Part 2
Hua Yi: “…”
Luo Shizhen was impervious to both hard and soft tactics. Losing his patience, Hua Yi let go and his face cooled:
“What are you all dazing for? Continue the inspection. The Gu must still be here. Search every inch of the ground if you have to!”
Luo Shizhen carefully raised his hand: “Hua-laoshi, do we have to search too? Or can we retreat now?”
Hua Yi wanted to say “get lost.”
But he still wanted to use these students to bait Sui An out, so on second thought, he couldn’t let them go easily.
“You search too. The school should have taught you how to probe the environment and find enemies, right?”
“Iâll be right here watching to see how well Sui An has taught you.”
Luo Shizhen wanted to say that the probing class was taught by Fang-laoshi, not Sui-laoshi, but he respected his teachers. Hua Yi was a senior, after all, and he felt embarrassed to talk back, so he simply buried his head and started searching.
“Something’s not right here.”
“The bottom of this box is made of a material specifically designed to block Guardian probes. There must be something underneath.”
A young man in the Zhadao team, holding a probe, aimed it at the wooden box, took a few long-legged steps, and stood over it. Wearing protective gloves, he pushed the box open.
Then, his hand rapidly transformed until his fingers became the shape of a key. He applied force to the lock at the bottom and successfully pushed back that layer of material.
Afterward, he frowned as he looked inside.
“Captain, there’s a child.”
The young manâs hand returned to its original state. After reaching down for a moment, he withdrew it with regret:
“He’s been dead for at least three months. Likely due to some secret method, heâs maintained his appearance from when he was alive.”
He wasn’t surprised by this. Since this place could be chosen by the school as a trial ground for students, Guardians capable of detecting signs of life would have certainly screened it in advance and moved out all the ordinary people who hadn’t been touched by Pollution.
The reason this child was still here was that he was already dead.
The young man was about to lift the child out when he suddenly paused. Sensing something was wrong, he unbuttoned the child’s shirt and saw a cut-open chest, and inside, a heart that was still beating but was tainted with black Qi.
“This is…”
Hua Yi frowned as he stepped forward, looking at that distorted, misshapen beating heart that looked more like the child’s hideous, resentful face.
It couldn’t make a sound, but it seemed to be trapped inside this heart, crying out in a silent, sharp wail.
“He was an Awakener.”
The young man said: “Yes. He must have had his heart gouged out while alive. This is an occult method. Believers believe that if they gouge out an Awakenerâs heart while they’re alive and let another person eat it, that person will gain the Awakenerâs ability.”
“Under extreme pain, he developed resentment. Having been left here for so long after death, this corpse will become an Anomaly in two months at most.”
Hearing the words “gouge out the heart,” Lu Qiujinâs hand had slowly clenched.
Cheng Yunshao gave him a look but said nothing.
Hua Yi looked down at the child, who appeared peaceful, as if he were just sleeping.
He was small, probably only seven or eight years old. Likely, he hadn’t even known he had awakened an ability before he died.
Originally, he should have used his ability by accident, been discovered by Yongzhou, then entered a school with peers to study. Maybe he would have become a Guardian, or maybe he would have chosen to live an ordinary life after growing up.
Thatâs how it should have been.
Perhaps it was precisely because all those “should-haves” were strangled midway that he was so unwilling.
Hua Yi said softly: “Let him sleep.”
Lu Qiujin suddenly spoke: “Are you going to kill him?”
Hua Yi looked at Lu Qiujin, his gaze passing over his clenched fist.
He had always acted very arrogantly, but at this moment, he patiently gave a long explanation:
“Itâs not that we are going to kill him. This child is already dead. The one alive now isn’t him; itâs just an Anomaly born from his resentment.”
Lu Qiujin stared straight at the child who seemed to be in a deep sleep: “Then what if that Anomaly has intelligence? He wants to live so much; maybe he can gain the upper hand.”
Hua Yi stood above, looking down at Lu Qiujin, a different meaning entering his eyes.
“Student, your line of thinking is dangerous.”
“I can tell you directly that for thirty years, not a single Awakener who has mutated into an Anomaly has retained their previous emotions. They are just wearing a layer of the living personâs skin.”
“You think becoming an Anomaly is a continuation of this child? No. Heâs already dead, thoroughly dead. Whatâs on this heart now is just an Anomaly. It can’t even be considered half of this child; it just ate his resentment, so it could grow larger.”
Hua Yi shifted his position, blocking Lu Qiujinâs view, and signaled for them to leave.
“Students, youâre tired too. No need to look for the Gu. Go back and rest. If Yongzhou asks me for a grade, Iâll give you a passing mark.”
He smiled and clapped for himself:
“Good! Meeting adjourned! Go up and eat and drink well to replenish your energy.”
Lu Qiujin didn’t move. Luo Shizhen lightly pulled him: “Lu Qiujin, let’s go.”
The group turned and walked toward the exit.
Behind them, the young man raised his left hand. Although the childâs eyes were closed, he still covered the otherâs eyes.
His right hand turned into a sharp blade and stabbed fiercely into the small black heart.
With a muffled sound, the heart burst.
The sound was very small and had been specifically muffled; Lu Qiujin shouldn’t have heard it.
But he found that his hearing had become extremely sharp; he heard it with perfect clarity. But his vision seemed to have become blurred.
His feet also seemed to no longer obey him, and he had to stop walking.
This child was chosen as a vessel to transfer abilitiesâheart gouged out, polluted, mutated.
Just like another Lu Qiujin.
But the difference was that Lu Qiujinâs death had been delayed. Yongzhou discovered him in time, saved him, and let him live until now.
But he knew in his heart that he had already been polluted. Sooner or later, he was going to mutate.
Lu Qiujin didn’t want to die, so he told himself that if he mutated, he would definitely run away.
After mutating, he would work hard to maintain his sanity. He would still be himself, just in a different form.
But Lu Qiujin also clearly knew that Yongzhou wouldn’t sit by and let that happen. Once he mutated into an Anomaly, he would be killed quickly.
Just like this child whose experience was almost identical to his.
Lu Qiujin didn’t want to die.
âWhy is it me who has to die?
âIâve worked so hard to survive; is it all just to wait for death?
Break his brotherâs legs, break his brotherâs arms, break his brotherâs head.
Not enough, none of it was enough.
No matter how much pain and torture that family that had brought him to this state suffered, it wasn’t enough.
No matter how much pain they were in, Lu Qiujin could never return to the Lu Qiujin of the past.
And Lu Qiujin would always be in the Pollution.
Even if he became a monster, even if he lost his sanity, even if the world was destroyed, he still wanted to… live.
He just wanted to live.
“Lu Qiujin?”
Luo Shizhenâs voice reached his ears faintly.
Lu Qiujin thought dazedly: It’s Luo Shizhen.
Who was Luo Shizhen?
He seemed to be someone with very moist eyes and a constant smile on his face.
Someone who really wanted to save him.
Luo Shizhen, who was still holding his hand.
He slowly turned around, and the world before his eyes was already a sea of blood.
Luo Shizhen watched in surprise as heart after heart, steaming with heat and still beating, sprouted from Lu Qiujinâs body.
“Shizhen…”
That handsome face of his was like it was being violently pulled apart, or like there was a monster struggling under the skin to burst out of this human shell.
Anyone could see that Lu Qiujin was in the middle of an Alienation.
Wen Huâs fur stood on end, and he hurriedly ran to Luo Shizhenâs side, trying to shield him behind his back.
Luo Shizhen, however, didn’t move. His hand still tightly gripped Lu Qiujinâs hand as he stared at him in disbelief.
Hearts sprouted from Lu Qiujinâs body, and countless black lines surged under the human skin. A pair of blood-red eyes stared straight at Luo Shizhen.
He suddenly smiled: “Don’t be afraid of me.”
His voice had become unlike his own, more like a gravelly, mumbled crawl from underground, but he was still insisting on speaking.
“It won’t… change anything…”
“I will always be… Lu Qiujin.”
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