This Damned Thirst for Survival
chapter-12

In the dark light, it was almost impossible to see each other’s faces. One has to get close enough to an excessive distance to see each other’s outlines.

The music changes tempo, the drums pound on the feet, the men and women lean intimately together, they wriggle their bodies, one forward, one back, as if coupled at either end, tentatively hiding an ambiguous passion that cannot be declared.

Jiang Luo, however, is stuck with the men on the male and female dance steps.

With his hair down, Jiang Luo is flamboyant but heroic, and with his hair up, he is even more dashing and handsome.

He only dances male steps.

Jiang Luo and the man look at each other with a clear indication of their attitude in their eyes.

Jiang Luo only felt hatred for Chi You and his puppet, so he couldn’t possibly take a half step back.

The strange man’s sad, deep gaze on Jiang Luo is enough to make anyone he stares at feel guilty.

Jiang Luo is half-heartedly unimpressed.

The music grew fiercer and louder as the strange man’s eyes slid to Jiang Luo’s right hand, as if to simply compliment him, “That’s a beautiful bracelet.”

Jiang Luo glanced sideways at the Yin Yang ring, the mysteriously beautiful bracelet didn’t half respond, he narrowed his eyes and said, “Yeah, I think it’s beautiful too.”

The music went high and after a sharp turn, the coloured lights hitting the area moved out of the way.

In the brief darkness, a hand suddenly reached out from behind and pushed Jiang Luo forward, who was caught off guard and crashed into the arms of the man in front of him.

The man held him up and naturally led him through a dance step, taking the lead in grabbing the male step.

A strange palm rests on Jiang Luo’s waist, and the scent of elegant men’s perfume seems to wrap around Jiang Luo’s nostrils.

In the darkness, Jiang Luo could see nothing, and he struggled as a low voice rang out, “Focus.”

Jiang Luo sneered twice and was about to break the hand at his waist when the coloured lights turned back. Beneath the colourful lights, a thickly calloused hand reached out and gripped the wrist he wanted to move.

Another man’s voice rang out with laughter, “Wrong move.”

A manipulated person in front of him, and another manipulated person behind him.

Jiang Luo has nowhere to hide.

Jiang Luo looks back as the coloured lights turn away and darkness falls anew as another puppet disappears in the darkness.

He took a deep breath and smiled instead of anger, and in time with the music suddenly stepped forward and tugged hard on the man’s tie, “Sir, you’re not being very polite.”

The man who had been forced to bend over with the force of his tie said with interest, “Oh?”

Jiang Luo gazed at the man’s silhouette in the darkness, his hot breath spraying over the man’s face, “This dance is no fun at all.”

The corners of his mouth picked up nastily, the dark haired youth’s smile seductive and malevolent, “You’ve turned my stomach.”

The sound of the music rushes up violently.

The strange man smiles as he takes Jiang Luo’s hand, allowing Jiang Luo to leave his embrace quickly and briefly, and in the next instant, Jiang Luo falls into the hands of another man with thick calloused hands.

The man, whose voice was husky and who wore a leather jacket and was supposed to be a cool guy, said, “I’m curious.”

Jiang Luo said, “What are you curious about?”

He took the opportunity to feel the pulse at the leather jacket’s wrist, which was beating strong and alive.

The contemplation between Jiang Luo’s eyebrows flickered as a new hand reached out in the darkness to his right and took his arm.

Jiang Luo looks up and sees that the hand holding him is long, young and full-fingered, like that of a male university student.

The melancholy man alone, the leather jacket alone, this is another one.

Can the evil spirits of the seventh day of the first month become so powerful?

At school, Chi You could only manipulate the living and dead souls of birds.

Damn, why didn’t the Yin Yang Ring respond? Could it be that even the Yin Yang Ring couldn’t tell the difference between a living person and a puppet?

The male university student emerged from the darkness to take over from the leather jacket as Jiang Luo’s new dance partner.

Jiang Luo is 5’8″, but this man is half a head taller than him. The fresh and handsome male college student leans down to Jiang Luo’s ear, his smile hooked up, but his tone is cold, “Who can’t keep you from pouring out your appetite?”

Without waiting for Jiang Luo to say anything, he continued in a falsely gentle tone, “I still like you better with your hair down.”

I don’t know which puppet reached out and removed the leather band from Jiang Luo’s hair, but the black hair broke free and fell over Jiang Luo’s shoulders.

A mischievous strand of hair falls slowly at the end of Jiang Luo’s eyes, reflecting his sombre frown.

The music starts to sound slow and lingering, as if a couple in love after a passionate love affair is beginning to enjoy the warmth.

Jiang Luo once again danced away from his partner and when he returned, he had a piece of talisman paper between his fingers, and the moment he crashed into his partner’s arms, he did not hesitate to strike it hard against his partner’s chest.

The talisman paper burned from the bottom and turned to ash, and the male university student stopped stiffly in place like a robot without batteries. His other calloused hand is extended and Jiang Luo turns around quickly, his black hair flying as he strikes the talisman on this hand.

On the other, Jiang Luo didn’t even look at it and threw it straight at the melancholy man.

With a flash of fire from the two charms, the bar lights snapped on and the music had changed to another tune.

Jiang Luo looks towards the three stooges.

The three puppets were handsome looking, and they woke up with confused eyes for a moment before naturally dispersing into the crowd, seemingly unaware that something was wrong with them.

How terrifying is the art of puppet soul refinement, where the person they manipulate as a puppet does not even half notice that something is wrong even when the manipulation is lifted.

Jiang Luo walks quickly through the crowd towards the bar.

But when he reached the bar, he saw a group of people all drunk on the bar. Ge Zhu was clutching a beer bottle and reciting the Tao Te Ching, when he saw Jiang Luo coming he burped and asked vaguely, “Jiang Luo, where have you been, we haven’t found you.”

Jiang Luo : “…… Why are you guys drinking like this.”

Ge Zhu, no longer able to hear him, mumbles to himself as he clutches his bottle and suddenly falls asleep with his head on the bar.

Zhuo Zhongqiu came sweating from outside and was relieved to see Jiang Luo, “Thank God you’re still standing. I’ve already put three people in the car to go to a nearby hotel, Jiang Luo, you help me carry them out.”

Jiang Luo : “Good.”

He picked Ge Zhu up, put Ge Zhu’s shoulder on his own and looked at Jiu Bao as he got up.

Jiu Bao smiled politely and said, “Need help, guest?”

Jiang Luo smiled, “Needed, thanks.”

Jiu Bao came out to help Jiang Luo take Ge Zhu to a taxi outside the bar. Jiang Luo took the opportunity to take out a piece of paper and put it on Jiu Bao’s body.

Jiang Luo put away the talisman paper and felt he had been teased.

He manipulates Jiu Bao in a deliberate way, but then voluntarily abandons him as a puppet before he can make his move.

It is as if Chi You is teasing Jiang Luo, hiding in the shadows, where every person and every animal can become the eyes of Chi You spying on Jiang Luo.

This idea really annoyed Jiang Luo.

Because he understood that without a precise method of identifying Chi You puppets, the puppet soul refining technique would only leave him defenceless.

Jiang Luo turned around and went back with Zhuo Zhongqiu to help the other two drunks out. There were only four people in the taxi, so Zhuo Zhongqiu said, “I’ll send you the address of the hotel, you take them back first.”

Jiang Luo shook his head, Zhuo Zhongqiu was still a girl even if she was handsome, “I’ll take another car and follow you.”

“That’s fine,” Zhuo Zhongqiu said, “I’ll ask the driver to slow down.”

She got into the car and a few moments later the taxi slowly left.

Jiang Luo stood by the side of the road and took a taxi. The weather became slightly cooler under the dark night, and a fine rain fell from the sky and was the first to fall on Jiang Luo’s eye jets.

Jiang Luo blinked as the rain fell on the ground in black dots, which quickly disappeared again.

A black umbrella is suddenly placed over Jiang Luo’s head, shielding him from the drizzle.

Jiang Luo glances sideways and a pale face is imprinted in his eyes.

A slim suit, a gentle smile at the corners of his mouth, five fingers gripping the handle of his umbrella, the man’s face had an eerie flush of deadly beauty and a vaguely incongruous air of madness, the corners of his mouth hooked wider and wider, as if pleasant and cold, and he hummed a tune as if to say, “Good evening.”

The shadowy spirit.

Jiang Luo instantly drew out a talisman and threw it over, the ghostly shadows scattered and the black umbrella disappeared.

The taxi pulls up in front of Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo got into his car with a blank face and lifted his eyes to the rear view mirror, “Follow that taxi in front of you.”

The master driver stepped on the accelerator.

Jiang Luo’s right eyelid fluttered a few times, and he sighed as he braced his arm at the window and reached up to hold his forehead helplessly.

“I say,” the end of the uncovered palm of her right eye teased up, glancing at the driver with a mixture of provocation and mockery, “Chi You , why are you so idle.”

By the time we actually got back to the room to rest, it was an hour later.

Jiang Luo used up six Fu Lu’s before he managed to get back to the hotel. He was sweating all over, his sweat sticking to his clothes and hair, and he still smelt of alcohol from moving the drunks back to their room.

Jiang Luo locked the door, put Fu Lu on the back of it and went to his room to take a shower.

Jiang Luo wipes his hair and plugs in the hairdryer next to the bed to blow his hair.

There was a loud buzz and a knock on the door.

The talisman behind the door lit up, reminding Jiang Luo that it was not a human being coming from outside.

Jiang Luo yawns and continues to blow-dry his hair, half-heartedly.

Half a minute later, the knock at the door sounded again.

Fu Lu flared up abruptly, and after this one there was no more sound outside.

The whole seven talismans have been used up by now.

Jiang Luo looked at the time, and goodness knows, it was just after midnight.

After five or six minutes of blasting the hairdryer, Jiang Luo stops blowing his hair until it is half dry. He is now physically tired, but his spirits are high, knowing that Chi You will not stop there and that there is a big fight ahead.

Taking advantage of this brief moment of silence, Jiang Luo raised his right hand to observe the Yin-Yang ring.

Muttering to himself, “Are you a fake?”

Why does it feel like you’re not helping at all.

As it happens, there is no such thing as a sudden pie in the sky.

Jiang Luo sighs for a moment as there is another knock at the door.

Jiang Luo’s eyebrows jumped as he rolled out of bed, put on his slippers and walked to the door to open it, but there was no one outside, the empty hotel corridor was clean, not even a mosquito.

He closed the door and turned around with a sullen face.

Instead, he crashed steeply into an embrace.

Chi You takes a step forward with both feet, and the darkness in him seems to come from the depths of hell, burying the light and cutting through space.

The mist is sticky and black, slowly covering Jiang Luo’s form outwards, finally wrapping around his toes and the last strands of his hair.

Jiang Luo is submerged in a pure black mist, in which a pale, greenish hand teases his hair.

“I didn’t think you’d want to see me so badly on my first seven days.” The hand moved slowly, tangling Jiang Luo’s hair, slowly sliding down Jiang Luo’s side cheek and violently pinching Jiang Luo’s shapely lower jaw.

The voice said pleasantly, “Happy?”

Although Chi You was smiling, Jiang Luo could sense that he was clearly angry.

For behind him the mist had twisted into ghastly, hideous shapes.

It’s only been a few days since we’ve seen each other, and compared to the frail mist of Hotel 129, Chi You, at this point, even vaguely takes on a human form.

Jiang Luo is forced to hold his chin up, a position that makes him very uncomfortable.

The less he likes it, the better Chi You feels.

“Seven talismans hitting my body, that’s not a very pleasant taste,” Chi You’s laugh grew grim as he said slowly, “You surprise me, Jiang, my teacher never knew you had such a talent.”

Jiang Luo’s hair swayed around his shoulders and the knot in his throat rolled.

“But your charm is gone,” Chi You said regretfully, his hand on Jiang Luo’s jaw growing heavier, the eerie chill slamming up Jiang Luo’s spine, “Teacher will now, begin to teach you.”

“The first rule is to respect your teachers.”

The black mist wrapped around Jiang Luo’s shoulder and with a clatter of bones, Jiang Luo’s arm hung limply at his side.

Dislocated.

The black mist runs down the arms and surrounds Jiang Luo’s two thin ankles.

The dislocation of his arm was so painful that Jiang Luo’s face turned white and he was covered in cold sweat.

But such pain is nothing compared to the pain of being killed by Chi You those eighteen times.

Jiang Luo suddenly smiled, the bright light in his eyes hiding a fiery, seething soul, and he said softly, “Teacher, you are right.”

The black mist was about to break Jiang Luo’s ankle when he stopped moving and Chi You, somewhat puzzled, said lazily, “Hm?”

Jiang Luo gently lifted his intact hand and rested it on the shoulder of the humanoid mist, “As a student, you are to respect your teacher.”

Behind the mist, Jiang Luo’s hand behind Chi You suddenly unfurls, revealing a thick pile of yellow talismans.

The yellow talismans spread out like poker, at first glance there were dozens of them. Jiang Luo smiled and said, “I will only kill you once tonight, one time to torture you for one night, is that not very respectful?”