When the Wild Beast is Trapped in the Nightmare Cycle (BL)
Chapter 459: Poor And Hapless

Chapter 459: Poor And Hapless

Jin Jiuchi had expected to encounter the fairy godmother who would whisk him away from this place and bring him to his beloved jade doll, but this... creature... he was seeing right now certainly couldn’t be her.

He had been through a couple of Cycles and had seen so many kinds of nightmare creatures, but never before had he seen something like this.

A lone eyeball floated in midair, connected by a fleshy thread to a... hand— that’s right, a hand that acted as some kind of mount, currently dangling helplessly from the hatch he had just pulled open.

The eye blinked, and Jin Jiuchi also blinked.

Jin Jiuchi tilted his head, and the eye also mirrored his movement, while the fingers of the hand tapped on the wooden surface restlessly.

Unable to resist, Jin Jiuchi acted on his impulse and poked the eye with his finger.

"...!!"

The eye squeezed shut and the hand recoiled backward in shock, desperately trying to put as much distance as possible from Jin Jiuchi. If it had a mouth, it might have howled on top of its lungs. Unfortunately, due to the sudden absence of vision, the hand couldn’t properly see where it was heading and slipped on empty air, rolling down the stairs of the underground passageway with a sickening thud-thud-thud.

Jin Jiuchi: "..."

Uhh, this... should be his fault?

Who could have guessed that the other party would be so clumsy? Moreover, with the eye waving back and forth right in front of him, it was practically begging to be poked!

Nevertheless, as a good and law-abiding citizen, he had to own up to his mistake. With a swift motion, he leaped into the passageway and rushed down the stairs, his feet nearly not touching the ground. He arrived just in time to see the eye, glistening with tears, blinking rapidly while the hand struggled to rise, having sustained a few bruises here and there from the fall.

"Ah, my bad, my bad! Are you okay?!" He extended a hand to assist, but the hand frantically scrambled backward to put some distance between them.

The hand’s index finger pointed at Jin Jiuchi. You.

Then it pointed at the ground where Jin Jiuchi was standing. Stay there.

Finally, it showed its palm. Do not come closer.

Jin Jiuchi was full of fascination when he realized that he could communicate with the bizarre hand and eye. "You told me to stay here? But this is our first meeting, so..." Without warning, he lunged forward like a cheetah pouncing on its prey. "We have to shake hands first!"

"...!!"

The hand jumped in shock, but alas, it was a beat too slow to evade, allowing Jin Jiuchi to capture it squarely.

Beaming from ear to ear, Jin Jiuchi shook the hand up and down, causing the eye to spin dizzily. "Hello there, nice to meet you! I am Jin— oh wait, I should be Cinderella now! Are you the fairy godmother? You look a little different than I imagined, but no worries, I don’t discriminate against species! Now, how do we get to the palace? We need to hurry before Nian— uh, I mean, before my Sister Rosie gets taken by someone else!"

The poor eye turned glazed and unfocused from all the rough jostles. Perhaps it was lucky that it didn’t have a mouth or a stomach, or else it would have puked its gut out.

"So?" Jin Jiuchi prompted eagerly, bringing the creature to his eye level.

The fleshy thread swayed unstably like an inflatable mascot rocking back and forth amidst the fierce gale. It took a while for the eye to regain focus, and when it did, it immediately expressed anger by hitting itself on Jin Jiuchi’s hand again and again. Meanwhile, the hand, which was still held in Jin Jiuchi’s grasp, was also struggling desperately to break free, its surface coated in a layer of clammy sweat.

With a ’huh’, Jin Jiuchi abruptly let go, causing the creature to flop onto the ground with a resounding splat. A few droplets of miserable tears fell from the eye as it kissed the dusty floor, while the hand lay motionless, seemingly as if it had lost the will to live.

"Ah, my bad, my bad!" Jin Jiuchi exclaimed, feeling a little guilty. He reached out a hand to help the creature up, but it promptly sprang up like an agitated cat and slapped his hand away.

With a startled ’ouch’, Jin Jiuchi cradled his hand to his chest and put on a pitiful look, "I really didn’t do it on purpose, though... is there a need to resort to violence? I thought we were friends."

The eye rolled itself as though cursing the other person’s shamelessness, ’Friends, my foot!’

Without warning, the creature abruptly turned and ran away on all its five fingers, catching Jin Jiuchi off guard.

"Hey, wait!" He quickly gave chase, demanding. "Where are you going?! You haven’t answered my question yet! Are you the fairy godmother? Where’s my beautiful dress and my pumpkin carriage?!!"

Pursuing the creature, Jin Jiuchi found himself emerging into a familiar open space where he had once been with Shen Nianzu. It still looked as serene as ever, with soft grass beneath his feet and night sky above his head. The pavilion stood nearby, a silent witness to the passage of time.

Meanwhile, the creature raced straight towards the lake, its movements urgent and determined.

Curious, Jin Jiuchi followed, witnessing the creature dive into the lake with a resounding splash.

"Wait—!" Shocked, Jin Jiuchi’s eyes widened as he instinctively pursued the nightmare creature into the lake. He had nothing to be afraid of; after all, Shen Nianzu’s divine prop, Aqua, had explored these waters before and confirmed that nothing was amiss. On the contrary, he would suffer a huge loss if he were to let the creature out of his sight.

His fate in the next few hours fully depended on it!

The cold water splashed around his legs, seeping into the soft-soled shoes he was wearing. Taking a deep determined breath, he plunged beneath the surface and dived deep into the lake, his sharp eyes focused on the creature a few meters ahead.

The lake underwater was extremely cold and dark, yet it seemed to hold no effect over Jin Jiuchi, who navigated the depths with ease. His vision quickly adjusted to the darkness, allowing him to see that... in addition to the one bizarre creature he was chasing after, there were lots, lots of similar creatures with body parts connected to a single crimson eye, seemingly as if it was formed by an eerie amalgamation of severed corpses.

And currently, all of those eyes were fixated on Jin Jiuchi.

"...!" A string of bubbles strung out of Jin Jiuchi’s mouth as he nearly shouted in shock, his scalp tingling with numbness. What the hell?! Nian’er didn’t tell him anything about this!

The poor and hapless nightmare creature, which was previously bullied by Jin Jiuchi, seemed to have regained its momentum now that it was on its home ground. It communicated with the others, and with chilling coordination, all of them lunged at Jin Jiuchi at once!

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A/N: there is not a day of peace for JJ and the nightmare creatures involved with him hahaha