"What the hell?"
In shock, Ji Jue felt a pang in his heart and couldn't help but become nervous.
A burglar?
That would be unusual!
After all, considering how poor his family was, any burglar might leave with tears in his eyes, and if the thief had a bit of a conscience, he might even leave some money on the table for the kids to study well.
Located in Cliff City's outskirts, the Northern Mountain District had nothing sophisticated about it but never lost in its disarrayed messiness. Illegal immigrants, gangs, smuggling, and even murders… it was constantly chaotic, and the number of violent crimes consistently topped all other districts in Cliff City, stability in its ranking so celebrated that the Governor would salute it!
And Ji Jue's home, this old house, was flattered if called weather-worn; leaking on rainy days, drafty in summer, dripping by day and short-circuiting by night—it had never been without issues. Even visually, it didn't look like a wealthy family's home, which made every occasional thief who entered, upon seeing its barrenness, sympathetically apologize and leave.
Ji Jue bent down, pulling out a piece of rebar from under the bed. He carefully treaded on the creaky floor and made his way downstairs, peeking around, more nervous than a thief.
Yet, aside from the damaged doorknob and a trail of footprints going through the living room into the kitchen, he saw nothing.
"Hey! Come out! Buddy, you've got the wrong place, I'm broke!"
There's nothing here but a lazy, crispy-skinned college student who loves to eat and sleep!
Ji Jue peered in; the kitchen was lonely, with only the fridge, its doors pulled open, showing its heartbreakingly empty insides while the flickering light barely clung to life, just like the fridge that was over thirty years old.
Ji Jue felt as if struck by lightning!
He was close to tears.
The audacity not to leave empty-handed, and even took the plate of plain chicken he'd brought from Lu Ma's place the day before yesterday! He was planning to use it for a birthday meal in a couple of days!
"Heartless bastard!"
Watching the dark fingerprints left on the dish, he couldn't hold back his cursing, but viewing the empty kitchen and the windows that were wide open to the street, how could he not realize the thief had long fled, causing him to feel an overwhelming animosity.
If he had known that the forces of darkness were after the chicken in his fridge, he would've swung that rebar at the burglar immediately and not spent so long startlingly scared!
And now his fridge was ruined too!
Just as he touched the fridge door, amid the buzzing noise resembling a tired ox, an unexpected voice said, "Watch your back."
In that moment, Ji Jue whipped around.
Facing him, within the pungent draft, were a pair of blood-red eyes.
Staring at him.
Ravenous…
Above the door at the kitchen's entrance, in the gap between the ceiling and the wall, hung a sinister and hunched figure, wriggling like a spider, crunching on the last bits of bone with loud snaps.
Its sharp teeth chilled to the bone like knife blades.
And in the moment he clearly saw the figure's face, Ji Jue couldn't hold it in anymore and screamed.
"You… you are Old Deng from yesterday!!!"
Wasn't it?
He remembered that old face all too well!
It was indeed that old man who almost fatally pedaled his tricycle into him, almost causing Ji Jue to transition into an otherworldly rebirth in all the chaos... Nobody noticed when he slipped away, and Ji Jue hadn't cared too much, but who would've thought he'd dare to break into his home!
Only, the look of him now was bizarrely different from yesterday.
He appeared almost anthropomorphic.
And probably high on something.
"Wow, so you dare come here again! You really think you've got me pegged, huh?!" Ji Jue fumed, "You're not leaving until you pay up today! Get down from my wall!"
Old Deng was compliant.
Very persuadable.
The moment Ji Jue demanded he come down, he—flew! pounced! right! at! him!
So fast.
Just like a spider or praying mantis striking its prey, the foul wind immediately engulfed Ji Jue, who instinctively stepped back and used the fridge door as a shield. The next moment, he saw how easily Old Deng's sharp claws ripped a huge hole in the bulky, useless fridge door, scraping a gash across Ji Jue's face.
In the ensuing panic, Ji Jue kicked out, but couldn't connect, and instead was bounced back several steps. He rushed around the dining table and as Old Deng pulled back his hand, Ji Jue made it to the kitchen doorway.
Just like that, he watched that old freak completely shred his fridge door to pieces.
The bent, ape-like eerie old man curled atop the fridge's remains, rummaging inside and even stuffing the ceramic plate he'd just dropped into his mouth, crunching it fiercely.
The chaos in his blood-red pupils was evident.
"Eat, eat, eat… so hungry…"
The corner of his mouth, torn by the ceramic plate, moved up and down while the blood oozed out and was slowly licked up by a long tongue. The old man raised his head and stared straight at Ji Jue, his eyes dripping with desire: "Delicious, you smell delicious…"
"Fine, no more talking, if one's in trouble, others should help, right?"
Without a second thought, Ji Jue pulled out all his money, a total of forty-eight yuan and ten cents, and slapped it on the table: "Old man, that's all I've got, take it for some dim sum… I recommend the place on the north side of Sixth Street, their pork dumplings are cheap and plentiful…"
Boom!
The dining table was also ripped apart by the screaming old man, along with the kitchen cabinet behind where Ji Jue had just been standing—all the pots and pans clattered to the floor, breaking Ji Jue's heart with the sound.
Oh no, does he not like pork dumplings?
Ji Jue scrambled out of the kitchen, his mind racing: Not pork dumplings, rice noodle rolls are great too!
But even with his brain racing, Ji Jue understood—Old Deng wasn't craving pork dumplings, fried dumplings, rice noodle rolls, steamed buns, nor clay pot rice… he wanted to eat him!!!
When the fishy wind hit his face again, Ji Jue gritted his teeth and clenched the steel rebar in his hand, swinging it with all his might toward the old man's forehead!
No longer caring about respecting the elderly!
A loud crash erupted.
The steel rebar flew from his hand, rebounding as if he had smashed it with all his strength onto a concrete pillar.
The rebar, capable of shattering several old men's skulls, merely left a gash on his forehead, while Ji Jue's arms suffered two gashes as if slashed by a knife.
Blood flowed out, spattering.
It landed on the old man's face and was swept away by his long tongue, as if savoring fine wine, which excited the old thing so much that his entire body trembled with excitement and he screamed.
"Fragrant! Fragrant! You smell so good!!!"
"Screw your fragrance party!"
Staggering backward, Ji Jue grabbed a water bottle from the counter and hurled it mindlessly, then turned and sprinted toward the door.
After briefly tasting Ji Jue's blood, the ecstatic old man pursued him frantically, his body convulsing with excitement.
Yet unexpectedly, as he passed the stairs, Ji Jue's movements suddenly halted.
He reached out, grabbed the fancy stair railing he had repaired a few days earlier, and pulled the sharp metal rod from the barely mended concrete, turning around to strike the old man in the face!
In an instant, the metal rod pierced his eye socket, the old man staggered, and then Ji Jue kicked him out of the door, rolling him like a gourd into the muddy courtyard.
Not waiting for him to rise from his roll, Ji Jue jumped up, using all his strength and body weight, stepping on his neck!
Crack!
The sound of breaking was as loud as thunder, ringing clearly beside Ji Jue's ears.
He hadn't even caught his breath yet.
When he heard, from beneath his foot, a shrill scream.
It was like the dying wail of a beast, yet also like the hungry roars and cries.
With half of the railing still embedded in his eye socket, the movements of the old man's limbs never ceased; he thrashed, struggled, even overturning the nearby electric scooter.
Although his neck was already broken, the distorted face was still terrifyingly crimson.
He opened his mouth wildly, trying to bite.
All Ji Jue could do was use all his might to firmly hold the railing, pressing the old man's head against the ground, but he was struggling to keep him down.
He was too strong!
He felt as if he wasn't holding down an old thing that looked close to death but some creature wearing human skin that would tear him apart in an instant if he let go.
He could sense the nauseatingly rich stench emanating from the old thing's eyes, ears, mouth, and even from inside his body, and even the faint crimson glow.
The fatal injuries seemed not to matter.
He was still full of vigor!
Even the neck vertebrae that should have been broken were swiftly reconnecting... ignoring the iron rod piercing the eye socket, slowly shifting forward...
Only that for an instant, the old thing's strength seemed to weaken considerably, but then, it grew more violent, amid continuous biting, only thick blood spurted from his mouth, landing on Ji Jue's hands.
So cold.
[Detection of active Mutant Spirit present, initiate extraction?]
From deep within his soul and consciousness, a message from his wristwatch suddenly arose, appearing, causing Ji Jue to exultantly fear the wristwatch might not understand and he screamed with all his might,
"Yes! Yes! Yes! YES! YES!! YES!!!"
Before the words finished.
Even before he could even smile, a crisp sound emitted from the wristwatch—tick-tock!
Then, a faint glow emerged from the watch face, extending along Ji Jue's palm and fingers, sketching out intricate matrix totems like circuits, all the way down to his fingertips, along the metal rod, downward.
It was as if in an instant, flesh was no longer flesh, palm no longer a palm, but had undergone Transformation, turning into some kind of tool even Ji Jue couldn't control.
Through the crack above the eye socket, it penetrated into the old ghost's skull!
Then—unseen gears turned, like the terrifying gravitational pull of a black hole, a siphon powerful enough to suppress all Mutant Spirit began!
The piercing screams abruptly ceased.
Replaced by a boiling sound, like a kettle screeching on a stove, thick blood burst from the old ghost's eye sockets, following the matrix, entering the wristwatch.
The originally convulsing and spasming old thing began to rapidly shrivel.
Only the thick, blood-colored substance kept wriggling and struggling, like mad insects, being pulled from his body, drained dry by the wristwatch in one go!
The digits on the watch face soared wildly, reaching 59 in an instant.
In just a few seconds, it nearly caught up with the spiritual reserve Ji Jue had accumulated over many years!
The constantly twitching old thing eventually lay on the ground, unable to move, no, more like... reverting back to its original form, having lost that eerie strength, gasping for breath.
In his chaotic and famished eyes, a trace of lucidity emerged.
As if awakening from a long nightmare, he stared blankly at everything in front of him, bewildered and confused, seeming to recall something, his lips parted slightly, as if uttering a name.
Muddy tears slowly slid down from the corners of his eyes.
Falling into the mud.
Just like that, he gradually collapsed, turning to ash.
Except for his ragged clothes, there was nothing left.