Chapter 72: The Devil’s Sacrifice (22p1)
A cold, dark night.
“You… when did you know?”
Chow Chow, or rather, Yuan Cang’s voice was dry. “Yu Jiao, I really didn’t mean to hide it from you.”
Under the bonfire’s glow, Yuan Cang was like a burning statue, filled with a helpless despair.
Yu Jiao, on the other hand, was very relaxed. Yu Jiao threw another piece of firewood into the fire. The flames leaped, and her pale white face was bathed in a warm light, but her expression and voice were both cold.
“Come to think of it, that time at the Wind and Moon Pavilion, ‘Yuan Cang’ appeared so timely… I haven’t even thanked you for saving me.”
“…Yu Jiao.”
Yuan Cang called out in pain.
Yu Jiao looked up, her tone flat. “I don’t know how you managed to make ‘Yuan Cang’ and ‘Chow Chow’ appear at the same time, but every time ‘Chow Chow’ appears, ‘Yuan Cang’s’ abilities seem to be weakened. That was the biggest flaw.”
Yu Jiao mentioned the two names as if they were two insignificant nouns.
“It’s a pity you were so successful at playing the fool as ‘Yuan Cang’. Even that old fox Helan Duo was deceived by you.”
Yu Jiao let out a soft laugh.
“…”
“Speaking of which, you’ve distinguished ‘Chow Chow’ and ‘Yuan Cang’ very successfully.”
Yu Jiao stood up and, while walking towards Yuan Cang, counted off:
“You didn’t hesitate to cut off the fingers with the sharp nails and replace them with a mechanical prosthesis. You ground down your mouthful of sharp teeth. You pulled out the pincers on your back that belonged to ‘Yuan Cang’.”
Yu Jiao paused and glanced at his back. The wound Helan Duo had left had already disappeared.
Yu Jiao lifted her eyelids with a half-smile:
“Your regeneration ability is so strong. Do you have to cut your fingers, grind your teeth, and pull out your pincers every once in a while?”
As Yu Jiao spoke, her fingertips nonchalantly traced his tense back muscles.
Yuan Cang curled his fingers in a spasm.
“To avoid arousing suspicion, Chow Chow—oh, no, I should call you now, Holy Son Yuan Cang,” Yu Jiao enunciated each word, as if with great respect, yet it was also full of a distant quality.
“You’ve really gone to great lengths.”
If the Yuan Cang from before was a burning, desperate statue, then now, he was a pile of ashes, the fire extinguished.
Yu Jiao was like a fluttering wind, softly approaching this pile of dead ashes—she embraced him from behind, tilted her head, and breathed by his ear, her breath like an orchid:
“In the dream, I was wondering why you smelled of blood… I’m sure the dream system assigned you the identity of the eighteen-year-old ‘Yuan Cang’.”
“…”
Yuan Cang was silent, not denying it.
“To avoid being exposed, you cut off your fingertips again… never showing your true face.”
Her slender fingers gently traced the wooden mask, which was carved with the image of the saintess. With a force of her nails, Yu Jiao made a harsh, grating sound—
“And that makes me, who was worried about your safety, look like a complete and utter fool.”
“…”
The bonfire gradually died down, and the dead ashes were lifted by the cold night wind.
Yu Jiao withdrew her hand, stood up, and, with her eyelids lowered, calmly looked at his silent back.
“To think you said before that they were all treating me as a substitute for Jiao Hongyue… What about you? Are you also seeing her through me? Even for a moment.”
Yuan Cang suddenly stood up and faced Yu Jiao, frantically trying to take her hand. The tall man was like a child who had done something wrong, his voice filled with a certain sorrow:
“No, it’s not. Really, I didn’t treat you as a substitute. Yu Jiao, believe me.”
“It’s fine to lie to me, but don’t lie to yourself.”
Yu Jiao shook off his hand and said impatiently, “And how am I supposed to believe a guy who’s full of lies and doesn’t even dare to show his real face?”
Yuan Cang held her hand with one hand and, with the other, took off his mask.
His disguised face gradually changed: long, thin, curved eyebrows, round, almond eyes, black sclera and white pupils, fluffy red hair, and sharp teeth also slowly grew out.
The face of Yuan Cang was presented before Yu Jiao, but with an unfamiliar expression. It was no longer as arrogant and unrestrained as before, and it even had a hint of a plea.
“…I’ll tell you everything. Don’t—” abandon me.
Yu Jiao’s gaze was as vast and untraceable as a cloud of smoke, looking at him indifferently.
Yuan Cang looked away, embarrassed, and said in a low voice, “It’s mimicry and regeneration.”
“Mimicry can be used for disguise. Regeneration not only has the ability to self-heal, but a part of my body that is cut off can differentiate into another me, but it only has a temporary effect…”
Yuan Cang pressed his lips together. “Over twenty years ago, I was chosen as an experiment by the Apocalypse Cult. After… I obtained these two abilities, but they don’t know that ‘regeneration’ also has a clone effect.”
Yu Jiao’s face was indifferent. “Oh.”
As if to say: What does that have to do with me?
Yu Jiao pried his cold, mechanical fingers off, one by one. “I’m tired.”
With that, she turned and left without a shred of reluctance.
Yu Jiao didn’t look back all the way, and she entered her room.
And Yuan Cang, with a longing expression, followed her, and the mercilessly slammed door completely blocked his eager gaze. He sat down by the door, like a large dog, abandoned by its master.
But Yuan Cang didn’t dare to make a sound, for fear of disturbing her rest.
***
Yu Jiao was unmoved.
The moment she had realized his true identity, she had indeed been heartbroken, but she had quickly adjusted.
Yu Jiao didn’t consider herself a lovesick person who was heavy on emotions. In her opinion, compared to her own interests, so-called negative emotions were all insignificant.
Yu Jiao had already begun to consider how to use Yuan Cang’s guilt to raise his affection level to complete the mission.
—Clearly, her expressionless face had led some to a misunderstanding.
A wisp of black gas coiled around her ankle and slowly climbed up.
A coldness washed over her.
“Do you think he really likes you?”
A cold, dark voice sounded in Yu Jiao’s ear, like a demon, taking advantage of her weakness, seducing her.
Yu Jiao turned her head and, as expected, saw a familiar, cold, dead face.
Yu Jiao said with disgust, “Why are you everywhere?”
Yu Fenghe: “?”
—He had been seriously injured by those three white-eyed wolves before. Now that the dark night had come and the pollution level had risen, he could barely appear. Where did ‘everywhere’ come from?
Yu Jiao looked him up and down and said with suspicion, “Have you been following me?”
To her surprise, Yu Fenghe was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself! Who’s been obsessed with you, following you every step of the way!”
“?”
…I didn’t mean that either.
Yu Jiao was speechless.
A glint flashed in her eyes.
—From his reaction, it seemed Yu Fenghe hadn’t entered the dream with her.
If he hadn’t interfered with the dream plot, then the ‘Yu Fenghe’ in the dream was a real phantom from history, and ‘his’ reactions were also things that had happened, or could have happened.
Then the question arose.
Why had the past ‘Yu Fenghe’ called out the name “Yu Jiao” to Jiao Hongyue?
Yu Jiao felt a chill rise from her back… She looked back, and sure enough, her ghost husband was on her back, haunting her.
Yu Jiao: “…”
His demonic whisper: “Do you think they all have you in their hearts? You’re wrong! Every one of them has a ‘grand ideal’. You’re just the most insignificant tool, substitute, and plaything!”
Yu Jiao was tired of listening.
Yu Fenghe: “They say nice things, but one day they’ll abandon— you, you, you, what are you taking off your clothes for!?”
Yu Fenghe was so shocked he flew eight feet away, avoiding her like a snake or a scorpion. His expression was tense and cold, his eyes filled with condemnation. Seeing that she was still taking them off, he disappeared in a flash.
At the same time, a barely visible black line appeared on Yu Jiao’s ankle. She sneered and pulled her clothes back on her shoulders. She stared at the black line for a while, then, out of sight, out of mind, she covered it with her trouser leg.
After a thrilling day, Yu Jiao was really tired and fell asleep in her clothes.
After a while, a wisp of black gas emerged and swirled around her forehead, slowly sinking in… In her sleep, Yu Jiao frowned.
…
Dream
…
This was a city in the sky.
Tall buildings were packed tightly together, and there were flying ships patrolling everywhere. A fluorescent, transparent protective film covered the entire city. Outside the city was a dark sky.
A floating steel fortress.
This city was really big. If one stood beneath it, one would probably be surrounded by an inescapable shadow, right? One might even develop a fear of large objects.
Yu Jiao thought, vaguely.
She was floating in the air as a consciousness, like a hazy, formless, wandering soul, pulled by an unknown attraction through the protective film of the city in the sky.
On the plaque of the steel city wall were two vigorous, sharp words:
[God-Slaying]
Something flashed through her chaotic mind, but it was as elusive as a fish.
So Yu Jiao stopped thinking about it.
She completely floated into this [God-Slaying City] and was drowned in the noisy sounds.
On both sides of the wide road leading to the city gate were a sea of people. The people were all dressed in military uniforms of different styles, as if they belonged to different branches of the military, but their expressions were all the same, excited.
Yu Jiao followed the people’s gazes.
There, the fierce and imposing soldiers were returning in triumph.
The dozens of soldiers at the head of the line were marching in unison, their bare shoulders carrying a metal lever, on which lay a huge, scarred, strange fish.
—A fallen creature.
The term popped into Yu Jiao’s mind.
This fish-like fallen creature had two heads, and its mouth was full of sharp teeth. Its fish eyes were white, and it looked as if it had just died. It was exuding a hot, bloody, and fishy smell.
It was being carried by the soldiers like a trophy.
Another team of soldiers was beating war drums rhythmically. The sound of thump, thump, thump was deafening, as if it were resonating with one’s chest.
The clash of primitive savagery and future technology created a strange attraction.
Yu Jiao couldn’t help but float closer, and her gaze suddenly paused.
At the same time, the crowd on both sides burst into a fervent cheer:
“Lord Leader—!”
“Congratulations on Lord Yuan’s triumphant return!”
“Wow! An S-class fallen creature. We’ll have fish to eat tonight! Long live the leader!”
The focus of the crowd was on the man at the end of the line.
He was lazily riding on a giant, strange insect, one leg bent, his muscular, sharp-lined arm resting on his knee.
His bare upper body was as perfect as if it were made of copper and iron, a creation of the gods.
A pair of folded black insect wings was on his back, like the wide cape of a god of war. His long, dark red hair was as fluffy as a lion’s mane, and his black-and-white inverted eyes were slightly narrowed.
His entire being exuded a disdainful, savage attraction.
But Yu Jiao suddenly felt annoyed.
She no longer looked at this annoying guy. After she had looked away, her gaze suddenly paused, and a hint of a question rose in her eyes—
There was a woman in the crowd who looked exactly like her.
Black hair and grey eyes, a sharp and pretty military uniform, and a white armband with a red cross.
She looked like a female logistics medic.
At this moment, the woman was staring at the man who was called the leader without blinking. Unlike the other revelers, she was so calm she was out of place. A hint of contemplation and calculation flashed in her glistening grey eyes.
The next moment, Yu Jiao suddenly felt a strong magnetic force.
She was suddenly pulled towards the female medic by this unknown force, like a pot of water being poured into a suitable container—Yu Jiao had become this female soldier.
But strangely, she had no control over her body. She could only watch the female soldier’s actions from a first-person perspective.