Chapter 218: Death Cycle (XVI)

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Chapter 218: Death Cycle (XVI)

Shadowmoon’s first operation did not go well. By the following day, only half the team had returned alive. Even with experts like Huo Xuan and Zuo Xian present, they failed to kill the General-class zombie with the spatial ability. Apparently, someone had exposed the team’s position midway through the operation, triggering a zombie riot and forcing the mission to fail.

Everyone returned covered in wounds. Shang Ke and the two other members who had stayed behind prepared food and water while helping treat the injured.

“Fuck! Those bastards—I wish we could just drop a bomb on them and wipe out the whole nest!” one mercenary roared, slamming his fist into the table.

“And of course it had to be a spatial-type zombie. Inside its domain, bombs are useless.”

“Zuo Xian,” Bai Mu asked, “even you couldn’t locate it?”

Zuo Xian shook his head in silence, his expression dark. Privately, however, he was wondering why Huo Xuan had never appeared. He should have been nearby.

Bai Mu said gravely, “The situation isn’t looking good. We have to find that General-class zombie. Otherwise, even if we clean out every other zombie in Huaiqu, it won’t matter.”

A spatial-type zombie was not necessarily strong in direct combat. The real problem was that no one could drag it out from among countless spatial rifts. Worse, if it chose to abandon the city and flee, the mission would be a complete failure.

Shang Ke carried the medical kit over to Huo Xuan, the question plain in his eyes: The strongest human alive, and you still can’t handle one General-class zombie?

Huo Xuan returned a look telling him to be patient, then held out his arm.

Shang Ke examined it. Although it was smeared with blood, the skin itself was not even broken. Giving Huo Xuan a sidelong look, Shang Ke drew a syringe and prepared to give him a tetanus shot—only for the needle to fail to penetrate his skin and bend outright.

Shang Ke: Is skin this thick really okay?

Huo Xuan seemed to realize the problem. The muscles in his arm shifted slightly before he leaned closer and whispered, “Try again.”

Shang Ke was speechless. You actually dropped the defenses of your Bright Realm Sword Body. Do you like injections that much?!

Of course Huo Xuan did not like injections. He simply did not mind if a certain someone enjoyed himself.

Shang Ke decided not to waste medicine on him after all. He picked up the medical kit and moved on to another injured mercenary.

The mercenaries had fought through the entire night and were badly exhausted. After a brief discussion, everyone went to rest.

Using his true identity, Huo Xuan secretly sent Zuo Xian a message ordering him to have the mercenary group remain concealed for the time being and wait until Huo Xuan located the General-class zombie before taking further action.

“I’ll be gone for a while. Be careful.” Huo Xuan specifically left those words for Shang Ke before slipping away without alerting anyone else.

Shang Ke was not worried about his safety. He was more concerned by the subtle change in Huo Xuan’s attitude toward him. In the end, Shang Ke had never asked what happened that night. With his memory, perhaps the truth would return on its own eventually.

After his night watch ended, Shang Ke returned to his room and collapsed face-first onto the bed.

Half asleep and half awake, he felt a weight settle over him. Lips met his, breaths mingled, and two large hands slid across his skin. The cold touch made him shiver.

Shang Ke tried to open his eyes and see what was happening, but his body would not obey him. The man moved him at will until their bodies joined. The dull ache and familiar friction brought several fragmented images flashing through Shang Ke’s mind.

No. Those were not his memories. They were… Huo Xuan’s?

He remembered. That night, after he and Huo Xuan left the stadium, they had fallen into the dark space. Shang Ke had assumed the strange fragrance had confused his mind and caused his memory loss. In fact, the one who had truly been affected was Huo Xuan.

Shang Ke possessed no ability of his own, but he was immune to abilities. Logically, the zombie’s spatial ability should never have trapped him. Thinking back now, what had confined him was not the zombie’s ability at all but the power of Huo Xuan’s Bright Realm shard. Huo Xuan had forcibly merged his own illusion into Shang Ke’s memories. Soul Tempering had reacted against the intrusion, leaving Shang Ke with a gap in his memory.

And Shang Ke knew this for certain because of the bastard currently having his way with him.

As the restraint on his body gradually disappeared, Shang Ke opened his eyes and found one utterly shameless Zombie King above him. Di Kui had him pinned to the limit, each movement driving deep.

Reality and illusion had never been so easy to distinguish.

Shang Ke wrapped his arms around Di Kui and responded willingly, casting aside every hesitation as he gave himself over to him. Sweat and blood mingled as the two lost themselves in raw desire…

After the heat finally subsided, Shang Ke lay comfortably in Di Kui’s arms, tracing idle patterns across his chest with one finger.

Di Kui’s Dark Realm shard could give Shang Ke strength. Huo Xuan’s Bright Realm shard, on the other hand, could damage Shang Ke’s Soul Tempering shard.

Killing Di Kui was actually not difficult. Shang Ke only needed to use Soul Tempering to shatter the Dark Realm shard inside him, and Di Kui would lose his ability to resurrect. A few months ago, Shang Ke might never have found an opportunity. Now, however, Di Kui had no defenses against him at all.

Unfortunately, Shang Ke could not bring himself to do it.

As for Huo Xuan, Shang Ke felt conflicted. Huo Xuan seemed to believe they had slept together inside that dark space, which explained his promise to “take responsibility.” But there was no denying that Huo Xuan carried the same aura as Di Kui and had that distinctive mole on his hand. The memories he had forcibly merged into Shang Ke’s mind even contained fragments from previous lives.

In other words, Huo Xuan was very likely his lover as well—or, more accurately, part of his lover.

Shang Ke remembered that before Chen Xiao and Shou Mo entered reincarnation, each had separated a fragment of his soul and placed it into the Reincarnation Lamp in an attempt to change their fate. If Shang Ke’s guess was correct, Huo Xuan must carry one of Chen Xiao’s soul fragments. Only that could explain why Shang Ke reacted to both men at once.

Seen that way, could the mole that appeared on his lover’s palm in each life actually be the manifestation of Chen Xiao’s soul fragment? Was that why Shang Ke had repeatedly hesitated to recognize him whenever the mole was absent?

But how could a single soul fragment possess an independent personality? Even if it had truly reincarnated apart from the main soul, should its mind not have been incomplete?

Could it be… Shang Ke suspiciously studied Di Kui beside him. Was this guy actually the soul fragment instead? Had he been sleeping with a mole this whole time?

“Hungry?” Di Kui asked automatically when he noticed Shang Ke staring at him without blinking.

Every time they finished, Shang Ke gave him milk, so Di Kui apparently felt that he ought to feed Shang Ke something too.

“No. Not hungry.” Shang Ke casually pulled a baby bottle from the box beside the bed and handed it to Di Kui out of habit.

Di Kui held the bottle in both hands and drank while staring back at him.

Shang Ke: That unweaned look really does make him seem like my man’s… mole. So why did I abandon the main body and choose to fall in love—and fight—with a mole?

A moment later, Shang Ke rejected the idea. Whatever else might be incomplete about him, Shang Ke was now certain that Di Kui was his man. Huo Xuan was the “mole”!

Shang Ke gave the Zombie King a disdainful look. You’re the main body, yet a “mole” stole your real body and took over your mind. Aren’t you embarrassed?

Di Kui, who was still drinking milk: “?”

Now that Shang Ke had more or less confirmed their identities, the next problem was how to complete his mission. He could not shake the feeling that something about this mission was unusual, but he still could not grasp the key.

In truth, he had already devised a plan to “be killed,” but he had kept putting it off. He did not want to kill Di Kui, nor did he want Huo Xuan to kill him. Shang Ke himself could face death calmly, but his lover had no memories and would have to endure separation and death all over again. With one soul divided in two, that pain would be divided between them as well.

Perhaps it would not be so bad to simply keep living like this. He and Di Kui both possessed undying bodies; they could remain together for an age. But wishes were beautiful and reality was cruel. Huo Xuan also existed in this world. Neither Huo Xuan nor Di Kui would ever accept sharing their lover with another person, even if that other person was another part of himself. Shang Ke could not accept it either. He wanted one complete lover, not two incomplete halves who were enemies with each other.

Shang Ke buried his face in the pillow and decided to play the ostrich for once. He would drag things out for as long as he possibly could.

“Seriously,” Shang Ke said, poking Di Kui in the forehead. “Stop making me worry all the time. At least think of a way to get your ‘mole’ back! You look terrible without it!”

Di Kui, who had finished the milk and was now chewing on the bottle nipple: “?”

Having temporarily cleared away the fog in his head, Shang Ke felt much more relaxed. He would definitely find a chance to explain everything clearly to Huo Xuan. He could not let the misunderstanding continue. He did feel a little sorry for him—truthfully, Shang Ke rather liked this “mole,” whose charm far surpassed that of the main body—but affection could not simply be split in two. Sometimes a choice had to be made.

Huo Xuan was gone for three days without any news.

By the fourth day, Huo Xuan still had not returned, but the zombies discovered the mercenary group’s hiding place first. Their shelter was a detached villa enclosed by a wall. The wall itself was not high, but a plant called Prison Vine grew densely around it, masking human presence and helping them evade zombie detection.

They had been well hidden until that afternoon, when a mercenary who had been missing for several days suddenly fled back—bringing more than a hundred hideous zombies with him.

Because of this unexpected development, the group was forced into a head-on battle earlier than planned.

“If that guy was going to run, why couldn’t he have run somewhere farther away?” someone muttered.

“Enough. We were going to fight sooner or later. I was getting sick of waiting anyway.” One mercenary abruptly raised his hand and drove a blade straight through the head of a zombie outside the window.

The battle officially began.

Shang Ke remained in the main room to treat the mercenary who had narrowly escaped death, giving him an antibody injection at the same time.

The man was covered in injuries, his flesh torn and mangled with scarcely an intact patch of skin. It looked as though he had been tortured. Shang Ke found it difficult to imagine how he had managed to return alive at all—especially after five days.

Then Shang Ke’s expression changed slightly. He suddenly realized that the mercenary in front of him had no pulse. The man behaved almost exactly like a normal human, but Shang Ke was certain he was a zombie—and a high-rank zombie skilled at disguise.

Shang Ke gave no sign that he had noticed. Calmly, he said, “I don’t have enough medicine here. Wait a moment. I’ll go get a few more bottles.”

He had only just started to rise when the mercenary seized his wrist. Sharp nails pierced Shang Ke’s skin, and blood ran down his fingers. The mercenary’s previously stiff expression transformed the instant he caught the scent of blood; excitement flooded his face as he opened his mouth and lunged for Shang Ke’s arm.

Before his teeth could touch him, however, his head flew from his shoulders and slammed into the wall with a dull crack, bursting apart like a watermelon.

“What happened?” The commotion drew everyone’s attention. Seeing the mercenary’s gruesome end, they all turned uncertainly toward the person who had struck—the mysterious expert who had joined Shadowmoon alongside Shang Ke: Wang Kui, Di Kui’s alias.

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