Chapter 40
Chapter 40
Someone behind Xiao Huai suddenly yanked him back by the waist. He instinctively drove an elbow backward, but his assailant clapped one hand over his mouth and caught his wrist with the other, wrenching it behind him. It all happened in an instant. Before Xiao Huai could make a sound, he was dragged into the shadows.
“Mmph…”
The taut line of his nape flowed into his shoulders, exposing the full length of his pale neck to the man behind him.
It looked almost fragile, as though it might snap under the slightest pressure.
Xiao Huai struggled fiercely. The hand covering his mouth had long, well-defined fingers. Even in the dim light, he could distinguish the man’s fair skin.
It was not the lifeless white of plastered walls, but the warm, lustrous pale of fine jade.
“Shh.”
Lu Yuanshi’s voice was soft, yet it sent a sudden wave of alarm through him.
Xiao Huai realized he had been pulled away from the group. The rest of his teammates had vanished, along with every source of light.
Every muscle in his body tightened. His heart pounded beyond his control, as though Lu Yuanshi held it in his hand.
Lu Yuanshi seemed to smile without making a sound. Hot breath swept across Xiao Huai’s earlobe.
His other hand slowly traveled upward, a tentative touch reaching out from the darkness.
“Your heart is beating so fast.”
The amusement gradually faded from Lu Yuanshi’s voice. The faint chill that replaced it took Xiao Huai back to their first meeting.
Those ink-dark eyes seemed to contain endless cold and a danger his body recognized on instinct.
Lu Yuanshi lifted his fingers. Xiao Huai flinched away, only for that hand to brush lightly across his eyelashes.
Xiao Huai’s Adam’s apple trembled. He struggled again, but Lu Yuanshi’s grip locked around his wrist. The harder Xiao Huai fought, the more painfully his body pressed against the other man’s.
Lu Yuanshi was as hard as marble. He was clearly in excellent shape.
Xiao Huai only made himself more uncomfortable by straining, the corners of his eyes turning red.
He couldn’t breathe…
“Your neck is red.”
The man behind him spoke with teasing malice, every damp breath grazing his ear.
Xiao Huai shot him a vicious glare. Making up his mind, he opened his mouth and bit down hard on Lu Yuanshi’s hand.
Only when the metallic taste of blood flooded his mouth and Lu Yuanshi’s grip weakened did he let go. With two quick movements, he tore himself free.
Xiao Huai could not be bothered with him. He rushed straight ahead.
Then he saw the scene before him and stopped short.
Old Mo’s flashlight had long since fallen some distance away. He stood motionless, gazing ahead in rapt fascination.
The others wore identical expressions. Their eyes were utterly devoid of light as they stared adoringly at the monster ahead.
Black rough diamonds covered the monster’s body. They reflected the beam of the flashlight like a kaleidoscope, mesmerizing and fatally beautiful.
Countless eyes sprouted from every inch of his skin. Their pupils rolled ceaselessly before snapping in unison toward Xiao Huai.
Xiao Huai drew a sharp breath and raised his head coldly to look at the monster himself.
The creature stood over six and a half feet tall, his face as pale as a whitewashed wall. When Xiao Huai first came through here, the monster’s eyes had been closed and he had still been asleep.
But now he was awake…
A pair of green, serpentine eyes fixed upon Xiao Huai.
Behind the monster lay a small mound of corpses. The bodies were shriveled, as if every drop of blood had been wrung from them. Dense clusters of rough diamonds riddled their skin like the openings of an ant nest.
The rough stones growing from the corpses were different from those on the black-diamond monster. They were ordinary, transparent diamonds.
Xiao Huai’s instincts told him the black-diamond monster belonged to the same class as Hanako.
He was a miniboss within the instance.
Xiao Huai’s heart hammered, but not because of the monster before him.
It was because of Lu Yuanshi.
That man was the reason he had lost his composure just now.
But why did Lu Yuanshi make him nervous?
Could he be more terrifying than this monster?
“You took what belongs to me.”
The black-diamond monster’s voice was deeper than Xiao Huai had expected, almost like the mechanical drone of a synthesizer.
Xiao Huai knew what he meant. He took out the small black pouch.
He had plucked its contents from the monster’s body.
Xiao Huai tossed the pouch to him. The monster made no attempt to catch it, allowing the black diamonds to spill across the ground.
He stared silently at the scattered stones. “One is missing.”
“Yes,” Xiao Huai replied without the slightest shame, as though the being before him were not radiating crushing menace.
“It was eaten,” he said calmly.
Anger flashed in the black-diamond monster’s eyes. “You! You damned diamond fiends! You even ate one of my black diamonds. Those are works of art! How dare you squander such beauty? I’ll kill you! I’ll kill every last one of you artistically barren diamond fiends!”
A razor-sharp gleam shot toward Xiao Huai. He pushed off with the tips of his toes and drifted sideways as lightly as a dancing butterfly.
The black-diamond monster had no intention of letting him off so easily. Just as he prepared to attack again, Xiao Huai said, “What if I can help you see daylight again?”
The monster’s pupils contracted. His raised hand stilled. “What did you say?”
Xiao Huai glanced around. “The entrance was locked. You’re imprisoned here. You aren’t physically restrained, yet you never leave. There’s only one explanation: you can’t.”
Even a monster would go mad after spending too long in a place this dark and foul.
If Xiao Huai ever became a monster and remained trapped in an instance, he certainly would not want to stay somewhere like this.
“You cannot help me.” The black-diamond monster’s gaze turned vicious once more. What right did a mere human have to claim he could help?
He flung a blade-shaped rough diamond through the air. The hardest substance on earth sliced through the darkness like a sword and streaked toward Xiao Huai. Fortunately, Xiao Huai anticipated the attack and dodged.
But the black-diamond monster was moving faster and faster. Xiao Huai was not certain he could evade a third strike.
Like a beast newly roused from sleep, the monster had merely been warming up with his first two attacks. The next would reveal his true strength.
Xiao Huai had no choice but to gamble.
He knew far too little about this world. Thinking back, Victoria had worn a teasing, almost mocking smile when she mentioned the red-house studio.
That reaction meant she knew what was hidden inside it. And the person she revered above all others was the Count.
Therefore…
Xiao Huai raised his voice. “Your enemy is the Count, not me. Not the diamond fiends…”
The black-diamond monster’s upraised right hand froze in midair. His eyes widened slightly as he stared at Xiao Huai.
“Say that again.”
“I said your enemy is the Count, not us…”