Chapter 58
The coldness of the cold pond was left behind, and the two quickly left the dead place.
Going deeper into the high-risk area of the "Rotten Bone Forest", the poisonous miasma in the air became more intense, the smell of corruption almost condensed into substance, and even the light became distorted and dim.
The withered bones are like a huge maze, and the lurking threats exude a heart-wrenching malice.
Soon, their tracks were discovered by the "master" of this place.
A roar filled with hunger and brutality rang out, and a "Corrupted Steel Poison Lizard," resembling a giant lizard, but covered in metallic black armor and spewing corrosive poisonous mist from its joints, suddenly pounced from behind the pile of bones! Its crimson vertical pupils locked onto the two, and the pressure of a peak S-class mixed with a deadly toxic aura rushed towards them at lightning speed!
Lu Cheng's pupils shrank, and his lightning powers surged. Purple arcs of electricity crackled around him, and without hesitation, he stepped forward, ready to confront the thorny monster.
The defense and speed of this Corrupted Steel Lizard are extremely amazing, and the poisonous fog is even more troublesome. Even he has to give it his all, otherwise he will be injured if he is not careful.
However, at the moment when he was gathering the thunder, a dark grey figure appeared faster than him.
Lin Yao didn't even pause. He casually raised his right hand as he faced the oncoming beast. His slender fingers drew several elegant yet deadly arcs in the dim light.
Buzz——!
It seemed as if countless invisible strings in the air were being plucked simultaneously.
There was no earth-shattering burst of energy, no dazzling light and shadow effects. Only a few, almost intangible, shimmering silver spiritual threads, like the sharpest spatial rifts, instantly piercing the air.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
A series of extremely subtle yet creepy piercing sounds were heard.
The massive body of the Corrupted Steel Lizard, charging at it with such force, suddenly froze in mid-air. Its hard bone armor was pierced through as easily as thin paper, and its crimson pupils instantly lost all their luster.
Several silver threads as thin as hair, but accurately piercing its brain, heart and energy core, flashed by.
Boom!
The huge body seemed to have been drained of all its strength and fell heavily to the ground, stirring up a cloud of rotten soil and broken bones.
Without even a hint of struggle, he was instantly killed! Before the poisonous mist could spread, Lin Yao casually waved his hand, completely isolating and purifying it with a mental barrier.
The entire process was incredibly smooth and swift. Lin Yao didn't even glance at the corpse on the ground, and his steps didn't pause at all, as if he was just casually brushing away a speck of dust.
The thunder power condensed in Lu Cheng's palm froze there, and the purple electric arc flickered weakly for a few times before finally dissipating.
He stood there as if petrified, his pupils dilated, staring in disbelief at the subversive scene before him.
Is this... is this Lin Yao's true strength? Is this his true face hidden beneath his "F" potential?
The strong impact swept over Lu Cheng like a tsunami, and the floodgates of memory were violently slammed open.
The scene suddenly switched——
We also encountered a contaminated beast, but it was in an ordinary C-level contaminated area outside the E-427 copy.
A "Rotten-Tooth Warthog" with only B-level strength, shaped like a wild boar, with protruding fangs, rushed out from the shadows and let out a threatening roar.
At that moment, "Lin Yao" beside him turned pale instantly, uttered a short scream, and shrank his body like a frightened deer. Almost instinctively, he grabbed Lu Cheng's arm tightly and hid in his arms.
His blue eyes were filled with fear, his body was even trembling slightly, and his voice trembled with helplessness: "Acheng...it, it's so scary..."
At that moment, Lu Cheng's heart was filled with protectiveness and pity. He shielded his "fragile" lover behind him while effortlessly waving his hand and unleashing a bolt of lightning, precisely chopping the warthog into charcoal.
Then, he gently patted the back of the person in his arms and whispered comfortingly: "Don't be afraid, Yaoyao, I'm here, everything will be fine."
At that time, he enjoyed the feeling of being relied upon and the satisfaction of protecting the "weak".
And now…
This man before him, who had casually dispatched a peak-level S-rank contaminated beast with the ease of a stroll...was he the same "Fragile Rose" in his memory who had fled into his arms in fear of a B-rank contaminated beast?!
The huge contrast was like the sharpest ice spike, piercing Lu Cheng's cognition. He couldn't tell the difference! He couldn't tell the difference at all!
Was it the "Lin Yao" in front of him who needed his protection, depended on him, and had tears in his eyes that he fell in love with? Or was it the suffocatingly powerful Lin Yao in front of him who looked down on everything and controlled everything?
Which one... is the real him?
A chaotic storm raged inside Lu Cheng, making it nearly impossible to breathe. He watched Lin Yao's back as he continued forward. His silver hair shone like cold moonlight in the dim light, and every step he took pierced his heart.
As night fell, the danger of the Sea of Rotten Bones doubled. The two found a relatively sheltered area, a natural depression formed by huge dead bones, as a temporary camp.
The bonfire was lit, and the dancing flames dispelled some of the cold and darkness, but could not dispel the confusion and heaviness in Lu Cheng's heart.
Silence stretched between the two of them, with only the crackling of burning dead branches and the roar of unknown polluted beasts in the distance.
After a long time, so long that the bonfire had to be refueled twice, Lu Cheng finally seemed to muster up the courage and broke the silence with a dry voice.
He didn't look at Lin Yao, but stared at the jumping flames, as if he wanted to see through them.
"You now..." He spoke with difficulty, his voice trembling slightly, "Are you real? Or... you before... are you real?"
Lin Yao was controlling a dead branch with his spiritual thread, stirring the fire precisely to make the flames burn more evenly.
Hearing Lu Cheng's question, he paused slightly, a rare flash of surprise in his azure eyes. He seemed to have not expected Lu Cheng to ask such a fundamental question.
But soon, that hint of surprise was replaced by a calmness that bordered on indifference. He put down the dead branch, raised his eyes, and calmly looked at Lu Cheng's tense profile illuminated by the firelight.
"Each of me is real." Lin Yao's voice was clear and firm, without any hesitation.
Lu Cheng suddenly turned his head to look at him, his eyes full of confusion and disbelief.
Lin Yao seemed to understand his confusion and added calmly, "Playing a role and presenting the reaction required by the script is also the state I choose to present at that moment. Director, screenwriter, actor... they are all me. It is naturally a part of me."
For him, disguise isn't a break, but a strategic form of self-expression. The "fragile" Lin Yao is a work he meticulously designed and performed based on his survival needs, its core manipulation and rationality resonating with the Lin Yao of the present moment.
Lu Cheng's brow furrowed, clearly dissatisfied with this answer, or rather, finding it difficult to accept. With a mixture of complaint and self-mockery, he muttered, "But... you're so strong, you don't need anyone's protection."
This sentence sounded like a helpless complaint about Lin Yao's powerful strength, and more like a complete denial of his former identity as a protector.
Lin Yao tilted his head slightly, his silver hair falling over his shoulders, and firelight danced in his azure eyes. His tone was almost innocent, as if he were discussing the rules: "Protection doesn't discriminate between the strong and the weak. I've checked, and there's no provision in the laws of your world that says, 'The strong must protect the weak,' or 'The weak must be protected by the strong.'"
He was stating an objective fact, but he accurately touched upon the subtle sense of dignity in Lu Cheng's heart.
"But..." Lu Cheng subconsciously wanted to refute, but was speechless for a moment.
Lin Yao didn't give him a chance to form his words. His voice remained calm, but like a precise scalpel, it dissected the source of Lu Cheng's subconscious anger. "But you're unwilling to accept this. You feel that you, the 'weak', unknowingly protected me, the 'strong'. This makes you feel deceived, fooled, and even..."
Lin Yao paused, his blue eyes looking directly into Lu Cheng's, and he spoke clearly, "This has challenged your dignity as a 'strong man'. This makes you very unhappy, right?"
Lu Cheng's breath suddenly caught! It was like being stripped naked and exposed to the sun. Lin Yao's words had struck home with uncanny precision in the most hidden, most unwilling corner of his heart. Yes, besides the anger of being emotionally deceived, deeper still was the immense humiliation of being fooled by the "weak" and having his power structure overturned.
He opened his mouth, but found that he could not refute. He could only look away in embarrassment. His Adam's apple rolled with difficulty and he uttered an ambiguous sound: "..."
Looking at Lu Cheng who was completely exposed and speechless, Lin Yao raised the corner of his lips in a very faint, self-deprecating arc.
He looked away, towards the leaping flames, his voice lowered: "But, Lu Cheng, no one can be strong forever. Even I..."
He paused slightly, as if remembering something, and a trace of extremely complex emotions flashed across the depths of his blue eyes, so fast that it was impossible to catch.
"...Didn't he still almost die, reduced to the point where he needed to rely on implanting anchors in your memories to survive?"
His voice was soft, carrying a rare acknowledgment of that embarrassing past. Although his tone remained calm, the bitterness of self-deprecation was like a cube of ice thrown into a fire, instantly tightening Lu Cheng's heart.
Lu Cheng suddenly looked towards Lin Yao. In the light of the fire, the lines of Lin Yao's profile were still perfect, with a kind of coldness that kept people away. But for the first time, Lu Cheng seemed to have caught a glimpse of a trace of... the fragility and helplessness of "human" under that powerful appearance.
Yes, what's wrong with a person wanting to live? In that desperate situation of near death, if it were him, Lu Cheng...what would he do?
I'm afraid... there won't be a second option. He will choose survival without hesitation, at any cost.
This realization was like a bucket of cold water, instantly extinguishing the anger in Lu Cheng's heart caused by the frustration of his dignity. All that was left was a complex, bitter understanding and... a trace of indescribable heartache.
"Um……"
Lu Cheng murmured a response. This "hmm" was very light, but it was like a heavy stone finally falling to the ground.
It is an acknowledgment of Lin Yao's words, but more importantly, it is a kind of compromise and letting go of his inner persistence and anger at being deceived, fooled, and having his dignity challenged...
Although the embers of resentment still remain, the flames have been extinguished.
When he looked at Lin Yao again, his eyes had quietly changed. No longer filled with pure anger, resentment, or the humiliation of being fooled, but with a hint of inquiry, a hint of complex and indistinguishable... understanding?
Even a little bit that he himself had not noticed, a rekindled...throbbing for this powerful and complex individual in front of him?
The change was so subtle that even Lu Cheng himself might not fully understand it.
But Lin Yao felt it.
I felt it very clearly.
He didn't use any psychic powers to probe Lu Cheng's thoughts. He just sat there quietly, the light from the campfire dancing in his blue eyes.
However, the strong and chaotic emotional fluctuations emanating from Lu Cheng... the embers of anger, the unwilling compromise, the bitter understanding, and the faint, rekindled throbbing... were like a stone thrown into the lake, clearly creating ripples, and were accurately captured by his keen perception of subtle changes in emotions that had long been ingrained in his bones.
Under the flickering flames, the corners of Lin Yao's lips curved upwards in an almost imperceptible arc. That arc was fleeting, as fast as an illusion.
The night is still long, and deep in the sea of rotten bones, secrets are waiting.
And the mental journey of the person next to me seems to be heading in an…interesting new direction.
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