Chapter 169: 166 Showdown

Boom, boom, boom—

A rapid knocking sounded, and a fair, delicate hand placed itself on the doorknob and opened the door.

"Oh, how do you have time to come find me, Season?" The woman who opened the door had a beautiful face with spirited features; she wore a half-unbuttoned white shirt and form-fitting black trousers. Seeing who it was, she couldn't help but smile, "Come in and talk."

"It's just that I'm off work and have nothing to do, and I remembered we work staggered shifts. It's really been a long time since I've seen Sister Jing, and since we live so close, I thought I'd come over to take a look." Drake followed the woman into the house.

Sister Jing, whose real name was Fang Shuijing, was the star bartender at Haoyunlai Bar and the benefactor who took in Drake when he first arrived in the Magic City with nothing. She had always taken good care of Drake, and to him, she was both a mentor and a friend.

Drake hadn't met many friends in his life, so Sister Jing's position in his heart went without saying.

Because of this, Drake had not agreed to Chen Xiaolin's request for cooperation, and he didn't intend to wait until Chen Xiaolin and the others took action; he would end it all himself before everything spiraled out of control.

Now was that time.

This was not the first time Drake had visited Fang Shuijing's home. Before his current fake identity was successfully processed, he had stayed at Fang Shuijing's place for a while, and it was during this time that he began learning bartending from her.

While spending time with Fang Shuijing, Drake had never seen any Abnormal behavior from her. In fact, the time spent with her was so comfortable that for a moment, he had wanted to escape the bloodline destiny he carried and thought that just living an ordinary life like this would be quite nice.

However, this was only a fleeting "greed." He knew he was destined to spend his whole life struggling against the fate he bore, and even death would not be the end. For him, an ordinary life was merely an extravagant hope; being able to enjoy it for a time was a blessing of this life.

And now, upon learning that Fang Shuijing was also involved with Abnormal factors, he had felt a brief shock, but he quickly returned to calm.

In truth, it wasn't as if Drake hadn't suspected Fang Shuijing. A woman willing to take in a merman who couldn't yet control his own power, and who, over a long period of living together, had incredibly not been eroded by the merman's power—her normalcy was, in fact, the most abnormal manifestation of all. It was just that emotions can make one blind and biased.

Perhaps Drake, too, was waiting for someone to tell him the truth, so that he could find a reason to strike.

"What would you like to drink? You can't have alcohol, right?" Fang Shuijing's home also had a bar counter; it was both a place for her to relax and entertain at home, and a "laboratory" where she researched new cocktail recipes. She led her guest to the bar, subconsciously wanting to mix a drink, but she immediately realized her mistake and pulled her hand away from the bottle.

Drake smiled, "Then just a glass of plain water, please."

"Sigh... there's no room-temperature water at home. Is the lemon water I made today okay?"

"That works too."

Fang Shuijing served Drake a glass of lemon water, then sat down face-to-face with him, smiling, "Tell me, what's the matter?"

Drake smiled and pondered for a few seconds, gently turning the glass with both hands, before saying, "The Eye of Kusuen... do you know about it?"

Hearing this, Fang Shuijing froze for a moment, then laughed, "What is it? So that's what you're asking about."

As she spoke, she lowered her head and blinked, thinking for a moment before saying, "I thought you would have asked me about these things sooner. I didn't expect you to only start asking me now; I actually thought you didn't want to ask anymore. Now that you've suddenly brought it up, I really don't know how to answer you, but let's start with the question you care about most."

She picked up a stirring rod from behind the bar and stirred the slippery ice cubes in a shaker filled with ice, saying softly, "Yes, I am a member of the Eye of Kusuen, and I am even an executive in the organization."

Hearing Fang Shuijing's frank admission, although Drake felt a slight bitterness in his heart, he did not let the emotion last long, and sighed, "You were the one who influenced Zheng Yu, weren't you?"

"Yes." Fang Shuijing did not deny this, admitting it generously, "But it was also a coincidence. The only poetry and painting fragment circulating outside that recorded the location of the Empty Demon Vessel happened to be in Zheng Yu's hands, and this person even turned out to be a customer at our bar.

After we discovered and completed the poem, we didn't steal his collection. We decided to simply use his current situation to help us accomplish some things, and incidentally, it could be considered helping him escape his sea of suffering."

"Does escaping the sea of suffering mean turning people into perverts?" Drake could not agree. Facing the Abnormal mindset Fang Shuijing was now revealing, and remembering the person who had once shown him a gentle smile, he could no longer tell which one was the real her.

But it didn't matter anymore. He had made his choice, and Fang Shuijing had made hers.

Fang Shuijing sneered and said, "All living things are inherently vessels for desire. To reveal one's ugliness before the great Kusuen is to be real. A pervert? That is merely the perspective of mortals. Drake, you are a descendant of an Alien God; you shouldn't have such shallow understanding."

"To rise above desire, to have a moral sense that governs and restricts desire—you actually think this is shallow."

"The universe is disordered and indifferent; this is just returning to the truth."

"Humanity does not want to return to this so-called truth, which is why they have propagated and developed the order they have today. From this point of view, you and the Alien Gods, who yearn for disorder and follow your desires, cannot govern your own desires and emotions; you are actually inferior to the humans you look down upon."

"You are slandering and distorting!" Fang Shuijing slapped the table and stood up. Her excited pupils were like dividing cells, splitting into four within her eye sockets. She curled her lips, and her dense, sharp teeth emitted a dangerous aura.

Drake looked at the person who was gradually losing control of her emotions with a hint of sadness, and said softly, "Aren't you also generalizing about humanity?"

The two locked eyes, like affectionate lovers facing each other, but their hands held fierce, sharp weapons stabbing toward one another...

Mad roars and the sounds of intense fighting fell from the eighth floor of the apartment to the underground garage. With a final boom, two tangled, indescribable things fell into the city's underground sewer, which was filled with filth and stench.

Following a grim sound of tearing skin and breaking bones, the screams and wails also came to an abrupt end amidst a sea of blood and darkness.

A mangled Drake curled up in the curved sewer, the foul-smelling ditch water flowing wantonly over his riddled body, looking up in despair at the deep, oppressive underground space.

Perhaps rotting away here would be a decent ending...

He had defeated Fang Shuijing but failed to execute her. As a kin of Kusuen, she possessed more abilities than he had imagined. After severing a part of what he didn't know should be called her body, she had burrowed into the filthy, dirty water and disappeared.

After panting in a daze for about two minutes, Drake heard a shrill scream, followed by the sound of sharp teeth gnawing and chewing.

A moment later, the sound of high heels clicking rang out, and a swaying, enchanting figure approached, carrying a wisp of fragrance.

A voice mixing both man and woman came from the darkness: "Are you okay, my friend (delicious meal)?"