Maybe My Soulmate! (GL)

So the battle became a rescue instead. Mo Yuxin cut through the collapsed rock around the shell, clearing the trapped weight one piece at a time. Su Yubing sealed the air with a thin frost web to prevent the fog from overwhelming the cave entrance, then used a delicate healing thread to soothe the beast’s shaking spiritual core. The creature still fought reflexively once or twice, flinging out long water ribbons that smashed the cave wall, but neither of them backed down. At one point, the beast whipped one of its finned limbs toward Su Yubing, and Mo Yuxin immediately stepped in front of her without thinking, catching the force with a blade barrier so clean it flashed like mirror glass in the dark. Su Yubing’s eyes softened when she saw that, because she always noticed every little thing Mo Yuxin did to protect her, even when Mo Yuxin did it so naturally she probably did not realize how obvious it was.

After a while, they managed to lift the cracked shell free and reposition the eggs safely inside a sheltered niche of the cave. The spirit beast finally calmed enough to let them work without resistance. It turned out the cave held an old tide stone formation hidden in the floor, and once Mo Yuxin cleared the blocked channels, the pressure in the mist finally started dispersing. The fog above the cliff thinned. The bells at the temple stopped ringing in such a desperate way. By the time they emerged, the wind had grown warmer, and the sea looked brighter, almost cheerful, as if the whole cliff had been holding its breath and could breathe again at last. The caretaker nun wept with relief. The young monks who had been hiding behind the gate ran out to bow over and over. One of them said the temple had not felt this peaceful in years.

The nun tried to offer them an old prayer token made from sea jade, saying it had once been blessed for travelers crossing the western coast. Su Yubing was about to refuse out of habit, but Mo Yuxin took it first and then quietly placed it into Su Yubing’s hand. ”Take it,” she said.

Su Yubing looked at her. ”And you?”

”I am traveling with you,” Mo Yuxin said, like that was the only answer that mattered.

Su Yubing smiled, touched the token to her lips for a second, and tucked it away. On the walk back down the cliff, the sea wind was strong enough to lift both of their hair, and the bells above them rang softly in the distance. They stopped once on the path where the cliff opened toward the ocean, and from there they could finally see the harbor more clearly. Long piers stretched into the water. Ships moved like layered shadows against the bright surface. The city walls glowed in the afternoon sun. Farther out, the sea seemed to go on forever.

The world below looked busy and alive, but for one quiet moment Mo Yuxin only saw Su Yubing standing there with the wind in her sleeves and the horizon behind her, and she thought, not for the first time on this trip, that all the long roads, strange beasts, little villages, warm dinners, silly conversations, and stubborn little detours had been worth it just for this kind of moment. She reached out and held Su Yubing’s hand. Su Yubing squeezed back at once, then leaned up and kissed her very gently, right there on the cliff path with the sea below and the harbor ahead. It was a soft kiss, full of the kind of quiet happiness that only comes after surviving a long journey together. When they pulled apart, Su Yubing rested her forehead against Mo Yuxin’s shoulder and laughed under her breath.

”Now it really feels like we are almost there,” she said.

Mo Yuxin looked toward the harbor city, then back at her wife, and smiled. ”We already got there,” she said, meaning not the city, but the feeling, the love, the whole long road that had brought them to this point.

The coast itself came into view on a bright morning after a long climb over a final low ridge. The ocean spread out in the distance like a piece of polished blue metal, bigger and wider than anything they had seen in months. The wind there was strong and damp. Gulls cried overhead. Far away, ships moved across the water like tiny white leaves. Su Yubing stood still for a long moment, taking in the sight, and Mo Yuxin stood beside her with one hand resting gently on the small of her back. The harbour city lay along the shoreline below, its walls and towers reflecting sunlight, its piers reaching out into the waves, its harbor packed with masts, flags, cargo cranes, fishing boats, spirit vessels, and all the noise and motion of a city that lived by the sea. It was bigger than most inland capitals. It was louder than the mountains. It smelled like salt, rope, fresh-caught fish, wood tar, and money. It also looked alive in a way few places did anymore.

On the road into the city, they passed sailors, fish merchants, foreign traders, and sailors from far off places with skin burned brown by sun and wind. Some of them stared openly at the two women walking side by side with that strange calm aura no ordinary person could fake. A few of the more experienced cultivators among them recognized the pressure around Mo Yuxin and Su Yubing immediately and did what smart people always did in such a case, which was to move aside and pretend they had never been in the way at all. A dock foreman heard someone whisper their names and straightened so fast he nearly dropped his ledger. A pair of young sailors got so excited they tripped over each other trying to gossip about how the strongest women on the continent had just walked into the city like it was no big deal. Mo Yuxin ignored all of that. Su Yubing leaned a little closer to her and murmured, ”They are staring.”

.

.

.

TO BE CONTINUED,