The nine-headed serpent inhaled softly.
Something invisible was drawn out of Yu Xuan, like smoke pulled from his chest.
He felt it immediately.
A pressure he hadn't realized he was carrying lifted from his shoulders.
The subtle unease, the inexplicable misfortune, the feeling that the world had been tilting ever so slightly against him.
Gone.
Yu Xuan blinked.
His thoughts became clear.
"…Huh."
He felt light.
Shockingly so.
He thought about the serpent with a new expression.
'She's… not that bad at all, is she?'
The nine-headed serpent seemed amused by the shift in his demeanor.
"All right," she said lazily, her many voices overlapping in harmony.
"Let's get you to meet the others. After all, you do have a mission here, don't you?"
Yu Xuan stiffened.
"How do you know that?" he asked cautiously.
"Hm." One of her heads tilted.
"So the information is being hidden from you… for your own protection, I presume."
She flicked her tail toward a distant tree.
