A sharp whistle sounded! The monster above the stairs blew its whistle!
The monster of twisted limbs received its command and a multitude of arms and legs crawled towards them. It had too many limbs, it was too uncoordinated, every move it made was strangely discordant. Even as it scrambled towards them, its limbs were still ripping at each other; in those few short meters of movement, limbs it had ripped off itself already littered the ground – the twisted scene soon transformed into a vicious brawl, every segment of its human body squirming wildly, arms and thighs of men and women tangled together like a ball of squirming earthworms.
The whistle blew even sharper. The centipede monster finally gave up on crawling, its body stretching to almost ten meters long. It rolled on the ground like a long snake bit by a mongoose, shaking madly, its length sweeping across half the hall.
Lin Jue had to leap away and roll a few times to avoid its wide, broad reach, and Gu Fengyi escaped its grasp in the nick of time. But Liu Qingqing’s reaction wasn’t as fast as them and with a scream, she was swept away by the monster, slamming against a pillar as she spat out a mouthful of blood.
The monster approached Liu Qingqing at the sound of the whistle!
“Be careful—-! Gu Fengyi shouted. Her head still dizzy from the impact, Liu Qingqing suddenly looked up towards the giant monster charging at her.
No, she couldn’t die here, not here!
Liu Qingqing’s wounded right hand weakly tapped the skill tattoo on her left. A brief flash of light glimmered and the ground trembled; from beneath the monster suddenly rose a short wall, blocking its path!
The monster prowled under the wall, hesitating, wondering whether or not it should give up on this wounded prey.
The whistle sound suddenly turned sharper, almost painful!
The bodies of the monster blocked by the wall suddenly came to an understanding, their limbs that had torn at each other now latching onto the small wall, heaving its body upwards. In just a few seconds, it was crouched on top of the wall, looking down at Liu Qingqing who was unable to move – that bizarre, vicious, twisted monster was staring at her.
She stared at it in terror, her mind blank. All of her willpower seemed to have vanished in an instant, leaving behind only an endless void of darkness, and countless wailing, cursing, resentful voices, breaking her down. She seemed to hear countless mocking voices, like every painful memory that tormented her nightmares.
“Qingqing!” Gu Fengyi’s voice was like lightning in the dark sky, lighting up primordial Chaos. Liu Qingqing shivered and snapped awake.
The monster had almost finished climbing down. The crossbow in Gu Fengyi’s hands fired and stabbed into the monster’s body; it thrashed around madly but wasn’t weakened at all.
Liu Qingqing looked up, resistance roiling in her black eyes. She could never, ever, ever die here! Otherwise, everything would be over!
A flame blazed up from beneath Liu Qingqing’s feet towards the short wall, grabbing onto the monster’s body in seconds. Burnt by the flame, the monster quickly rolled itself off and gave up on this difficult opponent, turning instead to attack Gu Fengyi and Lin Jue.
Lin Jue was in immediate danger. He wasn’t as agile as Gu Fengyi who had been learning dance from a young age and barely brushed against death as the creature flailed. Even worse, that ‘battle instinct’ of his had yet to appear. Without his predictions, without the slowed world, without the sudden burst of power, he had even more trouble dodging.
The monster lunged once more. Lin Jue had just rolled away from its last attack without realizing that the monster was equally agile on its front and its rear. He dodged the front half of its body but its rear wrapped itself around him, its limbs flailing wildly as it pulled on Lin Jue’s body with a deadly grip.
It hurt! The monster’s strength was incredible, like it was going to pull off his limbs! Lin Jue yelled in pain, pushing his spear into it! The monster grew even more frantic, its limbs pulling at Lin Jue’s body with such ferocious strength it was like it was trying to rip him in half.
Lin Jue and the monster rolled along the ground together, the whole battlefield in chaos.
The screeching of the whistle sounded ceaselessly. Gu Fengyi looked at the monster above the stairs and shouted at Liu Qingqing, “Use fire to burn the one up there!”
Without hesitating, Liu Qingqing obeyed. A long strip of flame shot towards the monster like a shooting star. The humanoid creature leaped sideways, the whistle falling from its mouth and its sharp screech stopping.
The centipede’s movement slowed and the power behind its grip also decreased. Seeing his opportunity, Lin Jue kicked hard against the monster, forcing it to let go of him. Lin Jue immediately rolled away, panting rapidly.
“Get rid of the one up there first!” Gu Fengyi shouted at Lin Jue.
Lin Jue nodded heavily, grabbed his spear, and sprinted up the stairs with Gu Fengyi on his right. The long monster rolled a few times on the ground and suddenly chased after them with all its limbs like its life was on the line. Liu Qingqing clenched her teeth, her right hand tapping her left wrist once again – the grounds shook and uneven bumps rose up from beneath her feet all the way towards the centipede monster, collapsing the stairs!
The centipede monster and the rubble fell down together. The furious monster looked up at the two who had already arrived on the platform, only to realize it could no longer chase after them. In its rage, it raised its long body and rushed towards Liu Qingqing!
“Qingqing!” Seeing Liu Qingqing surrounded by danger, Gu Fengyi turned down to Liu Qingqing, distracted and worried.
“Don’t mind me! Kill it first!” Liu Qingqing forced her body up, dodging the monster’s attacks left and right, battered and exhausted.
Gu Fengyi also knew she had to get rid of the monster in front of her first, but her mind was distracted with worry; Liu Qingqing was already wounded, and she would be even more if she wasn’t careful…
Running onto the veranda, Lin Jue once again entered his battle state. The humanoid monster tried once again to pick up the whistle but the moment it leaned down, Lin Jue’s spear had already arrived, tripping it with one sweeping blow! The monster shrieked and scrambled to get up, but by then, Gu Fengyi had also arrived. She was even more ruthless than Lin Jue; she threw away her crossbow, raised the crowbar with both hands, and slammed it down on the monster’s head – headshot!
The monster wailed, twisting where it knelt on the ground. Gu Fengyi smashed its head with the crowbar over and over, like a demon possessed. Its skull shattered, blood splattering all over her, but it was as if she had sunk into a state of delirium. Even when the monster on the ground had finished its last breath, she wanted to continue.
Die! You selfish bastard, you scum, you don’t deserve to have me call you father, all the pain in my life came from you! Look what you turned your children into! Because of you, everyone’s now a monster!
“Enough, Liu Qingqing won’t be able to hold on much longer!” Lin Jue grabbed Gu Fengyi’s arm.
Liu Qingqing was curled up against a corner, a dim light shining from her left arm. The flame forced back the approaching centipede monster but her other skill was still on cooldown. She too knew that she wouldn’t be able to stop it for much longer, and deep despair passed through her eyes. The centipede monster became even madder after the death of its ‘master’, but strangely, a tumor around the size of a human head suddenly grew from its third body segment, eerily erected on its smooth body, out of place with the rest of its appearance.
Gu Fengyi was stunned for a moment, then threw down the crowbar Liu Qingqing had given her and picked up her crossbow.
Load, aim, fire – the arrow flew towards the newly grown tumor on the monster, and landed dead center!
The centipede silently arched up its body and rolled wildly along the ground, breaking the porch pillars and destroying what remained of the stairs. But no matter how hard it struggled, death still befell it. It twisted one final time and finally fell limp onto the ground.
The originally clean hall was now a wreck, destroyed decorations littering the floor and tall dirt walls formed by Liu Qingqing’s skill. Creepiest was the severed limbs strewn across the ground, covering the hall with blood.
Gu Fengyi looked down at the dead thing, her expression complicated.
It had always been like this. For one praise from him, everyone had to work their hardest, because his love was their everything. Once they lost that, they were simply ghosts in a haunted house; no one would see them.
Ever since she could remember, her mother had muttered ceaselessly next to her ears, for her to achieve greatly, for her to be obedient, for her to fight for her position. In her eyes, her daughter was nothing but a tool to gain his love. Gu Fengyi didn’t hate her; she pitied her who believed even until her death that she wasn’t loved only because she wasn’t good enough. She had never even once considered that the real reason behind the tragedy was because she loved someone who didn’t deserve it.
But it was such a person who deserved nothing that turned everyone into madmen. All that talk about sistership and brotherhood never existed in that mansion. There was nothing but deep malice and plotting.
Was that her entire life? Gu Fengyi asked herself in despair. Could I really not truly love, truly trust? Why couldn’t I become an independent individual away from the identity of the seventh young miss of the Gu family? I didn’t want to please anyone, I didn’t want to compete with anyone, I just wanted to be myself!
So she ran, from that cage filled with twisted pets into this faraway city, to start her own life.
She would prove that she was capable of learning trust, of learning love, that she would be loved, that she would be happy!
“Fengyi…” Liu Qingqing’s weak voice sounded. Gu Fengyi immediately met her gaze.
What gentle eyes they were. When that girl looked at her so intently, it was as if she was her salvation. And so, she was easily moved, obligated to act as her protector so her adoring worship would only ever land on her, giving her the illusion that she was strong enough, that she was invincible.
She was a cannibalistic flower, yet she pretended to be a morning glory; she was a cactus, yet she forced herself to act like a spruce tree.
They performed for each other with all their might, deeply attracted by each other’s appearances. They hated themselves but loved who they were in each other’s eyes. As they looked into each other’s eyes, it was as if perhaps, maybe, there existed the love they had asked for and had never received.
Lin Jue watched as Gu Fengyi jumped down from the platform using the curtains as ropes to land by Liu Qingqing. The two were extremely close; Gu Fengyi quietly asked her if it hurted and a gentle and sweet smile bloomed on Liu Qingqing’s deathly pale face as she shook her head slightly.
Lin Jue hesitated, also sliding down a curtain to the ground. His heart was filled with confusion. Was Liu Qingqing really Judas? But in the battle just then, instead of causing trouble, she did her duty to help them attract the monsters. If she was Judas, how would she have missed such a good opportunity and allowed them to safely win against it?
From her actions alone, she really didn’t seem like Judas…
Lin Jue looked at Liu Qingqing strangely. Was she really not Judas? No, even Xuezhang said that she most likely was, then she must be!
As Lin Jue struggled, Gu Fengyi had already helped Liu QIngqing up and said to Lin Jue, “let’s go, Song Hanzhang is probably finished.”
“…” Lin Jue stared at the tip of his shoes with a guilty conscience. “Uhm, yeah, let’s go.”
Vera & Luci Translations 