Under the bright white light of the hall.

Su Yan stood behind her. He hadn’t forgotten why Jiang Zheyu had called him back and asked slowly, "Female Master, shall we proceed with the Spiritual Comfort now?"

She didn’t like him, yet she was always concerned about his Beastification Value. She was so eager to lower it, which always gave him the wrong idea.

The emotion in Su Yan’s crimson eyes was unreadable.

Jiang Zheyu snapped back to reality. ’Right, it’s almost midnight! I need to hurry up and do the purification task. How do I have time to be thinking about all this nonsense?’

She glanced at her Light Brain. The time wasn’t almost midnight—it was already 12:01 AM!

In an instant, Jiang Zheyu’s hazel eyes flew wide open. All the strength seemed to drain from her body as her mind reeled with visions of various mortifying punishments.

’Noooooo!!!!’

"Sy-System, why didn’t you remind me?" Jiang Zheyu completely froze up. "Why didn’t you remind me about the task! I’m so dead! It’s past midnight!"

’I really shouldn’t procrastinate so much. You can’t just leave everything until the last minute, because you might not make it in time!’

’Just like today! I got distracted for a moment by what Su Yan said about the Beast Mate, forgot all about the task, and ended up missing the deadline!’

The system was silent for a moment before replying sluggishly, "Sorry, Host. I wasn’t paying attention to the time either."

"Does that mean I won’t be punished, then?" Jiang Zheyu asked the system in her mind, seizing the chance.

The system seemed to give a sheepish laugh. "I’m sorry, Host. The rewards for completion and punishments for failure are all automated. The system has no way to interfere."

Jiang Zheyu: "..."

"Female Master?" Su Yan’s voice sounded in front of her.

Jiang Zheyu, who had been dazed for a moment, looked up at him and nodded. "Mhm. Let’s begin."

No matter what, a new day meant a new purification task.

The daily purification task value was always 5.

Su Yan slowly extended his hand toward her. Jiang Zheyu glanced down at it, then raised her own and took his.

She gently closed her eyes.

Su Yan glanced at their clasped hands.

Her hand was small and delicate, her skin as fair as jade. It felt exceptionally soft resting in his palm.

His eyes glinted faintly.

Only now that her eyes were closed could he gaze at her face so boldly and carefully.

As his crimson pupils reflected her image, they took on a peculiar emotion.

It was the pure white space again.

This time, the moment Jiang Zheyu’s Spiritual Touch Silk entered, the massive black python coiled on the ground lunged forward. It happened so suddenly that Jiang Zheyu was nearly scared to death, her eyes almost rolling back in her head.

Its enormous head and glowing red eyes were coming straight for her.

’Even if I’m not a physical entity, just looking at that is terrifying enough, right?’

Just like it was wrapping around its prey, the giant snake coiled its massive tail, loop by loop, around her Spiritual Touch Silk.

Jiang Zheyu’s mind went blank with fright for a second before she slowly recovered. She felt her ability to adapt was getting stronger; even with the great snake’s forked tongue constantly licking her, she was able to focus enough to grab the black wisps.

She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but it seemed like there were more of these black wisps.

She remembered that the black wisps here had decreased after she purified Su Yan’s Beastification Value last time, but now there were more of them again.

Then she recalled that a Beastman’s Beastification Value doesn’t just vanish after purification. It rises slowly with time and exposure to various things, but not quickly. Only the Beastification Value of a Beastman who frequently deals with the Zerg Race would rise uncontrollably fast.

Su Yan was the Commander of the Interstellar Third Legion, so of course he frequently battled the Zerg Race.

Jiang Zheyu slowly began to grab the black wisps. She also discovered that her Spiritual Touch Silk seemed to have gotten thicker. It had even split into a few other strands of varying lengths, and upon closer inspection, it looked like a stick figure.

’Does this mean that the more black wisps I grab, the stronger my spiritual power will get, and my Spiritual Touch Silk will slowly transform into the shape of my body?’

’After all, my Spiritual Touch Silk has already formed a stick figure. It seems very possible that it could take on a realistic human form later on.’

This time, she managed to grab a total of eight wisps of black energy. Of course, throughout the entire process, the great python beside her tirelessly licked her all over with its forked, scarlet tongue. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

She wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but Jiang Zheyu felt the great python’s fangs gently scrape against her Spiritual Touch Silk.

Because it was her Spiritual Touch Silk, the sensations she received were all the more clear and detailed.

Jiang Zheyu maintained a wooden expression throughout the purification of the black wisps, then impatiently withdrew her Spiritual Touch Silk.

When she opened her eyes again, she felt a dampness on her neck, and she wasn’t sure if the sensation had carried over from the great snake spiritual body.

As her vision focused, she found that Su Yan was holding her again.

Her neck tingled, as if sharp teeth were gently biting and scraping against it.

Realizing what was happening, Jiang Zheyu quickly tried to push Su Yan away, but she couldn’t budge him. Instead, he held her even tighter.

"Su-Su Yan, wake up." Jiang Zheyu pushed at his waist with both hands.

She could feel the man’s deep breathing on her neck. His hot breath, mingled with a dampness, created a sticky and slightly itchy sensation against her skin.

When Su Yan came to his senses, he found his lips on her neck, the tips of his teeth biting into her flesh. He subconsciously scraped his teeth against that soft patch of skin.

His Adam’s apple bobbed. It took immense willpower for him to let go.

Su Yan placed his hands on Jiang Zheyu’s shoulders and gently pushed her a small distance away. He lowered his eyelids, hiding the emotion in his eyes. His gaze subtly swept over the red mark on her neck before he spoke in a low, hoarse voice, "My apologies. I was impolite again."

"It’s... it’s fine." Jiang Zheyu’s senses were filled with the man’s cool, crisp scent. She didn’t know what it was, but it smelled clean and pleasant.

"W-Well, um, I’ll head back now." Jiang Zheyu’s eyes darted around nervously. She silently turned to go back to her room.

’Why does it feel like the more Spiritual Comforts we perform, the closer we get? And we’re hugging more and more often...’

’At this rate, will Su Yan even be able to leave with his innocence intact...?’

Jiang Zheyu returned to her room. The moment she entered, she subconsciously touched her neck and went over to the mirror.

Sure enough, there was a red mark on her neck. It hadn’t been her imagination after all.

Not only had the spiritual body bitten her, but its master had bitten her in the real world, too.

Jiang Zheyu recalled the man’s lean, powerful waist. Even though she had only been pushing him away, her palm could feel the taut strength of his muscles through the fabric.

’I wonder what it would feel like without the fabric in the way?’