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Chapter 03: Until Forever
These two……perhaps they’re a lot stronger than Lai Yixin? Chen Luonian thought with shock. That brown haired girl who could, with one swish cut out something like a sword wave, is already terrifying, but that move which crushed the thing with the swing of the dagger just now, what kind of magic was that? Could Lai Yixin or Ye Weishan possibly do something like this?
That monster is currently unable to transform anymore and, just as witnessed in the last two monster subjugation incidents, is gradually shrinking in size. Then that brown haired girl, apparently not grossed out at all, directly grabbed the two halves of the remains, and with the thick blade in her hand, stuffed them all into the large backpack behind her.
That brown hair girl’s backpack is double the size of Lai Yixin’s, but it looks like the material is quite similar so they’re probably in the same group…… even if they’re not, they’re both monster subjugators, so they probably have some sort of connection.
For a split second, Chen Luonian suddenly remembered what Ye Weishan said earlier…… there really was a third encounter with a monster today. Even though it seemed like she was joking, but then again, the always serious Ye Weishan actually doesn’t seem like the joking type…… In any case, it’d be best to stay away from these people. Chen Luonian immediately proceeded to squeeze his way out of the crowd of onlookers, and quietly head towards his house.
It was already late at night. After leaving the downtown area next to the train station, the amount of people around decreased rapidly. Chen Luonian detoured around a medium sized park, passed an piece of land that was supposed to be developed into a marketplace but seemed to have been forgotten by the local county government, and turned, walking into an old-fashion housing development. He and his uncle Chen Shangshan’s home is right here in this small alley.
These houses, already past 30 years old, had rows of four storied apartments, arranged neatly to form a small community. Within this, a certain house’s top floor had an illegally constructed additional floor. This is the place Chen Shangshan rented for the two of them to live.
Chen Luonian’s uncle, Chen Shangshan, although somewhat famous, still hasn’t been able to direct any big films, so he can’t be said to be wealthy in any means. In addition, the number of time he comes home in a year’s time can be counted on one hand, so to rent this kind of house, is already enough to use.
The two sides of this tiny alleyway, are parked full of the residents’ cars and studded with decades-old street lamps which cast a grim cold light upon the street. On this cracked and scarred asphalt road, Chen Luonian slowly walked while puzzling through his thoughts…… Before yesterday, he probably wouldn’t have believed that this world had monsters, but after today, he can no longer still say such a thing.
According to what Lai Yixin said, to have two monsters appear in the same day is already pretty rarely seen, not to mention three appearances…… Ye Weishan mentioned a strange noun—–“Daoxi”. If the increased frequency of monster appearances is related with this thing, then that means, could it be that from now on the appearances of monsters will continue to increase?
As for the fact that he himself just happened to be present at all three incidents, naturally could only be chalked up to plain bad luck. Compared to this, what Chen Luonian could not understand was another question—judging from what he could see from the movements of Lai Yixin, Ye Weishan, and those two girls just now, it doesn’t seem to be their first time killing monsters, and regarding how to handle the crowds and police, they also seemed to be experienced. If that’s so, why had he never heard of it? Taiwan’s news and media is famous for their bloodthirstiness, how could they ever pass up on this kind of information?
Even if their influence is strong enough to even control the news and media, in this modern internet-linked society, how could it be that no one had ever taken a picture of a monster and shared it online?
As he pondered, Chen Luonian reached the entrance of an apartment. In the dark, he proceeded to climb up the damp stairway with mold covered walls until he reached the fifth floor room, and opened the large lights. After this, he finally felt a bit more comfortable.
Because he still had doubts, Chen Luonian showered quickly. After hastily scrubbing himself down and changing, he immediately headed back to the living room to open the television news and turned on his computer to get online, wanting to see if there were any news about monsters.
Television news is covered in a sequence, so it’s unlikely to be able to see what one is looking for the moment one turns it on, but Chen Luonian, without caring, turned it on. Then on his computer search page, he typed out “monster” this one word.
Right after pressing the enter key, Chen Luonian immediately slapped his forehead. As expected, there appeared one billion webpage links, 99% of which probably had nothing to do with what he was looking for.
Chen Luonian tried adding a few more keywords; for example, Banqiao Station, West High School, but still couldn’t find any relevant webpages. His mind reeling, he remembered that searching the net might not necessarily turn up such a recent article, so he now turned to a couple particularly popular forums, matched the time and key words, and used the search function.
Sure enough, on a certain discussion page, he immediately found a post—–
“I’m telling you guys! Just a while ago! At 11 o’clock at night! A super big blue monster appeared at Banqiao Firestation! What did it look like? It was just like a big t**! Amazing, right? Even the police was swallowed up, everyone freaked out and started running all over the place! And then—– right at this moomeent! Two beautiful girls appeared and killed the monster! One of them, the hot girl wearing shorts with beautiful legs, was actually swinging a sword around, while the other was a cute girl with short hair and a delicate small face, but was covered completely from head to toe. After defeating the monsters, without paying attention to anyone around, they just left after briefly talking to the police, dammit! Don’t say that there’s no picture so there’s no proof! My freakin’ phone just happened to break so I couldn’t take a picture, but a lot of people saw it, ask for yourself! If I’m lying then I have no schlong, dammit!”
So many exclamation marks…… It’s painful to read. Chen Luonian’s brows creased, continuing to read, only to see that the replies below were completely full of slander. Not long after, this post was deleted by someone.
Chen Luonian could only continue looking to find other posts. After a while he did find several posts in other places, and they mentioned the Banqiao subway station incident where the jelly monster was defeated by two girls as well, but also due to cellphone malfunctions, the taken photos disappeared, so no one believed the rumors.
Everyone’s phones all malfunctioned? Chen Luonian thought for a moment, and suddenly remembered that when the monsters appeared, the surrounding lights kept flickering. Perhaps electromagnetic fields generated some sort of interference or disturbance? Which then caused cameras and phones to be unable to capture photos?
If this is the case, and the frequency of monster appearances in the past was low, it’s certainly possible for no one to know out about it. As Chen Luonian considered this, he turned towards the TV, only to find that the news broadcast has already ended, and the channel had changed to a talk show broadcast. In addition, perhaps due to some strange fortune, today’s topic just happened to be monsters.
Chen Luonian watched as the TV hosts, who usually spent their time criticizing politicians, display the same expertise as they discussed the topic of monsters. He couldn’t help but find it a bit humorous. Hosts are truly worthy of being called hosts; as expected they’re omnipotent.
He was just about to turn off the TV and go rest when suddenly, the ceiling lights started flickering violently. The TV and computer screens also started to wiggle and transform. Surprised, Chen Luonian jumped up from his chair and looked around. This couldn’t be a fourth time, right?
Scanning the room, Chen Luonian found, on a nearby window pane, a climbing lizard-like creature, slightly smaller than one’s palm, that apparently got in by squeezing through the glass of the window next to the door, and it was even shaking as it slowly got bigger. Chen Luonian was backing away as he gloomily muttered, “crap”. Before worrying about getting swallowed for the time being, if this thing continues to grow larger in this place, won’t this house be destroyed?
Right this moment, from outside the window appeared a slim arm, the color of white jade, that reached towards the inside, smashing through the window and at the same time, grabbed hold of the now larger than palm-sized lizard.
Eh? Chen Luonian was stunned, seeing that hand suddenly tighten, and that originally squirming lizard, its stomach, because of the sudden applied force, exploded. Blood splattered in all directions as its head drooped, dead.
“Ee……” Chen Luonian was supposed to be relieved, but after watching this scene, couldn’t seem to relax. Another monster subjugator? This is the third time he’s seen one today, it’s unknown whether she is also part of a two person team…… When he saw those two girls earlier, he already felt that they were much more fierce than Lai Yixin. Who would have thought another even more violent one would appear; she actually squished a monster to death with her bare hand.
And that hand is actually quite beautiful to boot… Apparently it’s a girl, but it’s strange. How did this person get here before the monster turned large? How did she know that there would be a monster here?
Before he was able to puzzle it out, a strong knocking sound came from the door, jolting Chen Luonian back to reality…… Since the person did save him, he should at least offer his thanks. He went to open the door, and sure enough, saw a girl with a slender figure, her right hand stained with blood as she held the corpse of the strange lizard. With an unfriendly gaze, she swept her eyes over Chen Luonian, sizing him up.
“Thank you, pl……please come in.” Chen Luonian stood aside to let her in, while sizing up this girl before him.
The girl’s appearance is slightly classic, with a pair of almond shaped eyes that seem as if they spoke to you, paired with nicely shaped eyebrows, a pretty straight nose, a small delicate mouth, and jet-black hair that fell from her head to her waist. She wore a silken short-sleeved Western-style dress, made of a soft lightweight material, which emphasized her sweet figure and below the slightly above knee-length miniskirt appeared slender calves. The stranger thing was, what was matched with this outfit was a pair of soft cloth shoes, and she even carried a large canvas backpack, causing her to look somewhat towering.
If a flaw in the appearance must be pointed out, it would be that though her skin was pale it didn’t have color, giving off the impression of being sickly.
Besides this one point, all in all, she was still a rarely seen beauty. However, perhaps because of the fact that her hand was still grasping that dead lizard, even though Chen Luonian liked looking at beautiful girls, looking at her, he couldn’t help but feel as if something was not quite right and didn’t feel excited at all. On the contrary, he felt a bit afraid.
The girl entered the house, but didn’t continue walking forward, coming to a stop in front of Chen Luonian to stare at him. For some unknown reason, her gaze seemed to contain a bit of anger.
Chen Luonian didn’t understand why this girl was looking at him this way. Furthermore, he felt the gaze was slightly familar, as if he had seen it somewhere before…… But this girl is so eyecatching. If they had met before how could he have possibly forgotten?
“You……” Chen Luonian had a pile of questions in mind, but didn’t know where to start. He thought for a moment, then continued: “Who are you?”
The girl didn’t answer, and with a calm expression, kept staring at Chen Luonian. Chen Luonian felt uncomfortable from head to toe, and could only continue speaking: “Thank you…… for catching that thing.”
The girl seemed to have been reminded by this remark, and finally stopped staring at Chen Luonian. She turned her head, and suddenly opened her small mouth and stuffed the shrunken lizard inside.
My God! How disgusting! Surprised, Chen Luonian took several steps back, only to see the girl swallow the lizard in 2, 3 bites. She even stuck out her tongue to lick the blood off her right hand, all the while keeping her eyes slanted towards Chen Luonian, almost with hostility.
Perhaps this girl…… is also a monster? This thought suddenly occured to Chen Luonian. However the electric applicances nearby were not flickering, so it didn’t match up with the normal scenario of monster appearances. Also, if it was really a monster, why would it do nothing and just stare at him? If it wanted to eat him, why didn’t it do so already?
After the girl licked her hand clean, she suddenly moved, pushing Chen Luonian so that he fell on the sofa, and pounced on him, so that her whole body pressed on top of Chen Luonian.
Her hands pressed down on both of Chen Luonian’s shoulders, her two knees on his thighs. Even though this girl clearly looked slim and delicate, and should be pretty light, Chen Luonian felt unable to even move a muscle, and could only blankly stare back at her.
Then she slowly lowered her head. As she moved down, her hair draped down, strand after strand fell gently on Chen Luonian’s face. With her face positioned in front of Chen Luonian’s, she gently sniffed his scent, looking as if she were a bit intoxicated.
In this position, if onlookers were watching, it’d probably seem very romantic, but Chen Luonian could only feel that it was absurd and terrifying. As he was at a loss at what to do, the girl suddenly lowered her head, approaching Chen Luonian’s lips, and inhaled deeply.
“Wha…… what did you do?” Actually, in that process just now, Chen Luonian felt as if something was drawn out of him, yet he couldn’t quite describe what it was, and could only stammer out a question.
The girl lifted her head, giggling. Her attitude abruptly changed, as if she was glowing with health and vigor. Even her skin seemed to produce a faint glow, completely changing her impression as a sick beauty when she first entered that door. Now, she stopped pressing down on Chen Luonian, moved off to the side of the sofa next to Chen Luonian, and shifted her gaze around, with no indication of what she was thinking.
“You…… Are you a human or a monster?” Chen Luonian could no longer hold back and blurted out the question that was on his mind.
The girl watched Chen Luonian, for some reason, the originally slightly happy expression slowly became filled with anger again. Those pair of almond shaped eyes continued to glare at Chen Luonian, and as before, she was silent.
Earlier, Chen Luonian had already felt he had an impression of that stare, and as he looked, he felt more certain that they were familiar, and couldn’t help but ask: “Have I met you before?”
The girl’s expression changed slightly, and she replied: “Humph! Finally remembered?” Even though her voice carried anger, it was still soft and sweet-sounding, making it pleasant to hear.
This was her first time speaking, but Chen Luonian couldn’t tell if he should be happy or not, and after staring back blankly, said: “I really did meet you before? But…… how come I don’t remember?”
“You still have the nerve to ask?” Chen Luonian blinked. Before him the girl suddenly reached out, grabbed his collar and said: “I really should have just eaten you that time…… Answer! That time did you want more or less?”
“Wa…… What?” Chen Luonian was startled and couldn’t understand the girl’s question at all.
“Do you want to be swallowed into my stomach one more time?” The girl’s anger exploded as she yelled at Chen Luonian with a glare.
After hearing this, seeing that glare, Chen Luonian finally realized it. He blurted out: “Ah…… Ah…… Aaah…… You…… You’re that huge dog……”
“You’re the dog.” The girl with one smack slapped Chen Luonian, causing him to crash into and overturn the sofa. Only then did she continue: “What did you ask for from the phoenix? Did you ask for more time or less?”
Phoenix? That giant red bird is a phoenix? Then that really wasn’t a dream? Chen Luonian, not wanting to be thrashed anymore, distractedly answered: “It was…… I think it was more.”
“Imbecile.” The girl jumped over, reached out to clutch Chen Luonian’s neck, and angrily said: “Why didn’t you choose less? What’s the use of having more? You idiot!”
Chen Luonian could not breathe, and he could not beat the girl’s enormous strength, as trying to attack her had no effect. His bloodflow was cut off at his head. With his face turning red, he squeezed out the words: “I…… I don’t understand.”
The girl saw that if she kept going like this, Chen Luonian might just be strangled to death, so after thinking for a moment, with a humph she released him and said: “No way I’ll let you die so easily, I should at least swallow you live to make you suffer for your action. ”
Be swallowed live? Chen Luonian gasped, taking in several large breaths before he was finally able to recover his breath. Even though he felt afraid, he couldn’t help also feeling slightly angry. But with great difficultly, he steadied his emotions and drew a deep breath to speak: “You really are that…… that thing?”
“Shut up.” The girl shot a look at Chen Luonian, extended a finger to point at Chen Luonian’s throat and said: “Focus your consciousness here.”
“What’re you doing?” Chen Luonian swatted at the girl’s hand. Even though he couldn’t beat her, it didn’t mean he had to obey everything she said.
“Do you to attract even more monsters?” The girl said: “Even though I ate half, I can only stabilize it for a certain amount of time.”
“What did you eat a half of?” Chen Luonian asked, wide-eyed.
“The Original Chaos Breath.” The girl glared back and responded: “It’s the thing you stole from me!”
“Uh……” Chen Luonian’s imposing manner couldn’t compare to the girl, and was speechless for quite a while before he finally said: “I never stole whatever breath!”
The girl furiously said: “I used Jade Cream to trade for information from the Hakutaku, stayed in the mortal realm and painstakingly waited for more than three thousand years, until finally the phoenix appeared, but you actually conveniently just jumped out and took all the rewards, and you have the nerve to actually say you didn’t know? Scoundrel! Bastard!”
“Huh? Three thousand years?” There was a bunch of terms he didn’t know, so Chen Luonian’s attention could only focus on that.
“That time my vital energy had not yet recovered, and was temporarily trapped in the rock. Even though the phoenix felt my breath, because you appeared, it even used the promise to help you change spirits……” The more she spoke, the angrier the girl got, and clenched her teeth saying: “Does this still not count as stealing? You thief, bandit, shameless robber!”
This girl’s way of cursing is still quite unexpectedly modern? Even though he still didn’t understand most of it, Chen Luonian roughly understood the origin of the girl’s grudge, and asked as an experiment: “So that time when you came out from the Immortal Frog Rock to swallow me, it was for that whatever breath, right? Then why did you spit me out again after?”
The girl calmly listened as Chen Luonian spoke. Seeming to be slightly startled, she looked at Chen Luonian with surprise, and asked: “You don’t seem to mind being eaten by me?”
That’s not quite it. Chen Luonian thought about it, and said: “It looks like I can’t beat you anyways, and if you had really waited that long, for it to be snatched by me instead and wanting to get it back, I can also understand that…… Just, can you please not swallow me alive? At least let me die completely first, then eat me. The feeling of sliding inside last time was horrible, and the air inside wasn’t pleasant either.”
The girl’s eyes widened, and she tilted her head to look at Chen Luonian, as if looking at some sort of strange creature, and didn’t respond.
Chen Luonian suddenly recalled something, and hurriedly asked: “Ah, give me a minute, let me first delete some things from my hard disk……” The computer had some hidden files that weren’t fit for others to see, and he couldn’t just leave it in the recycling bin, it has to be destroyed without a trace.
Just as Chen Luonian deleted his shameful collection of videos and photos that were downloaded from the web, the girl suddenly said: “Are you saying that you’re willing to let me freely take the Original Chaos Breath from you? If that’s the case, then I might not have to eat you.”
Huh? I don’t have to die? Shocked, Chen Luonian hurriedly moved the mouse to press cancel, but it was already too late. The collection that he had painstakingly accumulated for a long time on this computer was already erased from existence.
“Mm, answer, do you really mean it?” The girl gazed at Chen Luonian, with a slight eagerness in her eyes.
“I mean it.” Chen Luonian was still depressed because of those files, and listlessly answered: “Since it was originally meant to be yours, why wouldn’t I?”
“Just words alone can’t be trusted.” The girl exposed her joy and said: “Make a Contract Vow with me.”
“What kind of vow?” Chen Luonian asked, stunned.
“Let me think, hm, let’s do this……” The girl pondered for a moment, then suddenly pulled off a strand of hair, wound one end around her own left ring finger, and beckoned Chen Luonian saying: “Come here.”
Chen Luonian left the computer, and approached, frowning. The girl grabbed his hand, taking the other end of the hair, also wound it around Chen Luonian’s left ring finger, at the same time, asked: “That’s right, do you have any desires?”
“Why are you asking this?” Chen Luonian asked with surprise.
“Even though the Contract Vow doesn’t need to be completely equal, but a contract vow with too much lack of ’balance’ also can’t be established. So the more intense the desire, the more weight it holds in one’s heart, and the easier it is to attain the Contract Vow’s conditions.” the girl said: “If there’s something I can do, you can include it in the Contract Vow.”
“Desires…… like having money and that sort of thing?” Chen Luonian didn’t quite understood what the girl meant, and half jokingly said: “I’m pretty poor, if there was a bit more money, I would be pretty happy.”
The girl shook her head and said: “Money is too simple, it can’t make it ‘balance’…… look.” The girl took her backpack off and shook it over the sofa, and out fell a pile of paper bills, and even quite a bit of gold and jewelry.
“Where did this come from? Did you just rob a jewelry store?” Chen Luonian asked with shock.
The girl smiled happily and said: “Others gave them to me.”
Chen Luonian didn’t really believe it, but realistically, the law probably can’t do much to monsters anyways, so he could only give up on prodding further and returned to the topic, replied: “Actually, I don’t really have anything particular desire……”
“None? I remember that unbalanced vows are really hard to make……” The girl hesitated for a while before saying: “But it can’t hurt to try it anyways, what’s your name?”
“Chen Luonian.” Chen Luonian said.
“I’m called Huai Zhen, repeat after me——-” The girl said with a solemn expression: “Chen Luonian willingly allows Huai Zhen to freely absorb his Original Chaos Breath…… um…… until forever.”
Chen Luonian, having no other choice, could only do as told and repeat it. After it was said, this girl who called herself Huai Zhen in a low tone mumbled a few sentences. Suddenly that hair changed from black to red, abruptly tightened, and pulled the two’s fingers together. Following that, a red light flashed, and before his eyes, Chen Luonian saw that on his left ring finger appeared a translucent blood colored jade ring. The surface of the ring was glossy, translucent and pure. It carried a cool air and looked very beautiful. In addition, on Huai Zhen’s left ring finger, also appeared an identical slender ring.
“Ah!” Huai Zhen cried out in surprise, lifted her hand, and happily exclaimed: “It actually worked. You really did mean it.”
“E……” Chen Luonian was dazed, looking at the ring on his hand said: “What is this?”
“This is called a Blood Ice Ring, it’s proof of the vow. Unless the Contract Vow is fulfilled, it’s impossible to remove it.” Huai Zhen seemed pretty happy, and said with a smile: “How weird, the contract vow can actually be established even if only one side pays the price? Well, it doesn’t matter…… as long as it’s established. You better remember, if you violate the contract, the Contract Vow will rebound and your blood will turn into ice needles, inflicting upon you the pain of a thousand needles piercing your heart.”
“It can only be taken down when the Contract Vow is fulfilled……” Chen Luonian’s eyes widen as he said: “Then doesn’t that mean I have to wear it this entire lifetime? Hey! I don’t want to wear this ring my entire life, it’s even red!”
“Don’t worry.” Huai Zhen replied with a smile: “You’ll get used to it after you wear it a while. At least it’s better than being eaten by me, right?”
“This……” Chen Luonian couldn’t stop himself from frowning.
“Alright, the main point is here.” Huai Zhen pointed at an area between Chen Luonian’s neck and pit of stomach and said: “Concentrate your consciousness here until your entire body can continuously condense the Original Chaos Breath floating outside your body and stop it from diffusing outwards. Otherwise, monsters will continue to appear. You’re useless, so you’ll be eaten, and I have don’t feel like being your bodyguard.”
“Do I really have that whatever breath? I can’t feel it at all.” Chen Luonian still only half-believed it as he said: “I can’t feel anything condensing? Why didn’t you just absorb all of it earlier?”
“Don’t worry about that.” Huai Zhen’s lips twitched as she said: “You just have to focus your mind, and you’ll naturally feel it. Hurry up and start.”
Chen Luonian smiled bitterly as he shook his head, focused his attention at that point, for quite a long period of time, and as Huai Zhen said, he really did seem to have something, slowly condensing towards that direction, but it felt very abstract and faint, very indistinct.
“There’s some now, right? Right now the amount is still small, so it feels pretty weak, but it’ll slowing increase.” Zhen Huai, as if actually able to feel it, said: “Though the Original Chaos Breath<sup>1</sup> comes from within the body, its nature is to diffuse outwards, so it’s hard to keep it contained inside the body. It can only easily exist between the inside of the body and the outside. At the base of the throat where the internal breath, external breath, and nourishment breath, all three breaths converge, is the most suitable place.
Chen Luonian didn’t know if he should speak during this process, so he just opened his eyes to look at Huai Zhen, waiting for her to continue her explanation.
”It’s done.“ Huai Zhen actually didn’t continue, and only said with a smile: ”Remember to maintain this state at all times, I’ll come find you again after a few days.“
”You’re leaving?“ That one smile of hers was like that of a hundred flowers blossoming, extremely beautiful. Seeing it, Chen Luonian could not help but feel his heart beat. He hurriedly asked: ”This kind of state has to be maintained at all times? What do I do when I sleep?“
”Once you get used to it, you won’t forget even when you’re asleep.“ Huai Zhen turned her head, and laughed: ”If you don’t hurry and get used to it, monsters will appear beside you again.“
”Why would monsters appear around me? What connection does that have with this breath?“ Chen Luonian hurriedly asked.
”That’s not important, I’ll tell you some other day when there’s time.“ Huai Zhen picked up her empty backpack, pointed to the messy pile on the sofa, and said: ”I’ll give you those as a present.“
”Present? Hey?“ Chen Luonian still had questions to ask, but seeing that Huai Zhen already left the room, hurriedly followed after her to outside, but couldn’t see a trace of anything.
This beautiful girl…… or is it a female monster? How could she just leave right after achieving her objective? But thinking about it, she said she had been waiting at that volcanic crater for more than three thousand years, but listening to the way she speaks, it seems pretty modern? Was she lying? But that angry glare just now, it really was very similar to that of the giant creature…… If not for that, I wouldn’t believe so easily. In addition, if she isn’t that giant creature, how would she know about that incident?
Standing at the door of his house, Chen Luonian was a bit perplexed. What’s with this world? Will there really be monsters popping up one after another in the future? Should I really listen to Lai Yixin’s suggestion and join their monster subjugation group?
Forget it, even if there really will be monsters everywhere in the future, it’s not my problem. When there are thieves there will naturally be police, in the future there will likely also be a group of monster subjugators to handle this type of thing, so there’s no need to worry about it.
Returning to the house, Chen Luonian started sorting through that pile of mess. As he sorted, he was shocked speechless. He couldn’t tell the value of the jewelry, but just the bills alone tallied up to several millions, did that monster really not steal them? Chen Luonian, after seeing that, didn’t dare to casually mess around, and could only first put those items into a plastic bag, stash them under the bed, and wait a few days to see if there’s any news about any bank or jewelry store having been robbed, before making any further decisions.
◇◇◇◇
A week passed. Chen Luonian’s life didn’t suddenly change into a monster world, and like past years, was calm and peaceful. That panic that day afterschool when he kept encountering monsters one after another almost seemed like a lie.
During these days, Chen Luonian passed his days following his own pace: going to school, going home, studying, taking tests—– the only difference was, following Huai Zhen’s instructions, he focused on condensing at his throat area, concentrating all his “breath” there.
This wasn’t very difficult, once he got used to it, without needing too much concentration, he could stabilize that thing. However, everyday at dusk as the sun set, when the sun and the moon switched places, the thing would often suddenly go out of control, resisting suppression and spread outwards. It was lucky that it could be recollected immediately. Chen Luonian didn’t understand the reason for it, but there was no one he could ask, so he could only leave things to run their course.
I wonder what Huai Zhen does with this thing that she absorbed? She doesn’t seem to really want to explain it to me…… And this ring…… Chen Luonian looked at his left hand. Inwardly, he shook his head. What in the world is this thing! After exhausting every method possible he still couldn’t remove it, and could only use a band-aid to wrap it up. Luckily the Blood Ice Ring was quite thin, when wrapped up it wasn’t very apparent and could still be covered up. Otherwise, if the teacher saw it, I don’t know what explanation to possibly give.
Right now was lunch break. Although West High School is a co-ed school, males and females are separated into different classes. Since this whole class is filled with boys, before even half an hour has passed, eighty percent of the class had already finished eating, so the classroom was filled with the sound of rowdy chatter. At this time, Chen Luonian had also already put away his utensils and was currently taking a break by looking outside the window.
“Chen Luonian! Someone’s looking for you.” From the door suddenly came the sound of a classmate calling.
Chen Luonian started, turning his head to see that outside of the classroom stood a boy and a girl. The boy’s face was full of smiles, while the girl looked towards him almost with suspicion. It was precisely those two famous third-years—– Lai Yixin and Ye Weishan.
As he walked over, Chen Luonian was thinking to himself, what are these two looking for me for? Didn’t I already clearly reject their offer last time? Furthermore, if they really wanted to get me, why did they come only after leaving me alone for a week?
“Senior Brother? Senior Sister?” Chen Luonian walked to the door, greeting the two.
But Lai Yixin didn’t speak and only smiled happily.
Chen Luonian, upon seeing this, turned his gaze towards Ye Weishan and saw her take out something from her jacket pocket, and dangled it in front of him.
That’s…… Chen Luonian exclaimed: “My student ID?” When did I drop that?
“That’s right.” Ye Weishan actually didn’t show any intention of handing it back and put the student ID back in her jacket pocket as she said: “It’s your student ID.”
“Huh?” Chen Luonian never thought that Ye Weishan would put it back in her pocket and stunned, asked: “Senior sister?”
Ye Weishan looked at Chen Luonian and said: “Banqiao Station.”
With this Chen Luonian remembered, that day at Banqiao Station, he gave his student ID to the police, but then in the rush actually forgot about it…… But why did it end up in Ye Weishan’s hands?
“Remember now?” Ye Weishan faintly smiled: “When school lets out, Yixin and I will wait for you at the school gates. We’re treating you to dinner.”
“Dinner?” Chen Luonian parroted, dazed.
Ye Weishan didn’t say anymore, turned around, gave a slight wave with her hand, and walked towards the third-year’s classroom.
Lai Yixin patted Chen Luonian’s shoulder with a smile and said: “We’ll talk more again later.” Then he followed Ye Weishan’s back and left.
Chen Luonian stared blankly after them for a long time, yet still did not snap out of it. A curious classmate approached him and asked: “Chen Luonian, do you know those two famous third-years?”
Chen Luonian woke from his daze and said: “Met before, not familiar.”
“Oh?” The classmate didn’t know what else to say, and left, shrugging his shoulders.
Whenever Chen Luonian interacts with other people it’s always like this. He isn’t rude, but it always makes people feel a sense of distance, so while there really isn’t anyone that avoids him, he also doesn’t really have any close friends. Chen Luonian returned alone to the seat next to the window. Recalling the appointment after school, he couldn’t help but feel a slight headache.
Since Ye Weishan has his student ID, it probably means she knows that he was there when that monster appeared. Last time when she said she wanted to capture him for research was probably a joke, but with this kind of continuously reoccurring coincidence, they will definitely want to find a rational answer…… From what that monster Huai Zhen said, it seems that those continuous monster appearances that day had something to do with the dispersing of the “Original Chaos Breath” that is inside him……
Should I openly tell them everything? Even though I don’t want to hunt monsters, I should at least give them relevant information? Also, thinking about it from another angle, something I don’t know about perhaps they would know about. If we both trade information, then it’s not like it’s a bad thing.
Oh, that’s not right…… Huai Zhen is evidently a monster, how could I tell these monster subjugators everything? If they decided to go to my house to ambush her, wouldn’t that be causing harm to her? But then again, since Huai Zhen is a monster that can kill people without even blinking an eye, wouldn’t it be better if these people got rid of her?
Thinking to this point, Chen Luonian reached out his hand to lightly brush across the Blood Ice Ring hidden underneath the band-aid, thinking back to Huai Zhen’s happy expression when the contract vow was completed, couldn’t help but hesitate. Then, switching his trail of thought, remembering the contents of the contract vow, Chen Luonian started. If he caused her death, does it count as violating the contract vow? Having a thousand needles pierce the heart doesn’t sound like a good way to die, compared to that I rather be swallowed.
Thinking over it again and again, Chen Luonian still couldn’t reach a decision, but the time passed rather fast, before long it was time for school to let out. With no way out, Chen Luonian could only pack his schoolbag, and unlike what he usually did, walked out with everyone else.
To have to move through this excited crowd of people leaving school is practically torture. As Chen Luonian walked, he sighed. Even though this distance could clearly be covered in 5 mins, at this kind of time it would take more than ten mins, and he couldn’t even take that secret path behind the school, it’s really efficient.
Grumbling complaints, before long, the sight of the school gates appeared. Within the tide of people, Chen Luonian looked around as he walked, and soon spotted the figures of Lai Yixin and Ye Weishan standing at the side of the school gate side by side. Those two looked like the ideal couple, even standing in midst of the crowd was extremely eyecatching. No matter if it was a girl or a guy, when they passed by they’d inevitably glance at them, showing a trace of admiration.
Chen Luonian changed directions and headed towards the two, as he approached, the two also quickly noticed him. Lai Yixin led Chen Luonian out while saying with a smile: “Today let’s eat at ‘Rainbow Leaves’, our treat.”
“Rainbow Leaves?” Chen Luonian had heard of it before. It was that nearby Western-style restaurant. Even though it wasn’t any super high class place, it was still not a place a typical high school student would go.
“That place is nearby, and it’s also a convenient place to talk.” Ye Weishan said.
Right this moment, the walking speed of the people ahead suddenly slowed down, many people let out sounds of surprise. The infectious atmosphere in crowds like this are always very strong, not needing much passing of information, soon everyone’s gazes turned towards a certain direction.
Chen Luonian was also not an exception, following the direction of everyone’s gazes to look ahead to the left, and couldn’t stop his mouth from dropping. There, was a beautiful girl giggling as she walked over, attracting everyone’s gazes.
Chen Luonian rubbed his eyes, that girl…… even though her style of dress was different, but isn’t that Huai Zhen?
My God, the monster and monster subjugators are about to meet by accident, wouldn’t it be best for me to first sneak away?
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Translator Notes:
If I missed any superscript please tell me. There were originally translation notes, but they honestly aren’t that important to understand the story. Basically a lot of tentative English equivalents for the terms that have no literal translations and some explanations for my choices. If you’re curious, the footnotes are on the bottom of each post on my wordpress. And if there’s really something that you don’t understand and you can’t find the explanation for or any suggestions for alternate translations do let me know. That said, enjoy~
Yay! Thanks for updating!
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