After the boy finished speaking, he looked at Yu Xing, who was leaning against the wall with an indifferent air, his gaze calm and lifeless.
Although he was reporting to Zhao Mou, perhaps because of some twisted version of a fledgling's instinct, or because Yu Xing's identity as a Fox Demon intimidated him so much, whenever Yu Xing was present, he always felt that only Yu Xing could make the decision.
"I have 'eyes' on me, and... a troublesome message-delivery task. Even so, are you still going to... take me with you?"
The boy stammered as he asked. There was always something contradictory about him. Even as he asked that question, anyone could almost see two answers he longed for reflected in him.
One was yes; the other was no.
No one could be sure whether he hoped Yu Xing would pull him out of this pit, or whether he hoped Yu Xing would give up and stop kicking his aimless life into an even more dangerous abyss.
Yu Xing met the boy's eyes, looking into their depths.
He could tell that the complexity of the boy's emotions stemmed from more than just the reasons he had given.
"You don't seem to have told the whole truth," Yu Xing said softly.
But the boy insisted, "There's nothing else."
Yu Xing shrugged. "I've seen these shoes on plenty of people. You said they control your movements and reveal your location to Master of Ten Thousand."
"I doubt that's all they do."
The boy said nothing.
Yu Xing tapped his fingers irregularly against his arm, then said softly but firmly, "Master of Ten Thousand practiced forbidden arts related to the soul. He's good at tampering with people's spirits. The shoes on your feet are as red as blood, as though their color