The Cannon Fodder Also Has a Will to Survive [Rebirth] - Chapter 13

An Jiu dashed toward the youth, rubbing back and forth against his shins. The aroma of the roast chicken was so intoxicating that he nearly began to drool.

Lin Jingyuan finally set the food box down, but before An Jiu could pounce on it, he was hoisted into the air a scene strikingly similar to their very first meeting.

Lin Jingyuan held the kitten up, their eyes meeting. “You really did come back to life exactly as you were before.”

An Jiu’s little brain whirred. He wondered why this human kept lifting him up instead of letting him eat. Hearing the words “exactly as you were,” An Jiu worried that perhaps there was something about his current state that displeased the boy. After pondering for a long time, the kitten felt the youth finally set him back down.

By now, he wasn’t even craving the roast chicken anymore. Compared to a single meal, this human—the long-term provider of food, was far more important.

Lin Jingyuan, however, was haunted by the kitten’s previous state. He had broken out of the facility after awakening his Second Form, but he had been a step too late. When he finally found the kitten, its limbs had been shattered and its neck wrung. The delicate spine had been completely snapped, with only a thin layer of skin on the back of the neck still holding the head to the body.

It was the very spot Lin Jingyuan had just been holding.

A sharp pang of pain shot through Lin Jingyuan’s heart. He didn’t know how the kitten had been resurrected, but he feared it might still feel the pain of that death.

An Jiu rushed over, trying to use his claws to climb up Lin Jingyuan’s robes. In a flash of inspiration, he remembered a sentence the youth had once uttered: “If only you could speak.”

An Jiu stumbled through the sounds, letting out a thin, milky voice that was decidedly not a meow. He said, “Hold me.”

It doesn’t sound much different from a kitten’s cry, Lin Jingyuan thought. He wasn’t particularly shocked; far more bizarre things had already occurred. Besides, was he not an existence that defied conventional logic himself?

Lin Jingyuan leaned down, carefully picking the kitten up and cradling it in his palms. “Are you a monster?”

The kitten smacked its lips, its tiny voice sounding soft and sweet. “Are you a monster?”

Lin Jingyuan recalled his own mutated state under the influence of the drugs and assumed the kitten had recognized him as its own kind. “I am not a monster.”

“I am not a monster,” An Jiu repeated.

“…” Lin Jingyuan felt like this “little idiot” was simply mimicking him, but he asked another question regardless. “Then, what are you?”

“Then, what are you?” An Jiu mirrored.

Lin Jingyuan rubbed the kitten’s head, a hint of a smile appearing in his eyes. “No matter what you are, as long as you are alive, it is enough.”

“Good, good, good!” An Jiu had finished his imitation game and offered the youth a bright smile.

At this point, Lin Jingyuan no longer harbored any negative emotions or regrets within the Heart Demon Realm, and the illusion began to collapse.

This was the first time in a thousand years that Lin Jingyuan had broken out of his Heart Demon Realm without being drained to the point of near-death. In past illusions, no one had ever intruded; he was forced to relive those dark memories in a loop.

In the original timeline, he had endured the Beast-Crafting Pavilion until all the other hybrids were dead. His own mutation had reached the Eighth Level, and only after absorbing the malice and darkness of countless people did, he awaken his demonic bloodline to escape.

But the illusion would not end there. In the past, he had lost his humanity entirely, slaughtering not only the pavilion staff but the entire Imperial City. This eventually drew the attention of the Cultivation World. He was captured, taken back to the sects, and subjected to endless torture. His mother, sensing his bloodline, died trying to rescue him. For the next several hundred years, Lin Jingyuan lived only for revenge, surviving life-or-death trials in dangerous secret realms.

Six hundred years ago, he finally exacted his revenge on the sect that captured him and returned to the Demonic Realm to slaughter the demons who had originally exiled his mother. A hundred years later, he unified the Demonic Realm and ascended the throne as Emperor. The Heart Demon usually ended at this peak.

As the surroundings dissolved into nothingness, the Lin Jingyuan within the illusion regained his true memories. He immediately realized that the orange kitten who had altered his Heart Demon was an intruder.

As for who the intruder was Lin Jingyuan didn’t have a shred of doubt. He raised his hand and placed a Seal on the kitten’s forehead. Though it was a Heart Demon Realm, Lin Jingyuan remained its sovereign; once his consciousness was restored, his word was law.

He sealed the kitten’s vision so it could not see his true appearance and altered its memories, ensuring the boy would believe he had never seen Lin Jingyuan’s face from the start.

After emerging from the illusion, the dim palace was instantly illuminated by lamps.

Lin Jingyuan woke before An Jiu. With a sweep of his divine sense, he found An Jiu unconscious by the palace gates. The little idiot must have trespassed into the Forbidden Palace and been dragged into the illusion by the overflow of Heart Demon energy.

He didn’t suspect anything more sinister. In his mind, An Jiu was simply a “scheming yet brainless” figure. However, remembering the silly kitten that had died for him in the illusion, Lin Jingyuan felt his heart soften. He knew that outsiders pulled into a Heart Demon Realm do not retain their original memories; An Jiu didn’t exist a thousand years ago in the Great Feng Dynasty, so it was only natural he had no memory of it.

Thus, Lin Jingyuan did not doubt An Jiu’s motives. He picked the boy up in a bridal carry—not even realizing how much care he was taking with the movement.

When An Jiu opened his eyes, he was in a daze. He had entered Lin Jingyuan’s Heart Demon Realm! And he had been a devoted “licking cat”!

He was doomed. In the entire Cultivation World, who didn’t know that the Demonic Emperor was incredibly petty? He had killed everyone who knew his past! An Jiu felt he probably wouldn’t live much longer.

Not only did he know the Emperor almost became a literal cat, but he also knew he had been displayed as a plaything for low-life humans, was this a plot point a “cannon fodder” like him was supposed to know? The more secrets you know, the faster you die!

An Jiu gnawed on his fingernails in frustration a lingering habit from being a cat in the illusion. As a kitten, whenever he was embarrassed or thinking, he would lick his paws and gnaw on them.

But wait, doesn’t the original book say An Yunge was the one who entered the Heart Demon Realm? That’s how they bonded in the secret realm!

Why was An Jiu so scared? If An Yunge could bond with the Emperor, why couldn’t he? It wasn’t a lack of confidence it was just his terrible luck!

In the original book, An Yunge accidentally entered the Heart Demon Realm, but he only met Lin Jingyuan after the Emperor’s mother had rescued him. During that timeframe, An Yunge didn’t know about the dark past; he simply accompanied Lin on his journey to the throne.

Men are all like this, An Jiu thought. They only like those they meet during their success. They view their lowest points as a disgrace and those who witnessed that disgrace as thorns in their side.

He had seriously offended Lin Jingyuan this time, even if it wasn’t his intention. Wait, I was knocked out by An Yunge. Is it possible An Yunge can control the entry point? Did he do this to frame me on purpose?

The more An Jiu thought, the angrier he became. His pretty face twisted with rage.

“Finished thinking?”

Lin Jingyuan had been observing him for a long time. This “little idiot” truly didn’t show him any respect. From the moment he woke up, he had been lost in his own thoughts, his face cycling through eight hundred different expressions without even noticing the Emperor standing right there.

An Jiu jumped in fright, bolting upright on the bed. He turned to see Lin Jingyuan leaning against a nearby chaise longue, a scroll in his elegant, slender hand. After speaking, the Emperor didn’t even look at An Jiu, calmly turning a page.

Perhaps because they had just left the illusion, An Jiu still felt a lingering sense of dependency on Lin Jingyuan. Even though the current Lin Jingyuan was wearing a “hideous” mask/face, he didn’t find anything wrong with it nor could he remember what Lin Jingyuan had actually looked like in the illusion.

“I was thrown in here by An Yunge! He’s so evil!” An Jiu instinctively began to tattle. Essentially, it’s not my fault, you can’t settle the score with me.

An Jiu wore his intentions clearly in his eyes. Lin Jingyuan only had to look at him once to understand what he was planning.

“An Yunge was severely injured in Minchuan and remains unconscious even now. If you want to exonerate yourself, at least find a better excuse.”

Lin Jingyuan still trusted An Yunge’s character; he didn’t seem like the type to hold a petty grudge.

A flash of disappointment crossed An Jiu’s eyes. He should have known. No matter what bond he shared with these people, the moment An Yunge was involved, they would never believe him. No wonder An Yunge dared to frame him so blatantly, he knew An Jiu had zero credibility with Lin Jingyuan.

Lin Jingyuan appeared not to be paying attention, but he hadn’t missed a single expression. Seeing the desolation in the boy’s eyes, his chest felt strangely tight. He told himself that as a “keeper,” he shouldn’t be too harsh on his “pet.”

“Fine. I didn’t say I was going to punish you.”

An Jiu’s heart sank even further. He looked at Lin Jingyuan and asked tremulously, “Are… are you going to just kill me directly then?”

An Jiu hadn’t forgotten that he was supposed to be the “medicine” for An Yunge. Since “today is as good a day as any,” was the Emperor going to sacrifice him to An Yunge right now?

Lin Jingyuan frowned. When had he ever said he would kill him? Even before the Heart Demon Realm, he had never made such a threat. What exactly was this “little idiot” hallucinating?

Before Lin Jingyuan could speak, An Jiu continued grumbling with deep resentment, “When An Yunge falls into your Heart Demon Realm, the two of you fall in love. When I fall into your Heart Demon, you just want to slaughter me being a ‘cannon fodder’ really isn’t for humans. Is a cannon fodder’s life not a life?”

Lin Jingyuan: “…”

What is he babbling about?

Lin Jingyuan tried to process the nonsense, but it made no sense. After An Jiu finished his rant, the Emperor set his book down, stood up, and walked to the bedside. He looked down at the boy from his height and asked, “So, you want ‘the two of us to fall in love’?”

That was the only piece of information in that entire rant that Lin Jingyuan could actually wrap his head around.