An emaciated young man with drooping eyebrows and an indifferent expression stood by a vast pool of black water. However, his mind was a mess of echoing words, with a single phrase that continued to repeat again and again, raging through his thoughts like a storm: I still prefer the way you look when you are quiet, Fan Jialuo.

"Quiet? Oh, when have I, Fan Jialuo, ever been quiet?" The young man gritted his teeth, whispered an unintelligible word, and slowly clenched his hands into fists, as if trying to suppress his emotions.

Yes, Fan Jialuo was suffering from a bout of mania. Since he had first fallen ill at the age of seven and strangled a pet kitten with his bare hands, he knew very well that he would never attain peace during this life. His body was like an active volcano, on the verge of eruption at any time. It didn't matter who he faced, as long as they angered him just a little, it would trigger his mania and cause him to fly out of control.

Fighting, brawling, street racing, shouting, screaming, and dancing wildly were all normal for him. He could be picking up a bottle and opening it for others in one moment, and suddenly laughing for no reason in the next. His mood was like a pool of magma, always bubbling violently, emitting hot poisonous smoke, ever active and never silent.

Only in front of that man would he be able to restrain his rage and pride, and bow down willingly. But even so, he was in conflict. How could he be content to just stay quiet when it would require all his strength to attract the attention of the other party?

"I see. You're not talking about me at all. You're talking about those stupid people, right?" Fan Jialuo began to ponder, "You like me when I'm quiet, yes, I will change for you, I will become the person you like..."

At last, he raised his drooping eyebrows, and his face morphed into a twisted and crazy expression. No one knew that aside from his bouts of mania, he was also a person harbouring multiple personalities. There were maybe twenty of them hidden in his body. No, thirty? Or was it forty different personalities?

In fact, even he himself couldn't count how many of these personalities there were, but as the master, he abhorred the idea of his body being controlled by these so-called sub-personalities. So he played around day and night, trying to reduce the amount of time he spent sleeping in order to suppress these sub-personalities. He was the master of this body; the rest were just inconsequential rubbish!

However, even if he was vigorous, there would always come a time when he would become tired. Occasionally, when he was too fatigued and fell into an unwilling sleep, these sub-personalities would emerge and explore the outside world. There were several sub-personalities who were just as crazy as him, but there were also those who liked tranquility.

So that very night, Fan Jialuo received deep hypnosis treatment from a psychotherapist and went into the palace hidden in his mind, ready to massacre the other 'hims'. He didn't know the specific number of subpersonalities he had, but it didn't matter. As long as he devoured the vast majority of them, he would gain the power to dominate his inner world. At that time, he would only need to destroy the palace to kill all the remaining hidden 'rats'.

By the time he reached the black pool, he had already killed twenty-four sub-personalities, and there was a voice in his heart telling him that if he swallowed the last one, he would gain the power to destroy this world. He originally wanted to bypass the black pool to find his next prey, but inadvertently discovered a jade-white, slender and bare figure sleeping tranquility at the bottom of the pool.

There were many sub-personalities inside Fan Jialuo, including men, women, elderly people and children. There were those whose faces were exquisite, ordinary and even ugly, but none of them had the power to make him want to look at them longer, nor evoke his mercy.

But now, he found himself unable to take his eyes off the face of the person at the bottom of the pool, even after a long time had passed. The other was sleeping with a very peaceful and serene expression. His eyes and eyebrows were as gentle as running water, and his bright red lips as warm as a gentle flame. His skin was pale, with an almost transparent luster, and his half-long hair was pure black. The water rippled around him, reflecting mottled spots of light. The extreme collision of color and the unpredictable changes of light and shadow made him look like a devil.

If it were not for the fact that this inner world built by Fan Jialuo didn't have any connections with the outside world, he would surely think that this man was a devil. The other looked too perfect and unreal, just like a bewitching illusion.

After standing by the pool for a long time, he slowly let out a long breath. Then, he stretched his hand toward the pool, spread his fingers out, and made a gesture of grasping in empty air. He had already devoured so many sub-personalities that he could control everything present in the inner world at will, even if he didn't have the power to destroy this space yet.

Under his grasp, the water in the pool was drawn into the air, and the jade-white figure lying at the bottom of the pool slowly floated up and was brought in front of him.

Upon seeing him in close proximity, Fan Jialuo acknowledged that this person's face could indeed be called flawless. If he could have such a face, why would he need to worry about being unable to attract Zhao Wenyan's attention? His heart filled with violence, jealousy and mania, and his fingers closed around the neck of the man floating in front of him.

This person's neck was slender and its curve was very beautiful. After it broke, the twisted angle would make it even more beautiful. Thinking such thoughts, he raised the corner of his lips and smiled. The strength exerted by his fingertips instantly increased.

At the instant the neck bone was about to break, the sleeping young man suddenly opened his eyes and stared straight at Fan Jialuo. He had a pair of pure black eyes that showed no impurity, and were as deep as the ocean. The round pupils contracted into two thin vertical lines when he saw Fan Jialuo. Even if there was a clamp exerting great force on his neck, and he was being threatened with imminent death, his expression still looked as peaceful as it did when he was sleeping, without showing a hint of pain. He even had the leisure to look at Fan Jialuo from top to bottom, as if he was appraising an object.

Just being under this man's stare for a moment caused Fan Jialuo's fingers to tremble. It was clear that he could kill the other person if he only exerted a little more force, but he could not do so. His body froze under the man's gaze.

The man looked at him quietly, with a subtle expression forming in his deep eyes, along with a hint of interest. It was as if he was not the one who was being strangled by the neck. Although it seemed like a long time had passed, in reality, only a moment had gone by. The man raised his hand, touched Fan Jialuo's face, and asked gently, "How many did you swallow?"

The man's fingertips were long and soft, with a tinge of coolness that made Fan Jialuo shiver at its touch. The other person hadn't exerted any force at all, but he felt that his head was fixed in its place by the man's hand. Not to mention turning, even blinking started to feel laborious. The other man's voice was also very pleasant, it sounded just like a mountain stream, cold and gentle. It was like a spell that ensnared the soul-people who were questioned by him would simply open their mouths and answer honestly, even if they desired to actually resist answering.

This feeling was very strange, and this sub-personality was even stranger.

Fan Jialuo panicked. Thinking of how he held the power to dominate this world, he gritted his teeth and said angrily, "I have swallowed twenty-four sub-personalities, you are the twenty-fifth. You should know, I have the power to dominate and control everything here. As long as I absorb you, I can completely destroy this world!"

So I'm not afraid of you!

Feeling that everything around him was still under his control, Fan Jialuo's jittery heart quickly calmed down. Yes, he undoubtedly had the power to dominate, so there was no need to be afraid of the inexplicable sub-personality before him. In fact, there was no need for him to use his hands at all-as long as he directed his thoughts, his will could easily crush this sub-personality!

Fan Jialuo's thin lips slowly raised into a malicious smile, and then he manipulated his consciousness to encircle the man, and he did it without leaving a single trace.

The moment he ordered his consciousness to start devouring the other person, he heard a chuckle, followed by the words, "Sub-personality? Are you sure that those things you ate were the so-called sub-personalities?"

The man brought Fan Jialuo's face closer and closer to his own, only stopping when their faces were at an inch's distance from each other, and forced Fan Jialuo to stare into his eyes. His bright red lips hooked slightly upwards, but the meaning behind his smile was unknown. His pure black eyes were like an abyss, and their depths endless. There were countless emotions swirling beneath those eyes, but not one of them looked like fear-there was not even a trace of it. What was Fan Jialuo in his eyes? Nothing.

Under such a gaze, not only did Fan Jialuo's body freeze, even his mind stopped functioning.

"You, what do you mean? What is not a sub-personality?" asked Fan Jialuo, involuntarily.

The man chuckled twice more. His flawless face looked as gentle as it had from the beginning, but now, there seemed to be a hundred and twenty thousand evils displayed just under it.

"You should know, your body never belonged to you, instead, it is simply a vessel I created. Those sub-personalities, including yourself, are just lone ghosts who have been absorbed into this vessel. You coexist, grow, and fight within this vessel, and when one of you gathers enough strength, that one becomes my meal, who wakes me up, sacrifices for me, and fills me to the brim..."

The man uttered these words with his face close to Fan Jialuo's ear. Then, he stretched out his crimson tongue and licked Fan Jialuo gently with its tip, an action reminiscent of a viper-cold, sticky and frightening.

Fan Jialuo's eyes opened so wide that the blood vessels in them were clearly visible. He simply couldn't believe what he had just heard! Hadn't he grown up in this body? How could he have suddenly become a ghost? How could those sub-personalities, which were swallowed by him, possibly have been ghosts? How could there be such a ridiculous thing in the world!

At this moment, everything that had defined Fan Jialuo for the past 20 years-his sense of self and the meaning of his existence-had been denied. Fear surged up like a giant beast, tearing fiercely into his tremulous heart. He began to struggle violently and amidst his desperation, discovered that his face was still being held by the other man. His body was completely suppressed, and even his consciousness was firmly imprisoned.

He couldn't move. His powerful body dissipated into a black fog that rested on the palm of that man's hand, which was then inhaled in a thread-like form through that man's nose. The man smiled casually, then raised his head, slightly parted his red lips, and uttered a pleasured moan. He looked very satisfied, his gentle and delicate eyes looking very sinister at that moment.

The instant before he was completely devoured, Fan Jialuo was horrified to realize that the huge palace, which had been shrouded in mist all along, was collapsing, and the sub-personalities who rushed out of the palace shrieking, were being turned into black fog as well, which was then inhaled by the man to nourish his newly-awakened body.

The man was right. He had been sleeping at the bottom of the pool for 20 years, waiting for this very moment. They were all his offerings!

A feeling of remorse surged, and died out in a flash...

...

Noks: Definitely a chapter that raises hairs and gives goosebumps!!! But strap in, 'coz the ride will only get creepier... he he he...

Qiuxue: Come, come, camp is set up at the bottom of the pit, we've got plenty of snacks to hold out until dog food distribution arrives~

Frozenmirage: Indeed a new genre for me, he he he