Chapter 384: Same Kind, Hate and Love, Destination (asking for monthly ticket)
In the dim light, the neon signs in the tavern flickered, making Xia Pingzhou's face look gloomy and uncertain. On the contrary, Yan Molin's expression remained so indifferent from beginning to end.
Her pale face and dark eyes were reflected on the glass-like blade of the sword.
Xia Pingzhou looked at the demon sword against his neck, and he could feel a chill coming from the sword.
As the blade approaches, it seems as if there are ghosts roaring, wailing, and crying in the ears. This is a kind of spiritual erosion. Once you get close to the sword, you will be disturbed by the ghost living on the blade. The closer you get, the deeper the erosion.
It was hard for him to imagine that an exorcist's Tianqu would appear in this form, and what kind of mental torture Yan Molin had to endure when he was accompanied by this demon sword day and night.
But everyone's natural drive is related to the deepest things in his soul. She is just reaping what she sows. When people commit violence, while they get pleasure, they are often accompanied by pain.
Xia Pingzhou raised his head and stared quietly into Yan Molin's eyes.
"What do you want to do?" he asked. "Do you have to put a knife to someone's neck every time you speak to them to feel safe?... That's hilarious, like a little girl."
"You're quite capable. You actually dare to talk to me like that." Yan Molin said indifferently, but he was not angry.
"If you want to spar with me, I'm open to it," Xia Pingzhou said. "But forget about the real thing. Infighting is forbidden among the members. If we start a fight now, it'll all turn into a group beating you up. Think carefully."
Yan Molin lowered his eyes, flipped the blade casually, and pointed the back of the knife towards Xia Pingzhou's neck.
“I just wanted to talk to you,” she said. “If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn’t wake you up.”
Xia Pingzhou asked, "Who would approach someone like that, putting a knife to their neck all the time?...Will you ever find someone you can get along with in this lifetime?"
Yan Molin tilted his head, and looked at him with his dark and empty eyes.
"First of all, I have no interest in, nor do I need, that kind of thing. Secondly, I only have one more year to live at most. The concept of 'a lifetime' doesn't mean very long to me. You can use another word."
Xia Pingzhou was slightly stunned, and then asked: "How do you know how long you can live?"
"Tianqu told me so." Yan Molin said slowly, "My Tianqu is very rare. I can improve and advance by killing others, but the price is that it will overdraw my lifespan, and now I only have one year left."
She paused, then looked up at Xia Pingzhou. "Any kind of power has a price...so I've always been curious, what price did you pay?"
Xia Pingzhou was silent for a moment. "After all this talk, you're still fuming about how quickly I reached the third level. Can't I be some once-in-800-years genius who can catch up with your speed without paying a price?"
"Who do you think would believe that?" Yan Molin said coldly, "The captain didn't openly question you, it's just because he's interested in you. Even if you have bad intentions, he wants to keep you in the brigade for observation... That's just the captain."
"Let's chat, but could you please put down your knife first?" Xia Pingzhou asked. "My neck is getting sore from keeping the same position."
"You can hear its sound, right?" Yan Molin was silent for a moment and suddenly asked.
"What do you mean?" Xia Pingzhou raised an eyebrow. "Whose voice are you referring to?"
"I'm referring to this sword, which is my Tianqu," Yan Molin paused, "From your reaction, I can see that you can hear its sound."
"Shouldn't everyone be able to hear it?"
Xia Pingzhou lowered his eyes and looked at the demon sword, asking in confusion.
He could indeed hear waves of muffled wails and cries emanating from the blade. However, he hadn't considered whether others could hear such sounds from Yan Molin's demonic sword. He simply assumed that everyone could hear it based on his own experience.
"Ryukawa Chiba, he has studied my Sky Drive... Ordinary people can't hear the sound of my sword, but you can." Yan Molin said, "He said that only those with a 'hollow heart' can hear the sounds in the demon sword."
"If you listen to the doctor's nonsense, you're done. Psychologists are great at deceiving people. He's been misleading people in the past, tricking them into having their frontal lobotomies removed. As for the most delinquent member of the brigade, he's no less delinquent than you."
"I think he has a point."
"Where's the logic?"
"You and I are the same. We are of the same kind." Yan Molin said, "I said this because I can see... we are just playing this world as a game, so it is hollow."
Xia Pingzhou was silent for a moment, thinking to himself, could it be that she discovered that he was a game character?
The lights in the bar were dim, and Yanma Lin's face was still expressionless. She just leaned against the wall with one hand on her shoulder, silently looking at the katana and listening to the wailing coming from the blade.
After a moment, Xia Pingzhou spoke, breaking the brief silence between the two of them.
"I don't really understand what you're talking about." Xia Pingzhou said expressionlessly, "I don't understand what 'hollow' means either, but I don't really want you to find some inexplicable sense of identity or belonging in me."
He paused, "I'm not like you... I'm just an ordinary person."
He understood in his heart that because Xia Pingzhou was just a puppet, Yan Molin and the doctor misunderstood something and thought that the two had something in common.
Yan Molin was silent for a moment, raised his eyes from the sword to look at him, then looked away again, "Is that so..."
She put away the demon sword, inserted it into the dark red scabbard at her waist, and then spoke:
"But there are too many suspicious points about you, this 'ordinary person'. First, the hackers couldn't find your background. Then, you were promoted to the third level in such a short time. Finally, the doctor's ability is to control emotions. He told me that you have no emotions, just like... a puppet. That's why you can hear the demon sword's voice."
"Is that why you call me a 'traitor' every day?" Xia Pingzhou asked. "This is the first time I've felt so wronged."
Yan Molin remained noncommittal. "Let's go. Don't talk here. If the young lady is woken up, she will take you back."
"I'm not her paper doll."
"So you have become successful now. Would you dare to speak like this a month ago?" Yan Molin sneered.
"You seem to have some misunderstanding about me." Xia Pingzhou said, "I have always been like this."
Xia Pingzhou chatted with her as he gently closed the door to the private room and sat down on a chair in front of the bar. Yan Molin sat directly above the bar, the hem of her school uniform spreading out like a gray bouquet.
There was a small orange light on the bar, illuminating the faces of the two people in the dim light.
"What do you think of her?" Yan Molin asked as he used his scabbard to move the water cup towards Xia Pingzhou.
"What did you say?" Xia Pingzhou took the cup of water.
"Don't act stupid."
"I'm not pretending to be stupid." Xia Pingzhou said, taking a sip of the orange juice in the glass.
Yan Molin slowly turned his eyes and stared into his eyes.
She said, "All I saw was a fake person, trying his best to perform in front of her, just like a clown in a circus."
"Is that why you always kick my chair?" Xia Pingzhou teased. "It seems you're seriously ill. I suggest you see a doctor to remove your frontal lobe. That way you'll have fewer worries."
"The emotions you express are fake, your words and actions are fake... You keep hanging around her like this, and I can't help but wonder what you want to do."
Yan Molin said this and looked up at Xia Pingzhou.
Xia Pingzhou put down the cup, looked up into her eyes, and asked slowly:
"What about you? Do you really care about her? Or do you think you should do this as a friend, so you're hypocritically questioning me here?"
"At least I won't pretend. I'm only asking this out of curiosity. I've been getting a little fed up with you pretending for so long..." At this point, Yan Molin lowered his voice, "If I wasn't afraid of making her sad, I would have killed you."
"You really don't pretend to be anything. You kill people whenever you want, without any internal struggles," Xia Pingzhou said. "In your eyes, others are probably just like NPCs in a game; you wouldn't even notice if they died. So I'm curious: when you're ripping people apart, have you ever considered that you, or someone you cherish, might be treated the same way in the future?"
"I've been prepared since I killed the first person," Yan Molin said casually. "I'm stronger than them, so I can take their lives for fun. Similarly, if someone is stronger than me, he can also kill me and take my life for fun."
"That's fair, but aren't you afraid of death?"
"Since I was 12, I've seen countless people die in front of me," Yan Molin said. "Is death...something so rare?"
"Your own death is different from the death of others. You won't know you were wrong until you die."
"What's the difference? It's just a nap." Yan Molin said contemptuously, "That would be peaceful."
"If you weren't afraid of death, you wouldn't have come to me in the middle of the night, talking about this and that, and telling me you only had a year to live... You wouldn't have told me that only I could hear the sound of your knife, and you wouldn't have said anything like 'we're the same.'"
At this point, Xia Pingzhou suddenly turned his head and met her eyes. "You are also afraid of death, and you are also afraid of hearing those voices, so you hope someone can understand you."
He paused: "But unfortunately, that person will not be me."
Yan Molin suddenly fell silent.
Surprisingly, she did not directly deny his words, but just lowered her eyes and raised them again, then stared at him silently.
"What's the difference between you and Rukawa Chiba? You're even better at talking nonsense than him. No wonder you can capture the heart of our young lady."
Yan Molin tilted his head and spoke expressionlessly, then used his scabbard to open the refrigerator behind the bar, picked out a bottle of beer from it, and passed it to himself.
"The difference is that I'm not as good at deceiving people as he is," Xia Pingzhou said. "Next time you want to drink with me, can you be a little more polite? You knocked on my door in the middle of the night, put a knife to my neck, and kept talking nonsense. No one wants to be with you."
"Aren't you happy?" Yan Molin sneered.
"You should change your words. How dare I not be happy?"
"That's all right, isn't it?"
After saying that, Yan Molin placed the scabbard on the bar and casually opened a bottle of cheap beer. The girl tilted her head slightly, leaned close to the bottle and took two shallow sips, her long straight black hair falling like a waterfall.
"It would be nice if I could kill you."
After a moment, she suddenly spoke in a low voice, her voice was enchanting and deep, like a flower blooming silently in the darkness, and the thorns that spread from it would entangle the neck of the listener.
Xia Pingzhou's breathing paused slightly, and he looked up into her eyes.
Yan Molin's dark eyes gradually darkened as she silently stared at his face. A murderous intent filled her pupils, like a midnight curtain closing in, inch by inch, ready to envelop him.
"What you said is very dangerous." Xia Pingzhou said expressionlessly, "I should have the hackers check if you are an undercover agent."
"Most of the people I killed before were fools that I could see through at a glance. I wasn't interested in them, so killing them wasn't fun at all. I was just killing time."
Having said that, Yan Molin suddenly paused for a moment, turned his head and looked at Xia Pingzhou, "So... it would be great if I could kill you with my own hands. Do you understand how I feel?"
"It would be strange if I could understand."
"What a shame. I thought you would understand."
After saying that, Yan Molin suddenly stretched out his right arm, picked up the slender scabbard, and placed the end against Xia Pingzhou's chin.
Immediately, the cold beer can slid towards Xia Pingzhou along the tilted scabbard.
"Drink with me, not orange juice," she said.
"I don't drink."
"Are you sure?"
Xia Pingzhou was silent for a while, sighed, took the beer can from the dark red scabbard, leaned close to the bottle mouth, and drank the remaining ice beer in it.
"What if in the end..." He paused.
"What do you want to say?" Yan Molin asked.
"What if, in the end, I'm the one who kills you?" He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and put the beer can back on the bar.
"That sounds quite interesting..."
Yan Molin said this nonchalantly, and immediately retracted the scabbard that was against his neck.
"I'm actually very curious, are you really as fearless as you say?" Xia Pingzhou said expressionlessly, "Rather than being tortured to death by your Tianqu, why don't I give you a quick death? And by the way, let me see your expression as you kneel down and beg for mercy."
"Then we can try it later..." Yan Molin curled his lips coldly, "As expected of a traitor, his words are shocking."
"Weren't you the first one to say something shocking? Don't apply your double standards to me."
"Let's get back to the topic. What do you think of our Miss Ayase?"
"A very good friend." Xia Pingzhou said expressionlessly, "Let me put it this way. If Zhou Jiuya says that eleven of us must die when we return to the auction house, I will give her the spot to survive."
"Seeing that you are still so hypocritical, I feel relieved."
"You always say I'm hypocritical. Isn't Ayase Origami even more like a fake person?"
"The young lady just doesn't know how to express herself, so she hides herself." Yan Molin said, "She is different from the rest of us. She is neither as hypocritical as you nor as numb as me."
She paused and said, "So... no matter what your purpose is, I hope you won't hurt her."
"What's your perspective on this?" Xia Pingzhou asked.
"friend."
After saying that, Yan Molin got down from the bar with no expression on her face, holding the dark red scabbard, and walked towards the private room, her skirt fluttering in the wind.
At this moment, Xia Pingzhou suddenly felt a subtle pain in his ear.
He raised his eyebrows and looked at his reflection in the glass. He saw that there was suddenly a red blood line on his right ear. Blood was flowing out of it, staining his earlobe red.
Xia Pingzhou touched his ear, and his fingertips were stained with a slight blood color.
He turned his head expressionlessly and glanced to the side and behind him. Yan Molin's back had disappeared into the darkness, and the neon sign hanging on the ceiling had completely dimmed.
That night, Xia Pingzhou did not return to the box to sleep, but went out alone.
He left Lao Wu's antique shop and headed straight up the coastal road, up Haifan Mountain, and found a small sandy beach with its back to the cliff. This was a quiet place that Ji Minghuan found when he was wandering around the mountain in the No. 4 machine "Little Nian Beast".
This place can be said to be isolated from the world - if you look from Haifan City, no one can see this remote beach because of the mountain in between; and this place is also far away from the territory of the Nian Beast Lord. Normally, no demon will pass by here.
At this moment, Xia Pingzhou stood alone on the beach, facing the turbulent night sea. The night sea was like a roaring beast, the waves its claws poking out from the darkness. Fortunately, the moon cast a clear light on the sea, and everything seemed to be okay.
The roaring sound of the sea tide enveloped the vast world without stopping for a moment.
At this time, the night sea breeze blew over, brushing his ears which were still slightly painful.
Xia Pingzhou raised his hand and scratched his ear. There was an extremely deep resentment attached to Yan Molin's demon sword, so the wound left by this sword would be cursed and difficult to heal.
It is almost the same as Agubaru's "Dark Fang", but not as thorough as the Dark Fang - it can make the injuries caused permanent. Even if Zeus comes and is bitten by it, he will have to go back holding his kidney.
In short, at least for the short term, Xia Pingzhou will have to sleep with this scar on his ear.
Fortunately, Ji Minghuan can adjust the body's pain sensitivity, so it doesn't really matter.
It was already late at night, and the tide was constantly sweeping in, flooding the wet beach and slapping against his sneakers.
Suddenly, Xia Pingzhou unleashed his Sky Drive, and streams of black and white light swirled around his body. He raised his hand, snatched up a cross-shaped chess piece from the black and white ring, and crushed it.
The next moment, the chess player's third contracted demon, the "Furious Demon", appeared in front of Xia Pingzhou.
It was a skeleton figure handcuffed to a silver cross. He slowly raised his head, and his empty eye sockets stared at the sea together with Xia Pingzhou.
The ability of the third-tier contracted demon, "Raging Demon," is as follows: Within 30 seconds, the Raging Demon will transform into either a "shield" or a "sword," to be used by the chess player, or by your chess species.
[Note 1: When encountering an attack that exceeds the shield's resistance limit, the Raging Demon's "Shield" form can help the user block the attack by sacrificing itself.]
[Note 2: The Raging Demon's "Sword" form can increase the user's power.]
A series of introductory panels popped up in front of Xia Pingzhou.
"Why did you call me out here so suddenly in the middle of the night?" the enraged demon asked hoarsely. The skull's jaws clicked with every word.
Xia Pingzhou did not answer his question. Instead, he looked at the isolated island on the horizon and asked casually:
"Who do you think would win if Nian Beast Lord and Lake Hunter fought?"
"The Nian Beast has a very low chance of winning. It's better to say... it has no chance of winning at all. Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the strength of this batch of lake hunters is far superior to the previous batch. Just that Lin Xingshi is enough to give the Zodiac Team and the Great Lord a hard time." The furious demon said slowly.
"Then why did Lord Nian rush into the flame like a moth?"
"Because it wants to take back the land from humans, rather than continue living in seclusion in the mountains. The Great Lord also knows that he is old, and if he doesn't try again, he will truly have no chance... Demons, like humans, will succumb to their own desires." The furious demon said, "Although I said the Great Lord has no chance of winning, if the Son of Nian Beast joins, perhaps the outcome will be different."
It paused. "Also... judging from your brigade, it seems many other forces will intervene in this battle. This makes the situation even more complicated, beyond my predictions."
Xia Pingzhou was silent.
He thought that if the angry demon knew that the Son of Nian was actually one of his bodies, he would probably be shocked.
Unfortunately, the Furious Demon cannot share thoughts with Xia Pingzhou like the Queen Colossus, so Xia Pingzhou’s true purpose is unclear.
Xia Pingzhou's goal is to kill one of the Lake Hunters, but to save the other three, to use as the force to attack the Savior Society, and finally to let Unit 04 appear to end the battle.
If he fails to kill one of the Lake Hunters as per the mission, he will not be able to get the body graduation reward.
That was a considerable amount of money. In order to overcome the defenses of those legendary children in the Savior Society, he had to raise each of his organs to the limit of the inhibitor state in a short period of time in order to barely compete with them.
Not to mention the "Kill the Ripper" mission.
If he fails to complete this mission, Unit 2 will be automatically destroyed at the appointed time, and this loss is not something he can afford.
There are only 8 days left in the mission. After completing all other main missions, he will settle things with Yan Molin and officially leave the White Crow Brigade.
After that, he will gather all the segments so far and guide them together to Iceland, giving the mentor and the savior a big surprise.
Xia Pingzhou let out a long sigh towards the surging sea, then raised his hand and summoned the giant statue of the queen.
The Queen Colossus dropped the two daggers of varying lengths in her hands, and her elegant diamond-like figure stood still. She lowered her eyes and looked at the daggers stuck in the sand.
"Sword form."
Xia Pingzhou ordered the furious demon.
"Tsk, it's really unpleasant to be ordered around like this by humans..."
The furious demon said this, but his body merged into the silver-white cross. Then the huge suspended cross slowly shrank and transformed into a sword handle.
Then, a blazing white blade, forged from the bones of a furious demon, erupted from its hilt. The twelve-foot-long bone sword sliced through the night, stirring the air. The sand on the beach rose faintly under a subtle force field.
Xia Pingzhou raised his eyebrows. This was the first time he saw the sword form of the angry demon.
Before this, he had only seen the shield form of the furious demon, which was as strong as a turtle shell. Xia Pingzhou ordered the queen statue to attack for a long time but was unable to break through the shield's defense.
The queen's stone statue silently took the cross-shaped silver-white hilt and grasped the slender and sharp bone sword. The faint force field spreading in the air suddenly dissipated.
It seemed as if at this moment, the invisible force and momentum were all gathered in the queen's palm, and the air became condensed again.
The Queen Colossus used both hands to grasp the sword form of the Raging Demon and raised it high. At this moment, the aura on the sword suddenly expanded, and the bone sword spread more than a hundred times.
In an instant, she slashed through the blazing white blade. The night moon lost its color, as if the sword had swallowed up its light. The ocean surged, a blue and white blanketing Xia Pingzhou's vision. It should have been deafening, but to human ears, it was dead silent, as if the sword had swallowed all sound.
A moment later, Xia Pingzhou looked up at the sea in front of him, which was divided into two. The scene was like a deep ravine appearing on the sea.
After all, it is a disaster-level demon. If it fails to produce such an effect, he will be disappointed.
He slowly withdrew his gaze and returned the Queen Colossus and the Raging Demon to the black and white ring.
"Then... the final preparations have been made." Xia Pingzhou said, slowly turning his head.
He raised his head and gazed at the vast Haifan Mountain. At the very top of the cliff, he saw the figure of a demon emerge, a lone, majestic figure. A moment later, as the noble moon pierced through the clouds, illuminating the cliff, Xia Pingzhou could clearly see it: a purple-red lion, a cluster of enchanting flames atop its head.
It was his fourth machine, the Little Nian Beast.
The two looked at each other, one above and one below, gazing at each other from a distance.
"So this is what the Nian Beast looks like from other people's perspectives?" Xia Pingzhou muttered to himself, "Quite powerful."
After a while, the ravine on the sea suddenly returned to its original state, but the two shadows on the cliff and the beach had disappeared.
The world was once again shrouded in the quiet night. The lighthouse on the shore illuminated the lonely sea. The half moon and its reflection on the horizon formed a complete circle.
(End of this chapter)
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