Five Miles of Fog (Part Four)

Chapter Fourteen

None of the hundred or so men in black understood the meaning behind his words.

Hands gripping weapons involuntarily rose to their feet, pointing them at themselves. Terror filled their eyes, yet they couldn't even utter a sound. The next second, swords pierced their throats. Except for the leader, the rest collapsed, limp and lifeless, like a human pyramid.

"Devil! You are a devil!"

The leader witnessed the horrific scene and was driven mad with fear. His pitiful screams were hysterical. He wanted to escape but was horrified to find that he couldn't move at all. His hands were so weak that he couldn't even lift the knife. However, a strange force forcibly pulled him to point the knife in his hand tremblingly at the boy in front of him.

Song Ling remained unmoved by the other party's rude remarks. His smile did not diminish as he strolled towards the other end of the black-clad man's knife until the tip of the knife was pressed against his abdomen.

The boy's fingers were long, slender, and strong, with distinct knuckles. As if dissatisfied with the angle, he casually raised the blade aimed at him until it was pressed against his own heart. His tone was calm and gentle, yet inexplicably conveyed a twisted, sinister danger and eeriness. "I just wonder how long Master can keep up this act with me?" he sighed softly to himself. "I'm no longer satisfied with this..."

As he spoke, he took a step forward without hesitation. With a sharp "thud," the sharp blade pierced the boy's heart in an instant. The leader was so terrified that he collapsed to the ground, the knife clattering to the floor. But the boy's fear didn't lessen at all; the mysterious power controlling him suddenly vanished. He scrambled backward, screaming wildly, "Aaaaaahhhhhh, madman! Madman! You madman!"

Song Ling's face was pale, one hand clutching her heart, blood gushing from the corner of her mouth, yet she couldn't help but chuckle softly. Beneath her beautiful and alluring exterior lay a scheming, ruthless madness, a madness that had been suppressed for years, a ruthless pursuit to possess her. "Master, don't blame me. You can live well without me, but I can't. I only have you..."

"If you abandon me the first time, you'll do it again, and a third time..."

"I want you to only have eyes for me..."

Before he fainted, he saw the girl's brightly colored dress and, satisfied, he sank into the endless darkness.

Only love that is so extreme as to lead to death can make him feel this sense of being cared for wholeheartedly. He doesn't mind using countless methods that bring him close to death to prove his love for his master until she is willing to accept him.

My master is different from other people.

She could decide his life or death at will.

But Master has many people in his memory.

He was just one of them.

He was unwilling to accept it.

She was the one who brought him out of hell, so why is she abandoning him now?

He should hate her for being cruel, for leaving him alone in this desolate world...

Master, I hate you.

In the end, however, love outweighed hate; it turned out that my affection for you was etched deeper into my bones than any form of resentment...

——

Xie Yuanben had been riding for quite some time, but ever since she left, her right eyelid had been twitching uncontrollably, and her unease had reached its peak. In the end, she couldn't resist the heartache of a teacher for her student.

Xie Yuan gritted her teeth, turned her horse around, and was determined to go back and see. As soon as she got back, she happened to see Song Ling fall down. There were large numbers of black-clad corpses all around, and there was also someone who seemed to have injured her little apprentice. But she couldn't care less about that. She quickly dismounted and stumbled over.

What came into view was a bloody hole in the boy's heart, from which blood was still gushing out, staining his already red clothes with a glaring deep red.

"Ah Ling!" Xie Yuan's legs went weak, and she staggered to her knees. A rare look of panic appeared on her face, and tears welled up in her eyes, which she forcefully suppressed. She helped Song Ling up and held him in her arms. Her other hand instinctively covered his heart, but she couldn't stop the blood from flowing out.

She stared blankly at the blood-soaked palms and the boy's increasingly pale face, but she gradually calmed down. Now was not the time for her to be sad.

The system had previously imposed many torments on him, taking advantage of his status as the villain to torment him relentlessly. She had taken most of the blame for him, but there were always unavoidable butterfly effects caused by her interference.

Song Ling was born with a Gu body, a special constitution. Back then, in the Ten Thousand Gu Cave, several iron chains pierced through his collarbone, wrists, and ankles... at such a young age, he would have undoubtedly died with the constitution of an ordinary person, yet he stayed there for so long.

Human blood can speed up the healing of his injuries. It was only when Song Ling went missing one time, returned covered in wounds, on the verge of death and delirious, that she was unexpectedly bitten by him.

Ah Ling, your master won't let you die.

Xie Yuan placed his head on her lap, decisively pulled out a dagger from her bosom, and slashed her own palm, half-curling her left hand so that the blood could flow into his mouth.

But for some reason, he couldn't swallow it. Blood slowly flowed down the corner of his mouth, and his breath grew weaker and weaker.

Xie Yuan was truly frantic, almost like an ant on a hot pan. Tears silently streamed down her face. What other way was there to get him to drink the blood...?

In a moment of desperation, she had a sudden inspiration. She hastily wiped away her tears with her sleeve and, without hesitation, leaned down and kissed his lips, only to be startled by his cold, lifeless lips.

Xie Yuan bit the tip of her tongue and awkwardly probed into his mouth, transferring warm blood into it. When his Adam's apple moved slightly, she could feel that he seemed to have swallowed it. However, this meant that their lips and tongues were inevitably intertwined, and she belatedly felt a flush rise on her face.

She swore to heaven that she truly had no intention of coveting her disciple's good looks or taking advantage of him in his vulnerable state; it's just that her method was indeed quite unconventional...

Xie Yuan wanted to get up and rest, as this position was really uncomfortable for her. But she didn't know if it was because the blood was effective, but just as she was about to pull away, his tongue unconsciously hooked onto hers...

Wait, what the hell is going on?!

"Hmm........"

The soft tip of her tongue was tightly wrapped around someone, like a lost little white rabbit in the forest who had wandered into a snake's territory and was being dragged into the cold, damp depths of a cave by its tail.

Her mind went completely blank. Her tongue, injured at the tip, was being tightly sucked, every corner meticulously explored. Her body instinctively wanted to pull away, but when she touched his tightly closed eyes, she forcefully restrained herself…

I don't know how much time passed...

Xie Yuan's face turned bright red as she looked up, panting. Between them, a thin thread of saliva remained, and her tongue felt numb and painful, as if it didn't belong to her anymore.

You brat, how could you be so reckless after fainting? You almost killed your master!

However, Song Ling's complexion had indeed improved considerably, and even the bleeding from the bloody hole had gradually stopped. If it weren't for his physical condition, he would have died a thousand or eight hundred times over.

——

By the time Xie Yuan had settled the injured Song Ling, the man in black who had stabbed him had already disappeared.

Xie Yuan had no time to think about these things. She went through a lot of trouble to ride back and bring over the carriage that was almost covered in quills. At least it would be usable. The desolate wilderness was not a suitable place to recuperate. She hurried through the night and finally managed to find an old thatched hut.

Xie Yuan sat cross-legged in front of the fire, lost in thought, her expression grave. The bleeding from Song Ling's chest had stopped, but he showed no signs of waking up. She had already given him some basic treatment; the injury was no joke, it was truly life-threatening.

She couldn't even imagine how much hatred those people had for Song Ling.

Xie Yuan felt a lingering fear; if she hadn't been there today, he would surely have died...

"Master..."

Song Ling was once again trapped in the nightmare that had tormented him day after day for years. He was a monster not recognized by the world. Before his master came, he had dreamed of his own ending more than once. He seemed to have experienced such things countless times, but in the end, he never saw the face of the person who killed him.

As far back as he could remember, he had been locked in a dark cave filled with poisonous insects. No one taught him to read or write; he only learned from snippets of conversation with those who came one after another to kill him.

His memories are a collection of fragmented dreams pieced together from hatred. He is unwilling to accept his predetermined fate, yet he is powerless to rewrite it and can never escape the cave that locks him firmly underground or break free from the chains that bind him.

Until my master appeared...

He initially only intended to use her to get out of the house and then kill her.

But every time he saw her smiling eyes looking at him...

He would involuntarily freeze, then she would happily hug him, kissing him here and touching him there, and she would always praise him for being cute.

The master truly treated him like an ordinary child...

No one had ever treated him like this before.

He didn't understand her purpose in doing so.

But he could feel his murderous intent toward her diminishing day by day, until he began to look forward to seeing her in her red dress every day.

But in the end, the master died...

That voice was proving, with facts, that she wasn't part of his story.

The long sword stuck in his master's heart was still bleeding, but he still used all his strength to smile and tell him not to cry, that people always have to grow up.

Those people went to great lengths to kill him.

Little did they know, killing him was actually quite simple.

The most extreme suffering in the world is a broken heart...