Hen Zhen was being choked hard, and due to lack of oxygen, the natural reaction of the human body caused his complexion to turn slightly purple.
But his eyes still shone with exuberant interest, as if the one on the verge of life and death wasn’t himself.
He lay on his back, even having the leisure to imagine how beautiful the young man’s hands choking his neck must look.
Xin Hexue’s hands were fair and clearly defined, with long and slender knuckles, not overly bony, and the skin felt cool and soft to the touch.
Light blue veins spread across the snow-like skin, like the branched twigs of a plum tree on a winter night, reaching all the way to the rounded fingernails, whose pale pink hues were like ten plum blossoms at the tips of branches.
If too much force was applied, the edges of the nails would surely turn white, making the already bloodless pair of hands look almost translucent, fragile and easy to break.
He really wanted to be slapped once by such a Xin Hexue.
Hen Zhen pushed the tip of his tongue against his back teeth.
But he quickly realized that because this was not his own body, the originally sharp rows of jiao shark teeth were now the flat teeth of a human.
The blood in Hen Zhen’s eyes thickened.
Hen Zhen…this name was unfamiliar to the world.
But if you were to grab a person from the capital and ask about the Guo Mansion massacre that occurred during the Jiajì reign of the Dacheng Dynasty, they would definitely mention the term “blood koi”, with a horrified expression,
A wealthy merchant surnamed Guo in the capital was deceived by a charlatan from the jianghu, who claimed that feeding koi with the flesh and blood of virgin boys and girls would produce blood koi. Eating them could prolong life, strengthen the body, and even grant immortality.
Hen Zhen first developed spiritual consciousness in the blood pool of the Guo Mansion.
Children’s wails, screams, and cries echoed everywhere. Blood gushed from the necks of those collapsed on the ground, dyeing the pool water a deeper and deeper red.
The stench of blood surged to the heavens. Severed limbs were constantly thrown into the pool by servants, sometimes even entire children who were not yet dead.
That was their food.
At first, there were twenty-nine other koi in the pool aside from Hen Zhen.
Later, those twenty-nine were also buried in Hen Zhen’s belly.
He fought his way out from the blood pool.
Only the refined blood koi could leave the blood pool.
From the moment Hen Zhen gained consciousness, his muddled mind held only one thought: “slaughter”. The feeding of flesh and blood turned his black scales into blood-colored ones. To tear at those things, whether they were food or what people called “companions”, rows of cold, razor-sharp jiao shark teeth grew in his mouth.
By that point, the man-eating blood koi was fully formed, and he had completely diverged from the original koi species.
When the servant managing the fish pool excitedly went to present the blood koi and report to Master Guo, Hen Zhen understood the language of the human race for the first time. Master Guo said, “Kill it and serve it for tonight’s dinner.”
In Hen Zhen’s muddled brain, aside from “slaughter”, a second thought emerged: “survival.”
Raise a tiger, it will bite. Raise a viper, it will turn into a snake. Raise a gu insect, it will bite back. Then raising a blood koi… would also come with its own price.
When the blood splattered on Hen Zhen’s face, a few drops even seeped into his eye sockets. After bearing the blood sin of one hundred sixty-two lives, Hen Zhen finally formed a complete consciousness and mind.
All sixty-two people in the Guo Mansion died.
Blood flowed into a river and surged out into the surrounding streets and alleys.
This quickly drew the attention of the authorities and Taichu Temple. As the truth behind the disappearance of hundreds of children in the capital was revealed, Hen Zhen was pursued and hunted down by the monks of Taichu Temple.
His cultivation had already skyrocketed due to the accumulation of countless blood sins, and these ordinary monks were no match for him.
Hen Zhen originally thought he would die at the hands of the national monk Liao Yi.
But arriving before Liao Yi was Liao Yi’s personal disciple, Du Zhi.
Hen Zhen fought with him for an entire day in the suburbs of the capital. At that time, although Hen Zhen’s cultivation had surged, what he actually mastered was only the brutal and savage style of slaughter. His newly formed mind was still like that of a wild beast, completely lacking in strategy. Because he failed to react in time, he was eventually trapped in the net that Du Zhi had carefully set.
His physical body was sent into An Ning Pagoda for suppression and refining, while his spirit rushed into Du Zhi’s forehead at the last critical moment.
Because of this, Hen Zhen had been residing in Du Zhi’s body for a long time.
He could borrow the other party’s eyes to see everything the other party saw, and borrow Du Zhi’s ears to hear every conversation.
Although he couldn’t control this body, and even when he tried to speak to disturb the monk, he would be suppressed by the Heart Clearing Mantra.
Only on the night of every full moon, when demons and spirits ran rampant and yin energy surged greatly, could Hen Zhen’s power increase dramatically. At the same time, Du Zhi’s cultivation would be weakened as a result.
He had tried many times to seize control of this body, but was always suppressed by Du Zhi.
Du Zhi’s willpower was indeed unlike that of ordinary mortals. Hen Zhen had used every trick he knew but still could not shake the other party’s resolve.
He needed a turning point. Since he couldn’t seize the body, he still had to escape this body that served as a prison for him.
And this turning point happened to appear in the young man right before him;
Du Zhi’s weakness.
Hen Zhen had already spied on the other party through Du Zhi’s eyes for a long time.
He had been staring at Xin Hexue, staring at Xin Hexue, staring at Xin Hexue…
So long that he even mistakenly believed the heartbeat in his chest was his own.
Only to realize it was this bald monk’s heart moved by mortal desire, breaking the precept of lust.
But he didn’t realize it, and didn’t even know what love really was.
Hen Zhen urgently needed a new body. He couldn’t be trapped in Du Zhi’s body for the rest of his life, being a nameless, titleless old king.
He wanted to be Xin Hexue’s dog.
The construction of this dream was like someone delivering a pillow just when you were about to fall asleep.
What could shake a monk who had lacked the seven emotions and six desires since the moment his soul was born?
Letting him realize exactly what kind of feelings he had developed toward Xin Hexue.
Hen Zhen’s memories and thoughts flashed by, but in the dream, it was no more than a few breaths’ worth of time.
The blood-red eyes greedily swept over Xin Hexue’s body with aggressive, like the tongue of a venomous snake licking over every crevice without leaving a single spot, causing Xin Hexue to inexplicably feel as if he was being violated and completely naked in front of the other party.
And right now, his current state was the same as being naked except for a single inner shirt on his upper body. This sense of offense made Xin Hexue frown and he said coldly, “Look at me again and I’ll gouge your eyes out.”
Hen Zhen didn’t care in the slightest, after all these weren’t his eyes. He even gulped as if extremely thirsty, and his bobbing Adam’s apple pressed right against the fingers that were strangling him. Hen Zhen laughed. “Rather than gouging out my eyes, you’d better just kill me.”
Otherwise…
Hen Zhen greedily inhaled the cold fragrance on the koi demon’s body, and his immense, hollow, endless hunger surged uncontrollably.
“Otherwise, one day I’ll lose control and won’t be able to stop myself from eating you.”
What Hen Zhen spoke of was physical consumption.
The massive appetite that could never be satisfied would, sooner or later, devour the monster’s sanity, and he would eat every person, ghost, and demon that could serve as food.
Hen Zhen raised a hand. The young man’s wrists were slender and narrow, and he effortlessly wrapped his hand around them and locked them down.
The pads of his fingers gently stroked the inner side, causing a slight tickling sensation.
From his fearlessly smug demeanor, Xin Hexue could judge that he couldn’t kill him for now.
He wouldn’t waste energy on someone he couldn’t finish off in a single blow.
So his grip loosened slightly.
The skin that had turned purple from oxygen deprivation gradually returned to normal.
Xin Hexue: “Who are you?”
Hen Zhen replied, “That’s not important. Because in two days, you’ll forget anyway.”
Xin Hexue paused slightly. The fact that the other party even knew about his memory reset every seven days made his guard rise even higher.
Hen Zhen spoke unhurriedly, “You’re not going to kill me?”
He even had the leisure to laugh. “Use these legs of yours to tighten around my neck and twist hard. It’s an easy thing to do.”
Xin Hexue glared at him. “You’re inside Du Zhi’s body. I won’t do anything that harms him.”
After all, he was the target. If he died, the small world would collapse.
He’d get his salary and performance bonuses deducted.
But Hen Zhen misunderstood his meaning. Although he was smiling, he clenched his teeth so hard it seemed like they might shatter. “What a deep love and righteous devotion.”
[Hen Zhen love value +5]
‘Hen Zhen?’
Xin Hexue didn’t know who this person occupying Du Zhi’s body was. The script clearly didn’t contain any information related to him.
He asked K: [Who is this?]
K responded: [A hidden target.]
‘A hidden target?’
‘Like drawing from a blind box?’
Xin Hexue looked at the face begging to be punched, his eyes narrowing. Compared to drawing a blind box, he wanted to slap the other party more.
Hen Zhen: “Alright, I’ll let your lover out. But before that…”
He reached out and touched Xin Hexue’s right ankle.
The pair of jade bangles on the ankle broke with a soft snap.
Xin Hexue looked at his actions in surprise.
Hen Zhen said in a low tone, “Free little fish, swim faster.”
Otherwise, he would definitely catch up later and devour the food piece by piece.
The blood-red hue in Hen Zhen’s eyes deepened.
Finally, when the moon was covered by dark clouds, the deep red color in his eyes gradually scattered like a drop of blood falling into water.
Du Zhi awoke in this body. The first thing he did was press his temples, which felt like they were splitting, and looked at Xin Hexue.
He stated, “I’m wet.”
Xin Hexue: “…Shut up.”
Du Zhi watched Xin Hexue climb off of him and watched him tidy his clothes. The gathered thin shirt covered up all traces of their intimacy.
Du Zhi lowered his head and looked toward the area that had shown a physical reaction.
“…”
Xin Hexue smelled the scent of something burning in the air and asked in confusion, “Is there a fire?”
Rather than saying a candlestick had suddenly tipped over and started a fire, it would be more accurate to say the dream was collapsing and getting devoured by flames.
The red glow of the flames cast a faint blush on the young man’s jade-like face, and he was the only thing left in Du Zhi’s eyes.
Du Zhi tugged on Xin Hexue’s sleeve, his expression dazed. For the first time, he finally understood the meaning behind the pounding in his chest.
“I think I’m…”
In love with you.
[Du Zhi love value +25]
[Du Zhi’s current love value: 100]
………
It was a fleeting dream. In reality, only the time of two sticks of incense had passed.
Xin Hexue said to the awakened Du Zhi, “It was osmanthus. Those geji had the fragrance of osmanthus on them.”
No wonder not a single flower had bloomed on the osmanthus tree where they saw the scholar hanging himself that day.
The master of the Huxin Tower was likely an osmanthus tree in their true form, and those geji were transformed from its flowers.
Du Zhi’s gaze darkened, and he said nothing.
After a while, as if just regaining his senses, he said to Xin Hexue, “I’ll go exorcise the demon. Wait for me here.”
Now that the love value was maxed out, and the tracking bangles had already been removed, if he doesn’t leave now, then when will he leave?
Xin Hexue curved his lips gently and pretended to agree with Du Zhi. “Alright. Then you must come back quickly.”
But the moment Du Zhi left, Xin Hexue’s expression turned cold and he stepped outside.
He had already gathered all the information and made detailed plans.
Scholars from the south heading to the capital for the imperial exams had to pass through Buzhou Mountain, located at the junction of the capital’s outskirts and Xuzhou, and pass through the post road on the mountain.
Xin Hexue just needed to wait for the rabbit by the tree.
He left the Huxin Tower.
A rustling sound echoed by his ears.
Xin Hexue glanced back toward the rock garden and waterside pavilion vigilantly, only to see a large snake slithering up from the lake’s surface onto the shore.
The snake’s body was as thick as two adults’ arms wrapped around an old banyan tree and it was so long that the tail could not be seen.
Xin Hexue’s face instantly turned pale.
A snake…
A creature even more terrifying than a scorpion…
The excessive shock made black and white specks explode like fireworks before his eyes.
With a splash, the young man by the shore disappeared, and water splashed onto the grass stems.
A butterfly koi floated on the lake surface, with its snow white belly turned up.