novelhk Chapter 37 Pure Container
Chapter 37 Pure Container
The room has no windows.
Or rather, there are windows, but they are sealed off from the outside by some kind of black material.
He Chutian sat upright in a metal chair.
He was brought here at three in the morning.
Two men in black suits were waiting for him at the school gate. They didn't say a word, but simply made a "please" gesture.
He didn't ask why, nor did he struggle.
He knew this day would come sooner or later.
When the purity of the Taotie fragments in his body reaches a certain critical value, the person "above" will come to find him.
But he didn't expect it to be this person who came.
No, it's not a "person".
The thing sitting in front of He Chutian cannot be simply defined as a "person".
That thing... no, that person... sat in a large black leather chair, in a languid posture.
He was very tall, even when sitting, he was a head taller than the average person, and his figure was slender but not thin.
The clothes were made of a very special material; they were neither cotton nor silk, but a fabric that He Chutian had never seen before.
His skin was unnaturally pale.
It's as if the blood was drained long ago, leaving only skin and bones, which were forcibly kneaded together by some force to maintain a human form.
His eyes are the most striking feature.
Purple.
It's not the kind of purple that colored contact lenses can simulate.
That purple was so pure, so pure, that it didn't seem like a color that would exist in nature.
He Chutian glanced at it once and then looked away.
It wasn't out of fear, though he certainly should have been, but rather a more primal instinct: the Taotie fragments within him were screaming.
That scream wasn't a sound; it was a pure, instinctive signal of fear.
It traveled directly from the fragment to his nervous system, causing every cell in his body to sound an alarm.
run!
run!!
run! ! !
But he didn't run.
Because he knew that showing any weakness in the face of this thing was tantamount to signing his own death sentence.
False leaves.
He had heard of that name before.
In the military's list of classified research projects, and in the few words that the high-ranking members of the He family kept silent about.
Jia Ye, a "Special Energy Body Research Consultant" specially appointed by the military.
No one knows his origins, no one knows his true identity, and no one is even sure if he is human.
Some say he is a descendant of an ancient family, with the blood of an ancient ferocious beast flowing through his veins.
Some say he is a variant of Zero, having evolved human appearance and intelligence.
Some say he is neither human nor Zero, but an existence that is even more ancient than Xia Lan and Zero.
It had been asleep for thousands of years, but was awakened by the energy fluctuations of modern technology.
But one thing is agreed upon by all the arguments...
False leaves are not to be trifled with.
The military dared not provoke him, the He family head dared not provoke him, and even the five barely surviving Xia Lan from Jiugong Ridge would change their expressions upon hearing this name.
And now, this thing is sitting right in front of He Chutian, looking him up and down from a distance of less than two meters.
He Chutian remained silent.
In the face of something like this, the one who speaks first loses.
This is a lesson he learned from a young age.
Whether you're facing the high and mighty family members at a He family's house, or dealing with school leaders with their own agendas in the student union, never speak first.
Silence is the best weapon; it gives you time to think and allows the other party to reveal their intentions first.
Jia Ye didn't seem to mind his silence.
He... or rather, "it" tilted its head.
"He Chutian."
The false leaf spoke.
Her voice was more pleasant than He Chutian had imagined.
It wasn't the kind of voice that feigned authority.
It was a very clean, almost clear baritone voice.
"The purity of the Taotie fragment is 37.2%, the highest record within three generations of collateral relatives."
It is bland, objective, and devoid of any emotional coloring.
"Implanted at age four, first awakening reaction at age twelve, peak fragment activity at age sixteen, currently stable at... well, still rising."
He paused, his purple eyes narrowing slightly.
"interesting."
"The fragments within you are far more active than the data of those in the main family."
He Chutian's fingers tightened slightly, but quickly loosened.
What Jia Ye said is true.
His Taotie fragments were indeed the purest within three generations of the collateral branch, even surpassing some members of the main family.
This is why He Deshou always used a whip soaked in salt water when he beat him.
When a regular whip strikes, the wound heals before the blood even flows out, serving no punitive purpose whatsoever.
But high purity brings more than just stronger self-healing abilities.
There is an even higher risk of spiraling out of control.
The fragments of the Taotie are conscious.
It is not an inanimate object, but a being that is constantly trying to devour the host's will.
Every collateral descendant begins battling the fragments within their body from the age of four.
When you are strong, it becomes weak; when you are weak, it becomes strong.
Once your will cracks, it will flood in like a torrent, overwhelm your consciousness, and turn you into a walking corpse driven by gluttonous instincts.
In the history of the Ho family's collateral branches, more than one-third of the members died from the loss of control of debris.
When those people die, their eyes turn purple, just like those of a false leaf.
Their bodies will be transformed from fragments into something between humans and zero.
It possesses immense strength, is tireless, feels no pain, and only knows how to eat.
Eat everything edible.
Stone, wood, iron, concrete, people.
He Chutian had met him once.
That was when he was fourteen years old. A cousin from a collateral branch, three years older than him, had a fragment that was never very pure, so everyone thought he was safe.
But one night, he suddenly lost control in his sleep.
When he was found the next morning, he had eaten half of his hand, his teeth having pierced through the metacarpal bone.
That cousin was later dealt with.
He Deshou personally carried out the operation.
The knife used was the one enshrined in the ancestral hall, which was said to have been passed down from He Langming. The blade was engraved with fragments of the Wind Whisper Incantation, which could suppress the power of the Taotie fragments.
With one slash, my cousin's body deflated as if it had been emptied out, and fragments poured out of the wound, turning into a wisp of black smoke that dissipated into the air.
The last thing my cousin said before he died was...
"I'm so hungry."
He Chutian knew one thing from that day on.
The thing inside him was neither a blessing nor a curse, but a bomb that could explode at any moment.
Its self-healing ability is its sugar coating, while its core is its loss of control.
The Ho family used their self-healing abilities to get the paraplegics to willingly accept the implantation of fragments, but no one ever told them about it.
When you lose control, you become a monster that even eats itself.
He Chutian looked at the fake leaf, his voice calm.
"Mr. Fake Ye, you didn't come to me just to praise the purity of my fragments, did you?"
Fake Leaf smiled.
That smile made the hairs on the back of He Chutian stand on end.
It wasn't because it was scary; the smile itself was very beautiful, with the corners of the mouth slightly upturned, revealing a small section of white teeth, and even carrying a hint of gentleness.
It's because that smile contained no human emotion.
I like smart people.
Jia Ye said, "Cross one leg over the other."
"Smart people save time, and time is very precious to me."
"He Chutian."
When Jia Ye called his name, his tone suddenly changed.
"You hate He Yezhou."
He Chutian's heart skipped a beat.
"You hate the way he looks at you, you hate every word he says, you hate the way he takes it for granted that you're just a vessel when he stands in front of you."
False Leaf's voice was neither hurried nor slow.
"You hate He Yuanshan, you hate that he didn't even look at you when he was drawing blood from your heart."
"You hate He Deshou, you hate what he said after he beat you: 'Don't blame us for being ruthless.'"
"What you hate is not the whip, but his hypocrisy of pretending to be a good person after he has done it."
He Chutian's breathing became heavier.
He knew what Jia Ye was doing; she was reading his mind.
The fake leaf is a variant of Zero, or something above Zero, while He Chutian has fragments of the Taotie within his body.
Zero will regard the gluttonous container as the same kind.
There are no secrets among those of the same kind.
He gritted his teeth and remained silent.
False leaves continue.
"You hate the He family. You hate them for turning you into a vessel, for taking away your chance to become a Xia Lan."
"You hate Jiugongling, you hate Su Nian, no, you don't hate her, you're jealous of her."
"I'm jealous that she's a Xia Lan, and you're not."
"I'm jealous that she has the Xia Lan Seal, while you don't."
"I'm jealous that she can stand on the top of Jiugongling Mountain, while you can only stand in the scenic area at the foot of the mountain, spend eighty yuan to buy a student ticket and walk up as a tourist."
He Chutian instinctively clenched his fist.
The fingernails dug into the flesh of the palm.
Blood seeped out, and then it healed.
It's then re-embedded and healed.
Back and forth.
He was punishing himself in this way.
"You hate this mountain."
The voice of the false leaf grew lower and lower, deeper and deeper.
"You hate that this world has forgotten Xia Lan, hate that they turned what you were meant to be into a... joke."
Jia Ye stopped and tilted her head to look at He Chutian.
"But what you hate the most is not He Yezhou, not the He family, not Jiugongling, and not this world."
He paused.
It's yourself.
He Chutian's body stiffened.
"You hate that you have fragments of the Taotie inside you."
"You hate that when you were four years old and were chosen, you didn't cry, you didn't make a fuss, you didn't resist."
"You hate the way your grandmother looked at you, that guilty, pitiful look."
"You hate yourself. You clearly hate all of this, yet you still obediently kneel in the ancestral hall, stretching out your hands and letting them hit you."
Jia Ye's voice suddenly became very soft, so soft that it was as if she were blowing a breath into He Chutian's ear.
"You hate that you're a... coward."
The room fell silent the moment the last word was uttered.
He lowered his head, his shoulders trembling slightly, whether from anger, fear, or something else, it was hard to tell.
A long time passed, maybe a minute, maybe ten minutes.
In this room devoid of light, sound, and the concept of time, he could not tell the difference.
He spoke.
You're absolutely right.
He raised his head.
There were no tears, no fear, no anger in those eyes.
There was only one kind of quiet, pure... darkness.
"I hate them."
He Chutian said.
"He Yezhou, He Yuanshan, He Deshou, Su Nian, Jiu Gongling, this era, this world... I hate them all."
He paused.
"But I hate myself even more."
Jia Ye didn't speak, she just looked at him.
He Chutian continued.
"You know, when I was little, my grandma told me stories about the Xia Lan, and I've always thought about one thing..."
"If I were them, what would I do?"
"Would I protect others like they did? Would I fight to protect ordinary people?"
He smiled.
That smile was even colder than Jia Ye's.
"I thought about it for a long time, and the answer is no."
"I will not protect others."
"I want to become a Xia Lan, not because I want to protect anyone, but because..."
He paused for a moment, as if searching for the right word.
"...Because I want to be loved."
"I want to stand on the top of Jiugongling Mountain and have everyone at the foot of the mountain look up at me."
"I want them to see my Xia Lan Seal, my Xia Lan Technique, and the way I stand there."
"Then kneel down and acknowledge me as their hero."
"But then I figured it out."
He Chutian's voice suddenly became very soft.
"The word 'hero' is too tiring."
"You must always do good deeds, always protect others, and always maintain that image."
"Once you make a mistake, once you fail to protect them, they will push you off the mountaintop and smash you to pieces."
"So I thought...why not try a different approach?"
He looked at the fake leaf, and the darkness in his eyes deepened.
"I don't want to be a hero. I want to be... a king."
The moment he uttered that word, He Chutian felt the Taotie fragments within his body vibrate violently.
It wasn't fear, it wasn't a warning, but... resonance.
king.
They are not Xia Lan, not heroes, not guardians.
He is the king.
A king who does not allow anyone to question him, oppose him, or stand above him.
What is the name of Xia Lan? What is the mission of protection? What is "fighting for the common people"?
It's all a facade.
He never cared about those things.
There was only one thing he cared about.
power.
That kind of power that doesn't require bowing to anyone.
That power that made He Yezhou kneel before him and made He Deshou tremble as he called him "Young Master Chu Tian".
That power can be obtained through killing, through enslavement, or through any other means.
He doesn't care.
All he wants is to win.
Jia Ye looked at him and remained silent for a long time.
Then he laughed.
This smile is different from the ones before.
A genuine, heartfelt...pleasure.
Like a hunter who has been waiting for a long time, finally seeing his prey walk into his carefully laid trap.
"it is good."
Jia Ye said there was only one word.
But this word contains too much.
Praise, appreciation, recognition, and... resonance.
He stood up.
When he stood up, He Chutian finally saw his full appearance.
It is at least two meters tall, with a slender build but an extremely large frame.
He is a snake.
Not the kind of snake that crawls on the ground, but the kind of snake god that resides in a temple and is worshipped by thousands.
He walked up to He Chutian and looked down at him.
The distance is too close.
He was so close that He Chutian could smell his scent.
It's not decay, it's not bloodshed.
It has a very clean scent.
But beneath the cleanliness lies something else—the scent of an apex predator, a scent that instinctively makes you want to back away.
Jia Ye raised her hand, a hand with only black nails, and reached towards He Chutian's face.
He Chutian did not dodge.
The hand stopped beside his cheek, its fingertips almost touching his skin.
The false leaf's hands are cold.
"I can give it to you."
False Leaf said.
"Power. Control. Make the gluttonous fragments within you obey your commands, so they will no longer backfire or spiral out of control."
"If you want it to heal, it will heal. If you want it to strengthen your body, it will strengthen it."
"You want it to..."
He paused, the corners of his mouth slightly turned up, revealing a smile that could almost be described as gentle.
"...If you make it eat others, it will do so."
He Chutian's heart skipped a beat.
"I can give you anything you want."
Jia Ye withdrew his hand, turned around, and stood with his back to He Chutian, his hands behind his back.
Her long black hair hung down to her waist, swaying slowly in the air.
"But I need you to do one thing."
He Chutian took a deep breath, suppressing his racing heartbeat and trying to make his voice sound as calm as possible.
"What is it?"
Jia Ye didn't turn around; the voice came from ahead.
"Pay attention to people with marks on their right hands."
He Chutian frowned: "What mark?"
You'll know when you see it.
False Leaf said.
He turned around and looked straight at He Chutian.
"Find them, tell me where they are, what they are doing, and who they are in contact with."
"And then?" He Chutian asked.
"Then?"
False Leaf tilted its head.
"Then you just wait, and once I've dealt with them, you'll get what you want."
He walked back to the chair, sat down, and his posture became languid again.
"As an advance payment, I will tell you how to control the Gluttonous Fragments."
"It's not the kind of pressing method that the Ho family used on you."
"The method I taught you is different."
"What I'm teaching you is... taming."
three days later.
He Chutian stood in front of the mirror in his dormitory, shirtless, looking at himself in the mirror.
The bluish line below the collarbone has changed.
It used to be a blurry blue mark.
It looked like a lousy tattoo artist haphazardly poking his skin with a blunt needle.
It's different now.
The patterns became clearer.
Very clear.
Moreover, it is no longer a single line; it has branched out.
It splits into three branches below the collarbone: one extends upward to the base of the neck, one crosses the shoulder to the left, and one goes to the right.
If you look closely, you'll find that those lines are not random.
They form a pattern.
It is neither the He family crest nor the image of a Taotie.
Rather, it is a more abstract symbol.
He Chutian raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and then slowly clenched them.
He could feel the fragments flowing through his body.
It is not the passive healing that can only be triggered automatically when injured, but an active force that can be controlled by his will.
It used to always be moving, always turning over, and always making low, impatient growls.
It's like saying, "Let me out."
It's quiet now.
It's not a suppressed silence; a suppressed silence is the calm before the storm.
You know it could erupt at any time, you just don't know when.
The quiet now is different; it's a... contented quiet.
A well-fed wild beast curled up in its den, its eyes half-closed, its tail swaying slowly.
tame.
The method that Jia Ye taught him was not suppression, not confrontation, and not like what the He family did, using wind-attribute elemental energy to restrain the Taotie fragments.
Those methods are all wrong.
The more you try to control it, the more it rebels.
The more you suppress it, the stronger it becomes.
The correct approach is to acknowledge it.
Acknowledge that it is a part of you.
It's not a foreign object inside your body, nor a curse you bear, but yourself.
Your anger is it, your hatred is it, your desire is it, and your ambition is it.
It doesn't want to devour you; it wants to... become you.
He Chutian closed his eyes, feeling the fragments flowing through his veins.
He suddenly laughed.
His smile was light and faint, but it was unlike any of his previous smiles.
The smile was a tool used to lower others' guard.
This smile is different.
It is real.
Real cruelty, real darkness, real... freedom.
He no longer had to pretend.
You don't need to pretend to be a good senior, a good boyfriend, or a good person.
He is who he is.
A monster who hates the whole world and wants to trample everyone under his feet.
And now he has the power to make all of this a reality.
He opened his eyes and looked at himself in the mirror.
Behind the glasses, a faint purple hue slowly spread deep within the pupils of the eyes.
He reached for the phone on the table and glanced at it.
There is one unread message.
The sender was the number that didn't have a note.
"First mission: Attack Jiugongling."