Chapter 172: The Villain was too Stunned to Speak
Even sitting by the fireplace, the boy’s cold, stiff body continued to tremble uncontrollably.
Yu Mo’s coat wasn’t very thick; draped over the boy, it was neither snug nor soft, and cold wind still found its way into the gaps in the raised fabric.
He was shaking so violently that, even though he was wrapped tightly in the coat and the fireplace crackled in front of him, the boy still shivered.
Yu Mo saw his dazed and disheveled state and understood a little.
The place between life and death was a world within one’s consciousness right before dying. The endless snow and the icy wilderness were Peruth’s consciousness, while this small cabin and the flames emerged from his mind upon arriving here.
However, these illusions had little effect on Peruth, as though separated by a pane of glass.
Perhaps, even without Yu Mo’s intervention, Peruth would still have struggled to escape from here and return to the world of the living. But as he watched the boy curled up in the chair, Yu Mo decided to act.
“Get up.”
Peruth sluggishly rose, standing barefoot on the ground, unsure of what the young man in front of him intended to do.
He was bewildered and dazed, hunching his body and pulling the coat tighter around himself. His battered feet were pressed together on the floor, and his wet hair clung to his neck, dripping water.
Like a small, soaked bird about to freeze to death in the snow.
Yu Mo moved the chair closer to the fireplace, sat down, and extended his hand toward the boy. “Come rest on my lap.”
Peruth’s eyes widened a bit, appearing round, accentuating his youthful innocence.
He hesitated, reluctant to come closer, and Yu Mo didn’t rush him, merely held out his hand and said, “Aren’t you cold? Come on.”
That hand was long and beautiful, as white as snow.
The priest had said: do not be tempted, control every desire within yourself.
Under the priest’s whip and teachings, he had long since been too afraid to approach anyone, but now, it was as if he had momentarily forgotten his fear. Mesmerized, he stared at that hand, inching closer as if drawn toward a flame.
“Sit on my lap, and put your feet up as well,” Yu Mo said.
Stiffly, the boy did as he was told, curling up in Yu Mo’s arms, his head frozen in place until Yu Mo gently pressed it against his neck.
It was an intimate embrace. Aside from the long pants and shirt Yu Mo wore, there was almost no barrier between them, and warmth flowed through freely.
“You can rest here for a while,” he murmured.
The young man was not as cold as his tone and expression suggested; he was warm, and his warmth was comforting.
Since he could remember, Peruth had never been held so closely by anyone.
This unfamiliar sensation felt strange, making him shake uncontrollably, even his heartbeat quivering—not from the cold this time.
But the one embracing him seemed to misunderstand, placing a hand against his back, pressing down his arched posture to bring him closer still.
“Closer, and it won’t feel so cold.”
Finally, Yu Mo felt the boy in his arms slowly quiet down, and the previously chilled body began to warm, especially the cheek resting by his neck.
After a moment, the boy suddenly asked in a low voice, “Will I meet you in the future?”
“Yes.”
“My future… what will it be like?” There was a faint curiosity in his tone, even a hint of unspoken hope.
“What kind of person do you want to become?”
“I don’t know… maybe just an ordinary person.”
“Unfortunately, your future isn’t ordinary. When I met you, you weren’t the same as you are now; you must have been through a lot.”
The boy was silent for a moment before he asked again, “And what about you? In the future… will you hold me like this too?”
This question was harder for him to voice, and he asked it hesitantly.
“In the future, it will be you who holds me like this,” Yu Mo recalled their embrace.
After he spoke, he felt the head resting against him shyly burrow down a bit.
Yu Mo didn’t see it, but the boy’s eyes sparkled with anticipation, and a small smile formed at the corners of his mouth.
At his age, the boy couldn’t yet imagine what his “extraordinary” future would look like, but at this moment, he felt as though that future might be something wonderful.
“Rest now. You still have a long journey ahead.”
This person was a stranger to him, and those words might have been lies, but Peruth leaned against him, sinking into the embrace as though he were drowning.
He forgot the wind and snow outside, catching only the faint scent of the young man’s collar.
Outside, the dim sky seemed to brighten, and the snow had stopped.
A blinding white light grew brighter and brighter.
The door to the small cabin opened, and the snow and mountains beyond had vanished, replaced by a boundless, white world.
Yu Mo took the boy’s hand and led him out of the cabin.
“Now that you’re rested, it’s time for you to go.”
“But there’s no direction here… where should I go?” The boy held his hand tightly.
Those caught in the space between life and death could sense the way back to life if they held a strong desire to live.
The boundless white sky and the vanishing icy wilderness reflected Peruth’s heart at that moment.
He wanted to live but couldn’t find his way.
Seeing the dependence and reluctance in the boy’s eyes, Yu Mo understood the reason.
“If you’re unwilling to let me go, you’ll never find your direction.”
Peruth froze for a moment, but instinctively tightened his grip on Yu Mo’s hand.
Yu Mo glanced down at the sapphire star pendant hanging on his chest.
Within it lay the essence of the moon’s power, which in this world also symbolized “death,” allowing Yu Mo to sense the path leading to the Underworld.
He led the boy in the opposite direction.
He would accompany him a little further.
In this place, time was imperceptible, and after leaving the small cabin, everything around them turned completely white, erasing any sense of space in all directions.
Eventually, Yu Mo realized he could go no further.
So he released Peruth’s hand. “Go forward from here.”
But Peruth didn’t let go, his fingers stiff. Meeting Yu Mo’s calm gaze, he slowly withdrew his hand, then tightly clutched the coat wrapped around him and managed a smile. “If I meet you again, I’ll recognize you right away.”
Yu Mo didn’t tell him that he would forget once he left; he simply said, “Go on.”
The boy, wrapped in his coat and hiding his reluctance, turned and walked away.
He staggered out from the dim blizzard, then disappeared from the pure white world.
Yu Mo took a step back, feeling his coat reappear around him, just as it had been when he first arrived in the space between life and death.
Looking down, he saw that the bloodstains and water left by Peruth had vanished, leaving no trace or scent behind.
When he looked up again, the sky had turned a dim, blood-red.
Towering buildings loomed around him in the gloom. In the center of the square ahead stood a tall statue of a goddess.
She wore a flowing gown that revealed half her chest and one long leg, a garland of roses on her head, and held a rose between her lips—the statue of the Goddess of Desire.
A layer of gray covered the pure white statue of the goddess, her expression both alluring and seemingly sorrowful, as she gazed down on the lifeless black town with lowered eyes.
The fountain and canals beneath the goddess statue were dried up, coated in a gray-black sludge-like substance.
Yu Mo stood before the dust-covered statue, as though he could hear the sound of waves in the distance.
“Who are you, and why are you here?” a hoarse voice asked not far away.
Yu Mo turned around.
“Love Sea Town has become a dead town, with only me left alive. How did you get here?”
It was Peruth.
At first sight of him, Yu Mo realized he had once again entered another of Peruth’s near-death moments.
Clearly, Peruth did not remember him, and his tone was both numb and wary.
This Peruth was almost as tall as he was, appearing seventeen or eighteen, dressed fully in tight-fitting black priest’s clothing, with bandages around his neck and hands, and his gold hair tied in a messy braid that was nearly undone.
Yu Mo noticed Peruth was holding a blood-stained dagger. Bright red blood dripped down from his red-bandaged fingers.
While Yu Mo observed Peruth, Peruth was staring back at him.
In this blackened, death-filled world, stood a young man in a pure white shirt, coldly gazing back from beneath the statue of the goddess.
It was strange, reminding Peruth of white narcissus flowers.
With a crisp, icy air about him, as though he’d just emerged from a snowstorm, he seemed out of place here.
Peruth gripped his dagger tightly and took a step forward, scattering blood as he moved.
Yu Mo, standing beneath the goddess statue, also moved. He walked toward Peruth, his gaze passing over the large, faint bloodstains on the priest’s clothing. “So disheveled, once again.”
Before he could get closer, Peruth suddenly raised his dagger and stabbed fiercely into the nearby shadows.
Thick black substance splattered around them.
With a numb expression, Peruth took two quick steps forward, grabbed Yu Mo’s arm, and pulled him hurriedly into a nearby dark street.
“Move quickly.”
Blood seeped through his bandages, leaving stark red stains on Yu Mo’s clothing.
Faint figures began to flicker in the desolate, silent streets. The dead emerged from alleys and corners.
Yu Mo could smell the blood all over Peruth—it was from his own wounds. This time, Peruth was gravely injured, hovering on the brink of death.
But to Yu Mo’s surprise, the boy, who seemed to be on the edge of exhaustion, did not collapse. Instead, he swung his dagger repeatedly, striking down the bodies blocking his path.
His will to survive was astonishingly intense.
The space between life and death resembled more of a hallucination world experienced near death. The faceless corpses and black shadows might not exist in reality, yet Yu Mo suspected that the silent town and the lone surviving Peruth had once truly existed.
As the endless corpses advanced, Yu Mo suddenly stopped, grabbing Peruth and pulling him backward.
Exhausted, Peruth stumbled and fell back into Yu Mo’s arms.
The moment he was held, Peruth’s body stiffened, and he pushed Yu Mo away instantly, crashing against the wall beside them, breathing heavily.
Ignoring his reaction, Yu Mo pulled him close again, skillfully disarming him of his dagger with one hand and pressing him against his shoulder with the other.
“Stop thinking. These things are illusions.”
A heavy scent of blood emanated from him, and Peruth trembled violently, bracing himself against the wall near Yu Mo’s cheek.
Yu Mo tossed the dagger into the air, caught it in a new grip, and drove it into a writhing black substance nearby.
His movements were swift, showing the marks of years of training. With a skilled older brother, he and his siblings had all been taught well, and Yu Mo had learned quickly and effectively. But he wasn’t one to enjoy fighting.
“Stop thinking—clear your mind.”
The space between life and death was like that snowstorm: an extension of a dying person’s consciousness. If one remained trapped in the despair of death, the illusions created by reality could hold them captive.
Only by not thinking could they disappear.
With a bloody handprint left on the wall, Peruth pushed himself up from Yu Mo, seemingly unwilling to stay too close to him.
The dark shadows and the staggering bodies kept closing in.
“Stop thinking—is that too difficult?”
Yu Mo said quietly, then suddenly gripped Peruth’s blood-smeared cheek and pressed his lips against his.
His lips were cracked, carrying the taste of blood, but inside was soft and warm.
Yu Mo held the back of Peruth’s blood-stained hair, deeply kissing the person whose consciousness was still blurred.
Peruth struggled, but weakly; when Yu Mo brushed his tongue, he went still.
With his lips still touching Peruth’s, Yu Mo glanced around—the bodies and shadows had vanished, leaving a profound silence.
The heavy grayness in the air seemed to lighten, and dust particles floated quietly.
Yu Mo released Peruth, who was covered in wounds and exhausted.
Peruth’s gaze was blank, his lips slightly parted, glistening with a faint, silken line between them as he looked at Yu Mo, stunned and expressionless.
It was clear his mind was indeed empty, without a single thought.
“You need to leave this place.”
“…”
“Peruth, did you hear me?”
“…”
Covered in wounds and looking pitiful, Peruth finally gathered his senses, swallowing as he stepped back and leaned against a nearby crate, asking, “Who are you? Just now…why? Do you know me?”
Maybe from the severity of his injuries, his words came out disjointed.
“I am Yu Mo. I kissed you just now to stop you from thinking too much. And yes, I do know you,” Yu Mo replied, taking his hand and pulling him forward. “No more questions; let’s go.”
Peruth stumbled as he was pulled along and suddenly said, “I shouldn’t be like this; I am a follower of the Goddess of Desire…”
Yu Mo looked back at him, watching as he performed a prayer gesture toward the Goddess of Desire, his expression a mix of confusion and cracks of doubt.
Yu Mo’s face remained calm as he pushed Peruth’s head down again, pressing another kiss to his trembling lips.
After a moment, he released him and said coldly, “You’re not a follower of the Goddess of Desire—you’re mine.”
