Chapter 167 What's the point of living like this, a life worse than death...?

Fishing boats glided into the boundless darkness off the shore, navigating through the misty sea air. The sky was moonless, dotted only with sparse stars, their light as faint as needle tips.

Chen Ying pushed open the door and entered the cabin. A Cong walked towards her and raised his arm to stop her, but was shoved away by Chen Ying, who had a gloomy face.

Without saying a word, Chen Ying slapped Lu Bing hard across the face.

Lu Bing, who could barely stand, could not bear the weight and fell, knocking over a chair next to him.

"This is the second time, Lu Bing. Do you think you can escape?!" She didn't hesitate to strike hard, making Lu Bing's left cheek instantly swollen and red. Chen Ying couldn't suppress her anger no matter what. "After suffering so much, how come you still can't learn your lesson! You've barely been able to walk and you're already thinking about running away again."

Chen Ying flicked her hand, and the slender snake that had been coiled around her wrist fell onto Lu Bing's robe.

The disgusting worms raised by the Gu Master are naturally controlled by him. The little beast and the Gu Master work together to cheat him and torture him to the point of wishing he were dead.

Chen Ying's face was extremely gloomy: "Do you even understand that you will never escape my grasp in this lifetime?"

Lu Bing stared as the traitor, who had been colluding with the enemy, tried to slip into his sleeve. His chest heaved, and his breathing became rapid. He braced himself against the table and chair, struggling to his feet. His eyes, red with rage, were fixed on Chen Ying. Lu Bing gritted his teeth and growled, "The Body of Fuxi!"

Chen Ying paused for a moment, then quickly regained her composure: "You saw everything?"

Lu Bing followed Master Fang and the others into the underground secret cave, where he accidentally glimpsed the truth in the stone carvings. Only then did he finally understand what this wicked woman had done to him: "Chen Ying, you...you..."

Since he had already seen it, Chen Ying was too lazy to hide it and admitted expressionlessly, "Yes, we need the hands of Fuxi to open the Boundless Secret Realm."

Lu Bing nearly collapsed: "You're a madman, you're all madmen."

He raised his trembling hand, grabbed a teacup haphazardly, and smashed it at Chen Ying: "Why don't you just die, Chen Ying? Why don't you all just die?"

Ah Cong blocked the teacup, and it shattered on the deck.

Lu Bing had already lost control and lunged forward, only to be stopped by A Cong's outstretched arm; he couldn't break free. With A Cong, his loyal dog, protecting him, Lu Bing couldn't harm a single hair on Chen Ying's head. He could only roar at the vicious woman, "Do you think I'm a human being? Who do you consider a human being?!"

"Why be human?" Chen Ying remained unmoved, staring at Lu Bing, who looked like a trapped beast, from an arm's length away. "Isn't this much better? Don't you think so?"

"You are a demon."

Chen Ying disagreed: "You're wrong. Humans are far more terrifying than ghosts. It's because I'm human that I have the most wicked heart."

In his anger, Lu Bing reached for the knife at A Cong's waist. He had just pulled it out an inch when the hilt suddenly twisted. A Cong nimbly flicked his wrist away and put the knife back into its sheath.

"Have you had enough?" Chen Ying grabbed Lu Bing's wrist, pressing her fingertips against the scars on his wrist veins. "Your tendons and veins were completely severed, beyond the reach of medicine. I could only use the Gu snake to help you reconnect them, allowing you to stand up again. Before long, the Gu snake will calm down, and you'll be able to run and jump like a normal person. Lu Bing, I've healed you, so why are you still causing trouble for me?"

Lu Bing's eyes turned bloodshot, as if he were about to cry blood: "You want these disgusting things to stay in my body forever?"

“The Gu snakes have already integrated into your flesh and blood. From now on, they will be your meridians.” Chen Ying didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. “They can coexist with you, which is a good thing.”

"What if I don't want to?"

She's so stubborn. After all this time, she still can't see the situation clearly. She has no right to say she doesn't want to. From the very beginning, once Lu Bing fell into her hands, it was destined to come to this. She wants Lu Bing to become a certain way, and he has to become that way.

Since you can't win against it, why not just accept your fate? Making more pointless resistance will only make you suffer.

Chen Ying leaned closer and kindly advised, "Officer Lu, things have come to this point. I suggest you try to think more positively and accept reality. Isn't it better to live in harmony with snakes than to be a cripple with missing limbs?"

“Human-snake symbiosis,” Lu Bing trembled all over, “is this the human-headed, snake-bodied, Fuxi-like body you’re looking for?”

“Who says otherwise? I never expected that Fang Xiandao would come up with so many methods to capture the Undead.” Back then, Chen Ying was extremely shocked. “Cruel? I’ve seen even more cruel things. You must not have been inside that secret chamber where the body of Fuxi was made, right? It was terrifying inside. After I went there, I had nightmares for months.”

Back then, when she and A-Cong entered that secret chamber, they discovered that Fang Xiandao had gone to great lengths to find the secret realm. She and A-Cong took away all the bamboo slips about Gu-making, as well as the movable stone carvings. For those that couldn't be moved or removed, they made copies of them all and took them back to study diligently. She and A-Cong meticulously read and analyzed each word, applying what they learned on the spot. Heaven knows how difficult and arduous their years of studying Gu techniques have been. They have walked this path step by step with blood and sweat, and it has not been in vain.

Chen Ying said, "They tested it one by one, and the method used on you is the only one that successfully created the body of Fuxi."

At least in this respect, Chen Ying did not take any detours and directly adopted the results of that Gu master's experiment.

Chen Ying knew that the Gu Snake was buried in the tomb of Bei Quhe because she found a few words on the bamboo slips in the secret chamber of the underground cave.

In truth, Chen Ying wasn't sure if things would go smoothly. From the very beginning, she had her eye on Lu Bing, which was why she had A Cong kidnap him. Now, looking back, she realized how wise her decision had been: "Lu Bing..."

Suddenly, a cold glint flashed, and Lu Bing, who had somehow produced a dagger in his hand, swiftly slashed at her neck as she approached.

Chen Ying was completely unprepared and didn't even have time to lean back.

The instant the dagger slashed across her face, a cold liquid suddenly splashed onto her face—it was Ah Cong who, at the last second, reached out with his bare hand to block the dagger, the sharp blade severing her wrist.

Ah Cong gripped the severed arm tightly to prevent the body fluids from leaking out.

Chen Ying stood up abruptly, kicked Lu Bing to the ground, and angrily kicked away the dagger he was holding.

The dagger was given to him by the mirror polisher for self-defense. Lu Bing had kept it hidden in his sleeve, intending to seize the opportunity to take Chen Ying's life, but unfortunately, he failed.

Lu Bing's hands convulsed, his whole body curled up, and his face contorted in pain.

Enraged, Chen Ying's eyes flashed with malice: "Serves you right."

After saying that, Chen Ying dragged A Cong out of the cabin and said coldly, "Go change your clothes."

After Ah Cong turned and left, Chen Ying was left standing alone on the deck, facing the gloomy night and the boundless ocean. The salty sea breeze could not dispel the fire in her body.

She was just a hair's breadth away from being killed by Lu Bing.

As expected, tigers can't grow teeth. Lu Bing can now wield a knife, which is very dangerous.

With a thud, the murder weapon was thrown into the sea. Chen Ying hastily wiped the strands of hair that had blown across her face, listening to the sound of the waves in the silent night, mixed with painful and suppressed moans.

"Ah...uh..."

She knew Lu Bing was struggling in excruciating pain; he deserved it.

Chen Ying was in a terrible mood.

A lone boat drifted on the deck, a windproof oil lamp burning, emitting a faint smell of burning. Chen Ying stood in the dim light, the yellowish light swaying with the rise and fall of the boat, casting her shadow on the deck, which stretched and shortened repeatedly.

Lu Bing's breathing became heavier and heavier; he might have rolled over and bumped into tables, chairs, and boat planks.

Chen Ying knew he was always a patient person, and she was determined to make him suffer.

But this kind of suffering is worse than death, and it is something that no ordinary person can endure.

"Ah... Chen, Chen Ying... uh..."

Chen Ying heard him calling her; had he really given up?

She had to endure it, even if she couldn't. She was determined to teach Lu Bing a lesson he would never forget.

"Chen... Ying..."

Chen Ying closed her eyes briefly, but couldn't withstand Lu Bing's agonizing screams. She turned around and strode into the cabin.

Lu Bing's limbs convulsed uncontrollably, his pale face was covered in cold sweat, and blood had been drawn from the corner of his mouth. Chen Ying bent down and squatted beside him, forcibly turning Lu Bing's convulsing hand aside, and rolled up his sleeve to reveal crisscrossing blue veins surging wildly under his skin.

Everything takes time. The snakes don't adapt to the human body so easily, hiding in flesh and blood. Besides, they are all live snakes. Live snakes are never well-behaved. Therefore, they are roaming freely inside Lu Bing's body.

Chen Ying poured out a pill and squeezed Lu Bing's clenched teeth: "Swallow it."

Lu Bing was in so much pain that he couldn't let go.

Chen Ying held him down and forcefully pried open his mouth: "Lu Bing, take your medicine."

After finally managing to stuff the pill into his mouth through his teeth, Chen Ying, fearing he would spit it out again, tightly covered Lu Bing's mouth and said, "Swallow it."

Her palms were wet, and it was hard to tell whether it was cold sweat or tears from his face. Only after Lu Bing swallowed the pill did Chen Ying move her hand away, turn Lu Bing's convulsing and curled arm over, and press her fingertips on a swollen knot of tendons, stroking it lightly and heavily along the meridians.

Lu Bing felt a little better than before, not as miserable as before, but he was still trembling like a leaf in pain.

"Chen Ying, you might as well just kill me."

"Stop talking nonsense." Chen Ying frowned, carefully unblocking his snake veins, gently loosening the bulging knots. "At this point, I won't let you die, no matter who dies."

Lu Bing's lips were bluish-purple, and his breathing was uneven as he said, "It's a pity I couldn't kill you with one strike."

Amidst her busy schedule, Chen Ying glanced at him and suddenly, as if possessed, her anger subsided. What was there to be angry about? Lu Bingxin had been wanting to kill her all along, and what he had just done was simply what he had always wanted to do. So Chen Ying said, "Don't be discouraged, there's still a chance."

Lu Bing's eyelids twitched.

The erratic snake veins gradually returned to their proper place under the effects of the medicine and its guidance. Lu Bing lay exhausted on the deck, his undergarments soaked with cold sweat. Occasionally, when a painful spot was touched, he would shudder uncontrollably.

"You brought this on yourself," Chen Ying said. "Look at you, even in this state you still want to run away. How will you live without me?"

Why live? What's the point of living a life worse than death?

If his grandmother and father were still alive, he might have gritted his teeth and kept living because he couldn't bear to leave them behind and not want the elderly to bury their children.

But his family is gone, and he doesn't want to live like a monster.

Seeing that Lu Bing was weak and did not answer, Chen Ying said, "If you don't want to suffer, you'd better behave yourself."

She said, "I know the two people who came to save you. One is a Taoist priest from Mount Renzu, and the other is a mirror polisher who asked Sun Xiuniang to make a sacrifice at the Ghost Bureau."

"What?" Lu Bing hadn't had time to ask who the person traveling with Master Fang was.

"The Taoist priests of Renzu Mountain have always guarded the river tomb and the Gu snake. The mirror polisher instigated Sun Xiuniang to sacrifice her life in order to explore the path leading to the Taiyin/Taoist body. These two people have traveled thousands of miles to Mizhou. Do you really think they came to save you? Don't be naive. Everyone has their own ulterior motives. They are just after Fuxi's body."