Chapter Seven: The Devouring of Life

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Seeing the strange expression on the head of the Fu family at the moment of his death, Liu Chen immediately understood that the bronze token he had thrown was certainly nothing good.

Sure enough, as the bronze token shattered in two on the ground, Liu Chen felt a sudden swelling behind his eyes, and then saw a cloud of ashen-black mist continually surging out from the token.

“Clumsy!”

The black-gray mist emanating from the bronze token spread rapidly in all directions, swirling like fog and gauze. In no time, when the mist reached Liu Chen, even his corpse body, impervious to heat or cold, felt a piercing chill to the bone. The Taoist standing before Liu Chen quickly withdrew from the room, formed a complex hand seal, and uttered a thunderous shout.

Though the voice came from human lips, it resounded like a great bell, echoing far and wide. In Liu Chen’s eyes, a red light burst forth from the Taoist, blocking the flood of black-gray mist within the confines of the room.

“Utterly deranged! Such resentment—how many lives must it have consumed!”

The Taoist gazed at the scene inside the room, inhaling sharply, his face filled with shock.

Hearing the word “resentment,” Liu Chen immediately recalled the layer of black mist on his own body, which Lu Qingcai, that wicked Taoist, had also called resentment. Yet, from his recent experience, the two were vastly different.

At the very least, the resentment clinging to Liu Chen was nothing as strange as what now filled the room.

Yes—strange. Even though Liu Chen had become a corpse, he still found the black-gray resentment in the chamber profoundly unsettling.

The miasma now occupied every corner. Wherever it passed, the corpses the Taoist had just killed shriveled and dried in an instant. Even stains of blood, spilled only moments ago, turned within seconds into hard, black-brown crusts, as if left there for months.

“Hmmm—”

Again, an illusion seemed to whisper at his ear—a voice from the mist, at once joyful and mournful, its meaning inscrutable. Yet, seeing the Taoist’s expression, Liu Chen realized that in truth, there was no such sound.

“Your body, part corpse and part ghost, is most susceptible to such sinister energies. Retreat at once! If that resentment possesses you, disaster will follow—at the very least, half the people of Departure City would perish!”

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Seeing Liu Chen dazed, the Taoist shouted at him to withdraw immediately.

But by then, it was already too late. Liu Chen could clearly feel a cold, slippery sensation creeping from his limbs toward his torso, like several cold-blooded snakes slowly winding their way up his body.

And these snakes, tongues flickering and fangs bared, seemed poised to strike at any moment.

“Get away!”

The threat to his existence ignited a surge of furious anger within Liu Chen. That rage, in turn, awakened the dormant power inside him—his eyes, ordinarily much like a living person’s, turned pitch black, and a jet-black flame appeared where his pupils once were.

“Zzz—”

Wherever his gaze landed, the gray-black resentment blazed up like gasoline struck by a spark. The mist that had just invaded Liu Chen’s body transformed directly into a black fire-serpent, which Liu Chen seized and wielded like a long whip.

“Ah—!”

As the spirit flame in Liu Chen’s eyes burned, he saw more within the swirling resentment. What seemed a single, cohesive mass was, in truth, countless fragments. Each fragment preserved a jumbled memory—some of scolding, some of beatings, but most of waiting to die in darkness.

These fragments had blended together, their edges blurred, forming a kind of vague, primal consciousness—something akin to a primitive lifeform, driven by nothing but the instinct to survive.

Its attempt to devour Liu Chen had been such a creature’s desperate choice. Now, its shrill, agonized scream was another instinct, casting a memory fragment into Liu Chen’s mind.

Having seen the true nature of the black-gray resentment, Liu Chen hesitated not at all at its wailing, but wielded the fiery serpent in his hand, burning every trace of resentment as fuel for the spirit flame.

“Fortunately, you possess such a domineering spirit flame. Otherwise, with my cultivation, I could only hope to protect myself!”

Seeing Liu Chen burn the resentment to nothing in an instant, the Taoist finally breathed easy. After a moment’s meditation, he looked at Liu Chen in admiration.

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“It’s nothing; I acted only in self-defense. But what is this bronze token? How is it so formidable? The resentment from the massacre in my valley was nothing compared to this!”

Stepping into the room, Liu Chen picked up the seemingly ordinary bronze token from the floor and asked the Taoist, staring at the shriveled, decaying corpses at his feet with a chill running down his spine.

As Liu Chen examined it, a gentle warmth suddenly flowed from the token into his cold, lifeless body. The sensation reminded Liu Chen of when he had still been alive, but the memory of the earlier eruption of resentment made him hastily toss the token away.

“Don’t worry. This is a Gluttonous Token forged by shamanistic arts. The resentment it held has been completely burned away by your spirit flame, leaving only the purest vital energy inside. You’d do well to keep it; that energy will benefit you.”

Catching the token Liu Chen had thrown, the Taoist inspected it, then returned it to him.

“Vital energy?”

Remembering the dreadful resentment just moments before, Liu Chen found the words almost laughable. Yet the lingering warmth within him did seem to match that description. After a moment’s hesitation, Liu Chen accepted the token, examining it carefully.

On its face was carved the image of a beast with its jaws wide open—surely the Gluttonous Beast, as the Taoist had named it. Back on Earth, Liu Chen had heard tales of the Gluttonous Beast’s rapacious, evil fame. Gazing at the clotted, dried blood in the copper basin, he could readily imagine the source of the token’s vital energy.

Looking again at the maidservants slain by the blast of resentment, and recalling the youthful, white-haired head of the Fu family, Liu Chen finally understood why the Taoist had called it “utterly deranged.”

Comprehending this, and feeling the faint warmth seeping into him, Liu Chen realized the bronze token was an object too hot to handle. Every strand of “vital energy” within it was, in truth, a living person’s life.

“No need to look so troubled. If you don’t use it, the vital energy inside the Gluttonous Token will simply dissipate over time. And if you’re bent on vengeance, you’ll have to linger among the living. With this as your disguise, no ordinary person will see your true nature. It will spare you much trouble.”

Seeing Liu Chen’s lingering hesitation, the Taoist offered these words.