Negative Emotions

"Fellow Daoist Zhou, you have to believe me. I really am the real Ji Sen!" "Fellow Daoist Su, I'm the real Ji Sen!" The two Ji Sens drew their swords and faced each other. Neither dared to strike. Instead, they turned to Zhou You and Su Tingxue for help. "Right—I can log into my forum account!" In a panic, Ji Sen pulled out his phone. The lock screen was some anime character. He opened the Immortal Cultivation Forum app and logged in. Zhou You saw the whole process with perfect clarity. Ji Sen no longer had even a thought of avoiding suspicion. The login succeeded. The account name was "Stir-Fried Bamboo Shoots and Pork." "You stole my account!" The other Ji Sen flew into a rage, pulled out a phone of the same model—its lock screen was also some anime character—and logged into the Immortal Cultivation Forum app. The login succeeded. The first Ji Sen's screen showed a login from another location. The account had been signed out. "How do you know my password!" "I should be the one asking you that!" The two Ji Sens argued without end, each accusing the other of being fake, and begged Zhou You and Su Tingxue to tell true from false. Zhou You and Su Tingxue were both at a loss. They had just been searching the apartment for anything unusual, and neither of them had noticed which room Ji Sen had gone into last. The master bedroom? Or the second bedroom? Zhou You remembered Ji Sen going into the second bedroom. But had that been the last place? Had he gone into the master bedroom afterward? Su Tingxue remembered Ji Sen going into the second bedroom, but now she couldn't be sure. Could she have remembered wrong, and Ji Sen had gone into the master bedroom? They weren't familiar with Ji Sen, and they couldn't ask anything truly private. Since both Ji Sens knew even something like the forum account, they could probably answer private questions too. This was a problem. Su Tingxue opened her Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye and still couldn't tell real from fake. Seeing Zhou You and Su Tingxue fall silent, the real Ji Sen felt his heart slowly sink. So that was it. The two of them had no way at all to tell who was real and who was fake. He didn't even have the ability to prove his own identity. Who was the other one, really? Why did it know him so well? If Zhou You and Su Tingxue judged wrong and took the fake him for the real one, what was he supposed to do? Leave in disgrace? Could it be that the invisible monster had been beside him all along, watching his every move, knowing everything, imitating him, killing Coal Ball—the only one who could see through it—and finally taking his place?! The more Ji Sen thought about it, the more afraid he became. "You... what exactly are you!" Ji Sen opened his mouth, but before he could get the words out— The fake Ji Sen said them! That thing knew exactly what he was thinking! The fake Ji Sen took in every bit of Zhou You and Su Tingxue's reactions. This was a normal reaction. For a stranger like Ji Sen, who would pay attention to his every move? Even if someone had noticed which room Ji Sen went into last, faced with a situation where true and false were impossible to tell apart, they would likewise doubt whether their own memory had gone wrong. As for the real Ji Sen, that panicked, suffocating feeling came rushing over. What superb negative emotions. "Xiaoyao, who do you think is real?" Zhou You turned and asked. Since he couldn't tell them apart, he might as well hear the Empress's opinion. Unusually, a trace of tension appeared on the fake Ji Sen. It had kept a firm hold on the changes in these people's emotions from beginning to end. Ji Sen was the most panicked of them, the easiest to control. Zhou You and Su Tingxue were bold and hadn't been frightened at first, but later they too had gradually started to grow afraid. Only that Chu Xiaoyao, without a shred of cultivation attainment, a mere mortal, had never panicked or been afraid from start to finish. She had slipped free of its control. She even seemed a little excited. Chu Xiaoyao was wandering in front of the television with a screwdriver. It could light up even without electricity. What an amazing TV. Su Tingxue herself had said there was no trace of a spell being cast. Weren't Zhou You and Su Tingxue the least bit curious how the television was lighting up? No spirit of inquiry at all. "Huh? Isn't the one who came out of the master bedroom the fake?" Chu Xiaoyao said offhandedly. What was so hard to tell apart? The fake Ji Sen was shocked. You didn't hesitate even a little! "Don't believe her..." Zhou You didn't listen to the protest. He threw a punch straight at the Ji Sen who had come out of the master bedroom. Su Tingxue hesitated briefly. Seeing how resolute Zhou You was, she immediately burned several talismans. "Swift!" When the smoke dispersed, the fake Ji Sen was still standing there, unharmed. Zhou You's punch had landed on its face as if he had struck a steel plate, and the jolt left him aching. The opponent was strong! Far stronger than Lishi! "Count this punch as punishment for my failure," the fake Ji Sen said coldly. This was its way of punishing itself. In that brief sentence, the voice changed several times, and its skin flowed like water, shifting at will. At the sight, Zhou You hurriedly fell back, dragging the dumbfounded Ji Sen beside him as he went. When it finally settled, it had changed into a pitiful, delicate girl next door. But no one believed this was its true face. "What are you!" Su Tingxue demanded sharply. She realized this was a shapeshifting art—a shapeshifting art that even her Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye couldn't see through. This was absolutely not something the Qi Refining stage could deal with! The girl next door let Su Tingxue's words go in one ear and out the other. She only stared at Chu Xiaoyao. Anyone else stared at like that would have felt their skin crawl. Except for the homeroom teacher, Chu Xiaoyao wasn't afraid of anyone. She glared right back. "Interesting." As her form shifted, the girl next door's voice shifted with it, turning soft and endearing. What she was best at, and liked most, was creating negative emotions and absorbing them. She succeeded every time. She hadn't expected to fail so completely with Chu Xiaoyao. She couldn't see through her at all. Only a mortal. How could she have a state of mind like this? Chu Xiaoyao of the Carefree Sect, was it? I'll remember you. Sword light flashed. A spirit sword came to rest against the girl next door's neck. Ji Sen stared at her with bitter hatred, his body trembling, his eyes bloodshot. "Where is my Coal Ball!" If the answer was wrong, Ji Sen could run her through with one thrust of his sword! The girl next door lightly brushed the spirit sword aside and smiled. "So you still haven't realized?" "Realized what?" "Woof!" The girl next door suddenly barked, identical to the little black dog's voice. Ji Sen's expression went blank. The girl next door found it funny and barked twice more. "Woof, woof!" "You still haven't realized? Coal Ball is me." Ji Sen froze. A sense of absurdity spread through his whole body. So there had never been anything invisible at all. She had turned into Coal Ball, eaten and lived with Ji Sen, and snarled at empty places, making Ji Sen think something was there until he was jumping at shadows. All this time, he had treated Coal Ball as his only hope, hoping Coal Ball could protect him. Who would have thought that, from the very beginning, Coal Ball was the source of the danger. "You... when did you turn into her!" Ji Sen stared dead at the girl next door. When had she replaced Coal Ball? He hadn't noticed a thing. The girl next door burst out laughing, amused by how foolish Ji Sen looked. "What 'when'? Coal Ball has been me from the very start. Coal Ball has been me since a year ago." Coal Ball was a person in a dog's skin, watching his every move. Those eyes were not eyes full of spirit. They were human eyes. And he had known nothing of it! It had gone on for a whole year, all to win his trust and make him believe something invisible was beside him. The moment he thought of this, Ji Sen couldn't help trembling. His expression twisted into a knot, halfway between crying and laughing, on the verge of collapse. The girl next door couldn't help licking the corner of her mouth. Yes, yes, yes. This was the expression she wanted to see. An expression like this was truly delicious. However long she looked, she would never tire of it. She had stayed beside Ji Sen for a year. Wasn't it all so she could see this expression? She had thought that when Ji Sen asked for help on the Immortal Cultivation Forum, the immortal cultivators he brought would be frightened by her too, and the negative emotions they produced would likewise give her a hearty appetite. Ji Sen's negative emotions were the main course. The negative emotions of the immortal cultivators he brought were dessert after the meal. Although Zhou You and Su Tingxue hadn't been frightened at first, and she hadn't gathered the slightest bit of negative emotion, fortunately she had turned into a fake Ji Sen to muddy the truth and leave the two of them torn. Only then did negative emotions arise. Yet the one called Chu Xiaoyao had not produced a thread of negative emotion through the whole process. Not tasty in the slightest. Chu Xiaoyao's presence had ruined the feast she had so carefully prepared and left her with no appetite at all. "Absorbing negative emotions—I understand. You're from the Demon Alliance!" Su Tingxue had thought it all through. Only someone from the Demon Alliance would stop at nothing and try every means to gather negative emotions! A bead of cold sweat broke out on her forehead. No one in the Demon Alliance was easy to deal with. The lowest among them were at Foundation Establishment. Those of still deeper cultivation realms, even her master found troublesome. Ji Sen's head snapped toward Su Tingxue, the words "Demon Alliance" jolting him awake. "Am I~ or am I not?" The girl next door giggled and leapt at the balcony window. "Little sister of the Carefree Sect, you can call me Lian Yi. We'll meet again~" Chu Xiaoyao covered one eye and showed a meaningful smile. "You think you can get away?" "?" Lian Yi didn't understand. She flipped away and vanished into the darkness. Su Tingxue didn't give chase. Or rather, that the other party had been willing to spare them was already the greatest good fortune. ...... "What do you mean, can I get away? Nonsense." Lian Yi became one with the darkness and flew above the city. Chu Xiaoyao was unfathomable. Those last words kept leaving her faintly uneasy. Hadn't she already gotten away without trouble? Lian Yi looked back several times and found no one following her. "I've always been the one toying with people's hearts. I never thought a day would come when I was toyed with instead." Lian Yi smiled in self-mockery, convinced that Chu Xiaoyao was only bluffing. "Come down. I've got something to ask you." A flame turned into chains and bound Lian Yi. Red King struck.