Maybe My Soulmate! (GL)

Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing left Azure Dragon City in no kind of hurry at all. They did not leave like people running away from something, and they did not leave like people carrying some huge burden on their backs. They left like a married couple taking a long, gentle trip together, with all the time in the world and no reason to rush their hearts. The city gates opened for them with the kind of quiet respect only a few people in the continent could ever expect, because everyone in Azure Dragon City already knew who they were. They were the strongest cultivators alive on this continent, the two names everyone whispered about when they talked about power, grace, and impossible talent. Nascent Soul cultivators. The kind that could flatten mountains if they got serious. The kind that no sect dared offend. The kind that no enemy could match. But on that morning, they looked less like two untouchable legends and more like two women in love, standing close beside one another while the wind lifted the ends of their sleeves and played with their hair.

Su Yubing had a small bundle strapped neatly to her back, though she could have carried a whole carriage worth of supplies without any trouble if she wanted to. Mo Yuxin had already checked the storage rings twice, then checked them again, because she was the sort of person who could wipe out a mountain bandit camp without blinking, but still liked to make sure Su Yubing had extra snacks, extra water, extra medicine, and extra blankets. Su Yubing laughed at her for it every time, but she also loved it every time. She reached out and adjusted the collar of Mo Yuxin’s robe, then brushed a thumb over the woman’s cheek with such an easy tenderness that anyone watching would have understood at once that these two had long since stopped pretending to be shy with each other.

”Do I look that messy?” Mo Yuxin asked.

”You look like you were packed by a very fussy wife,” Su Yubing said.

Mo Yuxin smiled, and that smile was always dangerous in the sense that it could make Su Yubing forget whatever she had just been thinking. ”And whose fault is that?”

Su Yubing tilted her head, eyes bright. ”Mine, obviously. I spoiled you.”

Mo Yuxin caught her hand and kissed the back of it right there in front of the city gate guards, in front of the nearby traders, in front of the little group of cultivators pretending not to stare. Su Yubing’s cheeks warmed at once, but she did not pull away. Instead she leaned closer and kissed Mo Yuxin back, quick and soft and just a little bit smug, because she knew very well that when it came to love, she and Mo Yuxin had long ago crossed the line where they needed to hide anything. People could stare. People could gossip. People could be amazed. It did not matter. They were married, they were in love, and they had every right in the world to act like it.

The first few weeks on the road felt almost like a honeymoon disguised as travel. They moved slowly on purpose, taking scenic routes instead of the shortest ones, because neither of them wanted to waste a single chance to enjoy the world together. They flew when the weather was clear, walked when the roads were pretty, and sometimes rode in a simple carriage just so they could sit shoulder to shoulder, eat fruit, and gossip about everything and nothing. The people they passed along the way often did double takes at them. It was not just because they were beautiful, although they were. It was not just because their aura was too strong to hide, although it was. It was because they carried themselves like a pair, like two pieces of the same sky, like a couple so close that even the way they breathed seemed to match. A few bold people tried to greet them with respect, and Mo Yuxin always answered politely. Su Yubing, when she was in a good mood, would smile so brightly that a whole village alley could light up for it.

Their first stop after leaving the city was a small town by a wide river where the local harvest had gone bad because of a weird water spirit problem. The river had been turning cold in the middle of summer, and fish kept floating to the top belly-up, while the farmers downstream complained that their rice seedlings were curling up and dying. By the time Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing arrived, the town chief had already invited three different traveling Daoists, two medicine monks, and one fake expert who claimed he could ”read the breath of the river” if only he was paid in gold first. None of them had solved anything. The two women listened for a bit, looked at each other, and then decided to go down to the riverbank themselves.

The answer was small, but not simple. A black-water eel spirit had gotten trapped in a broken underground channel and was twisting the natural current every time it tried to escape. It was not an evil beast exactly, just frightened and angry and too strong for ordinary villagers to handle. The first time it surged out of the mud, the whole riverbank shook, and the fake expert from earlier nearly fainted on the spot. Before anyone else could panic, Su Yubing raised one hand and wrapped the whole riverbank in a curtain of soft blue spiritual light, stopping the flood from bursting out. Mo Yuxin stepped forward with easy calm, planted her sword in the ground, and spoke to the beast in a voice low enough to sound almost like she was talking to a stubborn child. After a moment of resistance, the eel spirit calmed down enough to let Su Yubing repair the broken channel with ice and light. They guided it back into the deeper water, and when the river turned clear again, the town chief nearly cried with relief.

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TO BE CONTINUED.