Xia Yang painted the red raincoat on the art teacher’s body, and now he wanted to draw Situ An’s soul as a keepsake. Even though he had died in the death portrait, his life after death was much more interesting than when he was alive. The chains made sure that Situ An couldn’t resist. He was in deep pain even though he just lifted his head. He could only allow Xia Yang to draw him.
“You…” Situ An observed Xia Yang and Gao Ming when he suddenly noticed something, “You two are the same?! Gao Ming, you’re the other Gao Ming!”
“How can you tell?” Teacher Xia stopped drawing. “You’re right. I’m the real him. I’ll do everything he doesn’t want to do. After the madness and murder, he will cut himself off from me and blame everything on me, which is him.”
Gao Ming narrowed his eyes between Xia Yang and Situ An. It required a lot of courage to trap these two dangerous characters in his heart. However, Gao Ming had his reasons. Xia Yang’s situation was special, so Gao Ming temporarily had no plans to destroy him. As for Situ An, Gao Ming intended to get more information from him.
“Your relationship is complicated.” Situ An was cornered, but he didn’t seem nervous from his expression. “Gao Ming, I’m curious. What have I done to you that you hate me so much? That you’d kill me at any price?”
Gao Ming sat on the God of Flesh and Blood’s arm and stared at Situ An silently.
“Even bringing up the reason to kill me gives you so much pain?” Situ An allowed the chains to pull his ‘flesh’. He wiggled his body to get close to Gao Ming, “Is one of the patients I sacrificed at the east city private hospital one of your families? Or did I pick your lover when I was picking a wife for a corpse the year before last at Bo Wan Village? Or did the murderers I accidentally sent into Si Sui Apartments to attempt to worship the God of Flesh and Blood at Si Sui Apartments kill someone important to you?”
Situ An listed the horrible things he had done. Just listening to them made one uncomfortable.
“Or when I tried to destroy the evidence five years ago when I failed to trigger the anomaly, I killed one of your friends? So many people died in that massacre. But if they didn’t die, I would have died.” When Situ An said these things, he kept his eyes on Gao Ming to observe his changes.
“I’ve done so many things that should put me in the depths of hell, so… what have I done to you?” Situ An grabbed the chains with his hands. He tried to struggle and jumped at Gao Ming, but that only tore off half of his soul.
“You haven’t done anything to me. I just want to destroy you.” Gao Ming smiled purely. This was the first time he felt so happy since he left the tunnel.
“There are many people like that, but you are not one of them. I can tell.” Situ An stopped resisting. However, he still refused to lower his head. Even through the pain, he had to look Gao Ming in the eyes. “I once wanted to be someone like you, but they wouldn’t allow it because someone had to do those things.”
“Such as?” Xia Yang had drawn Situ An’s face, but he was not satisfied with it. He tore it apart and drew again. Situ An’s face had new scars.
“I’ve done so many horrible things, but I am still alive. Why? It is not that no one knows about them, but I cannot die.” Situ An never thought about surrendering. “No matter where I am, as long as you don’t kill me, they will come find you. If you kill me, you will become the next me.”
“Who are they?” The path of fate had changed. Gao Ming swallowed the two characters who would direct fate into his heart. All the tributaries of fate were gathering towards him.
“When do you think the first anomaly occurred?” Situ An didn’t answer Gao Ming’s answer as if it was something unmentionable. “A week ago at Han Hai or half a year ago at Xin Lu?”
“Did it start ten years ago when those bastards took the bus?” Xia Yang loved the atmosphere inside Gao Ming’s torture room. He always thought people around him were boring, but this room was different. Only those ‘special’ enough could enter this room.
“I once thought that too, until I read a secret document. Then, I realised everyone had been lied to.” Situ An said evenly, “The anomalies have always been here, but they hadn’t been so influential in the past. About sixty years ago, a door appeared at Jiujiang. Behind the door is the shadow world.”
“No one knew how the first door appeared, and no one knew who opened it. In the investigation centre’s report, someone in Jiujiang knew about the door earlier than the centre. It was because of these people that the anomalies never exploded at Jiujiang.” These words appeared meaningless, but they carried a ton of information. “Recently, the headquarters have been trying to find those people, but it is to no avail. They reached a conclusion after a thorough search. Those who knew about the doors had already entered the doors. We are being invaded by the shadow world, but they chose to enter the shadow world.”
“Do the they you mention come from behind the door? Is this world that interesting?” Teacher Xia’s eyes warmed, but his pupils were red.
“The Red Spectres that once appeared at Jiujiang were the most extreme and domineering ghosts to have ever existed. Their stance is hard to fathom. They haven’t chosen to help the real world but have been fighting the shadow world. If Jiujiang were described as an aggressive city, Xin Lu was a completely different situation. You will understand once you go to the intelligent city. That city is actively trying to unite with the shadow world.” Situ An’s words stunned Gao Ming. Fate could affect real life and control everything to stop the shadow world from consuming the real world. However, someone dared to drag the whole city to unite with the shadow world.
“The boundary between computers, human brains, the living and the dead became blurry. In that city, memory can be uploaded and downloaded. Emotions can be manipulated. Part of the citizens of that city live in a sealed-up game. They cannot differentiate between the game world and the real world. The cunning culprit uses this method to make them assimilate to the existence of the shadow world and encases Xin Lu between the shadow world and the real world.” Situ An paused. “As long as Xin Lu exists, the shadow world will continue to infiltrate the real world. I cannot change Xin Lu, so I can only do my best to defend Han Hai.”
“Don’t flatter yourself. You just want to turn the whole city into a bargaining chip to negotiate with the shadow world.” Gao Ming had seen through Situ An. The man liked to slip in one lie among nine truths. “You said that Xin Lu had already fallen to the shadow world. In that case, why did the Han Hai Investigation Centre request aid from Xin Lu? Did Xin Lu choose to join the shadow world or they have found their own method to modify the shadow world?”