Chapter 12: Chi You

It was almost impossible to see each other's faces in the dim light. One has to get close enough to an inordinate distance to see each other's silhouettes.

The music changed its tempo, the drums beat on the feet, men and women leaned intimately together, they twisted their bodies, one forward, the other back, as if the lotus root threads were connected at the ends, the temptation hid an ambiguous passion that could not be declared.

But Jiang Luo is stuck on the edge of the dance floor with a man.

Jiang Luo who has put down his hair is gorgeous but also full of heroic spirit, and he is even more dashing and handsome when he has tied up his high hair, and he is valiant.

Never would anyone see him as a girl.

And it's a little awkward for two men to share a dance floor.

After agreeing to it, Jiang Luo felt that he was too hasty in agreeing to it. Even if Chi You wanted to make a fool of himself, he shouldn't have accompanied Chi You to make a fool of himself.

He stood at attention, the strange man's sad, deep gaze on Jiang Luo, a gaze that was enough to raise feelings of guilt in anyone he stared at, "Sir?"

Jiang Luo was not impressed.

As the music grew more intense and louder, the strange man's gaze slid to Jiang Luo's right hand, as if he were simply complimenting, "Your bracelet is beautiful."

Jiang Luo looked sideways at the Yin Yang Ring, the mysterious and beautiful bracelet didn't react half-heartedly, he narrowed his eyes and said, "Yeah, I think it's beautiful too."

The music went to a high pitch, and after a sharp turn, the colored lights that hit the area moved out of the way.

In the brief darkness, a white ghostly hand suddenly stretched out from behind, pushing Jiang Luo forward, and Jiang Luo burst onto the dance floor without realizing it.

The melancholy man followed closely, naturally holding him up and leading him through a dance step.

The unfamiliar palm was placed on Jiang Luo's waist, and the smell of elegant men's perfume seemingly surrounded the tip of Jiang Luo's nose. The melancholy man laughed, "Mr. Good enthusiasm."

In the darkness, Jiang Luo could not see anything, he struggled, the person in front of him said gently, "Concentrate."

Jiang Luo spoke twice and was about to break his hands at the waist when the colorful lights turned back. Under the colorful lights, an invisible black mist clutched his wrist behind his back, as if a thousand ghostly hands were staring at Jiang Luo in the dark, the means of the ghosts were clear and bold.

The man smiled oddly, "Wrong move."

Ghost hands are cold and creepy.

Jiang Luo took a deep breath, 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 was forced to bend over with the force of the tie said with interest, "Oh?"

Jiang Luo stared at the silhouette of the man in the darkness, his hot breath spraying over the man's face, "This dance is not interesting at all."

The corners of his mouth picked up nastily, the dark-haired youth's smile was seductive and vicious, "You've turned my stomach."

The sound of music sharpened violently.

The strange man smiled as he held Jiang Luo's hand, allowing Jiang Luo to quickly and briefly leave his embrace, and in the next instant, Jiang Luo landed in the hands of another man with thick calloused hands.

The man, who had a raspy voice and wore a leather jacket that was supposed to be cool, said, "I'm curious."

Jiang Luo said, "Curious about what?"

He took the opportunity to feel for a pulse at the leather jacket's wrist, and it was beating strongly, a live one.

The contemplation in Jiang Luo's eyes flickered as a new hand reached out in the darkness to his right and took hold of his arm.

Jiang Luo looked up and saw that the hand holding him was slender, young, and full of fingers, like the hand of a male college student.

Still a living hand.

Melancholy Man for one, Leather Jacket for one, and this for another.

Do evil spirits become so powerful in the first seven days?

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

Damn it, why isn't the yin-yang ring responding?

The male college student emerges from the darkness and takes over the leather jacket as Jiang Luo's new dance partner.

He lowered his head and leaned on Jiang Luo's ear, a ghost face emerged on his fresh and handsome face, which became twisted for a moment. The ghost face's smile hooked up, but his tone was cold, "Who can't make you lose your appetite?"

Not waiting for Jiang Luo to say anything, he continued in a falsely gentle tone, "I still prefer you with your hair down."

I don't know which hand reached out and removed the leather band from Jiang Luo's hair, the black hair broke free from its restraints and suddenly spread out over Jiang Luo's shoulders.

A strand of mischievous hair fell slowly at the end of Jiang Luo's eyes, reflecting his gloomy brow.

Without hesitation, Jiang Luo pulled out the talisman and struck the person in front of him heavily at his chest.

The paper burned from the bottom and turned into ash, the ghostly face on the male student's face disappeared, and he stopped stiffly in place like a robot that had lost its batteries. Another calloused hand reached out, and Jiang Luo turned around quickly, his black hair flying, and he struck the talisman onto this hand.

In the other one, Jiang Luo throws himself on the body of a melancholic man.

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

Jiang Luo looked towards the three puppets.

The three stooges were handsome, and they woke up with confused eyes for a moment, then naturally dispersed among the crowd, not seeming to notice anything wrong with them at all.

The evil spirits can both possess bodies and make puppets and souls, which Jiang Luo can't defend himself against.

Jiang Luo walked quickly through the crowd with a sullen face to the bar.

But when he got to the bar, he saw a group of people all drunk on the bar. Ge Zhu was memorizing the Tao Te Ching while holding a beer bottle, and when he saw Jiang Luo coming over, he burped and asked vaguely, "Jiang Luo, where have you been, we couldn't find you."

Jiang Luo : "...... Why are you guys drinking like this."

Ge Zhu can no longer hear him, and, clutching his bottle and muttering to himself, suddenly falls asleep headfirst on the bar.

Zhuo Zhongqiu came sweating from outside, she was relieved to see Jiang Luo, "Thank God you're still standing. This bunch of losers got drunk after one sip of wine, I've already sent three of them to the car to go to a nearby hotel, Jiang Luo, you help me carry them out."

Jiang Luo: "Good."

He picks up Ge Zhu and puts Ge Zhu's shoulder on his own, glancing at the bartender as he gets up.

The bartender smiled politely, "Can I help you, guest?"

Jiang Luo smiled, "Needed, thank you."

The bartender comes out and helps Jiang Luo to take Ge Zhu to a cab outside the bar. Jiang Luo takes the opportunity to take out a piece of paper and stick it on the bartender, but to his surprise, the paper and the bartender do not react.

Jiang Luo put away the talisman paper, feeling that he had been teased.

Manipulates the bartender by deliberately revealing his weaknesses, but then voluntarily abandons the bartender as a puppet before he can do anything about it.

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

This idea really annoyed Jiang Luo.

Because he understands that without pinpointing the Chi You puppet's method, the art of puppet soul refining will only leave him defenseless.

Jiang Luo turned around and went back with Zhuo Zhongqiu to help the other two drunks out. The cab could only seat four people, Zhuo Zhongqiu said, "I'll send you the address of the hotel, you take them back first."

Jiang Luo shook his head, Zhuo Zhongqiu is still a girl even if she's handsome, "I'll call another car and follow behind you."

"That's fine," Zhuo Zhongqiu said, "I'll tell the driver to slow down."

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

Jiang Luo stood on the side of the road to take a taxi. Under the dark night, the weather became slightly cooler, and the fine rain fell from the sky, and was the first to fall on Jiang Luo's eyes.

Jiang Luo blinked as the rain fell on the ground and colored black dots that quickly disappeared.

A black umbrella was suddenly placed over Jiang Luo's head, shielding him from the drizzling rain.

Jiang Luo looked sideways and a pale face was printed in his eyes.

In a slim suit, with a gentle smile at the corners of his mouth, five fingers gripping the umbrella handle, the man's face had an eerie flood of deathly beauty and a vaguely defiant air of madness, the corners of his mouth hooking wider and wider, like pleasure and like coldness, as he hummed a tune as if to say, "Good evening."

The spirit is still alive.

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

The cab stopped in front of Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo got into the car expressionlessly, lifting his eyelids to look in the rearview mirror, "Follow that cab in front."

The master driver stepped on the gas.

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

"I say," the tail of the right eye, not covered by the palm of her hand, picked up, and Cherry glanced at the driver with a mixture of provocation and mockery, "Chi You, why are you so idle."

*

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

Jiang Luo had used up six talismans before he managed to make it back to the hotel. He was covered in sweat, which clung to his clothes and hair, and still smelled of alcohol from moving the drunks back to their rooms.

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

When he came out again, the cold air from the air conditioner made him shiver, and Jiang Luo wiped his hair and plugged in the hairdryer next to the bed to blow it out.

There was a knock on the door amidst the loud buzzing.

The talisman paper behind the door lit up, reminding Jiang Luo that what was coming outside was not human.

Jiang Luo yawned and continued blowing his hair, half-unmoved.

Half a minute later, the knock at the door resumed.

The talisman flared up abruptly, and after this time, there was no sound from outside.

The whole seven charms have been used up by now.

Jiang Luo Look at the time, good guy, it's only just past midnight.

After five or six minutes of the hair dryer going off, Jiang Luo stopped blowing his hair until it was half dry. He's physically tired but mentally energized, knowing that Chi You won't stop and that there's still a big fight to be had.

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

To himself, he said, "Are you a fake?"

How it feels like you're not helping at all.

Sure enough, there's no such thing as a sudden pie in the sky.

Jiang Luo sighed for a moment, and another knock sounded at the door.

Jiang Luo brow jumped, he rolled over out of bed, put on slippers gate walked to the door to open the door, but there is no one outside the door, empty hotel corridor is 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 took a step forward with both feet, and the darkness in him seemed to come from the depths of hell, burying the lights and cutting through space.

The mist was sticky, and the black mist slowly covered Jiang Luo's form outwards, finally wrapping around Jiang Luo's toes, and the last strand of his hair.

Jiang Luo was drowned in pure black fog, and in the midst of the black fog, there was a pale, greenish hand that picked up his hair in a playful manner.

"I didn't think you would want to see me so badly on the seventh day of my first month." The hand moved slowly to entwine itself around 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?"

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

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

It's only been a few days since I've seen you, and compared to the frail mist that was Hotel 129, Chi You at this point even has a vaguely human form.

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

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

"Seven talismans hitting my body, this taste is really not very comfortable," Chi You's laughter was getting more and more sinister as he said slowly, "You surprised me, fellow Jiang, teacher never knew that you had such a talent."

Jiang Luo's hair shifted around on his shoulders, and the knot in his throat rolled.

"But your talisman is gone," Chi You said regretfully, the hand on Jiang Luo's chin growing heavier as the eerie chill jolted up from Jiang Luo's spine, "Sensei will, now, begin to teach you."

"Rule number one, honor your teachers."

The black mist wrapped around Jiang Luo's shoulder, and with a rattle of bones, Jiang Luo's arm hung helplessly at his side.

Dislocated.

The black mist went down from the arms and surrounded Jiang Luo's two thin ankles.

The feeling of dislocated arm is very painful, so painful that Jiang Luo's face is white and full of 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 as if it hid a fiery, seething soul, and he said softly, "Teacher, you're right."

The black mist was about to break Jiang Luo's ankle when it stopped, Chi You was a bit puzzled and said lazily, "Huh?"

Jiang Luo gently raised his intact hand and rested it at the shoulder of the humanoid mist, "As a student, one is to respect the teacher."

Behind the mist, Jiang Luo's hand behind Chi You's back abruptly unfolded, revealing a thick pile of yellow talismans.

The yellow talismans were spread out like poker, at first glance there were dozens of them. Jiang Luo smiled and said, "Tonight I will only kill you once, and torture you for a night at a time, isn't that honorable?"