Chapter 104

Translator : Mukyuu

Editor : Mikyuu

The door opened a bit wider.

The wall lights lit up to reveal a parlor of about twenty square meters. There were two crescent-shaped sofas and a round coffee table in the room and a tea set on a tray on the coffee table. On the other end of the room was another door, which was so black it gleamed.

“Please sit.”

Baal stood still in the same spot. “Since you’ve been awake, you should know why we’re here.”

“Looks like I can’t sleep this long next time or else the world will change too quickly and I won’t be able to keep up.” The laughter in Cain’s voice deepened more and more. “Who would have thought that Baal, who had always been known as the Destroyer Angel, would actually sneak into the Kindred Realm?”

Baal’s face instantly darkened like a storm cloud. “I’d be delighted to toss in my original way of doing things.”

“Not today,” Cain declined politely. “I’ve been asleep for too long. I need some time to stretch the muscles and get the blood moving.”

“Anytime.” Baal snorted.

“Oh. So you’ve traveled thousands of miles to the Bloodnight Mountain just to fight with me?” Cain asked.

Baal gritted his teeth. “You should know very well what I want after playing the voyeur for so long, shouldn’t you? If I’m right, the Forest of Shattered Illusions is your dream world.”

“Not entirely,” Cain corrected. “More correctly, it’s that I used my consciousness to create an illusion on the foundation of the forest. And then I indulged in it.”

Baal snorted, “So making a hodgepodge pig is the type of hobby you indulge in?”

“Since it’s the Forest of Shattered Illusions, of course I have to make something unique.” Cain was clearly quite proud of that masterpiece.

Baal said, “And then wait for them to shatter after they realize the truth.”

Cain remarked, “Wasn’t it you who shattered their illusions? You were one who used a ward and moved them out of the Forest of Shattered Illusions.”

Baal said with gritted teeth, “That’s because of your damned rules!”

“Elimination and Acceptance?” Cain’s voice held traces of pride and joy that were hard to hide. “The rule of the forest is that the strong feed off the weak. Selection is the same. I think that’s very good and fair. As for the forest’s acceptance… since this takes place in the Forest of Shattered Illusions, it’s best to use the geographical advantage as much as possible.”

Wang Xiaoming suddenly spoke up out of curiosity, “If Baal hadn’t moved the other competitors out of the Forest of Shattered Illusions, then would we have been the ones to be eliminated as having not been accepted?”

“No, because before you acted, the two kids from the Giovanni and Ravnos clans had already been eliminated by the other kids.” Cain showed no trace of unhappiness. Actually, he had always praised this kind of benign competition—as for how benign it truly was, only Heaven knew.

Wang Xiaoming paused. “Huh?” Didn’t Giovanni and Ravnos mean Michelle and Andy?

“But,” Cain paused and then continued, “if there were twelve left then, without a doubt, Baal would have had to get into Bloodnight Mountain using his usual methods.” In other words, they hadn’t received the forest’s acceptance.

Baal frowned and demanded, “Why?” He had even resisted the urge to kill the wolves.

“Because, you violated the rule of the forest.”

“The rule of the forest?” Wang Xiaoming couldn’t help but think of the tiger who could meow cutely like a cat.

As expected, Cain asked, “How could a tiger bark like a dog and howl like a wolf?”

Wang Xiaoming thought his prediction had been right. “But it knew how to meow like a cat from the beginning.”

“Mmhmm, so the original culprit didn’t pass either.”

Baal demanded in vexation, “What’s the difference between a tiger who knows how to meow and a mishmash pig?”

“The difference is that,” Cain continued unperturbed, “the tiger is a test but the pig is creativity.”

Wang Xiaoming, “…”

Baal fell silent for just a moment and then said suddenly, “Actually for you, that tree is not a peach tree but the tree that bears forbidden fruit, right?”

The sentence seemed to be a remote control for time and instantly paused time at a certain point.

Everything fell silent.

“…” Cain didn’t answer.

Wang Xiaoming nervously controlled his breathing for fear that if he breathed too loudly, he’d destroy the calm.

After a moment, it was still Baal’s voice that continued, “If Adam and Eve hadn’t sneaked a bite of the forbidden fruit, there would have never been someone called Cain in the world, whether human or Kindred.”

“There also would be no Abel,” Cain said mournfully.

…

Adam? Eve?

He had heard of both of them, but…

Abel?

Wang Xiaoming was completely befuddled by the change in topic and couldn’t keep up with the conversation.

Baal pressed his lips. For someone with his personality, that was about as much as he was willing to comment on the topic. As for whether the other party wanted to listen or not, that was the other person’s business.

“Since you already know our intentions, then what’s your answer?” He made ready to roll up his sleeves and solve the problem.

“Hmm, but I want to hear you say it personally.” Cain’s voice returned to its original happy state.

Baal’s eyes squinted slightly, but the cold glint still shone out from them.

Cain remarked, “This is a once-in-a-million-year chance. I can’t just waste it.”

Wang Xiaoming stood beside Baal and felt a chilling coldness silently spread out. He hurriedly said, “It’s me who would love your help.”

Cain answered in a very friendly manner, “Oh? Let’s hear it.”

Wang Xiaoming gathered up his courage to say, “I would like you to turn me into a Kindred.”

Cain didn’t object. “Reason?”

“I want to be with Baal for eternity.” He said every word with determination.

Baal’s lips lifted slightly upward.

“That reason doesn’t sound very attractive.” Cain said before Baal could act out, “But, I’m always happy to help a human out. If you can answer my three questions, I’ll help you.”

Wang Xiaoming said in a serious manner, “Ask.”

“Since you said you want to be with Baal for eternity, then my first question is: how long is eternity?”

Wang Xiaoming hesitated. “How long is eternity?” If he had a computer right now, he could Baidu 1 Chinese search engine that’s the equivalent to Google. a bunch of answers, but to answer while being put on the spot…

Cain added, “I don’t accept vague or emotional answers. I want something specific.”

Baal retorted, “Is hiding in the dark like a turtle very specific?”

Cain automatically filtered out those words.

Wang Xiaoming bent his head and his toes began to press against each other again and again. After a three or four minute pause, he suddenly raised his head and declared, “It’s as far as the quotient of one divided by three.”

“The quotient of one divided by three?”

Wang Xiaoming explained good-naturedly, “It’s an infinitely repeating decimal.”

Cain, “…” Of course he knew that was an infinitely repeating decimal; he had just never thought the question could be answered in such a manner.

…

“The second question,” he continued. “When you possess eternal life, what would you use it for? Hmm, Baal, why don’t you also answer?”

Baal laughed coldy and said, “Childishness is an illness.”

Cain retorted quickly, “So is stubbornness.”

As the only good student present, Wang Xiaoming answered the question very seriously. “I would happily live each day to the fullest.”

“Live each day to the fullest? But that’s an infinitely repeating decimal; you might be doing the same thing and living the same life every day.”

Wang Xiaoming silently looked at Baal and said quietly, “If I can really be with Baal every day, then an infinitely repeating decimal means an infinite number of happy days. I’d be very willing.”

“Infinitely repeating decimal means an infinite number of happy days?” Cain repeated his words in a low voice. “Your answer? Baal?”

“At the very least, I won’t be using it to sleep and to escape,” Baal answered coldly.

“Alright, last question. If Wang Xiaoming accepts being Embraced by me, then he would become my child, a second generation Kindred. Baal, you’d be willing even if that was the case?” Cain’s last sentence was filled with a clear challenge.

Baal seemed to not be affected at all. He said calmly, “So too much sleep does lead to stupidity.” He was already standing there, why ask whether he was willing or not?

“… Then, come in.” The black door opened slowly to reveal a twisting staircase that led downward. The oil lamps on either side were already lit and they flickered.

Baal took one step forward.

“The Kindred’s Embrace ceremony is closed to spectators,” Cain said.

Wang Xiaoming was so scared he could die. Right at that moment, he didn’t feel any different than he would if he were going into surgery. But he still held Baal’s hand and said firmly, “I can go by myself.”

Baal frowned.

There were few legends about Cain, and those that existed revolved around the theme of sleeping. He had once seen Michael’s files on the Kindred. Cain’s file was only three pages long while Leslie’s was three thousand. So even he had a hard time differentiating whether Cain was being sincere or fake this time.

“I’ll be back soon,” Wang Xiaoming promised again, and then followed the path down anxiously.

The black door thudded heavily and separated Wang Xiaoming and Baal in two different worlds.

Baal sat down on the sofa in frustration and pointed a finger at the tea set. The cups rose up shakily into the air and floated there.

Then—

Baal’s fingers moved and the cups rushed one after another to smash against the wall and shatter into pieces.

Time crawled by extra slowly during a waiting period.

Especially when you had absolutely no idea how much longer the wait was going to be.

During this time, Baal had the urge, countless times, to open the door and rush down the stairs, but because he recalled Xiang Wenjie’s fate as a half-product, he forced himself to resist. He had already resisted for so long that if something happened at the last minute… it would make him puke!

Even so, the torture boiled Baal’s heart like it was over an open flame. Especially when his mind kept bringing up an image of Cain getting closer to Wang Xiaoming’s neck—

“Dammit!” He waved his hand violently.

The entire coffee table threw itself against the door—

The door opened.

1

Chinese search engine that’s the equivalent to Google.