Jin Se

Chapter 42

Shi Wuduan's chest became a mess of bloody flesh. Very quickly, his blood had welled over the green glass tucked inside his robes. As it flowed into every mark etched into the green glass, the image on its surface started to look more like an array than a portrait. The thin channels carved on its surface were able to absorb some type of energy.

Just as the blood, as if it had a life of its own, had completed a circuit around the "channels" on the green glass, an orange glow suddenly shone from Shi Wuduan's chest and, like two magnets of the same polarity, repelled Bai Li away.

Taken by surprise, Bai Li stumbled back, crashing heavily against the wall. He grunted faintly; the red in his eyes diminished significantly, and the malice on his face turned into confusion. He stared blankly at his lengthy claws.

As soon as the light from the green glass disappeared, Bai Li was confronted with the sight of Shi Wuduan, who was half-conscious. Bai Li's eyes widened, he unwittingly backed away. His gaze fell on the blood staining his white sleeves. He spaced out for a moment before he suddenly yelled, "Wuduan!"

Was it me? Was I the one who harmed him? How could I.....

He worriedly rushed to his side but found that there wasn't one place between Shi Wuduan's chest and throat that wasn't oozing blood. Who knew how many holes were poked into him. Instantly, he became flustered and clueless. He kept reaching towards him, wanting to lift him up and carry him, but Shi Wuduan's neck was still bleeding and couldn't handle any strain. The moment he moved him, he started bleeding out even more rapidly.

Bai Li was half-kneeling on the floor, his head almost blanker than it was before. His heart, his hands, and feet, were all freezing cold - as if the one dying wasn't Shi Wuduan, but him.

Yet Shi Wuduan was still conscious, though unable to speak. His eyes were so calm they were almost indifferent as he looked upon a terrified Bai Li. His chest, which had been rapidly rising and falling, slowly started to still. His breaths became almost unnoticeable.

The ash of the Yin Corpse Fire wasn't able to change a person completely, in fact, it couldn't even make someone lose sight of their true self. All it did was make those with whom it shared an origin partially lose their self-control. Shi Wuduan knew - actually, he seemed to have known for a while already. He felt like his mind had turned into a mirror, all the good and all the ugly became reflected in its surface, having nowhere left to hide.

That's right, or perhaps from another perspective, what the Yin Corpse Fire actually did was reveal a person's true nature. So all this time, this was Bai Li's true nature.

Shi Wuduan thought that he was just like a wolf; even if a wolf is raised in a pen and learns to wag its tail for attention like a dog, its bloodthirsty nature can't be changed. As long as its fangs are still there, it's only a matter of time before they sink into their master's throat.

Just like himself, even though he'd once been trapped on Jiulu Mountain, even though he was in a position of weakness and had to learn to socialize like a normal person, drinking and conversing with others, it couldn't change his icy cold, rebellious blood. Only spilled blood and the utter destruction of this old era could ever ignite it. One day, either that fire would light the flames of war, or it would swallow him whole.

Shi Wuduan suddenly felt unbearably weary. Even animals didn't have to betray their own nature, they ate, drank, ran, and cried, driven entirely by their instincts. Why did humans have to bitterly struggle to repress themselves? What did they even gain by doing so?