The Day We Bonded

The world was divided into the mortal realm and the divine realm.

The Rain Clan belonged to the divine realm. They could hear the prayers from the mortal realm.

The Rain Maidens would bring rainfall to the mortal realm through prayers. They could ascend to heavens through cultivation.

In the Rain Clan, every rain maiden was born with a dragon who would ascend with her and become her mount.

When my sister and I were born, we shared only one spirit beast—a white dragon.

The white dragon was the lowest of all dragons, yet I ignored the clan’s objections and insisted on forming a bond with him so that we could ascend.

However, on the day I succeeded in calling the rain and married him, he shot an arrow straight through me while I was pregnant and at my weakest from summoning rain.

As I lay dying, I saw him rush toward my sister. “Leigh, now I can finally be with you forever.”

Only then did I realize the white dragon had chosen me under pretenses to help Leigh ascend.

When I opened my eyes again, he and I had both returned to the day of our bond.

There, he learned that Leigh was the true heir to the Rain Goddess mantle.

He dropped to his knees and loudly confessed that he had always loved Leigh, and that he wished only to be her mount.

Everyone knew I had spent half my cultivation to save him when he first hatched.

I smiled and pointed at a mottled green snake at the edge of the barrier.

The white dragon thought that as long as he bonded with my sister, he would ascend.

However, what he never knew was that without me, Leigh could never ascend.

“Chloe, what are you standing there for? It’s time for the bond.”

Bond?

Great. I had actually returned to the day of bonding with Marty, the white dragon.

“Father, I—”

However, before I could finish, Leigh and Marty dropped to their knees, hand in hand.

“Chief,” Marty said, “although I am the spirit beast of two maidens, my heart belongs only to Leigh. Let me bond with her, please.”

At his words, the entire Rain Clan gasped.

Back then, as a spirit beast, he couldn’t even break out of his shell. It was I who exhausted half of my cultivation to help him hatch.

A white dragon was originally the lowest bloodline of dragons. If I hadn’t insisted on making him my spirit beast, he wouldn’t even be qualified to stand here.

Now, he had turned me into the laughingstock of the Rain Clan.

When I saw the look he gave me, I knew he had been reborn, too.

My aunt stepped forward and slapped him.

“Do you even know your place? How dare you choose a maiden on your own?”

Every maiden, when ascending to the rain altar, needed a dragon at her side to summon wind and rain. The better the bond between maiden and beast, the stronger the effect of the prayer.

However, Leigh and I had been born to share one dragon.

Back when he was only a lifeless black egg, Leigh forced him awake, shattering his shell and nearly killing him. It was I who spent half my spirit power and used my heart’s blood to help him break free.

The white dragon wiped the blood from his mouth and glared at my aunt with hatred.

“Love can’t be forced. If I deceived Chloe and bonded with her, it would be meaningless. I wouldn’t be able to help her ascend. So why must you insist, Deputy Chief?”

Marty’s words sounded deep and passionate, but I knew the truth.

He was actually the ninth prince of the Heaven Clan. In his past life, he had fallen in love with a mortal woman.

His so-called love for Leigh was only because she reminded him of the woman he had once betrayed.

Yet Leigh truly believed that the prince loved her deeply.

Father, holding back his rage, raised his hand to strike Marty dead, only for Leigh to throw herself in front of him.

“Father, Marty and I are truly in love!”

Father slowly lowered his hand, his voice filled with disappointment.

“Marty’s spirit power is too weak. If you bond with him, it won’t do much to strengthen your cultivation. Why not let me find you the strongest spirit beast?”

“Chloe has always been stronger than I in spirit power. I’ve been weak and sick since childhood. She killed our mother and brother, yet Father still wants her to be the heir. How is that fair? Letting me have Marty is what she owes me!”

My eyes reddened as I looked toward my aunt.

Leigh and I were born of the same mother. She came first, but there had been another baby still in our mother’s womb.

The moment I was born, that child stopped breathing. Mother bled to death, and from then on, I bore the stigma of killing my mother and brother.

Because Leigh was weak, her spirit power grew slowly.

A witch doctor said my blood could boost her spirit power and cure any poison. After that, I became her medicine. Every time she suffered, Father made me suffer a hundred times worse.

In my previous life, Leigh once said she had never seen a maiden and a beast fight. So, she threw me into the Valley of Beasts. I was nearly torn apart before my aunt set up a barrier and saved me.

On my birthday, she spiked my wine and threw me into the prisoner camp, powerless. My aunt, frantic, tracked me down with all her might and carried me back.

Later, when Leigh’s face grew scarred, she demanded a new one.

So the witch doctor stripped my face and grafted it onto hers. From then on, she became the beauty of the Great Wasteland, while I became its ugliest monster.

I kneeled on the ground. “Father, I’m willing to give Marty to my sister.”

“But what about you? Today was supposed to be your bonding ceremony with Marty. If the bond doesn’t happen, then which maiden will pray for rain today?”