Hey! Control Yourself! - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The Advent of the Demon

An Enigma’s pupils possess a uniquely taboo, cruel aesthetic. When the “pervert” side of him manifested, that sickly countenance paired with blood-red pupils created an indescribable, intense impact.

Faced with the choice between “waiting for him to finish enjoying himself” and “interrupting him,” Shen Ji chose a third option: turning around and ignoring him.

“Leaving already? Won’t you play with me a little longer?”

Sheng Lu laughed, his expression almost bordering on tender. His laughter was hollow, lacking any sense of substance as it fell upon Shen Ji’s ears.

The flames scorched the air, making it stiflingly hot. The world around them seemed to be cracking. Shen Ji looked back at him and saw a lingering, faint flush on his face. In that instant, Shen Ji unexpectedly recalled a scene from a childhood dream.

He had been only three or four at the time. A long-haired demon appeared in his dreams, offering his pointed ears for the boy to play with; he was always incredibly gentle. Those hands loved to hold him—large and powerful, yet appearing slender. The memory wasn’t vivid enough anymore; he only remembered calling him: “Xiao Er…”.

Now that he was grown, they had reached a point of life and death.

Thinking of the Sheng Lu from his past dreams made Shen Ji’s energy feel as if it were draining again. He was overwhelmingly sleepy.

“Next time, I’m still going to kill you,” he said calmly.

Sheng Lu’s hand brushed over his own lips and neck, his fingertips bruising his lower lip with a sense of venting pleasure and a shiver. “I’ve been waiting for you…”

“Come quickly… and don’t keep being soft-hearted…” His lips moved slightly, as if a truly intense love were churning in his chest.

In response, Shen Ji took an early turn, escaping that clinging, cloying gaze.

Adjacent to the Left and Right Cities was an art museum. Various artistic sculptures floated in the air against the exterior walls. Shen Ji picked a sculpture with a smooth, comfortable curve and lay down on it. Having not slept for a day and a night, his eyelids were fighting to stay open. Against the backdrop of the distant firelight, he was ready to fall asleep the next second.

Before closing his eyes, he didn’t forget to send his location to Royce.

The night sky was covered by red meteors and massive celestial bodies. In recent years, small meteorites frequently fell onto the Gaya land. A cleverly designed frigate streaked through the night city sky, resembling a whale’s tail gliding through the deep sea.

The people below looked up at the dreamlike vessel, watching it grow from a distant speck of light into a massive presence looming over the city.

“That looks like a ‘Fifth Level’ frigate,” Akashus noted.

“Fifth Level?” Royce hadn’t heard that term even at school.

“People of the Fifth Level are all top-tier mental energy experts. They take orders from the National Union Ministry and are specifically responsible for mental energy incidents that local governments or armies cannot resolve.”

“Sounds like special forces,” Lei Yi remarked.

Akashus nodded. “But they also have targets that give them headaches. For example, the Shaxing organization and Sheng Lu have been a chronic problem the Fifth Level hasn’t been able to solve for years.”

Lei Yi rubbed his chin in agreement. “Well, he is the ‘big villain,’ after all…”

“What is a ‘big villain’?” Akashus asked. Gaya humans had no concept of a “villain.”

Suddenly, a low sonic boom echoed. The group looked up as the “whale’s belly” nearly grazed their heads, heading toward the Left and Right Cities.

At that moment, Royce suddenly remembered something. “Shen Ji hasn’t slept for a day and a night.”

Lei Yi slapped his forehead. “Ah! We forgot!”

The group opened their light-brains, followed the location, and headed back to the Left and Right Cities.

By now, the cities were a towering inferno. The night wind was violent, and the fire was unnaturally fierce, hungrily devouring everything. Over a dozen fire-fighting aircraft were hovering above the flames. From a distance, they looked like busy bees atop a blooming flower, but it was clearly futile.

The long whale-ship had suspended itself in the sky. An octagonal mechanical transmission device extended from its hull, with transport lanes passing through it, emitting a glow that illuminated the night sky. As the light faded, members of the Fifth Level landed on the rooftop of the Left and Right Cities.

“It’s them again…”

This was the most elite squad of the Fifth Level. Looking at the towering flames and the living hell before them, the group couldn’t help but frown. The captain said coldly, “Help put out the fire first.”

Suddenly, a team member’s voice rang out in shock: “Is that… Sheng Lu?”

At the top of the roof, Sheng Lu stood beneath a spiral wooden staircase, his long white hair dancing alongside the beautiful serpents of fire. The frantic flames seemed to fear the demon; they instinctively recoiled whenever they touched the hem of his clothes. Seven Shaxing members stood at various heights on the stairs, seemingly waiting for them.

Usually, Shaxing would leave without looking back after a kill, but this time they had stayed at the crime scene.

“Captain, no lifeforms detected within the entire building,” a specialist reported solemnly.

The captain’s brow furrowed. He knew that those who died in the Left and Right Cities were high-ranking officials and wealthy tycoons; this incident would surely cause a massive stir in Gaya society. Yet the culprit’s cold eyes only held a mocking smile.

For a long time, they had been unable to capture Shaxing or Sheng Lu. Even when they crossed paths, they only suffered repeated, disastrous defeats. What was almost shameful was that Sheng Lu had always looked down on the Fifth Level with utter contempt.

“How arrogant, Sheng Lu. Are you waiting for us to arrest you?” the captain asked coldly.

Hearing this, Sheng Lu finally shifted his gaze to the newcomer. He raised a hand leisurely. “You’re overthinking. Why would I wait for you?”

“Why waste words on them? Let’s just do it, Captain…” a hot-headed team member said, a glowing mental energy shell condensing in his hand. He was a newcomer recently recruited into the Fifth Level and didn’t yet understand how terrifying Shaxing was.

The captain frowned and was about to speak when a figure from Shaxing lunged forward, drawing a blade. It was a “zero-frame” start—a blur of speed and murderous intent. In an instant, their mental energies collided and entangled.

The newcomer was forced back repeatedly, sparks and lightning flying. In the end, the momentum nearly threw him off the building, saved only by a teammate who flashed over to pull him back. In a mere heartbeat, the Fifth Level had been defeated.

The newcomer’s face was pale with defeat. He sat there with immense resentment; being young and vigorous, he had been full of himself after solving a few cases involving strong mental energy users recently. But this single exchange with a Shaxing member had ruthlessly shattered his pride.

The captain had a headache. He knew his squad was no match for Shaxing. Fortunately, the other side hadn’t sought direct confrontation over the years, so he usually held back to avoid casualties. But now Sheng Lu was sitting right in front of him, and below was a building full of corpses and raging fire. As a Fifth Level squad leader, he could not retreat.

“Fine, it’s time for a proper meeting.” The captain stepped forward, his body covered in a soft glow of mental energy. His skin transformed into fine scales with a sharp luster. This was a rare “Beast-man” physique among Gaya people, which naturally possessed more strength and speed than pure-human mental energy experts.

Seeing the captain ready to go all out, the Fifth Level personnel stared tensely at the opposition, everyone beginning to build up their momentum.

“I don’t feel like fighting,” Sheng Lu said, closing his eyes.

This single sentence nearly caused the captain’s built-up mental energy to collapse. Then don’t stand at the crime scene, you bastard! the captain cursed inwardly.

“What exactly are you trying to do, Sheng Lu?” He now suspected the other party was brewing a much larger plot.

Sheng Lu smiled. “A little friend of mine is sleeping. Your ‘grand’ way of showing up will scare him and keep him from sleeping well.”

“Who? Who’s sleeping?”

The Fifth Level members shifted their gazes up and down, looking through the Shaxing organization, but no one was asleep. They turned their heads, searching the night. Finally, on a floating sculpture outside the adjacent building’s wall, they saw a sleeping figure. In the darkness, only a head of short black hair reflecting the firelight was visible. He looked eighteen or nineteen.

The captain twitched. “This is the ‘little friend’ you mentioned? Since when did you become a kindergarten principal?”

“As you can see,” Sheng Lu surprisingly did not argue.

The newcomer stood there in frustration. He didn’t understand why his captain was being so accommodating to an infamous murder organization and so polite to a demon. The Fifth Level, which he had viewed as the highest authority and ideal for the first half of his life, felt different today. It was no longer an invincible entity.

By extension, he felt deeply insulted. Desperate to prove something, his gaze wandered until it landed on Shen Ji. He took him for a Shaxing member and decided he was likely the weakest and most defenseless among them. He could strike without hesitation.

And so, he committed the greatest mistake of his life.

The mental energy shell in his hand, unable to suppress its stored energy any longer, was shoved outward with force. The target was the person sleeping on the sculpture. Although it was an energy bomb made of mental power—slower than a real bullet or cannon, at such close range, it was almost impossible to intercept.

In this sudden turn of events, neither side could react in time.

When Royce and the others arrived at the building by following the location, this was the scene they witnessed. The energy from the shell emitted a blinding light, searing the eyes in the darkness as it roared toward the sleeping Shen Ji.

“Oh no!” Lei Yi’s eyes went wide.

A deafening explosion rang out. Everyone’s clothes and hair were whipped by the aftershock. Behind the swirling smoke came the sound of crumbling stone and brick. As the smoke cleared, a massive crater had been blasted into the exterior wall of the building.

“Shen Ji!!” Lei Yi screamed, his voice piercing the silent night.

Royce said, “Don’t forget, even when Shen Ji is asleep, he still has the ‘cocoon’ around him. He’ll be fine.” Despite saying this, seeing the power of the energy shell, even he lacked confidence.

“Wait! Look, that’s… Sheng Lu…” Sha Mo’s eyes were wide with disbelief.

At the top of the art museum building, Sheng Lu was holding Shen Ji in both arms. Because he had entered the strike zone of the cocoon, his hands were shredded and bloody from the silk threads, trembling violently. As long as he didn’t let go, the attack would not stop for a single second. Despite this, he remained unmoved.

Everyone stared in shock at Sheng Lu. They saw silver-blue ear fins emerge, and fine scales flickered across his face. His eyes were entirely crimson, with no white showing.

It was as if a true demon had descended upon the world.