Six months passed in the blink of an eye. Zhang Nianxiang soon faced the second quarterly Hunt of his life. Possessing a fierce streak of pride, he rejected the invitations of his friends to form a group, choosing instead to brave it alone.
“Just wait. I’ll be a Yellow Jade when I come out.”
Zhang Nianxiang made this bold declaration, waved goodbye to his brothers, and set off gallantly with his spear toward the hunting ground. Meanwhile, Ji Xing had already selected Zhang’s ten-man squad as his target. In this Hunt, Zhang Nianxiang was destined to cross paths with this man who harbored such filthy, predatory desires for him.
Because the participants entered separately, Zhang Nianxiang parted ways with his random teammates as soon as he entered the woods. He spent the entire morning wandering the hunting ground but couldn’t find even a glimpse of the hunter’s robe. Ji Xing was intentionally avoiding him or rather, he was quietly setting a stage.
Then, a piercing, harrowing scream tore through the sky.
Zhang Nianxiang moved instantly, gripping his spear and racing toward the sound. When he arrived at the scene, he froze. Even though Ji Xing wore a mask, Zhang recognized him instantly. Ji Xing didn’t bother with the facade; seeing Zhang arrive, he took the mask off.
Meeting an old acquaintance, however, gave Zhang Nianxiang no joy.
“Ji Xing, you—!” The youth’s clear gaze fell upon a corpse that had been brutally disemboweled. After just one look, it felt like a needle prick to his eyes, and he looked away. “How could you become so… so…”
Zhang Nianxiang couldn’t finish the sentence. His refined upbringing left him speechless for a long moment, unable to find the words to describe the cruel man before him. Ji Xing had once told him that he detested despicable villains, and that any blood on his hands would only ever belong to those who deserved to die.
Yet now…
Zhang Nianxiang looked around the scene in disbelief. The other eight Green Jade disciples who had entered the Hunt with him were now bound to tree trunks, their robes torn open, looking like a scene from some macabre sacrificial ritual.
Knowing he was no match for the man, Zhang retracted his spear and tried to persuade him with soft words. “Ji Xing, let them go… and you will still be my good brother.” A hunter only needed to kill one person in the Hunt to avoid being executed afterward. This request wasn’t difficult for Ji Xing at all.
Zhang Nianxiang believed that, based on their past friendship, Ji Xing would surely grant him this favor. After all… didn’t this man like him?
Zhang judged the situation by his own heart. If Min Shanshan made such a request of him, he would go through fire and water just to see her smile. Furthermore, this was a simple matter the man only had to nod, and no one would be hurt. It was a win-win situation. Zhang Nianxiang felt certain, yet his heart hammered so hard it felt like it would leap from his throat. Even his hands were soaked with sweat as he gripped his spear.
Ji Xing’s gaze was far too blatant it swept over the youth from top to bottom, inch by inch, with a penetrating intensity, as if it had already bypassed the layers of clothing to peer at his bare skin.
Zhang Nianxiang’s face flushed a deep red. He glared at him with a mix of fury and indignation. “Ji Xing, say something!”
Ji Xing met his eyes. The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed once. His gaze moved slowly from his old friend’s handsome face to his fair neck. The midday sun filtered through the leaves, hitting the youth’s skin and making it look as white as rice paper.
Furthermore, Zhang Nianxiang stood there tall and straight with his spear, his aura clear and elegant like a jade tree. His build was perfect not too tall, not too short. When they used to share a bed, Ji Xing had secretly felt his muscles, especially the flexibility and strength of his waist and thighs. It was completely unlike the soft, weak grace of those who sold their smiles in pleasure houses it was incredibly desirable.
The more Ji Xing looked, the more he felt the fire of desire burning within him. His tiger-like eyes smoldered, and his voice was nearly scorched raspy.
“Are you willing to lie with me?”
“Right here.” As if fearing the youth wouldn’t understand, the man added in a low voice.
Those few words hit Zhang Nianxiang with the force of a thunderclap. He felt his skin crawl in disbelief and he retreated two steps. He knew this man was eccentric, but he hadn’t expected him to be this shameless! To think he wanted to engage in an act of intimacy right here, in front of so many people?
Zhang Nianxiang opened his mouth once, then again, his lips trembling for a long time before he finally found his voice in a state of mortified rage: “You bastard!” He thrust his spear forward, his voice cracking with fury. “Not unless I die today!”
Ji Xing seemed to have expected this reaction. Instead of being angry, he burst into laughter. The laughter only made Zhang Nianxiang feel more humiliated. Gritting his teeth, he was about to rush forward and fight for his life.
Unexpectedly, the man didn’t engage him. Instead, Ji Xing turned with his short blade and deftly disemboweled another person. Intestines and blood spilled across the ground. The Green Jade disciple wailed in agony a truly harrowing sound.
Ji Xing wiped the blood splatter from his face like a cold-faced Yama. He continued to cut upward until he gouged out the person’s heart and tossed it at Zhang Nianxiang’s feet.
A youth raised in luxury and warmth, Zhang had never seen such a thing. The moment that slick, still-beating heart hit his shoes, his handsome face turned a sickly blue-gray, and he doubled over in a fit of vomiting.
“Are you willing to share a night of pleasure with me?” Ji Xing’s demonic voice wouldn’t let him go.
Zhang Nianxiang looked up. Ji Xing smiled and pressed his knife against a third person’s chest. That Green Jade disciple literally wet his pants in terror, staring at Zhang Nianxiang with wide, desperate eyes. “Help me!! Young hero!! Have mercy and save us!!”
The others nearby, fearing they would be next, joined in the wailing. “Just take off your clothes, young hero!!!”
“Just lie on the ground, that’s all it takes!!”
“Do you want to see us die, young hero??”
“Young hero!! No, great hero!! Great hero, save us!!!”
Great hero…
In his wildest dreams, Zhang Nianxiang never imagined the first time he would earn that title would be in such circumstances, coming from the mouths of these people. Those cries of “great hero” were a bitter irony. Everyone was using chivalrous morality to kidnap and condemn him, as if by not doing this one thing, he were the one who was cruel, dishonorable, and inhuman.
Helpless and alone, Zhang Nianxiang’s eyes reddened. He forced back his tears several times, knowing these people wouldn’t stop shouting just because he cried, nor would Ji Xing stop his hand.
“In your dreams!” Zhang Nianxiang’s fingers trembled as he gripped the spear shaft. He roared through his sobs, “If you have the guts, kill me too!”
He made a move to charge forward again. Ji Xing’s smile grew more manic. With a ruthless look in his eyes, he quickly disemboweled two more people. When he looked back, his beloved was frozen a short distance away, his face as pale as gold and his lips bloodless.
The remaining living Green Jades were driven to a frenzy of curses against Zhang Nianxiang.
“You selfish wretch!!!” “I won’t let you go even as a ghost, you wretch, you wretch!!!”
Humans are truly strange creatures. The culprit was clearly the demon before them, yet they chose to vent their hatred on an innocent person who was just as trapped. It was the ultimate display of “bullying the kind and fearing the wicked.”
Ji Xing pressed his blood-stained knife against the fifth person’s chest and asked Zhang Nianxiang with a smile: “Which do you think is faster? Your spear, or my knife?”
“You wretch, you’ll go to hell!!!” “You’ll die a thousand deaths!!!”
Beside his ears was a cacophony of wailing and curses; before his eyes was a jarring pool of fresh blood. Zhang Nianxiang closed his eyes in agony. Yes, he couldn’t defeat Ji Xing he had known that for a long time. Stubbornly rushing forward now would only cause more lives to be lost.
Zhang Nianxiang’s pale, weak hand trembled, and the spear fell to the ground with a thud. It bounced a few times and lay quietly at his feet like a faded stick.
Ji Xing knew his scheme had succeeded. He retracted his knife, a smug, satisfied smile on his face, and walked slowly toward the prey he had craved for so long and finally had within his reach.
Tears streaming down his face, Zhang Nianxiang shook his head and retreated helplessly. Ji Xing sped up his pace and reached out to pull the youth’s lean shoulders into his grasp…
When the man forced himself into his body, the beautiful world Zhang Nianxiang had built for himself was instantly destroyed. His ambitions, his dreams, and his three-year promise to Shanshan all turned into bubbles that vanished completely.
He broke down in a harrowing wail, struggling desperately, wanting to escape this nightmare.
“Nianxiang, Nianxiang, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid,” the man whispered, comforting him and kissing him…