Her Tentacles 88

Chapter 88: The Return Journey

Under the starry sky of the Milky Way, on a deserted island embraced by the crescent moon.

A house stood abruptly on the reef.

A few uneven pipes and broken electrical wires were exposed on the four walls. The moonlight just happened to fall through the relatively neat balcony, terrace, and room windows, casting a cold and gentle silver glow.

The sea waves rolled onto the reef beach, tide after tide, and then retreated, prostrating.

As the damp, cool sea breeze blew into the room, and the sound of the waves also hit her ears, Shu Yao woke up from that long sleep.

She had not had any dreams.

Until she opened her eyes and saw the person lying on her side, propping her head up with one hand, and still gently touching her eyelashes with her fingertips, Shu Yao couldn’t help but curve her lips.

For the first time, she felt that reality was even more beautiful than a dream.

Her eyes did not blink.

She used her sight to trace the outline of the person next to her, from her dark black hair, to her jade-white, seemingly glowing skin, her obsidian-black pupils, her straight nose, her rosy lips, to her clear and smooth jaw—

The monster, which had already changed its main body back to its human form, couldn’t help but change its posture.

It covered her eyes with its palm.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked in a low voice.

Shu Yao blinked, her eyelashes brushing against her palm. From the wind, from the sound of the waves, she read the taste of everything returning to peace. She vaguely guessed who had brought this peace back to this land under the moonlight.

Having confirmed with her own eyes that the other was unharmed.

The corners of her lips rose even higher. “Because you’re beautiful.”

Lin Ran had originally wanted to tell her about what had happened while she was asleep. Now, being stared at by her wide-awake eyes, and hearing her long-unheard praise, she couldn’t help but feel a surge of emotion. She leaned over and kissed her smiling lips.

…

Shu Yao was kissed until she was a little out of breath, but she still had to use her fingertips to replace her gaze, which was now hard to reach, to trace the lines of her other body parts.

Lin Ran couldn’t stand this silent seduction of hers, and couldn’t help but extend her tentacles to wrap around her wrist, stopping her movements. After a while, she rested her forehead against hers and asked:

“Is there anything uncomfortable on your body?”

Shu Yao shook her head.

And then she was suddenly picked up horizontally by the person next to her and brought all the way to the long and wide mirror in the bathroom. Her fingertips rested on her chin, showing her the place where the band-aid should have been, covering the strange skin.

Now it was as smooth as before.

Shu Yao unconsciously stared at herself in the mirror for a long time.

Then she belatedly remembered, and raised her hand to touch that patch of skin, as if to confirm that this was not an illusion of her eyes deceiving her brain—

The pad of her finger repeatedly caressed that patch of skin.

There were no wrinkles, no other patterns, and she was not touching strange skin. It was as if it were about to grow its own consciousness, but was just temporarily growing on her body.

It was soft and balanced, her own body skin.

Even the left hand she had raised, the back of her hand was as smooth as before. Under the thin skin, the blue blood vessels were like tree branches.

Shu Yao’s expression was dazed.

Only at this moment did she finally understand.

No matter how brave she had been before, how much psychological preparation she had made, how many kinds of marine life she had imagined in her mind, and even how she had specially picked out the ugly mutations of those [Parasites] to try and adapt in advance.

But deep down, the appearance she could accept the most was still herself as an ordinary person.

From birth, she had grown up as a human. The education, aesthetics, and lifestyle she had received were all in human form. She didn’t know how to live as a monster.

And these fears, which were suppressed in the deepest part of her, Lin Ran saw them more clearly than she did.

She knew that Shu Yao never wanted to be an ability user, nor did she want to walk under the sun in an alien form. So she had turned Shu Yao back to the appearance she had when they first met.

Shu Yao suddenly hugged her neck and embraced her, their necks intertwined.

Lin Ran felt a drop of water on her skin and was suddenly a little flustered. She hadn’t wanted to make her girlfriend cry at a time like this. She asked with some helplessness:

“What’s wrong, Yaoyao?”

“Is there something uncomfortable?”

Shu Yao still shook her head, trying hard to suppress the heat in her eyes, not wanting to be seen for the embarrassing reason of being moved to tears. After a while, she replied nonchalantly, “No.”

She rested her chin in the hollow of Lin Ran’s shoulder and replied righteously, “I just suddenly wanted to hug you. Can’t I?”

Of course, she could.

Lin Ran thought, as long as it was what her girlfriend wanted, no matter when, no matter how long she wanted to be held, she was very willing.

A smile appeared in her eyes. She had belatedly guessed the reason for her girlfriend’s crying, so she cooperatively changed the subject:

“Do you want to go out and have a look?”

Shu Yao looked at the bright, snow-white moonlight outside the window and nodded with anticipation, wanting to see the beautiful scenery that had returned to normal after the [Lighthouse] had retreated.

However, outside, there was more than just the moonlight.

There were also long, white threads, half hanging on the shore, half floating with the seawater. The silver chains were like hair, as if this island were a hundred-year-old man, who had inadvertently let his long silver hair fall into the sea.

The light and the moonlight corresponded, as if it were the moonlight that had been solidified and plucked.

The more Shu Yao looked, the more familiar she felt. “Is this… the stinging thread of the [Lighthouse]?”

She remembered.

When the little octopus was born, the first food it wanted to bite was this.

Lin Ran nodded happily. “Mmm, come and pick.”

Shu Yao: “?”

Come what?

…

A few minutes later.

Shu Yao sat on a huge, clean, flat stone. Her long, pink and white woven dress fell down. She looked down for a while, not quite understanding Lin Ran’s taste in dressing her like this.

But her girlfriend, who was sitting next to her, soon diverted her attention from the dress with her actions.

A black and red tentacle reached out, its tip touching a stinging thread with the [Shared] characteristic. Another one was rolled up with a stinging thread with the [Water Control] ability.

At the same time, a cool palm held Shu Yao’s wrist.

[Shared] activated.

Shu Yao suddenly felt a special feeling in her body. This feeling corresponded to the tide of the sea waves that were climbing up the shore, wave after wave.

As if to verify her feeling—

Lin Ran pulled her wrist and gently lifted it.

The seawater rose without wind, rising a zhang high, and swept toward the reef where the two were. Like a city wall collapsing, it was unstoppable.

“!”

Shu Yao reflexively turned her head and closed her eyes.

For a long time, she did not wait for the sound of the waves drowning the two of them into drenched chickens.

She quietly lifted her eyelids and saw the sea waves that had been frozen in the moonlight.

The waves were half-curled, like a rainbow arch, passing over their heads, but did not fall on the shore. The splashing water droplets on the edge were also like pearls, one by one, stopped in mid-air.

The condensed moonlight illuminated this water light into a bright silver.

Shu Yao looked up at the seawater that had stopped like a colonnade, and vaguely understood where the feeling in her body came from. Her eyes were filled with anticipation as she looked at Lin Ran. “Is there more?”

Her girlfriend, who was inexplicably having to perform again: “…”

Lin Ran replied helplessly, “Mmm.”

Next, Shu Yao saw her girlfriend casually manipulating the waves, at one moment condensing a crystal clear crystal palace on the sea surface, at another moment, collapsing and falling, like a tall building collapsing, and falling into countless fine snow foam.

It could also be like ice forming in winter—

It was frozen on the sea surface into clusters of transparent flowers.

By the time Shu Yao was tired of seeing this ability and turned her gaze to the remaining floating stinging threads, Lin Ran had obediently extended her tentacles and [Shared] other new characteristics with her.

After she had shown all the characteristics she had collected from the [Lighthouse] that she thought could be useful, Lin Ran said:

“You pick one you like.”

“I’ll help you absorb this ability, and then share it with you. This way, you shouldn’t be affected by Its residual power.”

Even if there was a slight mistake, it wouldn’t matter.

She could just use her tentacles to [Restore] her.

Shu Yao hadn’t expected that the “pick” she had mentioned was literally what it meant. And looking at these talent powers from the [Lighthouse] alien god, which had just been reduced to a performance for her to see, she suddenly understood what the feeling of “playing with fire to amuse the nobles” was.

Her expression was a little strange. “You want me to pick?”

Lin Ran thought she didn’t like it. Thinking of how she had always been staring at the moonlight just now, she also looked at the full moon thoughtfully. “Then what do you like?”

“Even if you like the moon, I’ll pluck it for you.”

Her girlfriend, who had already defeated the [Lighthouse] and had, to some extent, become the new god of the abyss, said so.

Shu Yao subconsciously looked at the beautiful moon in the sky, which had finally returned to its former appearance, and was no longer terrifyingly red, nor was it projected with the will of the [Lighthouse].

After a long while, she answered sincerely, “You should let the moon go.”

Seeing the slight regret on Lin Ran’s face for not being able to give her a surprise gift, Shu Yao couldn’t bear to let her girlfriend’s gift plan fall through. She immediately promised:

“I’ll think about it carefully.”

“Can we put these away first? I’ll tell you when I want something I like!”

…

After lying on that large, smooth stone and bathing in the moonlight for a while, Shu Yao was suddenly a little curious about what Nancheng would look like after the [Lighthouse] had retreated.

So she turned her head to look at the house that had been gnawed down by the monster before. “I kind of want to go back and have a look.”

Lin Ran had no objection to her. “Then let’s go back.”

Her girlfriend, who was sunbathing with her, sat up first, wanting to wait for Shu Yao to return to the house, and then use the same trick to take this house and the [Lighthouse]’s stinging threads back into her body.

But after Shu Yao had also gotten up from the stone, her gaze fell on her, with a hint of eagerness. “I want to stay outside this time.”

Lin Ran: “?”

Shu Yao said again, “I haven’t seen what you look like after you’ve taken back your original power.”

Not long after.

By the side of the island, a giant octopus that covered the sky and the moon appeared, its shadow enveloping the entire island.

Every black and red tentacle surrounding its body was strong and powerful. On the scarlet background, the black patterns were randomly distributed, and at first glance, it looked extremely grotesque and terrifying.

In its dark eyes, which seemed to be able to swallow everything, there was a trepidation that was inconsistent with its huge body.

【Yaoyao, are you sure you still want to stay outside?】 Her voice directly reached Shu Yao’s mind.

Shu Yao looked up at the big octopus in front of her, which was a little hard to see with both eyes. But there was not a trace of fear in her expression. She admired it for a long time, and then opened her arms to her girlfriend, who had returned to her original body:

“I want to go up and see!”

Under the silver moonlight.

The huge monster, which was stopped by the side of the small island, with a movement that seemed very cautious compared to its size, made two of its tentacles much smaller, and coiled around her, who was overly slender and thin compared to it, and slowly lifted her into the air.

The tentacles extended infinitely, allowing Shu Yao, who was standing on them, to overlook the entire island from this angle, and the sea in the distance, which was sleeping in the quiet night.

Until she was carried all the way up and placed on top of the octopus’s head.

Above her head were the stars that were within reach.

Under her feet was the abyss that was connected to the bottom of the sea, more than twenty thousand meters below.

The two tentacles did not leave after they had sent her up. They just carefully protected her by her side. Even though they knew that she was not the fragile, unskilled girlfriend of the past, they still circled her, not wanting her to have any accidents.

Looking down from the sky.

The monster’s crisscrossing raised tentacles were like a crown on its head, and the woman in the pink and white long dress, with her skin whiter than snow, was like the most dazzling pearl embedded in her crown.

Being so cared for, and seeing all things, as if there was nowhere she could not go, Shu Yao only felt that her whole heart was also filled with joy, and thus she was filled with infinite anticipation for the return journey.

She smiled and announced, “Let’s go, home!”