Alone, Beautifully – Chapter 78

Your Preference (12)

“What benefits will you give me?”

The slender little black snake was pulled painfully by Xu Jiao, feeling not only as if her tail would break, but even if someone were to tell her now that the saintess in front of her wanted to cut it in half, she would believe it.

It felt like every inch of her body was being pulled to the extreme.

Her tail was stepped on, and its vital point pinched.

This snake had almost no ability to resist.

What made it even more despairing was……

She didn’t know what magic array this hateful little saintess used, yet it actually peeled off just this layer of her consciousness in snake form, leaving everything else, including her powerful strength, in Lilith’s body.

It was like childish revenge.

But it was precisely revenge on the mark.

The black snake had to admit that continuing like this would likely lead to suffering, after all, who could have thought that the pure little saintess, who not long ago could only whimper and cry under her, could in the blink of an eye complete such an evil transformation?

She seemed more like a witch than the snake did.

Feeling more intense pain, the black snake’s scales were about to open and stand up. Its orange-yellow eyes looked at Xu Jiao. After two seconds, the black snake spat out its tongue, sweeping it pleasingly over the other’s wrist. The black snake softened its voice and pitifully uttered a word:

“Please….”

Xu Jiao remained indifferent, seemingly aware of pulling the other to its limit. So she simply maintained her current action, neither furthering nor loosening it, listening expressionlessly to the black snake’s pleas for mercy.

Beside her, Lilith, connected to this black snake, heard a hoarse voice in her mind:

“Hey, girl, you’ve experienced the saintess’ taste, haven’t you? Speaking of which, you must thank me. If I hadn’t just happened to wake up, when could you, this little pitiful one, taste such deliciousness? Now it’s your time to repay, bring my demonic energy…yes, just my previously used original power, secretly…”

While the black snake was pleasing Xu Jiao, it was quietly corrupting Lilith.

The blonde girl had obediently sat by the dining table and had just picked up her knife and fork when the black snake’s words made her movements somewhat erratic. The knife and fork clashed together, making a considerable noise, causing Xu Jiao to turn her head to look.

Lilith’s face showed a hint of blushing guilt, unsure if it was due to the black snake’s words or the saintess’ gaze.

Xu Jiao knew she was timid. Seeing her appearance, although she guessed Lilith was sharing memories with the black snake, she still habitually treated her as before. Hearing the sound of the knife and fork, she gently said:

“What is it? Is something not to your taste?”

Hearing her gentle voice, Lilith involuntarily struggled even more for a moment.

She didn’t want to do what the black snake said at all.

Because…

The previous things were already very offensive.

How could she do even more excessive things to the saintess?

Lilith struggled for a while, finally mustered the courage, put down the knife and fork in her hand, and stood up from her seat. When both the person and the snake looked simultaneously, she loudly said:

“Lady Saintess! I have something I must tell you!”

Xu Jiao patiently responded: “Yes?”

Lilith exchanged a glance with the black snake.

Black snake: “!”

She had already sensed what Lilith was going to say, and a strange feeling of being betrayed by herself naturally arose. Before she could stop her, she heard Lilith begin to say to Xu Jiao: “I… I just heard her say…”

Black snake: “No! You shut up! You traitor!”

Xu Jiao also sensed something and immediately raised an eyebrow, encouragingly saying to the blonde little friend: “What did she say?”

Blonde Lilith’s pale pink lips quickly opened and closed, pouring out all the thoughts and actions the black snake incited in her in one breath. Her hands were intertwined behind her back, and her legs were tightly pressed together, like an obedient… kindergarten tattletale.

Teachers always love these cute little tattletales.

Xu Jiao, of course, was no exception. Hearing her little friend’s report, she wore an amiable smile. The next second—

The cave echoed with the black snake’s pleading voice.

“No no no, she is lying to you. She and I were originally just one entity… oh no! My tail! QAQ! My beautiful tail! I can’t be without it!”

“You hateful! No, I mean you beautiful, kind saintess… spare me… wuwuwu!”

……

Living in the Zake Mountains was never a good choice.

After Xu Jiao casually disguised her appearance with divine power, she walked outside with Lilith, wanting to know the recent movements of the six great temples—

After all, waiting defensively for an attack was not Xu Jiao’s method.

Previously, in the illusion forest, Xu Jiao was able to escape in front of the six great popes because she caught them off guard. No one expected her to dare to join hands with the snake woman Lilith, breaking the complex and terrifying formation at the forest’s bottom, which allowed them to find an opportunity.

If they waited for the temples to search the Zake Mountains, Xu Jiao and Lilith would be completely unprepared, facing the already prepared temple crowds. The opposing side, with many people and strong power, would easily catch them like two small dishes in a pot.

In the snow village at the mountain’s foot.

People, wrapped in their seasonless clothes, worship the statue of the storm goddess, praying for the mountain to remain peaceful forever, for no storms to arise, and for those who go up the mountain to return safely.

The Zake Mountains contain many treasures, such as beautiful snow lotuses and snow essence-condensed snow souls, some of which can help storm academy students better sense divine power, while others have extremely high medicinal value. The people of the snow village rely on these to survive, so before entering the mountain, they always worship the storm goddess for safety.

When Xu Jiao and Lilith emerged from the mountain and approached the village, they saw the wary eyes of the people. Although they both wore deep winter cloaks, their appearance was too abrupt.

Church people immediately brought over a crystal ball to test divine power, asking them to do a test.

Lilith glanced at Xu Jiao.

She was the first to place her hands around the crystal ball.

At that moment, Xu Jiao’s sleeve suddenly moved slightly.

Everyone’s gaze fell on her right hand, and they saw the woman with slightly freckled brown hair smile kindly at everyone. She then pulled back her sleeve, revealing a pure black bracelet on her wrist.

The bracelet had no patterns, very plain, yet so purely black that staring at it for too long made people feel somewhat dizzy.

The church people blinked, moved their gaze away, and when they looked back, they frowned and said to Xu Jiao: “This is a place sheltered by the storm goddess, where white is revered. This bracelet of yours… it’s best to throw it away. The villagers won’t like something of this color.”

Xu Jiao showed a surprised expression at the right moment. After a while, her eyes revealed some sadness, and she bowed to the church priest, her voice slightly choked:

“I am very sorry, I didn’t know this…”

“This is the only thing my mother left me. It’s very cheap and has no special use. Every time I see it, I think of my already deceased mother…”

“I will try not to let everyone see it, okay?”

At that moment, Lilith’s hand pressed on the crystal ball for detecting divine power. The crystal ball showed no fluctuation or reaction, nor did it exhibit any special movement, which meant Lilith was just an ordinary person without divine favor.

The priest moved his gaze back from her and looked at Xu Jiao, saying, “Okay, once you complete this detection ceremony, if there are no issues, I will allow you to temporarily stay in the village.”

“But remember, Snow Village does not welcome believers outside of the Storm Goddess, so please leave quickly.”

His voice was restrained and polite, but listening carefully, one could detect a coldness from distant lands, as if frozen by the snow mountain’s year-round chill, with little sense of warmth.

Xu Jiao wiped the corners of her eyes, barely squeezing out a semblance of tears, nodded to him, and made a very grateful appearance before placing her hand on the crystal ball—

The moment her palm touched it.

She drained all the elements around the crystal ball, seeming to attach it to the ball, but in reality, there was a completely empty space between her palm and the sphere, so the crystal ball naturally sensed no power.

Another person with no divine power talent.

The priest showed not the slightest surprise, allowing these two ordinary-looking, ordinary-talented people into the village. The villagers, seeing them pass the church’s examination, breathed a sigh of relief and continued with their stalls and conversations.

Xu Jiao took a couple of steps inside, sensing the church people had left. Her left hand involuntarily pinched the edge of her right sleeve, accurately pinching the black snake’s small tail through the fabric, warning it to behave.

Before coming out, the tail was still powerless, loosely hanging there, but now it had unexpectedly fully recovered. At the moment Xu Jiao pinched it, the tail obviously stiffened for a moment.

Then.

A tingling coolness spread across Xu Jiao’s right wrist.

It was the movement of the snake’s tongue rolling over.

The black snake was clearly scared by her previous torment and was now secretly trying to show goodwill, not wanting her pitiful small tail to be tormented again. Although she made no sound, she used her icy cold mouth to nuzzle against Xu Jiao’s wrist.

Xu Jiao was not fooled by her pretense. During the divine power detection earlier, she knew that before the test, Lilith had passed those demonic energies to the black snake.

Their connection was somewhat strange, but Xu Jiao wasn’t particularly interested in understanding it for now.

Currently, she was more interested in knowing how to achieve a HE in this world. The known protagonist is Lilith, and it’s most likely the blonde Lilith. It’s been uncovered that her hidden background is as a witch, one of her many reincarnations—

So, how can Lilith achieve a narratively near-perfect ending in a world that cannot accommodate darkness?

After communicating with an enthusiastic villager, Xu Jiao exchanged the opportunity for her and Lilith to temporarily stay one night by helping make bread as compensation.

Then she started kneading dough in the bakery—while pondering over this question.

……

“This, how should I do it?”

After daydreaming, Xu Jiao looked at her blonde little friend tying her apron, quickly kneading the dough into various cute shapes, and somewhat surprised, she asked from the side.

Lilith, who had previously done all sorts of odd jobs at home, now saw Xu Jiao’s troubled appearance and involuntarily felt a strange sense of relief. She was glad she had endured such suffering to see today’s light and could even use the crystals formed from suffering to help others.

She stood beside Xu Jiao, demonstrating the secrets of making these breads. Xu Jiao’s mind understood, but her hands gave up—

She directly used magic to make the dough move by itself.

The black snake, pretending to be an ordinary bracelet, poked her head out from her sleeve, seeing the row after row of self-moving kneaded dough in front of Xu Jiao. Her orange-yellow eyes turned to look at her.

The next second, the black snake silently opened her mouth.

Then it made a syllable: “Ha.”

Xu Jiao felt boundless mockery from her action.

Sure enough, she soon heard the black snake say: “I didn’t expect our almighty God to have things They cannot do.”

Xu Jiao: “…”

She pinched the black snake’s tail expressionlessly.

The black snake remained motionless, her pupils shrinking slightly, and with a strong will to survive, she added the next sentence: “Very good, very cute, extremely… uh, gap moe?”

Xu Jiao cast a silencing spell on her, then turned the black snake into a pitch-black charcoal stick, walked to the bread-baking stove, and used this pure black fire stick to poke the firewood, hearing the cracking sound from inside the stove.

Lilith, wearing an apron and working hard, stared dumbfounded at Xu Jiao’s actions, listening to the charcoal’s cracking sound. After a moment, she silently performed a Sun Temple blessing gesture for the black snake, then pretended not to see anything and continued working.

……

Nighttime.

Lilith ate the leftover fragrant soft bread and hot soup sent by the host family, yawning on the small bed beside the fireplace, rubbing her eyes, and occasionally glancing in Xu Jiao’s direction.

When she followed Xu Jiao down the mountain, her appearance hadn’t changed much, but it was noticeably different from her original sweet, cute girl image. Now her face also had freckles and two large patches of noticeable highland red.

Her cheeks had also sharpened considerably. Although she still had golden hair and blue eyes, she appeared more proud compared to her original soft bun image, more like her two sisters.

Xu Jiao was standing near the window, looking at the stars, calculating some things—

Noticing Lilith’s gaze, she slightly turned her body, her not yet restored brown eyes looking in Lilith’s direction, softly saying: “What’s wrong?”

Lilith pulled her blanket up, covering the part below her nose, and smiled at her, revealing only slightly curved eyes, like crescent moons, saying to Xu Jiao: “Um… nothing, I just want to look at you more.”

Xu Jiao originally intended to turn back to continue studying the stars, but halfway through turning, she thought of something and looked back at Lilith:

“Are you afraid?”

Lilith tightened her grip on the blanket, as if she didn’t understand what was being asked and wanted to play dumb. But, being accustomed to honesty, she couldn’t lie even if she wanted to, and just looked blankly at Xu Jiao without making a sound.

Xu Jiao remembered that previously, every time Lilith slept beside her, her dreams would affect her. She immediately showed Lilith a comforting smile and gently said:

“Sleep.”

“Sweet dreams.”

Lilith realized that Xu Jiao had guessed her worries. Her lips, covered by the blanket, pursed slightly. Finally, she obediently followed Xu Jiao’s suggestion, closed her eyes, and went to sleep.

……

It was clearly the fresh air near the snowy mountains.

Yet the stars in the sky were not as bright as before. Xu Jiao looked for a while, unable to discern any movements from the people in the temple, as key things were all hidden.

The popes seemed as if their entire beings had been extracted from this world, unable to be traced through the lines of fate or the trajectory of stars.

Of course, they were also unable to use such methods to calculate the positions of Xu Jiao and the witch.

The black snake crawled out along her slender wrist, her thin, pure black form moving to the windowsill, coiling herself into a circle. Her orange, lantern-like eyes looked at her, and after a while, a hoarse voice sounded lowly:

“What are you thinking?”

Xu Jiao glanced at her, suddenly thinking that if she couldn’t ask little Lilith, asking her would be the same, so she casually said, “Do you have any special things you want to do?”

“Return to the temple?”

“Or slay a god, then become a god yourself?”

She asked lightly, but her expression was especially serious, as if she truly wanted to hear the black snake’s opinion.

The little black snake froze for a second, its gaze already moved away, but after a while, it moved back, suddenly leaping down from the windowsill. When it stood on the ground, a burst of black energy appeared, and the wooden window closed automatically.

Inside the room under the faint candlelight.

A black-haired, black-eyed enchanting woman stood in front of Xu Jiao, with the snake tail gone, replaced by a pair of slender, straight legs. She reached out to embrace Xu Jiao’s waist, the corners of her lips pulling into an especially sexy smile. Leaning into Xu Jiao’s neck, her slightly cool fingertip brushed along Xu Jiao’s artery all the way up, and she softly said:

“I have a wish now.”

“Do you want to fulfill it for me?”

Xu Jiao fully understood from her body language what this person was implying.

She pushed the other aside, thinking she must be out of her mind to ask this snake. As soon as she turned around, the person pressed against her from behind, and at the same time, an icy feeling crawled up from her ankle.

Xu Jiao looked down—

It turned out those legs had transformed back into a snake tail, flexibly wrapping around her, making her unable to move for a moment.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Jiao slowly turned her head to the woman clinging to her shoulder, who was smiling with her head tilted to kiss her, and softly asked: “Don’t want your tail again?”

Black-haired Lilith: “…”

The snake tail, sticking to the smooth skin of her calf, reluctantly loosened.

Xu Jiao could clearly feel that before the other left, it still hooked its tip around her ankle.

The snake woman followed Xu Jiao to her bed. Seeing Xu Jiao about to set up a magical barrier to block her approach, her black tail swayed left and right on the ground. Her upper body leaned in, resting on Xu Jiao’s shoulder, her vertical pupils staring at her, and with the tip of her tongue licking her own lower lip, she softly said:

“I can make a trade with you.”

“Do you want to know how the pope of the six temples turned me into this form?”

Xu Jiao remained unmoved.

The snake woman pouted, cursed her for being insensitive, then leaned to her ear, softly enticing: “Don’t you want me? Is there nothing about my skills that you find memorable?”

Xu Jiao’s eyes shifted slightly, slowly meeting hers.

Two seconds later—

The snake woman Lilith saw Xu Jiao curl her lips slightly, leisurely raising her hand to place it on her waist. Just as her vertical pupils sharpened with excitement, Xu Jiao slightly straightened her posture and hooked a fingernail under one of Lilith’s scales, gently saying:

“Indeed.”

“I quite savor the feeling of breaking your tail.”

“Shall we… try again?”

Snake woman: “!!!”

She instantly flicked her tail to distance herself from Xu Jiao, the smile on her face disappearing. With the return of her demonic energy, she could now righteously curse Xu Jiao: “You are so vicious!”

Xu Jiao shrugged indifferently, showing some regret on her face that she couldn’t hit her once more. Seeing that Lilith had no intention to continue, she pulled up the blanket, just about to lie down when she heard the hoarse voice from not far away say:

“You… are very different from God.”

Hearing this, Xu Jiao had originally not intended to respond, but an inexplicable thought prompted her to suddenly continue the topic: “Is that so? Perhaps it’s because God never allowed you to see clearly, so you think I am different from Them.”

Unexpectedly, Lilith shook her head: “No.”

She said: “God never associates with darkness.”

Hearing her certainty, Xu Jiao’s fingertips brushed over the blanket. She suddenly pondered in her mind: “System, you say my identity in this world is God, and I currently exist in an incarnation form. Then later… when God awakens, will I still be that Creator?”

The system was silent for a few seconds and returned a very mystical answer:

“I don’t know.”

Xu Jiao: “…”

She calmly said: “This is a question you should know.”

The system honestly replied: “Because this world hasn’t been fully written, nor does it have an ending, all development is chaotic and unpredictable. I can only confirm that this incarnation is yours. As for God… I’m sorry, I cannot determine the conclusion.”

Xu Jiao also honestly asked it: “Could you be any more unreliable?”

The system fell silent.

Noticing that the saint on the bed remained motionless for a long time, the snake woman, quietly observing nearby, suddenly smiled, revealing her faintly visible fangs, and with a bit of teasing, asked:

“What, are you afraid?”

“Afraid that after God awakens and discovers these things between you and me, They will destroy you?”

Xu Jiao did not answer her question. Instead, she looked at the already sound asleep golden-haired Lilith, then glanced at the half-snake woman, as a bold idea emerged in her mind.

How about…

Killing God and letting Lilith become the next one?

In this world, light and darkness should coexist. A God who stubbornly clings to the light will only make the world more twisted. Letting this child, who has suffered but also seen beauty, become God seems like a good choice?

With terrible thoughts in her heart, on the surface, Xu Jiao carelessly smiled and replied: “What do I have to fear? If God awakens and discovers that this darkness dares to seduce Their incarnation to fall, the first to be killed should be you.”

“Once a divine messenger serving in the temple, Lilith, who boldly developed blasphemous thoughts towards God, after returning to the human world, not only did not reflect on her actions but instead fell into demonhood, even dragging God’s incarnation to fall together—

“If the sky collapses, you will be crushed to death before me.”

Snake woman: “…” Listen, is this human speech?

She was extremely annoyed by Xu Jiao, but the next second she heard Xu Jiao change her tone: “Of course, the six temples will not be spared, but before that, I think there are some things I must find answers to from them.”

For example, when will God awaken.

And, for example, what method they plan to use to slay God.

Xu Jiao is quite interested in learning about that.

The snake woman, unaware that Xu Jiao’s mind was full of such dangerous thoughts as “how to kill the genuine version of herself,” upon hearing the latter part, her eyes shifted: “You want to capture the popes?”

She swayed her tail, once again lying in front of Xu Jiao’s bed, squinted her eyes, and said to Xu Jiao: “I have a way to help you.”

“But…”

“What benefits will you give me, my saint?”