The Monsters All Covet Him - Chapter 1

The Crystal Palace stretched for thousands of miles. Boundless darkness and cold enveloped the structure; the only trace of light and warmth originated from the Evil God’s private dungeon.

Vibrant, competing flowers grew in abundance outside the cell. Green vines climbed across the rusted iron bars, trailing a few strands of gold silk.

Inside the cage, Lin Yang sat with his eyes closed, resting his spirit.

Footsteps that had remained unchanged for a thousand years gradually approached, coming to a halt exactly three feet away from Lin Yang.

Lin Yang lifted his eyelids slightly, then closed them again.

The “Evil Creature” was dressed in bright red today. From his left ear hung a long tassel of the same crimson hue. Snow fell upon his silver-white hair, and his ice-white eyes were as bleak and cold as the palace itself.

He had walked here barefoot.

This creature had disliked wearing shoes for a thousand years. It would be best if those feet froze and rotted off! Lin Yang thought viciously.

Lin Yang squinted, opening his eyes just a crack. Those eyes, shaped like ice flowers, were fixed upon him. Lin Yang decided to simply open his eyes fully. The creature was still staring. Lin Yang glared back, but the creature remained unmoved. Half an hour passed; Lin Yang’s eyes grew sore, yet the creature continued to stare, having not blinked even once.

Lin Yang tentatively shifted to the left; the creature’s gaze followed to the left. He leaned to the right; the creature’s eyes followed to the right.

This scene had played out tens of thousands of times over the last millennium.

Lin Yang could never fathom what this creature was thinking. Though Lin Yang had lived for thousands of years, this creature had already existed in this world for ten thousand.

The world did not call him a “creature.” In the face of that absolute power, people called him the Evil God.

As the Evil God walked the earth, he attracted monsters. Humanity had fought these monsters for thousands of years, but by the time the burden reached Lin Yang, humans were on the brink of extinction.

He had taken up the heavy responsibility of protecting humanity, but it was the humans themselves who betrayed their kind first. They voluntarily allowed monsters to parasitize them, becoming nourishment for the beasts in order to achieve symbiosis.

Among these people were Lin Yang’s friends, his mentors, and even his parents.

They had compromised amidst endless despair. They told him, “Lin Yang, I’m tired,” and “Lin Yang, what’s so bad about becoming a monster?”

Lin Yang had brushed away their sludge-like hands. From that point on, he was the last human left between heaven and earth.

Inside the dungeon, which was as warm as spring, Lin Yang stared blankly at his hands. Perhaps he, too, was no longer human. No normal human could remain young, immortal, and indestructible for a thousand years.

This was the Evil God’s curse—a punishment for his refusal to submit.

“Lin… Yang,” the ice-sculpted Evil God uttered his name. “Do you still refuse to abandon your identity as a human?”

One must not look directly into the Evil God’s eyes, listen to his voice, or smell his scent. The moment a human or a monster drew near, they would spiral into total madness.

Lin Yang raised his head. Despite his body trembling, his pitch-black eyes looked up at the Evil God. “Yes. I will never abandon my humanity. If you don’t kill me, there will come a day when I kill you with my own hands.”

The Evil God gazed into Lin Yang’s dark eyes. The air grew thin in an instant. Two transparent, severed hands manifested and squeezed Lin Yang’s neck. Lin Yang’s cheeks flushed a deep red as his legs kicked uselessly at the floor, causing the chains bound to his ankles to clatter loudly.

He stared deathly at the Evil God’s indifferent, ethereal face—a face like an immortal’s. He wanted to scar that face, to see it smeared with blood, to see that being kneeling at his feet, weeping and begging for mercy.

When that time came, he would surely grind that face into the dirt.

The extreme lack of oxygen caused Lin Yang’s brain to spin. At the brink of death, the hands clutching his throat abruptly vanished.

Fresh air rushed in. Lin Yang coughed violently, horrific purple bruises blooming across his neck.

The Evil God’s ice-white eyes watched Lin Yang’s fragile, pained face. His handsome features remained devoid of joy or sorrow. The cold palace wind rustled the bright red tassel at his ear.

“Humans,” he said, “are no different from ants.”

For several days afterward, the Evil God did not reappear.

Lin Yang was happy for the peace. He focused his mind on breaking the seal on his cell door. To this day, he had never given up on escaping the Crystal Palace.

Unlocking the cell was only the first step; he still intended to incite a rebellion among the humans who had defected to the monsters.

However, usually, the moment Lin Yang stepped out of the cell, a pair of freezing hands would grab the back of his neck and toss him back inside.

Click—

The crimson runes dissipated, and the lock swung open. Lin Yang raised an eyebrow; the unlocking time seemed much shorter than before.

He tentatively extended a foot. There was no reaction; the creature was not monitoring him.

Lin Yang’s brow furrowed. Something isn’t right. His eyes grew dark. Nothing good ever happened when the Evil God was busy.

Just as Lin Yang was about to step out, a sudden cacophony of footsteps erupted. The shaking was so intense it felt as if ten thousand feet were charging toward him.

Lin Yang retreated back into the cell to wait for an opportunity. Suddenly, a piece of human skin, devoid of flesh and blood, pressed against the iron bars and stuck to Lin Yang’s face. The skin wrinkled, its hollow mouth gaping open as it emitted a whistling, hysterical, and shrill voice:

“My Lord, please save us! The Great Evil God… he…”

“The Great Evil God has gone mad!” A nine-headed monster with eyes on the soles of its feet lumbered over. Its heavy body crashed into the runes on the iron bars, instantly becoming scorched. Even so, it did not give up on asking Lin Yang for help. Its single eye, which possessed two pupils, was bloodshot. “My Lord, only you can stop this!”

Countless monsters swarmed the area, kneeling outside the cage and pleading all at once.

A small feathered serpent with snow-white wings and golden eyes clutched its own tail. It struggled to flap its underdeveloped wings to fly to the very front.

The moment the monsters saw the little feathered serpent, they fell silent.

This juvenile feathered serpent was the Evil God’s pet, named 00.

00 passed easily through the barrier and flew in front of Lin Yang. Its golden eyes were timid.

“My Lord, the Evil God has lost control and blown himself into countless fragments. These shards have leaked out of the Crystal Palace and surged into thousands of small worlds. The worlds cannot sustain his power. If no one stops this, these worlds will collapse, and both monsters and humans will be wiped out.”

“My Lord, you have fought the Evil God for thousands of years; you are infinitely close to godhood. Only you can stop him. Please, help the monsters… and help the surviving humans.”

“We, the monsters, promise you: if this catastrophe is averted, we will never again maliciously disrupt human life. We are willing to live in peace with humanity.”

00’s voice wasn’t loud, and it spoke hesitantly. It knew of the conflict between Lin Yang and its master. The monsters and Lin Yang were on opposite sides, but those humans… they had also betrayed Lin Yang.

Lin Yang had become truly, utterly alone.

00 wasn’t sure if the destruction of all worlds would be a disaster or a blessing for Lin Yang.

“Fine.”

Hearing this, 00’s golden pupils rounded, and its mouth hung open, revealing tiny fangs.

Lin Yang shifted his tone. “But how can I ensure you will keep your promise once the deed is done? After all, you monsters don’t even have hearts, let alone a sense of shame.”

The wrinkled human skin presented a piece of thin, glowing blue paper with its likeness drawn upon it. “This is my Soul Paper. If it is destroyed, I will cease to exist. I hand it to you, My Lord; my life and death are in your hands.”

These monsters followed the Evil God voluntarily. They should have offered their Soul Papers to him long ago, but the Evil God never accepted them and never concerned himself with their affairs.

Following the skin’s lead, the other monsters offered up their Soul Papers one after another.

The thin sheets of paper gathered into a heavy weight in Lin Yang’s palm. Lin Yang curled his lips. Even without the monsters’ pleas, he would still go to kill that creature. After all, it was the sole purpose of his existence.

00’s tiny hands grabbed Lin Yang’s thumb. Its cool, scaled tail wrapped around him as well, its soft, dough-like face pressing against Lin Yang.

A golden halo expanded, and the space and time surrounding Lin Yang were torn asunder.

00’s mouth was blown into ripples by the wind. “My Lord! We are setting off now!”

It took a long time before Lin Yang felt solid ground beneath his feet. He opened his eyes, blinking away the dizziness. The endless Crystal Palace was gone, replaced by a world where all things resided.

The Crystal Palace was the Evil God’s dwelling, existing beyond the worlds. The universe contained countless small worlds, each unique and forming its own heaven and earth. Humans were once the masters of these worlds, but eventually, every world was polluted by monsters.

In this specific world, the clusters of human buildings had vanished. The ground was covered in mud, with boulders scattered unevenly. Some were smaller than a fist, while others were as tall as half a mountain; without exception, they were covered in moss.

Lin Yang looked up. A floating island occupied his field of vision. A divine temple stood tall upon the island, with countless black iron chains extending from the horizon and the ground to nail the island in place. Even more chains were wrapped tightly around the temple itself.

It looked as though there was a profound fear that whatever was inside might escape.

“That isn’t the sky,” Lin Yang squinted his dark eyes. “It’s flowing seawater. There are mutated monsters in the water.”

00 looked closely. The blue horizon was shimmering, and the currents moved within it. Occasionally, a burst of blood would bloom—the monsters inside were cannibalizing each other.

00 grew worried. “They seem to have completely lost their sanity.”

Monsters harmed humans because their nature was vile—plunder and slaughter were etched into their bones—but that didn’t mean they couldn’t control their actions. A monster that had lost its sanity was a thousand times more difficult to deal with than a normal one.

Lin Yang focused his gaze on the temple bound in layers of chains. “The creature should be in that temple. Send me up there. I’ll kill him right now.”

Hovering in mid-air, 00 clutched its tail and dodged the subject. “We should find survivors first to understand this world before making a plan. Attacking blindly might be too reckless…”

00’s voice stopped abruptly. A snow-white, freezing blade was pressed against its neck. Lin Yang leaned down slightly to look 00 in the eye, a cold smile playing on his lips. “I don’t have much patience.”

00’s fur stood on end from fright. Golden tears fell like broken strings. Lord Lin Yang is so terrifying! Even more terrifying than Master!

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” 00 apologized frantically. “The Evil God cannot be killed! Slaughter will only increase his destructive power!”

The blade in Lin Yang’s hand paused at the feathered serpent’s neck. He pinched the little creature’s head between two fingers. “Speak.”

00 spoke at lightning speed: “You felt it when you fought him before, My Lord. When he is injured, his power actually becomes stronger. He cannot be killed; he can only…”

The blade in Lin Yang’s hand was a part of his soul; it dissipated into points of light. He lowered his gaze. “He can only what?”

“He can only be influenced by love.”

Lin Yang: “?”