The Eleventh Year of Making Hate with My Lover - Chapter 8

The person kissed him while wrapping his arms around him, slowly drifting back toward the surface.

……

Back on the shore, Shen Wang felt dazed for a moment. Just now…

Passing breath is one thing, but how…

“Did you just… stick your tongue out?” he asked in disbelief.

Wu Que leaned over the shore, most of his body submerged in the water. Numerous transparent tentacles were wrapped around his waist, drifting on the surface like the lace trim of a skirt. The light of the Star Sand fell upon his face; in the flickering shadows, it added an exotic and distinct charm to his cold, detached features.

“What did you see just now?” Wu Que replied with a question, lightly licking his lips.

“……” At the memory of the scene just now, Shen Wang lowered his eyes: “Just a strange hallucination.”

“Your eyes are red.” The water droplets hanging from Wu Que’s eyelashes rolled off, one after another.

Shen Wang remained expressionless: “Water got in my eyes; it’s irritating.”

“Oh.” Wu Que nodded in agreement: “Wait for me a moment; I’ll go deal with him.”

Shen Wang watched as he dove back underwater.

Soon after, another massive burst of blue light exploded beneath the water, blooming into a patch of deep scarlet.

Countless tiny, thin fragments coated with specks of light drilled out of the water and gradually dissipated into the sky. Shen Wang reached out to intercept one. It felt bone-chillingly cold, and a short memory was forcibly crammed into his mind:

In a dim laboratory, a researcher in a white coat looked at the half-human, half-snake monster on the bed with pity: “A pity. It only evolved halfway; its consciousness isn’t very clear.”

The black-haired youth sitting in a chair nearby leaned back languidly: “How do you intend to dispose of it?”

The researcher shrugged: “A useless blessing ability; it makes the whole lab smell like fishy seafood. I’ve decided to throw it into a remote fishing village.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Professor Shen. Please hurry up and research the latest reagent.”

The researcher reached out, but the youth in the chair didn’t give him any face, rising to his feet: “Are we evolving humans, or creating ghosts?”

Watching his retreating back, the researcher let out a scoff. He looked at the monster on the bed and spoke to himself: “We are, in fact, creating a god.”

……

As the fragment in his hand dissipated, the blurred scene came to an abrupt end. Shen Wang stared blankly at the specks of light that had gradually vanished into thin air.

Wu Que surfaced, tucking his damp hair behind his ears, and squinted at the direction where Shen Wang was staring blankly: “After a Spirit-Awakening Master or a supernatural entity dies, the spiritual core within them will shatter and vanish. Isn’t it ironic? In a way, we and these entities are one and the same.”

Shen Wang felt a bit bewildered: “I saw a memory of his.”

Wu Que didn’t deny it: “As the carrier of supernatural abilities, the spiritual core not only provides a continuous flow of energy but also possesses the function of replicating memories.”

Replicating memories? Shen Wang captured this key information. If a spiritual core could replicate memories, then as long as he found the spiritual core from his previous life, wouldn’t he be able to…

Shen Wang asked with a sense of urgency: “Can a spiritual core exist for a long time?”

“It depends on the circumstances. It might be absorbed by nearby supernatural entities, or perhaps…” Wu Que paused, lifting his eyelids to look at him: “If someone intervenes forcefully, it can be perfectly preserved.”

Shen Wang fell silent. He didn’t remember how he died. After he died, did his spiritual core dissipate, or was it absorbed?

Could there be a third possibility that someone kept his spiritual core?

He thought for a moment and shook his head in denial. The possibility was almost zero. If I have the chance in the future, I’ll look for it.

“What are you thinking about?” Wu Que sat on the shore, wringing the water from his long hair.

“Nothing.” Shen Wang reached out to pull him up. When he gripped Wu Que’s hand, he felt an abnormal chill.

Wu Que looked up, his blue-pink eyes blinking gently: “I fought for so long underwater; I don’t have a shred of strength left. For the sake of me saving you—” He opened his arms, coaxing: “Carry me on your back.”

Shen Wang thought to himself that the man had clearly defeated Lelis in seconds with only two blasts of energy.

Still, he crouched down: “Get on.”

Shen Wang sensed that he was faking this weakness specifically to get close to him—no, to be precise, to get close to his body.

The body of Shen Wang, the original owner.

“Aren’t there rumors that our relationship ended in a messy breakup, that we went from love to hate, and that we wouldn’t want to see each other’s faces for the rest of our lives?” Recalling Lang Xi’s words, Shen Wang felt that perhaps things weren’t as the rumors said. Wu Que seemed to truly hold a shred of lingering affection for his “ex-partner.”

If I can take advantage of that…

The cool, refreshing scent drifted from behind him, and Wu Que’s snow-white hair brushed against his neck, causing a faint itch. Shen Wang gripped the man’s bare legs and probed: “Last time, I said I was injured and forgot a lot of things.”

“Why did we divorce?”

Infidelity? Sexual incompatibility? Shen Wang didn’t believe the original owner would have chosen to leave if he had such a partner.

Even if Wu Que had been his arch-nemesis in a past life, his fragmented memories indicated that while he had been wary of him, he had also greatly admired him.

No one would refuse such a beautiful and powerful man.

After a long silence, Wu Que buried his face against his neck and suddenly let out a muffled laugh.

He carelessly stroked the bone of his ring finger, where a faint white ring mark remained: “Because… I was widowed…”

For a split second, Shen Wang even felt that Wu Que had long since seen through the fact that he was a parasitic wandering soul. However, Wu Que patted his shoulder and said: “Just kidding. But does it need a reason? We were no longer compatible, we fell out of love, life was too mundane, our philosophies conflicted… any one of these reasons is enough to break up.”

Shen Wang nodded: “That’s true. But I must have done something to make you hold a grudge until now.”

“So you’re starting to know things now?”

“It’s the look in your eyes when you look at me.” Shen Wang shifted him higher on his back: “I can’t put it into words, but it’s very strange.”

This person seemed to want to be close to him while simultaneously wanting to draw a clear line.

Very contradictory, very moody.

Wu Que stopped talking, lying quietly on his back.

Shen Wang said deliberately: “It’s true that people can’t empathize with who they used to be.”

“If it were the current me, I certainly wouldn’t have chosen to divorce.”

“Heh.” Wu Que let out a cold laugh.

Shen Wang didn’t care about his current attitude. In just a few steps, he had already figured out how to get close to his arch-nemesis. As long as Wu Que still had feelings for the original owner, rekindling their old flame wouldn’t be difficult.

He was even a little curious: what would it look like if, in the end, Wu Que found out his lover had died long ago and that he had been reconciling with his arch-nemesis all this time? Would he be heartbroken? Would he cry? And then, would he hold a sword to his throat, looking at him with those blue-pink eyes filled with hatred…

For some unknown reason, Shen Wang felt a trace of strange, perverse pleasure in his heart, and his footsteps felt much lighter.

They searched along the stone wall for a while before finding the mechanism to ascend.

When the altar rose to the top, the severed leg of an islander lay in their path, and the situation outside was quite unexpected.

Around the altar lay several torn-apart white-robed islanders. Suzawa was leaning against the altar, covered in blood, hugging Lili and trembling uncontrollably.

When they were underground, Lili had been lucky enough to gain supernatural abilities because the experiment was a success. But at this moment, Lili’s body was festering and swollen, with some parts already turning into bloody liquid, leaving her with only a breath of life.

“What’s going on?” Shen Wang stepped forward. Suzawa raised her head, looking at him with vacant eyes.

A quarter of an hour ago, Suzawa had been mixing in with the tail end of the white-robed islanders’ group, her mind filled with thoughts of Room 7, which had been mentioned earlier. Seeing most of them gathered at the altar, she decided to slip away to see if she could find any trace of Lili.

But after crouching outside Room 7 for a long time, not only did she fail to find Lili, but, worse, she was discovered by the islanders. Just as she was turning the corner of the corridor to escape, someone pulled her into the darkness.

“It’s me.” A gentle, familiar voice fell, and Suzawa almost burst into tears.

“Mr. Wu followed me and saved me, saying he was going to lure the supernatural entity out himself.” Now wasn’t the time for reminiscing; Lili briefly described what had happened and pulled Suzawa to run.

The area outside the altar had become chaotic. A massive hole had been cut in the entrance of the ritual platform. Lin Xu had taken a team and vanished into the courtyard with Lang Xi; the scene was extremely disorderly.

Lili, having just gained her ability, could barely dodge their arrest. However, they had set their sights on Suzawa, trying to evolve one more sacrifice.

“Don’t be afraid, I’m here.” Lili stood in front of her, lashing out with her whip, creating a bloody mist wherever it passed.

“Stop struggling. Being able to evolve and gain abilities is an honor you couldn’t seek in a lifetime! Sacrificing yourself for the great experiment is better than a lowly life as an ordinary person,” a white-robed islander shouted sternly.

“Ze, hide first. I’ll be there once I deal with them.”

Lili looked into her eyes with a gentle gaze.

“I…” Suzawa hated herself for not only being unable to help but also becoming a burden.

However, there were too many enemies. Even though Lili fought with all her might, she eventually fell, and her whip shattered in her hand.

She retreated stumbled, clutching her wound, only to see them pull out guns forged from supernatural power from their sleeves, loaded with bullets containing the reagent.

The muzzle passed over her and landed on Suzawa.

A gunshot rang out, and the black-haired girl collapsed to the ground. The bullets containing the reagent had no physical lethality, but they triggered a massive biochemical reaction—the place where Lili was hit began to rot rapidly.

“Run, I probably…” As she opened her mouth, blood mixed with green liquid gurgled out; gradually, she couldn’t speak anymore.

Her body couldn’t withstand the power of the secondary evolution and began an inevitable decay.

Soon, she was no longer recognizable as human; her body became swollen, cyan, and white, no different from the failed products in the laboratory.

“A pity. It’s rare to have one success.” The white-robed man glanced at her and reached out to grab Suzawa. Suzawa’s face turned gray with despair; she stopped resisting, letting the muzzle press against the artery on her neck.

Lili on the ground, however, rose on the strength of her scattered spiritual energy. As a Spirit-Awakening Master-turned-aberrant-supernatural-entity, her killing power was astonishing; in an instant, the ground was littered with corpses.

“…There must be a way, right?” Suzawa sobbed bitterly, still holding her tightly in her arms: “Otherwise, just kill me, too.”

The pain she expected did not arrive. The monster in her arms, relying on a shred of reason, pierced through her own heart.

……

“She’s beyond saving.” Shen Wang glanced at Lili, who had only one breath left. Tiny, fragmented specks of light were already emerging from her body that was her spiritual core, about to scatter.

Shen Wang condensed a black blade in his hand, intending to give her a swift end.