Lan Meishan did not look afraid. He did not look nervous. If anything, he looked lost. Lost in a way Ningyan could not quite understand.
Again and again, he would find Meishan staring at him with that familiar expression, as though searching for something that had long been taken away.
Under normal circumstances, Ningyan might have found it amusing.
Perhaps even flattering.
Now, however, a different feeling had begun to settle in his chest. An unpleasant one.
Because regardless of how much he enjoyed Meishan's company, the reality remained the same.
He was a demon beast. The Beast King of the Phoenix Clan. A calamity feared across the realms.
And Lan Meishan was a serpent beast.
Even if Meishan agreed to remain by his side, there would inevitably come a day when they stood on opposite sides of a battlefield.
A day when Ningyan might be forced to kill him.
The thought irritated him far more than it should have.
"Is it because of who I am?" Ningyan repeated.
