“It’s none of your business!”

I glared at Xu Yingchen.

“But you should be quite skeptical about everything that surrounds you by now, right?” Xu Yingchen said slowly. He smiled so casually that I wanted to punch him in the face. “Wen Jiubo, the man you trust, the man you love. You believe that at this point, he can’t hide anything from you; you believe that even if he did lie to you, it must be because he has his reasons, and he must do that for your own good. However, right now, you’ve started to think that everything you believed in might be a lie.”

“Shut up!”

God knows how much I wanted to grab his collar and slap him, but the tall, black, long-haired monsters around us prevented me from acting rashly.

“What? Am I wrong?” The light in Xu Yingchen’s eyes showed that he was plotting something. “If I am wrong, then why don’t you just ignore my words. After all, he is still the most important person to you, right? Wen Jiubo, Wen Jiubo, everything about you revolves around him. Since the day you met him, he is the center of your life, shining like the sun. But he never thought about you. You’re just a puppet in his eyes. Do you understand this now? For him, you’re just a substitute.”

“Xu Yingchen!” I shook my fist at him and did not care about those horrible monsters anymore. But we were in his territory, he easily dodged my punch and grabbed my wrist.

“Well, are you angry? Aren’t I telling you the truth?” Xu Yingchen glanced at Wen Jiubo scornfully, who was just silently standing by the side. “Didn’t you hear what he just said? You’re just one of the many reincarnations of Wen Qingyu. Before you, he met thousands of ‘Wen Qingyu’. He met them, befriended them, fell in love with them and kissed them——oh, perhaps he slept with many of them.” Xu Yingchen said mockingly.

“I don’t believe you!” I blurted out.

“Is that so?” Xu Yingchen looked at Wen Jiubo. “If anything I said was wrong, why didn’t he refute it?”

Yes, Wen Jiubo had remained silent ever since Xu Yingchen showed up.

“Wen Jiubo.” I tried to remain calm. “Say something.”

However, Wen Jiubo avoided my gaze and was just silently staring at the ground.

“From the beginning, you were the only one in the dark about this whole situation.” Xu Yingchen laughed, pacing around me. “I’ve been watching you guys, watching you——my princess. The weasel beside him, Bai Ze that you met on Mt. Diecui, oh, and Mr. Cat in the gap between the world of Yin and the world of Yang. They know who you are, but none of them ever told you the truth. And you’re so stupid that you actually still trust them; you’re totally unaware that they see you as a joke! Oh, I almost forgot, do you know why Wen Jiubo lied to you by telling you that I was the one who sealed him?”

I shook my head.

“Idiot.” Xu Yingchen shook his head. “The Jade Ruyi, the legendary treasure that is said to be able to realize any wish; he fooled you. He fooled you because he wanted to use you to get it! He is just a monster. Open your eyes and see, he is different from us. We’re the same; we’re humans! Don’t you understand yet? All the monsters in the world are evil; they’re just parasites to our human world, and they should be exterminated!”

I looked at Xu Yingchen and felt lost. This time, I did not know what to say. Nothing could express my feelings right now because my whole world was collapsing in front of me, everything felt like it was breaking apart.

Then, Wen Jiubo spoke up.

I thought that he would explain something, or at least he could tell me not to believe him. He just needed to say one single sentence which would pull me out of my confused state and make me reconsider Xu Yingchen’s words.

However, Wen Jiubo just said in a low voice, “If you don’t hurry up, you will miss the right timing to break the barrier.”

“Oh, right, I almost forgot.” Xu Yingchen gave a little shrug with his hands outstretched, and he said, “You wanna break the barrier? Fine, it’s all right, I won’t stop you. But Gu Yu, you should think it over! What will happen if you break the barrier? You get me killed and save the city? Maybe. But even if you save the city, then what?”

Xu Yingchen drew nearer. “You should understand now. You and I are the same kind. There is no place for us in this world. No matter where you are, here or in Beining, you’re just a toy named ‘Gu Yu’, a substitute. You should understand! You and I are the same kind of people. Nothing in this world is worthy of your love, princess! ”

I lowered my head, took a deep breath, lifted it again, and slowly approached Xu Yingchen.

“I have a question.”

“Sure.” Xu Yingchen was suddenly quite enthusiastic. “As long as it is your question, I will tell you everything I know!”

“You said you and I are human beings.” I looked up at him. “But I saw you in my dreams. You were a priest serving Qing Yu——me. If you’re really that priest, how could you, a human being, manage to live for thousands of years? ”

What’s more.. Xu Yingchen’s appearance was quite different from the young man in my dreams, and I couldn’t imagine that they were the same person.

Xu Yingchen laughed loudly, and his waves of laughter echoed in this dark space, which creeped me out.

“Yeah, this is a spell that I’m so proud of. ” Xu Yingchen suddenly pointed at the black-haired monsters. “Do you see them?”

I nodded, those monsters terrified me.

“I never saw those monsters before,” I whispered.

Xu Yingchen laughed. “No, you’re wrong. They aren’t monsters —— they are genuine humans! ”

My eyes widened and I was dumbfounded.

He said.. they were humans?

How was that possible? How could these one-story high, horrible-looking black-haired monsters be humans?!

“As for your question, how can I live for so long?” Xu Yingchen gently stroked a black-haired monster. “Of course, as a human, I can’t live that long. Human life is so short, I have to constantly change my body to stay alive. Sure, those people whose bodies I stole were pitiful. Their souls lost their physical body and they couldn’t enter the samsara cycle, so I had to train them into my servants, which was the only kind thing I could do for them.” Xu Yingchen said with a smile.