77: Chapter 77 I Will Survive

Chu Xuan continuously carved away the bloody flesh from his left leg with a fruit knife. His words were heavy with gasps, but his eyes shone with brilliance:

"The more you try to prove something, the more it shows you don't actually have it! You claim to be powerful, but why didn't you kill Qin Qing back then? It's just as I said—you likely didn't even fight her!"

Suddenly, a thought struck Chu Xuan, and the light in his eyes grew even more intense as he declared, "Before Qin Qing stayed behind to cover the retreat, Xu Zhiyou and his group were blocking the way. If my guess is correct and you were in a hurry to catch up, then you probably didn't kill all of them..."

"Even if you did kill them all, considering your speed back then and how quickly you caught up, you couldn't have taken the time to devour them one by one..."

"So, Tang Zheng, did you ever find out what happened to Qin Qing, Xu Zhiyou, and the others afterward?"

Chu Xuan directed his last question to [Future Tang Zheng]. As he spoke, his voice was converted entirely into text.

Sent successfully!

Almost a second later, the other party replied.

[Tang Zheng: Let me think... In my new memories, about three years ago, I went to the school seeking protection from the Night Watchers to avoid the official Investigation Team's pursuit. It seems that at that exact point in time, I finally connected with them. Their people were reconstructing the scene of the Night Demon's attack on the dormitory building, and I saw it...]

[Yes, you're right! In the reconstructed scene, Qin Qing stayed behind to cover the retreat, but she only stood in a standoff with the Night Demon. Neither side moved until about five minutes had passed. Only then did the Night Demon seem to suddenly regain control of its body and flee with its mangled form. Qin Qing remained standing but had fainted.]

[Xu Zhiyou and the others didn't all die either. Besides Xu Zhiyou, Lin Tong and Cao Yun also survived. Although they were all severely injured and missing limbs, they were indeed alive and rescued by the Night Watchers!]

"Then that's it!"

The corners of Chu Xuan's mouth curled up slightly. "Phantom Demon, your state back then wasn't as powerful as we imagined. To avoid being delayed, you had to abandon your control over the Night Demon..."

"And the Night Demon had long since lost the ability to keep fighting; it was only hard to kill because of its high defense. Once you stopped controlling it, it didn't bother to continue tangling with Qin Qing, who was ready to fight to the death. It chose to run away immediately..."

"Phantom Demon, am I right?"

The Phantom Demon remained silent, no longer making a sound.

Chu Xuan continued, "You failed to parasitize me from the very beginning and entered a symbiotic relationship with me. Perhaps that piece of black jade played a role in this..."

"But how could an existence like you willingly give up? While I was weak, you amplified my desire to go home, even making me forget about the System rewards..."

"At that time, I had a persistent headache and couldn't think effectively. I was single-mindedly focused on getting Tang Zheng home. I didn't consider that, in that life-or-death moment, the most correct choice was actually to find the school security and call for emergency services..."

"All of this was because you wanted to wear me down. You only let me suddenly remember the System at the final moment, just as the time limit for the rewards was about to expire..."

"But by then, there was no time left. With hardly any time to choose, you exploited my anxiety to influence me into giving up the [Berserker] and [Thief] paths. Without much thought, I hastily chose the [Illusionist] path..."

"And that bottle of Health Recovery Potion! Given my usual style, I should have at least tried to save some for Tang Zheng, yet I drank it all back then..."

"Next, you guided me to the family of four on Taikang Road! Those four low-level Specters—now that I think about it, they were also deluded by you. They actually treated me as family and even fed me that bloody raw meat..."

"Until I woke up and you suddenly let me discover that it was all fake. When my mind was vulnerable, you pretended it was for a perfect Fusion, but in reality, you were just putting pressure on me and making me panic. Your goal was to force me to put the only remaining attribute point from the System into Charm! And that is also why you had me choose the [Clone] skill instead of 100 spirituality value from the System's rating rewards..."

"Because at that time, I was right on the verge of a personal Rank promotion. With those 100 spirituality value points, under your pressure, I would have chosen to level up and wouldn't have been able to add points to Charm! As for the attribute point I had exchanged earlier, after leveling up, I most likely would have put it into the spirit attribute!"

"You kept emphasizing that you wouldn't allow me to add points to Charm, but the reality was exactly the opposite. You were doing everything possible to force me to keep adding points to Charm!"

"You appeared angry, compromising, and yielding, seemingly just to stop me from increasing my Charm. But you would release your aura from time to time to make me feel fear and make me believe you were a massive threat. Wasn't that just to make me work harder to accumulate spirituality value, so that at some point, I would suddenly exchange it all for attribute points to boost my Charm?"

"The reason you guided me to the locations of those low-level Specters so I could hunt them for spirituality value—wasn't the goal simply to speed up this process?"

"Besides that, there are many other inconsistencies. For example... with my level two Heart Bewitchment ability, I can toy with an ordinary person in the palm of my hand, leaving them deeply trapped and unable to extricate themselves."

"And you, an S-rank Specter who claims to be able to raise my Heart-Confusing Skill to the maximum level—shouldn't the gap between us be even larger?"

"But in reality, your influence over me is very limited. You've actually allowed me to stay conscious just through the sensation of pain."

"Doesn't this prove you're just a paper tiger? Phantom Demon, it's not that you don't want to parasitize me; it's that you already failed to do so long ago. I've seen through everything you've done!"

Chu Xuan used the voice recognition function to convert everything he said into text and sent it to [Future Tang Zheng], finally adding one last sentence:

[So, Tang Zheng! I don't know what other concerns you have, but you should believe me now when I say I haven't been parasitized. That S-rank Specter is merely in a symbiotic relationship with me and cannot control me! Tell me, how can I resolve this hidden danger?]

The moment he sent that sentence, the surrounding sense of dread reached its peak. It was as if boundless darkness was descending, making him the only thing left in the world.

Chu Xuan remained unmoved, his hand continuing to move the knife.

He had already stripped away most of the flesh from his left leg, leaving the pale bone exposed to the air. The continuous pain made him tremble uncontrollably, and he was only holding on by virtue of his 10 spirit points.

However, his health points were dropping rapidly, and he didn't know how much longer he could endure.

[Tang Zheng: Chu Xuan, you might not know... even if the parasitism didn't succeed, that is still an S-rank Specter. Moreover, you've already added 3 points to your Charm attribute, leading to a certain degree of Assimilation with it. You no longer have any chance of surviving.]

[If I tell you the method to counter it, it will surely stop you at all costs and try to parasitize you again at the critical moment. Even if it fails, you will die. Only two outcomes are possible.]

[Either you both die together, perishing in a mutual destruction! Or you fuse together to become a completely new life form with a brand-new consciousness! Based on the new memories that have appeared over these three years, the person who has been hunting me down should be the latter—a monster born from your Fusion with the Specter.]

[It seems we are both doomed this time. I can sense that the guy hunting me has already picked up my trail and will be catching up soon...]

Tang Zheng seemed to have fallen into despair once again.

Chu Xuan's expression remained unchanged as he continued to send messages via voice-to-text:

[Is there really not even a sliver of a chance for me to survive? Just because I added 3 points to Charm, I'm destined to die? I don't believe it. Just tell me. My luck has always been good; I believe I will definitely survive! I believe it!]

Once this seemingly desperate message was sent, Chu Xuan narrowed his eyes slightly.

Chu Xuan was confident that [Future Tang Zheng] would understand the true meaning hidden within these words.

In reality, Chu Xuan's luck was quite mediocre; in games of chance, he lost far more often than he won. As his childhood friend, Tang Zheng was naturally well aware of this.

Therefore, combined with the repeated use of the word "believe" in that sentence, the underlying message was—

Just tell me, I will definitely live, believe me!