This Damned Thirst for Survival

And you know it.

Jiang Luo almost laughed out loud, “It’s up to you to choose.”

Chi You slowly tightened his grip.

Teng Bi grunted in pain, and Chi You’s Yu Guang stayed fixed on Jiang Luo’s face. When he heard the grunt, the black-haired young man’s face did not fluctuate, as if Teng Bi was a stranger to him, and his posture was even a little impatient. It seems that even if Teng Bi were to die, he would not be upset, but would only take revenge by killing the civet as well.

Like a viper, he is cold-blooded and vindictive, and will bite back at anyone who upsets him with a broken tooth.

The evil spirit, for some reason, wanted to laugh even more. His hand suddenly loosened and Teng Bi fell to the ground, falling to his knees at his feet, Chi You’s tone still laced with laughter, “Yes, I agree.”

The beaver was so moved that it fought to look up at Chi You , “Master!”

Jiang Luo stomped the excited and tearful Hua Cui back to the ground, looking at Chi You with his arms clasped and the golden rope still wrapped between his fingers. He pulled his lips into a smile, the corners of his crimson mouth perfunctorily urging, “Then why don’t you heal his wounds?”

Chi You stretched out his hand, and a black mist left his hand and enveloped Teng Bi in it.

In the black mist, Teng Bi rolls around in pain, trying desperately to contain the pain, but he can’t help but let out a low roar of agony.

With each surge of black mist, Teng Bi screamed in pain. Chi You’s gaze rested on the black mist as he said indifferently, “The flower civet’s paws have toxins, and if you want his wounds to recover, you have to pull them out.”

Jiang Luo was also looking at Teng Bi, “How do you pull it out?”

Chi You said carelessly, “Wouldn’t it be better to cut off all the flesh that has touched the toxin?”

But if it were that simple, Teng Bi would not have screamed so much.

As soon as Chi You’s black mist touched Teng Bi’s wound, Teng Bi felt a piercing pain. He could tolerate pain well, and the living dead had become much more dull in their perception of pain, but this pain was too much for him to bear. He crumpled to the ground, his muscles twitching unceasingly as the black mist sliced away his rotting flesh.

It was not the flesh that was cut off that hurt, but the feeling of the black mist invading the wound. Teng Bi felt as if the black mist was pulling out his tendons and bones little by little, cracking the bones before sucking the marrow out of them. Such pain seemed to work on a soul level, even blurring his mind for a moment, and a thought came to him out of nowhere.

Did the master once suffer such pain when he was infested with the black mist?

But as soon as the idea came to him, Teng Bi wondered, “Who is the owner?

A brief thought flashed through his mind and Teng Bi fell back into a semi-consciousness from the next wave of pain.

Chi You looked down at Teng Bi, his expressionless face looking a little cold and cruel. Soon, the black mist released Teng Bi, and after the toxin was removed, the wounds on Teng Bi’s body began to heal.

The look of pain on Teng Bi’s face eased considerably and he forced himself up, but his limbs were weak and he could only fall to the ground to recover his strength.

Jiang Luo took a good look at him to make sure that Teng Bi was well and then, in good faith, released the half-dead beaver.

Chi You raises an eyebrow in a slightly unexpected way.

He thought Jiang Luo would take this opportunity to continue to blackmail him into letting him off the hook for once with the flower civet, but to his surprise, Jiang Luo was so crisp. He became excited again. He said with a smile, “I thought you would use his life to get me to let you go this time.”

Jiang Luo laughed, “How pointless is that?”

Chi You also felt it was pointless, and if Jiang Luo had done that, his patience would have been exhausted. With a stifled laugh, he approaches Jiang Luo, while his little prey waits for him to come, watching indifferently, as if he has forgotten what Chi You said earlier.

The evil spirit kindly warned, “Aren’t you going to run?”

Jiang Luo snorted, “Do you underestimate me, this Mr. Evil Ghost?”

Chi You wanted to laugh again, “Oh?”

Jiang Luo held out two fingers in front of Chi You and raised his lips in a smile, “Now, I’ll give you two choices.”

Chi You looked at his two fingers with novelty and said, plausibly, “I’m all ears.”

The corners of Jiang Luo’s mouth lifted slightly, “First, you come after me, and we either lose both or you die.”

Chi You’s frantic nerves were instantly ignited by Jiang Luo, and the shuddering pleasure made him chuckle uncontrollably, but he held back his giddy excitement and asked, with a gentlemanly, inscrutable smile, “What about the second one.”

The dark-haired youth wiggled his second finger, “Second, go to the idol that you are about to be parted by the other Liege spirits.”

“That idol must be very important to you,” Jiang Luo lowered his voice, his smile hidden, “if you don’t go, it will be too late.”

Chi You smiled slightly and glanced back at Flower Beaver.

The flower beaver closed its eyes in shame and said in a voice like a mosquito, “Master, I’m sorry.”

Chi You said, “Rubbish.”

Jiang Luo asks, “What did you choose?”

The evil spirit appeared to ponder for a moment, and then said, “Why not both?”

Jiang Luo’s face does not change, which is one of the results he expected.

The evil spirit stepped forward and bent down to intimate the dark-haired youth’s ear, “Don’t worry, I’ll go to the idol first and give you a moment to escape.” He couldn’t help but fondly tease the wisp of white hair that loomed next to Jiang Luo’s ear, “I’ve rarely been so lenient with people, you must treasure this last time.”

Jiang Luo laughed twice.

Chi You paused and smiled, “But don’t worry, I’ll be quick and come back for you when I find the idol.”

With that, he slowly walked away from Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo did not hesitate and turned around to leave, and Hua Xiu had no strength to stop him, but could only look at his back with hatred. Teng Bi, however, looked at him with his weak body and said confusedly, “Friend, are you leaving me behind?”

Jiang Luo paused in his steps, remembering the stone on the back of Teng Bi’s head that had caused him to lose his memory, and continued to stride out.

They and Teng Bi are, after all, two worlds apart.

When Teng Bi remembers everything, he will not say such things.

*

Jiang Luo left through the secret passage in the ancestral hall in order to prevent Chi You from catching up and dragging down his companions waiting outside the cave entrance.

He was fast, running down the stone steps in one breath to the mouth of the secret passage, which he topped off, braced himself with both hands and sat down beautifully next to the hole in the ground in style.

While wearing the robes of the god-god, Jiang Luo went and fooled the evil spirits who wanted to become Chi You’s henchmen, telling them to guard the stone statue and to kill that person as an enemy if anyone passed by.

When Chi You passes, you are bound to experience round after round of attacks from those spirits.

Jiang Luo was so happy to think of that image that he gathered his legs and prepared to get up from the hole, but as he pulled his last leg out, his ankle was suddenly gripped by a cold hand.

Jiang Luo’s brow jumped and he looked down.

Chi You, who was wrapped in a myriad of harsh spirits, looked up and smiled slightly at him.

Chi You is crawling with hundreds of horrific ghosts, all of whom have been lured by Jiang Luo to ambush Chi You. Hundreds of ghostly hands reach upwards in a haphazard manner, pulling at Chi You’s clothes layer by layer, their wails shrill and eerie, their blue faces dripping with blood, the whole scene as horrific as hell on earth.

The handsome face of the evil ghost, who was surrounded by ghosts and attacked in the middle, also became eerily evil and reckless in this scene.

“How can you leave,” Chi You, whose body is crawling with evil spirits, smiles as if he is unknown, his hand gripping Jiang Luo’s ankle and slowly tugging it down, “the game is just beginning.”

Jiang Luo was pulled unsteadily to his feet, and he bent down impatiently to pluck away the evil spirit’s hand.

The moment his hand poked into the hole in the ground, several ghostly hands grabbed at it impatiently, tugging Jiang Luo downwards with increasingly heavy force.

Jiang Luo knocks off a pair of ghostly hands and manages to touch Chi You’s hand holding his ankle.

The evil spirits underground laughed at his actions.

One, two, human white fingers and pale ghost hands touched each other, and the moment Jiang Luo’s fingers accidentally inserted themselves into Chi You’s fingers, he suddenly heard a violent heartbeat.

But this heartbeat was not his heartbeat, but the heartbeat of the idol belonging to him that he hid in his body.

The idol’s heart was beating fast, a violent beat that Jiang Luo felt his own soul vibrate with. The movement of his hands stopped and he looked down and locked eyes with the evil spirit.

In the moment when he locked eyes with the evil spirit, he abruptly saw an image.

In the scene, Chi You stands in front of a fire, looking no more than 11 or 12 years old, his cold face already taking shape.

His face was expressionless as he watched the fire, suddenly flashing a heart-stopping smile.

The ghostly lines on his back grow with abandon, crawling up to Chi You’s neck in a flash, giving the still young face a devastating sense of fright.

“What do you want?” Someone seemed to ask.

A smiling Chi You said elegantly and slowly, “I want the Chi family to perish and the curse to disappear.”

His voice grew lower and lower, but there was little laughter in his eyes, the firelight playing bright shadows on his face, “And I will pull the metaphysical world down with me.”

End of screen.

Jiang Luo came back to his senses and in the next moment a wobble sent him almost headlong into a hole in the ground.

The evil spirit was still firmly clutching his ankle, a false smile reflecting the gloom in his brow, “What were you thinking?”

He said with a wry smile, “How dare you get out of your head when you’re facing me?”

Jiang Luo looked at him steadily for a few moments and suddenly gave a meaningful smile, ” Chi You, I seem to know you a little better.”

Jiang Luo stirred his legs and drew himself up and ran out of the cave.

With a rip, his work trousers were torn in two by the evil spirit.

The slender legs of the dark-haired youth passed before the evil spirit’s eyes and disappeared in a flash.

Chi You looked up at the square entrance to the tunnel, clutching the half-dozen work trousers as the snake followed the other man and disappeared without a trace.

Above the entrance to the tunnel was the ceiling of the above-ground shrine, cobwebs strewn across the beams. He watched in silence for a few seconds, but a sudden surge of flames came from the opening, flames that drove the ghosts to scream and almost burned Chi You’s hair.

Jiang Luo has left two fire charms at the entrance to the cave.

Chi You backs away from the fire and waits in the shadows as the ghostly sounds die down. One of the ghosts at his side even had the audacity to reach out and grab half of the fabric in Chi You’s hand.

Chi You glances coldly at the ghost.

The stern ghost he was looking at shuddered abruptly and timidly withdrew its hand.

“He’s my prey,” Chi You said, “Got it?”

The moment his breath was released, the ghosts in him retreated in an instant and disappeared without a trace in the twinkling of an eye.

In the blink of an eye, Chi You was the only one left. Chi You sighs softly as he slowly sorts through the mess of clothes that have been stripped by the ghosts.

Jiang Luo was somewhat displeased to be let off the hook like that.

But this displeasure has prompted him to look forward to his next encounter with Jiang Luo.

Chi You didn’t go after Jiang Luo after all.

Perhaps it would be less fun to let Jiang Luo die now, instead.

He thought in his mind.

Chi You rambled back underground and brought the idol to its landing place.

Having recovered somewhat, the Flower Beaver took the idol and placed it on a stone bed, “Master, shall we begin now?”

Chi You returned to his senses and slowly undressed his body, “Now begin. Where’s Teng Bi?”

The Beaver’s expression twisted for a moment, “He snuck away to his ‘friends’ while I couldn’t move.”

“Sentient,” Chi You seemed to be praising, but it sounded a little cold, “No wonder even Jiang Luo was willing to trade your life for his chance to live.”

The Beaver’s breath caught and his paws immediately itched again as he remembered the abominable human.

Chi You took off his clothes and possessed the idol.

The beaver watched him nervously, and after an unknown amount of time, the idol’s form slowly changed to that of Chi You. The figure was elongated, the face became handsome, and after a few more moments, the idol slowly opened his eyes.

The eyes made of stone had turned into those of a living person, dark as an abyss, and there were a few defiant stiffnesses between the rolling of the eyes.

The Flower Beaver whispered, “Master, how is the new body?”

“Not bad,” Chi You controlled his body to rise and stand up as he put on the clothes he had prepared long ago, “a godlike body with an evil quality fits me better than a human body with an outstanding spiritual body.”

The Beaver couldn’t help but give a smile.

But Chi You suddenly frowned and reached up to place a hand on his chest.

The beaver’s smile faltered and she asked nervously, “Master, what is it?”

Chi You’s face sank and, unsure of what had occurred to him, he suddenly smiled again and said to himself, “Ah, someone has stolen my heart.”