Chapter Sixty-Eight: Monster
The swinging hand axe severed the whip-like arm, and the blood that spurted out stained most of Shengyao’s body red. He turned his head aside to avoid the blood splattering onto his face, kicked off the ground, dodged other flailing arms, and raised his axe at an angle, charging straight for Zheng Yichao’s face.
Booming thunder crashed outside the window.
Zheng Yichao howled in madness from the pain of his severed limb, his voice frenzied. His unnatural limbs thrashed about unconsciously with his screams.
It was only when Shengyao rushed up to him that all the countless eyes crowding Zheng Yichao’s face shrank with terror, their pupils contracting to pinpoints.
The hand axe struck directly at his neck—
Clang!
Shengyao narrowed his eyes, watching cracks splinter the axe blade, while the skin struck turned a strange ashen blue, as if morphing into solid rock.
Yet the owner of this stone-like skin did not possess a heart of stone.
Having skirted the edge of death, Zheng Yichao was now thrown into panic. His arms flailed even more wildly, his feet stumbling backward of their own accord. In the next instant, his torso twisted around a full one hundred eighty degrees, dragging his legs behind him as he bolted for the balcony.
Caught off guard, Shengyao’s swing missed its mark.
By the time he lunged after him, Zheng Yichao had already smashed the window, clinging to the frame, and leapt out.
Shengyao, intent only on ending this, pursued him through the shattered window without a second thought.
Booming thunder, pounding rain—suddenly all engulfed Shengyao.
Rain crashed down, drenching him to the bone, and in an instant, the monster’s blood on his body dissolved and vanished into the downpour.
Two figures plummeted one after the other.
Shengyao heard the wind roar past his ears, his eyes wide open as he stared through the curtains of rain at Zheng Yichao ahead of him. He saw Zheng Yichao’s arms waving in the wind, but as they neared the ground, they contracted all at once, slamming down and bracing his body for impact.
Water splashed everywhere!
Without hesitation, Shengyao let his body drop even faster, as if it had suddenly gained weight. His legs landed squarely on Zheng Yichao’s back.
Bang!
With a thunderous crash, Zheng Yichao was driven straight into the ground under Shengyao’s feet!
Shengyao felt the rebounding force, a ripple like a stone thrown in a lake, passing through him and vanishing without a trace.
Though he bore no monstrous appendages, his body could no longer be considered human—nor, perhaps, even a normal living thing.
Beneath his feet was tough skin and the shattered bone beneath it. But before Shengyao could relax, he sensed something writhing inside the flesh.
Out of sight, Zheng Yichao’s face, smashed into the ground, saw the countless pupils of his many eyes dilate, then refocus, a savage aura bursting forth, as if he had suddenly become someone else—no, become a monster.
A chill ran through Shengyao’s heart; he flipped and leapt away at once.
New arms burst from the monster’s back. These arms ended not in hands but in gaping mouths, which lunged at Shengyao in a coordinated assault.
Shengyao raised his hand to block.
Clang!
The giant mouths twisted, cleaving the rain, scraping past the axe blade, sparks flashing across their skin with the sound of clashing metal.
The monstrous maws remained relentless, snapping at Shengyao with increasing ferocity.
The monster hauled itself upright from the ground.
Its body was now grotesquely warped by the giant mouths dragging it along, like a lump of clay pinched into elongated strips, its original shape forced to change.
Those arms retracted into the torso, pulling the body longer; the original limbs vanished, leaving only the head. A few seconds later, even the head was drawn inward. The eyes that had crowded the face now spread across the body, extending onto the chasing jaws.
The monster had now fully lost any trace of human form, no longer resembling any creature of this world.
Its body squirmed along the ground, pulled by the gaping maws; the maws themselves hounded Shengyao, shrieking in madness.
Shengyao retreated and dodged, and after several maneuvers found an opening. He drew the small knife from his belt, flipped it deftly, and drove it into the side of a monstrous eye.
The eye, unlike the stone-like skin, was not hard at all.
Fluids of green, purple, and blue oozed from the wound, but were washed away by the rain at once, while the entire monster convulsed in agony.
Shengyao pulled out the knife and saw the giant mouths retracting, withdrawing back into the monster’s body.
The other eyes contracted; when they dilated again, they no longer flashed with rage but with fear. With the maws withdrawn, the monster regained a semblance of humanoid shape.
Zheng Yichao bolted, fleeing toward the compound wall.
Shengyao immediately gave chase, but ahead, Zheng Yichao’s form shifted again, sprouting four legs and gaining speed.
Shengyao’s own legs surged with new power. Without looking down, he could feel his thigh muscles bulging, each bound and leap stronger than ever before.
The chase carried them over the compound wall and into the unfinished development where they had fought before.
The environment here was even darker. There were no streetlights, and on this stormy night, the darkness was impenetrable.
Zheng Yichao, clearly familiar with the place, darted around several small buildings and hurried in a set direction.
Shengyao could only follow, running with all his might.
His breathing was steady, not the slightest bit disordered, and even his heartbeat remained strong and unhurried, not a whit faster than normal. He felt as if he could chase like this forever, but he couldn’t help but worry about the surveillance cameras that must be nearby.
They couldn’t expect this battle to go unnoticed, resolved in mere seconds, the recordings left to gather dust until they were automatically erased, could they?
There had already been a commotion in the compound earlier, but at the time...
Shengyao was momentarily distracted.
Earlier, with the monster’s howls and their pitched battle, the noise had been considerable, yet no one in the compound seemed to have been awakened or come out to investigate. Even accounting for the rain, it was unusual.
Lost in thought, Shengyao suddenly saw the way ahead open up.
Zheng Yichao had reached the edge of the development and nimbly vaulted over the wall.
Shengyao followed closely, but as he leapt over, his heart lurched.
The monster was gone!
Thud.
He landed, scanning the area warily.
How could it vanish? And what was the point in disappearing now?
Perplexed, Shengyao suddenly heard a faint sound.
Amidst the rain and thunder, the splashing sound was barely audible, like a needle falling into shallow water—so subtle one could hardly notice it even with full concentration.
Lightning split the sky. Shengyao twisted around, glimpsing a flash of light and a blurred shadow.
Without hesitation, he sprang in pursuit.
The faint sound suddenly grew louder, joined by rapid, gasping breaths bursting forth in the rain.
Ripples and splashes marked the ground where someone had passed; a blurred outline emerged in the rain.
The fleeing figure gradually came into view, finally revealing itself at the entrance of an unopened subway station.
Zheng Yichao had partially regained human form, but seemed in the throes of a terrifying transformation, his body constantly shifting. At times, his face bore normal features, displaying terror; at others, it split into countless eyes, their gaze vicious and cruel, radiating a monstrous ferocity.
Unmoved, Shengyao pursued him all the way to the subway station.
Bang! Crash!
Zheng Yichao, desperate, barreled through the construction barrier and leapt straight into the station entrance.
Shengyao followed without pause, but midway saw Zheng Yichao fling both arms upward, extending them like grappling hooks to latch onto ceiling beams.
Crash!
The subway station’s ceiling caved in two large holes, debris flying, rainwater pouring in torrents.
Zheng Yichao swung once through the air, then flew back to the station entrance.
Shengyao lacked such convenient appendages. Twisting his waist, he grabbed the stair railing; inertia spun him halfway around, his back slamming into the handrail.
He felt the jolt but no pain. Steadying himself on the steps, he looked up to see Zheng Yichao standing at the station entrance, facing him, body swelling and shrinking like a balloon, inhaling and exhaling in great gasps.
Lightning flashed again, outlining Zheng Yichao’s form.
Shengyao charged up the steps without hesitation.
It took him only two seconds to bound up the dozen steps, but in that time, Zheng Yichao’s elongated arms remained outstretched, his lower half still sprouting four legs. With each breath, more limbs sprouted from his body, only to fall away like a gecko shedding its tail. Unlike a gecko’s tail, these appendages didn’t twitch but dissolved into puddles of blood, vanishing in the rain. At the same time, more bodies split off from Zheng Yichao’s form.
He was no longer merely growing limbs—eyes, ears, even internal organs sprouted on his torso.
The organs grew ever stranger: some clearly human, others clearly belonging to animals or insects, and even more, bizarre and unidentifiable, emerged.
Zheng Yichao’s face twisted in agony, his many eyes squinting shut, inhuman wails escaping his mouth.
By the time Shengyao reached him, Zheng Yichao had ceased dividing; his eyes were unfocused and dull, and his body had lost all human shape.
The monster began to babble, muttering unintelligibly.
Shengyao switched weapons between his hands, gripped the knife in his right, and aimed for an eye on the creature’s face—
Slash!
The blade plunged into soft flesh, the liquid spurting out dissolving instantly in the rain.
The monster jerked backward, taking Shengyao’s knife with it, then collapsed limply to the ground before suddenly darting away, sliding rapidly across the shallow puddles.
Shengyao hurried after it, but suddenly felt his foot caught.
Organs that had just vanished in the rain reappeared: a hand seized Shengyao’s ankle, a boneless leg coiled around his arm. From the puddled water sprang a beast’s maw with sharp fangs, and then a feather-like, whistling organ shot toward him.
In that instant, time seemed to stand still.
Yet his body was not frozen.
He swiftly lifted the axe, flexed his muscles, and snapped the leg binding him. The axe hacked through the beast’s mouth, flipped into his right hand, and severed the feather. The dropped feather sliced the hand clutching his ankle cleanly in two.
Shengyao stepped forward, stomping on a kidney about to leap at him, swatted away a scatter of fingernails, and cleaved through flying eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. In an instant, he fought his way out of the subway entrance.
His body moved like a phantom; as he passed through the rain, it was as if he slipped beneath a curtain of water, not a drop touching him.
So swift was he that he caught up to the fleeing monster.
The monster’s body was covered in eyes, all fixed ahead, suddenly bursting with a glimmer of hope.
Red light reflected in the countless eyes.
The monster’s body trembled, emitting a sound like an insect, speaking in a language no human could understand.
Bang!
The axe crashed down, driving the monster’s head into the ground.
No wound appeared—the monster merely paused briefly.
Bang!
Shengyao stepped on half the monster’s body, swinging the small axe again.
Bang!
Bang!
Crack—
Bang bang bang bang...
Bang...
Suddenly, Shengyao felt exhaustion.
The rain washed over him, as if countless fists were pummeling his body.
He bowed his head, gazing at the strange thing beneath his feet...
Fluids of every color were washed by the rain into the nearby storm drain. The monster’s remains melted into the rain, vanishing like snow.
Shengyao gripped his hand axe tightly.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed light above and beside him.
Slowly, he straightened up.
Neon reflections shimmered on the ground, distorted by the rain, forming no recognizable letters.
The harsh glare of fluorescent lamps illuminated the rain, turning this small space as bright as day.
His vision blurred with rain, yet pierced through it, and beyond a single door, he saw a person.
Bai Xiao stood silently in the clinic’s lobby, gazing at him. Her face was hollow and indistinct, as if blurred by a veil of rain, so Shengyao could not make out her features.
He clenched the axe even tighter.
...
In a dark operating room, video editing software played on a computer screen.
The doctor’s face was calm as he watched the young man on the screen.
The young man bore the same features as Zheng Yichao, but his expression was desolate and lost, his eyes filled with anxiety.
His lips were cracked, his complexion pale, and he stared expressionlessly at a black-and-white memorial photo on his phone. The woman in the picture looked stiff and wooden, like most ID photos—she wasn’t pretty.
With a swipe of his finger, Zheng Yichao brought up the next photo. The woman from the memorial picture was now smiling with both pride and shyness, standing tall in the center of a cramped room, arm raised awkwardly in a hostess’s gesture. Behind her, the walls were covered in certificates and trophies.
Zheng Yichao swiped again, and again...
He suddenly stood up, numb, climbing down from the top bunk in his dormitory.
A fleeting shot showed the youthful Tong Bin and another unfamiliar young man.
“...You going out for dinner?” Tong Bin asked.
Zheng Yichao did not reply.
He left the dormitory and went to the school infirmary, but paused at its entrance, glancing sideways at the janitor’s closet. The door was half-open, revealing a clutter of iron frames.
With a complicated expression, Zheng Yichao inched away, leaving the building.
He wandered aimlessly; the camera followed him in a slow, steady pan.
He stopped in front of another building, looking up at the closed windows.
Leaves rustled in the wind.
The campus was quiet, but not dead—student voices could be heard in the distance, but here only the wind and, offscreen, the sound of Zheng Yichao’s heartbeat.
Thump... thump... thump...
With each beat, Zheng Yichao’s eyelids twitched. He bent double, covering his eyes, his body trembling violently.
After several seconds, he lowered his hands.
The camera drew close for a tight shot of his face, focusing on his eyes.
Those eyes were filled with terror.
The camera shifted, showing Zheng Yichao’s palm.
In his hand lay an eyeball.
The eyeball slowly faded away.
His hand shook violently. He covered his eyes again, straightened up, and with his remaining eye stared, horrified, at the building before him.
Gradually, the screen showed only Zheng Yichao’s remaining eye, its expression shifting subtly from fear to exultation.
The doctor extended his hand, ten fingernails silent and still. As he clicked the mouse and tapped the keyboard, the shot zoomed out again.
The scene’s background changed.
Zheng Yichao’s eye lay among a heap of shattered eyes.
The sound of rain entered the video.
Rain washed over broken fragments on the ground.
That lifeless eye, once Zheng Yichao’s, disappeared into the pouring rain, the screen fading to black.
The doctor sat in his chair for a long time, so long that his fingernails finally began to rustle with impatience before he moved.
He clicked to save, pulled out the USB drive, and picked up the thick medical file on his desk.
The workstation and computer vanished, and the doctor walked for a long time before a cave-like entrance appeared in the darkness.
Beyond the cave was still darkness, but the doctor seemed to glow with an inner light, illuminating objects as he passed.
From rocks to wooden crates, shelves... from primitive artifacts to modern filing cabinets... from stone carvings, knotted ropes, turtle shells, bamboo slips, to digital folders...
At last, the doctor stopped, placed the file labeled “Zheng Yichao,” together with the USB drive, in the last drawer of the cabinet.
He gazed for a while at the name “Zheng Yichao,” and together with his fingernails, let out a long sigh.
With that sigh, the doctor’s figure faded into darkness.