Eye Pupils (End)

As it rolled, Shen Xing noticed the optic nerves trailing behind the eyeball. They were bending and writhing like the tentacles of an octopus, pressing against the floor to propel the eyeball forward.

The sight was inexplicably eerie!

Shen Xing didn't have the luxury of overthinking. With a swift motion, he brought his Arc Blade down, accurately stabbing it into the eyeball that was clearly closing in on him.

Though pierced, the eyeball struggled violently. The mass of optic nerves behind it stopped pushing it forward; instead, they curled back like octopus tentacles, wrapping tightly around the Arc Blade that had pinned it down.

It was as if the eyeball were trying to tear a gap in its own surface to break free from the blade's control and continue its advance toward Shen Xing.

It can't be killed! Shen Xing was horrified.

The next second, the eyeball indeed tore itself open, wrenched free from the Arc Blade, and crawled toward him once more.

Shen Xing instinctively backed away, desperate to put distance between them, but his head soon hit the edge of the bed. He immediately grabbed the bedsheet with his free hand, preparing to pull himself up onto the mattress.

The eyeball seemed to move slowly; if he could just scramble to the other side of the bed, he might find a chance to escape the bedroom.

Just as he braced himself against the bed frame to stand, the crawling eyeball suddenly reared up. Its optic nerves stood on end, and with a sudden spring, it landed with a thud right on the back of his hand.

Almost all of the fleshy, tentacle-like optic nerves instantly latched onto the skin of his hand.

A bone-chilling cold surged from his arm through his entire body. On top of that, a wave of viscous nausea washed over him, and Shen Xing felt his entire arm go numb.

The eyeball didn't stop after climbing onto his arm; it scurried rapidly toward his shoulder, seemingly intent on reaching his face.

The numbness in his arm was no illusion; it was a genuine sensation triggered the moment the eyeball touched his skin.

Furthermore, as the eyeball crawled along his arm, he felt his control over his own body gradually slipping away.

He felt as though his entire right side had lost all strength, no longer belonging to him.

His left hand unconsciously gripped the edge of the bedsheet and gave a light tug, causing something resting on the bed to fall and roll beside him.

Shen Xing glanced sideways and saw that it was the wooden eyeball carving he had nearly finished.

The memory of Hong Bin's wooden carving absorbing the fake Hong Bin flashed through his mind. Although he hadn't seen exactly how the carving had taken the other in, the prerequisite had been physical contact.

The next second, his left hand grabbed the rolling wooden eyeball.

At almost the same moment, the blood-red eyeball that had climbed onto his shoulder gave a violent jolt. The optic nerves that had already touched his cheek instantly retracted, and the entire eyeball seemed to be squeezed by an invisible force, rapidly shrinking.

The eyeball struggled frantically, as if trying to flee.

But in just two or three seconds, it transformed into a black shadow of an eye and was whooshed into the wooden carving held in Shen Xing's left hand.

Shen Xing was startled, fearing the Blood Pupil had somehow jumped into his left hand, and quickly threw the carving away.

However, a quick glance showed his palm was fine, and the carving was just rolling on the floor, looking perfectly ordinary.

He focused his gaze and looked closer: inside the wooden eyeball, a faint, black shadow of an eye was visible. It was identical to the black shadow of Hong Bin inside the half-body wooden statue.

So, it really was absorbed into the carving.

Shen Xing understood immediately. By acting as a medium—with the Blood Pupil crawling on him while he held the wooden carving—he had achieved the same effect as direct contact.

But his body was injured and bleeding; he had no time to study this further.

He braced himself, sat halfway up on the bed, and pulled his phone from his pocket to report the incident. He asked the officer to send an ambulance as well, then collapsed back onto the bed, feeling completely drained.

In a hazy state, he felt many people enter the room. He was lifted onto a stretcher, carried downstairs, and shoved into an ambulance before finally losing consciousness.

He didn't know how much time had passed when Shen Xing slowly opened his eyes. His head felt heavy, but the pain in his body had faded.

His limbs felt stiff. He turned his head slightly and found himself in a quiet, sterile, white private hospital room. Medical equipment surrounded him, and a screen to his right displayed his heart rate, blood pressure, and other vitals.

His body remained weak. He didn't want to move, nor did he even want to keep his eyelids open. Just as he was about to drift back to sleep, the door to the room clicked, and someone walked in.

Judging by the voice, it was Li Naijing, whom he had met not long ago, along with the officer Xiong Wei and the young man who had been with Li Naijing last time.

After the young man said a few words, he fell silent. Most of the low-voiced conversation was between Li Naijing and Xiong Wei.

Shen Xing's body was too limp to bother opening his eyes, so he simply feigned sleep. The quiet young man seemed to be sitting by his bed, making it inconvenient to peek, while Li Naijing and Xiong Wei stood talking near the window.

The two didn't make an effort to hide their conversation, so Shen Xing could hear them clearly.

After listening for a moment, he felt a sudden sense of clarity.

Just as he had guessed, the man who had cut the power and lurked in the kitchen to kill him was indeed the murderer who had killed Lin Wanru over a romantic dispute.

The guy's profession was actually a fitness coach! No wonder he had such a sturdy physique!

As for why the guy wanted to kill him, it seemed to be related to Shen Xing encountering Lin Wanru's corpse that night.

The officers had kept the news completely sealed, so the murderer didn't know that Lin Wanru's corpse had returned home on its own and sought out Shen Xing.

The murderer had assumed that Shen Xing had discovered something while he was killing Lin Wanru, which was why officers had visited Shen Xing's home repeatedly, trying to extract clues from him.

Unable to sit still any longer, the guy had hidden in Shen Xing's home, intending to silence him.

Of course, these officers didn't understand why that mangy dog had appeared, and Li Naijing and the others had found no trace of the Blood Pupil during their inspection of the scene.

"According to the scene investigation, the kid is lucky. The murderer fought with that mangy dog at the door; his throat was bitten through, and there were signs of shattered bones in his wrists and knees, but the dog also sustained fatal knife wounds. In short, they killed each other..." Xiong Wei speculated. "The mangy dog must have killed the murderer, then ran into the inner room intending to bite Shen Xing, only to succumb to its injuries, allowing Shen Xing to kill it with his utility knife."

Li Naijing said, "Lin Wanru was murdered, and the culprit has been brought to justice; the case on your end can be closed. As for the dead dog and what Shen Xing experienced, we will follow up with a detailed investigation."

Hearing this, Shen Xing froze. Although he had suspected it before, he was now certain: these officers strictly separated the handling of ordinary cases from that of bizarre ones.

Xiong Wei was only responsible for handling ordinary cases, while Li Naijing specialized in investigating bizarre ones.

Of course, even when facing an investigation by Li Naijing, Shen Xing could not possibly reveal all his secrets. Taking advantage of the opportunity to feign sleep, he prepared to organize his thoughts so that he could provide a proper statement once he "woke up."

As he pondered, he pricked up his ears to listen to what else the two had to say.

Just then, a deep voice suddenly rang out beside Shen Xing's ear; it was the voice of a man who sounded to be around fifty years old.

"He is already awake."

As soon as these words were spoken, Li Naijing and Xiong Wei, who had been standing by the window, immediately ceased their conversation.

Shen Xing, who was feigning sleep with his eyes closed, was startled. He had never imagined that there was another man in the hospital room, and that from just a moment ago until now, this person had been sitting right by the bedside, silently observing him.