Bitter Realm: Have the Four Realms been united today?

Chapter 10 Companions, the Second Transmigrator

"Very good, knock him down, you're just one step away, you'll be free soon. Nobody in this world wants you to live!"

At that moment, Xuanming seemed to wake up from the deepest nightmare.

He jolted awake, jerking his hand back as if electrocuted, clenching it into a fist as if trying to extinguish that terrifying thought.

"No..." he gasped, his voice hoarse, "My mother wants me to live."

He was like a drowning person grasping at the only salvation, repeatedly and stubbornly telling himself:

"Mom won't call me an ungrateful wretch..."

"Mom is different from other people..."

"She's waiting for me; she said she'd come back to find me!"

He abruptly raised his head, his eyes red-rimmed and his body still trembling slightly, yet he roared in the face of the invisible oppression before him:

"Get away from me! I won't listen to you! I won't!"

"Tsk! What a pity, you were so close. Were you really that sure your mother would accept you, you ungrateful wretch?"

"Maybe she wants you dead more than anyone else in the world!"

"You always say that, but I never believe you. I will prove that Mom is different from others, and now you have failed."

"Get out! Get out of my body like before."

"Hahaha! How ridiculous! I'll come back to you. I told you, you'll never get rid of me."

The demonic voice in his mind disappeared, and everything returned to calm, as if everything just now was just Xuanming's illusion.

Xuanming stared blankly at the flickering candlelight, lost in thought, his mind filled only with the lingering fear of surviving a close call.

He didn't know who was making the voice in his head, nor why it had come to him.

Xuanming only remembered that the voice suddenly appeared in his mind three years ago; he could only hear the sound but not see its form.

At first, he thought he was hallucinating and ignored it, but the voice appeared more and more frequently.

Later, he wanted to be friends with "him," but "he" wanted him dead.

Xuanming remembers it very clearly.

That time, "he" guided me to stand at the crossroads where traffic was constantly flowing.

I was like I was possessed, my mind was filled with the thought of crashing into it.

Until a screech of brakes, followed by an angry shout:

"You're asking for trouble, aren't you?!"

He couldn't control himself at that time, and he couldn't even speak back.

He remembered that the driver seemed to think he was an idiot and then handed him over to the traffic police.

Then he drove off in a hurry, cursing all the while.

"What bad luck today, I actually ran into an idiot."

"This idiot has wasted my time, I'm definitely going to miss clocking in. I'm not going to go this way tomorrow."

From then on, Xuanming felt only fear towards "him".

Xuanming felt that he had encountered something unclean, something that wanted him dead and wanted to take over his body.

He still has his mother waiting for him, and he won't let that thing get its way.

Gradually, he discovered that as long as he could resist the temptation, that thing was powerless against him and could only slink away from his body.

But that dirty thing seemed extremely persistent towards him.

It would appear in his mind every now and then, and he couldn't guard against it.

Fortunately, he always realized his mistake in time, preventing the perpetrator from succeeding.

And so Xuanming was entangled with that dirty thing for three long years.

That's why Xuanming felt like he had been resurrected in another's body.

After all, he himself faced the threat of being "possessed" in another's body.

After an incense stick had burned for a while, Xuanming felt his vision gradually clearing, and a burning sensation came from the tip of his index finger.

With difficulty, he used his aching hands to put the lampshade back on, then pushed the candlestick further away before bending down to pick up the cup that had fallen to the ground.

Suddenly, another unfamiliar voice reached my ears.

"Hey, can you hear me?"

"Who?"

Xuanming turned his head and looked around, his eyes filled not with fear, but with anticipation.

However, he found no one else in the room besides himself.

The expectation in Xuanming's eyes vanished instantly. He lowered his head and continued picking up the cups from the ground, his face expressionless, as calm as still water.

"Another one? Is his body some kind of Tang Sanzang flesh? Does it smell that good?"

Xuanming felt extremely tired.

From the moment he woke up until now, he has been forced into a state of high tension.

Now that he's relaxed, he feels like he doesn't want to care about anything anymore, whatever.

"Hey you over there, if you can hear me, focus on communicating with the runes on your forehead and establishing a connection with me."

"I will explain to you the reasons why you came into this world."

"Don't worry, I'm not a bad person, and you're not hallucinating."

"I'm not possessed by anything dirty, and I didn't intend to possess you."

"I'm also an Earthling, just like you, we both traveled through time."

"By the way, the Imperial Jade Liquor costs 180 yuan a cup, and the Heavenly King covers the Earth Tiger Pagoda to suppress the River Demon. That should prove my identity, right?"

The voice carried a hint of urgency and anticipation, and the speech was rapid, like a machine gun.

Xuanming felt as if his words were cannonballs hitting him on the head, giving him a headache.

He pressed his throbbing temples, but his thoughts were far away.

This thing is much noisier than that thing!

If these two were to meet one day, would they fight? Perhaps they would even fight to the death.

Xuanming made up his mind to ignore the voice. As long as he wasn't tempted, he would be fine.

"Hey, I'm not lying, I'm really not a bad person."

After a cup of tea, the voice rang out again, its tone carrying an almost weary frustration.

This is the third time; he's been treated like dirt for the third time today.

Even if they previously lived in a scientific world.

Even if they were sleeping one second, they would be transported to a fantasy world the next.

Even if they can only hear their own voices but cannot see their own faces.

Even if I told them I would tell them the whole story of how I traveled through time...

Uh, okay! He does look a lot like the big bad wolf trying to trick a little rabbit with a carrot.

But he was telling the truth.

Although the first two were also difficult, at least I was half-believing and half-doubting, and I would still try what he said.

Unexpectedly, this person completely ignored him in the end.

"Look at your forehead. You can talk to me as long as you have the communication rune. You can try it."

……

"Please try—you won't die, I beg you!"

……

"Do I really look that dirty?"

"Why don't you find some black dog blood, a peach wood sword, or something? That way you won't have to worry about me possessing you!"

……

The voice rang in Xuanming's mind once every two cups of tea, each time urging him to communicate with the runes on his forehead.

"Hey, I know you can hear me. If you're going to play dead, I'll keep saying this."

"You won't have any peace tonight, no, you won't have any peace from now on. Let's see who can outlast whom."

The voice betrayed his helplessness; he had run out of other options.