Reality. A laboratory in so unknown city and province.
Li Zhi awoke on a surgical table. He opened his eyes slowly and removed his glasses.
They were non-prescription — a small trick he normally used to disguise his vision. But it obviously hadn't co into play this round.
He stood up, first examined himself, and then began carefully surveying the operating room he'd been calling ho for "quite so ti."
It was a completely sealed surgical suite — three walls and one door, the latter a slab of steel thick enough to rival the walls. Ventilation ca exclusively from an air duct above the air wall overhead. He'd always assud this was a dical bay in so underground military facility, but today, that assumption shifted.
If he was a slice, his original would never simply let him grow into an independent player. His original had to have been watching him from the shadows — observing, and perhaps never truly relinquishing control.
So... was this really just an operating room?
Could it be connected to other spaces? Logically, it shouldn't be — Li Zhi had verified that the air walls around these rooms didn't appear to be fakes.
But today it struck him that he'd overlooked one thing — the ventilation duct!
In his mories, he'd once tried to climb into it, only for the air wall to repel him.
But note — that was in his mories!
So Li Zhi gripped a scalpel and began searching the space once more. This ti he wouldn't trust his mories, because a slice's mories were aningless.
After examining all four walls again and finding nothing, his gaze finally settled on the lone ventilation duct.
He dragged the surgical table over and tried to climb up — but at that exact mont, the vent, barely large enough for one person to squeeze through, opened on its own!
Yes — opened on its own!
The hum of chanical gears filled the room. The vent's louvers slid apart horizontally, revealing a pitch-dark passage. And from the far end of that passage, a raspy voice was chuckling.
"So you figured it out after all. Co — co through. Everything you want to know is right here."
Li Zhi's pupils contracted violently. His entire body went rigid.
He had a premonition — this speaking entity might just be his original.
The mont had finally arrived. Slice and original, face to face.
Li Zhi gripped his blade so tightly his knuckles went white. Only after casting three consecutive Calming Spells on himself did he crawl into the unknown depths of that passage.
The entity at the other end made no move while he inched his way through.
When Li Zhi finally erged into the other space and poked his head out of the vent, he was stunned. The room contained more than a dozen apparatuses identical to Selius's cultivation vessels. And there in the center stood a bizarre figure — simultaneously young and ancient — squinting at him.
"You're a smart man. Co down. I won't hurt you."
Li Zhi's breathing hitched. He dropped down cautiously.
Standing before this half-young, half-elderly anomaly, his eyes were filled with shock and suspicion.
"You're..."
"You know who I am, don't you?
That's right — your guesses are mostly correct. One look at
and you should understand: I'm both this experint's beneficiary and its victim.
And you... like , are this experint's victim."
"Heh." Even soone as even-tempered as Li Zhi couldn't suppress a sarcastic laugh. "So I was never a beneficiary."
"Our goals are the sa. Soone had to sacrifice themselves for the experint, didn't they?"
"Then why wasn't the soone who sacrificed — you!?"
"How do you know I haven't? Look at this [Prosperity] flowing through . Look at this [Decay] rotting my body. Look at what I've beco — neither man nor monster. Doesn't that terrify you?
That is my sacrifice."
"So you cultivated your forr self —
— as the vessel for shedding your skin? A new body!?"
"No, no, no. That's not my intention at all. Don't get agitated."
"None? Then why did you create ? To prove your research capabilities can replicate Selius's slice experint?"
"You're still as obsessive as ever. Beneath all that composure and steadiness hides the most irreversible kind of fixation." The anomaly sighed. "It was precisely so I could continue my experints in peace that I separated you out. This way, you walk your path and I walk mine. Isn't that better for everyone?"
"I'm sorry — I can't determine whether you're telling the truth. But then again... I don't need to. The mont you let
through, you should have known — this wasn't going to end peacefully!"
Li Zhi's gaze hardened. He drew the Concentric Dagger he'd traded from Cheng Shi, then lunged, exploiting the split-second pause in conversation to drive the blade straight at the hybrid original's heart.
But to his astonishnt, the anomaly didn't dodge. He simply stood there, perfectly still, and let Li Zhi plunge the dagger into his chest.
"Shhk—"
The blade pierced flesh and punctured the heart — yet not a single drop of blood escaped.
Li Zhi stared at the still-living anomaly, horrified!
"You... how is this possible!? How can you not die!? This is—"
The anomaly smiled — a grotesque, eerie smile. He reached out with a withered hand, gripped the Concentric Dagger, and slowly, inch by inch, pulled the lethal weapon from his rotting heart.
"This is slice-Selius's Concentric Dagger? That's what you were about to say, isn't it?" His laughter was like a dying man's last gasps — halting and deeply unsettling.
"!!!"
Li Zhi's pupils contracted to pinpoints. He stared at the anomaly in utter disbelief, too stunned for words.
He knew!
He'd planned for this all along!
"Surprised?
Wondering how I knew the dagger in your hand was slice-Selius's Concentric Dagger?
There are two Concentric Daggers. One is Selius's — specifically designed to excise weaker personalities. If identical personalities co into conflict and one possesses the dagger, it can be used to eliminate disobedient slices. Suprely effective.
The other belongs to slice-Selius.
As a slice, he obviously couldn't carry a weapon that could kill him at any ti. So he modified it — turning it into a weapon that kills only dominant personalities.
It was his tool for overthrowing the original. And you tried to use that sa Concentric Dagger to kill . Li Zhi — you're clever, but you overlooked one thing!"
With that, the anomaly gripped the dagger's tip and — "whoosh" — at a speed the eye couldn't follow, drove the blade into Li Zhi's chest. But he drove it in backwards — hilt-first — embedding the entire dagger in reverse into Li Zhi's heart.
"Pfft—"
Li Zhi coughed up a spray of blood, clutched his chest, and staggered to the ground. The terror on his face deepened — he could feel his life draining away, his personality dissolving.
The Concentric Dagger designed to kill dominant personalities... was killing him!?
How was this possible!?
"You..."
"Confused? Bewildered? Shocked?
A dagger that only kills dominant personalities just killed you. I love that expression on your face, Li Zhi. Even though I've seen you terrified and bewildered countless tis before, every fresh encounter fills
with such pleasure.
Yes — like you, I'm also a slice. And not just any slice — the weakest of them all. That's exactly why I used Divinity to complete my own personality.
As for our great and mighty original? I killed him long ago, using this very sa thod.
Ha. Hahahaha! How about that — turns out I'm every bit as clever as you!
And on top of that, I planted this knowledge inside your mory.
Have you considered — if the mory about the ventilation duct was false, then couldn't the thod you 'rembered' for killing
also be false?
The thod was real enough. But the pity is — I'm the one who deliberately taught it to you.
Ha! Fun, isn't it?
Yes — that's the look! I love your fear!"
With that, the anomaly lifted Li Zhi with one bloated hand, and before he'd fully died — slowly, bit by bit, with an expression of pure relish — shoved Li Zhi... entirely into a jaw that gaped open like a python's maw.
Swallowed whole.
"Crunch, crunch, crunch..."
"Ahh—
Today's [Prosperity] — feeding complete.
A pity, though — no Germinating Divinity. It seems the fear still wasn't quite enough."
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