I'M Zhen
Chapter 23. Killing desire

Inside one of the rooms in the dungeon, Zhen was getting a lash from Jiafen. The woman had been whipping Zhen for several hours. Of course with a whip during that blood dripped from Zhen's body like rainwater.

Finally after several hours of whipping, Jiafen stopped his lash. "Now tell me, what did you tell Jun'er?" Ask Jiafen. She knew that Zhen was silent and gave Jun a black bag. But because he had promised, he did not want to open his mouth.

"That's... just.. regular stuff." Answer with difficulty.

"Still not wanting to confess?" Jiafen took back his whip and whipped back Zhen.

Blood splashed where. The pain returned after leaving. Zhen himself could only endure the pain by clenching both his hands and hardening his jaw.

Until the end Zhen kept his mouth shut and it made Jiafen even more annoyed. He let out a long breath easing his frustration. Then walked towards Zhen and held the two cheeks of the young man. His face looked pale with the glare of his eyes. "Zhen'er, you know what, right? I'm doing this for your own good. So that you don't become a bad boy and lie. You know, if you were a bad boy Jun wouldn't want to be with you anymore!?" Jiafen watched Zhen who seemed to have started to fall by him.

His face looked agitated and several times looked the other way. "Listen,.." He said to let Zhen look back at him." Jiafen's whisper was right beside Zhen's ear.

"A me. I'm not lying. Sister... won't stay away from me." Zhen convinced himself that Jiafen's words were not true.

Jiafen stared lazily at this young man in front of him, "He will!? Because I know best the nature of my own son. Jun'er doesn't like bad guys like you the most!? He will slowly move away. And you're aware of that, too, aren't you? Everyone wants you dead and away from Jun'er. The proof is that they're always feeding you poison into your food, right?" Jiafen. He saw Zhen seem to be starting to believe his talk. Jiafen turned around walking towards the exit. "Think the answer." He said for the last time. And shut the thick iron door.

Zhen thought of the father Jiafen said. Many times he told himself not to believe the woman's words. But some of the words are true. 'That can't happen.' He thought repeatedly.

"Master!?" The call of the black shadow made him re-conscious with his daydream.

"What's wrong?" Her question was lethargic.

"I've got the information." The black shadow. "It was a token of the Sacred Palace."

Zhen felt familiar with the word 'Holy Palace'. "Do you know what that place is?"

"Sorry, I don't know." He replied with a smile on his face that seemed to be hiding something. "Did that woman torture you again? She doesn't deserve to be called a mother. That woman is cruel. People are cruel to you too. It'd be better if you had mem_"

"NO!? Where can I do that?! I can't be evil." His mind was currently in a mess because of Jiafen's words. Zhen was someone who was easily anxious about everything that was not necessarily the case.

The black shadow continued to pay attention to Zhen. Then he smiled broadly to fill a part of the face and then disappeared.

Right after the black shadow disappeared Zhen thought back to the words of the black shadow, 'At least if I kill them, then they should suffer first.' His thought ended with a smile on his face that showed his neat teeth.

...***...

Nie Fuwei with his group entered the territory of the Lightning Cat King. They want to make a conquest of the territory. But once there, not a single Lightning Cat was in sight. The place was very quiet, "Where did they all go? This place is too quiet." Nie Fuwei.

In some parts there are some former battles. Nie Fuwei checked the former battle mark and examined it. 'It looks like this place has been attacked by someone else. Either the Lightning Cat Queen was still alive or not, but it seemed like this place was already uninhabited.' He thought after analyzing. "We're back." Nie Fuwei. They came back to report what happened.

...***...

Inside a dark alley Zhen walked with one of his legs limping. His left hand was affixed to an uneven wall tracing the stone platform. It's like his habit to find a way out. Some were in a terrible room with thousands of lashes. His body was filled with blood that had not been dried and that was already dry.

From the other side of the turn of the hall came the sound of several men laughing. As the voice got closer and Zhen got closer with a turn…

Zhen watched them one by one. Their black clothes were all equipped with face coverings. Two of them carried a stretcher on which there was someone similar to them. 'There's a smell of charred. Have they been playing with lightning?' Think Zhen.

"Huh, who do I think. It turns out to be just an outcast. Let's go ahead!" Said one person in front who led two people carrying palanquins.

"Wait!?" Call Zhen to them.

They immediately stopped and turned to look at Zhen while placing a stretcher. "What else is it? Can't you see we're busy? If you want to ask for help to find a way out then just look for someone else!?" Said someone from them.

"What territory have you fought in?" Ask Zhen arrived.

They were shocked to hear Zhen's question. The question really should not be answered by them, "What is your business asking us which region to fight in? Never mind, we don't have time to serve you!" His words then encode on others to continue the journey.

Zhen was still not satisfied with their answer. He suddenly ran towards the stretcher and opened the white cloth that covered the corpse on the stretcher. When opened Zhen was very shocked because the corpse was charred and had some traces of lightning on his body. Zhen looked at the three of them with a shocked look.

The three of them put down the origin palanquin and moved away from Zhen a few steps. "How's this? Looks like we got caught." One of the men in black to the other.

"Just finish him off, there'll be no problem if we kill him anyway." Another saut.

"That. We'll finish him." Eventually the three of them agreed to kill Zhen in this place.

One of them wanted to slash his sword at the neck of the targeted Zhen.

Grep

It was unexpected that Zhen had directly caught the sword that was heading towards him. Blood flowed from his slashed hands. Not until there, he strangled the neck of the man who was going to kill him and lifted the man slowly until his feet did not tread.

The man in black who was strangled by his neck tried to rebel. His fate only got here.

Crackling

Zhen broke the man's neck, making him not breathe. Then dropped the man and made the remaining two people startled. "I'll ask you one more time, did you guys attack the Lightning Cat King's territory and slaughter them?" Zhen asked with a horrifying look.

The question was not answered by either of them. But their silence answered that they had attacked the region. Zhen smiled bitterly looking at his teeth. His smile was faint and replaced with an angry look. Arrived in an instant he was in front of the two men and then strangled them both.

"Aagghhh!?" They shouted because the Qi in their bodies was absorbed by Zhen. Their bodies were blazing with blackish-red flames. Slowly their bodies both aged until the bones then turned into dust. All that remained was the black clothes that both of them were wearing.

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