Fang Rou woke up the following day and saw Xiang Ning staring up at the ceiling. She instinctively turned and looked at the ceiling too. “Uh… what’re you looking at?”

“Nothing. I’m just thinking about life in general.” Xiang Ning was extremely tired. He hadn’t managed to sleep a wink and didn’t know why. Usually, he would be able to cuddle with Fang Rou and sleep quite peacefully, but his thoughts had been weird since yesterday, causing him to not be able to sleep.

“Yes? What is it?” Fang Rou sat up. She couldn’t hear what he had said because his voice was extremely soft. Weak, even. She thought it might be her fault that he couldn’t sleep and felt guilty.

Xiang Ning was surprised, but lied as he saw her anxious look. “Nothing.”

“Nothing my foot!” Fang Rou almost cried when she said that. “It must be me, or else you wouldn’t look so tired.”

Xiang Ning couldn’t hold back as he saw how distressed she was. He immediately activated Refresh and made a complete recovery.

Level: Tier five, one-star martial artist (1732/300,000)

Mental Power: Tier five, one-star spiritual cultivator

Techniques: Advanced Breathing Technique, Telekinesis, Keen Observation, Taunt, Combat Instinct, Comprehension, Disguise, Eight Gates, Language Proficiency

Martial Skills: Mountain-Splitting Slash, Triple Slash, Shadowmist Ghost Step, Charging Toss, Dancing Peacock, Silent Burial, Reforge

Body Constitutions: Yin of Tai Chi

Special Techniques: Refresh

Special Artifacts: Sovereign’s Throne

Items: Healing Potion x2

Fury Points: 637,390

Looking at his interface, Xiang Ning sighed in resignation. As his strength increased, he needed more and more Experience Points. He would need to fight Beast Kings to advance in tier five. He shivered at the thought of fighting a tier eight Beast King to advance to tier six.

He quickly threw the thought out of his head and said nothing as he picked Fang Rou up and carried her into the washroom. He slowly placed her down as she felt something was different with him.

“You lied to me!” she cried. 

Xiang Ning saw her tearing up and was at a loss. “Hey, I’m really fine! Look, I can still carry you!”

“But you were so tired yesterday and didn’t have a good night's sleep. You even put me down after just a few steps. You’re hiding your fatigue!” She rubbed her eyes like a little girl.

Xiang Ning was speechless. He was already in the bathroom just a few steps away from the bed. If I didn’t put you down, would you brush my teeth for me? He thought about it and felt that it wasn’t entirely a bad idea.

He only managed to calm Fang Rou down after ten minutes. But before he could speak with her again she had already run out. She even left the door open! He chuckled as he heard her embarrassed shriek.

It was embarrassing! They were right when they said we get flustered for the person we care about. Fang Rou had never shown that side of herself to anyone other than Xiang Ning. Who was she? She was a martial goddess on the field! She had never shown mercy to the beasts, how could she display such childish behavior?

“Hmph!” She remembered how Xiang Ning was looking at her at a loss and swore revenge.

“Achoo!” Xiang Ning sneezed. He put on his clothes and thought to himself that it was most likely that he wouldn't be able to find Fang Rou today.

......

In the depths of the wilderness, an ominous aura was emanating from the restricted zone. A peculiar beast had appeared. It had the body of a whale, but two legs. Its entire silvery blue body was covered in scales and two feather-like antennae sprouted from the top of its head. It looked harmless, but its triangular eyes gave off an oppressive pressure.

It was the beast that the cameras had captured, the one that’d appeared from the dimensional rift. It was currently quietly sleeping by a lake shrouded in black fog. It was a thin fog, but something was amiss. Not a single sound was heard. And if someone were to dive into the lake, they would find that all the fish had disappeared.

Within the deadly zone, the peaceful atmosphere was suddenly disrupted. The strange beast slightly opened its eyes but fell back to sleep soon after. The dimensional rift was pulsating as it spat out something small, roughly 1.4 meters tall, wrapped in tight red cloth. Only a pair of eyes could be seen from it as it gazed curiously at the strange place.

They weren’t the eyes of a human. They were looking at the world with joy, but a hint of fear could be seen deep down too. Whatever was wrapped in the cloth wasn’t being affected by the black fog.

The crack pulsed once more. This time the beast felt irritated and swiped its tail at it and the pulsing stopped.

As for the little being, the wind from the tail swipe of the mighty beast sent its red cloth flying away, revealing an inhuman face.

It had an ethereal beauty to it, cold, sad, and forlorn. Her eyes were beautiful.

“Xie… Xiexie?” Her voice was soft. A child’s voice. She spoke in an alien language, one that hadn’t graced Earth before. She expressed what she needed to say to the beast.

The giant beast gently opened its eyes, then took a deep breath and exhaled. The little child laughed, bringing a little life into the area of death and silence. Both of them were staring at each other.

No one knew what had transpired there, not even the fortress had detected the dimensional rift pulsing twice.

"She"? Is that a new waifu I sense?