The living room was deathly silent, with only the faint ticking of the wall clock breaking the stillness. The air was filled with a metallic scent, like rust. The imported handmade wool rug was soaked with tar-colored blood, and a young man lay dead on the nearby sofa, his face unrecognizable, his flesh mangled.
The fish-headed creature's two legs were scattered across the living room, neatly severed by a sharp blade.
After Jiang Xia uttered the word "Awakened," the black-clothed person paused briefly before speaking, as expected, in a woman's voice.
"Are you an Awakened too?"
...
Two minutes earlier.
After coaxing and tricking Jiang Xia out of the villa, Li Sitong returned to the surveillance room.
Two days ago, she had already implanted a Parasite Demon into the body of that fish-headed woman.
Cultivating such a Parasite Demon was extremely troublesome. Generally, its kind wouldn't detect its presence, not even the woman herself.
Before encountering Jiang Xia, Li Sitong hadn't planned on killing the woman.
The original plan was to wait a few more months until the woman completed her First Evolution, then take her down easily with the Parasite Demon inside her.
But Jiang Xia's sudden appearance made Li Sitong change her mind. She suddenly wanted to see Jiang Xia fight the woman. The thought of Jiang Xia entangled with the woman excited her.
She lied to Jiang Xia, intending not to ambush but to watch the battle from the surveillance.
Of course, she wouldn't let Jiang Xia die.
When Jiang Xia was on the brink of defeat, she would control the Parasite Demon to kill the woman from within.
But as she turned, Li Sitong froze.
The surveillance screen showed a black-clothed person, wrapped tightly, somehow opening the villa's back door and sneaking inside.
Her movements were light, her steps like a breeze. She drew a blue-glowing curved blade out of thin air and approached the fish-headed woman "feeding" on the sofa.
The fish-headed woman remained oblivious until the figure was behind her.
Realizing it was an Awakened, Li Sitong felt a thrill, then frowned. She wanted to call Jiang Xia back but saw his phone on the table.
On the surveillance screen, the black-clothed Awakened raised the curved blade, stabbing it into the fish-headed woman's heart. With a push, the blade pierced through her heart and into the young man's chest on the sofa.
The black-clothed Awakened twisted the knife, making the fish-headed woman throw her head back, her mouth wide open, emitting a dolphin-like cry of pain.
The Awakened planted her boot on the fish-headed woman's back and yanked the blade out.
The blood from the young man and the fish-headed woman mixed on the blade, but it didn't stick. Instead, it slid off like oil on water, as if the blade was naturally repellent to blood.
The fish-headed woman wasn't dead. Severely wounded, she knew she couldn't match an Awakened. She tried to flee but was swiftly cut down, her legs severed.
Her upper body fell to the ground, and the curved blade stabbed down into her back again, the sound of flesh tearing echoing.
Just as the Awakened was about to decapitate her for a final blow, the villa's door sounded!
Hearing the code lock being opened, the Awakened quickly withdrew the blade, ready to escape.
Sensing the presence of a kind at the door, the barely alive fish-headed woman used the seaweed tendrils on her head to drag the person inside.
However, when Jiang Xia stabbed her with a dagger, she couldn't hold on any longer, her life force completely dissipating.
Her death wasn't caused by Jiang Xia's stab but by a cold force inside her body freezing her.
The Parasite Demon inside her felt itself freezing too and rushed out.
But it failed to possess Jiang Xia and was instead torn apart by him!
Seeing her carefully nurtured Parasite Demon shredded by Jiang Xia, Li Sitong wasn't heartbroken. Instead, she worried for Jiang Xia.
This Awakened was formidable. Judging by her skills, Li Sitong's chances of killing her one-on-one were less than sixty percent.
And now Jiang Xia was alone with her. If she decided to kill him, Li Sitong couldn't reach him in time to save him.
She was already mourning the loss of her boyfriend.
But then something unexpected happened!
When Jiang Xia called out "Awakened," the Awakened seemed to mistake him for one too?
"Things are getting interesting."
...
Inside the villa, Jiang Xia was momentarily stunned.
He thought he was doomed upon encountering an Awakened, but now it seemed she mistook him for one too?
Wait!
He was an Awakened!
Just a bit like a Demonspawn... no, exactly like a Demonspawn...
Awakened couldn't sense each other's presence like Demonspawn could.
This woman must be unsure if he was an Awakened too!
To resolve this crisis, he had to admit he was an Awakened and temporarily ally with her.
"Yes!" Jiang Xia nodded, not daring to stand up. The bloody scent in the air intensified his hunger, stirring his desire to feed. He could feel an itch above his tailbone.
"God, please! Not now, don't let a tail pop out!" Jiang Xia prayed inwardly.
As an Awakened, if he were mistaken for a Demonspawn and killed by an Awakened—
What an injustice!
What a damn injustice!
The woman with the knife eyed Jiang Xia warily, quickly sidestepping him to close the villa door.
When she turned back, Jiang Xia was already standing, holding a military dagger, his gaze equally wary.
Jiang Xia's eyes fell on the woman's knife, which glowed with a blue light, exuding a chill even from several meters away, clearly no ordinary weapon.
"What are you doing here?" the Awakened asked again, her voice young.
"Kill..." Jiang Xia glanced around, settling on the fish-headed creature, and affirmed, "Kill her!"
"Why aren't you masked, not disguised? Aren't you afraid of exposing your Awakened identity? And how do you know the villa's door code?" The woman posed a soul-searching question.
Cold sweat broke out on Jiang Xia's back, a bead of sweat trickling down his forehead, his heart pounding in his throat.
He just wanted to know where Li Sitong was. According to the original plan, she should have appeared by now.
But this unexpected Awakened threw everything off. Could Li Sitong have already fled?
When did this Awakened enter the villa? Just minutes ago, when he checked the surveillance, she wasn't there.
"Answer me, why aren't you masked?"
"Ah..." Jiang Xia touched his face. "I was masked, but the mask fell off when I was dragged in."
Seeing Jiang Xia's unnatural expression, the woman, already skeptical of his Awakened identity, pulled a small white glass bottle from her pocket and tossed it to him.
"Catch, drink it!"
"This is..." Jiang Xia looked at the transparent white liquid in the bottle, vaguely guessing what it was.
"Liquor, high-proof liquor!" the woman said.