Chapter 98: Two-Headed Snake

In this dark world, the sky is high and black, with a few scattered stars flickering with faint light, like candle flames about to die in the wind.

Dense thorny bushes, their stems like steel bars covered in sharp thorns that would wound anyone who brushed against them.

From the dark forest in the distance came an unsettling rustling, as if some terrifying wild beast or ghostly entity was secretly watching.

And swamps spread throughout the forest; step in carelessly, and no matter how you struggle, you can only sink deeper and deeper...

This world is the deepest part of Yang Yi's consciousness, her perception of the real world, a subconscious projection of her impressions of reality.

The Yang Yi here is a little girl who never grows up, struggling to survive in a world full of dangers.

Until a suddenly appearing little girl pushed her into the swamp, the innocent little Yang Yi still did not know what had happened.

She did not know where the strength came from; driven by a sheer instinct to live, she thrust her legs up violently, and her right hand reached out from the mud, grabbing the ankle of the little girl on the shore.

That hand was like a death-grip clamp; the little girl was somewhat surprised but not panicked. She used her other foot to stomp and trample, almost crushing the skin and flesh on little Yang Yi's hand, yet little Yang Yi still did not let go, gripping even tighter.

Little Yang Yi crawled out of the swamp covered in black mud, like a demon climbing up from hell; the mud and blood on her body mixed together, slowly flowing down and dripping onto the ground, making her whole body seem to be melting.

Only a pair of black eyes remained, blacker than the mud, brighter than the stars in the sky, and colder than the air.

Her dazed gaze slowly cleared—having been suddenly pushed into the swamp by It, Yang Yi finally realized who she was and guessed who the little girl before her was.

"You have finally made your move," Yang Yi's expression was somewhat relieved, "You have lived inside my body for so many years, and now you have finally revealed your true purpose..."

The little girl smiled slightly, "If you had not threatened me, we could have been perfectly peaceful; you could have merged into me and become part of me, instead of killing each other like this."

"As a fragment of an Evil God, how did you end up inside my body?" Yang Yi had a huge pile of questions waiting for her to answer, "Did you turn my original form into a vortex?"

"Once you become part of me, you will naturally know everything." She smiled faintly, then suddenly lunged at Yang Yi, and the two small figures fell into the swamp together.

For a long time, bubbles kept rising from the swamp, the mud churned wildly, as if a fierce battle was taking place beneath the swamp.

Suddenly, the swamp boiled violently, the mud surged continuously, strings of filthy bubbles kept emerging, and streaks of blood and chunks of flesh rose up with them.

A two-headed snake leaped out of the swamp; the two snake heads were one large and one small, tearing at each other, struggling and rolling in the swamp, splashing mud everywhere.

This two-headed snake was entirely black, covered in spiral patterns; if one looked closely at the patterns, one would feel dizzy, and the longer one stared, the more one's spirit and body would involuntarily separate, as if consciousness was being sucked into the patterns.

On the two-headed snake, the large snake head was triangular, with eyes glowing red, emitting a strange light like blood, long fangs protruding beyond the lips, and the forked tongue flickering in and out.

The small snake head was oval, with eyes like black jade, and no fangs; thus it was bitten terribly by the large snake head, its black scales on the neck falling off, skin torn and flesh exposed, with several blood holes bitten by the fangs oozing blood.

However, the small snake head's resistance was equally mad; even though it was bitten bloody by the large snake head, it clamped onto the large snake head's neck and refused to let go, driven by a ruthless determination to bite its neck off.

Clearly one body, yet the two heads of this snake tore at each other, a fight to the death where only one could survive, with no end to the struggle.

The dark forest in the distance was startled by this commotion; the demons and monsters hidden within were frightened and fled in all directions, startling night owls into chaotic cries.

The two snake heads fought for a long time until both were on their last breath; the small snake head had no good flesh from head to the base of the neck, almost everywhere exposing bone and muscle, and one eye was blind.

The large snake head was fine everywhere else, but the small snake head had kept biting one spot until it was almost severed, leaving the head hanging precariously.

"Enough; fighting further will only result in mutual destruction." The large snake head—It said, first loosening its grip, and in the process swallowed the flesh and blood torn from the small snake head; as It swallowed, the large snake head seemed to grow slightly larger.

The small snake head—Yang Yi also released Its neck; looking closely, she had actually bitten off a piece of the large snake head's neck, flesh and bone included, and swallowed it into her belly.

With this swallow, several images flashed vaguely before Yang Yi's eyes:

In a battle involving several Ancient Gods that spanned several universes, the Evil God dropped several fragments—Yang Yi felt she was the smallest of them; It drifted through countless times and spaces, escaping under the hands of countless coveters, was weakened countless times in space-time storms, and finally washed up on Earth.

At this moment, It was like a burnt-out candle, about to extinguish; even an ordinary person could kill It.

Earth was so desolate that there was no substance for It to survive on—fortunately, Earth was so desolate that it did not attract those coveters.

Driven by the instinct for survival, It merged into the nearest young intelligent life form, parasitizing her undeveloped soul body—then fell into complete slumber.

Because of Its parasitism, this young body remained ignorant and incomplete in soul until the age of six—doctors thus diagnosed her with autism.

The original development should have been for the parasite to gradually grow stronger, slowly devouring and merging the host, becoming part of the Evil God.

But because the fragment at that time was too weak, and because Yang Yi's self-awareness was too strong, she did not lose her self.

After the fragment parasitized, the two souls merged; during this process, the fragment also developed a consciousness of "I," forming the current situation of one body with two souls, "you in me, me in you."

Yang Yi looked down at their shared body, recalling the words It had once said: "I am you, you are me; we are originally one."

Part of It and part of her had already completely fused together, inseparable; unless one devoured the other to achieve a single "I," the two would forever struggle against each other due to different goals and ideals.

As a part of the former Evil God—even a trivial, tiny fragment—It did not consider itself human; It regarded all life as food to be taken at will, and all worlds as Its pasture.

And Yang Yi, as a former member of humanity, would never allow her own people to be placed on the table for others to enjoy.

In this moment, Yang Yi suddenly understood everything.

"So that is how it is," she said with a smile, the smile growing wider; as her laughter gradually became manic, the torn snake head trembled incessantly, and Yang Yi's face and the snake head reflected each other.

The dark world of the subconscious faded away; they returned to Yang Yi's sea of consciousness, and the two-headed snake transformed back into two black hole vortices, one large and one small.

Yang Yi turned to look and found that there was indeed a faint thread connecting the two vortices.

"Why don't you come out quickly?" Yang Yi said calmly, "If you don't act now, we will be devoured by It."

It—stepped out, its face still wearing a reckless and vicious smile, "Oh, you are badly injured, truly incompetent!"

It showed a look of caution for the first time, "When did you two join forces?"

It acted shocked, its tone extremely exaggerated: "What? Didn't you know? The two of us are originally one person—I have been saying this every time I mock this useless thing! I am Yang Yi's innermost Id, and she is Yang Yi's most conflicted Ego; if not for your threat, how would we have split apart to grow separately? Wasn't it all for this day?"

Having actually tricked an Evil God—even if just a fragment—Its expression was ecstatic, its whole body trembling with excitement; suddenly, Its form also turned into a black hole vortex and plunged into Yang Yi's vortex.

Instantly, the two vortices merged without any resistance—because they were originally one person.

The situation reversed in an instant; Yang Yi's size exploded instantly, and wild laughter and light laughter came simultaneously from the vortex as they lunged at that outsider.