Chapter 20: Little Corgi’s Day of Suffering
The sky turned completely dark.
“Boom!”
Thunder roared, lightning flashed between the dark clouds, and for a moment, the light illuminated the stranger’s blood-red eyes and the slight, careless upturn of his lips.
Raindrops fell, a coldness wrapping around his entire body, the chill spreading from his hands, rising to Yiming’s head.
“Did you kill him?”
His already hoarse throat seemed to ache, but it couldn’t compare to the twitching, almost bursting pain in his heart.
Those clear, sky-blue pupils trembled. “Did you kill Li?”
“If you mean this one,” the strange man casually pointed at his feet, “that was me.”
The dead ability users under Qing Tong’s ruins, the shattered paths along the way, and now this attitude of snapping roadside weeds without care or concealment.
Was it him? Was it he who, after destroying Qing Tong, followed Li’s trail here and killed that fragile youth?
It was him.
This man who treated others’ lives like grass.
“Why!” The brown-haired boy was like a wounded cub, his anger mixed with pain wrinkling his baby-fat face. “Li had nothing to do with Qing Tong! He wouldn’t have stopped you from doing anything!”
Crystal droplets slid down his cheeks, indistinguishable as rain or tears. “He wasn’t even strong, he was no threat to you! Why did you attack him!”
“Why did you kill him!” he shouted, his hoarse voice breaking.
Rainwater flowed into his parched throat, burning with pain.
But Yiming felt nothing.
In his eyes, there was only the man before him and the corpse of the youth who should’ve teased him, calling him Little Corgi.
The imagined life of escaping Qing Tong was like a cracked glass window. He saw himself on the other side, sulkily saying he still preferred huskies.
Back then, they would’ve found a house in Floating City, living together like a family.
He, Li, and Tang.
Yiming saw that youth ignoring his protests with an expressionless face, reaching out to ruffle his soft hair.
After that? Perhaps the youth would really bring him a majestic husky, because he was always like that—saying harsh words, yet quietly keeping their words firmly in his heart.
The crack was widening.
He would rub the husky’s head, loudly declaring, Brother, I like you the most!
Then the youth would let out a somewhat dazed hum, pausing before slowly saying, You really are a silly little corgi.
Yiming heard the sound of glass shattering.
Piece by piece, fragments fell, drawing clear boundaries between them in the scene, spreading glaring cracks across their faces.
They all fell away.
What lay behind that glass window was not the warm family he imagined, but pitch-black darkness, and the back of Li, walking toward the dark.
It was the desolate earth at this moment, and the lifeless corpse, stained with blood, that would never wake again.
“Why!” Yiming questioned.
Because he had fled? Because he had gone against his true heart, because he had listened to Shuang Buyan’s words?
Because he had left him behind?
And facing this anguished, despairing question, the unfamiliar man with red eyes looked down at him. In the rain, not a single drop touched his body.
He chuckled lightly and said, “What’s there to ask why about.”
He didn’t care at all, did he?
In an instant, Yiming’s hands were covered in metal.
His already overburdened left arm transformed into a long blade, its sharp edge thrusting toward the unfamiliar man.
The falling rain was sliced in half by the blade, and within the water droplets reflected their elongated, distorted forms—the brown-haired boy’s expression, twisted with rage.
Yet the man merely stood there, his red eyes casual, relaxed, utterly indifferent.
He didn’t dodge, allowing the blade to approach his throat.
In the next instant, Yiming’s face contorted in pain.
His arm trembled, and the blade veered past the man’s neck.
The tip of the blade stopped in the air with a gust of wind, leaving a faint blood mark on that pale neck.
“Angry?” The man was still smiling, that half-hidden face bearing a smile that Yiming found utterly infuriating.
He raised his hand, and just as his fingers were about to touch the blade, Yiming swiftly retracted it.
In the next moment, Yiming spun the long blade and slashed toward the stranger’s waist.
But this time, an identical long blade suddenly appeared in the man’s hand, blocking in front of him.
The clash with Yiming’s blade produced a crisp, humming sound.
“I gave you a chance, but you didn’t take it,” he said.
In the next instant, the part of the blade touching Yiming’s vanished entirely.
There was no pain.
Yiming stared at his left arm, now reduced to just a shoulder, unable to comprehend what had happened.
Raindrops pattered onto the ground, and the damp, bloody stench seemed to rise.
The stranger with red eyes glanced over casually, his long blade now resting against Yiming’s jaw.
One step closer, and it would kill Yiming completely.
But he stopped.
He said, “What can someone like you kill?”
The blade was aimed at his Adam’s apple.
Yiming pursed his lips, feeling as if he were trembling, yet perhaps he wasn’t.
He realized he couldn’t let rage consume his mind, couldn’t use that fury to kill someone.
He couldn’t bring himself to slay the murderer who had killed Li, even for Li’s sake.
This realization caused him unbearable pain.
“I’m not like you,” the brown-haired boy said.
The anger on his face hadn’t faded, but he said with near-stubborn resolve, “I won’t take anyone’s life.”
At those words, the blade against his throat suddenly trembled.
The faint tremor went unnoticed by Yiming.
He only saw the black-haired man before him suddenly widen his smile, as if in agreement, saying, “Yes, we’re different.”
This powerful ability user seemed to suddenly gain a full desire to express himself.
His tone rose as he looked at Yiming and said, “But that’s how this world works. Only the strong make the rules, and the only way to seize benefits is to fight evil with evil.”
“You have to be stronger to surpass me, to defeat me,” he said, slightly tilting his head.
Beneath his black bangs, his crimson pupils, like bloodstains, emitted an ominous hue.
He punctuated his words: “And right now, you can’t even survive against me.”
From beginning to end, he hadn’t moved a single step.
The rain grew heavier, as if white mist were rising around them.
The brown-haired boy, whose life was threatened, still stubbornly held his head high, glaring at the man with blue eyes full of fury.
Would he die?
He would.
The gap in power was vast; he was no match at all.
His already exhausted body screamed with pain, but the agony from his heart was even more unbearable.
Shuang Buyan’s words were right—he had returned, and now he was going to die.
But they were also wrong.
Now, he only hated himself for not staying by Li’s side sooner, from the very beginning.
“Your eyes are interesting,” the man, who had been toying with him like a dog, suddenly withdrew his blade.
The blade dissipated into the air, as if it had never existed.
This man’s ability was as inexplicable and arrogant as his demeanor.
“I won’t kill you today,” he said with an attitude that infuriated Yiming even more, treating Yiming as a toy for his idle amusement. “I’m looking forward to seeing how long you can hold out.”
He extended his hand, raising it casually.
Under Yiming’s furious glare, he spoke lightly.
“My name is Heige.”
In the rain, the sound of a snap echoed.
The man lazily lifted his eyes, those crimson pupils seeming to look at Yiming, yet perhaps not at all.
“I look forward to you standing before me, low-rank,” he said, emphasizing the last two words.
The next second, the brown-haired boy collapsed to the ground, falling into a puddle of rainwater and mud.
The ability was dispelled, and the arm that had vanished in Yiming’s eyes reappeared in its original form.
Li Li lowered her head, somewhat uncomfortably touching the wound on her neck.
Today, she was truly plagued by misfortunes.
“Leave him here? Or take him somewhere else?” She hesitated but quickly made up her mind.
She left Yiming on the ruins of Qing Tong’s original site, in a place with a rain shield.
After doing this, her vision blurred slightly.
The chill from facing Yue Lan earlier, combined with Dan’s attack that she hadn’t managed to dodge, made her feel as if her entire body was twisted together.
Her appearance had long since reverted to its original state.
Black hair, black eyes, wearing a long black trench coat, a red wound stretching from the corner of her eye added a touch of blood to her pale face.
Li Li lowered her gaze, her thick eyelashes framing the deep black eyes that quietly looked at the unconscious Yiming.
The white moonlight script, secured.
The great villain script, secured.
She was extremely satisfied with her arrangements.
From the beginning, she knew she and the protagonist Yiming were not on the same path.
One could say she was a refined egoist, or that she didn’t take the manga world seriously.
Even if she needed to play a false role in the manga world for popularity points, she would follow a path that suited her heart.
The heavy rain was kept at bay by her ability, and under its effect, the hem of her clothes remained untouched by dust.
The manga’s protagonist was left behind her, and she moved toward her destination.
She, Li Li, would be the most radical, sharpest blade, the most unrestrained powerhouse.
She would leave the boldest mark in this manga, becoming the irreplaceable popularity NO.1.
And she would definitely achieve it.
…
After an unknown amount of time, the rain gradually lessened, and a hint of orange-red sunlight leaked through the dark clouds.
Li Li walked along a deserted road, turning her head and squinting uncomfortably.
The light expanded, and a sunshower painted a rainbow across the sky, an illusory beauty.
Li Li swayed, clutching her forehead as dizziness hit her.
“Are you okay?”
She heard an unfamiliar voice.
Li Li looked up and saw a blond teenage boy standing before her, his red eyes seemingly filled with concern as he asked.
Blond hair, red eyes, looking obedient and a bit warm-hearted—this image…
Yiming’s friend, the one readers called the “rollover fish,” Yu Xiao?
Wasn’t he missing without a trace since the Jiao Huang arc began?
Yet here he was, suddenly appearing in Jiao Huang.
At that moment, Li Li heard the long-absent system sound.
Though only a day had passed, it felt like a lifetime.
Her eyes flickered with a daze.
[Update target achievement detected.]
[Opening channel for you…]
In that brief interval, Li Li swiftly grabbed Yu Xiao’s arm, closed her eyes, and let her body go limp, performing an on-the-spot scam.
“Don’t go…”
[Welcome back to reality.]
In the city.
She wanted free wound treatment but didn’t want to run into Yiming, thank you very much.