Wine X and X Poison

Qi Zhou, hiding outside the door, wanted to cover his nose the moment he caught the sweet, bloody scent, but...

After smelling that utterly bizarre scent of blood, he felt as though his soul had split in two.

One half pulled at his hand, making it cover his nose; the other controlled his nose, inhaling the scent in rapture and unwilling to do anything that would keep him from smelling it.

"What on earth is that? How could an ordinary drink possibly have such a terrifying smell?"

Qi Zhou shook his head hard to clear it. By "terrifying," he did not mean unpleasant. On the contrary, the scent was faint, yet it seeped into a person's very marrow, haunting them after a single whiff, never to be forgotten.

He heard the bartender mutter:

"Three million Jenny only buys a hundred milliliters of the concentrate... It's really hard to imagine how rich people live."

Still muttering, the bartender put down the shaker and reached for the glass.

"Now!"

Qi Zhou gathered his focus and seized the chance to shoot a pebble at the shaker, striking the narrow rubber protective ring around its top with force.

The rubber muffled the impact, but the powerful blow sent the shaker wobbling toward the floor. The bartender gave a startled "Oh!" and instinctively reached out to catch it, setting it upright.

While the bartender's attention was off the glass for those two seconds, Qi Zhou tossed the fingernail-sized tablet into it. The tablet dissolved on contact with the liquid, vanishing completely into the blood-red drink within seconds.

The bartender picked up the glass and walked slowly out of the bar. Qi Zhou, hidden in the shadows, followed at a measured pace to the third floor of the residence and hid around the corner of the staircase.

He saw two maids standing outside the enormous bedroom door. The bartender respectfully handed the glass to one of them, then turned and left without a word.

The maid carefully accepted the glass, and the other pushed the door open for her.

"Put it to the side and get out."

From behind the bedroom door came an authoritative man's lowered voice, along with a woman's faint, intermittent gasps.

Qi Zhou, whose hearing was excellent: "..."

The maid hurriedly answered, "Yes," and withdrew from the room.

Qi Zhou curled up in the shadows, waiting for his opportunity.

An unknown amount of time passed, so long that he was almost asleep before he heard a heavy object hit the floor.

The next instant, before the two startled, panicked maids could react, Qi Zhou was in front of them, striking each one down with a knife-hand blow.

He pushed the door open and slipped into the bedroom.

Suoerzite lay on the floor, his face contorted in agony. Broken glass was scattered around his feet.

Seeing someone enter, Suoerzite seemed to understand. Endless fury welled up in his eyes.

He wanted to get up and send the despicable poisoner to hell, but the excruciating pain in his body kept him from moving.

All he could do was stare fixedly at Qi Zhou and raise a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth. His voice was suppressed to the utmost, thick with resentment and killing intent. "Who are you-?"

Qi Zhou did not say anything like "the man who's going to kill you." He walked silently up to Suoerzite, who was trying and failing to get up, and gathered Nen at his fingertips, preparing to finish him off.

Come to think of it, it was rather funny. He had learned this handy trick of turning his hand into a blade from the Phantom Troupe while he was under their control.

Suoerzite seemed to have used Gyo. When he saw Qi Zhou's Nen, something appeared to occur to him, and he said forcefully, "I know now-you're the one who killed Kelirui!"

"Heh... Hehe..." Blood poured from the corners of Suoerzite's mouth as he laughed, full of resentment and unwillingness. He gave a wretched smile. "I never thought... I'd die at the hands of a lowly commoner like you..."

"But even if I die, I'll drag you down to hell with me-!"

Fingertips swept across Suoerzite's neck, but the next instant, his hatred and rage took tangible form, merging with the tsunami of Nen that erupted from his body and pressed down on Qi Zhou.

"Cough, cough... My... Nen Ability-Poison Wine's Land of Tenderness. Brat... take a commoner's unwillingness and tears and enjoy it to the fullest! Ha-"

Great gushes of black blood poured from his mouth, mingling with the blood spurting from the severed artery and choking off the shrill laughter Suoerzite had not managed to let out.

His pupils slowly dilated, and his head fell limply to one side. He died with his eyes open.

His expression grave, Qi Zhou leaped back to evade the Nen bearing down on his head. Then he unleashed his own Nen without restraint, gathered it in front of him, and sent it bursting outward.

As though breaking through a towering wave, Qi Zhou forced a path through the Nen pressure, which had grown even more terrifying after its owner's death. Then he pushed off the floor and leaped out of its range.

But something happened that he had not expected.

The Nen behind him rapidly contracted, gathered, and transformed, finally condensing into a pale red mist. Like a cloud formed from countless tiny insects, it rushed toward him.

The mist seemed to possess a human consciousness. No matter where Qi Zhou fled, it dogged him like a disease clinging to his bones, following his every step.

Fire could not burn it away, and water could not dissolve it. At last, Qi Zhou was driven into a corner, and then...

Qi Zhou was enveloped in the pale red mist. He smelled the same faint, exceedingly strange scent as the drink from earlier.

An indescribable sensation spread from his brain to every part of his soul, a feeling that made even his soul tremble with pleasure-as though he were standing in a picturesque valley, or had already ascended to heaven.

It lasted an instant, yet also seemed like an eternity.

Qi Zhou lowered the hand he had bitten bloody and raw, blinking his unfocused eyes hard before he finally escaped the impossibly beautiful dream.

He did not even know whether he had woken from the dream because his will was strong enough, or because the beautiful dream was meant to end.

As the dream faded, a sharp, slight sting suddenly erupted somewhere in his body. It traveled up his spine to his brain, then spread throughout his entire body in the space of a few seconds.

Qi Zhou abruptly curled in on himself.

He felt every muscle in his body twitching and trembling.

The craving in his soul, the agitation with nowhere to vent, the despair of having no way out, the anger with nowhere to vent, and the excruciating pain that defied description...

His reason told him he had to leave quickly, but-he could not move.

He understood perfectly what had caused the change in his body-he had watched videos about drug prevention and rehabilitation.

"Concentrate," "three million Jenny for only a hundred milliliters"-such descriptions could only mean-that kind of thing.

His soul screamed at him to run, that if he delayed any longer it would be too late.

"Go-go-"

But his body was frozen. No matter what orders his brain gave, he could only lie there quietly, quietly experiencing the pain.

"Leave this place, leave this place, leave-"

Qi Zhou could already hear the guards talking and the sound of hurried footsteps.

The bedroom door was kicked open with a bang, and more than a dozen guards rushed in. But all they saw was Suoerzite's corpse lying on the floor, his eyes still open in death.

On a street in District One, beneath the night sky, a boy walked slowly.

For some unknown reason, he walked very, very slowly, yet unhurriedly.

His eyes were slightly open.

Both his eyes were silver-blue, like the moon hanging high in the sky, gazing indifferently down upon everything in the human world.

Suoerzite's Nen: [Poison Wine's Land of Tenderness]

Category: Transmutation

Ability: Through Nen, he can analyze the components of liquids he has consumed, then adjust their components, reformulate and conjure them.

[Restriction 1: He must drink a certain amount to successfully analyze it.]

[Restriction 2: He can only reformulate and conjure substances consumed within the past three hours.]