This Damned Thirst for Survival

Early in the morning, Lu Youyi watched Zhuo Zhongqiu and Wen Renlian return from the Lian family’s master brothers and was the first to ask, “Are they still telling us to wait for Jiang Luo to come down the mountain?”

Zhuo Zhongqiu nodded expressionlessly, “I’ve asked them several times, but only the younger members of the Lian family are here, the elders have all disappeared without a trace. They said two days ago that Jiang Luo would be back in the next two days and told us to wait in peace. But two days had passed and Jiang Luo had not yet returned. Wen Ren and I went to ask Wei He where he lived on the mountain, but they were unclear, saying only that we could get there by walking up the mountain, but we didn’t know where it was.

But after several days of heavy snowfall, the road was closed at the foot of the mountain and no one from the family was willing to risk taking them up the mountain.

Lu Youyi was so anxious that he spun around, “Then what do we do? Why don’t we just climb up? I’m getting parched waiting here.”

“This is the only way to go,” Wen Renlian said, his face heavy as he brushed his chest, the earring treasured in a pocket inside his shirt, “There are many places on the mountain where people can live, but one by one, we can always find where Daoist Wei He lives. It’s too passive for us to wait here for Jiang Luo to return, so let’s go straight up the mountain.”

Ge Zhu was hesitant, “but I was afraid that Jiang Luo would be coming down when we were going up the hill and would pass us by.”

The possibility is not out of the question, which is why they hesitated for two days.

“Then leave one person here to wait,” Ye Xun stood up and looked firmly at Wen Renlian , “I’m going to find Jiang Luo.”

*

Without delay, they grabbed their gear and rushed to the back of the mountain, where the snow was piled up at the foot of the hill to the height of half a man’s body.

Luckily for Lu Youyi, they were above average fitness and it wasn’t too tough.

After two hours of climbing, Zhuo Zhongqiu looked up and saw that everywhere was white. She licks her dry lips, pushes down her anxiety and continues on her way.

There must be a formation in front of Taoist Master Wei He’s residence, and if they want to find it in the vast mountain, now they will have to rely on hard work and luck.

” Zhong Qiu, you know the Lian family well, and you are even better friends with Lian Xue,” Lu Youyi asked, sweating and panting, ” What kind of man is Taoist Master Wei He? Will Jiang Luo be in danger even if he goes to him?”

They could only guess from the undertaker’s words that Jiang Luo would be in danger, but they did not know what kind of danger Jiang Luo would be in.

“Wei He? He was an extremely protective elder,” Zhuo Zhongqiu said with an odd expression, “I had my own ideas when I was in high school, others were flirting with pretty girls and boys, I think I was different, I was flirting with female ghosts. I was so wild, I almost lost my life trying to prove that I was a good match for all ghosts. One time I met a female ghost who was hanging around the dormitory building, the girl was particularly innocent looking, I couldn’t resist talking to her and the female ghost haunted me.”

She gave an unpleasantly reminiscent look, “The female ghost chased me home, insisted on being my girlfriend, and was particularly jealous of the girl who appeared next to me. Lian Xue was almost killed by this female ghost, and when Taoist Master Wei He found out, he rushed straight to my house.”

Zhuo Zhongqiu shivered, “He shoved the female ghost directly into the toilet, and he pressed the flush when the female ghost burrowed out, and he pressed the flush when she burrowed out …… Finally, he also caught the female ghost in Lian’s house, and took the water from Tianbi Pond to bathe the female ghost every day, controlling the amount of water The water is controlled to the extent that it does not kill her and can make her suffer. Do you think that’s all? It’s not over yet.”

“Three months later, when I went to Lian Xue’s house as a guest to look for Lian Xue, I found that the female ghost was still alive and had transformed into a look like she was about to ascend to immortality. I saw her with my own eyes running out into the sun to expose herself, saying that she wanted to destroy herself for the peace of this world, that the evil spirits would only plague the earth, and that she willingly suffered death to eradicate one more evil spirit for the people of the world. ”

Ye Xun listened with open ears and thought for a moment, “That sounds like brainwashing.”

Zhuo Zhongqiu shrugged, “I’ve always thought that the holy water of the Lian family has brainwashing properties that can turn even ghosts into brainwashed people.”

This is something she would not normally dare to say to Lian Xue.

Teng Bi listens silently to their conversation and suddenly his nose shrugs for a moment, looking towards the north-west.

” Lu Youyi ,” he said, “smells like blood.”

The crowd immediately perked up and looked at him with anxious eyes. Lu Youyi hurriedly asked, “Where is it?”

Teng Bi said, “Follow me.”

He walked ahead and shortly afterwards Teng Bi led them to a snowy spot.

Teng Bi walked straight to the spot where the smell of blood was coming from and swept away the white layer of snow to reveal a deep red snow stained with blood underneath.

Teng Bi could already smell whose blood it was and to confirm his suspicions, he raised his hand to wipe the red snow into his mouth and then stood up and said, “It’s Jiang Luo’s blood.”

Lu Youyi takes a breath.

How badly did you have to be wounded to bleed so heavily?

He panicked at once, “Then smell it, smell where Jiang Luo is now!”

Teng Bi is already smelling it.

The low temperatures reduce the spread of the smell. The wind was light down the mountain, but it was brisk in the bare mountain. This affected Teng Bi’s sense of smell, and he sniffed each wind direction carefully before lifting his steps and walking quickly the other way.

The men behind him followed him closely.

Teng Bi said in his head, “Flower Beaver.”

The Flower Beaver is a resentful fox who was abused to death, and one of his abilities is that he can talk to the next person inside his head. Soon, the voice of the flower beaver rang out coldly, “What for?”

Teng Bi wonders if he should tell his master about this, as he does not know what his master’s attitude towards Jiang Luo is now. Surprisingly, he does not want his master to take the opportunity to kill Jiang Luo.

This is not right, but Teng Bi tries, “Are you with the master?”

“We were in the tomb with the master,” the flower beaver’s tone turned bad, “the human said something to the master I don’t know, the master was in a daze several times today, the longest one even out of his mind for an hour. When we entered the tomb owner’s cave, the owner looked at the coffin and muttered the word ‘Jiang ……’ to himself, even if he didn’t say it all, I knew he was pronouncing the human’s name. What kind of ecstasy did he put in the master’s head that the master had turned into a different person.”

In that case, the owner should not have killed Jiang Luo.

Teng Bi seemed relieved as he said, “You tell the master that Jiang Luo is wounded.”

The Beaver felt upset at the news about the human, but had some mixed feelings upon hearing that Jiang Luo had been injured, and he couldn’t help but ask after him, “To what extent?”

“I don’t know,” Teng Bi said, “I’m looking for him.”

There was no more talk from the beaver side.

Teng Bi thought the conversation was over, but two steps later, he suddenly heard the frightened voice of a civet ring out again, speaking fast and furiously, “Teng Bi, when you find Jiang Luo, be sure to let me know first!”

“I got it.”

The wind has changed.

The smell of blood in the cold wind intensifies and Teng Bi’s speed increases. As we get closer, there is more than just the smell of blood, there are clearer and clearer footprints. Lu Youyi looks up from the footprints on the ground, worry weighing heavily on his mind. He raised his eyes to look into the distance and suddenly froze, “Is there a man passed out up ahead?”

Ye Xun narrowed his eyes and looked away, his face paled, “It’s Jiang Luo!”

The group dashed towards the fainted man, running a distance of several dozen metres in just ten seconds. Five or six men ran alongside each other, no one slower than the other, and together they reached the fainted man.

The man who fainted was indeed Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo is huddled in a ball, the side of his shirt on the ground already wet with snow. His face was red, his hair was in a mess covering half of his face, and his lips were bloodless and blue. Lu Youyi carefully helped him to his feet, and Kuang Zheng took off his own down jacket and put it over Jiang Luo as they whispered, “Jiang Luo, Jiang Luo?”

Jiang Luo’s eyelids fluttered.

Zhuo Zhongqiu let out a low curse, “I should have let Ge Zhu come up with me, there is no difference in the way of medicine, he at least knows how to take a pulse or something.”

Wen Renlian raised his hand and touched Jiang Luo’s forehead, “It’s hot.”

Jiang Luo’s eyelids fluttered again and he opened his eyes, sitting up propped up on the ground to the surprise of the crowd, “It’s you guys.”

He didn’t faint at all, he just sensed that someone was chasing him and Jiang Luo had nowhere to hide, so he pretended to faint to see what his pursuer was up to.

As soon as he woke up, several people sighed with relief. Wen Renlian darted in, “Hang on, we’ll take you down the hill.”

“I can’t get down,” Jiang Luo said wanly, “I’ve just walked around, there’s a formation at the top, like a ghostly wall, you can’t get in but you can’t get out, the most you can do to get down is to go here, and if you go further you’ll go back to the top of the snowy mountain.”

“So what do we do?” Ye Xun was anxious, “Do you want Xiao Fen to try?”

“Go back, I know where Daoist Wei He lives,” Jiang Luo gestured for Lu Youyi to tug him up, sweeping his eyes from Zhuo Zhongqiu’s face to Teng Bi’s, “Why did you come looking for me? ”

Wen Renlian said, “The owner of the funeral shop has asked us to bring you something.”

He took the earrings out of his pocket and told Jiang Luo what the undertaker had said. Jiang Luo took the pendant and squinted, wondering if the undertaker meant that he had expected him to be washed away by the Tianbi Pond.

But is the word of the funeral shop owner really worth believing?

Will this earring hurt him?

Jiang Luo didn’t make a move, he put the earrings away and said thoughtfully, “He told you that the trial was in ten days, how many days are left until now?”

Wen Renlian said, “Seven days.”

Seven days.

If Jiang Luo can endure these seven days, he will be able to use them as an excuse to get off the mountain with aplomb. He might even be able to use it as an excuse to see what the Liangs and the Fatalists want to do.

But how do you endure these seven days?

The undertaker’s words were vague and Jiang Luo was sceptical about him. He couldn’t put all his hopes on an earring of unknown utility, and after all, he didn’t know Ji Yaozi very well. So Jiang Luo has to find himself another sure thing.

His Yu Guang crosses Teng Bi again.

Jiang Luo has long since discovered that Teng Bi has regained his memory and that he is no longer the foolish, deadly ghost who is devoted to his friends. But Teng Bi has lurked around them, pretending to be a dead ghost, and if Chi You is not behind it, he doesn’t believe it.

Jiang Luo’s alternative was to have Teng Bi bring Chi You in so that he could use Chi You as a hater to keep himself sane.

But the use of evil spirits is clearly a lose-lose approach to dealing with wild beasts.

Jiang Luo’s emotions were odd and mixed.

There is some irritation and some foolishness in wanting to squash the anticipation of the evil spirits. Some discontent, but also a desire to conquer.

He understood that if once the evil spirits were used at this time, there was a good chance that they would have to go to bed again.

After all, the condition Chi You mentions in the mirror time …… is to get laid.

Jiang Luo thought about this and walked all the way to the gates of the estate.

On the one hand, his body can no longer withstand the threat of death, and he cannot use more extreme methods to maintain his sanity. On the other hand, since he cannot leave the mountain yet, he might as well find out why Ji Yaozi gave him an earring, what Daoist Master Wei He and the Fates are trying to do, and what role Jiang Luo is playing in this.

Only evil spirits can provoke him to desire and malice in a state of desirelessness, and dealing with them seems to be the best way to keep to himself.

Jiang Luo’s reasoning is tugging at him, and he is gradually veering towards the path of the evil spirits.

But he once told Chi You himself that it was “just that once”. Originally, Jiang Luo was going to turn his back on Chi You when he came out of the mirror world and teach her a lesson for daring to ask him to “sleep with her twice”.

But now ……

Jiang Luo gave a tsk.

He wasn’t a man who didn’t know how to be flexible; if he had, he wouldn’t have sought out the evil spirits for sex when he was drugged. The nature of it made him feel happy and stimulated, and he was fine with that, but Jiang Luo really didn’t want to just take it easy on the evil spirits.

Jiang Luo would never give himself up to the evil spirits if he really wanted to have sex, but he was wary of the effects of Tianbi Pond.

In case he really becomes a mundane, wouldn’t he be unable to even think about harming Chi You?

This is also terrible.

On second thought, Jiang Luo was not going to put his foot down, even if he had to do something intimate with the evil spirit. He wants to entice Chi You to come to him, to make Chi You ask for it.

In this way, Jiang Luo is able to maintain his high profile while remaining unobtrusively sober.

Anyway, it was the evil spirit who asked for it, not him, and he could still justify using it up and throwing it away, couldn’t he?

Jiang Luo didn’t know what he was trying to convince himself of by saying so much, but it did make him feel a lot better afterwards.

The next step is to unobtrusively attract Chi You to appear.

The Fates seem to be very strong and there is a chance that Chi You and the dead ghosts will not get to the top of the mountain. And as sex in reality will inevitably leave its mark on his body, Jiang Luo thinks meeting Chi You in his dreams is the best way to go.

Everything is ready, so how do I introduce Chi You?

Jiang Luo narrows his eyes and has an idea.