Her clothing slid slowly off her shoulders, revealing skin fair and smooth. That skin was so delicate it seemed it could be pierced at the slightest touch, and
The sight of Xiao Ning'er, bashful and enchanting—any man who beheld it would surely struggle to contain himself.
Where her fingers traced along, the tender skin sent a delicate sensation rippling through her.
At this moment Xiao Ning'er wore only a dudou, her curvaceous figure laid bare before Nie Li's eyes.
Her body trembled faintly. She could feel the tips of Nie Li's fingers gliding over her skin, and an indescribable sensation spread through every inch of her—tingling and numbing—mingled with the embarrassment in her heart until her mind went blank.
Looking at Xiao Ning'er's state, Nie Li's heart swelled with tenderness. He understood that Xiao Ning'er had steeled herself for everything, and was giving herself to him.
Nie Li slowly moved around behind her. There he saw her collarbones, luminous and translucent, and just below them a small pinkish mark.
"Exactly as I thought." Nie Li's eyes were already brimming with tears as his right hand gently touched the mark.
In his previous life, Xiao Ning's back had borne this very same mark.
A host of questions churned in Nie Li's heart. In his previous life, Xiao Ning'er had ventured into the
A deep sense of guilt gnawed at Nie Li toward Xiao Ning. If not for him, Xiao Ning would never have died. And when Xiao Ning drew her last breath, that look of peace and tenderness she had shown him—every time he recalled it, it was like a blade driven into his heart.
"Mm." Xiao Ning'er let out a muffled whimper, wincing as though in pain.
"Ning'er, was this birthmark there from the day you were born?" Nie Li asked, puzzled.
Xiao Ning'er opened her eyes and shook her head. "No."
"Then how did this birthmark come to be?" Nie Li couldn't help pressing.
"When my grandfather passed away, he used a sealing technique to bind a page of space-time into this mark," Xiao Ning'er said.
"A page of space-time?" Nie Li was taken aback. "What page of space-time? Something like this?"
He drew the remnant page of the Book of Time-Space Demon Spirit from inside his robe and held it up, looking to Xiao Ning'er for confirmation.
She turned her head, freezing for a moment, then nodded. "That's exactly what it is. But it was sealed inside this mark on my body. Grandfather once told me that I would face a great calamity—and that it would be my fortune, able to save my life."
"So that's how it is…" Understanding seemed to dawn in Nie Li's mind, yet at the same time, even more questions arose.
In his previous life, when Xiao Ning'er had entered the Black Devil Forest, it was this very mark on her body—the remnant page of the Book of Time-Space Demon Spirit—that had carried her through the catastrophe. But because of it, her appearance had been utterly ruined. She had donned a mask, taken on the alias Xiao Ning, and later entered the Dragon Ruins Domain, where she had encountered Nie Li.
It was precisely because the remnant page of the Book of Time-Space Demon Spirit was sealed within her that, after Nie Li's rebirth, fragments of their previous life still surfaced in Xiao Ning'er's mind from time to time.
Looking at the Xiao Ning'er before him, Nie Li's heart was awash with a tangle of emotions.
Tenderness, heartache, regret, guilt, anguish—a storm of conflicting feelings surged through him.