The Monsters All Covet Him - Chapter 22

Lin’s lips were pressed into a thin line. It remembered every single word it had ever spoken to Lin Yang. Naturally, it acknowledged them. Even if time were to turn back, Lin would still say the same things at that moment; at that specific point in time, it had not fallen in love with Lin Yang. A lover was naturally a useless thing.

One standing and one sitting, one high and one low, Lin looked down at Lin Yang, yet it felt as though it were looking up at him. Lin spoke, “If you gouge out my eyes, nose, mouth, limbs, hands, and feet, and grow a new me, the words said before will not have been said by me.”

Lin Yang lay by the blood pool, his palm dabbing at the surface of the water, splashing ripples. “You certainly know how to use sophistry.”

Thinking Lin Yang didn’t believe it, Lin immediately moved to strike itself. Lin Yang, quick of hand and eye, caught Lin’s hand. “Lord Evil God, do you have masochistic tendencies?”

“No, I want to be your lover,” Lin said earnestly. To be precise, Lin was not at all resistant to pain.

Lin Yang blinked. “Lord Evil God, do you want to learn some interesting things?”

Lin Yang was very different tonight; from head to toe, he made Lin feel a desire to lick and kiss him. Every frown and smile was steeped in a potent, seductive poison. Lin swallowed hard. Intuition told it that Lin Yang had another purpose—that a pre-arranged trap was waiting for it—but Lin did not hesitate for a second. “Teach me, Teacher.” It jumped.

Lin Yang and Lin fell into the pool together, blood splashing high. Lin’s cold, sexy voice drifted indistinctly from the surface of the water, “Teacher, can it go in here too?”

“In the mermaid scales… why are there two? Doesn’t Teacher know? I am a mermaid; a mermaid’s structure is like this.”

“Teacher, you’ve become so hot; your hands are so slippery.”

“Want to go in.”

“Why not?”

“Teacher.” “Teacher.” “Teacher.”

“Lin Yang,” Lin’s voice was hoarse with unbearable craving, “don’t escape.”

Kisses filled with aggressive meaning landed on Lin Yang’s snow-white neck. Adoration was like a curse. “It was you who broke into my world; it was you who told the monster that you loved it.”

“Lin Yang, obtaining a monster’s love is not a blessing, but a disaster.”

“A monster is obsessive and crazy. If you try to abandon the monster in the future, you will be eaten by it.”

Lin Yang’s fingers stretched and closed with difficulty in the water, his fingertips trembling.

“Fuck,” Lin Yang’s neck arched, and his ruby lips exhaled a breath of heat. “Lin, you talk too much nonsense.”

His watery eyes looked unconsciously toward the dome. Lin Yang dimly realized that the mural on the dome seemed to depict a deity. The deity’s eyes, devoid of both sorrow and joy, gazed down at Lin Yang. Late to the realization, Lin Yang felt a sense of shame. This was a sacrificial altar; sacrifice was sacred, yet here he was, carousing with the sacrificial offering.

Suddenly, the golden pupils were swallowed by silver-white, as if they had come to life and were staring dead at Lin Yang. The deity’s slender fingers reached down, as if to seize Lin Yang’s neck and pull him out of the blood pool.

Lin Yang shuddered. “Lin!”

Lin, who was kissing Lin Yang, met Lin Yang’s watery eyes. “You aren’t calling me; you’re thinking of that ‘rotten worm’?”

“No, I…” Lin Yang focused his gaze. The deity with golden eyes on the dome was without sorrow or joy; there were no silver-white eyes, nor was there that hand Lin Yang found so familiar. Lin Yang closed his mouth. What on earth was going on? Was he hallucinating? No, that couldn’t be a hallucination; he would never mistake it.

The hands gripping Lin Yang’s waist tightened. Lin’s silver eyes seemed ready to weep blood. “Lin Yang, who exactly is in your mind right now?”

Lin Yang said without thinking, “It’s you.”

“Liar! You are just using me as a substitute.”

“But you are fundamentally the same monster; without it, there wouldn’t be you, and without you, it wouldn’t be complete.”

“I don’t acknowledge it,” Lin’s indifferent face showed a trace of ruthlessness, only to turn pitiful in the next second. “Lin Yang, just lie to me. Say you like me more than that rotten worm, say your hatred for me is also more intense than for that rotten worm.”

Another blood-colored pearl fell onto Lin Yang’s skin and rolled to the bottom of the pool. Lin Yang kissed Lin’s lips. Once bitten, twice shy—he had done even more intimate things, and he could now manage to kiss this face he loathed without closing his eyes. Moreover, he was excited. Tearing apart Lin’s emotions could bring Lin Yang an inexpressible pleasure. Desire and pain could not be entirely separated.

While kissing Lin, he coaxed it, “I like you, I only like you.”

“You’re lying to me.”

Lin Yang: … Destroy everything, I’m sick of this.

An entire night passed. Lin Yang did not wake until the following afternoon. His brain felt like a mass of paste, and his body seemed as though it had not yet pulled away from the frantic indulgence of the previous night. As the first thread of consciousness returned to his brain, Lin Yang dimly thought he should go to the surface to check the situation. In the few seconds it took to sit up, Lin Yang’s face contorted. It truly was very painful.

The development of events had exceeded his expectations. He hadn’t understood a mermaid’s structure and had gritted his teeth to endure it, not expecting that tentacles could also… The number of tentacles that died in the blood pool last night was at least a thousand. Lin loathed those tentacles touching Lin Yang, but they were a part of itself; when it fell into madness, it simply couldn’t control them. Killing them would result in it and those tentacles trapping Lin Yang together. This led to Lin Yang being attacked from all sides.

Lin Yang’s aura was very low. He lifted his eyelids only to realize he was sleeping on an ice bed. Lin was using its own finger as a knife, carving hearts all over the side of the ice bed. Each one was exactly the size of Lin’s heart, but the style was completely out of place with the entire temple. Lin Yang’s thoughts wandered; if the temple truly had a deity suppressing it, it would surely throw this sacrificial offering out. Ah, wait—this was originally Lin’s temple; the deity depicted should also be Lin. Does the temple imprison the deity it enshrines?

Lin Yang noticed that within the sacrificial altar, the chains on Lin’s wrists and ankles would not manifest. But as soon as Lin stepped out of the altar, the chains would lock it and drag it back to the blood pool to sink to the bottom.

Lin was carving intently. It only noticed Lin Yang was awake when his gaze landed on it. It abandoned the half-carved heart and was somewhat cautious. “Does it still hurt?” Last night had indeed been too much.

Lin Yang sneered. “Next time, how about I try being on top?”

Lin didn’t care about being on top or bottom. “Do you want to try now?”

Lin Yang thought about it; too tiring. “Forget it, I can’t be bothered to exert the effort to move.”

Lin was disappointed at losing the chance to be stuck together with Lin Yang. It brought out a basin of Silver Jiao. These Silver Jiao were all in the shape of fish, caught by Lin from the seawater in the sky while Lin Yang was asleep. “Will you eat? They have no divine consciousness and will never transform; they are just like ordinary fish. Will you eat?”

“I don’t need to eat.” The evil god in the ice crystal palace would not feed humans. Worried the only human would starve to death, he directly cast a curse so that Lin Yang would not die even if he didn’t eat. Immortal, indestructible, and eternal—even the desire for food had been stripped away. He was indeed the closest existence to a deity besides the evil god himself.

Lin Yang looked at those struggling Silver Jiao. “Let them go. I also need to return to the surface.”

Lin lowered its eyes. “Then… will you still come tonight?”

Lin Yang: Not even a dog would come!

Lin Yang opened his mouth. “Of course.” Immediately, his expression dimmed. “I live in Linlin’s belly and have received much help from it. But Linlin has always been ostracized by the Giant Stone Monsters, so I want to help Linlin make some gifts to give to them. But they are all afraid I am a follower of the evil god and fear that receiving a gift will bring misfortune. So, can you bless them so they will never be harmed because of those gifts?”

Lin turned the pitch-black bracelet on its hand. “Are they gifts similar to this?”

Lin Yang smiled. “Of course not. Such a valuable and thoughtful gift I would only give to you. Those are just crudely made; I guarantee they are absolutely not made using parts of my body.”

“If Linlin becomes happy, will you be happy too?”

“Yes.”

Lin Yang’s happiness was very important. Lin promised, “I guarantee they will never be harmed because of those gifts.”

Obtaining this promise, the corners of Lin Yang’s lips curved. “See you tonight.”

Lin used tentacles to send Lin Yang to the surface. Lin Yang stepped onto the silt, the center of his legs feeling weak. 00 and Linlin were both waiting for him. 00 anxiously rushed over. “Lin Yang, you didn’t come down all night. Are you… okay…” 00’s voice trailed off. Something was wrong; Lin Yang’s appearance was very wrong. Like a flower blooming after a heavy rain more vibrant and beautiful after being ravaged.

Lin Yang walked into Linlin’s belly, laid down three layers of soft cushions, and sat down. “Were there feathered arrows and blood-water last night?”

Linlin answered in a muffled voice, “None all night. However, just as it was getting dark, a group of people suddenly came here saying they wanted to take refuge. Seeing that no disaster had descended from the sky, they refused to leave and didn’t go until dawn. They also kept asking where you went, Master Lin Yang. I sealed the stone door and said you were sleeping in the room.”

Presumably, they had discovered there was a safety line around Linlin. Lin Yang didn’t care; he needed to hurry and finish making the clothes. There were still five or six hours until dark; he needed to seize the time. “I’m going to find Xiang Sheng to learn how to make clothes. You two watch those feathered arrows; don’t touch them yourselves, and don’t let others touch them.” Linlin and 00 nodded.

After giving his instructions, Lin Yang immediately went to Xiang Sheng’s house. Qi Xun was not on patrol and was also at home. Also there were two other women; like Xiang Sheng, they were not pregnant, had well-proportioned limbs, and were in good health. Lin Yang’s gaze paused for a moment, and he gave a polite greeting.

Xiang Sheng then took Lin Yang to the sewing room, where several women were working nimbly. Xiang Sheng explained with a smile, “Zhuo liked fine clothing. Men’s hands and feet are mostly clumsy and cannot do this delicate work well, so this task was given to the girls. The girls who come here do not need to perform procreation.”

“However, little Lin Yang, you were born with a pair of clever hands suitable for tailoring; your knuckles are slender and clean. You will surely be good at threading needles.”

“I must still trouble you.”

Lin Yang indeed learned quickly. He didn’t need to make complex styles; the key was to wrap things tightly. By the afternoon, he had already figured out the knack of it. Xiang Sheng saw him off, her face written with apology. “It is for us, yet we have no way to help you make them together. It will be hard on you.”

Lin Yang lowered his eyes. His fingertips had been pricked with several blood-spots by the needle. “It doesn’t matter. This is all what I should do.”

Xiang Sheng shook her head. “There is nothing that you ‘should’ do, let alone such a heavy burden as saving other people’s lives.”