Chapter 15: United at the Third Watch

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"......"

At Qi Wu’s command, Xie Xishu’s body instantly stiffened.

He couldn’t help but press his lips tightly together; his already pale lips now drained of all color. Although it was Qi Wu who had just moments ago rescued him from the monster’s encirclement, the vivid memories lingering in Xie Xishu’s mind were not limited to Qi Wu’s heroic rescue. There was also the unsettling greed the young man had displayed in the alleyway—an unnatural hunger.

But after a brief hesitation, Xie lowered his gaze silently and reached toward his tattered, bloodstained school uniform.

No matter what, this time Qi Wu had the medication for dressing wounds in his hand as he ordered Xie to undress. Whether or not his intention was truly “just” to tend to the injuries, now was certainly not a time for fussiness.

However, what would normally be a mundane and routine act was agonizingly difficult for Xie at this moment.

When he escaped from the classroom earlier, his cuts had been severe. Now, the blood from the wounds had long since soaked into and fused with the fabric of his uniform.

To remove the clothing was to tear off the dried, scabbed blood clots from the wounds.

“Hiss—”

A suppressed gasp echoed softly in the dim, silent infirmary.

It was excruciating.

The pain was so sharp that Xie, maintaining his awkward posture as he removed his clothes, felt tears welling at the corner of his eyes. His ripped uniform hung loosely over his shoulders, yet he could only remain frozen in place, trembling and gasping for breath, afraid to move.

Qi Wu watched him, his thick black brows twitching ever so slightly.

As Qi Wu’s gaze shifted, Xie’s exposed shoulder and side broke out in fine goosebumps. He bit his lip unconsciously, his white teeth nearly sinking into the flesh.

Then he heard Qi Wu’s unusually stiff voice:

“...So delicate.”

What?

Before Xie could comprehend Qi Wu’s meaning, the young man replaced further explanation with action.

A moist, burning, sticky sensation suddenly pressed against Xie’s skin.

Something—those “tongues”—silently slid along his side, slipping beneath his school uniform.

“Ugh.”

Xie shuddered instinctively. Those tongues meticulously licked away the bloodstains on his skin.

Finally, they settled over the most severe wounds, pressing and probing repeatedly. Along with a copious secretion of saliva, a metallic scent rose, weaving invisibly like a delicate web, enveloping Xie.

The scabs on the wounds were softening.

Xie felt a subtle dizziness—the fierce pain that once sliced through his nerves like tiny saw blades was gradually fading, replaced by a strange numbness.

Clearly, the “tongues” newly sprouted from Qi Wu’s mutated form were not merely weapons for killing. The saliva they secreted was not ordinary saliva. This thick, fishy fluid possessed a potent anesthetic effect.

...Yet, from any angle, this special anesthetic effect failed to comfort Xie.

After all, apart from the external anesthetics used for certain surgeries, in nature, creatures that secrete saliva with strong anesthetic properties usually do so to reduce their prey’s struggle, making it easier to consume.

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Moreover, from Xie’s point of view, he could see Qi Wu’s Adam’s apple moving continuously—unlike the overly eager “tongues” wrapped around Xie, Qi Wu’s expression now seemed to be struggling with something painful. The veins on his temple writhed like earthworms; his breathing was heavy and labored.

Qi Wu’s look once again stirred memories that Xie desperately tried to suppress: when Qi Wu had pinned him down in the alley, licking him relentlessly and drinking his blood, he had the same expression.

Xie’s hair stood on end, his whole body trembling.

It was a fear rooted deeply in instinct.

The satisfaction and frenzy Qi Wu exhibited after licking the blood always reminded Xie of madmen, beasts, and other indescribably ominous, vague creatures.

Just then, as if sensing Xie’s fearful gaze, Qi Wu suddenly lifted his head and locked eyes with him.

The candle flame flickered.

In the faint light, Qi Wu’s pupils contracted to pinpoints, yet his irises were unnaturally large, nearly filling the entire eye socket.

No matter how much his appearance resembled a “normal” person, there was no doubt that Xie was now looking into the eyes of a monster.

Xie’s breath caught; he instinctively recoiled.

Qi Wu abruptly raised his hand and pressed it against Xie’s cheek.

In the palm was a deep fissure.

Unlike other cracks, this one was almost a complete human mouth, indistinguishable from Qi Wu’s own lips, with sharp lip lines and deep red inner lips. The tongue hidden within was unusually slender and vividly red.

At its tip, a tiny pore dripped translucent saliva steadily.

Because of this, when that thing touched Xie’s eyelid, he couldn’t suppress a stifled scream.

“Don’t touch me—”

An instinctive reaction made Xie raise the dull little knife in his hand toward Qi Wu.

But before he could even lift his hand, a sudden numbness spread through his wrist. Several long, wet tendrils coiled tightly around it, effortlessly wrenching the knife from his grasp.

The sound of the knife dropping snapped Xie back to attention.

“That thing’s already dull... and it was never much use to me anyway. Stop always pointing it at me,” Qi Wu said coldly.

He withdrew his hand, and the slender tongue quickly retracted into the deep fissure in his palm.

On Xie’s eyelid was now a sticky mark.

As the familiar numbness spread over the small area near his eye, Xie realized there was a tiny wound there as well.

It had likely been scratched by shards of glass when he jumped from the window earlier. What Qi Wu had just done was...

“I have to clean all your wounds and cover them with my scent.”

Qi Wu cast a dark glance at the knife on the floor before adding, “Otherwise, more monsters will be attracted. Your blood...”

It was incredibly fragrant.

So sweet that even monsters completely lost in another world were driven mad by it.

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*

An unusual silence fell again. Qi Wu’s next actions became remarkably normal.

The “tongues” hidden within his body did not reappear. Every wound on Xie’s body was carefully bandaged. Qi Wu’s movements were clean, efficient, and skilled.

One had to admit, when not revealing any physical abnormalities, this grim and cold young man appeared remarkably composed.

Xie watched him warily, quickly realizing that although occasional minor lapses still occurred, the person before him was in a completely different state than before.

In fact, even at his worst, Qi Wu’s behavior was far more normal than that of other monsters Xie had encountered—like “Teacher Li,” for example.

Even among monsters, Qi Wu seemed to be an exceptional case.

Qi Wu’s response was colder than ever: “...Don’t lump me in with those undeveloped things.”

“Undeveloped?” Xie was taken aback.

“After turning into this... this mess, there’s a developmental period. During it, people act quite strange.”

Qi Wu recalled his earlier experiences, curling his lips slightly as he muttered vaguely.

“It’s somewhat like being drunk—reason becomes thin, and it’s hard to control oneself.”

In truth, Qi Wu was downplaying it.

During this so-called “developmental period,” intense, animalistic desires surged from deep within like a tsunami. As the body transformed inhumanly, the self-control cultivated through long social conditioning crumbled under these terrifying, irresistible cravings. Overloaded senses dragged the fragile will into endless torment, while the body was relentlessly scorched and whipped by fiery thirst.

...

Recalling the early days of his mutation, Qi Wu frowned slightly. Even now, he loathed that near-unstoppable state.

At his maddest moments, he could barely resist the urge to devour the only fragrant, sweet existence in this world piece by piece, to quell his unendurable hunger.

Fortunately, in the end, he held back.

By clinging to the scent lingering on Xie’s belongings, Qi Wu barely maintained his fragile sanity. After tremendous hardship and self-restraint, he barely survived the first round of “development.”

Individuals capable of this were exceedingly rare; Qi Wu could feel it. The monsters they had encountered before were all driven off by his aura due to this natural hierarchical suppression.

And those monsters were all “undeveloped.”

“What happens when the development is complete? Like Teacher Li... like that?”

Xie’s face suddenly darkened as he stared quietly at Qi Wu. The psychological shadow Teacher Li left was so deep that Xie could suppress his fear of Qi Wu no longer and gripped the boy’s sleeve, unable to stop himself from asking.

Everything happening in this city was too terrifying and bizarre. At this moment, he was desperate for answers.

“Also, how do you know all this? Why can you tell whether those monsters are fully developed or not? Did someone tell you? What exactly is going on? Why do people become those monsters? What are you? Why are you so frightening? Will you... will you try to eat me like the others?”

With a sudden “bang,” Xie’s voice was cut off as his vision spun wildly.