Geng Xinghe truly had no other choice.
He had been raised with the finest upbringing, and neither of his two sets of parents had ever taught him how to hate someone or how to kill someone.
Much less had they taught him how to use any means necessary to achieve a goal.
He had been taught to be kind, cheerful, self-respecting, and self-loving, but not how to trade himself for personal gain.
Yet, upon hearing Prince Huai say that he could exchange himself for his parents’ lives, the young man felt tempted.
He had lost his parents once before and knew all too well that heart-wrenching pain.
He did not want to experience it a second time.
However, he understood even better that this was a lie.
Since Prince Huai wanted the Geng family’s fortune, he would never let any of them survive.
He might perhaps live, but from then on, he would likely be reduced to a plaything for the powerful.
Besides, Prince Huai’s previous words were by no means mere threats.
He was entirely capable of doing such a thing.
To be violated by one man or to be tortured by a group—how should he choose?
Could it be that, much like a chaste and heroic woman, he should choose to die?
Then what about his parents?
Geng Xinghe turned the thought over countless times in his mind, yet found no way to break the deadlock.
The Imperial Guards had arrived too suddenly, leaving them no time to make any preparations.
Geng Xinghe lowered his gaze, casting a sidelong glance at Prince Huai out of the corner of his eye, and began to calculate: if he truly submitted to him, what were the odds he could coax him into saving his parents?
Reduced to such a plight, purity was the most useless thing of all.
If not Prince Huai, it could be someone else, or even those prison guards who behaved like petty ghosts…
Geng Xinghe raised his head and looked at Prince Huai, whose naked desire made him want to vomit.
Geng Xinghe averted his gaze. “If I submit to Your Highness, can Your Highness truly spare my parents?”
“Of course.” Prince Huai smiled triumphantly. At his laugh, that desire became even less concealed. “I crave your body, not your parents. If you know what’s good for you, get on your knees obediently and beg me to fuck you.”
He said this with a lewd smile, his language crude.
Geng Xinghe looked at him again, fell silent for a moment, and obediently knelt before Prince Huai.
“I beg Your Highness to spare the commoner’s parents. The commoner…”
The young man’s voice choked slightly, and he felt his throat turn dry, as if a razor had rolled across it. “The commoner… willingly becomes your kept captive.”
Prince Huai grew even more triumphant. “Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d been this obedient from the start? Where is that spine of yours?”
He stepped forward, seized Geng Xinghe by the chin, and forced him to look straight into his eyes. “Undress yourself, hmm?”
Geng Xinghe’s fingers were trembling.
Even after making his choice and sealing his resolve, the young man’s upbringing still forbade him from shamelessly selling his body to beg for pity from a beast.
Prince Huai looked at Geng Xinghe with the gaze of a starving wolf eyeing a piece of meat.
Yet before Geng Xinghe could do anything, a guard in black hurried in from outside. “Your Highness, the Geng couple are dead. The Emperor orders you to enter the palace immediately!”
“What?” Prince Huai was greatly shocked.
“What?” Geng Xinghe froze. Dad… Mom… are dead?
Prince Huai hurried away.
Geng Xinghe remained frozen in place, then suddenly collapsed onto the ground.
Mom and Dad… are dead…
Geng Xinghe stared straight ahead with empty, lifeless eyes. Had his chest not still been heaving slightly to prove he was breathing, he would have been as still as a statue.
When Prince Huai returned, Geng Xinghe was sprawled limply on the floor of the dungeon.
Both of the young man’s legs were broken, his eyes were blinded, and two bloody trails scarred his face, looking fierce and terrifying.
Across his face, a gash ran diagonally from his left outer corner all the way down to his right chin, ruining his entire visage.
Prince Huai completely lost interest in him.
Geng Xinghe was tossed into the beggars’ quarter on the west side of the city.
Prince Huai did not kill him.
He wanted to watch the young man who had once been raised more preciously than himself sink into the dust.
He wanted to watch the once-clean and arrogant youth live worse than a dog.
He wanted to watch him fight wild dogs for scraps and finally turn into a puddle of mud.
The night Geng Xinghe was thrown into the beggars’ quarter, a torrential downpour began.
The freezing rain poured into the young man’s legs which he had broken himself poured into his eyes which he had gouged out himself and into the bloody, mangled wounds on his face.
Geng Xinghe lay flat on his back, not even making the slightest move to dodge.
The youth soaked in the heavy rain all night.
His flesh was still alive; his soul had already rotted.
When Chi Changye appeared in Shangjing City, Geng Xinghe had already been dumped into the mass grave by the beggars.
The youth was running a high fever, and all the wounds across his body had rotted and inflamed, emitting a foul odor.
Magworms crawled back and forth within the turned-out flesh.
A flock of crows and several wild dogs circled him from afar, waiting for him to breathe his last.
Because Chi Changye had left in a hurry, his landing calculations had been slightly off, causing him to land unluckily right in the middle of the mass grave.
The unfortunate part was that this was a mass grave, strewn haphazardly with numerous corpses and white bones.
There were also wild dogs, wildcats, vultures, and crows gnawing on the rotting flesh of those corpses…
The fortunate part was that the person unluckily appearing here was Chi Changye, a man who did not fear the dead, only the living.
Chi Changye glanced briefly at the circle of wild dogs and crows, preparing to leave.
Just as he was about to step away, he heard a feeble groan that was barely better than nothing.
Chi Changye frowned.
In a mass grave, there was actually a living person?
The cyan-robed immortal turned around and saw the young man lying among several white bones.
The youth was covered in filth, unrecognizable from his original appearance.
A familiar aura made Chi Changye linger and look at the youth a bit longer.
After a moment, he frowned. “Hah, it’s you again.”
It was this little fellow again, always this little fellow.
Chi Changye rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
Seeing the unconscious Geng Xinghe, there was nothing he didn’t understand.
Ten years ago, he had rescued this child from the banks of the Yellow River—a child who had been torn apart by wild wolves and demons, yet stubbornly clung to life.
Chi Changye had used his own heart’s blood to reshape the child’s mortal body, and then used a fraction of his own soul to repair the child’s nearly shattered soul.
He had thought that with his heart’s blood and divine soul, this child’s destiny might change.
He hadn’t expected…
Chi Changye casually pinched his fingers in divination and instantly knew roughly what had happened.
It was still just as miserable.
If he decided to wash his hands of this little fellow, then all the suffering he had previously endured would have been for nothing.
Chi Changye sighed, stepped forward, and picked up the dying youth, entirely unconcerned that the boy’s filth soiled his own cyan robes.
The moment he scooped the youth into his arms, Chi Changye heard a low murmur drift from the boy’s lips: “Mom… Dad… Your son has been unfilial…”
Chi Changye had no parents and did not understand what kind of emotions one should hold toward parents.
A moment later, he lowered his gaze and muttered to himself, “How can I blame you? It was I who shouldn’t have left you behind.”
Shouldn’t have… left a person fated with the Seven Killings and destined to curse their parents to remain in the mortal world.
He had thought the wealth blessed by the Geng family’s destiny would be enough to shield his extreme karmic fate, but he hadn’t expected…
Hadn’t expected it would ultimately doom the entire Geng clan.
Chi Changye sighed softly, cradling the youth, and transformed into a streak of cyan light, vanishing from the mass grave.