Chapter 64: Going Mad

    Jin Jiuchi closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, the aura around him changed in an instant. An almost feral grin crossed his face as he swung his injured arm around, causing the blood to splatter all over the place.

    In front of him, the four nightmare creatures were engaged in a fierce battle. None of them noticed Jin Jiuchi’s presence yet.

    In the short time he had been away, the fourth nightmare creature had become more and more barbaric as he blindly attacked everything around him like a mad dog, making it hard for Dong and Miss Zhao to hold him down. Dong was already down on his knees with blood pooling around his body, and Miss Zhao was crying out in agony as each of the creature’s attacks tore into her flesh to draw more blood. Even then, both of them were intent on never letting go no matter what.

    The temperature in the atrium was getting higher and higher with the fire already reaching the mouth of the narrow hallway to reach the dining hall, but Jin Jiuchi couldn’t care less about it right now.

    He did a little stretching, hopped in place a few times before dashing straight toward the eye of the storm, his hetero eyes blazing in craze. "Have no one ever taught you..." he lifted his fist and punched the creature right on his face, sending him crashing to the opposite wall. "...that you should never harm children, elderly and women?!!"

    A spiderweb crack formed on the wall from where the creature’s body had slammed into, and he slid to the ground, hacking out blood. "Gah—cough cough cough!"

    "Haha!" Jin Jiuchi barked out a satisfied laugh. "That feels so refreshing!" He had been holding himself back because he did not want the jade doll to see how savage he was, but now that he had sent everyone out, there was no need to restrain himself anymore!

    "You... why..." Miss Zhao, Madam Liu and Dong were dumbfounded. They had tried their best to send people out of this place so why did this one still linger around?!

    "Madam Liu, you cooked me delicious meat sauce... even though Nian’er did not agree with me," Jin Jiuchi rubbed his nose sheepishly. "Miss Zhao, you shared me food when I’m on the verge of dying from hunger, and Dong... uh, you haven’t given me food but that’s okay. I can tell that you’re a nice person." He gave them a thumbs up and ignored their stupefied look. "Now that the three of you are suffering because of him, how can I sit still and watch? Don’t worry, I will teach him a lesson for all the pain he has put you through!"

    Turning to the fourth nightmare creature, he flashed a sharp grin when those murderous ruby-eyes fell on him. "Tsk tsk, how weak. Is that all you’re capable of?"

    "You..." the creature wiped the blood away from his lips as he struggled to get on his feet. "You’re going to die!"

    "Nuh-uh, it’s you who is going to die," Jin Jiuchi tutted and waved his index finger back and forth. "Actually, I’m thankful that you chose to possess Tang Ye’s body of all people. He has been an eyesore to me because he kept trying to find a chance to use his damned skill on Nian’er, so I can just take both of you out at once, yeah?"

    An inhumane growl erupted from the creature’s throat, enraged at Jin Jiuchi’s careless provocation. His ruby eyes burned red like lava until blood was seeping out of the sockets, and then he roared. "I will not give you an easy death!!"

    "Be careful!" Miss Zhao cried out in warning as black smoke began to ooze out of Tang Ye’s body, leaving him slumped to the ground with his fate unknown. "He can—"

    The black smoke turned into a sharp blade that pierced through the air, and instinct drove Jin Jiuchi to evade it rather than meeting it head-on.

    "—not be touched!" she finished her sentence.

    "He cannot be touched?!" Jin Jiuchi yelled out as he danced around to avoid the deadly blade whistling in the air. "What do you mean by that?!"

    He got his answer when the thin weapon dispersed into smoke without a warning to target the open wound on his arm, cutting off a small piece of flesh, and the sudden pinch of pain caused him to cry out in surprise. He tried to grab hold of it, but it escaped swiftly between his fingers and he ended up catching nothing but empty air.

    The fourth nightmare creature could not be touched because his true nature was that of a shadow. And shadow was supposed to be formless, just like the air around him.

    So this was what Miss Zhao meant by that warning...

    "Hehehe..." Jin Jiuchi lowered his head and an eerie chuckle flowed out of his lips. Just as the three victims thought that he had a way to counter this, they suddenly heard him shout out loud in frustration. "I’m doomed. How am I supposed to defeat an enemy I can’t even touch?! And how can he still hurt me when he’s a shadow? It’s so unfair!!"

    Zhao, Liu and Dong: "..." So you’re laughing out of panic, huh?

    The black shadow cackled in delight when he heard that, and his ruby eyes were filled with manic satisfaction. More... he wanted more! He wanted to see Jin Jiuchi sink deeper into the pit of despair, until he broke down and begged for death just like his previous victims. And he swore, he was going to torture Jin Jiuchi to his heart’s content and only grant him death when his body and spirit had completely shattered to pieces!

    He began to attack again in renewed vigor, relentless in its intensity. Every single time, he would only leave small cuts on non-vital areas, only enough to draw blood and offer pain without any life-threatening consequences. But it was this method of attack that weakened Jin Jiuchi the quickest.

    He was already low on energy to begin with due to extreme hunger, and the previous burn had scraped almost all of the flesh on his left arm and caused him massive blood loss. His head was ringing, his vision blurred and his breathing turned shallow. Cold sweat poured out of his skin and it stung to death when they seeped into the bleeding wound.

    However, Jin Jiuchi still showed no signs of giving up.

    He struggled desperately to no avail as he just couldn’t grab onto the shadow, and in his frustration, he cursed out loud and pointed at the roof where the Nightmare was staring at him from above, enraged. "Fuck you, what kind of shitty battle is this?! I demand justice! How can I win if I can’t even—" his words died down in his throat when numbing pain burst out of his arm and crimson blood spilled down his face.

    The entire world seemed to screech to a halt as a light thump sounded beneath his feet, and he lowered his gaze to see that it was his arm rolling to a halt there, still with his index finger pointed outward.

    His good right arm, sliced by the shadow.

    "It seems like I haven’t taught you enough lessons yet!" The shadow spat out in fury. "You’re fighting with me and you still dare to get distracted?! I’m going to tear you apart limb by limb and make you cry tears of blood!!"

    "You... cut my arm off...?" Jin Jiuchi’s entire body started to shake as thick blood continued to spill out of his stumped arm to drench his clothes and pool around his feet. His gaze was still fixed on his severed arm, almost in a daze. "You cut my arm off... you cut my arm off... haha..."

    Jin Jiuchi had no idea why, but amidst the soul-shattering pain, laughter began to bubble out of his throat. His mind grew fuzzy and he felt as if he was sinking deeper and deeper into a place deep within himself – a place ruled solely by hunger and instinct.

    "HAHAHA—!!" Jin Jiuchi suddenly threw his head back and laughed like a madman. The darkness in his eyes intensified akin to a droplet of ink spreading and tainting a glass of pure water, until the black color completely dominated both of his eyes. His pupils shrunk into thin slits and the smile on his face was twisted in madness. With his face drenched in blood, he truly looked like he had gone insane, "YOU CUT MY ARM OFF!!!"

    "Ha! Have you lost your mind just from this? Too bad, I haven’t even started for real yet!" The shadow posed to launch another attack, but then he was surprised to see Jin Jiuchi rushing toward him instead. A touch of disdain appeared in his ruby-eyes when he saw Jin Jiuchi’s suicide move.

    This man was an utter fool. It was clear that no physical attack could harm him, so what’s the use of charging ahead?

    The shadow morphed into a large cleaver, ready to chop Jin Jiuchi’s other arm off.