Chapter 254
Two People with One Month Left to Live
"Hehe, I thought you knew everything."
Mutsuki's tone was slightly sullen, with a slight upward inflection at the end, like a cat gently brushing the tip of its tail against a person's ankle, carrying a hint of deliberate teasing.
Clearly, she's keeping us in suspense.
However, Xue Youyou's face showed no hint of playful banter, and she went straight to the point: "If I'm not mistaken, this Crimson Moon Mark seems to be constantly draining my energy, and at a considerable speed."
"Don't you feel the same way?"
Upon hearing this, Mutsuki paused slightly.
After a moment, she spoke with some surprise, her tone becoming more serious.
"Your body is just as sensitive as mine. A slightly less perceptive beast tamer probably wouldn't even notice this."
Mutsuki paused for a moment, then asked, "When did you find out?"
Xue Youyou answered calmly, but for her, it was already quite serious.
"When we were having the celebration dinner together, I had a vague feeling that something was wrong."
"Hehe, your feeling is right."
Mutsuki gave a meaningful smile.
As she spoke, she turned her head to the side, her gaze passing over her shoulder and landing on the girl behind her who was half-submerged in the bathtub water.
As she finished speaking, she casually added a surprising remark:
"Actually, to be more precise, it is draining our lives—draining our blood and soul. From the moment we were chosen for this imperial sacrifice, if I'm not mistaken, we should only have one month left to live."
After saying that, Mutsuki stared intently at Yuki Yuuyu, even deliberately softening her breathing.
She waited, waiting to catch the slightest crack in Xue Youyou's face—a moment of paleness, a hint of panic, even the slightest tremor of her eyelashes. Observing Xue Youyou's emotional reactions was a very interesting thing for her.
However, it disappointed her.
Xue Youyou only frowned slightly for a moment.
The slight wrinkle lingered between her brows for only a couple of breaths before quickly smoothing out again, like water calmed by a spring breeze, leaving no trace.
Her expression was calm to the point of gentleness, as if she had just heard not her death date, but a trivial weather forecast.
"What, you don't believe me?"
At this moment, Mutsuki had turned around completely and was sitting face to face with Yuki. Their four legs were intertwined intimately under the water, their skin touching each other almost touching. It was impossible to tell who was touching whom, but they could feel the warm touch spreading in the water.
Their gazes met amidst the rising mist, the air thick with an indescribable, subtle atmosphere—a mixture of almost excessive intimacy and a subtle, unspoken tension.
I believe you.
Xue Youyou didn't panic at all. Instead, she smiled slightly, and her tone even carried a hint of composure that Muyue didn't expect: "Because your answer is basically the same as the result I calculated myself."
"Then how can you still laugh?"
Mutsuki looked at her strangely, and for the first time, genuine confusion appeared in her usually squinty eyes.
She was indeed somewhat surprised. This girl, barely sixteen years old, should have been at the age when she was most afraid of death. Yet, faced with the devastating news that she only had one month left to live, she could remain calm and even smile so serenely.
If she were Xue Youyou's age, she believes she could never have remained so composed.
This made Mutsuki feel a sense of admiration for Yuki Yuuyu.
Xue Youyou simply reached out and gently touched the dark red crescent-shaped mark on her lower abdomen. Her fingertips slowly slid along the winding lines, feeling the cool touch, which contrasted sharply with the surrounding skin that was soaked in hot water.
Then, she raised her head, her gaze calmly steer the conversation toward a more practical direction:
"Shouldn't there be a way to get rid of it?"
Mutsuki didn't answer, but instead asked, "And how much do you know about the Imperial Ritual?"
Xue Youyou made no attempt to hide anything.
She knew very well that Mutsuki knew more than she did.
"I've only seen some fragments in ancient books. The Imperial Ritual is an extremely rare natural phenomenon. It is said to be a ritual that can only occur when the power of the gods that remain in the world resonates with a certain place of land."
She paused, as if carefully choosing her words, and continued, "Only the beasts that ascend to the throne through the Imperial Sacrifice are true Imperial Beasts, and their power far surpasses that of those pseudo-Emperors who ascend through ordinary means."
Simply put, only emperors who have been granted titles by the gods and have been baptized by divine power can be considered true emperors.
"Is that all?"
Mutsuki glanced sideways at Yuki, her eyes revealing an undisguised contempt for the ignorant.
Xue Youyou nodded, frankly admitting, "That's all I know."
Before she could finish speaking, she was unsurprisingly met with Mutsuki's mockery: "What you're reading isn't an ancient book, it's more like a fairy tale."
Xue Youyou smiled nonchalantly, her tone becoming even more relaxed, even carrying a hint of self-righteous roguishness: "That's why I humbly asked you for help."
Her understanding of the Imperial Ritual was indeed limited to this.
In my previous life in the world of "Beast Contract", I had never heard of any player experiencing the Emperor's Sacrifice - such a level of plot and opportunity was simply beyond the reach of players.
All that the players, including her, knew was nothing more than imagination and speculation pieced together from fragments of ancient texts.
Seeing Xue Youyou's stubborn and unyielding attitude, Mutsuki was speechless.
"First of all, imperial sacrifices are not a natural phenomenon, but a man-made—no, to be precise, a divinely ordained ritual."
Mutsuki's tone became more serious than ever before, as if she were correcting a fundamental and absolutely unacceptable belief.
She emphasized, word by word, "The Imperial Ceremony is organized by an organizer."