This Damned Thirst for Survival

Feng Li, a superficial curmudgeon, really does have dirty secrets too.

It’s true, the world is as black as the crow.

Jiang Luo’s lips curled up as he let go of Feng Li’s hand. Feng Li paused and slowly stood up straight, looking deeply into Jiang Luo’s eyes.

The fog obscured their forms, making it difficult for those on the shore to see. Jiang Luo could not see what Feng Li was thinking, and he had no interest in knowing. However, Jiang Luo did see that beside his own black water, the pale taint of Feng Li’s body had abruptly become somewhat thicker.

Like ribbons scattered in all directions, swirling and swirling, they are purified by the fountain when they are not noticed.

Jiang Luo wanted to look more closely, but a Disciples came running from outside in a panic, shouting, “Master Tao, it’s bad, the formation on the mountain has been broken!”

The Taoist priest Wei He was startled, “What?!”

Ten minutes later, all the men arrived at the edge of the formation.

This mountain is not the Lian family’s mountain, but only the Lian family can come up to the top. There are two formations at the “No Mundane Nen”, an internal one in front of the gate, and an external one farther up the mountain that prevents ordinary people from reaching the top. The formation Disciples refers to as having been destroyed is the larger external formation.

Jiang Luo also came over, draped in clothes, and crouched down next to the formation, looking at the black scorch marks scalding the ground.

The Fatalist looked at the extent of the destruction and said faintly, “Totally ruined, huh?”

Daoist Master Wei He’s face was ugly, “This formation has lasted for twenty to thirty years, which senior person broke it?”

“Ah!” Disciples shrieked again, tugging at Taoist Master Wei He’s sleeve and pointing at the internal formation in front of the door of the “No Mundane Nen” behind him, “Look, Master!”

The group turned their heads towards the door and saw a section of grey smoke rising out of thin air in the middle of the doorway, like the colour of smoke from a wood fire, which meant that something had hit the formation and was burnt into smoke by it.

Wei He said angrily, “Who is it!”

He rushed over to check it out.

Apart from Taoist Master Wei He, no one else was in a hurry. The funeral shop owner walked next to Jiang Luo and shook his head, “Who in their right mind would want to come here, when there is a fatalist, a celestial master and an old Taoist priest? Isn’t that asking for death?”

Jiang Luo didn’t really care who broke in, he rubbed his ears, “Lao Ji, this stuff is useful, how did you refine it?”

Ji Yaozi, knowing his nature, became wary at these words, “What do you want, you don’t want to get a wholesale, do you?”

Jiang Luo nodded fervently, “In pairs, I think I’m still missing an earring.”

“You’re thinking that once a day is too little to go inside someone’s Innerscape,” Yao Ji Zi rolled his eyes and said straight away, “but you can only do that once a day, no matter how many dementors you have. You think it’s easy to get out of your soul? Once a day is barely enough, and I only dare to give you this earring because your soul is stronger than normal and your body and soul are extremely compatible.”

Jiang Luo has sadly given up on the idea of asking for another dementor pendant.

But as everyone else was busy with the broken formation, Jiang Luo had a bright idea and said, “Old Ji, I have something to do, you can watch my men.”

After saying this, and without waiting for Ji Yaozi’s permission, he ducked down into the courtyard door.

*

Treatment Duan Zi Several people are located in the pharmacy.

Jiang Luo arrived silently at the dispensary, closed the door behind him and walked into the inner room to see the three Duan Zi lying on the bed.

Duan Zi, Du Ge and Qin Yun were lying in turn, apparently unharmed but unconscious and as white as paper.

Jiang Luo looked at them one by one, tested their pulses, heartbeats and breathing, and all three had the physical characteristics of a living person.

He hadn’t noticed anything unusual. Could it be that Duan Zi’s sending them to see the candles really had nothing to do with the Fates and was just a coincidence? Was it also a coincidence that none of the three siblings had really happened to him or the Lian family when all three of them died in the dream?

The contents of the apothecary were in a messy pile, and Jiang Luo let the three men go and began to examine the contents around him. There was a window in the inner room and the glass looked as if it had been weathered for decades, both sides were stained waxy yellow and it was hard to see out. Jiang Luo went to the window and looked out, and found that the opposite side of the window was the woodshed.

It is clear that electricity is all that is needed to boil water and cook, and without electricity, a fire charm is also possible, but the “No Mundane Thoughts” office insists on the nature of heaven and earth and uses firewood to cook and boil water. There is a tall pile of firewood in front of the woodshed, which is almost taller than the woodshed.

Jiang Luo took a casual glance and saw what appeared to be a fancy green object in a hidden spot under the tarp-covered woodpile.

He watched for a moment, and with a thought in his mind, he pushed open the door and walked under the woodpile.

When Disciples came over and asked Jiang Luo what he was doing, Jiang Luo smiled and said, “Nothing, go ahead, I’m just looking around.”

Jiang Luo went around to the other side of the room and saw what he had seen in the dispensary, which looked like paper.

The pile of matches was very high, almost two and a half metres high. Jiang Luo stepped on a rock and reached down to pull the plastic sheet out from underneath.

Two paper figures are yanked to the ground.

Jiang Luo separated the two paper figures and knelt down to examine them.

The man has a mole on his nose and one eye is large and the other small; the woman is deeply wrinkled and has a kindly look.

Their hair is painted white, and these are two paper figures of old people’s age.

The two paper figures slowly overlap with the two Jiang Luo remembers.

The two elderly couples at the chalet cottage who brought firewood up the mountain and were caught in a blizzard.

Jiang Luo had already understood, and he held his chin up with a meaningful smile, “Interesting.”

“What’s interesting?”

Someone behind them asked.

Jiang Luo paused and turned his head naturally, his smile placid and his tone calm, “Sir, I mean it’s interesting that there are two paper people here.”

When he finished, he smiled faintly again, “It’s just a paper man, not surprising.”

Feng Li’s eyes went to the paper figures, “These two have been used.”

“Hm?” Jiang Luo humbly asked for advice, “I did not see it.”

“You haven’t learned yet, of course you can’t see,” Feng Li said, “look at their eyes.”

Jiang Luo looks back and sees that the eyes of the two paper figures are dull and lifeless, as if they have been washed away with a layer of colour, in contrast to the bright colours of the flowers and greens on their bodies. There was a white dot in the middle of the eyes, so realistic that it reminded Jiang Luo of the idiom of “drawing a dragon and dotting its eyes”.

“There are some paper figures that can be made to look real, and when you light up the eyes, they come to life,” Feng Li says, “and after they are used, the light in the eyes is gone.”

Jiang Luo came to a realization, “So that’s how it is.”

He was about to ask Feng Li again how he could tell the difference between living paper figures when Feng Li suddenly stepped forward and took him by the wrist and went around to the back of the woodpile to hide.

Jiang Luo knew that Feng Li must have done this because someone was coming, but who was coming that would make even the titular Master of Heaven hide?

He waited patiently, and after a while, the voice of Daoist Wei He rang out from outside, “Fatalist, do you have time to patch up that formation?”

Before the fatalist could reply, the funeral shop owner said loudly, ” Taoist Master Wei He, you can’t mend that formation?”

His voice was so loud it sounded like he was deliberately reminding someone.

Wei He Daoist pulled out his ears and wondered, “If it was just broken I could of course mend it, but that formation was completely destroyed, and when I say I’m mending it, I’m actually redoing it. I’m not really sure about such decades old formations …… What are you doing so loudly?”

The funeral shop owner said in a louder voice, “I’m afraid you won’t hear me in your old age.”

Taoist Master Wei He flung his sleeve, “You-”

“All right,” the predestined spoke up, “don’t make a fuss.”

Jiang Luo looked around the corner and saw Li Xiao coming around the corner of the corridor, where she had met the three destined people.

Jiang Luo narrows his eyes and watches her expression change carefully.

Li Xiao was a bit scared, but she fought back her fear and walked forward, “Hello, uncles.”

She kept her head down the whole time, not daring to look up at anyone, and after a few words with Taoist Master Wei He, she carefully brushed past, not half crossing paths with the hosts the whole time.

With Jiang Luo’s accurate eye for people, he couldn’t tell if the scene where Li Xiao doesn’t recognise the Fatal Man is staged or real.

He wisely requested outside help, “Sir, look at this girl, is she a paper person?”

Jiang Luo thought that Feng Li would just stand beside him and look at him, but instead, someone came up behind him.

His curmudgeonly, ascetic master, glancing in the direction he pointed, but not answering, turned to ask, “What is her relationship to you?”

The scent of sandalwood came from the Heavenly Master, and I don’t know if it was Jiang Luo’s illusion, but as Feng Li approached him, the temperature around him seemed to plummet, and the wind whimpered and blew like a howl.

Jiang Luo was baffled, “Stranger relationship.”

Feng Li Yu Guang glanced at Li Xiao, frowning slightly, and looked at him a moment longer before saying, “It’s a paper man.”

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