Chapter 208: The Transformation of Self-Fear

Chapter 208: The Transformation of Self-Fear

With his own abilities, Zheng Yichen separated Lily from the control of the Undying Witch’s Power. However, because of the influence of Zheng Yichen’s abilities, that power changed and became Zheng Yichen’s own. Zheng Yichen lacked the skill and method to use that power, but the power was still inherently his. This could not be changed. No matter how Lily developed, the final mark of that power would always be Zheng Yichen’s. This was its true nature.

The deeper and stronger its development, the less it could be affected or altered.

The best way to handle this currently would be for Zheng Yichen to find the Undying Witch and ask her about Corpse Puppet control methods, in order to restore all the parts of Lily that had gone out of control. Hmm… obviously, that was impossible.

So Lily’s situation could only continue to spiral out of control.

Completely unaware that he was being watched by two women, Zheng Yichen continued with the research at hand. He had a lot of free time lately anyway, so it would be a waste not to do something, right? However, Lily’s situation really gave Zheng Yichen a headache.

After several days of testing, he had compiled a summary. In short, her physical condition had deviated significantly. Her sense of taste and smell operated on a dual standard. The first was normal human taste and smell. The second was specifically for blood and flesh…

She ate normal food just fine, but she also loved raw blood and flesh. To some extent, she even showed a preference for it. Following that preference came an intense craving.

If her craving or preference was satisfied, her appetite would return to normal. Zheng Yichen thought her craving for blood and flesh wasn’t just about wanting to eat, but about needing to absorb some essential ‘element’ from it, such as Life Force.

The more powerful a creature was, the deeper its Life Force would be. Lily once had the physique of an ordinary little girl. The Life Force her own body held was enough to sustain her for a lifetime. But recently, her body had been continuously strengthening, reaching over ten times its previous level. This enhancement was comprehensive.

Under normal circumstances, with such enhancement, their Life Force would also increase significantly. However, Lily seemed to lack this kind of enhancement; it was limited to her body. This might be due to her lack of a Soul, or perhaps because of the power hidden within her body, preventing her Life Force from naturally increasing along with her physical strengthening.

Lily, crouching on the ground, looked at the dragon face… well, she couldn’t really read a dragon’s expression. But from Zheng Yichen’s eyes, she could tell that this usually good-tempered, often-talked-to-himself dragon was now very serious. And the reason for his seriousness lay with her.

She couldn’t help but shrink a little, hugging the small animals beside her. When Zheng Yichen started testing her, she gave up her ideas of secretly taking it out on these little animals. Moreover, being around a dragon that scared them all day long, Lily, who often fed them, became the small animals’ reliance, earning their deep trust… Alright, mainly because they had no other options. Expecting these mostly instinct-driven small animals to be affectionate toward a dragon whose glare could scare them to death was truly difficult.

“Did… did I do something wrong?”

“You’ve changed. The cold Loli you used to be is gone!” Zheng Yichen said very seriously. Lily opened her little mouth slightly in surprise. Was this dragon acting crazy again?

Thinking carefully, she had indeed changed a lot recently. When did it start? Hmm… probably after the dragon got the information she wanted from the Town and the last bit of obsession in her heart disappeared.

Before, her heart was occupied by obsession. Although she was afraid of his Dragon Body, more of her fear was suppressed by her obsession. At that time, her thoughts were simple: her life was already so miserable that death might be a relief. Could it get any worse? Dying might be more comfortable, so she wasn’t really afraid.

Now, after understanding this dragon better, she felt that from a Human aesthetic perspective, dragons were scary. Zheng Yichen’s pitch-black appearance didn’t have any likable or mesmerizing, dream-like colors. A dragon with such cold, hard lines was probably only appealing to rough, tough guys.

But so what? This dragon had a very good, gentle temper. She had hardly ever seen him get angry. The few times he did get angry were only when some experiment failed, and he would vent by smashing things. But he quickly adjusted afterward and returned to normal.

In every sense, this dragon was good in all aspects, except… his appearance was a bit too hard and sharp.

Now, facing Zheng Yichen’s sudden strange behavior, she really didn’t know how to respond. She couldn’t just speak her mind; that would be too embarrassing.

“Alright, the joke’s over. Let’s get back on track.” Seeing Lily’s expression of wanting to speak but holding back, and actually having no energy to complain, Zheng Yichen clapped his claws and his expression turned serious again. “In terms of personality, going back to how you were is a good thing. But regarding your body, don’t you really plan to speak up?”

“I…” Lily fell completely silent, her mind still catching up. Just now, he was joking around so well, how did it suddenly take such a sharp turn and change topics? As for the changes in her body, she had even less idea of how to explain. Her instincts told her that her current physical condition was very abnormal, even though she really wanted the kind of strength Zheng Yichen had once displayed.

The problem was she felt her body was out of control. Back when she ate Magical Beast Meat excessively, absorbing too much made her stronger quickly, and she became obsessed with it. After the initial feverish excitement faded, she found it hard to turn back. Just eating cooked food could no longer satisfy her. Even though that food was powerful Magical Beast Meat that ordinary people could hardly digest, she could still slowly increase her strength by eating it now.

But some things she desperately craved couldn’t be obtained from that cooked food. Even raw food that had been stored for a while didn’t have it. If the raw blood and flesh were stored for too long, she felt that what she needed had drained away a lot when she ate it, far from satisfying her. Only fresh blood and flesh would do.

A big reason she gave up secretly targeting the small animals around her was that they were too weak. They were even less satisfying than secretly eating some raw meat that had been stored for a while. Eating raw things wasn’t healthy, and she had worried about that before. But later, her worries disappeared. After eating, not only did she not get sick, but she actually felt more energetic.

“I… I’m scared.” After a long silence, under Zheng Yichen’s gaze, Lily said in a low voice. She used to not fear death. Even now, as her thoughts changed, she might have started fearing it again, but she still saw it as lighter than most people. Occasionally, she even felt death wasn’t so hard to accept. But she was terrified of her own transformation. She seemed to be turning into an Outsider, a monster… Was she still even Human?