Chapter 12: Confession

“I know, you don’t have to tell me.”

Just as Shen Ji had bragged, he felt the cold energy within his body begin to recede uncontrollably.

His vision gradually returned to normal, and waves of weakness began to wash over him.

Shen Ji leaned against the wall and slid down until he was sitting on the ground.

He slowly clenched his fists, feeling as if the changes his body had just undergone were nothing more than a dream.

Now, forget taking on three people at once; even a half-grown child could probably land two kicks on him.

“Ye Xi, can you hurry up a bit?”

Shen Ji’s lips turned pale as he groaned weakly.

However, looking down, he saw that Ye Xi had already hung up the phone at some point.

Now, all he could do was take a gamble.

He gambled on Ye Xi’s timely arrival, on the fact that no one had discovered what happened here yet, and on the hope that Ye Xi — or rather, the power behind her — was fully capable of handling this.

Aside from that, there was nothing else he could do.

‘System, you damn thing, you didn’t tell me it would be like this.’

**[Reminder to Host, you didn’t ask]**

‘Is that how it works? If I don’t ask, you won’t take the initiative to speak?’

**[Yes]**

Although Shen Ji had grown accustomed to the System’s frustrating nature, he still felt an irrepressible urge to complain every time he communicated with it.

The damn System had first bound him to a Blood Race Simulation that couldn’t be turned off, preventing him from living a peaceful life in this world.

Then, it simulated a form that didn’t even look like a member of the Blood Race, which meant he might be viewed as an outlier among outliers.

Most importantly, it seemed that if he didn’t ask, the System would never give him the answers he needed.

Regardless, everything had two sides.

While the System brought him risks, it had also brought him considerable gains.

What he needed to do now was grow strong enough to oppose the risks generated by its presence.

Shen Ji sighed heavily.

Forcing his remaining strength, he opened his phone and replied to Shen Wan: “Younger Sister, your brother has some business to attend to today. I might be a little late.”

A moment later, Shen Wan replied instantly: “My foolish brother, I already know everything that happened. What are you still hiding from me?”

Shen Ji’s heart tightened.

He looked up at the fourth floor of the hospital in the distance.

That was where Shen Wan’s ward was located.

Could she have seen what happened here?

“You… what do you know?”

“My True Eye of the Evil King has already pierced through everything.”

Shen Ji swallowed hard, his mind in a state of chaos.

Once Shen Wan discovered his identity, only two choices would remain.

One, Shen Wan would be unable to accept that her brother was a monster that drank blood.

Two, Shen Wan would accept it, but the risk of exposure would increase significantly.

Neither outcome was one he was willing to face.

“You… were actually sealed by your blankets, weren’t you?”

Shen Ji rolled his eyes.

It seemed it was just a false alarm.

Translating Shen Wan’s words into human speech, she was simply saying that he had overslept.

“As expected of the Empress of Night, the Silver-haired Princess living in exile. Nothing can escape your True Eye of the Evil King.”

“If you can bring some marshmallows, I might consider forgiving you on behalf of the stars.”

“Understood!”

Shen Ji gave a bitter smile.

Fortunately, Shen Wan hadn’t discovered anything.

He would be the one to bear everything behind the curtain.

Just then, the roar of an engine echoed through the narrow alley.

In an instant, a Mercedes-Benz G-Class squeezed its way directly into the alley where Shen Ji was located.

Shen Ji looked up and saw Ye Xi casually letting down her draped hair.

Wearing a black spaghetti-strap nightgown, she kicked the car door open with a *clack*, completely unconcerned that Shen Ji might have caught a glimpse of what was under her skirt.

Shen Ji thought to himself: ‘As expected of the Black-style Goddess, even her lingerie is black.’

Ye Xi jogged over, bent down to pull Shen Ji up, and propped him against her body.

She glanced at him with concern.

“What happened?”

The scent of Ye Xi’s unique fragrance wafted over him, making Shen Ji feel a sense of peace.

He relaxed his body and leaned on her, pointing his finger at the unconscious Wang Kai.

“Wang Kai couldn’t find me after school, so he came to my sister’s hospital to wait for me.”

Ye Xi’s pupils shrank slightly.

She never expected that a piece of chewing gum like Wang Kai would cause trouble here.

But what surprised her even more was that Shen Ji now possessed the aura of someone who had undergone the First Evolution.

“When did you complete the First Evolution?”

Shen Ji thought about it and didn’t intend to hide the truth.

“Just last night. I actually wanted to find you to test my skills.”

Ye Xi dissatisfiedly pinched the soft flesh at Shen Ji’s waist.

“Is that why you were provoking me yesterday?”

“Hiss… do you have a sadistic streak? If you’re not choking my neck, you’re pinching my skin.”

“I like doing it. What are you going to do about it?”

Shen Ji’s body went heavy, leaning entirely against Ye Xi.

He felt like he was suffering in silence, but he had no choice since he was currently the one asking for help.

After Ye Xi helped Shen Ji into the passenger seat, she didn’t hesitate for a second.

A crimson hue swirled in her eyes, and the edges of her ears gradually became pointed and elongated as she activated her Blood Race form.

Ye Xi’s figure turned into an afterimage as she rushed toward Wang Kai and the other two.

Her brow furrowed as she murmured to herself, “They still have signs of life? It seems Shen Ji didn’t intend to burn all his bridges yet. However… this makes things much more troublesome.”

In the blink of an eye, Shen Ji saw Ye Xi dragging Wang Kai and the other two toward the trunk.

He knew that even with his First Evolution, he could never do it as effortlessly as she did.

From this, it was clear that Ye Xi’s level of evolution was far above his.

His provocation last night had been no different from dancing on the edge of a blade.

Luckily, Ye Xi hadn’t taken his provocation to heart, or he would have most likely been rubbed into the dirt.

With another *thud*, Ye Xi closed the trunk and clapped her hands.

After letting out a long breath, she slowly retracted her Blood Race form.

Her expression turned unusually serious.

“Since you chose to show mercy, you should understand that leaving them alive will eventually become a disaster.”

Shen Ji rubbed the space between his eyebrows and sighed.

“While I really wanted to deal with them once and for all, doing so would have eventually brought us even greater trouble.”

“I’ll say it again. Leave this place with me. Don’t worry about your sister; I will arrange everything.”

Shen Ji leaned back, his weak body barely holding up.

His eyes drooped slightly.

“Can leaving this place guarantee that everything will be okay? Can we keep running forever?”

Ye Xi opened her mouth but made no sound.

She understood in her heart that as members of the Blood Race, they would never be safe as long as the Official didn’t stop hunting their kind.

Even the family behind her wasn’t enough to contend with the Official, not to mention that her family wasn’t a united front.

At the thought, a look of reminiscence appeared in Ye Xi’s eyes.

“We were born as outliers. There will always be righteous humans who want to eliminate us. But so what?”

“In the past, I was conceited, thinking that my family could protect me for a lifetime. It wasn’t until I faced reality that I realized how ridiculous that thought was.”

“But fortunately, fate let me meet you. Back then, you said you wanted to create a world of equality. Everyone in class laughed and called you a fool, but only I knew that this is the ultimate goal that would stop us from having to run.”

“So, Shen Ji, I am willing to give everything for your ideal, including myself, even if—”

Ye Xi was about to continue, but she realized that Shen Ji wasn’t responding at all.

She looked over and saw that he had already passed out from extreme exhaustion at some point.

“Forget it, you don’t need to know these things…”

With that, Ye Xi bit her own lip.

She leaned close to Shen Ji, gently cupped his face with both hands, and pressed her lips deeply against his.