Chapter 21: 20. The Wind of the Feast

20. The Wind of the Feast

Over these past few days, thanks to Bai Xiue's existence, Zhou Chang had accumulated quite a few thought-silk strands in his mind, just enough to wrap one arm completely.

If he spread those thought-silk strands across his whole body, he could at least manage to move about, though not as nimbly as a normal person.

At this moment, Zhou Chang endured the stabbing pain in his head and sent all the thought-silk strands streaming out, extending continuously through the cracks of the coffin.

In his perception, once the thought-silk strands left his body by a few feet, they went limp and lifeless.

But the moment they plunged into the rice grave covering the coffin, every single strand was like a wire connected to an electric switch—in an instant, brimming with vitality!

Streams of "current" traveled along those silk threads, rushing straight into Zhou Chang's mind!

The stabbing pain in his head, which had persisted because of his forced use of the thought-silk strands, rapidly faded as that "current" poured into his spirit—until it vanished entirely!

A clear, moist breath lingered in Zhou Chang's thoughts, like a spring rain arriving in a sudden gust.

His spirit was like a rice seedling beneath the rain, its leaves unfurling, growing swiftly under the moisture!

Zhou Chang kept his eyes open. The ever-present stench of rot inside the coffin grew heavier now, with the scent of fresh wood mingling in it;

the once dim and hazy scene before his eyes gradually grew clear, and he saw the mold stains between the wood grain on the coffin lid;

blocked by the stone walls of the cellar pit and the rice mountain atop the coffin, he had originally been unable to hear the sound of water from the living spring not far away, but at this moment, that sound reached his ears again, growing ever clearer, as though it were ringing right beside him!

His five senses were continuing to strengthen.

The reason his five senses could grow lay in those thought-silk strands absorbing a certain breath from the rice grave, making his spiritual power—what might be called his "soul"—gradually grow stronger!

A thought flashed through Zhou Chang's mind as he watched the thought-silk strands extending from between his brows through the cracks of the coffin gradually turn red and thicken, like blood vessels.

The thought-silk strands that had gone limp once they left his body by a few feet were now all tough and rigid!

The thought-silk strands were drawing in the deluded thoughts fermented out of the rice grave, and growing stronger along with them!

Even though the number of thought-silk strands hadn't changed, their quality was soaring!

Soon, on the rice grave burying Zhou Chang's coffin, dense clusters of fungal threads crumbled into ash and vanished—Zhou Chang's corpse within the coffin was still constantly steaming and fermenting out deluded thoughts, the body gradually turning into a skin-and-bones husk because of it, but the speed at which the fungal threads grew on the rice grave could no longer keep up with the frantic absorption of Zhou Chang's "blood thought-silk strands"!

The rice grave Zhou Chang lay in gradually fell still.

The blood thought-silk strands extending from his coffin, piercing through the rice grave, swept past the grain mountain burying the stone egg, spiraling upward along the ramp, spreading toward the other rice graves on either side of the ramp where fungal threads had sprouted!

And the grain mountain burying the stone egg remained unchanged from beginning to end, never growing a single fungal thread.

Zhou Chang could not perceive the situation outside. He simply went by feel, letting the blood thought-silk strands keep extending, drawing from the outside the force that strengthened his spirit, while his physical body had by now become wizened, its skin covered in layer upon layer of wrinkles like chicken skin.

Yet Zhou Chang felt that his present state was better than ever before!

Splash—

But just then, he heard a sudden fierce splash of water from the living spring outside!

As though something had crawled out of that living spring, trailing drips of water!

Swish!

Zhou Chang's heart jolted. By instinct, he immediately drew all the blood thought-silk strands scattered outside back in, spreading them to wrap around his entire body.

The fierce splashing outside also stopped dead at that moment.

All was silent around Zhou Chang's ears; he could hear no further movement outside.

A thick stench of corpses filled his nostrils, and a vague premonition of something bad stirred in his heart.

The next moment, a moist, slick wind slithered past Zhou Chang's coffin—

Compared to the invisible wind that had swept through the entire cellar when Fatty had earlier shouted "the fermentation has begun," this wind felt more concrete to Zhou Chang.

When this snake-like wind that had coiled around his body suddenly dissipated, his vision also abruptly wavered, and the scene that had just become clear blurred again in an instant.

Illusory, piercing, raucous sounds of suonas and horns kept pouring into his ears!

Zhou Chang's wizened body began to swell at this moment; the chicken-skin wrinkles on his neck, formed by his extreme emaciation, were slowly smoothed away!

"Hoo—hiss—"

"Hoo—hiss—"

Two utterly different breaths sounded in turn within Zhou Chang's mind!

One breath came from his present flesh-shell—Zhou Chang.

One breath came from his original nature-soul!

Illusory, motley, clear-and-turbid "Qi" was drawn in an unending stream through the nostrils of Zhou Chang's corpse!

Zhou Chang used the blood thought-silk strands on his body to seal this body's mouth and nose, but every pore across this body sprang open in that instant, madly sucking in deluded thoughts and feast-Qi from who knows where!

"Hahahaha—

You can't trap me! No one can trap me!"

The "Zhou Chang corpse" suddenly opened its mouth, bursting apart the blood thought-silk strands wrapped around its lips—now countless times tougher than before—and burst into wild laughter!

"This flesh-shell can never be fully mine, merged into one with my thoughts!

Its 'corpse-fetus transformation into a Jiang' may have already begun when it was buried in the mass grave—it's already walking farther and farther down the road to becoming an 'Old Jiang'—but my nature-soul is still homeless!

I can only try to control it!

To control it forever!

It must serve me!"

As the "Zhou Chang corpse" broke free of the thought-silk strands' binding and laughed wildly, terrifying thoughts flashed one after another through Zhou Chang's mind!

He mobilized those blood thought-silk strands, trying to stitch shut the Qi-pores on Zhou Chang's corpse that were drawing in feast-Qi—the strands had changed from a faint white translucence to their present blood-red; surely they couldn't be useless!

Yet every time the blood thought-silk strands stitched shut a Qi-pore on Zhou Chang's corpse, Zhou Chang's flesh and blood would shudder violently, bursting every blood thought-silk strand apart!

"Hahahahaha—"

Inside the coffin, there was nothing but the mocking, frenzied laughter of Zhou Chang's corpse!

"This doesn't work either?!"

Zhou Chang's mind quaked, fury erupting in a violent surge!

He gathered all the blood-thought threads into his brow, urging his spirit to make each thread as straight and taut as a steel needle, then drove every single blood-thought thread deep beneath the skin and flesh of Zhou Chang's corpse's face!

The blood-thought threads darted swiftly beneath the skin of Zhou Chang's corpse's face, passing through the neck and spreading over the chest—

Beneath the skin of Zhou Chang's corpse, it was as if every blood vessel had bulged out in an instant!

It screamed more wildly, its manic laughter turning into a roar filled with hatred and pain: "Aaaaaaaah—!"

Wherever the blood-thought threads passed, numerous pores ceased sucking in the feasting qi!

Within the skin and flesh of this corpse, Zhou Chang wove a network resembling blood vessels!

"Hiss—Hoo—" The 'breathing' of Zhou Chang's corpse had not yet stopped; it violently sucked in the multicolored feasting qi, still attempting to regain control of itself!

At this moment, Zhou Chang's eyes suddenly grew unfocused!

That damp, slippery wind brought mixed and chaotic feasting qi.

That same feasting qi was silently influencing him; until now, the negative effects imposed upon his thoughts had finally erupted in full force—the distant, intermittent sound of trumpets and suonas at his ears had now become completely clear!