Animal-eared Girl Era: Start by Forming a Contract with an SSS-Class School Belle

Ziran and Cheng Bingxi were overjoyed, now that they had the Supreme Treasure of Time, both versions of Gu Qingcheng could be saved.

It was no longer a matter of choosing to save one and let the other die.

*When it came to feelings, it was obvious Ziran cared deeply for the younger Qingcheng, while the future Qingcheng felt almost like a stranger.*

*After all, ever since she'd arrived in Hang City, the one she'd always faced was the younger Qingcheng, her body, her face.*

*As for Old Qingcheng, she'd only learned of her existence just ten minutes ago.*

*Besides, if the young Qingcheng died, how could there even be a future Qingcheng?*

If a choice had to be made, if only one could live, they would pick the younger Qingcheng without hesitation!

*But this kind of choice was beyond unfair to the future Qingcheng.*

*She'd kept an empty room for a hundred years in the future, endured endless hardship to finally return, at long last getting together with Xiao Ye and clearing up the misunderstandings between them.*

*Yet after barely a week together, she'd have to lose everything forever.*

*Not only would she lose Xiao Ye—she herself would perish as well!*

*Her soul would shatter, leaving her not even a chance at reincarnation.*

*What a cruel fate—cold and utterly heartless!*

But now, with the appearance of the Supreme Treasure of Time, both versions of Qingcheng could survive, and everyone could breathe a sigh of relief.

Ziran even wanted to set off fireworks in celebration.

Bzz bzz bzz!

The Space-Time Travel Pearl buzzed, radiating a soft glow as it absorbed fragments of the Dao of Time.

It was as if it were powering up—the Space-Time Travel Pearl, once dull and lifeless, now buzzed with vitality.

The once gray color changed to a spectrum of vibrant hues, giving off a feeling of springtime awakening.

[Information transfer, words from Future Qingcheng]

[Shuttle possible, energy sufficient]

[Shuttle now?]

The message sounded in Xiao Ye's mind.

These were words from Future Qingcheng to him.

"Young Xiao Ye, I am Gu Qingcheng from a hundred years in the future. The future me didn't actually come to your timeline. That Qingcheng is just a sliver of my Divine Soul. The future Qingcheng you see is not truly me."

"She's my obsession, my obsession with you, and with what I've experienced during that time."

"I hope that after getting the Space-Time Travel Pearl, and hearing my words, you'll be a little kinder to the Qingcheng from your timeline."

"Sigh..."

"The way I treated you in the past was awful, and I paid almost a hundred years for it. I regret it."

"I also hope that after you marry me, you'll treat my younger self a little better."

"This is a request—I'm begging you, please don't make me keep an empty room for a hundred years. I'd lose my mind."

"Sigh, maybe I already lost it. Every day now I sneak your clothes, your underwear, your socks, just to crazily sniff your scent—and then act like nothing happened when I give everything back the next day. It's humiliating..."

"Sigh~"

Xiao Ye, after listening, *felt a deep, tangled melancholy and anxiety in the words, a subtle self-deprecation. She even seemed to choke up as she spoke, as if crying.*

*A cold and miserable loneliness, endless sorrow and sadness.*

He fell silent.

*Sister Qingcheng, who'd kept a lonely room for a hundred years and never once enjoyed the intimacy she deserved.*

*He'd never realized her life was so wretched.*

*Just thinking about it was unbelievable. The Beast Girl he had married in the proper way, in the spiritual world, had actually suffered such torment and bleakness.*

Xiao Ye let out a long breath, then looked at the young Qingcheng's Soul Body in the special space, and said,

"Sister Qingcheng, after you go to the future, sit down and talk things through with your future self. Tell her how happy and in love we are."

"Once I marry you, I won't neglect you. Whatever you want, I'll do it for you—even if it wrecks my kidneys."

But then, he shook his head again.

He muttered self-deprecatingly,

*"You're unconscious; how could you possibly hear all this? Forget it, I'll write a letter instead."*

"I'll tell you everything in a letter."

He tilted his head and looked at Ziran and Cheng Bingxi, then asked,

"Ladies, anything you want to say to my future self?"

"You can write a letter and leave it in the special space of this pearl. When it carries Sister Qingcheng's Soul Body, it can bring your messages to a hundred years in the future, right to future me."

"Huh? Write a letter?" Ziran paused, "To your future self?"

"What's the point of that?"

"Feels like I'm having an affair or something."

"The one I love is the you right now."

"Your future self has his own people with him. We're with the present you."

Xiao Ye's mouth twitched, "Come on—you're saying even my future self disgusts you?"

"Future me isn't some clone of mine."

"It's just a letter, not like you're actually doing anything."

Ziran muttered under her breath, "Trust me, your future self is probably long contaminated—after all those years paying 'public grain' to hundreds of Beast Girls, how could he possibly be as clean as you are now?"

"If I write him a letter, wouldn't that be spiritual cheating?"

Cheng Bingxi covered her mouth and giggled.

"!" Xiao Ye's scalp tingled, shocked, "Sister Ziran, writing a letter to your future husband is considered spiritual cheating?"

"I really don't get your logic."

"No, seriously, this way of thinking is on another level."

Ziran snorted, "I've always had OCD. Otherwise, before I met you, why do you think I didn't even touch a man's hand in over fifteen hundred years?"

"Xiao Ye, let me ask, if the future me, the future Ziran, showed up and demanded 'public grain' from you, would you give it up?"

Xiao Ye: "…"

*His mind blanked out for a second.*

*What the hell kind of question was that?*

*Future Ziran appearing in front of him?*

*As if!*

"Uh, maybe, probably, I would talk to the current you first."

"But if future Sister Ziran forced my hand, there'd be nothing I could do."

"You're both my wives—why shouldn't I touch you?"

"But don't overthink it. The future you can't show up here, not a chance."

"Hmph!" Ziran snorted again, "You better not let that slutty future Ziran touch you. I'd be completely turned off."

"Future Ziran has future Xiao Ye."

"The current you belongs to the current us!"

Ziran looked like she was about to say more, so Xiao Ye quickly covered her soft lips with his hand, "Stop, stop, not another word."

"Sister Qingcheng, who kept an empty room for a hundred years, is a special case—she's just a strand of Divine Soul separated from the future Qingcheng. She's not the real future Gu Qingcheng."

"Though I don't understand why this Old Sister Qingcheng seems to have a complete soul and not just a fragment, she's still not the real future Qingcheng."

"The future Sister Qingcheng is doing just fine in her own timeline."

"?"

Ziran and Cheng Bingxi were stunned.

"Uh…"

"So the future Qingcheng we saw is just a strand of her Divine Soul?"

Xiao Ye nodded, "That's right. Which means this Old Gu Qingcheng can't return to the future, or else she'll be absorbed by the future Qingcheng, and once that happens, she's gone for good."

Ziran and Cheng Bingxi were baffled.

The Space Ancestor Empress glanced at the future Gu Qingcheng inside the Soul Capturing Pearl, thought for a moment, then concluded,

"She used an Emperor Realm Supreme Treasure to patch up her Soul Body."

"But according to the Human Emperor, she's just a remnant will."

"This Gu Qingcheng isn't truly the future Gu Qingcheng; she doesn't have all of her future memories."

"Yeah, this Qingcheng is basically a remnant soul, born from the resentment and longing that future Qingcheng had while keeping an empty room for a hundred years."

"She's unique—different from the real future Qingcheng."

With a sly grin, she turned to the Human Emperor, "So what do you say, Human Emperor? Do you really want to save this kind of extreme Qingcheng soul?"