Chapter 63: The Devil’s Sacrifice (13)
“What do you think, Madam?” the tall man asked, leaning in close to Yu Jiao’s ear.
Yu Jiao’s eyes darkened.
Although she didn’t know what this guy’s goal was, this was clearly a good opportunity—a good opportunity to seize the initiative from those bastards.
But at this moment, facing the resistance leader’s offer of cooperation, she couldn’t appear too eager.
“What’s in it for me…”
Before she could finish, a piercing pain shot through the wound on the back of her neck, as if countless wriggling little insects were about to burrow into her limbs, tearing at her sanity.
Before her consciousness was pulled into the depths, she heard Chow Chow’s voice, distorted by the voice changer, thick and murky, yet no less sarcastic:
“Benefits? Do you need a benefit to take revenge on them?”
His tone deliberately rose, taunting her. “Madam, are you missing a brain? You’re so foolish.”
As he spoke, his thick, mechanically constructed fingertips gently ground the wound. A strange coolness seeped in, easing the burning pain.
Yu Jiao got a moment of respite.
As if a puppet’s strings had been cut, her consciousness returned slightly.
Her blurry vision met the hollow eyes of the saintess mask. She could vaguely sense a cold, scorching gaze leaking out from within.
He was moving gently, yet he was also sneering coldly. “You trust them, but you might as well trust a dog. At least it’s loyal.”
Under the unbearable pain, Yu Jiao gasped, “What did you do?”
“Me?”
Chow Chow chuckled. “Madam, you should be asking what your dear lover did.”
“…”
Nie Hongshen?
“Look, this is the ‘good thing’ your dear lover planted in you.”
As he spoke, his fingers moved slightly, and he dug out the deeply buried “good thing.”
He held it up to her with two fingers: a transparent slime, stained with blood, with a fluorescent purple color, and inside were translucent, dot-like objects, like insect eggs.
Yu Jiao: “…What is this?”
Chow Chow wiped the thing on her already filthy, expensive clothes with a look of disgust and said lightly, “A good thing that can control your body when you’re not obedient.”
—That bastard Nie Hongshen!
Her vision went black, and she cursed in her mind before she passed out.
…
The sound of the whistling wind was in her ears, occasionally bringing with it coarse sand that brushed against her face.
Yu Jiao felt as if she were in a gentle sea, a mother’s cradle. A long-lost sense of peace. In a daze, she rubbed her cheek against that “gentle sea,” or “mother’s cradle.”
—She rubbed against a rough cloth and a cold, hard armor.
Yu Jiao instantly came back to her senses.
Before her was a boundless, deep blue, turbid sea. From time to time, a huge black shadow would swim by under the surface. The sea breeze, with its foul, fishy smell, assaulted her sense of smell. Amidst the bombardment of this strong smell, she caught a very faint scent, like sand, baked by the sun.
She looked up and, through the dirty protective lens, her gaze met a sharp jawline, hidden under the mask.
Chow Chow was holding her and flying over the sea—finally, not carrying her like a sack.
Her entire body was wrapped tightly in his cape, like an impenetrable chrysalis. She twisted uncomfortably.
“If you move again, I’ll throw you down to feed the fish,” the man said coolly, without looking at her.
Though he said that, he still held her steady in his arms.
Just like before, he had spoken rudely, but had helped her get rid of the hidden danger Nie Hongshen had left behind.
A man who says one thing and means another.
Yu Jiao raised an eyebrow.
Wanting to test his bottom line, she drawled, “Really?”
Before her words had faded, she suddenly sprang up, her upper body breaking free from his grip. She leaned over and pecked his pretentious jaw.
“…”
He instinctively caught her.
Then, his gaze slowly lowered, as if he were looking at her meaningfully through the mask.
Yu Jiao adjusted her position and settled comfortably in his arms, a cunning glint in her glistening grey eyes.
“Why don’t you throw me down?”
Chow Chow snorted.
He paused, then said in a strange tone, “Madam, you are a married woman. Please have some self-respect.”
“Haven’t you heard?” Yu Jiao raised an eyebrow. “A widow choosing a suitor—she can do as she pleases.”
Chow Chow: “…”
He choked.
***
Her struggle just now was not just to tease this arrogant, forceful, and duplicitous guy, but also to see his flying tool clearly.
And she was shocked by what she saw.
A pair of black insect wings grew from his back. They were long, narrow, and beautiful, with a deep, colorful light in the sunlight. The veins on them were raised, like the meridians on the body of an ancient giant beast, as if they held a strange rhythm. As they flapped, they made one’s eyes dizzy.
The ordinary insect wings of a black-winged dragonfly, magnified hundreds of times, looked vast and shocking, like the creation of a quiet, great god.
—And also like the wings of an insectoid fallen creature.
Yu Jiao glanced at him and temporarily suppressed the question in her heart.
.
Chow Chow’s wings vibrated at an extremely high frequency. Soon, they had flown past the end of the turbid sea, and connected to it was a vast, grey desert.
The end of the turbid sea was filthy sand, and the edge of the filthy sand was another turbid sea, like an endless, desperate cycle.
To her surprise, in the midst of the vast, grey sand, there was a bright, fresh green.
Was that… an oasis?
As the two of them drew closer, the scene in the oasis slowly unfolded.
Clusters of high and low buildings were packed tightly together, and a circle of tall protective walls surrounded them. On the walls, a team of fully armed guards was on duty.
This human settlement was isolated in the vast, dangerous desert, like a lost pearl of a dim civilization.
“Lord Chow Chow is here!”
“Leader!”
Seeing the two of them, the people on the walls cheered and waved excitedly in their direction.
Yu Jiao felt a change in the man’s aura, as if he were in a very good mood. He held her and slowly descended, saying to the crowd in a steady voice, “Yes, I’m back.”
In the settlement, smoke was rising from the chimneys, and people were peeking out of the grey-white buildings, their faces filled with joy as they greeted him.
This place was like a paradise. The rolling green grass was like a carpet, and there were even flowers and trees growing at regular intervals. Even the air was incredibly fresh, keeping out the dark pollutants and the fallen creatures.
The people living here didn’t seem to need protective lenses or breathing filters. The men, women, old, and young were all dressed in strange clothes, as if they had been patched together from various pieces of clothing, full of a simple, rustic charm.
The people stood on both sides, like little chicks, following him, chattering:
“Lord Chow Chow! A few hours ago, the guard team caught a big, fat fish. We used the [tinder] you gave us to roast it. It was so delicious! It’s a pity you weren’t here! But, we saved the biggest, most tender piece for you!”
“Reporting, leader! It has been seventy-three dark hours and twenty-one sun hours since your last visit to Base 08. During this period, the number of aberration cases is 0! Thanks to the [sweet dew] you stole—why did you hit me!”
The young girl, who had been making a dazed report, was suddenly poked by her companion. She was stunned for two seconds, then, realizing, she hastily changed her words. “Ahem, ahem, obtained, obtained. Everyone’s pollution level is very stable.”
“Boss, about ten sun hours ago, the Divine Kingdom drove out another batch of refugees at the CH-127 sewage outlet. Our people have already settled them in the nearest settlement.”
“Lord Chow Chow! Lord Chow Chow—”
Regardless of gender or age, everyone’s face was filled with reverence and love, their attitude respectful yet affectionate. His prestige and authority among these people was evident.
As they watched him with joy, they also cast curious gazes on her.
Yu Jiao squirmed awkwardly and said in a low voice, “Put me down. I can walk on my own.”
Chow Chow smiled and responded to the crowd, then leaned in close to her ear and said in a low voice, “As this time’s spoils of war, of course you have to be held by me.”
As he spoke, his hand, which was holding her steady, quietly squeezed the soft flesh of her body, full of mischief.
Yu Jiao bounced in anger, but because she was wrapped so tightly in his cape, she looked as comical as a dehydrated fish on the shore.
But in the eyes of the residents of the settlement, she looked very mysterious—
The woman was wrapped in a rough, black cloth, with only a small section of her pale white neck exposed. She was wearing protective lenses and a breathing filter, and her exquisite face could be vaguely seen, with a beauty and nobility that could not be hidden by the dirt.
Someone asked carefully, “Leader, this is…”
Before Chow Chow could speak, Yu Jiao said loudly, “I am the captured wife your leader brought back!”
She said it with a firm, clear voice, every word audible. After she spoke, she lifted her chin proudly, her dirty little face filled with a resolute expression, a hint of a retaliatory glint in her eyes.
The survivors of the settlement: “…Huh?”
“…”
Chow Chow’s face darkened, and he gritted his teeth in warning. “Don’t you dare tarnish my glorious image!”
Yu Jiao curled her lips and, triumphantly, wiggled her feet, which were wrapped in the cape.
However, after a while, she began to feel uncomfortable, as if she could read from the gratified smiles on the faces of the onlookers: ‘The leader hasn’t been this happy in a long time. This is the first time the leader has brought a woman back to the settlement.’
“…”
Chow Chow also couldn’t stand these strange gazes. He picked her up and fled, leaving only one sentence for his subordinates and the residents of the settlement: “At 23:00, we’ll have a meeting!”
.
Chow Chow took Yu Jiao to a low building. The posture was very much like a general in ancient times, kidnapping a civilian girl and taking her back to his tent.
Yu Jiao was thrown onto the bed. She immediately squirmed like a worm, but was pinned down by a tall, hot body.
“Captured wife?”
He repeated her words, one by one. “Madam, in just a short time, you seem to have gotten a little too big for your britches.”
Before Yu Jiao could retort, he sneered, “What? Are you so eager to fulfill the duties of a captured wife?”
His cold, hard, mechanical hand caressed her chrysalis-like body.
“You are now my hostage,” Chow Chow said with a light laugh, and then asked slowly, “What do you have to negotiate with me?”
“With—”
Yu Jiao was lying beneath him like a piece of meat. At this moment, her protective lenses and breathing filter were teetering.
She turned her head and, with her shoulder, rubbed off the dirty protective gear.
“With this face, which is exactly the same as Jiao Hongyue’s.”
In the dim room, a beam of sunlight just happened to fall on her dirty face, like the favor of the creator. Her expression was disdainful, with the confidence to turn the tables, which made her already beautiful and moving face bloom with an unstoppable, fatal attraction.
“…”
“You kidnapped me as a hostage. I don’t believe that the famous leader of the Resistance, Chow Chow, would make a losing deal.”
She looked at him with certainty.
“…”
In the silence, it was as if only the sound of dust, dancing, could be heard.
A soft laugh.
“Very good. You’ve convinced me.”
Chow Chow rolled over and sat up, untying the cape that was tied around her. A gesture of equal negotiation.
“Come, as a partner, what do you want?”
Yu Jiao moved her stiff body and said thoughtfully, “You said before that I was a sacrifice. What did you mean?”
“You really don’t know? You’re pretending, aren’t you?”
Chow Chow’s tone rose, and he looked at her with a hint of sarcasm.
“On the day that old bastard Yu Fenghe died, your trusted Lord Helan announced: as long as you are sacrificed to that damn god, the divine light will once again bless this land and save the Divine Kingdom.”
“…”
“Every sun day, you have to enter the coffin. Wood Sun Day, Metal Sun Day, Fire Sun Day, Earth Sun Day, Water Sun Day… Bright Sun Day… and on the last day, it will be your death day.”
As his words fell, Yu Jiao’s face also darkened.
Chow Chow was sitting cross-legged on the bed, his arms relaxed and propped behind him, like a crouching beast. His voice was soft and slow. “How about it? Join me, and let’s take revenge on them, one by one?”
“…”
Yu Jiao looked up. “Who’s first?”
Chow Chow sneered. “How about your… dear lover?”
His tone was light and leisurely, but his sharp gaze was as if it were looking at her through the mask, scrutinizingly.
As if to say: How about it? Can you bear it?
Yu Jiao raised her hand and, lazily, rubbed the almost-healed wound on the back of her neck. “Alright. Let him also have a taste of the ‘good thing’.”
The two of them smiled at each other.
“Come! Let’s start the operation.”
Chow Chow leaped from the bed and opened a small holographic projector in the room.
Glistening blue lines outlined a small, ancient-style courtyard, with carved railings and painted beams, phoenixes and luan birds, and serving girls in light clothes, moving about.
“Today, at 25:00, the higher-ups of the Divine Moon Moth will meet at the Wind and Moon Pavilion. That elusive Mr. Moth—that is, your dear lover—will also be present.”
A private room on the top floor was magnified. A few faceless figures were sitting around a long table, and the image froze in front of the man at the head of the table.
With a wave of his hand, another bird’s-eye view of a tall building unfolded.
“My people have already infiltrated the technology R&D department of the Divine Moon Moth headquarters and have obtained a researcher’s ID card. All we need is Mr. Moth’s biological information, and we can get the Divine Moon Moth’s confidential documents without anyone knowing.”
The holographic simulation showed researchers coming and going, surrounding a huge glass display bottle, inside of which was an unknown silhouette.
The projection was turned off.
Chow Chow braced his hands on the table and looked at her directly.
“I want you to disguise yourself as a serving girl at the Wind and Moon Pavilion, get close to him, and obtain his various biological information.”
“…”
“With this—”
Chow Chow leaned in close, and his bent knuckle traced the side of her face. “—Great weapon.”
Yu Jiao looked at him calmly.
On this face, which was said to be similar to Jiao Hongyue’s, to the saintess’s, there was not a single trace of pride, excitement, or humiliation and sadness. It was strangely pitiful.
She calmly listened to him laugh with the strange voice of the voice changer:
“He would never have thought that you, whom he regarded as a tool, as a sharp weapon to be driven into the Apocalypse Cult, would turn around and stab him, would he?”
“I really can’t wait to see the wonderful expression on his face.”