Maybe My Soulmate! (GL)

Mo Yuxin’s body trembled slightly, as though the weight she had been carrying in her chest for so long had finally loosened its grip. A wave of relief surged within her, swelling like a tide that threatened to drown her breath. She drew in a deep inhale, the kind one takes after breaking through the surface of dark waters, her lungs filling with precious air.

Across from her, Shen Mingyue let out a long and weary sigh, the kind of sound that carried countless years of suppressed bitterness and helplessness. Her voice, though calm, carried the faint tremor of exhaustion.

”It was unfortunate,” Shen Mingyue began, her tone heavy, ”that my essence lacked the strength to destroy him outright. That vile man deserved death, yet I was powerless to grant it. But illusions were still within my reach. And that was enough—enough to protect her from true violation.”

Her eyes, usually sharp and icy, drifted into the distance, softening into a haze of memory. ”But my essence knew... if there was a first attempt, then there would inevitably be a second. And a third. That man was insatiable. My essence could not hold him back forever.”

Her words carried a weight that pressed on the hearts of the two women before her. For a long moment, silence hung thick in the air. Then, as if catching herself, Shen Mingyue paused.

Her usually expressionless face grew tinged with a faint, betraying red. Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing both blinked in disbelief. Shen Mingyue—who had always appeared cold, untouchable, a figure carved of ice and steel—was blushing. And not faintly, but like a young maiden caught in her first secret.

The two exchanged a bewildered glance. Why would someone like her, sharp as a blade and distant as the stars, suddenly appear so flustered?

Then came Shen Mingyue’s next words, words that made both women stiffen in shock.

”So... ahem... My essence—meaning, I—considered something. Why not have a child with Yin in this life?”

Her voice wavered at first, but she forced herself to continue. ”We... we never had a child. Not once, through all our lives together. We never even thought of it before. But since Yin was bound to a mortal body this time, the thought struck me. With the remnants of my essence residing within her, we could, in theory, create a child of our own blood.”

The confession stunned Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing alike.

Shen Mingyue pressed on, as though her shame might consume her if she hesitated again. ”Since my essence was but a fragment of the whole, it used what little power it still possessed to link itself with me. Just for a moment, it connected us—and in that instant, I was able to weave a dream within her mind. A dream in which I, too, could enter.”

Her voice quieted as she finished, but her eyes gleamed with the faint ache of remembrance.

Mo Yuxin leaned forward slightly, her heart pounding. Now that it was revealed Mo Futian had never truly harmed Mother Lin, the iron band around her chest loosened. Relief blossomed within her, warm and trembling. And yet, hearing Shen Mingyue’s words, she also felt a strange, hesitant excitement—a sense that the truth before her was far larger and more astonishing than she had imagined.

Su Yubing, always attuned to Mo Yuxin’s moods, could practically read her thoughts. She reached out discreetly, brushing her hand against Mo Yuxin’s as though to anchor her. Whatever the truth revealed itself to be, Su Yubing knew it could only bring fortune to Yuxin’s life.

Meanwhile, Shen Mingyue sat under the intensity of their stares, feeling uncharacteristically flustered. She had walked battlefields, faced calamities that could split mountains and swallow seas, but in this moment, under the gaze of her own descendants, she found herself flushing like a guilty youth.

Still, the truth could not be hidden. She swallowed hard and continued, her voice quieter than before.

”Well... in that dream,” she said, pausing for a long beat, ”I... I dual cultivated with your mother.”

The silence that followed was deafening.

Mo Yuxin’s eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat. Her mind reeled, refusing to accept what she had just heard. Though her face flushed with discomfort at hearing such words about her own mother, she forced herself not to look away. Her chest tightened, but she could not retreat—not when the truth was finally within her grasp.

Shen Mingyue’s eyes softened, though her voice remained steady. ”I never intended for it to happen, at first. Truly, I only wanted to see her again. To touch her hand. To hear her voice with my own ears, even if it was only within a dream. My plan was simple: to break away another fragment of my soul and fuse it with hers. That way, her soul would be stabilized after countless reincarnations. I wanted to secure another safeguard for her—one beyond mere illusions. But... there were so few options available to me. I was constrained by distance, by the mortal laws of this world, and by the curse that Sha had hidden within her wounds. That curse cloaked her very existence in shadow, making it impossible for me to locate her until every last trace of Sha’s energy was purged.”

She drew in a shaky breath before continuing. ”Pregnancy, however... it was the one shield I could grant her. A man like Mo Futian would not pursue her if she bore a child. His twisted desires did not extend that far. With child, she would be protected from his filth. So... it was the only path left.”

Her voice faltered, then deepened with a low, aching tenderness.

”But the moment I entered that dream and laid eyes upon my Yin once more, after so many centuries apart...” She closed her eyes briefly, as though the memory itself seared her soul. ”I could not remain still. I had meant only to watch. To guard. But the dream was woven from my own essence, and in it, she could recall our past, if only for a fleeting moment. She knew me. She remembered us. And after that... we spoke. For a long, long time. And one thing led to another.”

Her cheeks colored again, though her voice carried no regret. ”She understood, as I did, that this was the only way to delay fate long enough. Only by doing so could Sha’s backlash be dissolved, her strength restored, and her location finally revealed to me. Only then could I hope to reach her in time.”

Mo Yuxin pressed her lips together, her thoughts in turmoil.

Shen Mingyue fell silent for a while, her gaze lowered. Then, with a sigh that carried the bitterness of eternity, she whispered, ”But not everything unfolds as we plan. The tricks of destiny... they are beyond even us—beings of chaos though we may be. We can struggle, we can fight, but never are we truly free.”

The atmosphere grew heavy, as though the very room itself bowed beneath the weight of her words. Mo Yuxin glanced at Su Yubing, her heart caught between awe, confusion, and an ache she could not name. Then she turned back toward Shen Mingyue, unable to hold her question any longer.

Her voice trembled slightly as she asked:

”Then... what happened afterward?”

”Is it related to Mo Feng?”

Shen Mingyue’s eyes darkened, a shadow passing across her expression as she recalled the memory. Her voice, though steady, carried a chill that seemed to sink into the bones of those who listened.

”Yes,” she said quietly. ”At the time, I had underestimated the depths of Mo Futian’s depravity. I thought he was only a vile man, selfish and cruel—but I was wrong. He was no mere human, nor even a demon. He was something worse. A beast who fed on corruption and filth.”

Her lips pressed together, trembling faintly before she continued. ”For a while, he restrained himself. He left Yin alone. But such a creature cannot remain still for long. His desire festered like poison. Eventually, he could no longer endure.”

Her gaze fell, eyes hardening with fury. ”One day, he resorted to the lowest of tricks. He drugged Yin, seeking to strip her of any resistance so he could humiliate her.”

Mo Yuxin clenched her fists, her breath catching in her throat. Su Yubing reached over instinctively, placing her hand over Yuxin’s to steady her. Shen Mingyue noticed but did not pause.

”My essence within Yin’s body was already hanging by a thread,” she went on. ”It was weakened to the brink of collapse, its power fragmented and scattered. Worse, there still lingered a trace of Sha’s curse within her, and that vile remnant constantly gnawed at her soul. My essence had to devote what little strength it possessed to holding back the corruption, to shielding her from Sha’s poisonous energy. Because of that, when Mo Futian struck, I could not even weave an illusion to protect her.”

Her hands tightened on her robes, the knuckles paling. ”But I could not—would not—stand idle while my Yin suffered. No matter how faint the light, no matter how distant the connection, my essence forced open a gateway across time and space. Not a true passage, no—that would have been impossible. The mortal realm rejects our presence, and the gate was far too fragile to withstand the crossing of my full self. But it was enough... enough to allow a phantom of me to pass through.”

Her voice softened, though it trembled with remembered rage. ”And so I came. Not in flesh, but as a shadow of my soul. Even so, it was sufficient. I reached her side and struck Mo Futian down before he could lay his filthy hands upon her. He collapsed into unconsciousness, his body too feeble to resist even a phantom’s blow.”