Two Choices

If an ordinary person had witnessed such a hair-raising scene, they would probably have fled at once. Su Bai did no such thing. He stared at the little girl and asked, "What will happen if I buy the matches in your hand?"

The little girl froze. "You... aren't afraid of me?"

"I am," Su Bai admitted frankly. "But I can't run away, so I might as well chat with you and try to stall for time."

Gu Jiuge had once said that the seventh tier was the dividing line for transcendent creatures. Most transcendent creatures could only develop intelligence equal to a human's upon reaching the sixth tier.

There was no doubt that the Little Match Girl was a transcendent creature, and her bloodline rank had reached at least the sixth tier.

Su Bai did not believe his half-baked skills could get him away under the watchful gaze of a sixth-tier monster.

In the span of an instant, Su Bai had thought it through. When all was said and done, he really only had two choices.

The first was to try to find out why the Little Match Girl had come for him, then pay whatever price he could bear for a chance to live.

First rule of life-if two people of vastly different standing negotiate, the negotiation will inevitably be unfair. In that case, sufficient honesty, or a sufficiently convincing pretense of honesty, is always the foundation of an unfair negotiation.

"As expected of someone chosen by the great 'Satan,' you certainly have some nerve. I admire you..."

The little girl's out-of-the-blue remark stirred something in Su Bai's mind.

In the myths and legends of the Western world, Satan was God's deputy, a deity responsible for guiding human souls. He was called "Hope" and "the Morning Star" by devout believers.

However, Satan had a dispute with Jesus over how to govern human souls. Afterward, God cast Satan out of heaven, and he became a devil who had fallen into hell.

Su Bai did not believe in myths. As Gu Jiuge had said, the things and so-called gods depicted in myths were merely vague conjectures and concepts put forward by humanity.

As Su Bai understood it, the "Satan" the little girl spoke of was probably the title of some great will in this world.

The Contaminated Novelist had once said that certain lazy gods chose humans and bestowed authority upon them, letting them walk the mortal world in their stead. These humans who had gained divine authority were Transcendents.

Putting the two together, Su Bai dimly realized that gods might indeed exist, and that "Satan" was very likely a god.

Working backward from the result, since even a sixth-tier monster revered "Satan" as "great," the divine decree "Wrath" certainly could not be as simple as Gu Jiuge had said.

In the flash of a spark, more than a dozen different thoughts crossed Su Bai's mind at once, but his expression remained utterly calm, without the slightest change.

He had already made a guess at the little girl's real reason for coming to him, and it was probably close to the mark.

If this were only a negotiation, Su Bai would already have victory in his grasp. But this was more than a negotiation.

The little girl knew nothing of Su Bai's thoughts and continued, "So, if you're willing to become my 'favored one,' I won't eat you."

A favored one?

Another new term.

Su Bai frowned and asked, "What does becoming your favored one mean?"

"It means you'll belong to me completely!"

The little girl answered without hesitation.

Su Bai pointed at himself, raised an eyebrow, and smiled. "You're so young, and you're already lusting after my body? Isn't that a bit inappropriate?"

"No..." The little girl licked her bright red lips, a scarlet gleam gradually seeping into her eyes. "I don't just want your body. I also want your... soul!"

"My soul? I'll have to give that some serious thought." Su Bai nodded, then suddenly turned his gaze behind the little girl and said in surprise, "Gu Jiuge, what brings you here?"

At the name "Gu Jiuge," the little girl's expression abruptly changed. She spun around, only to see passersby frozen in the street with hurried expressions. There was no sign of Gu Jiuge.

As she wondered what was going on, she felt a tremendous force coming from behind her.

Su Bai's smile had been warm a moment ago, but now his face was ferocious and his eyes scarlet. He leaped up, reached out, and wrenched the bus stop sign, more than three meters wide, free. Gripping its steel frame, now twisted into a spiral, he smashed it down hard toward the little girl's head.

Boom!!

The entire frozen world trembled for an instant.

Caught off guard, the little girl had the steel frame driven into her body. The sharp metal cut her neck, cheeks, elbows, and other places, and pierced all the way through a shoulder blade in her back, exposing pale flesh and broken bone. Strangely, though she had suffered wounds enough to kill her, not a drop of blood flowed from them, and she did not retreat so much as a step. Instead, Su Bai, who had landed the sneak attack, was sent staggering back several steps by the force.

An eerie smile appeared on the little girl's torn cheek. Her terrifying scarlet eyes stared fixedly at Su Bai, chilling him to the bone.

She slowly pulled the steel frame from her body. "Vile human, it seems you've lost your only chance to live."

Su Bai shook his aching wrist, his face innocent. "Come on. Actually, selling my soul and body and all that is still something I could consider. How about... we talk it over some more?"

All of a sudden, the little girl lunged with explosive force and pinned Su Bai to the ground. Her body, soft as an octopus, wound tightly around his limbs. Then she opened her bloody maw like a python's, bit savagely into his shoulder, and tore off a great chunk of flesh, chewing it in great mouthfuls.

Blood gushed out like a spring, as though it would cover the entire black-and-white world.

The thick, bright red liquid slowly dripped from the little girl's hair at her temples, the corners of her eyes, her cheeks, and her lips, flowing onto Su Bai's face.

For the first time, Su Bai discovered that blood was so scorching hot. For the first time, he also discovered that death was more than a cold word.

In truth, Su Bai was not surprised by what was happening.

Although he knew very little about the transcendent realm, he could roughly guess that if he, unable even to use a divine decree, attacked the little girl, he would have ten deaths and no chance of life.

Yet Su Bai had not hesitated in the slightest when he struck.

As stated before, Su Bai really had only two choices in dealing with the little girl.

The first was to try negotiation and compromise.

The second was to try to kill the little girl.

Second rule of life-failure runs through life from beginning to end, while success is accidental. When there is no way back, the only thing to do is stride forward. Even if the road ahead is destined to leave you dead without a burial place, you still have to shout to the world before you die: I was here.

This was not courage, but principle.