Lin Mu had been ready for Cattaleya to bow out, for their paths to separate right there in the moonlit gardens.
He could almost picture her turning on her heel, vanishing into the horizon with nothing but the faint aftertaste of tension left behind. Yet, what ca next was not departure.
Instead, the tanned-skinned woman straightened her back, her expression firm but strangely lighter than before. Her lips curved into a grin that revealed the faint glint of her sharp fangs. It was almost as if she could read Lin Mu’s thoughts.
"You’re mistaken, Lin Mu," she said, her tone carrying the certainty of a vow. "I might have given up on your blood... but I haven’t given up on you."
Lin Mu blinked, startled, his brows arching slightly. "Not given up on ?" he echoed. "What do you an by that?"
Cattaleya let out a laugh, rich and unrestrained, a sound that rolled like thunder across the lake. "Exactly what it sounds like. It’s been a very long ti since I’ve t soone like you. No—" she corrected herself with a shake of her head, her eyes gleaming with candor, "—to be precise, I’ve never t anyone like you in this realm. Not once in the entire Immortal World."
Her words carried no exaggeration. To her, Lin Mu was an anomaly.
"I can tell," she continued, her voice softer now, "you’ll have a future far greater than most can dream of. I’ve seen the way the world seems to bend around you. The way people are drawn to your side.
Your companions, your beasts, your foes... even those who should hate you end up orbiting your fate. Each one of them, strong in their own right, their potential burning brighter than ordinary cultivators. Not as bright as yours, but brighter than most."
Lin Mu listened quietly, his expression unreadable.
He was used to praise, but this was sothing different. Cattaleya spoke not as though she admired him, but as though she had taken a asure of him and found a truth that could not be denied.
"And if what the Saintess says is true," Cattaleya added, briefly glancing at the robed figure who still lingered, "then your path will not just be one of personal strength. Your journey will entangle you with countless experts, mighty beings who can shake realms.
You’ll clash with them, stand beside them, perhaps even surpass them. And ?"—she jabbed a thumb at her chest, smiling boldly—"if I stay by your side, I’ll have a chance to witness it all. To be there when legends are forged. And maybe, just maybe, I’ll even find another human whose potential is close enough to yours that my clan will see it worthy."
Her words left Lin Mu stunned for a breath.
He turned his gaze toward the Saintess, searching her erald eyes for rejection, for disapproval. Yet, she did not shake her head.
The Saintess rely regarded them both with that sa inscrutable calm. Then, her voice, low and resonant, drifted across the air like a tolling bell. "I have given my opinion. The rest... is for you two to decide."
And with that, her form shimred like ripples across water and vanished. No light, no sound, no trace... just absence, as if she had never been there at all. The only proof of her presence was the suffocating weight that had now lifted from the gardens.
Lin Mu exhaled slowly, then shifted his attention back to the Duskthorn woman before him. "So..." he asked, tone cautious but tinged with curiosity, "what do you an exactly?"
Cattaleya’s grin widened.
She stepped forward, her hand rising, and without hesitation smacked him squarely on the arm. The impact made a dull thud, though Lin Mu, with his monstrous physique, barely felt it.
"There’s no way I’m going to miss out on the fun and leave you, silly," she said with a teasing lilt. "Do you have any idea how boring wandering has been? For years, I’ve scoured ruins, prowled battlefields, and hunted after scraps of bloodlines with ’so’ potential. Yet not once did I feel the pull I do now. You’re a magnet, Lin Mu, and I’d be a fool to walk away."
She tapped her temple with a finger. "I’ve got a hunch. If I stick with you, I’ll find what I’m looking for. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in a century... but sooner than I would if I kept wandering aimlessly.
And besides," her eyes glinted mischievously, "I don’t exactly have a deadline. My clan doesn’t rush. We’ve spent thousands of years refining ourselves, generation after generation. I can afford to take my ti."
Lin Mu frowned slightly, his practicality warring with amusent. "And what if it’s a waste of your ti?" he asked bluntly. "I don’t know where my path will take . You may follow into dangers that won’t benefit you at all."
Cattaleya waved his concern away with a scoff. "That’s fine. My clansn have always lived like this. Do you think we’ve only obtained bloodlines through conquest or cold exchanges?
No.... Many of our greatest acquisitions ca from simply serving others, whether tagging along, watching, learning, waiting for the right chance. It’s the least bloody thod we’ve ever practiced. And frankly, one of the most successful."
Her grin grew sharp, almost wolfish. "So don’t think I’m going to scamper away just because I didn’t get your blood essence. If anything, you’d be mistaken to assu you could get rid of so easily. Even if you told to leave, Lin Mu..." She leaned closer, her fangs flashing faintly in the moonlight. "...I probably wouldn’t listen."
Lin Mu let out an incredulous chuckle, caught sowhere between exasperation and reluctant amusent.
He rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head. "You’re more stubborn than the twins," he muttered under his breath.
But deep down, he couldn’t deny there was a strange sense of rightness in her words. Perhaps it was intuition. Perhaps fate. Whatever it was, sothing told him that this was not a thread that would unravel so easily.
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