Caught off guard, Yu Jinghe tripped and fell to the ground.
His mind went blank.
By the time he reacted, he had been thrown under the railroad tracks.
Everywhere he looked was machinery. He had never seen the subway from this angle before. His mood was indescribable. He instinctively tried to find a way to break free, but his hands and feet were trapped by layers of plants.
The plant tentacles around his neck tightened.
……
Although the other party disappeared from sight, Jian Xie knew that he would be fine.
After all, the monster was very disdainful of the investigators.
Although it had already regarded Jian Xie as already in the bag, it didn’t want other investigators to harass it with small props.
But if Yu Jinghe died, it would have one less target to threaten and would not do such a stupid thing.
“There should be only two of us here,” it said, “The delay has been long enough.”
It has just been born and was overly cautious.
In fact, this matter should have been over quickly instead of spending so much time chatting with him here.
If it weren’t for the fear of the terrifying thing in Jian Xie’s body, it would have not been a very patient monster.
However, Jian Xie raised his eyes and replied, “That’s what I thought.”
It was just a sentence without emotion, but it made its heart suddenly skip a beat as a strange feeling flashed through its mind.
Why does this human always give it a sense of disharmony?
The monster that fed on fear suddenly realized the strangeness that it had overlooked. From beginning to end, it did not even detect the slightest trace of fear from the prey in front of it. Above all, the way Jian Xie looked at it at this moment—
Was as if looking at delicious food, even more intense than what it itself was giving the other.
“It’s kind of a warning to me.” Jian Xie glanced at it. This action in the monster’s eyes only deepened its fear. “That I should improve my efficiency.”
Because a Special A-level monster like the teddy bear had already been dealt with once, there was a sample to refer to. Comparing the two processes, it was obvious that the little bear took the least time but gave the most gains.
And it tasted delicious too.
The difference between the two was that Jian Xie did not show any aggressiveness in front of the former in advance, so it was not alert at all.
That was a mistake.
The most dangerous hunters often appear as prey.
Next time, he would pretend to be a little more scared and ordinary, or stop talking nonsense and dealing with it directly, just like now.
What happened next caused the monster to fall out of the human lady’s arms.
It has 108 eyeballs, and at this moment, the retina of each eye reflected everything that was happening in front of it with incredible clarity.
It saw a layer of black mist slowly emerge from behind Jian Xie.
At first, it was just like sporadic hallucinations before the eyes, but extremely quickly, the black fog spread like a virus, gradually filling the entire train, and with it brought an extremely terrifying pressure.
——It couldn’t be mistaken; this was the scent that only the top predators possessed.
Seeing this extremely strange scene, all the eyeballs on the monster’s body opened wide in an instant, almost bursting into its wrinkled little boy skin as it stared stiffly at the black fog.
That’s…
“Because it’s too weak, even its sense of danger has disappeared?”
Mocking words came from the void, without any regard for the feelings of the monster despised by It.
“I was always there, just very, very obedient.”
The black fog chuckled. As the sound source was too close, Jian Xie’s ears felt numb. Meanwhile, It seemed to be unaware of this and continued lazily, “How could you think I would leave my human? I’m not the casual type.”
Jian Xie: “…”
“Y-you, but you’re not- what they said is actually true…” Facing It’s cold and arrogant words, the monster was suddenly incoherent, “Your body really has—”
Soon, it realized its mistake and the voice filled with fear abruptly halted.
“……”
It had never heard of that one being so intimate with any human, it was almost as if it was a ferocious beast that had been tamed by this teenager in front of it.
According to rumors, even if It really showed up, It would not protect a human being like this.
Who are you trying to intimidate?
With the belief that they were playing with it, the monster’s eyes unconsciously revealed resentment.
“See these humans around?” It stood up on the train’s floor, looked around at the dull-eyed humans, and sneered, “No matter what tricks you’re playing, I am the one holding the reins because they are all my hostages.”
Its capabilities were far greater than these investigators imagined.
——Mind control.
Thinking of this, the vague fear dissipated and its heart settled down.
Seeing that Jian Xie had been silent since moments ago, it couldn’t help but laugh. “Your Bureau should have some rules, right? For example, if you injure more ordinary people, you will receive a heavier punishment. Do you want to experience this?”
“This is my game, you better let me eat it,” The monster said with a sneer. “If you move even a meter towards me, I will digest a human. This is my predation field after all.”
That is, its esophagus and stomach.
“How about it?” It became more and more excited as it spoke. Thinking of Jian Xie’s fragrance, it couldn’t help but drool again. “I can even show mercy and let that blind investigator go.”
It was common knowledge that they usually didn’t let the investigators go.
These annoying humans could sometimes become a thorny problem, so they were hunted down and killed.
This was a huge concession and Jian Xie should be grateful for its kindness.
“……”
However, the most embarrassing situation happened.
It said a lot of things in a self-righteous manner, but no one present was paying any attention to it.
Especially that terrifying thing that appeared out of nowhere, It didn’t even bother to take a look at it until now.
What’s even more outrageous was that the other party had already sat on a nearby seat before it even noticed, holding its chin and acting like a bystander.
It was as if It didn’t think there was any need for It to intervene.
On the other hand, the human being who was being watched wholeheartedly by It, Jian Xie, glanced at the passengers in the train and pondered for a moment.
He heard from Cheng Li that the hunting area was completely controlled by monsters.
If it said it could digest humans, then it was probably true and not just big talk.
Although Jian Xie usually didn’t have any emotional fluctuations, it didn’t mean that he was a completely cold-blooded person. It was impossible for him to put in danger the lives of ordinary people in order to deal with the monster in front of him.
“……”
Just as he was in trouble, the shoulder bag on his side began to vibrate out of thin air, breaking the silence.
The noise even attracted the monster that was angry and ready to attack in the silence, causing it to pause and show hesitation.
Although the black box in the shoulder bag was small in size, it was like a terrifying giant beast sealed in a box, ready to break out of the shell at the next moment and bring immeasurable disaster to the real world.
It was the gift Qin Zhuo gave him that was vibrating.
But the word “vibration” was no longer appropriate.
It was as if they had been ignored by Jian Xie for too long and couldn’t help but want to attract his distracted attention.
【It’s time to open my gift.】 Although Qin Zhuo’s tone sounded casual, he could actually feel that It cared very much and even frowned slightly. 【I also think it’s time.】
Jian Xie clearly received the gift that It had carefully prepared that night but actually said he was sleepy.
No human being had ever let It sleep halfway through, dismissing It casually as if It were a second thought.
Not taken seriously at all.
Thinking of this, It couldn’t help but groan in dissatisfaction.
Jian Xie: “…”
In the monster’s view, Jian Xie was just standing where he was and not moving forward, as if he had compromised.
But it did not let its guard down because a strange noise came from the shoulder bag of this terrible human which glued its eyes to it as its nerves subconsciously tensed.
There was always a feeling that something unexpected was going to happen.
“What is that?” It was filled with fear of the unknown but tried to remain calm. “What did you bring?”
However, Jian Xie himself could not answer this question.
He really didn’t know why they suddenly became so noisy, really just as moody and unpredictable as their gift giver.
“……”
He glanced at the monster, unzipped his backpack, and took out the black box under the other party’s nervous gaze.
He saw that a layer of dark golden lines had appeared on the originally pure black surface of the box at some point like it had been burned fiercely by flames.
But when Jian Xie touched it, it instantly became obedient and stopped shaking violently. He then placed it on the ground.
“Pa-ta.”
On the left and right were the leather buckles of the box.
Jian Xie unbuckled them one by one and then opened the box.
The cold air that blew in his face made his breathing stagnate.
When he came to his senses, he noticed the changes that had taken place inside the box.
It seemed to have become a small cryogenic freezer where an extremely terrifying coldness was emanating from the dagger.
There was even a white mist floating in the air in front of him from the resulting water droplets. A dazzling white frost had already coldly covered the entire interior of the black box, almost covering the sharp blade of the dagger.
This was a phenomenon that only occurred at sub-zero temperatures.
Jian Xie had tried it before, and he could only lift the first dagger of this so-called [Eight Cold Hells].
It was just like its name.
The biting cold emanating from the dagger in front of him seemed to come from the depths of hell, the coldest and most miserable place.
【Some people always think that the Eighteen Layers of Hell are spatial divisions, but that is not the case.】 Qin Zhuo said casually as It stared at the dagger. 【Maybe it’s because of the quantifier “layer”?】
Jian Xie glanced at It, then picked up the dagger.
The moment his fingertips touched it, the monster with countless eyeballs in front of him was rooted on the spot.
None of its eyes anywhere on its body blinked, and its face maintained a slightly distorted expression of fear, as if it had seen something that frightened it extremely.
Countless similarly frozen tentacles were floating on the windows outside the No. 6 subway train, as if they would break through the windows at any moment.
They blocked the relatively bright light, casting intricate and vague patterns inside the train, giving people a false illusion that they were underwater.
This was the moment when the monster launched an attack after seeing what was inside the box.
Time was forcibly paused by It.
At the same time, the sounds in Jian Xie’s ears disappeared, leaving only the dead silence as if he had been abandoned in a certain space.
Qin Zhuo stood up.
Jian Xie paused and his eyes fell on the train floor next to the black box.
The bright and reflective surface of the train revealed Jian Xie’s expressionless face as well as the figure standing behind him, which seemed to have human form yet also seemed to be just a ball of black mist that would dissipate any moment.
There was no doubt that Qin Zhuo had appeared out of nowhere behind him.
For some reason, It didn’t seem to want Jian Xie to know what It looked like.
Every time he appeared, he was hidden in a vague fog or behind Jian Xie.
So far, he had only seen It’s hands and jaw which was accidentally exposed. In his opinion, there was no difference between It and humans. It was even more beautiful than he had imagined.
【Hell, in fact, is just a plane from beginning to end.】
Qin Zhuo leaned forward slightly and stroked the back of Jian Xie’s neck.【How are the layers divided? In fact, it’s marked by boundary markers.】
Generally speaking, people who get the black box will subconsciously regard it as an empty shell and treat the one with offensive power as the sharp blade.
However, this was not the case.
The blade was just a decoration used to fix the foundation while its handle was the real weapon that should be used with caution.
In other words, what Jian Xie had seen before were actually the four boundary markers that separated hell.
Their role naturally became self-evident.
Since monsters could set up their predation field in the real world, wouldn’t the person chosen by hell also be able to set up a so-called execution ground?
【It fits you well.】
From the very beginning, Qin Zhuo didn’t say anything wrong. This was a weapon tailor-made for the other party. If it were someone else, they would not be qualified to use such a thing.
They were useless in It’s hands, but the recognized Jian Xie can…
——Send them back to hell!
Jian Xie looked at everything in front of him and then picked up the first dagger covered with white frost.
For some reason, although Qin Zhuo did not tell him how to use it and only hinted at its true value with vague sentences, he had a premonition in his heart that at this moment, he knew how to make the best use of it.
Jian Xie still maintained a half-kneeling posture, staring at the dagger, lost in thought.
He had this thought of how it should be used…
Then he would give it a try.
In an instant, the [Eight Cold Hells] was inserted into the floor.
The extremely sharp blade was enough to easily break through any solid obstacle and instantly penetrated into the metal. As the extremely cold light flashed across the handle, the entire space fell into an extremely terrifying cold in the blink of an eye.
This bone-chilling cold, which was specially used to punish sinners, instantly broke the originally suspended time.
The flood of noise returned.
But this was not the end.
The white frost on the boundary of the [Eight Cold Hells] spread all the way, covering the entire space. In less than half a second, it had completely occupied the entire view, completely covering the small space.
The world seemed to be reduced to the pure white of the storm that overtook it. Apart from the biting cold brought by the drifting ice and snow, there were only the frightened monster and Jian Xie who slowly stood up and walked towards the former. This was a huge space where one couldn’t even see the boundary.
All ordinary people, investigator, and even the train disappeared.
Even Qin Zhuo returned inside his body.
In an instant, the monster lost everything it could threaten.
Just as the predation field could selectively pull things from the real world, Jian Xie actually tore its predation field apart and dragged it alone into his own domain—
But this was not the so-called predation zone, but something that could be called [Hell] that targeted monsters only.
The monster was shocked by the sudden change of scene before it.
The extreme bitter cold was like an ant on its tarsal bone, crawling up its huge body and causing it to stop thinking.
Soon, the severe cold caused its plant tentacles to shrivel and die, its eyeballs burst one by one, and even its skin cracked inch by inch. It was frozen so hard that it wailed continuously, like a wandering soul lost on an ice field.
“……”
Jian Xie was stunned for a moment.
It turns out this was the gift.
“This is—”
Seeing the familiar scenery, it couldn’t help but open its eyes wide. An inconceivable idea flashed through its mind.
——This is hell.
In a matter of seconds, the monster was knocked to the ground by the severe cold.
It suddenly raised its head and stretched out its hand to the person in front of it, as if grabbing the last straw. Ignoring its torn flesh and blood, it frantically crawled forward a few steps, cutting a very sorry figure.
The monster’s heart was filled with resentment that was nearly overflowing, but he forced itself to look extremely pitiful.
It must escape from here by all means, even if it meant making the other party feel pity.
“I won’t do this again, please forgive me—”
A few meters away from it, Jian Xie lowered his head slightly to look at it.
There was not a hint of sympathy in those amber eyes in the face of its wailing misery and despite the fact that it possessed skin close to that of a human.
“I don’t believe you.”
The other party’s flat voice finally made it tremble, and it finally realized that the other party was definitely not the kind of person who would suddenly have a holy mother break out and pity it.
He would eat it, just as he did those humans.
Jian Xie would even probably lock it up here after it lost its power and make it pay for what it had done.
It has killed many humans for fun and has also attacked investigators. It initially escaped from hell, but now, it was about to fall back into hell because of the human in front of it.
The author has something to say:
Jian Xie: Dining in the VIP box, yeah (evil man
Translator Xena’s other works: https://ko-fi.com/xenatl/gallery
– Just click the pictures and the link will show <3
