32: Want to die? Did you even ask me, your owner?

The "da-da" sound of shoe soles striking broken glass was particularly jarring in the deathly silent ruins.

Su Chen stepped over the shards covering the floor, his gaze lingering on the three mummies.

The way these people died was quite interesting.

Even though their skin had shriveled into something resembling aged jerky, a circular bronze piece was still firmly embedded within the sunken hollows of their chests.

He clicked his tongue inwardly.

This feeling was very much like the cheap underground casinos back in his hometown.

The winner takes all, while the losers are tossed into a stinking ditch, unable to even secure a burial shroud.

Su Chen walked up to the mummy in the center. Enduring the strange stench that mixed preservatives with aged jerky, he pressed his fingers together like a blade and forcibly pried the bronze piece out of the hardened breastbone.

The moment his fingertips touched the metal, its icy texture made his eyelids twitch slightly.

It wasn't pure copper; this thing was absorbing his Yang Energy.

Su Chen didn't rush to throw it away; instead, he did the opposite and funneled a sliver of Sacred Yang Qi into it.

With a hum, the flesh of his palm vibrated until it went numb. On the originally rust-covered bronze surface, a dark red number—"7"—actually emerged like an LED screen.

He looked up toward the depths of the supermarket. Above a pile of crooked shelves, he could barely make out a sign marked "7".

"Keep close, and don't touch anything randomly."

Su Chen tucked the chip into his pocket and spoke without looking back at the group of beautiful women behind him.

"This isn't some charity supply station; this is a giant gambling table."

"The chips are lives. If you win, you take the goods and leave. If you lose, you'll be hanging outside as wind chimes."

Lin Mengyao swallowed hard. Her priceless White Jade Marrow Necklace grew slightly warm against her collar, a warning of danger.

But the hunger burning from her stomach was like an invisible hand, clawing at her sanity.

They hadn't had a proper meal in a long time.

Walking into the supermarket, a sweet, rotten fragrance wafted into their noses, like a completely spoiled peach.

Lin Mengyao scanned her surroundings.

Suddenly, her gaze fixed on a tin of compressed biscuits in the seventh shelf area.

The bright blue packaging shimmered with an enticing luster in the dim mist.

She subconsciously took a step forward, her fingertips just touching the cold aluminum-plastic packaging.

"Click."

An extremely faint mechanical clicking sound erupted in the silence.

Thanks to the enhancement of his Internal Cultivation, Su Chen's ears caught that incredibly weak vibration.

"Get back!"

Almost at the same time Su Chen shouted, the heavy metal shelves on both sides, which were originally welded to the floor, slammed shut like a mousetrap.

The multi-ton shelves brought a gust of foul wind as they moved through the air.

Lin Mengyao froze in place, her mind going blank.

Su Chen's pupils constricted, and his right hand suddenly grabbed at the air.

Several golden threads of Yang Energy shot out from between his fingers, instantly wrapping around Lin Mengyao's ankles.

"Come back!"

Su Chen coordinated his waist and legs, the muscles in his arms bulging like pythons as he gave a violent tug backward.

Bang!

The cage-like shelves slammed shut just in front of him. Lin Mengyao felt a surge of massive force, and she was dragged sliding across the floor for over three meters.

The corner of the shelf closed almost grazing the tip of her nose.

The resulting sparks splattered onto her soft long hair, carrying a hint of a burnt smell.

Su Chen stared at the closed shelves, lost in thought.

In that moment just now, he had caught a slight adjustment in the air temperature.

These shelves weren't triggered by infrared, but by body temperature.

Only someone like him, who could freely control the "heat" within his body, could delay such a trap by interfering with the sensors.

"Su Chen, look here."

Qin Ya's trembling voice came from the refrigerated section.

She was holding the Teaching Pointer she usually used on the blackboard, carefully prying away a thick layer of frost from a freezer.

Su Chen walked over to take a look, his brow furrowing into a knot.

Inside the freezer, which should have been without power for a long time, dozens of living rats were actually frozen.

The eyes of these creatures weren't blackish-red, but glowed with a strange, brilliant gold that shared the same source as Su Chen's Yang Energy.

A long-tailed rat that had its ice layer pried open suddenly darted out, moving as fast as a bolt of lightning.

"Watch out!"

Su Chen was about to act, but the rat didn't attack. Instead, it rushed straight toward Zhao Wanting, who was huddled in a corner in a state of semi-collapse.

"Squeak—!"

The rat bit through the recently healed wound on Zhao Wanting's wrist.

Next, a scene that made everyone's skin crawl unfolded.

The golden threads that were originally wriggling under Zhao Wanting's skin actually followed the rat's tail, flowing back like a water pump into the shadows deep within the freezer.

"They are stealing our Yang Energy."

Su Chen stared at the rat as it crawled back into the ice cracks and let out a cold laugh.

"It seems this 'Banker' has quite an appetite. It thinks my chips aren't enough and plans to drain us dry directly."

Zhao Wanting suddenly let out a painful retch.

She collapsed to her knees and vomited a large pool of black blood with a loud retch.

Strangely, those drops of blood didn't soak into the floor. Instead, they hovered in mid-air as if they were alive.

Attracting and reorganizing each other, they finally pieced together an extremely complex floor plan of the supermarket in the air, with a flickering blood line pointing directly to the center of the store.

"I... I can feel where he is..."

Zhao Wanting looked up. Her once-pretty face was now half-withered and half-covered in golden patterns.

Her smile held a hint of distorted madness.

"Su Chen, let me be the sacrifice... let you guys win for once. Anyway, looking like this... I can't go on living."

Su Chen didn't show the slightest bit of pity. He strode forward and crushed the map formed of blood with one foot.

"Want to die? Have you asked me, your master?"

He looked down coldly at Zhao Wanting, casually tore off a piece of his hem, and tied it around her ulcerated arm as if he were wrapping up trash.

"Until this gamble is over, you don't even have the qualification to be a chip. You are just a piece of 'bait' for me."

He hauled Zhao Wanting up and led the group toward the center of the supermarket.

The Automatic Checkout Counter there was lighting up with a ring of crimson light. In the pitch-black ruins, it looked like a cyclopean eye staring at its prey.

【Welcome to the Settlement Center】

A cold, monotonous mechanical voice echoed through the empty hall.

【Qualified gambler detected. The game begins... Please place your bet: Yang Energy Purity.】

Su Chen stepped forward nonchalantly and pressed his right hand—covered in fine cracks yet containing startling heat—firmly onto the scanning screen.

He had thought the machine would alarm wildly or even explode.

But a flurry of chaotic static points jumped onto the screen.

Immediately after, a green rectangular frame shook violently. It actually bypassed Su Chen and locked onto Lin Mengyao, who was standing behind him, clutching his clothes tightly.

【Target Locked: Core Observer】

【Relationship Determination: Absolute Loyalty / Contractual Connection】

【Judgment Result: She is the most precious chip on the field.】

Su Chen stunned for a moment, then he burst out laughing.

The logic of this crappy supermarket really was "Male-lead" style.

Not only did it want to gamble, but it also wanted to use his most beloved woman as the hole card?

"Su Chen... is it looking at me?"

Lin Mengyao felt a certain cold aura lock onto her spine.

Su Chen didn't hesitate for a second. He reached back and gripped Lin Mengyao's fair, slender nape, as if comforting her, yet also as if exerting control.

He pressed her entire being toward the identification frame of the scanner.

"It seems this machine thinks your life is worth more than this supermarket."

Su Chen stared at the screen as it gradually turned green. There was no pity in his eyes, only a nearly pathological desire for control.

"Now, you are my bet, and also my hole card."

Below the checkout counter, the originally seamless floor suddenly split open to both sides, and a metal chair emitting a cold mist slowly rose.