Chapter 170: Reconciliation

Chapter 170: Reconciliation

Facing Lu Yan's suspicious gaze, Xing Yuan's heart inexplicably skipped a beat, seriously doubting if the other party had learned something. But he was confident that his disguise showed no signs of weakness. After a brief moment of panic, he regained his composure. His brows furrowed as he spoke in a cold tone:

"It's none of your business."

This was only possible with Lu Yan; if anyone else dared to threaten him like this, Xing Yuan would have already snapped their neck.

Lu Yan hadn't actually guessed anything, but he vaguely felt it was odd that Xing Yuan knew the Wandering Soul: "I'm just curious about how you plan to handle her."

Xing Yuan chuckled softly, his dark eyes revealing a hint of mockery: "Apart from death, do Wandering Souls have any other path to live?"

Lu Yan frowned: "But she hasn't killed anyone."

Xing Yuan: "So what?"

Would humans care about that? They only cared if the Wandering Soul would suddenly go berserk and devour them.

Lu Yan: "Aren't you going to save her?"

Xing Yuan's veins pulsed on his forehead: "Why should I save her?"

Lu Yan: "You know each other."

Xing Yuan: "Who said we know each other?!"

Lu Yan: "If you didn't know her, why did you spend half an hour inside with her?"

Xing Yuan: "…"

Xing Yuan couldn't use his sharp tongue against Lu Yan. Frustrated, he turned to leave, only to be grabbed by the wrist. The warmth of the human's palm contrasted with the coldness of a Wandering Soul's body temperature, almost causing Xing Yuan to recoil from the heat.

"Lu Yan—"

Xing Yuan looked back at him, his gaze dark and his tone laced with danger: "Do you remember what I told you?"

Lu Yan sighed: "I remember. You said that in Sky City, it's best not to let me run into you again, or you wouldn't let it go easily."

Xing Yuan forcefully pulled his hand away, lowering his voice to issue a cold warning: "This is the first and last time. If I meet you again, I won't spare you!"

Lightning wielders were natural enemies and natural nemeses. Xing Yuan struggled daily to suppress his desire to kill, yet Lu Yan kept getting in his way. Next time, he wasn't sure if he could hold back.

After leaving the government building, Xing Yuan went straight home. It was dusk, the most active time for Wandering Souls, but he suddenly lost all energy. His mind was muddled, and he lay in bed without wanting to move, burying his face in the pillow, looking listless.

Wandering Souls were said to be evil, but humans were the best liars.

Xing Yuan used to adore Lu Yan so much. This human was good-looking, had a pleasant voice, and a gentle personality. No matter how angry he got, Lu Yan always wore a smile, always trying to coax and kiss him.

Xing Yuan experienced love for the first time in his life. He appeared cold and distant on the surface, but in reality, he was foolishly taken in by others.

Why did the lightning wielder have to be Lu Yan?

Xing Yuan felt a mix of sadness and frustration, realizing he couldn't bring himself to kill the other party. His thoughts were tangled and chaotic, and before he knew it, he fell asleep, having a rare dream.

Humans possessed the highest level of intelligence, yet they still slaughtered each other. How much more so for Wandering Souls, who were born vicious. Xing Yuan didn't know how he came into existence, only that since he gained consciousness, he lived in a small cave, a place where everything seemed to be born.

In the pitch-black cave, there was a spot of red-hot lava. Within the lava, a formless power floated, its appearance indiscernible, gender unknown. Year after year, it bubbled, and all Wandering Souls referred to this power as "Sido".

Sido imprisoned all nearby Wandering Souls in the cave, forcing them to devour and slaughter each other. Only those who survived earned a number, only those who survived became his "children".

Xing Yuan had been in the human world for a long time, but recalling the scenes in the cave, they remained vivid in his memory: the air filled with the stench of blood and decay, the ground littered with various organs and entrails. Wandering Souls could take the form of anything in this world—a breeze, a cloud. With the right opportunity, they could become Wandering Souls. But Sido preferred collecting rotting human corpses, saying that the hatred distilled from them was the deepest, the power the strongest.

Among all Wandering Souls, Sido favored Xing Yuan the most.

Xing Yuan was a rotten heart.

Human hearts often carried the most love and hate. If they could successfully take shape, they would gain unprecedented strength.

And indeed, Xing Yuan became the top-ranked Wandering Soul. But that didn't mean much. He still had to be on high alert 24 hours a day against being devoured by his kind, facing their relentless attacks.

There was a first place, naturally, there was also a last place. Xing Yuan originally had no memory of Xiao Rou. She was too weak. In the cave, thousands of Wandering Souls would quickly consume her, leaving no trace behind. The reason he remembered her was probably because Xiao Rou had tried to escape countless times, one of which he discovered.

Such an act was strictly forbidden in the birthplace. If Sido found out, he would obliterate her. But Xing Yuan was indifferent. He only cared about how to make himself stronger, how to survive the killing. His body, like black mist, coiled in the air, revealing a pair of icy red eyes:

"Number 3275, why are you running away?"

Even as a question, when spoken by him, it sounded lifeless, like a machine devoid of emotion.

Xiao Rou could already transform into human form. Or rather, most of the Wandering Souls in the cave could transform into human form. But only she liked this form. Cornered by Xing Yuan on her escape route, she was panicked and terrified, but mostly desperate:

"I don't want to stay in the birthplace anymore. I want to see the human world."

Xing Yuan's cold voice chilled Xiao Rou to the bone:

"We are your kind."

Xiao Rou shook her head while crying: "No…Kindred spirits don't slaughter each other…If I stay in the cave, I'll die sooner or later. I might as well try to escape…I hate those rotten smells…"

Xing Yuan's tone was apathetic: "You can't escape."

Xiao Rou's gaze suddenly became stubborn and determined. She bit her lower lip tightly: "No, I will escape!"

How laughable.

That was the only thought in Xing Yuan's mind at the time. He neither stopped Xiao Rou from escaping nor helped her. He only knew that from that day on, he never saw Number 3275 again, and the cave gained Numbers 3276, 3277…

As for why he later escaped the birthplace, Xing Yuan pondered for a long time before remembering the reason. That day, he was resting in the cave when hundreds of second-stage Wandering Souls attacked him. Due to their overwhelming numbers, his spirit body was gnawed to pieces. If he stayed, he would either be devoured by his remaining kind or eaten by Sido as nourishment. Both outcomes would leave Xing Yuan unsatisfied.

So he escaped.

The lower-rank wanderers outside didn't dare to stop him, and he left that perpetually putrid den like a gust of wind. Priests could only control wanderers within a fixed range, and once he was far enough away, they were powerless.

It wasn't until then that Xing Yuan realized there was something called the sun outside, and beneath the sun was Sky City, and beneath Sky City was Devil City—a world with a rigid class system, but much stronger than his place of birth.

And so, he took root there.

The appearance of No. 3275 was like a thin thread, tugging at Xing Yuan's less-than-pleasant memories and making him acutely aware that humans and wanderers couldn't coexist. Once exposed, it would be a fight to the death.

This dream was too real; the stench of rotting flesh lingered, and Xing Yuan could vividly recall the excruciating pain when his kind swarmed over him, gnawing at his body. His brows furrowed, his breathing quickened in unease, and a sheen of cold sweat covered his forehead.

In a daze, it seemed as though someone had turned on the light and entered the room, but Xing Yuan couldn't open his eyes. Through his eyelids, he sensed a faint white glow, followed by a warm hand touching his forehead. A voice muttered in his ear:

"So cold, are you sick?"

Sick?

Xing Yuan wondered if wanderers could get sick. But they weren't human; they only got injured.

Xing Yuan struggled to lift his eyelids, and as his blurred vision focused, he saw a familiar face—Lu Yan. The other's eyes, which always held a smile, now showed only worry, his brows knitted as he searched the bedside table for a thermometer.

"Who told you to come?"

When Xing Yuan spoke, he realized his voice was hoarse, his tone impatient, yet there was a hint of grievance.

Lu Yan paused at Xing Yuan's words. He had actually felt that Xing Yuan's mood was off today and came to check on him. Surprisingly, Xing Yuan hadn't deleted his facial recognition data, allowing him easy entry into the bedroom.

Lu Yan made up an excuse: "I left some clothes here, I came to get them."

It was true; he hadn't even had time to grab a change of clothes.

Upon hearing this, Xing Yuan was instantly furious. Lu Yan had come in the middle of the night not to reconcile but to retrieve those old clothes?! He sat up in bed, gritting his teeth.

"That was all bought by me!"

Lu Yan found no fault in this: "You bought them for me."

Xing Yuan retorted, "Who said that? Where's the proof?!"

Seeing Xing Yuan's agitated state, Lu Yan remained silent for a moment before suddenly unable to hold back a laugh. "You're sick, how can you still have the energy to throw a tantrum?"

At Lu Yan's words, Xing Yuan felt as if his secret had been exposed, a visible flicker of panic crossing his eyes. He subconsciously turned his head away, his brows still furrowed. "I'm not sick!"

Lu Yan reached out to touch his forehead. "So cold, and you say you're not sick. I'll get you some hot water."

Strangely, while others ran fevers with burning bodies, Xing Yuan was cold as ice. Having lived here for a while, Lu Yan knew without looking that there were no medicines in Xing Yuan's home. He got up and walked to the kitchen, where he found two pieces of ginger in the food cabinet, washed them, sliced them, and threw them into a pot to simmer with brown sugar water.

Xing Yuan's housekeeper was quite dedicated. Regardless of whether they ate at home or not, the cabinets always contained fresh vegetables.

Hearing the commotion from the kitchen, Xing Yuan didn't know what Lu Yan was doing, but he lacked the strength to get out of bed. He could only wait on the pillow for the other to return.

Soon, Lu Yan returned with a steaming bowl of brown sugar ginger water. He sat down by the bed and waited for the bowl to cool slightly before saying, "Come drink some ginger water; it helps with headaches and colds."

Xing Yuan lay there listlessly, his eyelashes casting a dense shadow, making his skin appear even paler. "I told you, I'm not sick."

He thought to himself, was this person stupid? He had clearly stated that he wouldn't go easy on Lu Yan again, so why was Lu Yan still coming close.

Lu Yan stirred the spoon gently in the bowl, steam rising and blurring his earnest features. "Didn't you want me to leave? I'll go after you drink this. How about that?"

At Lu Yan's words, Xing Yuan finally lifted his eyelids to look at him. Dark emotions brewed in his pupils. As if he didn't feel the heat, he suddenly picked up the bowl and drank it down expressionlessly, then slammed it down on the bedside table. "You can leave now!"

He turned over, facing away from Lu Yan, simply out of sight, out of mind.

Go, go, Xing Yuan thought viciously with closed eyes. Wanderers liked to eat people, and Lu Yan staying by his side would eventually end in being eaten.

After a moment of silence, Xing Yuan heard the sound of a door closing and lights turning off behind him. For some inexplicable reason, he suddenly regretted it, but he couldn't bring himself to call out and keep Lu Yan. His mind was a mess.

A corner of the blanket was gently lifted in the darkness, and Lu Yan silently removed his outer clothing and climbed into bed. Sensing the warm, muscular body behind him, Xing Yuan was startled, his eyes snapping open, his voice tinged with panic. "You!"

"Hush."

Lu Yan signaled for him to be quiet, then wrapped his arms around Xing Yuan's icy body. His voice, weary from sleepiness but made unusually gentle by the night's embrace, said, "I can't leave you alone. I'll go tomorrow morning."

Xing Yuan tried to struggle, but Lu Yan held him tightly. The harder he struggled, the tighter Lu Yan held him. After a long standoff, Xing Yuan finally closed his eyes as if giving up.

In a daze, he heard the human whisper in his ear, "Let's make up, okay?"

Make up?

Xing Yuan surprisingly found himself not as resistant to the term. He didn't say anything, but unwillingly kicked Lu Yan under the covers, a sort of "hint" for reconciliation.

Like a kitten rubbing its head or a puppy nudging its nose.

If wanderers liked something, they would swallow it whole, but Xing Yuan currently didn't seem to have that idea. Swallowing it would just turn it into a pile of rotten flesh, how ugly.

Lu Yan knew Xing Yuan was appeased and reached out to tousle his hair, kissing his eyes in the darkness. "I won't hide anything from you anymore."

At Lu Yan's words, Xing Yuan couldn't help but smile, his tone slightly flat. "Oh."

Lu Yan: "Don't hide things from me either."

Xing Yuan: "...Oh."

Guilty as charged.

That night, the two of them slept deeply in each other's embrace, so deeply that they didn't notice the moon outside their window had somehow become shrouded in a blood-red shadow, as if soaked in blood, eerily reminiscent of that disastrous red sun.

The wanderers imprisoned underground were suddenly agitated as if influenced by some force. They began to violently slam against their cages, unleashing a strength hundreds of times greater than usual.

"Boom!!!"

"Boom!!!"

"Boom!!!"

The energy array, jolted by the impact, began to flash red lights repeatedly. The guards, sensing something amiss, rushed hurriedly towards the control room. In the distance, the sound of metal barriers crashing to the ground echoed. Suddenly, an overwhelming black mist surged out from the crevices of the sealed doors. It coiled wildly overhead, devouring humans, bursting into maniacal and unrestrained laughter.

A guard, upon seeing this, was frightened to the point his face turned ashen. He scrambled on all fours, heading for the headquarters, screaming with heart-wrenching desperation:

"It's terrible!!! The Wanderers have escaped from prison!!!"