This Damned Thirst for Survival
chapter-52

But after a punch, Jiang Luo’s expression froze.

It was as if he had struck a stone, and the stone did not hurt; he was about to die of pain.

Jiang Luo’s brow twitched, forcing down the pain, he withdrew his hand without changing his expression, and then kicked Chi You hard in the stomach.

Chi You’s back hit the coffin lid with a dull thud. The music outside stopped abruptly, and the coffin stopped shaking.

The evil spirit laughed in a muffled voice that grew louder and louder. Jiang Luo pinned Chi You down, smashed the lid open with Yin Hu and tumbled out of the coffin in style.

The water ghost and the red-clad wedding ghost were no longer outside the coffin, and he turned around immediately, ready to push the lid on.

“Mr. Ikari,” he looked at the evil spirit in the coffin with a leathery smile, “you stay in there alone and go find your heart.”

The coffin is about to be covered, and in the last gap left, the evil spirit with his back against the coffin has changed position, lying gracefully flat inside the coffin, with his hands on his stomach.

The lid of the coffin gradually covered the oddly curved corners of his mouth and over the colour of his dark eyes.

“There was a click – and the coffin closed tightly.

Jiang Luo put dozens of Fu Lu on the lid of the coffin.

He looked around, but although the red and white ghosts were no longer around, the fog was so thick that he could not see from five metres away. The palanquin was parked next to the coffin, and apart from a stream, it was impossible to see where it was.

Jiang Luo touched Yin Hu’s head, looked towards the coffin and suddenly smiled coldly, “Bump it.”

Yin Hu yawned, the tiger’s mouth opened wide, he took a few steps back, his paws built up strength and suddenly slammed into the coffin.

The coffin was abruptly knocked over on its heels and tumbled into the stream.

The stream carried the coffin away, and Jiang Luo stood in place, laughing freely, “Have a good trip, teacher.”

*

The distant coffin was intercepted by a monk.

The picture-perfect bald-headed monk slowly removes the Fu Lu from the coffin, and the next moment Chi You pushes it open and sits up calmly.

Ge Wuchen sighed, “Master, is it because of this trivial matter that you called me here and asked me to distract Ge Zhu?”

Chi You stepped out of the coffin and led him towards where the white mist was thick, “Don’t you want to see your brother?”

Ge Wuchen lowered his eyes and gently turned his flowing beads, “Master is joking.”

*

After “sending off” Chi You, Jiang Luo raises the curtain of the palanquin.

Lu Youyi fainted in the palanquin, his brow furrowed as if he were caught in a nightmare. Jiang Luo patted his face, ” Lu Youyi?”

Lu Youyi woke up with a jolt after three consecutive calls, “Shit!”

He struggled with his arms and legs flailing about, but Jiang Luo backed away just in time. It took a few moments for Lu Youyi to calm down. He looked at Jiang Luo and let out a breath of relief, “I was so scared, Jiang Luo, do you know what happened to me?”

“I blinked and you were gone, and I reached the palanquin in which sat a stern ghost dressed as a bride.”

He grimaced, terrified, “I almost got killed by her.”

I wasn’t the only one who was unlucky, it turned out.

Jiang Luo was comforted and he was instantly in a better mood, “It’s all right now, come out.”

When the two of them stepped out of the palanquin, Lu Youyi looked at the thick fog and frowned, “Something is not right.”

Without a compass in their hands, Jiang Luo waved the Yin Yang Ring twice, but it lit up on all sides, unable to give Jiang Luo any indication of north. This was the first time the Yin Yang Ring did not work and Jiang Luo’s brow furrowed, “The Yin Yang Ring doesn’t work either ……”

In its usual location, the Yin-Yang Ring is at the intersection of yin and yang, and can accurately identify its position, whether in the sky or underground, in dense forests or tall buildings.

There is only one place that does not distinguish between north and south east.

That is the underworld.

Jiang Luo ripped off the red silk flower ball from the palanquin, ” Lu Youyi , with the earth-seeking method.”

Lu Youyi nods as he pulls out a small knife and cuts off the inverted triangle of decoration at the top of the palanquin. Taking it, he runs to the stream and fills it with water, then carefully brings it back. Lu Youyi buried the bottom of the pointy triangle in the mud, so that the exposed surface was like a bowl.

Jiang Luo pulled a few silk threads from the red silk cloth and rolled them into a rope, with room on his lips to say, “Lu Youyi, who seems to be more unlucky now?”

Lu Youyi said with a bitter face, “I.”

He couldn’t resist trying to explain, “But I thought hard again, and there really wasn’t that dead branch under my feet when I landed.”

Jiang Luo swept him off his feet, “I don’t believe it.”

Lu Youyi sighed heartily.

Jiang Luo walks over to the bowl with the rolled rope and Lu Youyi thrusts a straight cut branch straight into the middle of the bowl. Before the branch falls over, Jiang Luo quickly wraps the rope around the branch several times, then presses the rope with his index fingers on both ends, to the left and back to the limit.

The rope is taut, holding the branch firmly in the middle. Lu Youyi dips his index finger in the bowl of water and gently dabs it on the tip of the branch.

The branches of the tree move slowly.

It bends slowly downwards from upright until the tip of the branch touches the ground, where it draws a straight line under the binding of the rope.

After the straight line was drawn, the branch unloaded violently and fell over the edge of the bowl and onto the ground.

Jiang Luo let go of his hand and followed the straight line, “Let’s go.”

The two men walked through the thick fog while the mist around them grew thicker and thicker. I don’t know how long they walked, but two red lights were faintly revealed in the white fog ahead.

Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi look at each other and quietly approach the red lanterns. Once inside, they discover that they are two red lanterns hanging on an ancient city gate.

On the gates of the city are written four words as gloomy as dry bones: Fengdu Ghost City.

Below the gates, people are constantly entering and leaving the city. There are people in strange costumes like Teng Bi and men and women in modern clothing. There were shadowy figures in black robes, who hurried in and out with their heads bowed, and on either side of the gates were Bull Head and Horse Face.

All walked lightly, their heels not touching the ground, and it was obvious that they were not alive.

Jiang Luo, with a stony face, and Lu Youyi hide by the roadside and watch the ghost town.

“The earth-seeking method has shown us this place, and we reckon we’ll have to cross the ghost town to leave,” Lu Youyi whispered, “The Red and White Furies should be the yin and yang that carry us through the ghost town.”

Jiang Luo said, “The ghost town is to be entered, but we can’t enter it like this.”

His eyes wove through the crowds that came and went.

It is not always ghosts that enter and leave the ghost town, but also the living.

However, the living are all walkers and can only stay in the underworld for a small amount of time after arriving. Under normal circumstances, ordinary spirits will not give them a hard time, but if they meet a brutal and unreasonable ghost, they will almost always die.

Therefore, the matter of walking in the shade has always been a means of last resort.

Lu Youyi worried, “How do we get in? Pretend to walk as shady people?”

Jiang Luo said casually, “You think it’s so easy to pretend to be a walking netherworlder? Unless there are exactly two dead people, where are we going to get their clothes?”

It’s not that they can’t rob them alive, but after the raw robbery, the shade walkers who have been robbed of their clothes will have to wait for death.

Lu Youyi sighed several times, but inside the ghost town, a few little ghosts suddenly came out.

The little ghost yanked the body of the walking netherworlder in his hand and cursed, “Three more dead.”

“The Rakshasa ghost is in a bad mood, I really don’t want to deal with his body after he’s killed, it’s bad luck to kill it and have to eat it with the soul and flesh in it, and the broken flesh falling all over the place.”

“How many walkers have died today?”

“There are eight of them!”

Another ghost said, “Of course he’s in a bad mood because he can’t open the ghost fighting arena. Only the strongest ghosts can open the fighting arena and become the king of the fighting arena, and he’s not there yet. How many years has it been since we have opened a ghost fighting arena in Ghost Town? Brutal ghosts like him love to watch us struggle in the mouths of ghostly beasts.”

“It’s a bad day for these cunt walkers to come.”

“Not only is it a walker, we are also straining our skins, this Rakshasa ghost is not squeamish, and the brats have been eaten by him several times.”

“Ugh.”

A few ghosts found out-of-the-way places to dump the bodies of the walkers and reentered the ghost town.

Lu Youyi silently turned his head to look at Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo : “……”

Jiang Luo : “It’s none of my business.”

Lu Youyi said slyly, ” Jiang Luo , never underestimate your poisonous milk power, in this respect you are number one.”

They both hid in the white mist and slowly approached the place where the brats had thrown the bodies. When they walked in, they did find the bodies of eight walking ghosts draped in black robes.

Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi found two pieces of clothing that were not too bloodstained and put them on, and took the things that the walkers had with them. As a token of appreciation, they both recited the Sutra of the Afterlife to the corpses.

It was only when they were ready that the two headed for the ghost town.

Jiang Luo turned the black cloth bag he had taken off the shadowy man upside down, “What’s in here? It smells like blood.”

When he opened it, he raised an eyebrow and said with interest, “A pig’s heart.”

It is understandable that a yin-walker would bring other things Jiang Luo, but why would he bring a pig’s heart?

Lu Youyi also untied a black cloth bag and looked up, “I also have a pig’s heart here.”

Jiang Luo touches the Yin-Yang ring thoughtfully.

Amidst the thick white mist, a golden mouse clutching the heart of the idol scurries in from beneath Jiang Luo’s black robe, and without moving, delivers the heart of the idol and Yuan Tianzhu, which is in its mouth, to Jiang Luo’s hands.

Jiang Luo has been secretly protecting the heart of the idol with the golden runes of the Yin-Yang ring.

One is that the runes isolate the evil nature of the idol’s heart, preventing it from being detected; the other is that if someone tries to take the idol’s heart from the rat, Jiang Luo will detect it in an instant and then speedily summon the rat back into his bracelet.

Jiang Luo is acutely aware of his unlucky constitution, and the idol heart and Yuan Tianzhu will never be safe as long as they are placed on him.

They walked to the entrance of the ghost town.

The bull-headed horse-faced man with his eyes closed opened them and looked at them, held out his hand and said, “Entry fee.”

Jiang Luo asked, “What is considered a fee to enter the city?”

“A heart,” the bull’s voice hummed deep as a bell, “and if you can’t get it, you can’t enter the city.”

Jiang Luo smiled and said, “We have hearts.”

His head is bowed, the brim of his hat covering his face, and Jiang Luo’s face is expressionless as he puts away his smile.

What a coincidence that you need to give your heart to enter a ghost town.

How does this seem like a request made by Chi You in response to him?

Perhaps there was more to it than that. Perhaps even the Red and White Furies were a means to Chi You’s end, all in order to obtain the heart of the idol in his hands.

Jiang Luo hands the black cloth bag containing the pig’s heart to Bull Head and Horse Face.

Bull Head and Horse Face opened and examined them and said, “Go in.”

Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi have finally entered the ghost town.

The Ghost City is as lively and prosperous as an earthly marketplace, but is covered with an eerie and treacherous atmosphere. On both sides of the stalls, there is a red lantern hanging in the middle, and underneath it stands the stall owner.

The stall owner, his face white and his lips as red as if they were painted with blood, looked smilingly at the flow of people coming and going on the road.

The white mist disappears right in the middle of the ghost town.

Jiang Luo’s Yu Guang sweeps past the two sides and everywhere you look there are ghosts and ghouls with terrifying images. There are severed hands crawling on the ground, ghosts without human skin sticking to the walls with their limbs, and female ghosts with long, spooky hair that would drive the faint of heart crazy if they were here.

His eyes fell on the stall.

The items in the stalls were even more bizarre. Human hands, heads, skins, and dried up babies.

Jiang Luo didn’t look much further and quickly made his way to the exit of the ghost town.

But when they reached the middle of the road, they were blocked in their path by a group of ghosts gathered around them.

In the middle of the ghosts stood an incomparably conspicuous Rakshasa ghost. The Rakshasa ghost was as tall as three metres, with red hair and green eyes, dark and horrifyingly green-faced and fanged.

His voice was so loud that it could almost shatter one’s eardrums, “Send your son to me for a taste, old ghost I have travelled so many ghost towns, but this is the first time I have seen a ghost that has grown five heads.”

The old man’s cries rang out, “Please, my lord, spare our family.”

The ghosts of the underworld are no different from those of the earth, for they are strong enough to do evil things.

Jiang Luo looks on coldly, calculating in his mind the route he will take to leave. But he knows that Lu Youyi is an extremely righteous man who would have been hostile to Jiang Luo for Chi You, would have given his life to save Jiang Luo, and would have wanted to stand up for such an injustice.

Jiang Luo whispered, ” Lu Youyi , you should know that this is a ghost town.”

He paused, “The ghosts that can come and go freely to the ghost town without being taken away by the ghosts, whether it’s that wife or her son and grandson, are most likely not good ghosts.”

Lu Youyi said, “I know.”

He muttered, “I already feel guilty for putting you in danger of breaking into the Red and White with me, so don’t worry, I won’t drag you down any further.”

Jiang Luo said to himself, “Sorry, but the real story is that I have dragged you into the Red and White.

But he didn’t say anything to Lu Youyi, not only did he not say anything, he said with justifiable relief, “You’ve grown up.”

Lu Youyi : “……”

The Rakshasa ghost in front seemed impatient, grabbing the five-headed ghost he saw with his bare hands and sending it to his mouth, swallowing it head by head, chewing it like a gulp, “Yummy!”

The five heads screamed in unison, but one by one the sound was lost, becoming nothing more than scraps under the sharp teeth of the Rakshasa ghost.

The old lady, who had just been crying extra hard, cleaned up her sobs and dived into the crowd to hide.

The Rakshasa ghost had his fill, he laughed and patted his stomach as he turned to leave.

The crowd parted a way and the Rakshasa ghost was about to walk past when he suddenly stopped in his tracks and looked up to sniff the air, “Someone smells.”

The walking shadowy man hiding in the crowd shivered and hid more carefully with his head down.

Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi looked at each other and slowly backed away.

The green eyes of the Rakshasa ghost glanced around the crowd and saw nothing. But he wouldn’t give up. He sniffed the air again and exclaimed, “There’s no mistaking it! It’s the smell of human beings! And an extremely delicious human smell!”

His nose shrugged as he sniffed his way through the crowd, the ghosts cowering to get out of his way.

The route of the Rakshasa ghost is clearly directed towards Jiang Luo and Lu Youyi.

Jiang Luo made a split-second decision: “Run.”

Before Lu Youyi could look back, he was already pulling his legs up and running towards the exit of the ghost town.

Lu Youyi was shocked, “Crap!”

He hurriedly followed after them.

The two men ran with a gust of wind that blew their hats off their heads and behind them. Jiang Luo glanced back as his black hair flew, and the Rakshasa ghost behind him said excitedly, “That’s them! That’s the human smell coming from them!”

Lu Youyi couldn’t help but smell his own crevice, “I don’t fucking smell!”

Jiang Luo took advantage of his talk to pull away from him by another metre.

Lu Youyi is very secure at this time.

Rakshasa ghosts chased towards them.

The evil spirit was one storey high, and when he ran, his step was two or three steps taller than Jiang Luo’s. He quickly closed the distance between him and Jiang Luo, laughing wildly, “Compared to ghosts, human flesh is the most delicious thing.”

Jiang Luo squinted his eyes and pulled his vision away. The exit of the ghost town was still a considerable distance away from them. At this rate of running, the distance between them and the Rakshasa ghosts would become zero in half a minute at most.

Since we can’t run, we won’t run.

Jiang Luo stops abruptly.

Lu Youyi almost crashed into him, panting, “Why aren’t you running?”

Jiang Luo turned to face the Rakshasa ghost, his expression calm as he said, ” Lu Youyi , hand you a reason today.”

Lu Youyi asked, confused, “What?”

Jiang Luo touched the Yin Yang ring and the huge Yin Hu suddenly appeared beside him, tilting his head and shaking the sky with a tiger’s roar.

“Run away because you want to avoid trouble and reduce excess right and wrong,” Jiang Luo smiled, his eyes fixed on the approaching Rakshasa ghost, his voice trailing off, “but when running away is useless, there’s no need to run away.”

“This time of year, it’s going to be straight up.”

As soon as the words left his mouth, Yin Hu was already sprinting like an arrow towards the Rakshasa ghost.

With a roar, Yin Hu’s speed increased, and the golden runes on its body flew through the air like a burning flame as it slammed into the Rakshasa ghost with force and ferocity.

The Rakshasa ghost’s eyes went wide as he was knocked over and rolled to the ground.

Yin Hu leaps forward and stomps menacingly on the Rakshasa ghost, snarling at his head.

Jiang Luo’s blood flowed at a rapid rate as he became excited and thrilled. As he looked at the Rakshasa ghost, completely overpowered by Yin Hu, cruel and dark thoughts rose up.

Killed him.

Tear him up.

It was like the one where the Rakshasa ghost had just eaten the five-headed ghost, biting off the flesh of the Rakshasa ghost, ripping off his head and leaving him in pieces, eating his soul and flesh down into his stomach.

Jiang Luo’s heart was beating faster and faster at the thought.

“Flutter, flutter.”

The idol’s heart suddenly beat along with him.

Each beat seems to shake Jiang Luo’s entire soul. In the distance, there was a sudden rumbling sound, boulders sinking and dust suddenly flying.

All the ghosts and ghouls in the ghost town stopped moving in their hands and stared dumbfounded at the movement in the distance.

“The ghost fighting arena has appeared.”

A pair of eyes are on Jiang Luo’s body.

The dark-haired youth was clad in black robes, his breathing slightly ragged, his eyes full of a sharpness that had not yet subsided, the sheer malice that had not yet dissipated from him.

Whispers rose among the little ghosts.

“How can the king of the fighting ghosts be a human?”

“What do you care, as long as the ghost fighting arena can be opened, we can watch the fun. The king of the ghost fighting arena is the one who has the final say in the arena, and whichever ghost he says he wants to throw into the arena, that ghost has to go in. The ghosts in the fighting ghost arena haven’t devoured dead souls for years, so I don’t know how hungry they must be, it’ll be a great spectacle.”

Countless ghosts gathered around Jiang Luo, cheering and swarming around him as he headed for the ghost fighting arena.

Before Jiang Luo could understand what was happening, he and Lu Youyi were standing on the edge of the ghost fighting arena.

The ghost fighting arena is a deep pit.

It is more than ten metres deep and spreads out that huge. Beside the deep pit there is a handful of seats on a high level.

and is the only one.

At that moment, the bull’s head came up to Jiang Luo’s side from among the hideous ghosts dancing on his hands, and he said in a respectful manner, “Please, my lord, take your seat.”

Jiang Luo looked at the bottom of the pit and said softly, “Is this the ghost fighting arena they say?”

The walls at the bottom of the pit are lined with dozens of iron cages with an eerie green light glowing in the middle, the eyes of ghostly beasts.

Ox Head said, “Yes, this is the Ghost Fighting Field. When your lordship opens the Fighting Ghost Field, the Field will be re-buried in the ground at the next son hour. In the middle of this day, Your Excellency is the king of the Fighting Ghost Field.”

A false sweat slid down the top of his head, but he did not dare to wipe it, “Within the ghost fighting arena, whatever you say is what you do. Whichever ghost you want goes down to fight the beast, whichever ghost must go down to fight the beast. Here you are not shackled in any way, but there is only one rule: all the ghosts who have successfully survived the fighting arena will come to see you.”

Jiang Luo thought silently for a moment, then suddenly hooked his lips towards Lu Youyi and said, ” Lu Youyi , go ahead and leave along the exit of the ghost town.”

Lu Youyi said worriedly, “I’m not going.”

Jiang Luo smiled, “I’m relieved that you’re gone.”

After a few words of persuasion, Lu Youyi finally took a step back and left.

After seeing Lu Youyi safely out of the ghost town, Jiang Luo turned back to the frenzied mass of ghosts behind him.

His spirit was extremely relaxed and exhilarated. He tacked on a smile and took a step towards the high seat, accompanied by his oxen and horses.

When Jiang Luo is actually sitting on the throne, he looks down at the evil spirits below him, his long legs folded, his smile deepening at the corners of his mouth.

Carnival.

The evil spirits cheered and shouted loudly. Their appearance was twisted and bizarre, and the whole scene was eerie and frightening, no more than a swarm of demons and ghostly cries.

It’s ugly as hell.

But Jiang Luo was thinking to himself, “This is wonderful.

It was as if his soul had also become one of the ugly evil spirits, gleefully awaiting the birth of blood.

Evil, lustful, looking down on all beings.

The heart of the idol at his heart changed to the same rate as his own heartbeat.

Jiang Luo taps on the armrest of his seat, his gaze sweeps underneath and suddenly settles on the Rakshasa ghost.

The corners of his crimson lips picked up as he smiled, “The first one, that’s him.”