Chapter 1194: Soul and Flesh

“Done?” Zhou Jing asked expectantly.

“A moment.” Zhang Wei hid his anxiety.

What’s going on? Why can’t I put it on? What’s wrong with it?

“Why don’t I do it?” Zhou Jing asked.

Zhang Wei paused and didn’t insist. “Haha, sorry. I have ten thumbs for fingers.”

Zhou Jing reached to the back and took the necklace, putting it on in a second. She turned to smile at Zhang Wei. “How do I look?”

Zhang Wei’s smile stilled.

The pendant on Zhou Jing’s chest morphed into what looked like a small, bleeding heart. The blood streaked down her chest, a stark contrast with her fair skin.

Shit, Lust’s power is showing!

Is her monsterhood fighting back?

The Strange Realm won’t stay up for long!

“What’s wrong? Does it not suit me?” Zhou Jing cocked her head, looking at Zhang Wei with innocent anticipation.

“It suits you. You look so pretty! As pretty as a fairy!” Zhang Wei covered up his fear by exaggerating his reaction. He turned around anxiously. “Whew, it’s...getting a little hot.”

“Is it? I don’t feel it.” Zhou Jing snuggled closer. The heart pendant reverted to normal, as if the earlier change had been an illusion.

“Really? Maybe I’m just too happy that my body gets hotter...” Zhang Wei didn’t even know what he was blabbering now.

Zhou Jing’s eyes flickered slightly with a suggestive gleam. “Are you...feeling agitated?”

“Ha, haha!” Zhang Wei fiend nonchalance. “Isn’t it natural to feel this way when you’re with someone you love? I would be lying if I said I felt nothing.”

“That makes me happy.” Zhou Jing looped her arms around Zhang Wei’s neck and forced him to meet her adoring eyes. “If you want to do it, Zhang Wei...you can...”

Zhang Wei’s blood boiled with awakening desire. But he knew it wasn’t his natural reaction, but one induced by Lust—he had felt the same thing when fighting Lust earlier.

No, I can’t fall for her enthrallment! Or I’ll die!

He looked away from her heated gaze and lowered his head. Her heart pendant was bleeding again, making his scalp numb.

Realization dawned on him. He was the hunter

and

the prey in this game. This was a fight between a human and a death monster where they aimed for the other’s love and lust!

To win, he must go for the heart rather than the kill!

Zhang Wei gulped and calmed himself, slowly lifting Zhou Jing’s hands from him.

“Do you...” Zhou Jing blinked in confusion. “...not want me?”

“I want you.” Zhang Wei tried his best to look genuine. “But I love you, too.”

“Love?” Zhou Jing frowned like it was a foreign concept to her.

“Yes, love.” Zhang Wei nodded. “I believe two people should only make love when there is love, that it should be a coming together for both the soul and the flesh. Do you understand?”

Zhou Jing didn’t seem to get it fully.

“I mean...” Zhang Wei steeled himself. “I can’t do it when your heart’s not in it!”

“Haha, I understand it now.” Zhou Jing smiled, taking one of his hands and placing it on her chest. “Feel it. My heart’s pounding for you. It loves you at this moment.”

Zhang Wei didn’t dare to move. The heart pendant on her chest had morphed into a strange clump of blood, quickly coating his hand and spreading toward his entire arm.

Don’t panic! Do not panic!

He took a deep breath and said with certainty, “You want me, Zhou Jing, but you don’t love me.”

Zhou Jing blinked. “Why would you say that?”

“If you love me, I won’t be just one of your dates, but your only lover.” Zhang Wei paused. “For me, you’re the only woman in my heart.”

The blood coating his arm stretched into two crimson hands with long sharp fingers. They closed around Zhang Wei’s neck as if they would kill him after caressing him.

Zhou Jing looked at Zhang Wei with what could be disappointment or confusion. Her smile slid off, and the desire in her eyes cooled.

...

Western Suburban Park.

“I’m...angry.”

Mark’s voice seemed to unearth the foundation of the world. The ground trembled violently and cracked. The fissures spread in all directions like a herald for a great quake.

About a dozen brown energy beams shot out of the cracks, intertwining and rising toward heaven like the Tower of Bable.

The quake grew more and more intense. The entire park seemed to hit the Roche limit and crumbled into stones of different sizes, rising toward the night sky along with the behemoth tower.

The tower spun at an insane speed with an endless supply of energy concentrating to the tip. Soon, Wrath transformed into a pure energy form, rising five meters above ground with a strong, magnificent build. The minotaur burned with muted, volatile dark brown flames with a unicorn’s horn protruding from its forehead, dripping with blood. Its eyes were two deep red sockets. Its limitless rage supplied energy to its body nonstop—both an endless torment and buff.

However, it wouldn’t know that its rage had not only made itself stronger, but also provided a fuel that would never run out to War Tiger’s Grumpy.

Wrath descended to the heart of the tower. A boulder rose slowly a hundred meters before it. War Tiger stood atop with the Dragonslaying Giantsword on his shoulder, breaking into a wild, confident smile stained with blood.

He had been waiting for this moment for so long that he almost forgot about it.

He held the Damage Rune Circuit in his hand.

Ever since he found his conviction, and his Killing Expert reached level 7, he had sensed a resonation with the Damage Rune Circuit, but had been unable to push past the threshold to level 8.

Now, he did.

He raised the Damage Rune Circuit above his head and closed his eyes. A perfect energy resonation hummed between him and the Rune Circuit. The explosion of red light transformed into a beating heart.

War Tiger crushed the heart. Red energy poured down on him like blood, running down his face then his entire body.

At that moment, he sacrificed all the energy in his body—whether it was his own or borrowed. He exhausted his vitality, his future, his fate. He left nothing off the table solely for a rebirth through blood.

Gray energy burst out, threatening to distort space and time. It quickly took the form of an incorporeal fighter standing more than five meters tall with War Tiger at its heart. The fighter wielded a rusty greatsword with a tattered cape over his sickly wounded form. Many parts of its body revealed the internal organs and the bones, like a body abandoned after a beast had gone through it.

Yet it seemed threateningly powerful and stubbornly resilient, its presence as overwhelming as that of a grim reaper.

Killing Expert, level 8!

Spirit of Kingslayer!

Maximum rage!