Chapter 459: Skinning

The night grew darker.

The pitch-black sky was like a giant abyssal beast, crouching over the city of flickering lights.

Creak—

Zong Wen pushed open the door. The dim room was devoid of light, and faint starlight cast his shadow onto the expensive carpet as he walked slowly inside...

He didn't turn on the electric lights but instead lit a candle, igniting the glass candles on the table and bedside. The orange candlelight cast a glow over the dark room, creating a hazy, romantic atmosphere, like a sheer veil draped over the girl’s body.

Zong Wen casually picked up a glass-like cup, popped the cork of the red wine, and the intoxicating crimson liquid poured into his palm, rolling and flowing in the candlelight.

Wearing a red bathrobe and holding the red wine, he stood by the dim window, overlooking the brilliantly lit city...

His eyes narrowed, looking as intoxicated as a king standing between the worlds of mortals.

Knock, knock, knock—

A light tapping on the door sounded.

"Come in," he said faintly.

As the door pushed open, a figure in a black dress walked slowly into the room. She faced Zong Wen and naturally closed the door behind her with both hands.

Zong Wen turned sideways by the window. On his slightly tipsy face, eyes filled with greed and lewdness stared at Liu Qingyan, as if using his gaze to peel open a perfect work of art.

He walked toward Liu Qingyan step by step, his red bathrobe swaying in the dim candlelight, and he slowly raised the remaining red wine he had been drinking.

"Have a drink?" He made his voice as gentle as possible, like a kind old father.

Liu Qingyan stood there calmly. In the flickering candlelight, her appearance became even more alluring, like a cold angel fallen into the mortal world, making one unable to resist the urge to ravage her.

"I don't want to drink this."

"Don't want to? Doesn't matter..."

Zong Wen shrugged, put the wine glass back on the table, and raised a hand to tease Liu Qingyan’s dark hair, a smile appearing on his tipsy old face.

"Do you know? You are truly beautiful... Not the pretentious kind of cute, nor the slutty kind of seductive. You have your own unique temperament... The first time I saw you, I knew you weren't comparable to those common, flashy women.

Your figure, your appearance, your dance... You are a born superstar. It would be a real pity to rot away in that Liu Town... As long as you are given a chance for everyone to see you, I believe that one day, you will rise above everyone else and become the goddess everyone dreams of!"

As Zong Wen spoke, his flushed face became more and more excited. He grabbed Liu Qingyan’s thin shoulders with both hands, his face almost pressed against her ear:

"I want to personally send you to that position, the position that belongs to you! Let you become a goddess in the spotlight!

But the premise is that you must belong to me... and only belong to me."

Zong Wen smiled and added,

"Just like a loyal dog."

Liu Qingyan looked calmly at the old face inches away, still reeking of alcohol, and slowly closed her eyes... Her long eyelashes closed in the candlelight. She stood there like a cold, beautiful black-dressed doll.

Seeing this, the evil fire in Zong Wen’s heart burned even brighter, as if the girl had completely given up resistance. He grinned and lunged directly at Liu Qingyan’s body, wanting to push her onto the sofa!

But the next moment, his body stiffened in place as if electrocuted!

Zong Wen’s pupils widened involuntarily. He looked down in shock and found a slender palm pressed against his chest... It was Liu Qingyan’s hand.

For some reason, Zong Wen felt as if an electric current were flowing through his entire body. His limbs didn't feel like his own, and he was frozen in place like a statue.

At the same time... Liu Qingyan slowly opened her eyes.

When those black, glass-like pupils were exposed to the air, the room’s temperature plummeted. Liu Qingyan’s entire temperament changed, and an indescribable chill and shudder radiated from her black skirt...

The dim candlelight flickered silently, but the romantic atmosphere was gone. Now, in Zong Wen’s eyes, that originally beautiful young face seemed to come from the underworld, making his heart tremble uncontrollably.

"You... you actually..." Zong Wen seemed to think of something and looked at Liu Qingyan in disbelief, as if he had seen a ghost.

But under Liu Qingyan’s palm, even his vocal cords seemed to be suppressed. Zong Wen tried his best, but could only utter a few intermittent words.

He never expected that Liu Qingyan, who was so frail she seemed like she would fall over in a breeze, was actually a possessor of the Divine Path!

He didn't understand, and couldn't understand, why Liu Qingyan, if she were truly a Divine Path possessor, would participate in the selection at Liu Town, why she would struggle in the big quagmire of the Huadu Consortium, and why she had remained silent through all his harassment...

"Did I actually grow thorns?" Liu Qingyan said softly, her voice ethereal, like a whisper from the hazy mist and rain.

"Not all flowers can be ravaged at will... Since you can't control your desires, you should be prepared to have your skin torn by thorns."

Liu Qingyan’s palm closed, leaving only one index finger, which slid gently down from his chest across his skin.

However, as Liu Qingyan’s fingertip passed, Zong Wen’s flesh was sliced open like a zipper. Crimson blood flowed down the girl’s fingertip onto the floor, and the raw flesh was exposed to the air!

Unprecedented pain assaulted Zong Wen’s nerves. He opened his mouth wide in agony, wanting to scream, but could only emit helpless whimpering sounds!

The veins on his neck bulged one by one. In this excruciating pain, he widened his bloodshot eyes, watching with his own eyes as Liu Qingyan’s finger moved downward... disemboweling him.

He was witnessing the entire process of being "skinned" alive.

"You all covet my skin," Liu Qingyan said softly. "But what is the point of that? Beautiful or ugly, beneath this skin is the real 'us'...

Do you want to see what you look like in your truest form?"

Liu Qingyan’s fingertip reached Zong Wen’s lower abdomen and then slowly released. By now, a terrifying, gruesome incision had appeared on Zong Wen’s torso, like a "zipper" of skin being pulled down, exposing all his muscles, blood vessels, and organs to the air!

"No... no!!" Zong Wen struggled in agony, his features distorted by the extreme pain. Under this silent skinning torture, his mind and body were tormented to the limit!

Liu Qingyan raised her hand, gripped the collar of the red bathrobe, and slowly peeled it off Zong Wen’s body... Zong Wen’s aged skin was revealed before Liu Qingyan, like a lamb waiting to be skinned.

Liu Qingyan looked at the blood-stained red bathrobe on the floor and suddenly smiled:

"You, too, are worthy of wearing red?"