47 Please Save Me (1/2)

Faced with the metallic wind, Bai Xi closed her eyes, waiting for the blood to tear her apart. This would be okay. This was okay. Maybe if she died, he’d be able to escape.

”I’m sorry. I don’t want to live anymore,” she thought. Out loud, she whispered, ”I’m sorry…”

But then, an angry roar sounded. A hand suddenly reached over, interrupting the almost frozen moment. It clutched her hand in a death grasp, pulling her into his embrace.

And Ye Qingxuan flew up. An invisible force crashed against him, as if wanting to reduce him to dust. He could even hear the sound of his bones cracking.

He tumbled through the air, and fell onto the ground. He coughed in immense pain. Strings of thick blood flowed freely from the gaping wounds on his back. The white of his bones was visible.

Thankfully he blocked the attack at the last moment with his left hand. It was numb. The broken bones pierced through the skin. It looked comical and laughable.

He saw countless shadows attracted to blood flow, blocking the entire room. They buzzed with energy, tracking them down like wild dogs. They seemed to sense the resonance from the formless ghosts and slowly gathered towards him.

He tried crawling, but his body no longer moved. If it had not been for the hallucination that had blocked out all physical pain, he would have had passed out long ago. But if he had died in that state, it would have been better than seeing death come for him with open eyes.

He sighed, feeling the girl tremble in his embrace.

”Didn’t you want to go home?” He used the last of his strength to hug her close, for the last time. Sighing, he breathed out, ”Be good and listen, Bai Xi.”

”Sorry, sorry…” He said. Sticky blood flowed down from his neck, falling into his lap. The girl made a strangled noise. Was she scared?

She must have been scared this time.

Would she be more obedient? Please be a bit more obedient.

”Look at you. It’s all my fault. I’m sorry.” Bai Xi’s tears splattered onto his neck.

”This is my first time hearing you apologize. I can’t believe it’s under this situation.” Ye Qingxuan wanted to laugh, but he did not know how to.

He truly wanted to comfort her and say, ”Don’t be scared. No matter what happens, this will end and we’ll live happily ever after. There will always be a turn at the most hopeless moment…” But things did not just end in this world, and there was not always a turnaround at every hopeless moment.

This world was so cruel and scary. If only he could say those heartwarming and pretty words, and help more people like Bai Xi and him from the past. But with some things, he was powerless.

Yes, this was how it truly was. No matter how many times the story would repeat, the ending was still the same.

From the bottom of his heart came a mocking voice, full of contempt and disdain. ”Ye Qingxuan, haven’t you already experienced this feeling before? Have you ever believed your lies, even for just a second?”

Avalon was big. It was full of people drunk on money and wealth, but it had no room for someone without a home. It was no place for the weak.

If only time stopped in the past.

If only it stopped during that snowy night—the only night he was able to sleep peacefully.

Just like now, hugging someone like him, feeling warmth within his arms.

This was good—a hundred times better than fire, a thousand times better than eyes filled with pity. No matter how cruel and cold the world was, there was nothing to fear, not even death, as long as he was with his own people. As long as he was no longer lonely.

But everyone was lonely in the world.

”You hug the girl in your arms, wanting to protect her until the end. But do you hear how she cries?

”Her heart is buried in the abyss; she can’t find you with her eyes.

”And you are still powerless.”

--

Hariti’s wails shattered the stillness once again.

Her high-pitched wails echoed through the sewer. Multiple limbs squirmed within the blood mist, as if something was crawling out of hell.

Their shapes kept changing. Sometimes they were a headless prisoner, other times they were a three-headed dog, or a pile of scales like a deep sea monster. The twisted formless ghosts transformed and crawled out of the blood.

It was the resentment called forth by reading the aether here. The piles of white bones buried in the deep well from over the years was their source of energy. The music score manipulated the resentment, transforming them into monsters and demons for Hariti.

”Tiryagyoni · Prologue”—Way of the Animal.

Its power had not been fully unleashed until now. It danced crazily in the darkness.