How could Huo Wuling be in Herinos’s illusion array? Was this the place he’d hidden himself in?
Ji Ning was surprised to see the face hidden beneath the skeleton mask. He instinctively glanced up at the sky, worried that Yun Yuan would sense Huo Wuling was inside this illusion array, but a few seconds passed and nothing out of the ordinary happened.
He switched his focus to Huo Wuling’s body. After being stabbed by Yun Yuan’s qi, the ghost had vanished. Ji Ning had been terrified Huo Wuling was badly injured, but the man looked unharmed and solid, with a smile curling his lips.
“Are you worried about me?” As if reading his thoughts, Huo Wuling took off his cloak, spread out his arms, and generously let Ji Ning look at his body. He grinned wickedly, “I’m fine. If you don’t believe me, why don’t you come over and check for yourself?”
Ji Ning knew that if he started touching Huo Wuling, he would be the one that ended up getting fondled, so he ignored the offer and asked, “Where’s Herinos? Why are you here instead of him?”
Huo Wuling raised his eyebrows at his question but before he could answer, a pale hand stretched out from behind Ji Ning and gently pulled the rose from his hand. Herinos’s low and gentle voice spoke into his ears.
“I apologise for being late.”
Ji Ning turned toward the sound to see the handsome vampire behind him.
Huo Wuling’s eyes darkened slightly. The pedestrians on the street suddenly stopped walking and twisted their necks one after another to focus on Herinos. A gloomy aura filled the area.
The creepy atmosphere only lasted for a few seconds, and the next moment everything returned to normal as the bustling festival scene continued.
Whoosh.
Without warning, the rose in Herinos’s hand burst into flames. He immediately dropped the flower and moments later, the rose had burned into a small cloud of ashes and blown away with the wind.
“It was touched by someone who shouldn’t have touched it.” Said Huo Wuling indifferently, “It has no reason to exist anymore.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be here.” Huo Wuling slightly curled his lips and said calmly, “Just like its owner, it should disappear from this world.”
A cold wind blew over them, causing the glass lamps strung above their heads to swing. The gentle creaking carried an ominous feeling.
Ji Ning could feel a headache coming. It was obvious that Herinos also wasn’t fooled by the phantom array, but he still couldn’t understand the current situation. He knew that the two of them had a tendency to fight when they had a disagreement and almost felt the urge to call for Yun Yuan.
“Could one of you please explain to me what is going on?”
He looked blankly between the pair of them. They looked back at him for a while, but it was Herinos that spoke first, gently asking, “What do you want to know?”
“I think you’re both well aware that this is an illusion, but why weren’t you bewitched by it?” This was the question Ji Ning wanted to ask most.
Herinos said, “I have the ability of suggestion myself, naturally I wouldn’t be taken in by similar powers.” He smiled slightly as he spoke, “What’s more, I have a blood pact with you. I know your soul, there’s no way that illusion could trick me.”
“It was very simple.” Huo Wuling smiled, “I used my ghosts to eat every person inside of the illusion. Instead of souls, they just had cores of pure power. It was easy to figure out that I was the only real person inside that world.”
He looked Ji Ning up and down, “Listening to your tone, you seem a little regretful that we weren’t tricked?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Of course, Ji Ning denied it again. He wasn’t lying, originally Yun Yuan had threatened him to cut off the threads of fate that connected them.
He briefly recounted what had happened. Generally speaking, Yun Yuan had some kind of special abilities and wanted to achieve a certain purpose using the illusions. Therefore, Ji Ning was being used to fulfil their greatest wish inside of the illusions.
However, he didn’t mention that it was he who asked for Yun Yuan’s help first, that Yun Yuan was doing this in exchange for saving Ozer, or that Yun Yuan’s true purpose was to remove the threads of fate that connected him to the other protagonists. He didn’t know how Huo Wuling would react to hearing any of that.
“Greatest wish.”
Huo Wuling couldn’t help laughing when he heard the words, “Don’t you think it’s pathetic to achieve your greatest wish inside a hallucination?” As he spoke, he looked at Ji Ning again, “And why do you want to fulfil their wishes for them? Could their wishes have something to do with you?”
His questions were always so sharp, Ji Ning had no choice but to look away. Deliberately ignoring Huo Wuling’s question, he asked casually, “Why did you choose to enter Herinos’s illusion?”
Huo Wuling stared at him for a few seconds, then spread out his hands and said slowly, “It was just a coincidence.”
“I was going against two people at the time and had no chance of winning. I entered another illusion randomly, but unfortunately, I ran into him.”
Herinos continued, “The situation was unfavourable and it was pointless for the two of us to continue fighting. We could only join forces until we were able to leave the illusion.”
“That was the worst part of this whole thing.” Huo Wuling said.
“Then, have you thought of a way to leave the illusion array?”
“Yes, I have a solution.” Huo Wuling squinted his eyes, then suddenly smiled softly, “But there’s no hurry, we can stroll around here for a while.”
As he spoke, his eyes wandered around, glancing curiously into every street corner around them, “I’m interested to learn what you’ve done inside this world.”
Just after he spoke, the tall clock tower in the square started chiming, the rings sounding out one after another. Everyone in the square cheered and congratulated each other on the arrival of the new year.
Bright fireworks bloomed across the night sky, lighting up the people beneath with dreamlike beauty.
The next moment, multiple images appeared in front of Ji Ning. He rubbed his eyes, before realising it wasn’t just in his head. The surrounding landscape seemed to be confused, as if a phantom world was layered on top of it.
In the overlapping image, Ji Ning was shocked to see another version of himself walking through the street, and beside ‘him’ was another Herinos. ‘Herinos’ was holding ‘Ji Ning’s’ hand as they travelled through the bustling crowd.
“What is this?” Ji Ning turned his head and asked the two protagonists in disbelief.
“It’s an illusion, of course.” Huo Wuling smiled, “What else could it be?”
But under normal circumstances, the phantom array shouldn’t have evolved an illusion in such a way, right?
Ji Ning asked him suspiciously, “Did you manipulate this?”
“No.” Huo Wuling laughed happily at the confusion on his face, “Although it does have something to do with me, the changes in the illusion aren’t under my control. I don’t know what will happen next. The only certainty is that it will reproduce what happened in the past.”
He lowered his voice a little, his lips curling into a mysterious smile.
“This place is ‘contaminated’. When the ‘contamination’ is over, we can leave.”
Ji Ning couldn’t understand what he was saying, “What the hell did you do?”
“It’s a secret.”
Huo Wuling frowned as he watched the two figures walk further and further away and started to follow them.
“Well, let me see what you’ve done in this world. I’ve always been curious about how you act in other worlds.”
The phantoms would automatically display his and Herinos’s previous experiences…?
Startled, Ji Ning chased after Huo Wuling, “You can’t watch.”
“Why not?” Huo Wuling raised an eyebrow, “We can’t leave this illusion for the time being. If I’m not allowed to look at you, what else can I do to pass the time?”
“I’m right in front of you, isn’t that enough to look at?”
Ji Ning spoke without thinking, regretting his words as soon as he said them, but Huo Wuling picked up his words with great interest, “You’ll really let me look? Look as much as I want to?”
“You might as well go and watch the phantoms.”
Herinos stepped forward, quietly moving Ji Ning behind him as he smirked at Huo Wuling, “If you see me and Ji Ning kissing, please keep calm and don’t try to destroy the phantoms.”
“You too.” Huo Wuling smiled back at him, “In the past Ningning and I always slept together. He was so cute when he curled up next to me naked. I’m worried that if you saw it, you would be so miserable you might kill yourself. I’d feel so guilty I couldn’t even be happy about it.”
“Stop talking nonsense, just when did I take off my clothes?”
Ji Ning was dumbfounded. In fact, because he was a ghost, there was almost no need to take off his clothes inside the infinite flow world, let alone in front of Huo Wuling.”
Then he realised the implications of Huo Wuling’s words. It seemed phantoms from the infinite flow world would also be displayed here, but how was that possible?
“This illusion is contaminated. The phantoms that appear will become more and more chaotic and disorderly. There are some scenes I’m really looking forward to.” Huo Wuling chuckled, “Of course, I wouldn’t mind seeing it in person either.”
Ji Ning didn’t bother to pay attention to him. Instead, he pulled the corner of Herinos’s sleeve and begged him. This was his last hope to stop Huo Wuling. “Herinos, please, can you not let him see…”
Herinos paused for a moment, but still declined Ji Ning’s request, “Sorry, but this is an exchange. This world’s illusion is gradually being destroyed. Once it is, not only will our past together appear, but also the world you entered with him. I want to know more about you, so I won’t stop him.”
Ji Ning felt like he was about to suffocate. Not only would Huo Wuling be able to see what he’d done in the vampire world, but Herinos would see what happened in the infinite flow world. What kind of hell was he in?!
Why was this illusion contaminated? Who did it?
Ji Ning looked between Huo Wuling and Herinos and observed their expressions, but it didn’t seem to be either of them. Who else could it be? Or was there a fault with this phantom array from the beginning?
However, it was too late for him to think deeply about the issue. He watched the phantom ‘Herinos’ and ‘Ji Ning’ pass through the crowd until they reached the front of the cathedral in the centre of the square.
The white church stood tall against the background of luminous light. It looked particularly majestic in the night, as priests and believers swarmed around it. The church was already full of people, listening to the Archbishop’s new year’s speech, but the benches inside couldn’t accommodate all the believers. An even larger crowd stood outside of the building, their heads bowed as they listened devotedly.
‘Herinos’ frowned slightly, clearly not used to such an occasion. If he was just an ordinary vampire, facing so many prayers and hymns, he might have been purified by the Holy Light by now.
But even so, he made no attempts to leave, and took ‘Ji Ning’ around to the back of the church. It was closed, and people didn’t usually use it, so there weren’t many people around.
“Go.”
‘Herinos’ finally released ‘Ji Ning’s’ wrist and said slowly, “I’ll wait for you here. You’ll come back to me, right?”
“…”
‘Ji Ning’ looked at him but didn’t answer. He stepped forward and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, a young girl dressed as a maid came out and led them inside.
‘Herinos’ remained outside the door, his fists clenched slightly as his deep crimson eyes revealed a faint worry.
Seeing the phantom scene, Ji Ning still clearly remembered that this was when he’d gone to meet the heroine Flora and his sister. Because it was inconvenient for Herinos to enter the church, he had waited outside for Ji Ning to return.
In fact, Herinos had taken a great risk by taking him here. If he allowed Ji Ning inside the church, he was likely to leak secrets to the clergy. Although Herinos certainly wouldn’t lose to anyone who attacked him, as long as Ji Ning stayed inside the church, it would be difficult for Herinos to capture him again.
Huo Wuling, who was watching with his arms crossed, suddenly laughed. He said sarcastically to Herinos, “Ningning has such a bad attitude towards you that he won’t even speak to you, yet you say you kissed him? You’re so funny.”
Herinos’s expression didn’t change. Glancing at his own phantom, he suddenly walked over to the door of the church and gently pushed it open a crack.
The author has something to say: The male protagonists have mutual green genes in their bones
What a short chapter, and a sudden end! I’m so happy to have Huo Wuling back, I like this mini arc!!
I’m on my last few exams now (4 left!) so I shouldn’t be missing any more updates~
Where is this shame play the author speaks of!11!? Hmm..
Cheering for you during your last exams!! 🎉 Exam week is coming up for me soon 😞
Me – it’s me, I’m so ashamed of my playboy protagonist（/｡＼)
Thank you for cheering, I can’t wait for them to be over!! Good luck in your exams too – should I stop posting so you spend more time studying? (^^)
Nooo!! I need to see Ji Ning and his harem! 😭
Ooooh this is getting good, I’m really enjoying this arc. I love seeing Huo Wuling, and especially Ji Ning having to deal with two MLs at once, it’s so much fun
Me too, I love seeing the protagonists interacting with each other – sometimes I have to stop myself from imagining other pairings…
Good luck on your exam(s)!
That A/N. At this point everyone except for Ning Ning is a Hulk lol (because they have green DNA)
and vinegar runs through their veins instead of blood (^w^)