Zhou Hui let out a low growl and circled around Chu He, patting his face and neck with his claws.
Under the patting, Chu He let out a very faint moan. This sound was like an invisible encouragement, which immediately greatly invigorated Zhou Hui. He rubbed and pushed him with his huge, furry head, and at the same time, leaned down and pressed him with the thick fur on his chest, letting out a low, dangerous roar, his pupils strangely constricting in his eyes.
“…” Chu He’s mouth opened, but no sound came out. A slightly pained expression appeared on his face.
This is mine, Zhou Hui thought. The long-dormant beastly instinct burned in his veins. The heat made him extremely excited, and every fine nerve ending trembled.
This is mine, completely mine.
I have absolute sovereignty over him. I am the sole ruler of this territory.
This realization made Zhou Hui very excited. The separation and depression of the past few years had now turned into an even stronger stimulus, like a whole bottle of alcohol suddenly poured into a blazing fire, or like a basin of cold water suddenly splashed on a boiling pot of oil, making his whole brain explode.
He opened his mouth and licked Chu He’s neck and chest forcefully, greedy and insatiable, not sparing a single inch of skin. The long, barbed tongue immediately made Chu He curl up in pain, letting out intermittent gasps. He subconsciously reached out to push him away, but was immediately and firmly stepped on by the male beast, forcing his entire body into an open posture.
“Ah…” Chu He was licked by that long tongue until he wished he were dead. He finally struggled up. “No… no, Zhou Hui…”
The demonic beast paused and looked down at him.
Chu He slightly opened his eyes, convulsing a little from the intense pain. He had just turned over and hadn’t had time to speak before he choked on bloody foam from his trachea. He lay on the ground and began to cough, each cough very muffled and forceful. His hair clung to his pale cheeks, his clothes were messy and wretched. From Zhou Hui’s angle, he could see his constantly trembling bare back and shoulders.
The demonic beast couldn’t bear it any longer. A heavy panting came from between its fangs, and its thick tail thrashed restlessly on the ground.
It really wanted to pounce on him and f8ck him fiercely and thoroughly, to make the softest, most secret part of his body be tightly filled by itself, to make him scream and gasp until his throat was hoarse, to fill the space between his legs with its own se-men. But amidst the coughs, all it could do was vent its frustration by scratching the ground with its claws, leaving dozens of smoking gashes.
“Zhou Hui…” Chu He finally managed to stop coughing up blood, exhausted. He turned over, and in a daze, he recognized the danger in one glance and immediately moved back with all his strength.
The demonic beast let out a furious roar, pounced on him, and pressed him down hard, burying his whole body in the fur on its chest, while squeezing him hard, again and again. It took more than a dozen squeezes before it calmed down. It stared fixedly at Chu He, whose collar was open and hair was messy, as if a beast was eyeing a very plump but forbidden piece of meat when extremely hungry, its gaze filled with unwillingness.
“Let me go… Zhou Hui,” Chu He said, trembling, but his expression was very calm. “You let go first…”
The demonic beast let out a roar of “Awooo—!”, and the whole hall shook a few times.
It helplessly took half a step back, then after a few seconds of stalemate, another half step. The muscles in its front legs were as tight as rock, which was actually a prelude to an attack, as if it could change its mind and pounce at any moment.
Chu He’s lips had lost even the last trace of color, but his expression was unusually calm. He kept his eyes fixed on its strange and violent green vertical pupils. It wasn’t until it had finally retreated three or four meters, and the moment its back paws landed, its bones slowly changed and shrank, turning back into a human form.
Chu He leaned against the wall, exhausted, and breathed a sigh of relief.
“…Don’t be so ‘once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of a well rope’,” Zhou Hui squatted on the ground, licking his fingers with a hint of unwillingness. This action should have been subconscious, looking very much like a beast licking its paws before hunting its prey. “I didn’t plan on doing anything. See how obedient I am…”
“Then what were you trying to do just now?”
Zhou Hui’s eyes rolled. “Oh, I was testing if my fur is still soft,” he said, moving closer and asking, “Is it soft?”
Chu He: “…”
Chu He pushed away the handsome face in front of him with a blank expression and struggled to stand up, holding onto the wall. But the place where he had been hit squarely by the demon-subduing pestle on his side was too painful. As soon as he exerted force, he sat back down as if electrocuted. A direct attack with Buddha’s blood was no joke. If it were anyone else, their entire abdominal cavity might have turned into a pile of red bean paste by now.
Zhou Hui was wearing black clothes, so the piercing wound under his right rib was not conspicuous. He just covered the bleeding wound with his hand and said, “You don’t move, I’ll handle it.”
He rummaged through his jacket pocket, found a bottle of throat lozenges, poured out a pill the size of a pinky fingernail, held it in his mouth for a while until it dissolved, then spat the saliva into his palm, rubbed it, lifted the corner of Chu He’s clothes, and began to massage the injured area on his side. This pill was just for emergency treatment, but it could indeed relieve the pain very quickly. After a few minutes of rubbing, Chu He let out a long sigh of relief. “Okay, that’s about it… Where did you get it?”
Zhou Hui said, “I’m not like you guys from the Heavenly Dao’s immortal system. As a demon, I naturally have to get some local products from the Hell Path.”
Chu He thought to himself, So I can adapt to the local products of the Hell Path so well… Perhaps his expression betrayed this thought, because Zhou Hui immediately comforted him, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do. It’s always good for a person to be able to adapt to the environment.”
“…” The corner of Chu He’s mouth twitched slightly. “How are you?”
“These few weak-chicken Asuras, aren’t they just a matter of crushing one in each hand? And you’re over there being driven to ecstasy by a few Heavenly Demon Bells. It’s sad to even talk about it. You really haven’t seen the world.” Zhou Hui leaned over and whispered with a wicked smile, “If you really like it that much, I’ll get a few for you next time. I guarantee you’ll like it even more…”
Chu He said with a blank expression, “No thanks. Keep them for yourself. If your hands aren’t long enough, I can give you a friendly hand.”
“You don’t understand…”
Chu He quickly interrupted him. “—How did you deal with the Cursed Corpse?”
“Oh,” Zhou Hui said sullenly. “There was an answer on Tian Dao Zhihu that said a Buddha seal can purify a Cursed Corpse, so I borrowed my little brother-in-law’s palm. To be honest, our little brother-in-law is indeed a bit timid. Isn’t it just a close dance with a Cursed Corpse? He screamed as if I had found someone to gang-rape him. I feel sorry for him just listening.”
Zhou Hui briefly explained how he discovered the Cursed Corpse was not Yangjin Pingcuo. “From this, it can be seen that Lao Yu was indeed impersonated. Damn it, I knew Yu Jingzhong was strange during this period, looking like he had taken the wrong medicine.”
“You can’t just say someone is strange because they’re not willing to go on a blind date with a girl you introduce…” Chu He sighed, then suddenly remembered something else. “—Where’s Zhang Shun?”
Zhou Hui froze.
Although this expression was fleeting, Chu He still keenly sensed that something was wrong. “—Didn’t you come here from the eastern part of the city with Zhang Shun? Where’s Zhang Shun?”
Zhou Hui stared straight at him. After a long pause, he suddenly clutched his right side and said in pain, “It hurts, it hurts so much…”
Zhou Hui’s face was pale, and cold sweat poured down like rain. That expression was so real that even Chow Yun Fat would have to concede defeat. Chu He didn’t suspect a thing and immediately rushed over to help him sit down on the ground. He unbuttoned his clothes to check and saw that an arrow wound the size of an index finger was lying bloodily under his ribs. Because the arrowhead had been pulled out in a hurry, it had torn off half a palm’s worth of flesh, which looked quite frightening.
Chu He immediately realized he had done it and said angrily, “Why didn’t you say so earlier!”
Zhou Hui grabbed his hand and kept panting. “Quick, quick, go see if the arrowhead is scratched…”
“Your head is the one that’s scratched!” Chu He quickly rummaged through his pocket for the bottle of throat lozenges, but it was empty. The last pill had been used on himself just now. He had no choice but to tear a piece of cloth from his own clothes to bandage Zhou Hui. But for some reason, the wound, which had almost stopped bleeding, started to bleed again as soon as he touched it. After just two wraps, the cloth was soaked through.
Zhou Hui was gasping for breath. He grabbed Chu He’s hand and said, “Darling, don’t worry about it. There’s… there’s something I must tell you…”
“What are you talking about? Is there any more medicine?” Chu He pulled his hand away, immediately got up, and rummaged through the messy ICU hall. He found half a box of painkillers and an unopened syringe in a medicine cabinet. He wanted to find some hemostatic powder, but the hospital beds and all the expensive medical equipment had been destroyed by broken bricks and stones. The medicine was scattered all over the floor. With all the lights out, he could only barely see the shattered glass all over the floor.
Zhou Hui leaned weakly against the corner of the wall, moaning, “Darling, my bones are hard. Quick, go see if the arrowhead is damaged—”
Chu He said angrily, “Don’t move! Tighten the bandage!”
“It’s okay, don’t worry about me. There’s something very important…”
“—I say,” a voice suddenly came from not far away, “can you guys worry about me? If you leave me here any longer, I’m going to get cold naturally.”
Zhou Hui and Chu He turned their heads at the same time and saw Shenwan Tiansi lying on his back on the floor, turning his neck like a zombie and looking at them幽幽地.
“Is it really okay to flirt in front of a monk? And Boss Zhou, I have a feeling that the use of the bells you mentioned is different from what I understand… I’m already terrified of that kind of thing. Don’t let me develop a psychological shadow, okay?”
Zhou Hui clutched his bandage, forgetting to even bleed. “When did you wake up?”
“From ‘once bitten by a snake, ten years afraid of a well rope’—my pure mind has been completely corrupted by you two, Comrade Zhou Runhui.” Shenwan Tiansi’s expression was very numb. He raised his relatively intact right arm and covered his eyes.
But that was the only part of his body he could move. His abdominal cavity was pierced, his left arm was charred black, his skin was broken and his flesh was exposed, a miserable sight. A slight movement would emit the smell of cooked protein. Fortunately, the burns had stopped before reaching his heart, otherwise he would be completely cold by now.
Chu He went over to bandage and treat his wounds, and also gave him a shot of adrenaline. “How did Team Five completely rebel? When were you captured and turned into a puppet?”
“I was originally from a different sect than them. The Yellow Hat sect’s teachings are very radical, and Yangjin Pingcuo is their spiritual leader… It’s too complicated, let’s not talk about it.” Shenwan Tiansi gasped in pain and said intermittently, “Even without this incident, Yangjin Pingcuo had been planning to kill me. He impersonated Deputy Chief Yu and called me to this hospital, lying that there were vengeful spirits here and asking me to purify them. As a result, as soon as I came, I encountered those gray-robed Asuras who used Heavenly Demon Bells. Damn it, I had no power to resist at all… Ah!”
He jumped in pain, buried his head in Chu He’s arms, and panted for a long time before he could barely recover. He asked with a trembling voice, “That… what about Yangjin Pingcuo? What did that idiot do to the real Deputy Chief Yu?”
Chu He shook his head to indicate he didn’t know. The two of them turned to look at Zhou Hui together.
Zhou Hui’s face was pale, and cold sweat was pouring down. He clutched his wound and shook his head weakly. His current state looked no better than Shenwan Tiansi’s. He was curled up alone in a dark corner of the wall, like an injured beast licking its wounds alone.
“I was just about to tell you…” he paused, then said in a low voice, “I brought Zhang Shun from the eastern district to here, but I met Yangjin Pingcuo disguised as you downstairs. I was in a hurry to come up and find you, and I thought the Buddha bone’s ability would be more than enough to deal with Deputy Team Leader Yangjin, so I left Zhang Shun there alone…”
He coughed painfully twice and added, “Zhang Shun also agreed.”
A vein suddenly throbbed on Chu He’s forehead.
Zhou Hui immediately clutched his right side and fell to the ground, curling his body into a shrimp, burying his face in his knees and groaning, “Ah—it hurts, why does my wound hurt so much—”
“You go,” Shenwan Tiansi said to Chu He with great sympathy. “Just leave two shots of adrenaline. I can take care of myself.”
Chu He nodded. “Remember to have Zhou Hui go over later,” he said, grabbed his silver-white long spear, struggled to his feet, and walked out of the ICU monitoring hall through the overturned instruments and broken bricks.
It wasn’t until his figure disappeared outside the door that Zhou Hui got up in one swift motion, tore off the bandage in a few moves, and sighed, “Damn it, I was so agitated just now that I really forgot about my little brother-in-law. I wouldn’t have even remembered if he hadn’t asked.”
Shenwan Tiansi lay on his back motionlessly. “Normal. You even left your comrade-in-arms to get cold on the side.”
“I haven’t even held you responsible for getting your entire team to rebel yet. Shut up and rest on the side!” Zhou Hui kicked him to the side, bent down, and picked up the pure azure bone arrow that had fallen into the rocks just now, still stained with blood. As he had said, the arrowhead was indeed scratched. It must have scraped against a rib when it stabbed into his body, and a small piece of the sharp arrowhead was clearly chipped off.
Zhou Hui touched the long arrow and sighed, “I knew it…”
“It’s just an arrow. Can you not be so petty?” Shenwan Tiansi maintained the position he had been kicked into, grabbed a medical record to use as a pillow, and only then did he feel a little more comfortable. “I heard these are the bones of a great demon from the Sea of Blood that you hunted down. Is it the nine-headed infant? If so, I’m still raising a few in Tibet. I’ll give you a couple of ribs another day.”
Zhou Hui smiled and walked in the direction Chu He had just left.
For some reason, Shenwan Tiansi felt that his smile was very strange, but in the dim light, he couldn’t tell what was wrong. He saw that the cuffs of his black shirt were rolled up to his elbows, revealing his muscular arms. One hand was in his pants pocket, and the other was holding the pure azure arrow in a reverse grip, tapping it on his back rhythmically and casually, as if massaging.
“—It’s not the nine-headed infant,” he said.
“This is my own bone.”
