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Chapter 177 - 175: "Love

Chapter 177: Chapter 175: "Love

He suddenly felt something bite his arm.

Looking down, he saw a pair of purple eyes shining as if they contained fluorescein. The girl who had appeared in his room was intoxicated, biting down on his still-unhealed wound.

"Xu Anna."

Below the cloak was a head of charmingly purple curly hair and cheeks as pale as a doll’s. A purple pattern mark was attached under the corner of her eye, sparkling like stars.

"Teacher..." Xu Anna held him tightly, and above her head, a very obvious [Favorability: 100 (Highest)] pink prompt emerged, floating like a bubble.

"I’ve finally, finally found you, Teacher. You don’t know how anxious I was when I learned that you disappeared suddenly..."

Her tone was sincere and her emotions full, as if she truly revered her teacher and missed him deeply. Yet her lips pressed tightly against his bleeding wound, her embrace so tight that something didn’t feel quite right.

"Why are you here?" Su Ming’an asked calmly.

"I, I am the Prophet. I saw your location and came to find you..." She gasped quietly, her lips stained with bright blood: "Don’t worry, I am not here to take you back. You weren’t supposed to die on the altar. I just... I missed you so much..."

The favorability above her head gradually turned red, and then, Su Ming’an saw the pink bubble-like value begin to turn bright red.

[Current Favorability Rating: Abnormal (Romance Path)]

...Xu Anna’s favorability toward him was already the highest before.

It was at its peak when he said he was going out for a walk to clear his mind.

But Hui Shuhang had warned him: this seemingly innocent female student was actually far from normal.

She deceived girls from poor families to go back with her, killed them, and bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth.

It was no wonder that someone overly infatuated, with such a pathological character, might do something bizarre.

...And now it was happening.

Xu Anna’s condition was even more dangerous than Shen Xue, whom he had encountered before.

But it seemed, from her words, that it wasn’t Holy Initiation that found him, but rather... she herself wanted to see him?

"Only you know my location?" he asked.

"Yes." She held him tightly, her arms like two iron hoops, as if she were terrified of losing him: "I didn’t tell anyone, I came alone... Everyone is preparing for the coming-of-age ceremony, and I just, I just wanted to find you... You shouldn’t be wasting your blood like this, letting it just flow out... It’s too wasteful. The others’ deaths don’t matter, you are the most important..."

Her speech was erratic, her expression crazed under the extreme night, and her eyes were alight with a dark flame, fixated on him.

Her eyelashes trembled, like a butterfly taking flight, but those wings were not soft feathers but a sudden appearance of a knife, thin and sharp, easily able to slit a person’s throat.

"I see." Su Ming’an said, "So you came alone."

"Yes, alone, because I was really too worried about you, so..."

"Bang!"

A loud noise.

A figure was thrown out like a broken sack, slamming into a cracked wall.

Su Ming’an retracted the leg he had kicked out, drank a Blood Bottle, and watched as the wound on his left arm, which the madwoman had just bitten, began to heal.

He had thought she had some backup, that this woman had come as a vanguard.

Unexpectedly, she had indeed come alone, simply because she was in [love with him].

Perhaps she didn’t even realize that the Qin Wang she loved was already dead.

He died without knowing that there was a sickly obsessed student, who always pretended to be an innocent white lotus by his side, "loving him" in such a way.

Perhaps Xu Anna thought this was a rare opportunity. Once he was out of the sight of Holy Initiation, away from the protection of Hui Shuhang, she could tear off the disguise of a diligent student, relying on her Prophet’s ability to find his location, to seek him out.

...Just like Shen Xue, it was another repulsive, pathological possessiveness. The difference, however, was that Shen Xue loved herself; she wanted to force the other person to stay for her own sake. Xu Anna’s love was more selfless, wishing for the beloved to live, even if countless others had to die because of it.

But no matter what, every kind of "yandere" was still a "yandere."

And a "yandere" that appeared in front of him would have to die.

He watched as Xu Anna, whom he had kicked flying, slowly got up from the ground. Her movements were slow, yet with every motion, her eyes were locked onto him.

...To endure until the ninth day, to wait for this moment to erupt, Xu Anna really had patience.

She undeniably knew where she was. If she reported it to Holy Initiation, everyone could be saved. Yet she stubbornly approached alone, thinking she could subdue him with force.

Alas, he wasn’t the powerless Qin Wang.

"You don’t like me," she murmured to herself, "All right, I should’ve known this a long time ago."

Su Ming’an paid no attention to her; the Sword of Yarman appeared in his hand.

And at the moment he raised his sword, Xu Anna’s expression changed.

A frantic flame suddenly exploded in her eyes, as she stared at him, her face incredulous.

"It can’t be, it can’t be," she murmured, "You shouldn’t have any combat skills, how could you..."

Su Ming’an stepped forward and swung his sword at her directly.

At that moment, the door flung open, and the snowstorm outside immediately poured in. Xu Anna looked up at him, her eyelashes adorned with star-like white specks.

Suddenly, she revealed a ghastly smile. Then, the Pattern Marks on her body suddenly lit up.

Little points of starlight emerged around her, accompanied by extremely violent Energy Waves. This student who called herself a "Prophet" also seemed to be quite powerful. To Su Ming’an, she only felt a bit weaker than Hui Shuhang.

He ignored these flashy lights and shadows and slashed at Xu Anna along the shortest direct path.

He felt his body getting colder bit by bit; even simple actions like moving forward and swinging the sword felt like they would completely merge him into the snowstorm.

The next moment, he saw Xu Anna reaching out to him.

Both hands.

Her energy fluctuations bloomed like fireworks, but unexpectedly, they didn’t rush towards him but rather swept to both sides.

The house made an unbearable creaking noise, the snowstorm filled the room, nearly completely obscuring the vision, yet the sparkling stars pulsing from her body remained as beautiful as the galaxy.

She stretched out her hands, her chest wide open, utterly defenseless, seemingly offering him an embrace.

Without any intention of sheathing his sword, Su Ming’an continued his strike into her open arms.

"Shua——!"

[HP-1430! (Fatal wound! Critical hit!)]

The broad sword blade passed right through her slender body, the fresh red blood sprayed out, the wound extending from one shoulder across to the opposite side of her lower abdomen, completely opened by the sword blade like a crack.

Since the sword was coated with annihilation, even the scattering blood was dissolved in the pitch darkness.

After this sword strike, he saw her maintaining the position of reaching out with both arms, slanting against the broken wall behind her, with no trace of fresh blood on her chest.

...What on earth was this woman doing?

Su Ming’an couldn’t understand why, at this life-or-death moment, she gave up resisting and even stretched out her hands, foolishly trying to embrace him. Did she really think that his affection for her would triumph over everything, and that in this moment of seeking an embrace, his heart would soften?

After delivering the slash and wanting to retreat, he suddenly felt his body being clasped once again. The woman, who originally reached out with both hands, instantly wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder, embracing him in an extremely dependent manner.

The scalding blood flowed from her chest, spreading over his own.

Her arms held him tightly, as if clinging to a plush toy, not letting go even though her terrible wound was pressed against him, as if she intended to drown in his arms.

Su Ming’an was genuinely afraid she had another trick up her sleeve, so he immediately stretched out his hand to press against her temple and released "Extinction."

Before the "Extinction" was emitted, he heard her murmuring softly:

"...If this is my end, how wonderful..."

[HP-198! (Finishing Move!)]

Su Ming’an quickly pushed her away, clearly hearing the system’s notification.

[You have killed (Xu Anna), Exp+5000!]

The woman on the ground fell limp, her body weakly leaning back against the wall as it collapsed. She lost her signs of life and lay like a blood-stained flower on the dark soil.

"Dingdong!"

[You have leveled up to (Second Rank Nine) Player!]

[Combat Power: 1455+30]

...

Su Ming’an, holding his sword, felt his body getting heavier and heavier.

He seemed to understand Qin Wang’s fear of falling asleep now, as he too began to feel as if this body might never wake up once his eyes closed again.

As he turned to leave, he saw a shining purple crystal stone on Xu Anna’s corpse.

[Obtained item (Prophetic Gemstone)]

[Prophetic Gemstone (Quality: Rare)

Type: Supplementary gemstone

Effect: A single-use prop, disappearing after fusion. Can be used to evolve a non-combat skill, and the evolved skill will possess prophecy-related abilities.

Drop conditions: Kill a Prophet with full Favorability.

Description: An exclusive prop from the Fifth World, owned by Ming Hui, the Prophet. With stringent drop conditions, it is extremely precious.]

...

Su Ming’an looked at the purple crystal stone in his hand, on which was engraved a line of text:

"I have seen many futures, including my predestined end."

"—If the future is destined to be silent, I hope the last person I see before my eternal slumber will be you."

He suddenly realized.

Xu Anna had the ability of prophecy, and it was because of this ability that she had foreseen her own location, which is why she could find him.

Does that mean... she had also seen the ending where she was killed by him?

Su Ming’an thought for a moment, but still didn’t understand.

This deliberately sending oneself over to be killed... it doesn’t look like the behavior of a sane person.

He wanted to go out, but suddenly saw a black energy emanating from Xu Anna’s body on the ground. Just as he thought some equipment had burst forth, that black energy fiercely pounced on him with a speed that left no time to react, penetrating his body, and then quickly became still.

He looked down and saw nothing; it was as if the black energy had never appeared.

...Was this her contingency plan?

He had no leads and could only temporarily set aside such thoughts.

He no longer looked at the corpses on the ground and turned to leave through the door.

And just as he stepped out the door, he heard the system’s alert, exceedingly distinct amidst the wind and snow:

[Mission target (Qingqing) has died.]

[Side mission automatically failed.]

He stepped out of the door, his foot pressing onto a thin layer of snow.

"Crack," a crisp sound echoed.

In the eerie silence, a few ominous caws of crows were interspersed.

Su Ming’an looked up and saw ramshackle houses and incomplete corpses everywhere. Everything within sight was a vivid mix of red and white.

Absolute silence.

He did not know what had happened to this town before nightfall, but he had a premonition when Xu Anna suddenly entered. After all, the commotion from his fight with Xu Anna was so intense that it almost blew the house away, yet there was no reaction outside, as if... everyone had just vanished.

He stayed inside the house drawing arrays all afternoon and did not pay much attention to the outside; however, the system alert that rang in his ears just now told him—something had happened.

All the souls that once struggled on the brink of life and death, along with the dissipating cooking smoke, suddenly faded into silence.

He looked around, seeing no army, nor any signs of ambush. Perhaps Xu Anna had casually killed all the townfolk on her way here—the attitude toward life in this world was just that indifferent.

The snow was mixed with splattering blood, several brooms lay quietly on the ground.

He stood still while the snowflakes pelted his face like hail.

Suddenly, he heard intermittent sobbing, a man’s voice, nearly hoarse.

He strode forward and saw a wooden cart loaded with straw and burning stones. Next to the cart, a madman knelt, his hair a wild mess, his back curved like a bow.

"Qingqing... Daddy’s sorry—"

Su Ming’an approached a few steps closer.

"...promised to give you the best life... this useless dad... still couldn’t protect you till you left—"

The man lowered his head and wailed, his hands red with cold scraping at the snow in a self-mutilating frenzy, bleeding all over the surface of the snow.

"It’s people like us who deserve not to live... deserve not to live... can’t protect your grandma, your grandpa, can’t protect your mom... and now I’ve lost you too... the very last of you..."

The man was slumped on the ground, his clothes thin, now frozen red all over, his hands soaked with his own blood.

"Daddy’s sorry... so sorry... it’s all my own fault... I shouldn’t have picked up that man, he’s a noble living high above us, why should he bring disaster upon us who can’t even survive..."

Su Ming’an slowly moved closer, but the man’s eyes were vacant, as if he saw nothing, his hands meaninglessly scratched around, his bearded face streaked with tears, his mouth constantly repeating his daughter’s name: "I’m sorry... Qingqing... Daddy’s sorry..."

Su Ming’an lowered his gaze.

He saw beneath the snow, well-protected by the man, the blood-drained face of a little girl that seemed familiar.

There was a time when her smile was as innocent as a daisy, her face red from the cold, beaming with the vitality of a young girl.