Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
Advance chapters available for patrons on Patreon. And a chapter can be sponsored by buying me a ko-fi
Liang Jing’s husband, Weng Zichen, was a renowned artist in the city. Slender and elegant, with a strong artistic temperament, he primarily worked in sculpture.
From the beginning, they seemed mismatched. Liang Jing was a biological researcher, busy with work, spending all her time in the lab. She was also strong-willed, serious, and cold, with no interest in art. Weng Zichen, on the other hand, possessed a somewhat eccentric nature, was naturally promiscuous, loved alcohol, and was reckless in his creative pursuits, squandering money without restraint. In every way, they seemed like the most mismatched couple in the world, yet they came together by a series of coincidences.
After marriage, facing various household chores, their personality clashes intensified, quickly escalating into infidelity and domestic violence. The couple became bitter enemies, constantly arguing and fighting. Liang Tian even fought with his brother-in-law. Seeing that their marriage was beyond repair, they each hired lawyers to file for divorce. However, the divorce proceedings stalled on the division of property, with neither willing to back down.
And after Liang Tian’s death, Liang Jing suffered an emotional breakdown and decided to stay in the dormitory of the Biological Research Institute, no longer going home, trying to numb herself with work.
Now, the address Liang Jing gave was the Biological Research Institute, and she even said that Weng Zichen was there, which could only mean that Weng Zichen couldn’t stand her hiding anymore and came to the institute in person to talk.
The key question was, how did Weng Zichen turn into a snake? According to Li Yuebai’s deduction of the current situation, at most, a human would be possessed by a dormant entity and become a vampire, how could they turn into a snake?
Li Yuebai and Ye Qing rushed to the institute and found Liang Jing’s laboratory.
Pushing open the door, they saw snakes everywhere.
The Biological Research Institute was full of laboratory animals such as mice, rabbits, and pigeons, bustling like a breeding farm. Liang Jing’s laboratory was dedicated to researching antitoxin serum, and it not only had a large number of snakes, but also a complete variety, including cobras, five-step snakes, and bamboo vipers, but these snakes were usually kept in glass cabinets, so how did they all escape now?
It turned out that all the glass cabinets were broken.
Not only were the glass cabinets shattered, but the lab benches, swivel chairs, computers, glassware… all sorts of tools were smashed or overturned, leaving the entire lab a mess. There were also bright red bloodstains on the floor; at first glance, it looked like it had been ravaged by a hurricane.
Two people stood in the center of the lab.
One was Liang Jing, wearing a white lab coat, her slender body standing rigidly upright, yet motionless. Her expression was also dazed and blank, completely lacking her usual assertiveness. And her eyes stared blankly ahead, blinking only once in a long while, her lips slightly parted.
Clearly, this was the expression of someone experiencing a hallucination!
Li Yuebai recalled the little girl briefly controlled by Countess Karnstein; her expression was exactly the same as Liang Jing’s now!
Not far opposite Liang Jing stood another person.
Weng Zichen, a famous artist in the city, was someone Li Yuebai had photographed in his memory. Comparing the photos, it was indeed the same person, but the closer he got, the more something seemed off—the exposed arms seemed to faintly display scale patterns, and his entire demeanor had completely changed, becoming cold and terrifying.
Weng Zichen’s face wore a crazed expression, his eyes fixed on Liang Jing—his eyes were no longer human, but snake-like, with vertical pupils.
Li Yuebai finally understood what Liang Jing meant by “my husband has turned into a snake.”
“Hahahaha…” Weng Zichen suddenly burst into arrogant laughter, revealing sharp teeth and a seemingly forked tongue. He pointed at Liang Jing with his scaly hand and roared in a muffled, cold voice, “Liang Jing, you vicious woman, I’ve been fed up with you for a long time! Now, I’ve finally found my chance for revenge!”
“Who are you?” Li Yuebai drew his knife, holding it horizontally in front of him, then carefully avoided the venomous snakes slithering across the ground, walking step by step towards Weng Zichen, asking the vampire’s identity as he went.
“Lilith,” Weng Zichen replied in a strange voice, “I am the Serpent Demon Lilith.”
Lilith?
Li Yuebai recalled the introduction he had seen in the book *The Study of Blood Charms*.
Since it was a book from the Ming Dynasty, the translation of names was different from today. *The Study of Blood Charms* mentioned a type of vampire called “Serpent Woman Lilith,” which should be this one. She was half-human and half-serpent, and didn’t have any particular preference for drinking blood, but her illusion-making ability was stronger than other types of vampires.
In mythology, Lilith was also quite famous; she was rumored to be an evil goddess, a demon, Adam’s first wife… She played various roles in different races, to the point that the information was chaotic, and no one could say for sure what she really was.
With a click, a bullet was chambered, and Ye Qing’s gun was already pointed at Weng Zichen.
“Want to shoot? Hahahaha, how dare you?” Weng Zichen laughed wildly again, hissing as he said, “Didn’t you see this woman is already trapped in the illusion I created? If I die, she will also be affected and go insane or even die with me!”
Li Yuebai had to admit that this was indeed a possibility.
He just didn’t understand what Weng Zichen’s purpose was. Didn’t he hate his wife? Why didn’t he just kill her, but instead pulled her into the illusion?
“Why?” Li Yuebai calmly sheathed his knife: “Lilith, or rather Weng Zichen, what is your purpose?”
“Purpose? Hmph, I just want Liang Jing to bow down and admit her mistakes to me!” Weng Zichen’s voice changed, his emotions running high: “She has never respected me, never respected my art!”
Li Yuebai’s mind went blank.
Although he taught Chinese, he had never understood the sentimentalism of a scholar and was always a complete idiot when it came to matters of the heart.
The two vampires he had encountered before both had clear motives, so he could see through them.
But this time, it was far too emotional! Possessed and transformed into a half-human, half-snake vampire with immense power, all he wants to do is make his wife apologize? Aren’t they already divorced due to domestic violence and a broken relationship? Wouldn’t it be better if they just stayed apart?
There were many kinds of artists: some were rational and pragmatic, while others were driven by emotion. Weng Zichen was the latter, and his obsession with art only intensified this emotional outburst.
“I… Oh my god, what should I do!” Liang Jing’s blank gaze revealed a hint of anxiety, as if the illusion before her was beyond her control.
“I gave her a challenge in the illusion,” Weng Zichen sneered. “If she answers correctly, I’ll let her go.” Judging from Liang Jing’s expression, she couldn’t answer at all.
Li Yuebai roughly understood what he meant.
Before his transmigration, he had watched an anime where a scene involved a god testing the protagonist with an illusion. The protagonist would be holding a gun in the illusion, with three of his closest people appearing before him, and he would have to choose two to kill… Few could pass such an illusionary test.
What kind of illusionary trial is Liang Jing facing? Whatever it is, she’s clearly in dire straits.
“System, come out, come out!” Li Yuebai called out to the system.
“Hello, host, how can I help you?” The system’s voice sounded insincere.
“Let me enter the illusion as well,” Li Yuebai said succinctly.
Weng Zichen’s emotional outburst was met with an excellent opportunity from Li Yuebai—no need for a major undertaking, just finding a way to help Liang Jing solve the problem in the illusion would be half the battle won.
“Okay, I’ll arrange it for you immediately. Please take a few steps forward,” the system readily agreed this time.
In fact, as long as one was close enough to Weng Zichen, one could be pulled into the illusion he had created. All the system could do was isolate Weng Zichen from Li Yuebai’s perception of his actions, making him mistakenly believe that only Liang Jing was solving the problem independently in the illusion.
Li Yuebai gave Ye Qing a reassuring gesture and took a few steps forward.
Soon, he too was trapped in the illusion, just like Liang Jing. The surroundings were a vast expanse of white, and after a while, the white mist dissipated, revealing the appearance of an exhibition hall.
White walls, white ceiling, golden sunlight streaming through the windows—everything seemed so real. The only thing reminding him it was an illusion was the fact that the floor was still crawling with venomous snakes, just like in the laboratory.
Perhaps Weng Zichen hadn’t had time to illusionize the floor too?
Thinking this, Li Yuebai walked towards Liang Jing, who stood bewildered in the center of the exhibition hall.
“Sister Liang, how are you now?” Li Yuebai greeted her softly as he approached.
Liang Jing was startled. Seeing it was him, she relaxed slightly, sighed, and said, “What should I do? How did Weng Zichen bring me to this godforsaken place? Shouldn’t I be in the laboratory? What happened? Where am I?”
“This is an illusion he created,” Li Yuebai explained.
“An illusion? I study science; I can’t believe in this nonsense,” Liang Jing said incredulously.
“Is it scientifically possible for your husband to look like that?” Li Yuebai sighed. He was actually a materialist, but since transmigrating, he couldn’t help but believe in the existence of various non-scientific things.
“He… I don’t know what happened to him.” Liang Jing’s voice was filled with lingering fear. “First, he came to the lab and argued with me, then he got physical, and then he turned into this…”
“I’ll tell you the reason for the change later,” Li Yuebai said. “The most important thing now is to get out of this illusion.”
“How can I get out?” Liang Jing looked around anxiously. “There’s no door here.”
“You need to solve the problem Weng Zichen gave you,” Li Yuebai said seriously.
“The problem? I don’t even know where the problem is!” Liang Jing was almost in despair.
“Wait, I just arrived, I need to observe carefully.” Li Yuebai looked around—the exhibition room wasn’t large, containing only a few sculptures, and nothing else.
The sculptures were all made of white plaster, making them look particularly eerie.
“Do these sculptures have any special significance in your married life?” Li Yuebai asked.
“I’m not interested in sculptures, so I can’t remember them,” Liang Jing replied. “Weng Zichen is an art fanatic, he’s obsessed with sculptures… Oh right! I remember!”
“What?”
“I smashed a few of his sculptures when we used to argue!” Liang Jing said anxiously, “It was these plaster sculptures. I guess he might still be holding a grudge about it…”
Guys, ads are my only source of revenue, so please do not turn on the AdBlock when you are accessing this website…. Thank you, this would be a great help…
You can buy me a ko-fi and sponsor a chapter on: https://ko-fi.com/midnightrambles
Or become a Patron or access advance chapters on: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=45665005
If you support me, I would be able to provide more chapters….
Previous • Table of Contents • Next