55w5+】

Yan Luoyue once heard of a famous human nature problem called the "Trolley Problem".

The general meaning is that a tram with a brake failure is running on the track, and there are five pedestrians crossing the track in front of it.

If the car had not been stopped in time, these five people would have lost their lives.

But if the tram is turned onto the abandoned backup track, another life that obeys traffic rules will be taken away.

As a driver, should I turn the car around at this point?

There are countless variations of this question:

For example, suppose the five people who violated the traffic rules had just committed murder and arson, and the one who obeyed the traffic rules was a doctor who saved three hundred innocent lives.

Or, four of the five are good people who do good deeds, but the fifth one killed the father of the person who obeyed the traffic rules.

Would you turn your car around for the sake of four people who have done good deeds, or would you run over the victim's son in front of the murderer?

This is a question that has no standard answer and cannot be distinguished between right and wrong.

The most correct and standard approach should be to never do this question.

…

Of course Chu Tiankuo had never heard of the "trolley problem".

But this did not prevent him from seeing through Gray Mist's sinister intentions in his quick thinking.

"Okay." Chu Tiankuo said with a smile.

At the same time, the young man in the silver robe drew his sword and turned around.

The cold light of the three-foot-long blue sword was like the snowy mountain peaks that never melted all year round, and the sharp sword force that hit his face was more ruthless than the biting cold wind in the cold month of winter.

Chu Tiankuo didn't hesitate at all, he turned around and stabbed the gray mist through!

The next second, Chu Tiankuo's limbs lost control again.

The gray mist was torn into two halves by the sword wind, but it merged into a complete piece again the next moment.

The monster laughed strangely and said sinisterly:

"Very brave and very courageous. However, no matter the sword energy, magic, spells or the golden light of Buddhism, they can't hurt me at all."

The flat gray mist expanded outward for a moment, then contracted again, just like a human stretching his limbs and back and yawning.

Perhaps because the attack could not harm the gray mist at all, it did not even care about Chu Tiankuo's previous offense.

Gray Mist once again let go of Chu Tiankuo's hands and feet, and ordered coldly:

"Okay, let's do what you have to do - choose one of these two people to kill."

The next second, the sword blade flashed.

The three-foot cold iron didn't hesitate at all and fell towards Chu Tiankuang's neck like chasing clouds and lightning.

Through a ray of cold light like the shadow of clouds on a high mountain, the monster could only see Chu Tiankuo with his back straight and his eyes bright.

Just before he committed suicide, the young man unabashedly grinned at it.

“…”

The gray mist stopped Chu Tiankuo's movements in time.

Its huge body sank and floated twice in the air, as if it was a little annoyed by Chu Tiankuo's unconventional behavior.

In the previous suicide move, although the cold edge had not yet arrived, the sword energy had already arrived.

A thin bloodstain gradually appeared on Chu Tiankuan's neck. Blood beads the size of millet grains seeped out and flowed down along the wound, wetting the collar of Yin Yi's clothes.

Gray Mist said unhappily: "I asked you to kill one of these two people, but I didn't ask you to kill yourself."

Chu Tiankuo's whole body was under control, and his limbs were stiff and unable to move.

But when he heard Gray Mist's question, he raised his brows and smiled, revealing his snow-white teeth.

"My sword will not kill others, it will only kill myself."

"—Guess what? You beast, I won't fall for your trick."

Today, the gray fog led him to two cages and asked him to kill a criminal with many evil deeds and an innocent village woman. What about tomorrow?

Will there be a thief and a staggering old man imprisoned tomorrow, allowing him to choose which one to kill?

What about the day after tomorrow? What about the day after tomorrow?

How could there be so many criminals with such a huge record in such a small town like Shancha Town?

When such multiple-choice questions are finally answered, sooner or later, the death row inmates will be killed as repeat offenders, and then repeat offenders will be killed as first-time offenders. When all the people in the prison are killed, only the most innocent townspeople will be locked up in the wooden cages.

There is a geographical phenomenon called quicksand.

When your feet step into the quicksand, it may just cover your feet at first, then your calves, and then your thighs, lower abdomen, chest and lungs... until even your head is trapped in the quicksand pit.

The more a traveler struggles, the deeper he sinks. If there is no external rescue, he can only watch himself sink inch by inch.

So the wisest decision is always not to take the first step on quicksand.

Gray mist uttered "Hmm?" and Chu Tiankuo's arms automatically tightened behind his back, as if they were tied with a hemp rope and twisted into a knot.

A tearing pain came from his shoulders, but Chu Tiankuang laughed out loud towards the sky.

"Do you get angry so easily?"

The gray mist moved behind Chu Tiankuan, and he could not see the enemy clearly. But despite this, Chu Tiankuan still gave him a contemptuous glance with his remaining eyes.

"The more the beast bared its teeth, the more it showed its weakness. The more you tried to force me to surrender with this trick, the more you showed your incompetence."

Gray Shadow said gloomily: "Then what are you laughing at?"

Chu Tiankuo laughed even louder: "I am just laughing at myself, what does this have to do with you?"

The monster put him in such a dangerous choice just to see his pain, regret, despair and sorrow.

But Chu Tiankuo just wanted to laugh, and he wanted to laugh out loud and heartily!

If a friend asks for something, Chu Tiankuo can pledge his entire fortune. If a fellow student wishes for something, Chu Tiankuo is willing to sacrifice his life.

But the more the enemy wanted to squeeze something from him, the more Chu Tiankuo would be reluctant to give.

If the other party wants to feed on his sorrow and negativity, then Chu Tiankuo will be like an unyielding spring. Even if he is pressed to the bottom, he will jump up and happily starve the other party to death!

"Your smile sounds really nice now." Gray Mist said in a gloomy tone, "But don't forget, you still have a pair of fellow apprentices..."

Chu Tiankuo's laughter gradually subsided.

However, that broad smile remained at the corner of his mouth.

"Yes, Chu has a pair of junior brothers and sisters whom he loves like treasures."

Chu Tiankuo said loudly: "That is why I believe that my fellow apprentices will not make any mistakes either."

"If you let them make this choice, they will only commit suicide faster and earlier than me... The three of us will meet in the underworld, and that will be worthy of our friendship in this life."

“…”

The gray mist fluctuated, as if looking for a way to control Chu Tiankuo.

Soon, it said slowly: "I can also control you and let you stab the long sword into the chest of the village woman..."

Chu Tiankuo spat on the ground with disdain.

"Of course you can. But I have only heard of the criminal being sentenced to death after he had stabbed someone with a knife, but I have never heard of the knife being sentenced to death."

"If you use me like a sword, then I will treat myself as a sword. I would rather draw my sword and kill myself after the deed is done, and give her a hundred or a thousand lives, than follow your evil plan."

“…”

The gray mist suddenly formed a large puff, rising up and then falling heavily.

At the same time, Chu Tiankuo was controlled by a force, and he was forced to bend his knees and kneel on the ground, his knees hitting the bluestone with a heavy sound like cracking.

His arms were still twisted behind his back, the muscles in his shoulders had long been torn, and purple blood clots oozed from under his skin.

The boy's straight back was bent by the force, until his forehead, with veins exposed, was pressed to the ground.

However, even though he was forced into such a humiliating position of confessing his guilt, Chu Tiankuang's laughter never stopped.

Dust flew into his mouth and nose as he laughed. Chu Tiankuang coughed intermittently and chanted loudly:

"I am a copper pea that can't be steamed, boiled, pounded, or fried, but makes a jingling sound..."

——Even if you knock out my teeth, twist my mouth, lame my legs, break my hands, and give me these terrible symptoms, I still won't give up*.

…

Chu Tiankuo was thrown back into the empty room where he had been imprisoned before.

The gray mist was like a cumulonimbus cloud before a rainstorm, swirling slowly over the rooftops.

Chu Tiankuo lay on the plank bed, his eyes directly facing the gray mist without even raising his head.

He inquired in a thoughtful tone, "You just said that sword energy, magic, spells, and even the golden light of Buddhism and Taoism can't hurt you. My sword cut through your body before, and it felt light and intangible, just like cutting through a piece of air."

Gray Mist certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to expose his own shortcomings.

It floated and hovered above Chu Tiankuo, watching his chattering coldly.

"If ordinary objects can't touch you, how much fun will you miss in your demon life?"

Chu Tiankuo rolled his eyes from time to time, as if he was talking to himself, or as if he was talking to the gray mist.

He talked and laughed, while giving full play to his rich imagination:

"For example, spring is coming soon, and spring is a good season for flying kites. Your kite has such an irregular shape, but as long as you tie a thin string to the tail, it will naturally become a kite with a unique personality."

"Oh, and you don't even need to be released to fly, you can float up on your own... If you can hang something on your body, and I tie a thin string to your tail, wouldn't you be able to win the kite flying competition this year?"

As Chu Tiankuan described the scene, he laughed at the scene he had sketched.

Gray Mist probably endured it again and again until he finally couldn't bear it anymore.

Its voice was androgynous, thin and cold: "You have been talking non-stop for two hours."

"That's right." Chu Tiankuo smiled, "I'm even a little thirsty after talking about it. Can you treat me to a pot of tea?"

If gray mist also had eyes and could express its mood with expressions, then at this moment, its face would probably be full of thoughts on how to make Chu Tiankuan bite off its tongue and then swallow the severed tongue along with the blood.

Chu Tiankuo seemed to be unaware of the impending crisis and said with a leisurely smile:

"I've been talking to you for two hours, but you've been hovering over me, not too far away, not too close... It seems that giving you pleasure can't hurt you, right?"

Gray fog smiled sinisterly.

"So that's what you were planning. But even if you talk your mouth off, I won't be hurt at all. I can even have a bite."

Chu Tiankuo immediately attacked the snake with a stick: "-Oh, so you can also feed on happiness, but you are just picky about it."

Raising his eyebrows, Chu Tiankuang spoke in a more intimate tone:

"I'm not saying this, Brother Mo, what do negative emotions taste like? Sweet or salty? Just listening to them, I feel like they smell like slop. Aren't you being too aggrieved by eating these things with your wine every day?"

Gray Mist sneered and said, "That is naturally a delicacy that you humans cannot understand."

"Really?" Chu Tiankuo refused to believe it. "It smells like stinky feet, right?"

Without blinking, he recited a long list, and listening to each item would make the diners want to pin him to death in the salt vegetable pot.

"The smell of a 8-foot-tall man's sweaty feet? The smell of a person with body odor in his armpits? The smell of a corpse rotting for three days and three nights with bubbling and maggots? Or maybe..."

The gray mist lasted for about half a cup of tea, but finally it became unbearable.

On the other side, Chu Tiankuan was talking as if he was naming dishes, as if he could go on and on endlessly.

Later on, he even mastered the art of arranging the songs, and the more he spoke, the more rhythmic the songs became!

Suddenly, Chu Tiankuan's teeth, under human control, hit his tongue heavily: "Ouch!"

The world is finally quiet.

However, after a moment, Chu Tiankuang dragged his injured tongue and smiled vaguely:

"You like to eat it, and I like to eat it too. It seems that neither of us is willing to give in to the other."

"How about this, you prepare a table of food and wine for me, let me have a good meal, and you can taste my mood at the same time - roast duck, braised white eel, crab roe sauce, cherry meat, I guarantee that when I eat each dish, I will feel a different mood."

Naturally, this trick was easily seen through by Gray Mist.

It asked gloomily: "If you have such leisure time, why don't you persuade the tiger to change to a vegetarian diet?"

Chu Tiankuo smiled and said, "If you let the three of us go now, the first tiger I see after I go out, I will definitely persuade it to eat vegetarian food."

"You dream."

"So if you want me to shut up, you're just dreaming." Chu Tiankuo snorted and continued to sign up.

"This negative emotion is the smell of horn mold mixed with stinky sauce, and the smell of ducks that have been cleaning the duck shed for ten years..."

"...That's enough." He said in a gray voice.

Then that night, someone actually prepared a table of food and wine and delivered it to your door.

Chu Tiankuan was stabbed by the gray mist, and only two fingers and the area below his elbow could move. However, this did not prevent him from enjoying the food, wine, soup and rice with relish.

"I actually have experience in overcoming taste."

Chu Tiankuo ate while talking to his master in a heart-to-heart talk: "I have always loved eating meat and not vegetables. It is harder to get me to eat vegetables than to persuade a tiger to be a vegetarian. Later, I made a mistake and Master punished me to eat vegetarian food for a month. I was really..."

"What?"

"It tastes better and better the more I eat!" Chu Tiankuo laughed, "Is there any rice that doesn't taste good?"

"After eating vegetarian food for a month, every vegetable tastes sweeter and sweeter. Spinach tastes sweet after blanching, lettuce tastes sweet, radish tastes sweet, and even cilantro tastes bitter and sweet..."

At the end, Chu Tiankuo asked meaningfully: "Even if you shave my head bald and make me eat vegetable leaves in a temple for 20 years, I can still eat it. Taste is not something that cannot be changed, right?"

“…”

Gray mist didn't speak.

But it tasted a glimmer of hope in Chu Tiankuo's overflowing emotions.

…

Hope dies as suddenly as it came.

The next day, it was still the empty field with two large wooden cages.

Chu Tiankuo gritted his teeth and looked at the scene in front of him. On the back of his hand, which was unable to move, two or three clear blue veins gradually emerged.

He gritted his teeth and said, "You..."

A man and a woman who were originally locked in two separate cages were somehow put into one cage.

The criminal gave Chu Tiankuan an arrogant and crazy smile through his messy and smelly hair. It was a provocation to the whole world from a villain who knew that he was at the end of his rope.

As for that village woman...

She died in her dishevelled state, her coarse garment torn into pieces.

The blood that had not yet coagulated slowly seeped out from beneath her body, staining the soil a deep, fishy color.

The gray mist slowly swirled over Chu Tiankuo:

"This man is a scoundrel who committed murder, robbery, rape, and more than a dozen other crimes. I did tell you that."

Chu Tiankuo said in a deep voice: "But you didn't say...you want to lock them up together."

If the gray mist had a face, it would be grinning smugly now: "Yes, are you going to blame me for this?"

The monster murmured almost in a whisper: "Yes, you just put the blame on me, and you will still be innocent, still clean, and you can still pretend that this woman was going to die - even though you could have saved her yesterday."

“…”

The gray haze, like a cumulonimbus cloud, twisted in the air like a thick, dusty maggot.

It prompted excitedly: "Do you know when this village woman died?"

"——Just when you were chatting and laughing with me last night, drinking and eating, trying to persuade Tiger to eat vegetarian food and tempt me to try to change my taste."

That faint taste of hope disappeared, replaced by hatred.

Gray Mist made a smacking sound and smiled maliciously.

"Didn't you say you would never let me succeed?"

"You are laughing, Chu Tiankuo? Why not continue to laugh, continue to be happy, continue to be excited, and persevere..."

The muscles at the corners of Chu Tiankuan's eyes twitched violently twice.

If we let the enemy succeed so easily, it would be tantamount to losing our fighting spirit.

But if he could still be happy when looking at the scene before him, wouldn't that mean he was heartless?!

Inside the wooden cage, the prisoner burst into laughter.

He climbed onto the edge of the cage railing, his eyes gleaming with the greedy green light of a hungry wolf.

"Yeah, I was locked up for nine months, and I finally got my day off yesterday with this little bitch. I never dreamed that I would have such a good thing before I die!"

“…”

The maggot wriggling in the air seemed to have ripped open Chu Tiankuang's lungs.

Gray mist loosened its hold on Chu Tiankuo, but he was unable to draw his sword and chop him immediately.

Chu Tiankuan was shaking slightly, first his palm, then his arm, and finally his whole body.

A nauseous feeling surged up my throat, and all the food I ate yesterday came back up along with the stomach acid.

Chu Tiankuo vomited all over the place, as if he wanted to bury himself in the dirt on the ground.

Gray Mist said hypocritically: "Of course, all of this has nothing to do with you. I haven't even used you like a sword yet. You must not follow my trick."

“…”

Chu Tiankuang half bent his waist, and a trembling electric current ran from the back of his head to his heels.

The remnants of vomit reflected in the retina, bringing with them a chilling sense of foreboding.

It’s like... once I bent my waist this time, I could never straighten it up again.

Chu Tiankuo took a deep breath and suddenly drew out his sword.

The first sword pierced through the wooden cage and chopped off the evil man's head, and the second sword turned around and split the gray mist into two pieces!

After only one thousandth of a second, the gray mist closed again, and Chu Tiankuo's limbs were out of control again.

Chu Tiankuo was dragged like a puppet, his hands and feet stiff, and he staggered all the way to the second set of wooden cages.

This time, the wooden cage contained a murderer and a pregnant woman.

Gray Mist added slowly, "This time, you can still do nothing."

"You can even threaten, intimidate, coerce and bribe this man... But I have to kindly tell you that before today, this murderer had been hungry for three days."

“…”

Chu Tiankuo drew out his sword silently.

At this moment, there are many roads in front of him.

However, he knew, and Gray Mist also knew, that the only thing that could really allow Chu Tiankuan to pass was that single-plank bridge.

…

Not long after, the people who Huiwu took out to entertain Chu Tiankuo were a pair of grandparents.

Chu Tiankuang gritted his teeth and said, "Impossible!" as soon as he saw the grandfather and grandson.

He didn't do anything.

He would never do it.

Chu Tiankuo knew that things would turn out like this from the moment he swung the sword for the first time.

First guilty, then misdemeanor, then not guilty, and then...

The smartest choice is always not to step into that quicksand.

But Chu Tiankuo's feet were already standing on quicksand.

Gray Mist repeated Chu Tiankuo's words with interest, and asked in return: "Is it impossible?"

In the wooden cage, the child is just old enough to be out of the cradle and is still babbling.

He had small hands and feet, and his dark eyes looked at Chu Tiankuo with curiosity and trust, and his eyes were still innocent.

The old woman knelt in the wooden cage.

Her nails were broken on the rough logs, leaving bloodstains on the dirty pillars.

"Please, let my grandson live."

The old woman was in tears, and her tears streamed down her old, wrinkled face.

"If you don't kill someone, none of us will survive - I'd rather die than give you any trouble. But no! No!"

"No." Graymist said, "Only those he killed with his own hands can count."

The old woman knocked her head against the wooden pillar.

Once, once, and once again.

That is no longer a plea, but a complete suicide.

However, due to his old age and frailty, the flowing blood was only enough to cover up the marks left by the fingernails.

"Please, please."

The thumping sound was accompanied by a slight echo, like a piece of rotten wood from a candle being struck back and forth on a clapper.

"It doesn't count as you killing someone. I almost got killed myself..." the old woman said incoherently, "You just need to hit me once, just once..."

The sound of each collision seemed to have the weight of a weight. The hard object made of raw iron was crushed to death on Chu Tiankuang's throat.

Chu Tiankuo turned around and looked at Huiwu: "...You will let this child live."

Then Graymist laughed eerily.

"I am willing to promise, but I am afraid you don't dare to take the monster's lies seriously."

Chu Tiankuo spoke word by word, "...In order for me to never be free, you will let this child live."

Because if the child died, it would be like this was not a multiple choice question. It was not that Chu Tiankuang chose someone's life and death, but that the monster used him in the way it used a sword.

"Hahahahahaha, that's right. In order for you to never be freed, I will let him live."

After getting the answer, Chu Tiankua finally drew his sword.

When the hot blood splashed in front of his eyes, Chu Tiankuo did not dodge.

The blood flowed down the corner of Chu Tiankuo's eye, like a belated accusation. It silently crossed Chu Tiankuo's young face, leaving him with a trace of sin.

The child cried loudly and the old man fell to the ground peacefully.

The gray mist was not deliberately controlled, but Chu Tiankuo's palm twitched and loosened.

The sword with dragon pattern fell to the ground, bounced a few times, and was covered with dust.

The pitch of a child's voice is always higher than that of an adult's, and it is easier to pierce people's ears. Chu Tiankuang turned his head away in unbearable pain at the child's tender and heartbreaking cry.

He saw red camellias blooming all over the mountains, lush and majestic, like a handful of blood that had not yet dried up.

…

At first, there was only one person in the cage, but later there were ten people.

People cursed and accused each other of crimes across the bars of the wooden cage, trying their best to show their own innocence, as if this would show that the other party deserved to die more than themselves.

It is called a "crime", but in fact it is nothing more than stealing chickens, touching dogs, taking advantage of a ditch, and taking a ladle or a bucket from your house before leaving...

In the bustling small town life, these are all ridiculous trivialities.

Maybe young girls and wives would spit at him in disgust, but it would not be a capital crime anyway.

However, the pressure of death swirls over one's head like a tornado, and the desire to survive forces one to abandon all decency and morality.

The old neighbors who were once friendly and amicable became enemies overnight.

The harmonious and loving couple cursed at each other and cried through the fence.

Then, the gray shadow pulled away the fence in the middle of the wooden cage, and the two guys really rolled together with fists and feet, biting each other's ears like wild beasts.

When both sides were covered in bruises and exhausted, Gray Wu announced that it didn't matter even if Chu Tiankuo didn't take action.

"I don't eat people, I don't like killing, so I don't have to take 20 lives in one go."

"Only ten will do. It doesn't matter who killed them. Only ten will do."

The gray mist said that whoever it covered would be killed by the others. When the number of dead reached ten, the remaining people could also live.

Chu Tiankuo wanted to separate the people, but was picked up by the gray mist and thrown aside.

"If you don't draw your sword, you'll just be a spectator."

After several rounds, people saw clearly: anyone who did not take action before would be shrouded in gray mist next.

So I decided to go all out, and after a few rounds, even the guilt became indifferent and numb.

People were oppressed and labeled as thugs. They beat the elderly to death, threw children to death, smashed neighbors to death, and strangled brothers to death... At this moment, there was no difference between victims and perpetrators.

Ten people had already died, but no one present had counted them.

The gray mist fell on the eleventh person again, and the remaining nine people rushed towards him in a swarm...

"That's enough!" Chu Tiankuang shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice already hoarse from shouting, "That's enough!"

Gray Mist was now satisfied and pulled away from the poor dying insect's head.

It flew back and forth above Chu Tiankuo's head.

Even though he couldn't look up, Chu Tiankuo could still sense that the monster was grinning smugly.

Gray mist said softly, faintly, and coolly: "Ten people have died in the world, and ten more sinners have been created. Do you think this is a good outcome?"

Chu Tiankuo was unable to answer.

…

Day, day, and another day.

One hour, one hour, and another hour.

One cage, two cages, three cages... and those who have committed countless bloody sins in the cages.

The faces in the cage gradually repeated themselves, and after seeing them so many times, they even seemed familiar.

"Even though it has come to this, you still won't draw your sword?"

“…”

Chu Tiankuo tried. He used anger to hide his inner sadness.

He had refused to be weak or despair, and was determined to hold on to his last breath even if it meant gritting his teeth.

But that's too difficult, even more difficult than despair itself.

If Chu Tiankuo hadn't blamed himself from beginning to end, Gray Mist wouldn't have chosen him as food.

At this moment, Chu Tiankuo had been struggling for more than a month and finally reached the end of the road.

The panicked sheep were first forced onto the cliff, and then they grew sharp fangs and their fur became covered with ferocious patterns.

Chu Tiankuo closed his eyes and let the flowing red camellia wash over his whole body.

"Let's end it..." he said softly.

Just as a warrior laid down his weapons, a general raised the white flag, the proudest young man bowed and knelt: "I am willing to draw my sword."

Chu Tiankua is like a piece of top-quality food, first simmered over low heat, boiled in boiling water, then stripped of its tendons and skin, and sliced ​​into pieces to add flavor.

Finally, they are put on the grill and roasted with crackling sounds, and then fried, roasted, steamed or deep-fried.

There seemed to be no end to this torture.

He could only ask the gray mist tiredly, and it was also like he was asking himself the question.

Chu Tiankuo murmured, "Isn't it that I am not desperate enough at this point?"

Gray Mist said: "You are not desperate enough."

What is the end of despair?

Huiwu knew it, and Chu Tiankuo knew it too.

The moment he was willing to draw his sword against the fanged sheep, the moment he drew his sword against the old woman whose head was bloodied by a knock, or even earlier... the moment Chu Tiankuo stepped on the quicksand for the first time.

At the end of the road stood his fellow apprentices.

The gray mist was like a piece of mold, clinging tightly to Chu Tiankuan's earlobe. It spoke softly, with commands and threats that only Chu Tiankuan could hear:

"You go pick one of them and kill him, and then it's all over."

Song Qingchi and Tao Tao were shocked to see that their senior brother, who used to be so tall and mighty, was now tottering and emaciated.

Unlike Chu Tiankuo, the gray fog had locked the two of them together for more than a month, depriving them of their ability to move. But other than that, it hadn't done anything else to them.

The two of them didn't know that during this too long month, the population of Shancha Town had been reduced by half.

And the current Chu Tiankuo can no longer be considered the senior brother in their memories.

Chu Tiankuo swallowed the blood in his mouth and murmured, "At least, I can die with them."

"Do you still want to kill yourself?"

When he asked this question, a gray mist hung over Chu Tiankuo's head.

It looked down at Chu Tiankuo from above, admiring him as if it were admiring a dish of food that only needed the last step to be prepared.

Gray Mist smiled strangely and said, "You can choose one of your fellow apprentices to kill first, or kill both of them. It has nothing to do with me."

"However, if you point your sword at me first, then I will have to... choose one of your fellow apprentices to cook for me."

The monster laughed strangely: "They may not be as delicious as you, but they are both talented and beautiful."

“…”

Chu Tiankuo raised his head and saw his fellow junior brothers and sisters looking at him in surprise.

In those two clear and bright eyes, Chu Tiankuan's unrecognizable shadow was reflected.

"Senior Brother?" Song Qingchi called out with heartache and hesitation.

As soon as he opened his mouth, tears began to flow: "Brother, how did you get tortured like this?"

Even the fearless little apprentice sister Taotao had tears in her eyes: "Big Brother, Big Brother!"

The gray mist rose high and swirled over the three of them like a flag. It announced loudly:

"One of the three of you must die. And your senior brother will choose one of you to kill."

Song Qingchi sneered: "What? Do you think we will believe this kind of nonsense?"

Tao Tao's answer was even more concise: "Get out of here, you beast!"

"We..." Chu Tiankuo's Adam's apple rolled dryly.

He felt his body was heavy at one moment and light at another.

Countless despair and pain accumulated and rotted in the body. There were too many of them and no place to put them. Chu Tiankuang had no choice but to hollow out the bones, the flesh, the chest and the internal organs to store these meaningless things.

So, Chu Tiankuo became very light.

The gray mist's food container became very heavy.

Chu Tiankuo murmured, without even realizing it, "Let's...let's die together, three of us."

“…”

Song Qingchi and Tao Tao looked at each other.

At this moment, they suddenly realized that the rules set by this gray mist-like monster seemed to be real.

Although they had not seen each other for a month, out of trust in their eldest senior brother, the two responded to Chu Tiankuo's judgment immediately.

"What are you talking about, brother!"

Taotao's clear and surprised voice, like a string tied to a kite, brought Chu Tiankuo back to his senses.

She said, "If it means two people can live, how can we die together? Only the living can avenge their hatred, only the living can tear this monster into eight hundred pieces with their bare hands!"

Tao Tao, Chu Tiankuo's junior sister.

She might not be as smart as Yan Luoyue, but when she encountered difficulties, she really never cried and called her senior brother.

Tao Tao smiled and patted his chest: "If someone really has to die, let me do it."

"No, let me do it!"

Song Qingchi was a little slow to realize what was happening, then he reached his hand through the fence and boldly pressed Tao Tao's face.

"Brother, don't listen to Taotao. Take good care of her."

It was still the familiar wooden cages, and still the quarrels with a little pushing and shoving.

But this time, the people in the cages on both sides were not spitting and cursing at each other for life, but fighting for death.

There is a world of difference between before and after, just like returning to the human world from hell.

Chu Tiankuo stared at the scene in a daze.

This refusal not only did not make him feel any better, but instead aroused even more sadness in Chu Tiankuo's heart.

"I..." Chu Tiankuo said in a low voice, "I..."

"alright!"

With her keen sense as a doctor, Tao Tao was the first to notice that something was wrong with Chu Tiankuo.

She held Song Qingchi's hand and signaled him to be quiet.

After staring at the senior brother through the cage for a while, Tao Tao's originally tense voice gradually became calm.

"Brother, I know that no matter who I ask you to attack, it will be difficult for you."

Tao Tao said softly, "I don't know what you've been through before, but I know that no matter what decision you make, you must have your reasons."

She straightened her skirt. The girl who always loved to play and make trouble now knelt down neatly beside the wooden pillar.

Tao Tao remained in this position, looking up at the stiff Chu Tiankuo.

Her bright face is like a peach blossom that has just bloomed, and her clear eyes are like a pool of still water that can calm people's hearts.

"It doesn't matter, Senior Brother." Tao Tao said calmly, "No matter what choice you make in the end, I will never blame you."