The Eleventh Year of Making Hate with My Lover - Chapter 22

Shen Wang stepped forward and sat down next to Wu Que.

The surface beneath his feet felt slightly elastic, much like the body of a whale. Shen Wang could not help but touch it; it felt slick and oily to the touch.

Watching his actions, a flicker of eccentricity flashed through Wu Que’s eyes. He cleared his throat and spoke slowly, “If you have something to say, say it now. There won’t be any more disruptions.”

Shen Wang thought for a moment. “You asked me what that child had in his hands… After I bumped into him, he dropped a lantern. The style was quite similar to the one I saw before entering the Cocoon Domain. Is that what you are looking for?”

“Yes.” Wu Que nodded, his gaze drifting toward the barren wasteland in the distance. “Since I arrived, this Cocoon Domain has already repeated itself once, but I have never been able to get my hands on it.”

Shen Wang asked, “Is that the key to breaking the Cocoon Domain?”

Wu Que shook his head and let out a soft laugh. “You could say yes, and you could say no. The existence of the illusion is indeed sustained by that lantern. However, to clear a Cocoon Domain, one naturally must eliminate the anomaly directly.” He turned to look at Shen Wang. “You figured it out a long time ago, didn’t you? Celine, the girl who plays your sister in this scenario, is the Domain Master.”

Shen Wang offered a quiet grunt of agreement. “Only the environments and people she is familiar with appear clear. But judging by her behavior, she doesn’t seem to realize that this is an illusion of her own creation.”

“That is not her actual body,” Wu Que explained. “It’s just a fraction of her consciousness projected into this space. She cares deeply about this past; you could say her obsession has manifested into a demon.”

“Our abilities have been disabled, so we can’t trace her true form for now. Our best option at the moment is to follow the plot. This Cocoon Domain is far too massive to sustain itself for long. When the time comes, her true form will naturally manifest.”

Wu Que pondered further. “To have lasted this long, who knows what kind of contraband she used. That is also something we need to investigate.”

How much longer do I have to play this role… Shen Wang frowned, his hand absentmindedly pinching a transparent, vertical tip sprouting near his feet.

Oh right, it seems I forgot the actual business.

Shen Wang asked, “That Mr. D—did you find him?”

Wu Que shrugged indifferently. “I happened to run into him, and you saw him today too. However, the man has already lost himself in the Cocoon Domain. If you want to wake him up, you’ll have to wait until the domain ends… You better ensure his safety; don’t let him die in here.”

Shen Wang had a bad premonition. “…He Di?”

Wu Que smiled slightly. “Bingo. The little anomaly and her miserable fiancé.”

“…” Wonderful.

Mr. D was truly an unlucky bastard. Not only had he fallen into the Cocoon Domain, but he had also become the BOSS’s bedfellow.

What a hassle.

Shen Wang sighed internally, his hand once again kneading that little tip. It felt incredibly springy and gel-like.

Sitting beside him, Wu Que finally couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed Shen Wang by the wrist. “…Stop touching that spot. It tickles.”

A faint blush crept over his fair, beautiful face as he explained, “Everything you see inside this spiritual sea every single object is me.”

“…” Shen Wang withdrew his hand awkwardly. The fingers that had just been rubbing the object suddenly felt scalding hot, leaving him at a total loss for where to put them.

He hesitated before speaking, “Then… what we are sitting on…”

“Is also me.” Wu Que leaned in close so close that they could feel each other’s breath. He suddenly pulled Shen Wang up and leaped down from the high vantage point. “Do you want to see my true form?”

Shen Wang looked back at the place where they had just been sitting. That massive “hillside” began to rise slowly once more. A hurricane whipped up around them, and a low, resonant humming echoed from the depths of the abyss. The entity that rose was vastly different from what they had previously seen in the incubation pod; its volume was dozens of times larger than it had been back then. It was entirely transparent, shimmering with a faint blue light. Countless massive, blue-and-pink eyeballs hovered before Shen Wang like mirrors, reflecting nothing but his solitary silhouette within their pupils.

A transparent tentacle extended from the abyss, presenting itself before Shen Wang.

From a distance, the tentacle looked completely clear, but upon closer inspection, it shimmered with a kaleidoscopic, iridescent glow. It felt smooth and slick to the touch, flattened into a single strand like a ribbon on a dress.

It was beautiful…

A massive ringing erupted in Shen Wang’s head. His body felt completely weightless, and his eyes were locked entirely on this colossal, aberrant creature  with its twitching, pointed ears and flat tentacles. There were so many eyes; the blue ones resembled the sky, sheets of ice, and deep lakes, while the pink ones looked like dye gradually bleeding into water.

Wu Que admired the view. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” But when he turned his head, he noticed that Shen Wang’s expression was somewhat dazed as he stepped forward as if entranced.

Shen Wang caressed a crystal-clear eyeball. He felt the eye tremble and shut tightly under his touch, only to tremble again as it blinked open. The friction caused a cool fluid to seep out from within.

Oh no… Wu Que covered his mouth, sensing trouble.

He rarely showed anyone his true form, so much so that he had entirely forgotten that his true entity had the power to destabilize a person’s psyche.

……

Shen Wang was still in a daze when he was ejected from the spiritual sea; for a brief moment, he didn’t even realize he had returned to the Cocoon Domain.

Entering and being granted access to a spiritual sea drained a massive amount of psychic energy, leaving both men panting for breath. Wu Que tried to stand up, but his legs buckled, causing him to collapse right into Shen Wang’s embrace.

Shen Wang remained disoriented, the image of that massive, beautiful creature still flashing through his mind. He looked down at Wu Que’s eyes and the slits right beneath them. Those slits looked like scales, adorning the lower rims of his eyes, flaring open and closed in sync with his breathing. Looking deeper into the slits, one could see eyeballs trembling inside.

Now that the spiritual sea was closed, those abnormal slits began to shut and recede. Entranced, Shen Wang reached out a finger and probed inside.

“It hurts…” The person in his arms shuddered.

…

…

The kissing grew increasingly fierce as it went on, as if he wanted to tear the other man apart and swallow him whole, fusing him into his very flesh and blood. As their teeth clashed, the sharp, metallic taste of blood spread, finally shocking Shen Wang back to his senses.

When their lips parted, a very thin silver thread of saliva stretched between them.

…

…

“I…” A low, hoarse voice forced its way out of Shen Wang’s throat with great difficulty.

He could still feel it…

Shen Wang turned his head away, his eyes downcast. After a long silence, he said, “I’m sorry.”