A Good-for-Nothing

291. He Narrowly Avoided Being Bewitched

Translator: Dragon Rider

The woman’s voice seemed to be reverberating in his ears like a death sentence. In all fairness, He Zheng was not a good-tempered person. He was conceited and patronizing. Also, he was misanthropic, because almost everybody he knew used to call him a good-for-nothing. And now his mother was telling him that he had been born a vessel.

This was what He Zheng found the most unacceptable. He felt as though fate had just slapped him hard across the face. Recently everybody had been saying that he was prodigiously talented, that he was God’s favored one, but now his mother informed him that he was merely a vessel.

The painful shock and disbelief made He Zheng’s limbs numb, black gas quietly covering He Zheng’s face. If even his very birth had been deprived of its basic meaning, what was the point of his existence?

Anger, derision, self-abasement, restlessness … all kinds of negative emotions were bubbling inside him and intensifying. He heard a sarcastic voice say in his head, “You see, you’re even more useless than a good-for-nothing. You’re just a vessel. Why gives them the right to do this to you? You should just destroy everything and kill all those who dare ridicule you.”

He Zheng was somewhat dizzy, but he subconsciously agreed with this opinion. He suddenly felt that he needed to do something, that only some kind of liquid could placate his agitated heart.

The red liquid that tasted faintly of rust was so amazing.

He did not know when, but his eyes had been occupied by black gas. The voice beside his ear, now sounding even more bewitching and convincing, continued, “Do it. Kill the woman standing in front of you.”

“No. I can’t do that. She’s my mom,” demurred He Zheng, withdrawing his outstretched arms.

“If she really sees you as her son, why did she put the Demonic Seed inside you? You’re just a vessel, one that is insignificant, one that came into existence as the result of a mistake. Though aware that you’d probably die a premature death, this cruel woman still chose to give birth to you.”

“She did it for … for the greater good.” He Zheng was in deep misery. Even he himself did not notice that his voice was weak and barely audible when he said this.

“Bullshit! She did it to let you die!” roared the voice beside his ear. The tense string in his head broke and He Zheng’s eyes were instantaneously veiled by black gas. His whites were dyed black, and inside his eye sockets were two horrible-looking jet-black beads.

“Yeah. She did it only to let me die. Why did you do that, Mom?”

He was very upset and more anxious to use blood to soothe the pain in his heart, so he reached out his hands and his fingers gently closed around the woman’s neck.

“Why did you do that to me, Mom? I’m heartbroken, too.” He Zheng’s voice was quavery and tearful.

But his face wore an eerie smile, and his hold gradually tightened into a squeeze. He felt the aorta in the woman’s neck pulsing against his palm, which was an eccentric but curious sensation.

He heard the woman’s imploring voice and her calls for help, each of which was weaker than the one that came before it. In He Zheng’s ears, they were like the most beautiful music in the world. He was enraptured by this.

His intent to kill was swelling in the depths of his heart, bringing him intense pleasure.

“He Zheng, clear your mind. Do not be bewitched,” said an unemotional male voice.

Li Zong?

He Zheng gave an involuntary shudder and abruptly slackened his grip as the woman’s tears dropped to his hands. He Zheng was taken aback. The black gas over his face vanished without a trace. “Mom!”

He Zheng let out a cry only to find that the place was deserted except for himself. His eyes flew open and he sat up from the bed to be greeted by Li Zong’s apprehensive gaze.

Li Zong, supporting him, drew him to his chest.

“Wh–What happened to me?” asked He Zheng, looking bemusedly down at his hands.

“You were under an Illusion Spell,” sighed the former sect leader.

Li Zong covered He Zheng’s eyes with his hand, put his other arm around He Zheng’s shoulders and held He Zheng’s hands.

“Relax. You’re okay now.” Li Zong gently kissed He Zheng’s smooth forehead, which now bore a fairly scary, black, eye-shaped pattern. Li Zong, as though not having noticed it, combed He Zheng’s hair, his countenance unchanged.

At the same time. In a villa.

A man lying in a deck chair abruptly opened his eyes as the left side of his face instantly turned into black gas, looking rather spooky.

“Master,” said Zhou Congzhi, who was sitting behind a desk, looking up at the man as the latter awoke.

“I failed,” said Xiangshan, a slight crease of frustration between his eyebrows. He had been within an inch of arousing the dark power inside He Zheng. What a near miss. “Li Zong really cares about him very much … Who’s this Li Zong guy exactly? How come he could directly enter He Zheng’s dream?”

It turned out that all this was part of Zhou Qi’s subterfuge. Previously he had come up with a malicious plan – putting that soul of He Zheng’s into a Seal so as to drive a wedge between Li Zong and SMB and have He Zheng killed. Though this plan was not a complete success, it had, due to all sorts of accidental mishaps, done Xiangshan a favor.

It had never crossed any of their minds that the Demonic Seed had indeed been inside He Zheng. After Zhou Qi put that soul of He Zheng’s into the magic circle, it had been nourished and inevitably affected by the demonic Qi in there, which was why the Demon King had found that the connection between him and He Zheng had strengthened.

The Demon King had planned to create a magical reverie, lure He Zheng into it, evoke He Zheng’s negative emotions and trap He Zheng in there. If He Zheng killed Zhu Ning, he would be controlled by demonic Qi forever.

“Li Zong’s identity is known to very few, but he’s not an ancient fabled beast nor a descendant of some matchless cultivator.” Zhou Congzhi paused before continuing, “I’ve sent some men to track Li Zong and He Zheng down. There’s no way they’re still in that Seal. I’ll find them as quick as possible.”

“Don’t waste any more manpower,” smiled the Demon King. “My pawn, before losing all his value, finally did something commendable for me.”

The others were unaware of it, but the Demon King knew about it better than anybody. As He Zheng’s powers grew, the Seed sealed inside him would correspondingly became stronger and eventually take control of his body without any difficulty. At the same time, the bonding between the Demon King and the Seed would be enhanced constantly, and he would be able to sense the Seed’s whereabouts no matter where He Zheng was. Of course, the same went for He Zheng.

“All those Yōkai are dead, I suppose?”

“Yes.” Zhou Congzhi slightly bowed his head.

Xiangshan smiled a watery smile. It was midsummer, but for an instant the air in the vicinity made Zhou Congzhi’s flesh creep. “Recently my luck hasn’t been very good. It’s really annoying.

So I think I should do something and have those guys feel what I’ve felt earlier this day.”

With that Xiangshan turned into black gas and disappeared from the villa. A breeze gently blew in, rippling the curtain. Zhou Congzhi’s eyes were as calm as the water in an ancient well, as if nothing could disrupt the composure in them.

“The wind is picking up.”

Zhou Congzhi’s lonely voice echoed in the room, lending an air of bleakness to it.

In the Tigers and Dragons Mountain.

As some passers-by had taken videos of those damn Yōkai attacking SMB, almost all domestic Internet forums and online news portals were filled with articles and pictures about it. Some netizens believed that it had been a powerful cultivator undergoing a test arranged by the providence, and some others said that aliens were attacking the earth. It was part of SMB’s job to deal with this kind of matters. What with this, members of the three action groups were working their asses off. Zhang Jingqiu, as a group leader, was up to his eyebrows in all kinds of tasks and tiring himself out. To make things worse, Sect Leader Zhang had given him a phone call and ordered him to return to the sect.

It had been very easy for Sect Leader Zhang to have that phone call made, but the weary journey nearly killed Zhang Jingqiu. As a result, the moment he returned to the sect and met Zhang Shi, Zhang Jingqiu warned his little brother in a threatening voice, “If the reason why you followed Master’s instruction and called me back here turns out to have nothing to do with an urgent matter, I’ll kill you.”

Zhang Shi, with a devil-may-care air about him, followed in his brother’s wake. “Don’t worry. You won’t be able to kill me. You think you can still defeat me?”

Zhang Jingqiu was almost reduced to vomiting blood for rage. In recent years he had been busy working and had indeed spent less time practicing exorcism skills than Zhang Shi had. In addition, Zhang Shi was more talented than him, so he might really lose to Zhang Shi if they had a fight.

However, Group Leader Zhang, who would never admit defeat during a verbal duel, naturally wouldn’t swallow his little brother’s provocative remarks. The two of them started bickering again and was still squabbling when they reached the Great Hall in which Sect Leader Zhang was waiting.

Apart from Sect Leader Zhang, there were another two people present.

The corners of Zhang Jingqiu’s mouth twitched as he wondered whether he was hallucinating.

At the sight of Zhang Jingqiu, Li Zong greeted him. “Group Leader Zhang.”

Hadn’t this asshole fallen into the Seal and been unaccounted for ever since? Li Zong was part of the reason why Zhang Jingqiu had been so busy.

But of course, this was not what concerned him the most at the moment.

Zhang Jingqiu looked at Li Zong and He Zheng, mixed emotions on his face. He could not help but observe the eye-shaped pattern on He Zheng’s brow, which was very obtrusive.

“Li Zong.”

“What’s going on, Master?” Zhang Jingqiu subconsciously shifted his gaze to Sect Leader Zhang.

Sect Leader Zhang slightly frowned. “I’ve just met Li Zong as well.”

A few minutes before Zhang Jingqiu’s arrival, Li Zong had shown up in this hall, bringing with him He Zheng who was now the most wanted man. Zhang Jingqiu almost drew his weapon in spite of himself.

“Zhang Jingqiu, He Zheng and I will go back to SMB with you.”

“What do you mean?” said Zhang Jingqiu, withdrawing his hand holding his weapon, eyeing Li Zong confusedly.

Sect Leader Zhang shook his head. “Our sect is supposed to be a quiet place. Now that Li Zong and He Zheng have come, you may all return to where you belong.”

Zhang Jingqiu seemed to have something else to say, but Sect Leader Zhang was already gesturing for them to leave.

Zhang Jingqiu, having been given the cold shoulder, was very depressed. He had just made such a long journey to get here, and now he had to leave???

Now he understood why some people said that a disciple that had left the sect was like water that had been poured over the ground. Standing in this hall, he felt like an outsider.

What with this, Zhang Jingqiu looked a bit down even when they were on their way back.

But Sect Leader Zhang did not forget about the master-apprentice bonding between them completely. He instructed Zhang Shi to drive them to the airport and buy them plane tickets.

At first everything was going well, but on their way to the airport, something unexpected happened.