Re-birth: The Beginning after the End - Chapter 231

Chapter 231: I’M HOME
He raised his hand with deliberate ceremonial slowness, pressing his forefinger to the center of her forehead. Li Hua felt a cool sensation spiral into her consciousness—not invasive but harmonious, like a stream of clear water merging with a larger river.

“What was that?” she asked, her hand reaching instinctively to touch the spot where spiritual energy still tingled beneath her skin.

“A fragment of my consciousness,” he explained, his golden eyes studying her reaction carefully. “It will let us maintain contact regardless of distance or dimensional barriers. Should we be separated again—by choice or by force—we will never truly lose each other. The connection is dormant unless needed, respecting your mental privacy while ensuring we cannot be completely severed from one another again.”

His expression held a vulnerability that belied his immense power—the fear of one who didn’t want to lose something precious to them again. This small insurance against separation revealed more about his emotional state than any grand declaration could have.

“Teach me,” Li Hua said, curiosity blending with practicality. If they were to face unknown threats together, equal preparation would be essential.

Mo Xing’s expression brightened with pleased surprise—he hadn’t expected her to request reciprocal connection so quickly. With careful precision, he guided her through the technique, using gestures and spiritual essence to demonstrate the complex array formation needed to create a stable consciousness fragment.

When she had mastered the formation, Li Hua closed her eyes and focused. Her essence coalesced into a perfect miniature replica of her consciousness—a self-contained fragment that retained her essential nature while capable of independent function. With ceremonial deliberation that mirrored his earlier gesture, she pressed her fingertip to the center of Mo Xing’s forehead, transferring the essence fragment into his spiritual matrix.

His eyes widened momentarily as their connection solidified from both directions, creating a perfect circuit between their consciousness.

“Now we are truly bound,” she whispered, understanding the significance of what they had done.

Mo Xing nodded, his expression solemn yet radiant with quiet joy. “As we were always meant to be.”

They lay together in the aftermath, Mo Xing drawing her against his chest with gentle possession. His arms encircled her with protective reverence, as if even now, after their reunion was complete, he feared she might somehow slip away.

Li Hua rested her head against his chest, listening to the rhythm of his heart. Though their breathing had slowed, his heartbeat maintained an elevated cadence, steady and strong beneath her ear. After several breaths, she realized it wasn’t slowing—that this rapid drumming wasn’t merely physical aftermath but something deeper. Even in perfect stillness, his heart raced for her.

Curious, she tilted her face upward to find his golden eyes already upon her. He had been watching her all along, his gaze filled with an emotion so profound it transcended ordinary categorization. This wasn’t merely the heated appreciation of a lover or the satisfaction of desire fulfilled, but something ancient and eternal.

The sheer depth of love in his expression created an ache of recognition in her chest. She had been loved like this before—had loved him in return with equal intensity. Though her memories remained fragmentary, her soul recognized this gaze, this connection. The certainty washed over her with unexpected poignancy: she had missed this, missed him, for longer than she could consciously comprehend.

“What are you thinking?” she whispered, her fingers tracing the line of his collarbone with gentle exploration.

His lips curved into a smile that contained both ancient wisdom and present wonder. “That I’m home.”

The simple truth in his words resonated with something deeply buried in her—the part of her that had always felt slightly adrift in this life and never quite belonging in her previous one. Through two complete existences, she had searched for purpose and connection, only to discover that what she truly sought was here all along.

Li Hua smiled, tracing the cultivation marks on his chest that now seemed familiar to her touch. She agreed with him completely. After everything she had experienced—modern life and death, rebirth and cultivation, confusion and partial memories—being in Mo Xing’s arms felt like finally returning to a home she hadn’t known she was missing.

She leaned in and pressed her lips to his chest, directly over his heart. “There’s a lot of making up to do,” she murmured against his skin, her voice taking on a playful yet seductive quality that bridged both her incarnations—the mortal woman’s directness and the celestial princess’s immortal confidence.

Mo Xing chuckled, a deep rumble she felt vibrating in his chest beneath her lips. His hand traced the elegant curve of her spine, coming to rest possessively at her hip. “Yes, my love,” he agreed, his voice dropping to that velvety timbre that sent pleasant shivers through her. “So many positions I want to have you in, so many ways to worship you properly. I could wake up inside you or with the taste of you on my tongue and it would never be enough to satisfy millennia of longing.”

Li Hua blushed at his suggestive promises, playfully smacking him on the chest in mock indignation.

“What?” Mo Xing chuckled with feigned innocence, capturing her hand and bringing it to his lips. He pressed gentle kisses across her knuckles before turning her palm upward, nipping at the sensitive tips of her fingers with teasing precision.

“Mo Xing,” she admonished, trying to maintain her composure despite the pleasant sensations his attention created, “we have plenty of time for that. What I need to know is, is this your second life? Your only reincarnation?”

“Mm-hmm,” he murmured, not pausing in his attentions to her fingers. His golden eyes remained fixed on hers as he elaborated between kisses. “I expended nearly all my remaining power to incarnate myself into a realm where your soul had a high probability of appearing. The calculations were… complex.” His lips curved into a self-satisfied smile. “But evidently correct.”

He placed another kiss on her wrist, where her pulse quickened beneath his touch. “When I reincarnated, however, I lost my memories—a necessary sacrifice. I began this life anew, with only subconscious instincts guiding me toward cultivation paths that would eventually lead to you.”

Li Hua’s brows furrowed as another, more practical question formed. “So during these centuries, you’ve had other wom—”

“Stop those thoughts,” Mo Xing interrupted, his expression suddenly serious as he met her gaze with unwavering intensity. His hand tightened around hers, no longer playful but conveying absolute certainty. “There was you, and there will only ever be you. My body in this incarnation may have existed for centuries, but my soul has belonged to you for millennia.”

The simple declaration carried such profound conviction that Li Hua found herself momentarily speechless.

“Then…” Li Hua began hesitantly, a blush coloring her cheeks despite their recent intimacy, “that technique you used with your tongue—”

Before she could complete her question, Mo Xing moved with swiftness, flipping her onto her back in a fluid motion that demonstrated the perfect control he maintained. His lips found the sensitive area behind her ear—a spot she hadn’t known was particularly receptive until his earlier attentions had awakened it. The gentle stroke of his tongue against that precise point sent cascades of pleasure spiraling through her still sensitized from their previous union.

“Perhaps you need more practical demonstrations to refresh your memory, my love,” he murmured against her skin, his breath creating delicious contrast to the dampness left by his tongue. “It seems the memories of all we shared in our first life remain dormant in your mind.” His hand traced a deliberate path down her side, following the curve of her waist to her hip with possessive familiarity. “Fortunately, I remember every detail of what brings you pleasure.”

Li Hua’s breath came in ragged gasps as his touch reawakened desire she would have thought impossible so soon after their previous exertions. “Then don’t leave me guessing, Mo Xing,” she whispered, surrendering to the ancient knowledge contained in his touch.

They continued through the night and soon day and night bled into one another as they remained within the sanctuary of the ancient shrine. Hours slipped past unnoticed, moments of connection stretching into eternity while periods of rest seemed to pass in heartbeats. The days flowed one into another until, almost without realizing it, they had spent a full week ensconced in their private world of rediscovery.