Chapter 45: 44, Consuming the Remnants of the Thought Demon

44, Consuming the Remnants of the Thought Demon

“I—I’ll help you!”

Hearing Zhou Chang’s words, Bai Xiue gathered her courage, leaned close to him, and extended her hand, threading strands of lotus root silk into the debris blocking the alleyway, weaving it tighter.

The thought-silk and lotus root silk intertwined upon the wall of piled debris.

Qu Li Bai Ma remained silent, quietly observing Zhou Chang’s calm yet slightly mad expression; after a moment, she suddenly said: “What if Li Xiamei has more than one skin left?”

Even if only two skins remain, you will pay a heavy price for what you’ve done.

Especially since the taboo of ‘Black Chang’ lingers here—any slight misstep will mean certain death.”

Zhou Chang heard her and glanced at Bai Ma, who had appeared on one side of Bai Xiue’s face; he immediately turned back and continued releasing thought-silk to reinforce the wall before him, offering no reply to Bai Ma’s question.

What ever happened that was guaranteed to succeed just by doing it?

If there’s even a three-tenths chance of succeeding, it’s worth trying.

If you lose, just accept it!

“Bang! Bang…”

Behind the debris blocking the alleyway, the sound of Li Xiamei’s frantic slashing suddenly weakened, then faded after a few strikes, vanishing entirely.

Immediately after, the brick wall beside the debris began to shake violently!

Bricks trembled, and purple-black corpse-water seeped from the cracks between them!

The stench of decay pierced the nostrils—just smelling it was enough to fill a living person’s mind with terrifying imaginings!

Gurgling corpse-water formed a purple-black human shape on the trembling wall; clusters of blood veins wove across the surface, merging into flesh, and skin membranes sprouted, covered in thick, wild hair like tangled reeds—

In an instant, the emaciated, bone-jointed figure of ‘Li Xiamei’ grew out of the wall!

It pulled a dagger from its mouth and shrieked, slashing it toward Zhou Chang’s neck!

“Clang!”

Iron thought-silk covered Zhou Chang’s arm; he raised it to block Li Xiamei’s strike!

On the other side, where his shoulder pressed against the ‘debris wall,’ the woven network of thought-silk and lotus root silk shattered in vast sections; the entire wall collapsed under inertial force, splitting apart in an instant!

“Boom—!”

Amid swirling dust, Zhou Chang’s arm, still blocking Li Xiamei’s dagger, saw iron thought-silk slither toward the blade, tightly coiling around its edge—

Zhou Chang’s eyes turned red; his spirit quaked with fierce intensity!

As he strained to mobilize his mental power, the dagger wrapped in thought-silk flipped its blade, the tip driving straight toward Li Xiamei’s throat!

“Ssshh!”

To an observer, it appeared as if Li Xiamei herself had raised her dagger and stabbed it through her own throat!

The dagger piercing its neck continued to drag sideways, severing half its throat!

Corpse-water soaked the dagger, turning it into black nourishment that dispersed into the air!

Zhou Chang clenched his lips, his face hard as forged iron—in that instant, he extended his other arm, seized Li Xiamei’s long hair, and pulled with all his strength—

He was trying to rip Li Xiamei’s half-severed head clean off her neck!

“Squelch! Squelch!”

“Crack! Crunch!”

Flesh tore, tendons and bones shattered!

Purple-black corpse-water stained Li Xiamei’s skin, stretched taut over protruding ribs; it screamed, twisted its head ninety degrees, and opened its mouth full of canine teeth, biting down hard on Zhou Chang’s arm holding its head!

“Whoosh!”

Strands of lotus root silk, woven by Bai Xiue into ropes, wrapped around Li Xiamei’s head and pulled with all their might!

Bai Xiue’s face was filled with terror, yet the orderly arrangement of her lotus root silk transformed into ropes without a single strand out of sequence, despite her panic!

“Aaaaaaah—!”

In the instant the dagger pierced Zhou Chang’s flesh, his face twisted in agony and fury!

Waves of nourishment spilled from beneath Li Xiamei’s fangs—the nourishment of the corpse-spirit—absorbed by it; its nearly severed neck regrew muscle and flesh, healing from the intake of this nourishment!

The corpse-spirit’s eyes glowed crimson, as if oozing blood!

Still locked in a bite on one arm, its other arm, wrapped in iron thought-silk, shot out like lightning, gripping Li Xiamei’s now-healed neck and yanking upward—

“Squelch!”

Corpse-water gushed skyward!

The neck of Li Xiamei, which even the combined force of Zhou Chang and the others had struggled to sever, was now ripped clean off by the corpse-spirit!

Li Xiamei’s headless body froze rigid in place.

The corpse-spirit reached out and seized Li Xiamei’s head; at the moment of her ‘death,’ it finally released its grip on the corpse-spirit’s arm.

The next instant, the corpse-spirit embraced the horrifying head, opened its black maw, and prepared to swallow it whole—

The corpse-spirit’s metamorphosis begins by feeding on nourishment and delusions;

then on minor anomalies;

finally, on the limbs of the Thought Demon as its feast!

This corpse-spirit, which Zhou Chang had tightly controlled, barely fed on nourishment or delusions, and had instead been drained of vast quantities of delusional nourishment, now skipped the step of feeding on minor anomalies and began directly consuming the Thought Demon’s limbs!

It received no apparent nourishment, yet it continued growing at an utterly terrifying pace!

Beside him, Bai Xiue watched Zhou Chang suddenly attempt to devour Li Xiamei’s head; she grew tense and frantic: “Young Master Zhou, don’t—you shouldn’t—”

Bai Ma stared at the corpse-spirit now devouring the Thought Demon’s limb; something flashed in her memory—her face turned deathly pale, her eyes filled with despair!

“The fuck…”

At that moment, the corpse-spirit, hunched over and gnawing on the Thought Demon’s limb, suddenly paused, muttering: “I still have to go to the distillery…”

Threads of thought-silk writhed beneath Zhou Chang’s corpse-skin, forming a dense network; as Zhou Chang exerted his mental force, the net trembled, restraining the corpse-spirit’s movements!

The corpse-spirit screamed, struggling violently with Zhou Chang for control of the body!

After a moment, Zhou Chang seized complete dominance!

His ‘body’ finally fell still.

“Let’s go, let’s go…”

Zhou Chang glanced at the head of Li Xiamei in his hand, spat it disdainfully onto the ground, then waved to Bai Xiue: “It’ll come back a second time—then it’ll drain the delusions of everyone nearby.”

“Hurry, get moving, or it’ll turn you into a tree stump.”

“Okay!”

Bai Xiue’s eyes brightened; she obediently agreed and immediately followed Zhou Chang toward a corner to hide.

Bai Ma lowered her eyelids, dazed and hollow-eyed, as if the sight of the corpse-spirit devouring the Thought Demon’s limb had triggered some buried memory.

“Woooh!”

At that moment, Ao Duoji, having searched the front courtyard, sprinted over.

In its mouth, it carried a piece of tanned, blackened human skin.