This Damned Thirst for Survival

Jiang Luo's expression cracks.

The man he wanted to kill was a false god?

The closest thing to God in the world?

"......"

After a moment, he took a deep breath and his contorted face slowly calmed down again.

Isn't that a false god? Chi You is still an evil god in that body, but you can still deal with it. We can just kill the god, it's just a false god anyway, what are we afraid of?

Ji Yaozi was impressed by how quickly he had calmed down. Jiang Luo fiddled with his fingers, "Can he see anything wrong with this thing?"

Ji Yaozi smiled and said with a slight sense of pride, "The only thing I can compare to the Predestined is the refinement of weapons."

Then Jiang Luo is relieved.

At the poolside, apart from the predestined, there is Feng Li, who has not been seen all morning. Dressed in a Tang suit, the Heavenly Master's face is expressionless, looking even colder than usual. His gaze glances over Jiang Luo and Ji Yaozi, then retracts flatly, with an unruffled look.

Ji Yaozi thought Feng Li looked a bit off, "Your master doesn't look in a good mood today, his face is much colder than usual ......"

Turning his head, he notices that Jiang Luo's face is also much colder than it was just now.

Ji Yaozi smacked his lips, what happened to this master and disciple?

Jiang Luo did not look at Feng Li and went straight to the pool to take a dip. Halfway through the dip, Jiang Luo pretended to look as if he had not recovered from a serious injury and his arms and legs were too weak to dip.

The people at the pool did notice the difference in him, and the host said, "Master of Heaven, go and see him."

Feng Li's eyes passed through the heat and mist and rested on Jiang Luo's body. He looked at Jiang Luo for a few seconds, took a step forward, then suddenly stopped, his tone unmoving, "I've just been in Xiaoquan Pond, it's not a good idea to go back in recently."

The smell of alcohol on him had dissipated by now.

The predestined man looked at Ji Yaozi again. Feng Li noticed his gaze and remembered Ji Yaozi and Jiang Luo's closeness, his brow furrowed and his eyes sunk, " Not Ji Yaozi either."

At that glance, it seemed that no one could go down to help Jiang Luo except the Fatalist. Without further ado, the Fatalist quickly descended into the water and walked up to Jiang Luo.

Jiang Luo's eyes were closed, a few painful tints creasing his brow, his face beaded with water, not knowing whether it was sweat or spring water, and the lodger held his arm to prevent him from slipping into the water, calling out softly, " Jiang Luo, Jiang Luo ?"

Jiang Luo opened his eyes and gave him a painful look, his voice faint, "The Fatal Man."

Jiang Luo's eyes were struck by the unblemished whiteness of his hair. There is something Zen about the Fatalist's appearance, his eyes are thin, drooping and gentle, but when lifted, they appear heartless. The coldness of the fatalist and the coldness of Feng Li are two different kinds of cold, and perhaps some people do not see the fatalist as 'cold' and mistake this coldness for tenderness.

One is like long, silent snow that kills, and the other is sharp-edged like cold, hard ice.

Jiang Luo glanced at the water surrounding the predestined man.

The water is clean and thorough, without a trace of turbidity. Because the predestined are false gods, is there not a trace of malice or lust?

But if God has selfish thoughts, does the predestined not really have any "evil" thoughts or desires?

Jiang Luo's eyes narrow slightly.

He gathered up all his emotions, raised his head with a pale face, and, unsteady on his feet, grabbed the arm of his host.

Feng Li, who was watching from the shore, took two steps forward.

Ji Yaozi followed him and saw the watery host reach out and hold Jiang Luo in time.

He was about to poke fun at Feng Li's concern for his protégé when his expression suddenly froze and he broke out in a cold sweat for a moment.

Jiang Luo He's not going to ...... be looking at the inside of the fatalist is he?!

How dare he!

In the water, the earring on Jiang Luo's left ear wobbles twice.

The Fatalist was caught by the earrings and said with slight surprise, "A soul-regenerating pendant?"

Confusion flashed across Jiang Luo's eyes, "A demented pendant?"

The Fatalist shook his head and raised his hand to brush the dangling spike, musing, "I haven't seen such a chic demented pendant in a long time."

Success.

The corners of Jiang Luo's mouth curved slightly, and the next moment he was white before his eyes, and after a moment of spinning, his feet hit the ground.

The body is light, a familiar out-of-body sensation. Jiang Luo lifts his head and finds himself standing in front of a temple.

That's the inside view of the predestined man, isn't it?

Let him see what secrets the predestined have.

There are two stone lions in front of the temple, the red walls are stately, and a plaque with the words " White Heron Temple" hangs over the door.

Jiang Luo walks into the White Heron Temple, where a pond of lotus blossoms is located at the entrance to the temple. The green leaves are lush and dew drops roll off the top of them. A few pink and white lotus flowers are in full bloom, standing tall among the leaves.

Jiang Luo's eyes look forward to the back of the lotus pond, where a huge incense burner in the form of a tripod stands alone in front of the door of the hall where a statue of Buddha is placed.

Jiang Luo walks around the lotus pond to the incense burner and looks down to see that the incense ash has fallen all over the burner.

The incense was of various colours and lengths, some already half-burned, others only just starting from the beginning.

Jiang Luo is thoughtful.

He plucked out two incense sticks, which arrived in his hands and disappeared in a flash.

Jiang Luo took advantage of the time left to quickly go through several of the halls.

The whole temple was regular and unexceptional. The only eye-catching thing in the interior of the Custodian is the tripod incense burner by the lotus pond, to which Jiang Luo returned, thinking of Ji Yaozi's words, "Offerings ...... offerings ...... "

"Burning incense to the gods, incense is the medium, incense, incense ash, incense burners, a whole process of communicating to the gods," he said to himself, "are these incense, are they the beliefs materialized by those who offer them to the hosts?"

"Right."

Jiang Luo A voice suddenly came from behind him.

Jiang Luo's hair stood on end in a moment of creepy sweat. He immediately turned to look and saw the fatalist standing across the lotus pond.

The moment he saw him, Jiang Luo's scalp tingled and his body became extremely tense.

A gentle smile tugged at the corners of the predestined man's lips, "This is the source of my power."

"When a man gains faith, he can become a god," the predestined man lifted his steps and stepped on the lotus leaves in the lotus pond as he made his way through the many red lotuses and walked slowly towards Jiang Luo, "The more Taoist gods and immortals in the East and the bodhisattvas of the Buddha in the West are worshipped in temples and the more followers they have, the more powerful they are. But are there really gods in this world?"

He sighed despondently, "No one has ever seen God, including me."

Jiang Luo takes a cautious step back.

"We have to invite gods to write charms, we have to invite gods to do practices, and the shaman tribe can still invite gods to their bodies, but if you ask them if there are still gods in the world now, they will most likely answer that there are not."

The predestined man had walked to the centre of the lotus pond, and the lotus leaf he stepped on was clearly so weak, but firmly supported under the predestined man's feet, "In this world, there are yet many things that claim to be immortal."

"Fox Daisy, Yellow Daisy, including the hedgehog, the snake and the rat, they are what we call the five great immortals," said the Cebu, "the mountain god, the land, the dingxin woman, the black Bai Wuchang ...... We also seem to have some minor gods."

He walked out of the lotus pond, "But the real gods, who knows if they exist or not."

Jiang Luo has retreated behind the incense burner, his lips pursed as he stares intently at the predestined man.

"So I was curious and wanted to see if one could become a new god," said the predestined man, smiling as he walked to the incense burner and looked at the curling smoke, "Jiang Luo, do you want to become a god?"

Jiang Luo tugged at his lips, still acting calmly and without desire, "Is this place a dream? Fatalist, I don't understand what you mean."

The Fate looked at him tenderly, the gaze like that of a disobedient youngster, and he said, "You understand."

Jiang Luo stared blankly at him, not showing a hint of difference.

The predestined man looked at him and smiled slowly.

It seems that the snow is falling from the sky and is about to drown Jiang Luo in it. The snow in the eyes of the fatalist was like gentle sea water, which only surrounded Jiang Luo, but was not ready to drown him.

There was total kindness in it, as total kindness for the sake of others as if the fatalist had killed a bird.

Jiang Luo suddenly rose to a bold idea, and he suddenly reached out and quickly plucked a few incense sticks out of the censer before staring deadpan at the Fatalist and said, "Will you be angry if I do this?"

The Fatalist smiled helplessly, "No."

Jiang Luo continued, "Will you kill me?"

The predestined man said, "Of course not."

Jiang Luo smiled, the corners of his lips curving in a beautiful arc, if the evil spirits were here they would be able to see the sheer nastiness belonging to the darkness in the dark haired youth's smile, "Do gods kill people?"

The predestined man looked at him steadily for a moment and said slowly, "No."

In the eyes of God, all things in the world are the same.

They are full of love for man, and every human being is loved equally by the gods, and so are all beings except man; all things being the same, it would only reveal the ruthlessness of the gods. The life and death of a human being is no different in the eyes of God from the life and death of a blade of grass or a worm, and they look on high at all the changes in the world; no one is special in the eyes of God.

They can easily bring about the death of mankind, but just as man does not kill a shovelful of earth beneath his feet or a drop of water inside a river, so God does not kill mankind.

In traditional mythology, no gods come down to earth to commit sins. But the line between gods and humans is not particularly clear in the stories. Gods also have feelings and can rise to jealousy and love, and Jiang Luo can hear the story of the cowherd and the weaving maiden backwards, not to mention the other gods who sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

But the Predestined, a false god, is different from the legendary gods.

He has no evil thoughts or desires, no seven emotions. He has good intentions for everything - a difference that seems so deliberate to Jiang Luo that it is sickening.

It is as if the only way for a predestined person to become a pseudo-god, and then a true god, is to remain so.

But what if the predestined person is inclined to have evil thoughts, to have desires?

The Fates want to induce Jiang Luo to become ruthless and heartless. Can Jiang Luo then induce the malice of the Fates in reverse?

Make him angry, kill, greedy, lustful ......

Even this idea of wanting to become a god is a form of desire.

Jiang Luo has a twinkle in his eye.

When the predestined man develops malice and desire, does he fall from being a false god, back down to being human?