Everyone Is Non-Human Except Me [Rebirth] Chapter 35

Yun Yongzhou’s expression turned cold in an instant.

“No.”

Wei Huan blinked and carefully tested, “…Really?”

Yun Yongzhou’s gaze grew even colder. He stood up, about to leave.

“Alright, alright, it can’t be undone,” Wei Huan grabbed his arm, “You’re not done yet.”

The little furball also bounced and stuck onto Yun Yongzhou, perfectly mimicking Wei Huan’s tone, “Ying Ying Ying Ying~”

He vaguely remembered that blood pacts couldn’t be undone, but he had still clung to a bit of hopeful luck.

“I actually already knew,” Wei Huan said, putting on a sage-like expression, as if all things in the world were transparent to him. “A sacred and weighty bond like a blood pact couldn’t possibly be undone just like that. What a joke—it’s not like buying a kitten from a pet shop that you can return if it’s not cute. Right?”

Yun Yongzhou slightly raised his brow, his whole face saying: “Go on, I’m watching your performance.”

Thinking again, Wei Huan added, “Of course, maybe that comparison’s not quite right. I’m definitely not as cute as a kitten. But don’t worry, I absolutely have no ill intentions. I just want to study at Shanhai peacefully. Please give this weak human a way to live.” With that, Wei Huan put on an innocent little expression.

Even the little furball followed suit, letting out a pitiful “Ying.”

A true man knows when to yield and when to press forward. If it can be undone, great. If not, then so be it.

As long as I surrender fast enough, Yun Yongzhou’s light blade won’t catch me.

Yun Yongzhou propped his chin with his hand, coolly nodding, “Continue.”

“Continue…” Wei Huan’s eyes spun, “Oh right, you didn’t answer my first question yet.” He cleared his throat. “Lately I haven’t been feeling any pain. That should be because of the blood pact, right?”

Yun Yongzhou stayed silent for a while, and Wei Huan kept looking at him expectantly.

The little furball’s eyes darted between them, now at Wei Huan, now at Yun Yongzhou.

“There was an issue when the pact was made,” Yun Yongzhou finally spoke in a low voice. “I’ll deal with it later.”

In Wei Huan’s mind, Yun Yongzhou never lied.

With this explanation, he easily accepted it. After all, if it were up to him, doing something like this without experience would likely go wrong too.

So it was just a big misunderstanding.

“I see…” Wei Huan nodded thoughtfully. He had been trying to find a logical reason for Yun Yongzhou to do so much for him without asking anything in return. If it was due to an issue in the pact that caused shared pain between the two, then that explanation made far more sense than Yun Yongzhou liking him as a human.

“Instructor Yun, do you also know about Instructor Yang Sheng’s demonization and loss of control?”

Yun Yongzhou didn’t answer. Wei Huan took that as a yes.

“So you were worried that after demonizing, Instructor Yang might do something to me, and it would ruin his future, so you rushed over to save the lost lamb—was that it?”

Yun Yongzhou’s mouth twitched.

This guy, besides being good at surrendering, really could find a step down in any situation.

Not only for himself—he even built one for others too. All that was left was for him to bow politely and say, “This way please, take your time.”

“Whatever you say.” Yun Yongzhou stood up and left the bedroom.

Wei Huan saw that expression that said “I have nothing more to say,” and that evasive turn—wasn’t that as good as confirmation?!

He was a genius—figured it out this quickly.

Still, he needed to find a chance to beg Yang Sheng not to tell Yun Yongzhou that he had returned. Right now, his life was basically hanging by a thread on Yun Yongzhou’s little finger. If he found out that he was actually the Little Nine Phoenix who’d been teasing him for three years… who knew what would happen.

Letting out a long sigh, Wei Huan touched his chest—then suddenly realized something strange.

He took off his shirt and unwrapped the gauze over his chest. Just as he suspected, the wound from being stabbed had mostly healed, leaving only a deep pink mark. While it wasn’t healing visibly fast, it was definitely faster than a normal human.

He looked around the room for a mirror but found none, so he walked out shirtless. That’s when he noticed—this wasn’t Yun Yongzhou’s instructor dorm at Shanhai. The living room had a large window with a view of the lake.

A lakeside apartment. Not bad, Yun Yongzhou.

That thought had barely formed when it struck him as oddly familiar.

“You’re running around naked—what are you trying to do?”

Yun Yongzhou was suddenly standing behind him. He had changed into a beige knitted sweater, looking much gentler overall. He tossed a set of clothes at Wei Huan as soon as he turned around.

“Nothing, I just thought this house was pretty nice,” Wei Huan strolled around with his hands behind his back, touching the table, patting the sofa, “Really nice. I want a lakeside villa too.”

Yun Yongzhou gave him a glance, then turned to sit on the sofa like he was sulking.

The little furball jumped onto his shoulder. Wei Huan whispered his complaint, “I’m telling you, this young master is not the reincarnation of the first Golden Crow. He’s the reincarnation of a walking tantrum.”

Unexpectedly, the little furball puffed up angrily, looking serious—almost as if it were scolding him—“Ying ying ying, ying ying ying ying…”

Why are you getting so worked up just because I said that? Wei Huan immediately grabbed the furball into his palm.

Sitting on the sofa, Yun Yongzhou turned his head and shrugged. “That ‘ying-ying monster’ might be rapping.”

While changing clothes, Wei Huan finally found a mirror. The reflection confirmed his earlier suspicion—after being beaten so badly by Yang Sheng, his face should’ve been disfigured. But aside from a bit of swelling, there were barely any visible injuries.

What was going on? Even if the blood pact transferred pain, it shouldn’t change a human’s healing ability. This recovery speed was nearly on par with the average demon.

Too many strange details—Wei Huan made a mental note to investigate the true nature of the blood pact.

Since he’d brought up the pact, Yun Yongzhou hadn’t said much more to him. Wei Huan began to feel that he’d been overly self-indulgent.

Not liking me is for the best—please, don’t fall for this human. I’m supposed to return as the Nine Phoenix.

I don’t want to be some kind of teen heartthrob or heart-stealer—there’s a whole train’s worth of little Nine Phoenixes waiting their turn to reincarnate.

Once Wei Huan’s injuries had fully healed, Yun Yongzhou used spatial magic to take him back to Shanhai.

“Thank you, Instructor Yun. You’ve worked hard. I promise I won’t cause you any more trouble,” Wei Huan said while bowing repeatedly. Just as he tried to run off, he was yanked back by Yun Yongzhou’s light.

“You do know you’ve been causing me trouble,” Yun Yongzhou said coldly.

Wei Huan immediately nodded—like a bobblehead. The little furball popped out too, mimicking him with a shake of its fuzzy body.

“From today on, without my permission, you’re not allowed to leave Shanhai—especially not into the Dark Zone.”

“Got it, got it.” More nodding.

“And stop sneaking around, poking into things you shouldn’t, asking questions you shouldn’t.”

“Mhm, mhm, mhm…”

“And stay away from Shangshan Academy.”

Wei Huan kept nodding, until something felt off—“Hm?”

Yun Yongzhou tilted his head and stared. “Don’t understand?”

…I kind of don’t, but I don’t dare ask.

No matter—nod first, ask later. Wei Huan bobbed again like a chick pecking rice. “Understood, understood.”

Only then did the light release him. Wei Huan forced out a smile. “Then, Instructor Yun… I’ll be going now.”

And off he dashed.

Wei Huan’s phone rang. It was Ah Zu—he’d saved the contact back when they were both in the Dark Zone. Ah Zu knew the area better, and Wei Huan needed his help.

He found a hidden spot and turned the ring on his finger. A holographic screen lit up, showing Ah Zu’s face.

“Ah Heng? Are you okay?”

“I’m great—not missing an arm or a leg.”

Relief washed over Ah Zu’s face. “Good, I only got out thanks to you.” Then he remembered something. “Right, didn’t you see something last time? I recall you had something to say.”

Wei Huan thought for a moment, then decided to trust Ah Zu. He told him about the clones in the test chamber.

“You’re saying… that entire warehouse was filled with people who looked exactly like you?” Ah Zu was startled. “Holy cr*p, so the one we found was just one of many?”

“I’m the only successful surviving test subject—but I ran away, so it was all a waste to them. That’s probably why they keep repeating the experiment,” Wei Huan said, frowning. “But for what? What exactly are they after?”

Ah Zu suddenly perked up like a spring. “Right, now that you mention it—I remember. Before I escaped, I found an encrypted file and gave it to someone in our group who’s good at decrypting. It was really complex, so he only got part of it, but even that gave us some clues.”

Ah Zu swiped his finger, and a preview of the file appeared on the left half of the screen.

Wei Huan squinted at the text. “Demon puppets…”

What does that mean?

“Exactly. We suspect the lab’s current main project is fusing demon with humans.”

Parts of the document were highlighted. “Look—even though the specific experiment procedures haven’t been decoded, just reading the intro makes it obvious: they want to create ‘superhumans’ capable of matching a demon’s power and send them into battle.”

“Superhumans? Why not just use a half-demon?”

Another face appeared onscreen—it was Leah. She shoved Ah Zu aside with a look of disdain. “Can’t even explain it right.”

Then she turned to Wei Huan. “Think about it. Do half-demons not have their own minds? Don’t they choose their own side? Most would rather be bullied in the Demon Realm than live in the Mortal Realm. The ‘demon puppets’ mentioned in this experiment—clearly they’re trying to make war puppets the government can control. Basically, humanoid weapons.”

She paused, then added, “If these experiments succeed, how many days of peace do you think the Mortal Realm and Demon Realm will have left?”

Wei Huan fell silent.

A terrifying thought crossed his mind.

Could it be that his original body had also been used for something like this?

Wait a minute.

Ah Zu reacted first. “But I don’t get it. If the institute wants to create demon puppets for war, then what’s the deal with Ah Heng? All his clones are purely human. He is too. What does this have to do with their research?”

Wei Huan analyzed, “I lean toward it being unrelated. Their so-called demon puppets must involve combining demon with humans.”

“There are probably two main types of ‘combination’: using a demon’s body or organs to enhance human functions. If I remember correctly, humans used to hunt demons for their serum to use on themselves, but it failed. So they must’ve tried other approaches.”

“What’s the second type?”

“The second is using a human body as a vessel to hold a demon’s soul. A demon’s soul is different from a human’s. It’s one with the demon core, where all its power is stored. The stronger the demon, the stronger its soul.” At this point, Wei Huan leaned against the tree, arms behind his head, acting smug. “But that path is doomed to fail.”

Ah Zu asked again, “Why?”

Leah sighed and answered in his place, “Demon souls definitely have their own consciousness. Even if you manage to put it in a human body, it can’t be controlled like a puppet.”

She was absolutely right. Wei Huan nodded, because that was exactly his current situation. He added, “And I’ve heard demon souls vanish soon after death. Just think—if they can’t even collect the soul, how are they supposed to experiment on it?”

He was the only successful test subject, which already said a lot about how hard the process was.

Thinking it through, Wei Huan realized it was actually very important to figure out why the experiment worked on him. But he couldn’t reveal his true identity to these two humans. That part he’d have to investigate on his own.

“But…” Wei Huan continued, “I think there’s something weird about my experiment too. Why clone someone in the first place? The clones aren’t some kind of super soldiers. And they used something as rare as gou wen poison. After I escaped, they immediately resumed making more clones. And when someone broke into the test chamber, they responded so aggressively, nearly killing us both.”

“That means the experiment is extremely important to them and highly confidential,” Ah Zu quickly added.

Wei Huan snapped his fingers. “Exactly. So at the very least, we need to figure out who the original body of this clone is. I don’t have any memories, so I can’t help you much. But with your organization’s abilities, it shouldn’t be too hard to investigate a human, right?”

Ah Zu sighed and scratched his head awkwardly. “We’ve actually tried. But the population of Fan Zhou is huge, and the ID system is tightly monitored now. We still need to look further.”

At that moment, a swivel chair behind Ah Zu and Leah turned around. Wei Huan finally noticed another person in the room. The man had a VR headset on, apparently gaming. He suddenly interjected, “No need to look. I already hacked the system and cross-checked the photo you gave me against the Fan Zhou citizen database. That person doesn’t exist.”

Doesn’t exist? Then how did they even make a clone? They can’t clone someone out of thin air.

“He’s part of our team too,” Ah Zu explained. “The one who cracked the encrypted file. Just call him Qing He.”

Qing He…

For some reason, Wei Huan felt he looked familiar. Without showing it, he quickly took a screenshot of the screen to save Qing He’s image.

Lowering his hand, he quietly zoomed in. He noticed a mark on Qing He’s face. Though mostly covered by the VR visor, a blue edge peeked out clearly.

“Anyway, we’ll keep looking into the cloning,” Leah said. “Now that you’re inside Shanhai, you could also try finding clues from the demon side. If this institute is really doing these kinds of experiments, there should be missing demons—or at least missing corpses—in the demon realm.”

Wei Huan raised an eyebrow. “That makes a lot of sense. Oh right, there’s something else I’d like your help with.”

“I saw a tavern in the dark zone called Kong Tong Tavern. There was a guy there—looked pretty good, had green eyes. You two seen him before?”

Ah Zu and Leah exchanged a look and shook their heads. But Qing He, still furiously gaming in the background, cut in, “Yo, so you’re into guys?”

“Who’s into guys?!” Wei Huan immediately retorted.

Qing He calmly took the lollipop out of his mouth. “Then why so defensive?”

“How am I being defensive—wait, how does that mean I’m into guys?!”

“You said he looked good.”

Wei Huan nearly exploded. “So just saying someone looks good makes me gay now?!”

Qing He burst out laughing, bending over and pointing at Wei Huan. “This dude’s deep in the closet.”

Ah Zu: “Uh… I’ll just…”

Wei Huan choked. “That’s not the point. The point is, I want to find that guy for serious business.”

“Oh, got it. So being closeted isn’t the point, it’s a fact.”

This guy’s logic is insane!

Before Wei Huan could explain further, Qing He put down the console, still wearing his VR headset, and walked over to a nearby computer. He typed a few times, and a photo popped up on the screen. “This guy?”

Wei Huan took a look—it really was that guy in black. The photo was a little blurry, but those green eyes were unmistakable.

“Is he human?”

“Purebred, 24k human,” Qing He replied, stuffing the lollipop back in. His cheeks puffed out. “Slippery guy, looks like a demon. I vaguely remember seeing him while drinking one night and snapped a picture.”

“Can you help me look into him?”

Qing He didn’t even turn his head. “I’m a hacker, not a private investigator.”

Ah Zu quickly tried to smooth things over. “This guy doesn’t really seem related to our current case. And we can’t just randomly investigate people from the dark zone. If we mess with the wrong guy, we could get into big trouble—and the boss wouldn’t like that.”

“Who exactly is your boss?”

“Ah Heng!”

Hearing someone call him, Wei Huan immediately pressed his ring and the screen disappeared. He looked up and met Jing Yun’s face. “Oh, what a coincidence.”

“What are you doing here?” Jing Yun sat down beside him. “Have you been at school this whole break? I mentioned you to my mom when I went home, and she made me bring you a bunch of good food.”

If it’s bugs, then no thanks…

Wei Huan pulled him up, trying to change the subject. “Speaking of good food, I actually am a bit hungry. Come eat something with me.”

As they chatted and walked out, they left the garden and entered a tree-lined path. Jing Yun wasn’t watching where he was going and bumped into someone.

“Sorry, sorry!” Jing Yun apologized repeatedly. “I didn’t do it on purpose.”

The person responded kindly, “It’s alright. Are you okay?” When they looked up, Wei Huan recognized the person.

Isn’t this the principal? Holy sht!*

Standing next to him was Su Buyu.

This current principal was Bai Ze—fittingly also surnamed Bai, named Bai Xiucheng. Wei Huan remembered hearing about the change in principals back when he was in high school. Principal Bai was around the same age as their parents and was known for his care for students. He liked to stroll around the school and often exercised with students, making him well-liked.

Coincidentally, this principal used to be an old classmate of Wei Huan’s mother, so he had watched Wei Huan grow up, making things feel even more familiar.

Jing Yun didn’t know all that and was clearly panicked. “I’m really sorry. I’ll definitely watch where I’m going next time.”

“You certainly should,” Principal Bai patted Jing Yun’s shoulder. “You’re a Chongming, after all. If even you can’t see clearly, what about the other demons?”

“Yes, I understand…” Jing Yun still didn’t dare lift his head.

“At Shanhai Academy, whether you’re a demon—” the principal’s gaze fell on Wei Huan, “—or not, you must stand tall.”

As he spoke, he clasped his hands behind his back and sighed, “Eyes forward. Only then can you see the road ahead clearly.”

Wei Huan wasn’t in the mood for this motivational talk. His eyes wandered and landed on Su Buyu. Su Buyu gave him a smile.

Our Buyu is so good-looking, Wei Huan thought to himself. Even though he’s only half-demon, he’s more beautiful than most merfolk.

Principal Bai glanced at his watch. “It’s getting late. I’ve got a meeting to attend. Both of you—chin up, chest out.”

“Got it.” Wei Huan played along, puffed out his chest, and even patted Jing Yun on the back.

Seeing this, Su Buyu tried to hold in a laugh, but his dimples still appeared.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, Principal.”

Principal Bai strode off, and Su Buyu lingered a moment. He turned to Wei Huan, “You… doing okay lately?”

“Huh?” Wei Huan looked puzzled.

Seems like he’s alright. Su Buyu smiled slightly. “Nothing, just remembered to ask. I’ve got things to deal with over there.” He suddenly reached out toward Wei Huan, who looked up to see Su Buyu gently pluck a shadowwood leaf from his hair. “So absentminded.”

Wei Huan laughed awkwardly.

Su Buyu snapped his fingers in front of him, and a refreshing breeze with tiny droplets of water swept over his face—it felt incredibly nice.

Before leaving, Su Buyu looked at Jing Yun and said, “If you’ve got time, come to Shangshan and find me. I’ll take you to the Yunsheng Jiehai Tower.”

“Yunsheng Jiehai Tower?!” Jing Yun’s eyes lit up like a child’s.

Though called a “tower,” it was actually an underwater city belonging to Shangshan Academy. Its base was on the sea surface, and the entire structure was flipped upside down. Rumor had it that it was filled with wonders and exotic marine life.

Watching Su Buyu walk away, Jing Yun couldn’t help but sigh, “The teachers and principal at Shanhai are all so nice. Especially Teacher Su—he’s always super gentle and speaks so softly.”

Normally, Wei Huan would’ve echoed the sentiment, but this time he didn’t.

His mind was filled with the last few things Yun Yongzhou had said to him.

Now that he thought about it, Su Buyu and Yun Yongzhou didn’t get along in their past lives. They barely spoke, and when they did, it was always when Yang Sheng was present too. Who knows what happened between them over these past seven years—could they have had some falling out?

[Stay away from Shangshan Academy.]

Was he trying to keep me from seeing Buyu?

Weird.

Whatever beef you two have, don’t drag me into it.

Wei Huan couldn’t figure it out. Out of habit, he cracked his knuckles—accidentally pressing his ring again. The holographic screen popped back up. Although the call had ended, the photo Qing He had uploaded of that black-clothed guy was still on screen.

Afraid Jing Yun would see it, Wei Huan hurried to close the screen and laughed nervously. “Hah, what the heck is this? Why’d it pop up on its own? These school devices…”

“Wait a sec.”

Jing Yun suddenly grabbed his hand, leaned close to the screen, and then turned to Wei Huan with a puzzled look.

“I’ve seen this guy before.”