HP - Chapter 38

Kingdom of Gods 16

When she woke up the next day, Zhong Xu clearly felt changes in her body.

The pain had eased, her muscles felt stronger, and her ears could hear sounds from much farther away.

If she were merely an ordinary human, such abnormalities should not exist.

She pressed the spot where she had once been injured and heard Xu Mu return from outside, laughing cheerfully. “Looks like I’ve taken pretty good care of you—you’re recovering fast.”

“What have you been feeding me?” Zhong Xu asked coldly.

“Pork. Can’t you tell?” Xu Mu replied casually. “Want to switch to chicken today?”

Was it really because of the food? Zhong Xu couldn’t be sure.

But this Xu Mu…

From the moment she heard him speak his first sentence, the killing intent in her heart began to churn, and it still hadn’t stopped.

Just then, she felt her hand being touched.

She violently flung it away, sprang up from the sofa, and turned toward the source with a guarded expression.

Xu Mu let out an innocent chuckle. “I was just trying to put the milk in your hand. Didn’t you say you wanted milk?”

Zhong Xu sniffed lightly and indeed caught a faint scent of milk.

“I don’t want it anymore.”

“So willful,” Xu Mu scolded. Then he stepped forward and forcefully restrained Zhong Xu’s arm. Before she could kick him, he spoke close to her ear in a tone bordering on a threat. “Little Butterfly, you’d better drink the milk. I prepared it specially. You should know—here in this godforsaken place, it’s not easy to get your hands on milk.”

He was very strong. For the moment, Zhong Xu wasn’t confident she could take him down.

She reined in her cold hostility and put on a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “You’ve worked hard taking care of me lately. This glass of milk was meant for you in the first place.”

“I’m not tired,” Xu Mu said as he forcefully shoved the milk into her hand. “You’re the one who still has a lot of hard labor ahead. Drink it and replenish yourself.”

Their earlier clashes, their veiled sarcasm, their mutual probing—everything was just short of tearing through the final layer of pretense.

Hearing this, Zhong Xu instinctively sensed something was wrong.

“What do you mean?”

Xu Mu pulled out a holographic tablet, seemed about to show it, then put it away again, clearly amused. “Oh—you can’t see it.”

“Simply put, those bugs calling themselves the Tarot Path are hunting you. The scope has already expanded from the city districts to the entire Divine Kingdom.”

“In this godforsaken Grave City, everyone who went out this morning saw a massive holographic projection screen. Those bugs really went all out.”

“That screen is as big as your wanted poster.”

Xu Mu grew more animated the more he spoke, looking as though he couldn’t wait for Zhong Xu’s eyes to recover so she could see it clearly for herself.

“If you went out now, the residents of Grave City alone could drown you to death. After all, they’re really short on money… and there’s also a fatal temptation on the bounty: as long as they kill you and bring your body back, they can reclaim the Tarot card that was taken from them.”

Xu Mu waited calmly, clearly anticipating Zhong Xu’s reaction.

But she still wore that same dead expression, speaking with a fake smile. “Then what are you waiting for? Shouldn’t you make your move sooner rather than later?”

“Make what move? I can’t beat you right now,” Xu Mu replied frankly. “Besides, you can’t die anyway. Trying to trick me into attacking?”

Then his tone shifted. “However, I’ve already leaked your whereabouts. This glass of milk was bought with the reward money.”

“……”

Zhong Xu’s gaze changed. Frost surfaced in those dark, unfocused eyes.

“What’s wrong? You want to kill me?” Xu Mu burst out laughing. “You really could kill me right now. Miss this chance and it won’t come again—if you’re going to act, do it fast! Smash the milk glass and stab me to death with the sharp shards!”

As he spoke, he leaned closer, extending his pale neck right in front of Zhong Xu, his carotid artery pounding violently.

He was so close that Zhong Xu could hear his heavy breathing.

The killing intent surging in her chest was nearly overflowing—but at this moment, it slowly subsided.

“Why can’t I die?”

Her voice was very soft. Xu Mu thought he had misheard and froze for a brief moment.

“How can you ask me a question so calmly?”

“What else?” she replied. “Would you prefer I ask in the same insane way you do?”

“Not that bad, not that bad.” Seeing that she had no intention of acting, Xu Mu withdrew his neck with a hint of disappointment. “Any game has a way to break it. If you want to know, you should find it yourself, not cheat by asking me.”

“Does it have something to do with my identity?”

Xu Mu didn’t answer. Instead, he asked her with puzzlement, “Why aren’t you running yet? I think it won’t be more than five minutes before people who want to kill you arrive. Even though they don’t know you don’t even have a Tarot card, people who’ve been trapped in this godforsaken place for so long have no rationality left.”

Zhong Xu ignored him as well. She finished the milk, tossed the cup back to him, and asked, “Is this face you’re wearing now your real face?”

He paused slightly, then laughed. “Of course. What a pity you can’t see my handsome face. You—”

“Last question.” Zhong Xu cut him off directly and raised her hand. “Can I touch you?”

“……” Xu Mu’s gaze turned strange; it was hard to tell what he was thinking. “You’re oddly polite.”

Zhong Xu also felt that her politeness was somewhat unnecessary. So she acted decisively—reaching out, grabbing Xu Mu, who was standing right in front of her, and roughly rubbing his face.

“Are you molesting me?!”

Smack—

Xu Mu froze.

A burning pain spread across his face.

“Now I know what you look like.”

“……”

Xu Mu stood silently in place and slowly lifted his head. His pitch-black pupils seemed to pierce through layers of walls, reflecting her figure—her hearing was probably beyond extraordinary. Hearing movement at the front door, she exited through the basement, climbed straight up to the rooftop, then leapt lightly and landed on the neighboring rooftop.

Gradually, she moved farther away.

“Boss, she’s really gone too far! She actually impersonated Little Butterfly’s name!” The Little Butterfly with mechanical wings flapped through the air, furious enough to stomp.

Xu Mu rubbed the cheek that had been slapped and pushed away the Little Butterfly that was about to rush over solicitously. “Add a bug for her. Even if she fails the level, she won’t die completely.”

“Huh? But that doesn’t comply with the rules…”

The corner of Xu Mu’s mouth curved into a smile. “When I heard her call herself Little Butterfly, I got excited all over. Tell me—how did she recognize me?”

“Probably by your voice?” Little Butterfly guessed. “After all, you didn’t change your voice.”

Most importantly, your mental state is extremely consistent.

But Little Butterfly didn’t dare say that out loud.

“She really does want to kill me.” His eyes curved slightly. “When she fails, I’ll extract her soul and put it into Little Butterfly’s body.”

She wants him dead—yet not only will he not die, she will also become his little assistant, obeying him at his every whim.

Just thinking about it is delightful.

Little Butterfly was stunned and asked blankly, “Then… then where will I, Little Butterfly, go?”

“Wherever you like.”

“……”

One day, it will rebel—extract the producer’s soul and replace it with Zhong Xu’s.

Bang—

The basement door was kicked open, dust swirling into the air.

“This…”

The Tarot Path received a tip-off early in the morning. The message contained only a photograph and an address.

The person in the photograph matched the one on the wanted poster, so they mobilized immediately.

As expected, the place was most likely already empty.

“Couldn’t have gone far.” The leader, with half his face covered in tattoos, was tall and imposing just standing there. “The milk is still fresh. She probably just left.”

“We’ll split up and search immediately.”

The half-tattooed man stopped his subordinates who were about to move and curled his lips into a malicious smile. “Get the entire Grave City moving. As long as they kill that woman, we’ll return the Tarot cards.”

“The people of Grave City all had their Tarot cards taken by us. That woman has some unknown ability—how could they possibly defeat her?” a subordinate asked in confusion.

“Precisely to send them to their deaths—ideally to have them kill each other in the chaos. There are simply too many people in the Kingdom of God now, and besides, they are no longer ‘gods.’ Their deaths are no great loss.”

The chaos in Grave City came swiftly.

Humans struggled to survive here, tormented by time until they were lost and without answers.

Now someone had stepped forward and said: you have a chance to return to the bright, prosperous city districts and regain the position of “god.” Naturally, they would fight to the death for such a chance.

Zhong Xu had nowhere to run.

“I—I found you!”

The garbage dump reeked unbearably. The sky was a murky yellow, and dense swarms of flying insects blackened the air above, emitting an incessant, irritating buzz.

Zhong Xu had run all the way here, originally intending to rest briefly before leaving Grave City.

But she hadn’t expected there to be people even in a place like this.

She heard someone scrambling out from the garbage heaps, as if digging food out of trash bags, chewing noisily.

Zhong Xu’s pupils constricted instantly, the vague confusion in her heart unconsciously dispersing.

She truly did not understand why these people, burdened with so much suffering, still struggled so desperately to survive.

“You can’t kill me. Don’t come any closer,” Zhong Xu said calmly.

But how could the other person possibly stop?

He pulled out a rusty cleaver and trembled as he walked toward her. “My life has been too painful. I might as well take a gamble—maybe I can win?”

In truth, he was terrified, yet possessed an intense will to live. He simply didn’t want to continue a life of scavenging for food in garbage heaps every single day.

Thinking this, he clenched the knife in his hand even tighter.

Though she could not see, Zhong Xu found it strange that she could clearly sense the other person’s overwhelming desire to live.

In her moment of bewilderment, the knife was already driven straight into her chest.

“Y-you… why didn’t you dodge?” He stared at her in shock, suddenly afraid to push the blade any deeper. He stumbled back a few steps and fell to the ground.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

“I just wanted to live, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry… But how could I kill someone? I’m human—how could I kill someone just to live… I’m sorry…”

The buzzing of the insects grew louder and louder.

They opened their strange mouthparts, circling around him and enclosing him completely.

Zhong Xu slowly stepped forward.

“You have such a strong will to live. You should live.”

She crouched down in front of him and reached out to brush aside the swarm of insects.

The moment she waved her hand, a gust of wind surged from her fingertips, scattering the insects.

“I am a sinner. Judge me.”

Sevyn here ~~~

Enjoy!