Chapter 5

"What the hell?"

In astonishment, Ji Jue's heart tightens, and he can't help but become nervous.

A thief?

That's too rare!

After all, his family is so poor that if a thief came, he might have to hold two bags of tears and go out. If he had a little conscience, he might press two hundred yuan on the table before leaving to let the child study hard and study hard.

Beishan District is located on the outskirts of Yacheng. If you want high-precision, there is nothing, if you want dirty, messy, and poor, it has never lost. Illegal immigrants, gangs, smuggling, and even homicide... while chaotic, the number of murder cases has steadily ranked first in all districts of Yacheng for years. The stability of the ranking is such that even the Viceroy has to call him an old man!

And this old house of Ji Jue's family, saying it has experienced vicissitudes is already a compliment. It leaks rain on cloudy days, leaks wind in summer, leaks water during the day and leaks electricity at night. It has never been good, even if Ji Jue has carefully maintained it for the past few years, it is hard to hide the decay. So after so many years, even if there were two occasions of meeting petty thieves, everyone came in to see this empty house, and they all said "sorry" sympathetically and turned around and left.

Ji Jue bends down, pulls half a steel bar from under the bed, carefully steps on the creaking floor, goes downstairs, and probes left and right, even more guilty than a thief.

But besides the damaged door handle and a line of footprints passing through the living room and disappearing into the kitchen, he didn't see anything at all.

"Hey! Come out! Brother, you found the wrong place, my family has no money!"

There is nothing here except a fragile college student who can eat, sleep, and be lazier than you!

Ji Jue probes his head. In the kitchen, there is only a refrigerator with two doors pulled open, facing him and exposing the leftover food that makes people cry, the lamp tube behind the door is flickering, dying just like this thirty-something-year-old refrigerator itself.

Ji Jue is struck by lightning!

Tears are almost coming down.

It's fine if the thief doesn't leave empty-handed, but why did he even steal the half plate of white-cut chicken that he brought back from Lu Ma the day before yesterday?! He was planning to add a dish for his birthday in two days!

"Inhuman, damn it!"

He looks at the black fingerprints left on the plate, and can't help but scold again, but looking at the empty kitchen and the window open to the street, how can he not know that the thief has long run away, and can't help but hate it.

If he had known that the purpose of the evil forces was the white-cut chicken in his refrigerator, he would have picked up the steel bar to fight with the thief, and wouldn't have been terrified for so long!

As a result, his refrigerator was broken!

And the moment he touched the refrigerator door, amidst the humming sound of the motor like an old cow, a voice beyond expectation rang out: "Watch your back."

At that moment, Ji Jue turned his head abruptly.

In the oncoming fishy wind, he saw a pair of scarlet eyes.

Looking at him.

Starving...

Right above the kitchen entrance door, in the crevice between the ceiling and the wall, a figure like a spider, weird and hunched, was wriggling, chewing the last remaining bones with a crunching sound.

Sharp teeth like blades were chilling.

And the moment he saw the face of the figure, Ji Jue couldn't help but scream.

"You... you are that old man from yesterday!!!"

Isn't it?

He remembered that old face clearly!

It was clearly that old man who pedaled a tricycle and didn't want to die to hit him, almost causing him to go through the process of reincarnation in another world... The situation was too chaotic at the time, and no one found out when he slipped away. Ji Jue didn't take it to heart, but he didn't expect that he would dare to break into his house!

It's just that the appearance looked even weirder than yesterday.

It highlights a human-like appearance.

Don't know what medicine he took wrong.

"Good, you actually dare to come again! So you are determined to eat me?!" Ji Jue is furious: "If you don't pay, don't think about leaving today! Get down from my wall!"

The old man follows the advice.

Very obedient.

The moment Ji Jue told him to get down from the wall, he had already—flown! Pounced! And! Arrived!

Too fast.

It was simply like the moment a spider or a mantis catches prey. The foul-smelling wind swallowed Ji Jue in an instant. Ji Jue subconsciously retreated, blocking the refrigerator door in front of him. The next moment, he saw that the door of his own refrigerator, which was useless except for being big and stupid, was torn open by the old man's sharp five fingers, and the sharp nails grazed his face, scratching a cut.

In the panic, Ji Jue kicked out, but couldn't kick it, and instead retreated a few steps, hurriedly bypassed the dining table, and ran to the kitchen door while the old man was pulling his hand.

Just like that, watching the old thing tear his refrigerator door into pieces.

The weird old man, hunched like an ape, curled up on the wreckage of the refrigerator, groping for things inside, and even grabbed the porcelain plate he had just dropped and stuffed it into his mouth, crunching it into pieces.

The scarlet eyeballs were full of chaos.

"Eat, eat, eat... so hungry..."

The corners of the mouth torn by the porcelain plate opened and closed, blood flowed out, and was licked back by a long tongue slowly. The old man raised his head, looking straight at Ji Jue, drooling: "Fragrant, you are so fragrant..."

"Good, stop talking, help when one party is in trouble, right?"

Ji Jue didn't think, took out his only forty-eight yuan and nineteen cents of change from his pocket, slapped it on the table: "Old man, there is only so much money, take it for morning tea... I recommend that shop north of Liupu Street, the steamed dumplings are cheap and the quantity..."

Boom!

The dining table was also torn apart by the old man screaming and roaring, along with the kitchen cabinet behind where Ji Jue was just standing, broken pots and bowls fell all over the floor, echoing with a sound that broke Ji Jue's heart.

Broken, does he not like siu mai?

Ji Jue crawled out of the kitchen, his brain empty: siu mai doesn't eat, pickled powder is also good!

But no matter how empty his brain was, Ji Jue understood that what the old man wanted to eat was not siu mai, fried dumplings, rice noodle rolls, small cage buns, or claypot rice... He wanted to eat him!!!

When the fishy wind rushed towards his face again, Ji Jue gritted his teeth, gripped the steel bar in his hand, and swung it out with all his strength, towards the old man's forehead!

No longer caring about respecting the old and loving the young!

A loud noise erupted.

The steel bar flew out of his hand, rebounded, just like hitting a cement pier with all his strength.

The steel bar, which was enough to smash several old men's skulls, only left a cut on his forehead, but two cracks like knife cuts were scratched on Ji Jue's arm.

Blood flowed out, splashing.

Falling on the old man's face, it was swept away by the long tongue, like drinking mellow wine, making the old thing tremble with excitement, screaming excitedly.

"Fragrant! Fragrant! You are so fragrant!!!"

"I can go to your mother's fragrant party!"

Retreating staggeringly, Ji Jue grabbed the water bottle and cup on the cabinet and smashed it without rhyme or reason, turning and running wildly towards the door.

After briefly tasting the smell of Ji Jue's blood, the old man who fell into ecstatic excitement chased after him, trembling with excitement.

But unexpectedly, when passing by the stairs, Ji Jue's movements stopped suddenly.

Reaching out, he grabbed the fancy stair railing he had repaired a few days ago, pulled the sharp iron branch out of the cement that was barely patched, turned around, and slashed at his face!

In an instant, the iron branch sank into the eye socket, the old man staggered, and then, Ji Jue flew up and kicked him out of the door, like a rolling gourd, falling into the mud-filled yard.

Without waiting for him to crawl up from the rolling, Ji Jue jumped up and stepped on his neck with all his strength and weight!

Crack!

The sound of breaking was like thunder, ringing in Ji Jue's ears, so clear.

He hadn't had time to breathe a sigh of relief.

He heard the harsh scream from under his feet.

Like the dying wail of some beast, and like a hungry roar and shout.

The old man with half an iron branch embedded in his eye socket kept wriggling and tearing, struggling, and even overturned the electric scooter next to him.

Even though his neck was already broken, that twisted face was still terrifyingly scarlet.

Crazy mouth opening, wanting to bite.

The only thing Ji Jue could do was to try his best, holding the railing tightly, pressing the old man's head to the ground, but he was almost unable to suppress it.

The strength was too great!

He felt that what he was suppressing was not an old thing that looked dying, but some monster wearing human skin. Once he let go, he would be torn to pieces in an instant.

He could feel the thick, nauseating stench from the old thing's eyes, ears, and mouth, and even his body, and even the faint scarlet light.

The fatal injury seemed to be irrelevant.

He was still full of energy!

Even, the broken cervical spine was rapidly reconnecting... ignoring the iron branch piercing the eye socket, moving forward bit by bit...

It's just that, it seemed that for a moment, the old thing's strength suddenly loosened a lot, but then immediately, it became even more violent, and in the constant biting, only viscous blood sprayed from his mouth, falling on Ji Jue's hand.

So cold.

【Detected external active aberrant spiritual quality, do you want to absorb it?】

From the soul and consciousness, the information from the watch suddenly rose and emerged, making Ji Jue overjoyed. Fearing that the watch wouldn't understand, he shouted with all his strength:

"Yes! Yes! Yes! YES! YES!! YES!!!"

Before the words fell.

Even, the moment he didn't even have time to show a smile, a crisp sound came from the watch—tick!

Immediately after, faint light emerged from the dial, extending along Ji Jue's palm and five fingers, outlining complex matrix totems, like circuits, falling into his fingertips, extending downwards along the iron branch.

It was as if in an instant, flesh and blood were no longer flesh and blood, and the palm was no longer a palm, but ushered in a metamorphosis, forming some kind of tool that even Ji Jue couldn't control.

Along the crack above the eye socket, it pierced into the old ghost's skull!

Then—the invisible machine wheel turned, like a black hole's terrifying gravitational force spread, and the siphon sufficient to suppress all aberrant spiritual quality began!

The harsh scream stopped abruptly.

Replacing it was the sound of boiling, like a kettle roaring on the stove, and thick blood light sprayed from the old ghost's eye hole, following the matrix, and disappeared into the watch.

The old thing that was twitching and convulsing began to wither rapidly.

Only viscous blood color kept wriggling, struggling, like crazy insects, being dragged out from his body and sucked dry by the watch in one breath!

The numbers on the dial climbed crazily, and in an instant, reached the level of 59.

In just a few seconds, it almost caught up with the spiritual quality reserve that Ji Jue had accumulated for many years before!

And the old thing that kept twitching finally lay on the ground, unable to move anymore, no, it was more like... returning to its original shape, losing that weird power, and dying.

In the eyes full of chaos and hunger, a trace of clarity appeared.

As if waking up from a long nightmare, staring blankly at everything in front of him, bewildered and confused, after a long time, as if remembering something, his lips opened and closed, as if reading a name.

Turbid tears slowly slid from the corners of his eyes.

Falling into the mud.

Just like that, gradually collapsing, turning into ashes.

Except for a tattered set of clothes, it was no longer seen.

Ah, it's a new week, I just reacted.

Ask for follow-up reading, ask for collection, ask for monthly tickets, ask for everything!

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