This Damned Thirst for Survival

Chi You smiled and said, “There’s no rush.”

“We still have a long time to go.”

……

Jiang Luo’s eyes snapped open at the crack of dawn.

His eyes slowly move from the left to the right. The table is on the right, the door handle on the left. Jiang Luo looks sideways towards the window, the right handle, beyond which the auspicious Jin Guang is faintly visible.

Wake up.

Instead, he sank abruptly and sat up grimly from the bed.

The sheets and bedspread are stained with a human-sized wet patch of sweat, and Jiang Luo’s shirt is half soaked on the back. His face is expressionless as he pushes open the balcony door and stands looking around in the thick morning dew.

Birds chirp and a sparrow flies over the railings, two thin claws gripping the parapet.

Jiang Luo’s eyes clouded as he clutched the bird in front of him, a cold smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, “It’s you, isn’t it?”

His hand slowly tightens, and as Sparrow’s dark, lightless eyes stare at him in silence, Jiang Luo’s hand grows tighter and tighter, but at its limit, he suddenly relaxes it.

“Eighteen times,” Jiang Luo muttered to himself, his smile widening as he met Sparrow’s eyes, “Chi You , you killed me eighteen times.”

In his final death, Jiang Luo risked his life to pull Chi You off the balcony, allowing Chi You to take the lead over him and fall into a puddle of flesh.

“Did you have a good time dying?” He gritted his teeth and whispered in Chi You’s ear.

A bloodied Chi You smiled, “Ah, not as good as you look in death.”

Eighteen times in all, he killed Chi You once.

The fury within Jiang Luo’s eyes surged in waves as he gently stroked Sparrow’s head and smiled, “What’s the point of killing one of your little puppets.”

He whispered, “How can that be.”

It’s not like you’re going to fucking hurt.

Jiang Luo let go of his hand and went back inside with a cold face.

The anger in his heart and his hostility after eighteen deaths almost burst out of his body. But now, sorry, he only has one thought in mind – he wants to kill Chi You.

He absolutely, positively had to kill Chi You.

The aftermath of the dream still lingers in Jiang Luo’s body, leading him to suspect that the room is haunted and even harbours the remnants of Chi You.

He threw everything in the room that had anything to do with Chi You in the centre of the living room, smashed the cups Chi You had used, threw away the clothes Chi You had worn like rubbish, and found the black suit Chi You had worn in the dream in the wardrobe.

Jiang Luo laughed coldly, threw the black suit at the top of the pile of rubbish and lit a fire with his lighter.

A pile of expensive fabric burst into flames in an instant, and the flames were about to reach the roof. Jiang Luo pulls out a cigarette and lights it with a blaze.

Sparks flicker as Jiang Luo stands by the fire, looking shadowy and uncertain as he takes a drag from his cigarette and watches with cold eyes as the flames spread from his clothes to the floor.

The alarm blared anxiously.

Sofa, wooden cabinet, coffee table, decorative objects.

A wreck.

Destroying Chi You’s things didn’t make Jiang Luo’s mood any better. He stood in front of the blaze, opening the door and retreating just as it was about to hurt him.

It didn’t take long for someone to arrive in a hurry with a hose.

They were followed by a group of seven students who had arrived in their own clothes. The first thing they saw was Jiang Luo, dressed only in a shirt and covered in smoke.

Jiang Luo is still barefoot and in a sorry state, his hair is a little charred at the ends, but by and large he is uninjured.

Wen Renlian took the lead in removing the cloak he was wearing and placed it over Jiang Luo’s body, putting away his smile, “Let’s go to my place first.”

Kuang Zheng found a pair of rubber boots from the utility room downstairs and silently placed them next to Jiang Luo.

The teacher’s house is not far from the student’s house, but it is divided into several buildings. Chi You’s room was unoccupied up and down, which is why it took so long after the fire to be discovered.

After descending the stairs, Jiang Luo glanced back.

There was thick black smoke coming from the window of Chi You and the fire had been put out.

Jiang Luo tugged his lips up coldly and buried his head in the student dormitory.

When he arrived at the student residence, he realised that Lu Youyi had been wrong about the fifty square feet; the student residence was not as big as Chi You’s room, but it was still about eighty square feet. It was more than enough space for a bachelor flat, and slightly more than enough.

Wen Renlian’s dormitory was simply furnished and the group sat in the living room while Jiang Luo borrowed clothes to take a shower, and in the mirror in the bathroom he saw a bit of blood on his brow.

He instantly remembered the gash on his hand where the sparrow had pecked him, the drop of blood, which Chi You had presumably manipulated the sparrow to take from him.

Was this the method used to lure him into the dream?

Jiang Luo wipes the blood from his head, his eyes frightened as he takes a deep calming breath and quickly gathers himself.

When they came out again, the people sitting outside were already discussing the fire. When Jiang Luo came out, Lu Youyi was the first to ask, “Jiang Luo, why did the fire suddenly start there?”

Jiang Luo wiped his hair as he calmly walked over and sat down, “The room was on fire when I got up.”

Lu Youyi frowned, “That’s so strange, did you leave your cigarette unattended and start the fire?”

Zhuo Zhongqiu said, ” Lu Youyi , how can you be so stupid, don’t you see?”

She looked at Jiang Luo’s brow, “When I saw him just now, blood was dripping from his seal, the blood was dark and should have contained some corporeal energy, suppressing the vitality of the living, Jiang Luo had been dragged into the dream world.”

Zhuo Zhongqiu’s sense of the spiritual body is much more sensitive than that of ordinary people. She could see the Yin Qi vaguely twisting around Jiang Luo’s body, but could not see the source of this Yin Qi: “Jiang Luo, what did you dream about?”

Jiang Luo slowly grips the towel and sucks the droplets from the ends of his hair, his eyes darken and he suddenly smiles broadly.

“I met Chi You ,” he said softly, “and he ……”

Jiang Luo slowly straightens up, his eyes darting from person to person.

Lu Youyi, Ye Xun, Zhuo Zhongqiu, Ge Zhu.

Kuang Zheng, Wen Renlian and an unfamiliar foreigner with blonde hair and blue eyes, Sai Liaoer.

He met their eyes and found nothing amiss.

Jiang Luo looks out onto the balcony again.

The balcony windows and doors are closed tightly and there are no sparrows or other animals present.

Chi You is not supposed to be here, but his puppet soul refinement method gives Jiang Luo, who has just been punked once, a great sense of annoyance.

“What’s wrong with him?” Ye Xun asked curiously.

“I dreamt about him last night,” Jiang Luo said quietly as he withdrew his eyes and leaned back, “He said he was lonely down there …… he was alone and always wanted me to spend more time with him. He also confessed his love to me once again, and I had a strange dream, eighteen in a row, each one a picture of spending time with him.”

“We accomplished the most intimate thing in the world together.” He killed Chi You, Chi You killed him.

“There were many exciting and profound dates together.” Burning, drowning, hanging and falling from a height.

“There were times when I almost couldn’t tell the difference between dream and reality.”

Jiang Luo suddenly smiled, “In one dream, he and I were standing on a high building and he told me that if I jumped, I would be relieved and there would be no more worries in my life afterwards.”

He glanced around after he finished and froze, “Why do you all have such ugly expressions.”

“An evil spirit is an evil spirit, even if Chi You becomes an evil spirit it is still this virtuous.” Zhuo Zhongqiu said in a deep voice.

Ge Zhu frowned and said, “Eighteen layers of dreams, that too ……”

“Doesn’t it mean to lay down a killer,” Zhuo Zhongqiu snorted, “to relieve your worries and forget your sorrows? Still the same thing. What a piece of shit. I thought Chi You could still be saved, but now it looks like he’s gone stubborn. Eighteen dreams, and the least determined can’t even wake up, look at that sudden fire.

I am only afraid that I will have to sleep for a long time.

Zhuo Zhongqiu cursed and suddenly stood up, his sharp gaze fixed on Jiang Luo, “You’d better come to your senses.”

Jiang Luo said, “I can’t stop him from coming to me.”

A student of metaphysics, after being pulled into a dream by an evil spirit, doesn’t he know how to break it? This is like an ignorant young girl who is not allowed to fall in love early, but has to fall in love early, and does not lie professionally.

Ye Xun added lightly, ” Jiang Luo only scored three points.”

“……”

A suffocating sense of silence hits.

Ye Xun adds: “After Chi You died, he didn’t even care about the most basic things anymore. Letting him see Chi You and then decipher the dream? He’d be lucky to wake up in time.”

Kuang Zheng shook his head and said, “This won’t work.”

Several hateful glances were directed at Jiang Luo as Wen Renlian probed, “Jiang Luo, when you saw Chi You in your dream, did you feel happy?”

Jiang Luo pulled up a smile, “Happy, happy as can be.”

“But don’t worry, I won’t go with him so soon,” Jiang Luo smiled, “I told you, I will avenge Chi You and find his murderer.”

“I want to be strong,” Jiang Luo murmured, slowly opening his hand and looking down at his palm, “without my powers, I can’t do anything.”

The urgency that had previously forced him to become stronger grew stronger and stronger, mixed with Jiang Luo’s majestic anger.

Jiang Luo re-clenched his hand.

He would also love to give Chi You a taste of what it’s like to die 18 times in one night.

Jiang Luo didn’t delay for a second and went to class with his classmates after eating.

The courses in Natural Sciences and Social Studies are divided into a number of categories, broadly speaking mountain, medicine, fortune telling, divination and phrenology. This morning’s class is Fu Lu.

Jiang Luo rummaged through the memories of the original owner in his head and managed not to find anything useful.

The teacher of Fu Lu’s class is an old gentleman, also wearing a Taoist robe, who looks very serious and not easy to approach.

Jiang Luo sits in the place of the original master, with the materials for writing charms already laid out on the table. Yellow paper, red paper, brushes, ink, ink stone, and a Dharma seal.

The ink must have been spiked with some herbs to ward off evil spirits, and the brush is engraved with ancient carvings of charms that appear to be some years old.

When all the people had arrived, the old gentleman said, “The charms you have come to learn today are not easy, and I will be satisfied if half of you can make it. If you feel overwhelmed, you must not force yourself to write them, but must break your pen in time to protect yourselves.

Ge Zhu said, “Old man, we understand, please do.”

The old gentleman, with his mind calm and his mouth full of chanting, finished the incantations in turn before drawing the talisman, then concentrated on the tip of his brush and drew it on the yellow talisman in one stroke.

By the end of a Fu Lu, the old gentleman’s face was faintly sweaty. He put down his brush and breathed a long sigh of relief. Jiang Luo was surprised to see a light-coloured Jin Guang flicker above the paper, and on closer inspection, the writing above the paper was smooth and beautiful, the handwriting seemed to be alive, with a dragon and a tiger lurking, and spiritual energy faintly overflowing from it.

Jiang Luo was inevitably unfamiliar when he first saw someone write a rune, but miraculously, he remembered the rune without looking at it for a few moments.

Next to him Lu Youyi said with a sad face, “How come this suppression charm is so difficult, I definitely can’t draw it.”

Jiang Luo turned his head and asked, “A suppression charm?”

” There are various types of Fu Lu, divided into suppression amulets, invocation amulets and healing amulets, which are Dao suppression amulets that can exorcise demons and calm evil spirits.”

Jiang Luo’s smile deepened, “Interesting.”

If only we could have the town of Chi You.

“We can’t write it,” Lu Youyi sighed. “To make a Fu Lu, one has to use air, but one’s air is very limited. Most people run out of qi halfway through writing a Fu Lu with such complex and powerful runes, so if they continue to write it, they will only hurt themselves.”

But Jiang Luo always had the feeling that he could draw it easily, and after hearing Lu Youyi’s words, he wondered if he was overthinking it, “What would happen if I ran out of air and forced myself to write?”

Lu Youyi replied seriously, “Probably forked.”

Jiang Luo : “……”

He returned breathlessly to his seat, put pen to paper and stared.

Jiang Luo placed the brush on top of the yellow talisman and tried to recite the incantation as the old man had done, but unfortunately, he could not recite a single incantation.

So he put down his pen again, opened the Fu Lu books, compared them one by one and found the incantation to be recited, which he swallowed whole a few times.

Ge Zhu took a sideways glance at Jiang Luo and couldn’t help but sigh, so he simply went forward, intending to give Jiang Luo some pointers on how to write the talisman.

Jiang Luo put down his book just as he was about to pick up his brush again after reciting the incantation, when it suddenly occurred to him that he needed to draw the talisman by lifting the air, and what was this air?

Sai Liaoer, a foreigner sitting to Jiang Luo’s left, is also frowning, clutching his brush like chopsticks and smudging ink all over his face. When he saw Jiang Luo frozen at the table, he gave Jiang Luo a big heartless smile and said in a thick accent, “Are you okay? It’s okay, I won’t be either, neither will anyone else.”

Jiang Luo, however, was not happy that he would not.

He must have some means to strengthen himself against Chi You.

An experience as defenceless as last night was one he never wanted to experience again.

Jiang Luo took a deep breath, stopped exploring how to lift the air, and dropped the brush without hesitation.

From the very first stroke, Jiang Luo’s whole body and mind was devoted to Fu Lu. Jiang Luo’s full attention was focused on this charm, and he drew it to the end of the strokes without any mistakes or pauses in between.

But after Jiang Luo had finished writing, he felt something was wrong. The old man was sweating slightly after writing a charm, but when he finished he was so refreshed that it was as easy as if he had drawn a picture with his hands.

Truth be told, the pattern of the rune is not much more difficult than the drawing.

Jiang Luo mused that he had failed, and when he put down his pen and looked up, Ge Zhu was standing in front of his table, staring at the talisman paper on the table, his eyes about to glare out.

“Jiang, Jiang Luo ,” he faltered, “do you, do you sell, do you sell charms?”