Yang Xiao didn’t panic, nor did he complain; he had grown accustod to it. It seed that the kitchen knife had caught the attention of his dear elder sister, who had once again claid it for her own.
Once rice has been cooked, it can’t be uncooked. Yang Xiao had no choice but to passively accept the reality that his sister would not return the item.
He knew all too well the discernnt of his sister; any treasure that caught her eye was surely not ordinary. Wearing the Drama Robe, Yang Xiao gripped the handle of the knife where an embroidery of it was on the robe, pulling out the rusty blade.
As his hand wrapped around the knife, it turned ice cold. Examining the knife closely, Yang Xiao felt an inexplicable urge surging within him, a desire to cut himself.
He wanted to experience the sensation of the blade’s edge slicing across various parts of his body, moving with a painful trace. It seed the greater the pain and the more viciously he attacked himself, the more damage he inflicted, the more comfortable and exhilarated he felt.
"Does this knife control its owner?"
Recalling the butcher’s self-harm in his dream, Yang Xiao speculated that it might be related to the knife’s abilities.
The butcher had cut off his own right arm in the dream, but as a result, Yang Xiao’s own right arm had been inexplicably severed; such a thod was unheard of.
Gazing at the knife in his hand, Yang Xiao knew he had stumbled upon a treasure. He eagerly needed to test the knife’s powers on soone, and imdiately thought of the young man.
After bringing the man back, Yang Xiao had thrown him straight into the Mirror World. Heading to the bathroom with the knife in hand, Yang Xiao’s thoughts shifted, and the Soul-Capturing Mirror appeared in his grasp. With the aid of the light, Yang Xiao suddenly discovered that the knife had blood on it, fresh blood.
Yang Xiao frowned, "Where did this blood co from?"
He was alone in the room. Checking his body in the mirror, he finally found a diagonal bloodstain approximately five inches long on his back. As he exerted pressure, a little fresh blood seeped out from the wound.
He was injured, and the blood was his own. Yang Xiao felt a chill in his heart; the ghostly butcher had actually managed to hurt him in the dream.
Entering the Mirror World, he found the young man tied up beside the bed. Seeing Yang Xiao again, the man’s eyes widened with terror, and his expression uncontrollably distorted. He made "woo woo" sounds through the gag in his mouth and wriggled his body backwards, as if he had seen a ghost.
"What’s the matter?!" Yang Xiao, dissatisfied, tapped the man’s head with the handle of the knife and casually removed the rag from his mouth.
"You... Why have you co back?" The man’s gaze fixated on Yang Xiao’s legs.
On hearing this, Yang Xiao was instantly on guard, "What do you an by ’ca back’?"
"Didn’t you just co by earlier? You stood at that door, just staring at without a word, not coming any closer, with a frightful look on your face." The man blurted everything out, "And... and your legs, just now your legs weren’t...?"
"Broken?"
"Right, you were also using... using two pieces of wood as support." The man seed to realize sothing was off, and his voice grew fainter.
Taking a deep breath, Yang Xiao knew what was happening; the Mirror Ghost had co. He hadn’t expected that the creature, whose legs he had broken, would dare to intrude.
However, through the man’s description, Yang Xiao also discovered a terrifying fact: the Mirror Ghost was recovering much faster than he had anticipated. It had already grown out its thighs, with only the parts below the knees still left to recover.
But, as per the tiline, it would take at most another two weeks for the Mirror Ghost to fully recover, an astounding rate of regeneration.
"What else did he do?" Yang Xiao pressed.
"Nothing, he just stared from a distance, and then... then he left. He didn’t say a word or co any closer."
Once the man confird that the strange person from before was not Yang Xiao, he nearly broke down, crying and sniffling, pleading for Yang Xiao to take him away. This place was too terrifying. He offered to serve him as he would the Sect Leader, willing to do anything he asked.
Without wasting ti looking for the Mirror Ghost, Yang Xiao squatted down, picked up a kitchen knife, and gestured towards the man. Then he gently cut his own left arm. The blade wasn’t particularly sharp—similar to a dull kitchen knife at ho—enough to cut through the skin and let a small amount of fresh blood seep out. The man across from him watched all this in stunned silence, not understanding what Yang Xiao was up to.
"Hm?"
Things didn’t go as Yang Xiao had expected. He had injured himself while the man remained completely unscathed.
"Could it be that I used the wrong gesture?" Yang Xiao recalled the butcher’s posture, changed hands, raised the kitchen knife, and struck towards his shoulder. The blade seed to co down heavily, but in reality, it was light, barely grazing the skin and drawing blood, yet the man was still fine.
After two unsuccessful attempts, Yang Xiao cald down. He suddenly rembered the bloodstain on his back; could it be that the knife’s ability required so sort of dium?
With a ticulous attitude, Yang Xiao wiped the blood off the kitchen knife with his clothing. Then, he used the tip of the knife to prick the man’s arm. In the next second, blood seed to be drawn out from the wound, instantly seeping into the rust on the blade.
This ti, Yang Xiao rolled up his sleeves and swung the knife at his own right forearm. As the blade tore his skin, the man imdiately scread in pain, his forehead slick with cold sweat. Lowering his head, he stared intently at his right arm where, through the sleeve of his suit, the spread of the blood was visible.
Yang Xiao pulled up the man’s sleeve and saw the satisfying answer—there was also a knife cut in the sa location on the man’s right arm, and the wound was much more severe than his own.
Ignoring the man’s pleas, Yang Xiao gagged him and continued to experint with changing positions several tis. The results were very satisfying. Based on practice, he concluded that the kitchen knife, when used as an ordinary weapon, was just a decent old kitchen knife, but the Resentful Eye ability inflicted a blow that hurt the enemy a thousand while harming oneself for five hundred. No matter where he cut himself, the enemy’s corresponding part would suffer double the damage.
Yang Xiao had experienced a real-life example himself—when the ghost butcher swung his knife at his right arm, the blade sank halfway in, but his own right arm was completely severed.
The ability was valuable, but the downside was that its use required first injuring the opponent with the knife to extract so of their blood.
Additionally, the sensation of pain inflicted by the knife on oneself was also doubled. It appeared to be a light injury, but it was very painful.
After a series of experints, Yang Xiao developed a rare generosity. He kept to his promise and took the man out of the Mirror World. After all, he would be away for so ti. Leaving the man alone in the Mirror World ant he might not be alive when Yang Xiao returned, and the man was still of use to him.
The next morning, Yang Xiao summoned Ling Yanyu and asked him to take over watching the man. He cautioned Ling Yanyu not to communicate with the man, to keep him locked up with handcuffs and foot shackles, only to remove the gag for eating and drinking, and to emphasize that the man was a prisoner, not a guest. Courtesy was unnecessary; it was enough to keep him from starving. The man was to be confined to the second floor of the Nie Family Teahouse and Ling Yanyu would be solely responsible for him.
About the man’s background, Yang Xiao didn’t elaborate, and Ling Yanyu, quite tactfully, didn’t ask. He carefully noted Yang Xiao’s instructions and occasionally offered so suggestions.
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