I was terrified! Raising a colossal star beast in the Beast Taming World

Chapter 253 The Red Moon Mark

Mutsuki's voice suddenly became very soft and gentle, as if she had opened an old book that had been sealed for many years, with the sunlight of yesteryear still lingering on the title page.

"When I first saw it, I was just an insignificant student at Moonlight Academy. I was even more invisible than a nobody, you probably can't imagine."

Xue Youyou didn't interrupt.

"You know my companion pet, it's a Moonlight Silkworm that everyone can bully, it's just not associated with the word 'powerful' by nature. No matter how hard we train it, or how desperately we fight against other pets, we can't get rid of this humiliating label of being the worst student in the Moonlight Academy."

As Mutsuki said this, a smile curved her lips.

There was self-deprecation in that arc, but more than that, there was an indescribable sense of nostalgia.

"However, Moonlight Silkworm and I never gave up on becoming stronger. We tried all sorts of special training methods, such as silk-spinning training, waterfall meditation, weighted crawling... we tried every trick we could think of. Of course, these special training methods could not fill the gaps in Moonlight Silkworm's innate racial stats."

"However, it was probably because of our incredibly stubborn persistence that the gods favored us once."

Her voice gradually faded, as if she were recalling a long, long afternoon.

"That day, Moonlight Silkworm and I tried a new training method on the cliff outside Moonlight Academy—the cliff jumping training method. It involves jumping off the cliff and summoning Moonlight Silkworm at the last second before landing to cushion the impact with its silk threads."

"Sounds stupid, right? It really was incredibly stupid. But back then, we were willing to try any stupid method. We wanted to see if we could unleash the Moon Silkworm's potential through a life-or-death crisis."

"As a result, we found a badly injured rabbit below the cliff waterfall."

Xue Youyou's eyelashes fluttered slightly.

"The rabbit was curled up on a rock by the water, its hind leg bitten through by something, and the blood had stained half of the rock red."

"I originally wanted to walk away. I've always been hard-hearted and have never been soft-hearted. But that day, I don't know why, maybe it was seeing it curled up into a tiny ball, as weak and helpless as me and the Moonlight Silkworm, that suddenly made me feel—I have to save it."

Mutsuki looked down at her fingers, which were submerged in water.

"So I made a contract with it, hoping to heal it through the power of the contract. At that time, my thinking was very simple: I would release it once it was healed, since I couldn't afford to raise a second pet anyway."

"And the result?" Xue asked softly.

"As a result, after it recovered, it insisted on repaying me."

Mutsuki's tone held a hint of helpless laughter as she spoke: "I thought to myself, what could a rabbit possibly do to repay me? But it could speak human language and seemed very intelligent, so I kept it."

"It was a long, long time later that I learned that this guy was the reincarnation of the divine beast Taiyin."

Xue listened quietly, her fingers having stopped twirling her hair at some point, and instead gently resting on Mutsuki's shoulder.

The water in the bathtub was starting to cool slightly. The steam on the surface of the water gradually dissipated, revealing the faint outlines of the two people submerged in the water.

On the wall, two faces reflected in the shimmering water are slightly lost in thought, each preoccupied with their own thoughts.

For a moment, no one spoke.

Just moments ago, as Xue Youyou and Muyue stepped into the bathroom and removed their clothes, they almost simultaneously saw the mark on each other's bodies.

The mark of snow was on her lower abdomen, an eerie red moon pattern, as if someone had drawn a curve on her snow-white skin with cinnabar. The pattern was not static, but rather flowed with a dark red luster at an extremely slow speed that was imperceptible to the naked eye.

Mutsuki's crimson moon mark was branded in the very center of her chest, where her heart would be. It was similar in size to Yuki Yuuyu's mark, and its color was equally eerie, shimmering with a dark red luster.

They both saw each other's mark in that instant.

In that instant, they also confirmed that the other party was also a beast tamer chosen by the Emperor's Sacrifice.

But neither of them mentioned it, nor did they linger on the two marks for even a second. It was as if they had reached some unspoken understanding, or perhaps they felt that bringing it up at this moment was somewhat inappropriate.

Because they all have things they care about more than that.

Xue Youyou was the first to step into the bathtub, giving her the opportunity to strike first. While Muyue was still struggling with how to get into the water since the bathtub was too small, Xue Youyou's gaze had already slowly swept over her entire body.

To be fair, Mutsuki's figure wasn't bad. She was petite, but her proportions were excellent; she had everything she needed and not an ounce of excess fat in any of her areas. Her skin was the kind of fair that never saw the sun, so delicate it was like the finest mutton fat jade, turning a pale pink when soaked in hot water.

But she has a fatal flaw—

He's too short, only slightly taller than Manluo.

This shortcoming makes her look like a carefully pruned bonsai. Although she is a beautiful bonsai, she ultimately lacks the expansive, blooming, and overwhelming visual impact.

Even if her figure is perfectly proportioned, her skin is delicate, and her proportions are perfect, all her efforts seem somewhat inadequate in the face of the word "small".

Soon, Xue Youyou gave her final judgment, uttering only three words.

You lost.

His tone was flat, devoid of any extraneous emotion, as if he were stating an objective fact that had nothing to do with him.

These three words made Mutsuki, who was about to enter the water, suddenly freeze.

She looked up and met Xue Youyou's eyes, which seemed to be smiling but weren't. Her face held a composure that made her extremely, extremely, extremely uncomfortable.

His gaze was as if he were admiring a work of art that was passable but far inferior to himself, carrying a hint of condescending tolerance.

"Varied……"

Mutsuki opened her mouth, wanting to refute, but found that she couldn't find any point of rebuttal.

Can she say she has better skin? Can she say she has more curves?

"...a petty person who has gained power."

In the end, she could only force out those four words.

But this was her last act of defiance.

Then came that precise "little dwarf" that instantly broke her defenses.

This feud is now truly over.

At this moment, the two women were huddled together in the bathtub, the hot water reaching their waists, and the rising steam swirling between them, temporarily concealing this silent contest.

After Xue Youyou relayed Guanghan Zhan's first question and received Muyue's answer, she nodded slightly.

The second question was one she herself wanted to ask.

Then, she looked down at Mutsuki, who was lost in thought in her arms, and asked, "So, the second question—is one I wanted to ask myself."

"What exactly does this red moon mark on us, this so-called selection by the Emperor's Sacrifice, mean?"