Chapter 69: I am a Bad Person

Their battle had become more like a literal tug-of-war.

The vitality of an ordinary person was worth at most 100 Zhuo Coins, and that was only for a young man like Liao Tianhua. For someone older, draining their entire life force might yield only a few dozen Zhuo Coins.

The battle between Xia Mi and Xiao Feng, however, was already a clash involving thousands, even tens of thousands of Zhuo Coins.

In a confrontation of this magnitude, special abilities had become meaningless.

Mind-altering abilities, for instance, were simply unable to take effect in the face of such massive amounts of energy.

Now, it was purely a tug-of-war to see who could completely absorb the other’s energy.

But the competition between Xia Mi and Xiao Feng was inherently unfair.

Xia Mi’s level was higher than Xiao Feng’s. Much like a pair of scales, power naturally tilted toward the heavier side. For Xiao Feng to devour Xia Mi, he had to exert significantly more force just to make the scales tip in his direction.

Fortunately, Xiao Feng’s own power was already formidable.

To deal with Xia Mi, he had made exhaustive preparations. His Plan B, enacted after the failure of his initial seduction, was more than sufficient.

He had prepared an immense reserve of energy. Even though Xia Mi possessed five thousand Zhuo Coins’ worth of energy, the power within Xiao Feng was more than five times her amount.

Furthermore, the longer the battle dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became for Xia Mi.

This nest was consuming Xia Mi’s strength every second. Given enough time, her energy would eventually run dry.

Beyond that, Xiao Feng had another dirty trick up his sleeve.

He smiled at Xia Mi and said, “Sister, I’ve always known you’re a good person.”

“Only a good person can beat you,” Xia Mi replied.

Xiao Feng’s face was pale, and he wore a smile that would evoke pity in anyone who saw it. He said softly, “No, it’s just that it’s much harder for a good person to walk the straight path than it is for a bad person to walk the crooked one.”

In an instant, Xia Mi read countless worldly evils from Xiao Feng’s consciousness.

These things did not shake Xia Mi’s will; they only made her more furious.

Xiao Feng continued, “Sister, do you know? In this world, the indifferent, the shameless, the despicable, and the dirty-handed live much easier lives. There are too many shortcuts. Even though the laws have become strict enough to monitor every criminal path, there are still many gray roads in the shadows. Those roads are light and easy to walk. Only the path in the sunlight is exceptionally difficult.

“I know that being a good person means a clear conscience. I know being a good person earns admiration. But being a good person requires too much strength, and I don’t have that kind of power.

“Sister, I know you’re a good person. Can you keep being one?”

With that, Xiao Feng gently raised his hand, resting his finger on the pink Consciousness Thread belonging to Liao Tianhua.

Xia Mi immediately understood what Xiao Feng intended to do.

Xiao Feng said, “Sister, I won’t force you to trade your own life for Liao Tianhua’s. I know you wouldn’t do that. To eliminate a scourge like me, you would certainly sacrifice him.

“However, I won’t wipe out Liao Tianhua’s consciousness just yet. I’ll give you a chance. You can divert a portion of your energy to protect him.

“But once you divert that energy, your strength might not be enough to defeat me. If you abandon him, you might win in just a little while longer.

“Are you going to risk it to save him?”

Countless Silkworms released from Xiao Feng’s palm. The thin threads danced in the air, condensing into a sharp blade that slashed toward Liao Tianhua’s Consciousness Thread.

Mi Xiangyan and Qiu Hailan had already escaped the nest, moving beyond Xiao Feng’s range of control. But Liao Tianhua remained inside the nest to keep Xiao Feng trapped.

He had “transferred his affections,” handing control of the nest over to Xia Mi under Xiao Feng’s influence. Yet Xiao Feng still held a lock on his Consciousness Thread. He could obliterate his consciousness at any moment, leaving him in a vegetative state.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Xia Mi released her energy to intercept the attack on Liao Tianhua’s Consciousness Thread, blocking Xiao Feng’s strike.

But because she was distracted by protecting Liao Tianhua, a massive surge of energy was ripped from her body by Xiao Feng. A quick calculation revealed it was a full 2,000 Zhuo Coins!

Xiao Feng chuckled softly. “Sister, I was right, wasn’t I? Being a good person is so hard.”

Xiao Feng’s internal energy already exceeded twenty thousand Zhuo Coins. After siphoning two thousand from Xia Mi, his power didn’t increase by a huge margin, but Xia Mi’s energy suddenly dropped from five thousand to three thousand. She had lost 40% of her strength. The gap between her and Xiao Feng had widened from four or five times to seven or eight times. The disparity was suddenly far too great!

Xiao Feng was visibly more relaxed.

The sound of something like an eggshell cracking echoed in Xia Mi’s ears.

She felt a colossal entity within her body gradually beginning to leave, moving toward Xiao Feng.

This was the first time Xia Mi had truly sensed the existence of the Queen Bee.

Comparing their sizes, Xia Mi felt the Queen Bee was as massive as a mountain, while she was merely an ordinary, tiny human. She stood before this mountain, occasionally digging out some soil from its base to play her games.

But she couldn’t dig out too much. Digging too much at once would wake the sleeping mountain, and it would crush a tiny person like her to death.

Sensing the terrifying scale of the Queen Bee, Xia Mi was stunned.

“How did I ever seal such a behemoth?” Xia Mi couldn’t help but ask.

Xiao Feng heard her and responded, “Yes, we found it very strange too. The Queen Bee was in a state of Zhe within you, dormant and quiet. No matter how you used its power, it never woke up.”

The “we” he referred to was naturally the personnel of the Immortal Foundation.

“If you pull this thing out of me, can you even control it?” Xia Mi asked.

Xiao Feng replied, “Currently, the Queen Bee is still in the state of Zhe. Once I absorb your soul and energy, I can temporarily soothe her. After this is done, arrangements will be made for me to leave China and go to a more chaotic place to absorb energy. As long as I have enough energy, I can reach a balance with the Queen Bee and use her power to dominate all Zhuo.”

Feeling the magnitude of the Queen Bee, Xia Mi realized that the “enough” energy Xiao Feng spoke of wasn’t as simple as a few hundred people. It might be hundreds of thousands, or even millions.

They intended to use a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood to create “eternal life” for the big shots behind the Immortal Foundation.

“Doing this will send you to the eighteenth level of hell¹,” Xia Mi cursed.

Xiao Feng smiled faintly. “Then I’ll have to wait until I’m dead to go there, but I’m not going to die. Sister, aren’t you a steadfast materialist warrior²? Since when did you become superstitious?”

Xia Mi gritted her teeth. “I’m a pragmatist warrior. I’ll borrow whichever god or buddha actually works.”

Xiao Feng asked, “Then this time, which god or buddha can save you?”

He felt the Queen Bee gradually detaching from Xia Mi’s body and moving toward him. He tilted his head back slightly and smiled triumphantly.

Four years, five months, and seventeen days. For such a long time, he had lived every single day in Xia Mi’s shadow.

He admired her, and he hated her.

As long as Xia Mi lived, his shadow would never dissolve.

“Sister, die by my hand,” Xiao Feng’s voice was as gentle as water, as if he were whispering sweet nothings. “Stop struggling. I know you’re feeling the pain of your soul being torn apart right now. It’s too much. I’ve endured that pain myself, and I can’t bear to see you suffer.”

He had been suppressed for too long. In this moment of impending success, he acted exactly like a twisted villain from a story.

Xia Mi scratched her head. “But I’m not in pain.”

Xia Mi didn’t feel any so-called “soul-tearing” agony. In fact, starting from some unknown moment, she suddenly felt the energy within her body increasing.

This energy was a powerful external force that she couldn’t control or use.

However, this energy helped her hold onto the Queen Bee, dragging the entity back into her body bit by bit.

Xia Mi didn’t even have to expend much mental strength.

Xiao Feng, who had already opened his arms like a melodramatic villain ready to embrace the Queen Bee: “…”

He reached out to grab it, but his hands met only empty air.

The Queen Bee, which had been about to throw itself into his arms, inexplicably retreated back into Xia Mi’s body.

“What did you do?!” Xiao Feng’s voice cracked as he shrieked.

“Why are you shouting so loud!” Xia Mi yelled back even louder than him, then rubbed her ears. “I didn’t do anything. It just came back on its own.”

“It’s happening again! What on earth is going on? Why was the Queen Bee snatched away by you again!” Xiao Feng said, sounding on the verge of a breakdown.

Xia Mi could somewhat empathize with Xiao Feng’s breakdown. She recalled the feeling from a moment ago and said, “Actually, I’ve had a vague feeling all along, like there’s a giant behind me helping me pull the Queen Bee back. Just now, that force grew stronger.”

“Why did it get stronger?” Xiao Feng looked utterly defeated.

“I don’t know!” Xia Mi really couldn’t answer his question.

“Use your Consciousness Threads to sense that power!” Xiao Feng reminded her.

“Oh, so I can do that. Thanks for teaching me how to use my power. I didn’t know how to use this energy before,” Xia Mi said.

Xiao Feng: “…”

Since there was a force helping her hold onto the Queen Bee, and Xiao Feng seemed to be falling apart with no willpower left, Xia Mi took the opportunity to “touch” the giant’s power behind her with her Consciousness Threads to understand the cause.

Instantly, countless words flashed through her mind like a stream of bullet chat comments.

[She’s incredible! A woman like a soaring eagle, a true woman among women!]

[My god! I didn’t know girls could be this amazing. You’re so cool, I’m falling for you.]

[Just got a yearly gym membership. I’m applying for the police academy after the college entrance exams next year.]

[You’re my idol.]

In short, it was a flood of praise, interspersed with images of Xia Mi scaling walls and leaping across rooftops.

Xia Mi paused, then suddenly remembered what this was about.

It all started with her post-training assessment.

After two months of training, Xia Mi faced the test to become a permanent employee. Besides the interview, there was a simple written exam and a physical fitness test.

The written exam was easy for Xia Mi; it consisted of multiple-choice questions about policy, roughly the same difficulty as a driver’s license theory test. Xia Mi easily got a perfect score.

The physical test, however, was an obstacle course at the level of the People’s Armed Police, and the entire Second Team participated in the testing alongside her.

At the time, Officer Zhao Xiaojing, a clerk from the unit’s propaganda department, had specifically gone to the site to record the event.

Officer Zhao was a bit of a perfectionist. She made Xia Mi record several times, jumping back and forth repeatedly.

Xia Mi got tired of jumping over the obstacles, yet Officer Zhao kept asking her to slow down and run it one more time.

Xia Mi walked up to Officer Zhao and asked, “Why are you making me record this so many times?”

Officer Zhao, who was in the loop, told her, “Aren’t you being appointed directly to a section-level position? Even though the leadership approved it, if outsiders find out that an undergraduate just finishing probation is already a Second-class Police Sergeant, people will report you.”

“To explain your special circumstances and prove that the organization is giving you an exceptional promotion because you’re outstanding, our propaganda department needs to film some short videos of you being incredible to upload to the official account. That way, we can prove to the public that as long as someone is as excellent as you, they can also receive an exceptional promotion.”

Xia Mi looked at the video Xiao Zhao had recorded. In it, she moved across the aerial obstacles like a cat taking a leisurely stroll, and she was beating the members of the Second Team, like Xiao Huo and the others, until they were crawling on the ground looking for their teeth. She asked, “Isn’t this a bit much?”

Officer Zhao smiled. “That’s why I’m asking you to run slower. I’ll record some videos that look normal, and after I edit them back at the office, you’ll just look a bit stronger than the average person.”

Xia Mi had a strong desire for fame herself, so she willingly cooperated with Officer Zhao for the entire afternoon.

The video was posted the night before the interview. The view count was poor, so Xia Mi even forwarded it to her Loving Family group chat, asking her relatives to help like the post.

Why was the short video Xiao Zhao made for her the thing pulling the Queen Bee back?

Combining it with the positive, powerful words she saw, Xia Mi gradually began to understand.

She said to Xiao Feng, “It seems to be because I’ve become famous.”

“Famous?” Xiao Feng didn’t quite understand. He had spent the last four years cramming his Chinese studies, and he wasn’t sure which specific words he had heard, given how many homophones there were in the language.

Xia Mi said, “I’ve always wanted people to admire me, to be a role model. It seems my wish has come true.”

Xia Mi’s desire had been transmitted through the short video and seen by more people, sparking a collective resonance.

They couldn’t give Xia Mi 100 or 200 Zhuo Coins. Through the video, the emotional energy they projected onto her might have only amounted to 0.1 or 0.2 Zhuo Coins per person.

But there were more than enough people in this country.

Through short videos, tens of millions of people saw Xia Mi.

Their power was cast upon Xia Mi. She couldn’t use this power directly, but it became a giant, transforming into chains that helped her firmly lock down the “Queen Bee.”

“So this is what it means to ‘not be fighting alone,'” Xia Mi said with a smile.

With the help of this power, Xia Mi grew bold, using her Consciousness Threads to gouge a massive chunk out of the “Queen Bee.”

The “Queen Bee” shuddered, but she did not wake, remaining in the state of “Zhe.”

That single strike from Xia Mi netted her a full ten thousand Zhuo Coins.

She had never been this rich!

Overwhelming “Silkworms” wove into a net, densely entangling Xiao Feng. Xia Mi didn’t forget to carefully place a protective net around Liao Tianhua’s pink Consciousness Thread, preventing Xiao Feng from using him as a threat again.

“Are you willing to surrender your power, atone for your crimes, and cooperate with us to destroy the Immortal Foundation’s ambitions?” Xia Mi asked.

“Impossible,” Xiao Feng said, his eyes hollow within the inescapable net. “I’m a bad person. It was destined from the moment I was born. Making me a good person would be more painful than death.”

“Group Leader Mi found out you transferred a lot of money to An Mufeng’s sister,” Xia Mi said.

Xiao Feng replied indifferently, “I know you’re kind. You like kind, responsible people, so I was just putting on an act. Perhaps there was a bit of pity involved, but humans occasionally throw breadcrumbs to ants before stepping on even more of them. That’s how I felt about her.”

“You want to die,” Xia Mi said.

Xiao Feng looked at Xia Mi and said, “I’m a failure of ‘Project Queen Bee.’ Being devoured by the ‘Queen Bee’ is my fate. Letting you devour me is the only losing outcome I can accept.”

Hating her, adoring her, wanting to kill her, or being killed by her – either was fine.

“I understand,” Xia Mi said.

The “Silkworms” wrapped tightly around Xiao Feng, absorbing his energy.

Xiao Feng actually possessed more energy than Xia Mi, but his status was lower. It had already been a struggle for his twenty thousand Zhuo Coins to deal with her five thousand; now, facing thirteen thousand, it was simply impossible.

Moreover, after the “Queen Bee” chose Xia Mi once again, Xiao Feng completely lost his will to fight. He didn’t want to struggle anymore.

No matter how hard he tried, he was a failure in front of Xia Mi, like a clown.

Xiao Feng’s energy flowed bit by bit into Xia Mi’s body. He kept his eyes fixed on her, firmly etching the person who was killing him into his heart.

At the final moment of his life fading away, Xiao Feng suddenly said, “Four years ago, why did you only take the ‘Queen Bee’? Why didn’t you take me with you too?”

Xia Mi was slightly stunned.

She wanted to say something, but Xiao Feng’s life force had completely vanished. No matter what she said now, he would never hear it.

Xiao Feng seemed to have chosen this final moment specifically to say something so pathetic, something that sounded like a surrender.

He hadn’t intended to hear her answer.

Unlike others whose energy was absorbed, Xiao Feng didn’t even leave a body behind.

He had undergone too many modifications. Every cell in his body had been eroded by “Zhuo”; he could no longer be considered human.

He was just a hollow shell made of energy, held together by his consciousness. Without his obsession with becoming the “Queen Bee,” this energy would have dissipated long ago.

Xiao Feng vanished, and the police uniform belonging to Jiao Xingjian fell to the ground.

Drifting down along with the uniform was a banknote.

Xia Mi picked it up. It was a five-hundred Thai Baht note.

It was the money she had given to Xiao Feng out of a moment’s pity four years ago.

Four years later, Xiao Feng had returned this bill to Xia Mi with his own hands.

Translator’s Notes