yan had no idea, but Xueyin had watched the whole thing from beginning to end.

And in that moment, an emotion called jealousy slowly sprouted and spread through her heart.

[I want to be one with Master too.]

As that wish in her chest grew stronger and stronger, Xia Yan’s otherwise unchanging daily life finally began to shift in subtle ways.

…

One night, when it was just the two of them, Xueyin quietly waited until Xia Yan fell asleep. Then she used her own mana to push him into a deep sleep.

Her mana was extremely hard to detect, and the spell only improved his sleep quality and dulled his senses to the outside world.

So noticing what she’d done was basically impossible.

After that, Xueyin nervously climbed onto her master’s body, struggling inside between being a “bad girl” or a “good girl.”

Two voices kept whispering in her heart:

Temptation: “Isn’t this the perfect chance for you to eat Master up? Do it. You put him to sleep just so you could be one with him, didn’t you?”

Reason: “You can’t. Once you cross that line, there’s no going back! Master doesn’t want you to do something like this. He’ll be sad if he finds out.”

…

Right then, Xia Yan suddenly murmured softly in his sleep:

“Ling’er, get off me already…”

That one line shattered the last trace of reason inside Xueyin.

Jealousy and longing hardened into resolve. She had to become even closer to her master, no matter what!

Xueyin licked her cherry-pink lips, her eyes going hazy as she stared down at him and whispered:

“In that case, I’ll dig in without holding back. Aah~”

…………………………………………

That was the moment when everything started slipping completely out of control.

The next morning, Xia Yan woke from a deep sleep.

He didn’t notice anything that had happened the previous night. He’d slept way too soundly.

From then on, whenever Xia Yan spent the night alone, Xueyin would quietly appear. After using mana to plunge him into deep sleep, she’d start showing off her true “juicer” nature.

By the time Xia Yan woke up the next morning, he remembered nothing about what had happened the night before, aside from feeling heavy all over.

It wasn’t until today that he finally began to suspect this might all be Xueyin’s doing.

But he had no proof. To confirm it, he bought a magic cat’s-eye stone from a magic-goods shop outside—an item that could record images.

This cat’s-eye stone worked like a surveillance camera. Set it somewhere, and it would capture everything that happened there.

After setting it up, he used his own mana to mask its faint mana aura, then waited for night to fall.

Right on schedule, sleepiness hit him. He collapsed into bed and started snoring.

Xueyin never noticed the cat’s-eye stone Xia Yan had set up in advance. She did exactly what she’d done all the previous nights.

At dawn, Xia Yan woke up again and, once more, saw Xueyin lying beside him.

He’d gotten used to it over the past few days.

He couldn’t control this girl anyway, so he’d just silently allowed her to sleep with him.

But he still really wanted to know what exactly happened after he fell asleep.

So he retrieved the cat’s-eye stone he’d planted yesterday and had it play back what it had recorded.

The moment he saw what had actually happened last night, he froze in place. The stone slipped from his fingers and fell to the floor.

Because he saw something in the recording that he absolutely should not have seen.

He didn’t want to accept it, but that was the reality.

…

…

Xia Yan turned his head to look at Xueyin. His expression had never been more complicated.

How was he supposed to face her from now on?

———————————————

Just then, Xueyin’s long silver lashes, light as butterfly wings, trembled slightly, a sign she was about to wake up.

She soon opened her sleepy eyes, stretched, and let out a lazy yawn. Then she looked at Xia Yan and said:

“…Good morning, Master~ Did you sleep well last night?”

“…I slept pretty well…”

“Heehee, that’s good~ Master, what are we doing today?”

The next second, Xueyin leaned in to hug him. Xia Yan caught her hand and moved it away, then asked with a very serious expression, “Xueyin, be honest. What did you do to me last night?”

“Last night? Last night I just… slept with you, Master. That’s all!”

“…Stop lying to me. I already know everything… Why did you do that kind of thing while I was asleep?”

Her heart lurched at his words, but she quickly understood. Paper could never hide a fire.

Sooner or later, Master would find out. And when that time came, how was she supposed to face him?

“…I’m sorry, Master. In your eyes, I must be a bad girl… but I couldn’t suppress how much I wanted you. Once I realized my true wish was to be with you, I did something like that. You never accepted me, and I know it’s probably because my identity’s… a bit special, but I… I only love you, Master!”

…

“I’m sorry. My selfishness must’ve caused you trouble… Please give the order, Master. Command me to delete my memories of these past few days. Then command me to erase my emotions. From now on, I’ll only serve as a tool to assist you… If we do that, I’ll never trouble you again.”

Xueyin lowered her head. She’d already accepted her fate. A bad girl like her deserved to be punished.

But Xia Yan didn’t give that order. Instead, he suddenly pulled her into his arms.

“Idiot. Who said I was going to make you erase your feelings? Why didn’t you tell me all this sooner?”

He let out a sigh. “This is my fault too. I noticed your feelings, but never gave you a proper answer… At this point, it’s too late to say anything else. Xueyin, I’ll take responsibility for you.”

…

Right then, Xueyin could no longer hold back the joyful tears in her eyes. Her wish had finally come true.

The next second, she pushed Xia Yan back onto the bed behind him. In her heterochromatic eyes, two different colors shimmered with childlike mischief:

“…Master, I can’t hold back anymore~ Can I do bad things to you?”

“You… It’s broad daylight. It’s literally morning! Can’t this kind of thing wait until tonight?”

“No! I don’t want to wait even one more second!”

…………………………………………

Just like that, their fingers intertwined as they truly became one.

After Xia Yan reached his limit and “surrendered his weapon,” Xueyin collapsed bonelessly on the bed, limbs spread out in a big “X.”

Milk-white liquid slowly began to flow back out…

Right after, she felt her lower belly heat up. A crimson mark slowly surfaced there.

Xia Yan knew exactly what it was. It was a Sacred Mark that formed whenever enough mana accumulated in the same place.

It meant that spot now held too much of her own mana.

“A Sacred Mark showed up. That’s wonderful. Now I’ll never be able to leave Master again!”

…

…

The next instant, Xia Yan jolted awake from his dream.

He looked around. This was his room, no mistake.

Xueyin was lying beside him, sleeping soundly. Everything that had just happened seemed to be nothing more than a dream.

“…So it was just a dream?”

He glanced at the still-sleeping Xueyin. In any case, there was no way the two of them would ever go that far, right?

Just then, Xueyin woke up too. She rubbed her drowsy eyes and looked at the shaken Xia Yan.

“What’s wrong, Master? Did you have a nightmare?”

Xia Yan nodded. “…Yeah, I guess it was a bad dream. But I wouldn’t really call it a nightmare…”

“I see. Then let’s go back to sleep. It’s not even light out yet… If it makes you feel better, you can hold me while you sleep.”

Xueyin opened her arms to him.

Xia Yan hesitated for a moment, then decided not to turn her down. He moved in to hug her.

“Alright…”

He wrapped his arms around her soft, delicate body and soon drifted off again.

He had no idea that, at that very moment, a bright Sacred Mark had already formed on Xueyin’s lower abdomen.

……………………………………