VAP - Chapter 158
Chapter 158: The Intersection of Illusion and Reality (23)
“I will always be on Sister’s side.”
This sentence, paired with Ji You’s deep, focused eyes and slightly curved, crimson lips, was an absolute killer blow. Even if she wasn’t swayed by beauty, what Yue Du couldn’t handle most were coquettish displays and direct approaches.
And now, Ji You was doing both.
“Sister, why aren’t you saying anything?” Ji You asked in a soft tone, noticing her dazed expression.
Yue Du paused, suddenly realizing that this situation wasn’t exactly suitable for contemplating the differences in perspective between partners.
So she suppressed the small doubt that had just surfaced, raised her hand, and tapped her host on the forehead. In a hushed voice, she said, “We got a little sidetracked. Unconditional support? Aren’t you afraid I’ll lead you into a ditch? Before you take a side, discuss your thoughts with me first. Not just about this, but for everything in the future, too.”
Ji You replied obediently, “Oh.” Then she added, “I just knew Sister likes me and wouldn’t let me be wronged.”
Yue Du’s face flushed. Unable to resist, she tapped her again before turning to listen to the Scarlet Beast’s leadership-style speech, using it as a chance to cool down.
Having just declared her stance, Ji You now looked at the high-level Scarlet Beast as if they shared a common enemy. It was a completely different gaze from before, when she had simply seen it as food—from Gluttony’s perspective—or as a species with an unpleasant appearance.
Gulun’s speech was nearing its end. The young cub remained silent the entire time, merely watching its father with a look of reverence and dependence.
When Gulun asked, “Do you have any questions?” Yue Du spoke up. “The people you said would make us uneasy… are you referring to?”
Gulun sneered. “You should have guessed. That’s right, it’s those humans who don’t easily fall into illusions. What do they call it… Reality ability users, I think.”
Using the mixed-blood kin to assassinate the Reality ability users among the humans?
Yue Du’s gaze fell on the young cub, her expression gradually turning grave.
A talent that would be astonishing among humans was merely “not bad” in the eyes of the Scarlet Beasts, which was enough to demonstrate the overall strength of the mixed-blood kin.
It wasn’t hard to imagine that the mixed-bloods who infiltrated human strongholds would easily become hunters. With their outstanding talents, it would only be a matter of time before they could get close to Reality ability users and earn their trust.
The power of Reality ability users was demonstrated in their fight against the Scarlet Beasts. But when faced with mixed-bloods who didn’t rely on illusions, death would be a foreseeable outcome if they let their guard down.
In a sense, the very formation of human strongholds was built on the existence of Reality ability users. Without a backbone of people who could see through illusions, humanity would be completely defenseless against the Scarlet Beasts.
It was no exaggeration to say that Reality ability users were a precious asset to all of humanity. The loss of even one was an irrecoverable blow.
The Scarlet Beasts targeting the Reality ability users was a fatal move. If they could kill a large number of them in one fell swoop, humanity would, at best, suffer a great blow to its vitality. At worst, it would return to the dark ages of being controlled by the Scarlet Beasts.
But if that was the case, one thing didn’t make sense.
“We will do our utmost to achieve our goal and live up to the glory of our kin, but…” Yue Du frowned, looking very puzzled. “Our eyes… won’t they be discovered by the Reality ability users?”
Gulun’s expression was odd. It thought to itself, Why does this kin have so many questions? Is it because she grew up with humans that she overthinks everything?
It said contemptuously, “You grew up in a human nest. Have you ever been discovered all these years?”
Yue Du shook her head.
Gulun said, “Then what are you worried about? Even humans who can see through the illusions I create won’t notice anything unusual about you.”
Its tone was too certain. Yue Du suddenly thought of something, activated the Silent Watcher, and looked again at the eyes of the mixed-blood cub beside her. Even under the probe of absolute reality, those eyes remained dark brown.
According to the Scarlet Beast, this was a disguise, but any false disguise would be unable to hide from the Watcher.
Either the mixed-bloods had some special quality that made them an exception, capable of perfectly concealing the truth; or there was no disguise at all. Both the scarlet pupils and the dark brown ones inherited from their human mothers were their true forms, and they could simply switch between them at will.
The latter was the more likely possibility.
Seeing that these kin had no intention of asking more questions, Gulun said with satisfaction, “If you still can’t kill those humans who live only by their eyes, then you don’t deserve to bear the name of our kin’s descendants. Return after you succeed. If you fail, die in your human forms. Otherwise, you will jeopardize the grand plan of our people, and the spirits of our ancestors will never accept you again.”
After speaking, it turned to its two companions. “Take them to that human nest we scouted last time. Just leave them in the nearby woods.” Someone is bound to find them.
Ji You suddenly spoke up. “Why not send us to that large nest in the north?”
Her voice was too nonchalant; she couldn’t even feign the devout, reverent, and submissive tone of the Scarlet Beast kin. Gulun seemed to raise its eyes in confusion for a moment, but it quickly returned to normal and said strangely, “Go there to get yourselves killed?”
The large nest in the north was the Northern Stronghold, controlled by the Ji family. Yue Du couldn’t help but become vigilant. Could it be that the Ji family had some secret weapon that could make a high-level Scarlet Beast this wary?
However, the truth was completely different from what she had imagined. It was a secret weapon, all right, but one from the past.
What Gulun feared was Ji You herself, who had guarded the area outside the stronghold seven years ago.
“That human nest has long been guarded by something else. It is likely a demon that feeds on my kind. Once you get close, there’s no coming back,” Gulun described with great seriousness. “Under no circumstances can we covet Its territory. Just let the humans in there fend for themselves.”
Yue Du: “…”
Ji You, with a look of “this has nothing to do with me”: “…”
Mr. High-Level Scarlet Beast, is your information a little out of date—
The demon you mentioned that feeds on Scarlet Beasts couldn’t wait to run off with someone seven years ago, and she didn’t even look back. And right now, she’s standing right in front of you, old sir, looking at you like you’re an idiot.
Watching the three Scarlet Beasts leave with the young cub, Yue Du and her host’s gazes met. With a tacit understanding, they both stopped in place and didn’t follow.
“Sister, what do you think this is?” Ji You said, casually kicking the red crystal.
The crystal swayed. It seemed to tremble with a mixture of fear and anger, but in the end, it suppressed its rage and settled down, pretending to be just an ordinary stone.
Yue Du thought for a moment. “The structure of this crystal doesn’t belong to this world. The Scarlet Beasts must have brought it from their native small world. It also carries something else… A will? A soul?”
The word “soul” reminded her of something, and Yue Du turned to look at Ji You.
Ji You drew out her words, “A soul…” The implication couldn’t have been thicker.
Gluttony’s resistant voice sounded from the mental space: “I can’t hear you, don’t come to me. There’s no way I’m eating this thing. It smells like a compressed biscuit.”
A cabbage-flavored one at that!
Ji You ignored her other self’s protest. Not wanting to touch the red crystal directly, she tapped the base beneath it intermittently with the tip of her shoe, making no effort to hide her threatening tone. “You. You can hear me, can’t you.”
The crystal trembled, this time with particular obviousness.
Ji You said coldly, “Cut the cheap tricks. You should have sensed it. I can drag you out of that shell and use you as a supplement. Want to try?”
The crystal made a final struggle. A faint, thin, almost invisible light red mist silently seeped out, its target the seemingly more harmless Yue Du standing nearby.
Ji You’s eyes sharpened. However, before she could make a move, Yue Du lifted her leg and delivered a swift, precise, and ruthless kick to the crystal, right in the spot Ji You had just been tapping.
Yue Du didn’t hold back. No matter how mysterious the crystal was or how much power it contained, its vessel was still just a fragile piece of crystal.
Accompanied by a faint cracking sound, several fissures spread evenly across its surface. The mist was hastily withdrawn at ten times the speed it had been released.
The crystal began to vibrate desperately, signaling its submission, but its act of targeting Yue Du had thoroughly enraged Ji You.
She half-lowered her eyes and said softly, “It seems you didn’t take my words seriously.”
Almost as soon as the words fell, Jealousy and Gluttony completed a brief transfer of control.
Gluttony opened her eyes. She first confirmed that Yue Du hadn’t hurt her foot with that kick, then turned to the red crystal with a cold smile, revealing neat rows of pearly white teeth. Two sharp little canines were particularly conspicuous.
“I don’t like eating compressed biscuits, but sometimes I don’t mind a little nutritional supplement.”
The ability of Devouring didn’t just work on living things; any power contained within a soul could be food for Gluttony.
The crystal couldn’t make a sound, otherwise it certainly wouldn’t have held back its screams and would have shouted “I surrender” a hundred times. Unfortunately, reality was that it could only tremble violently, trying to escape the pull of that black hole to preserve more of itself.
Even so, when the chilling storm subsided, the crystal had turned from red to a pale pink. Only near the base did a layer of scarlet remain, faint and dying, as if it had run out of ink just as it started coloring.
Although it looked quite pitiful, one couldn’t ignore the powerful energy it concealed. It was an aggregation of a race’s remnant souls, an automatic machine capable of creating numerous brainwashed kin.
Gluttony, enraged by its act of secretly attacking her sister (a decision that was, in hindsight, extremely foolish), had forced herself to swallow a bellyful of bland, cabbage-flavored compressed biscuits, yet still hadn’t absorbed all of its power.
Overeating would cause her to fall into a long slumber. Practice makes perfect; Gluttony transferred control of the body without any noticeable sign of abnormality and sank into the deep waters of the subconscious within the mental space.
Jealousy seamlessly took over and continued speaking to the dying crystal, “So, have you thought it over, hmm?”
How could the crystal dare to try any more tricks? It humiliatingly released a segment of memory.
This segment of memory belonged to many Scarlet Beasts. It began twenty years ago, when the Scarlet Beasts first discovered that they, too, could produce mixed-blood offspring with humans.
The mixed-bloods were humanoid with scarlet eyes and possessed the ability to change their eye color. They were natural-born assassins… assassins targeting humans.
And so, in just the second year, at the strong urging of several high-level Scarlet Beasts, the kin began their experiments.
—And Ji You was the sole survivor of the first batch of test subjects.
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