Chapter Twelve: The End, and a New Beginning (End of Volume One)

Xia Yan held his right cheek, where a large red handprint stood out. It was the first time he had ever seen such a look of fury on Ding Li’s face.

“You want me to kill you? And you can actually say it out loud!” Ding Li bellowed in anger. “Have you lost your mind? You want me, Ding Li, to kill my own brother to win first place, and you can say that without a second thought?”

To kill Xia Yan would be more agonizing than letting him die.

“For the sake of maximizing the benefit—” Xia Yan tried to argue.

“Shut up.” Ding Li cut him off, staring coldly. “For us, you staying alive is the greatest benefit. The gene serum? That’s nothing. No matter what, you should take first place—no one will compete, no one will fight you for it.”

“I—”

“I told you to shut up.” Ding Li roared. “Xia Yan, remember this: if I ever hear you say something like that again, we’re done. We’ll never speak again.”

With those words, he stormed off without looking back.

“It was my fault,” Xia Yan muttered to himself. “The reason Ding Li and I are so close, it’s because of his character…”

Cold and detached as he was, it was precisely because of someone like Ding Li that he could have such a friendship.

If Ding Li had accepted his suggestion without hesitation, he wouldn’t have been Ding Li.

But now, with his life force almost spent, it no longer mattered if he survived…

The only difference was dying here or dying out there…

“What’s happening…”

Xia Yan tried to stand, but a stabbing pain shot through his head, fiercer than ever before.

He was truly afraid—if he lay down again, he might never wake.

…

Sunset fell, dusk descended, and Su Zhu, struggling internally, walked outside with a dark expression.

“Eh!” Su Zhu spotted Xia Yan unconscious in the distance. She started, but a strange feeling flashed through her heart—not surprise, but a sort of joy.

Yes, this was an opportunity…

Su Zhu approached Xia Yan, gazing at his unconscious form…

This was the last chance. Another day, and the contest would be over.

She gripped the dagger in her arms, feeling her heart race.

Kill him. Close her eyes and plunge the dagger into his heart—a simple thing.

Kill him, and she could win her freedom.

She had hesitated all along, never decisive. If she’d had the resolve, she could have killed Xia Yan that night.

She thought Xia Yan was a good man, different from all the men she’d known before.

If only… if only he weren’t unconscious.

“It’s not my fault. You gave me this chance. Xia Yan, you can’t blame me. I want to escape this hell, never again to play along with those hypocritical men. I want to be human, to be free.”

“Xia Yan, you can’t blame me. You gave me this chance; it’s your fault.”

“It’s all your fault. You’re dying; you should have taken the dagger and begged me to kill you.”

“Yes, let me kill you. Even if I refused, you would still plead, and under those circumstances, I’d kill you.”

“But you didn’t do that. You’ve disappointed me too much.”

Su Zhu’s expression was on the verge of madness. She forced herself to act with these words.

She bit her lip, closed her eyes, a single tear sliding down her cheek, but at last, she plunged the dagger into Xia Yan’s heart.

Then, she gripped her pistol, ready to go outside and kill Ding Li, who was out for a walk. That crippled man had little fight left; killing him would end it all.

If killing Xia Yan brought her guilt, she felt nothing for Ding Li. She held no affection for that man.

Yet something felt wrong.

“What… what’s going on? I stabbed him—right in the heart.”

Su Zhu turned, incredulous, to look at Xia Yan. No torrent of blood poured from his body; instead, a faint glow shimmered over him.

What was happening?

“He… he’s not dead…”

“What’s going on?”

Su Zhu stared at Xia Yan and saw that he had opened his eyes. In that instant, her whole body went numb; fear overwhelmed her, threatening her sanity.

“No, it wasn’t me, it’s not my fault… no…”

Instinctively, Su Zhu bolted, running outside, terror driving her onward, unable to stop.

She ran and ran…

Until she found herself in a completely unfamiliar place and finally halted.

What was that ahead?

Su Zhu stared in disbelief—there was a mutant beast, and she recognized it.

A level-2 mutant: the Jade-Eyed Demon Monkey.

The Jade-Eyed Demon Monkey, though only a meter tall, could not be underestimated.

A level-2 mutant was an absolute terror to any convict—complete, utter annihilation, even Brook was no exception.

A single level-2 mutant could wipe out a hundred convicts with ease…

Su Zhu blinked, suddenly feeling her strength drain away. In that very instant, she died. She didn’t even know how it happened—the flicker of green light was simply too fast.

She fell to the ground, repenting in her heart for all the evil she had done.

Behind Su Zhu, a young man quietly walked over, his eyes shimmering with faint light and a thin mist.

His face was full of sorrow. He looked at the woman on the ground, knelt, and gently stroked her cheek.

This woman, who in the end, chose to be true to her heart.

“Why did you have to do this!”

“If you’d told me you wanted first place, if you wanted the gene serum, I wouldn’t have refused.”

“But… why did you have to lie to me? Why kill me while I was unconscious?”

Xia Yan felt nothing but heartache—a pain more intense than he had ever known, threatening to break him…

He finally understood: his unconsciousness was not from depleted life force, but from another cause.

He would not die; he could have stayed with Su Zhu longer, even forever.

If you love someone, would you give up your humanity, give up the prize, just to be with her forever?

That answer would never be known.

Hiss! Hiss!

The Jade-Eyed Demon Monkey in the distance shrieked, eyes fixed on the human before it.

But it sensed something strange about this human—he seemed terrifyingly strong.

The Jade-Eyed Demon Monkey quailed, hesitated, its emerald eyes shifting, until finally it turned and left.

…

This was a memory from two months ago. That woman had let him feel both love and betrayal, sealing his heart ever since.

Afterward, he won the championship, Ding Li took second place, and Xia Yan received the gene serum and his freedom. Ding Li also received rich rewards.

Once he became human again, Xia Yan’s goal was to earn two million credits and buy Ding Li’s freedom.

The gene serum was an exclusive product of the Earth Federation, selling for a million credits. The cost for a convict’s release was also a million—two million in total.