I am an insect

"Trying to escape?" The middle-aged man in the white hat sneered as he approached Ji Ye.

His action finally attracted the attention of the funeral home staff in the hall, who all turned to look at the middle-aged man in the white hat.

They couldn't see Ji Ye, nor could they see the giant tentacles wrapped around the white-hatted middle-aged man's body; they could only see the white-hatted middle-aged man suddenly running wildly towards the entrance of the hall.

Unbound by flesh and blood, the mind-body moved at an astonishing speed. Ji Ye could pass through the spacious hall with just a thought. Once outside, he suddenly felt a stinging pain in his eyes. The bright sun in the sky blinded him, and everything was a white blur, making it impossible for him to see anything.

Not only that, the places on his mental body that were exposed to sunlight felt as if they were being pierced by hundreds of needles at the same time, and his originally incomparably powerful mental will showed signs of collapsing.

I was shocked to find that this mental entity was afraid of sunlight.

Without a second thought, he lunged toward the direction from which the voices were coming from outside the hall. He no longer cared about choosing his ideal body; he needed to find one first. Only when his mind was hidden within a flesh and blood body could it move freely in the sunlight.

With this pounce, he immediately felt the touch of real flesh and blood, and at the same time sensed an extremely faint will hidden within it, which was the consciousness of the body's owner.

Compared to Ji Ye's mental body, this consciousness was almost negligible. It was instantly usurped by him. This weak consciousness was unable to resist his powerful will and was immediately suppressed, losing control of its body.

Feeling the real flesh and blood and the touch, Ji Ye, whose vision had been completely white, immediately regained his sight and found that he was surrounded by people, men and women, young and old. In the distance, he also saw a large number of familiar faces, his descendants.

Upon gaining control of the body, he turned and strode forward, running wildly into the distance.

He had originally considered staying put, but he didn't know if the man in the white hat could detect that he was hiding inside this body.

If he finds out, staying put will only mean certain death. Although he knows that running away will attract the other party's attention, the only thing to do right now is to escape from here first.

The white-hatted man with giant tentacles hidden inside him instilled great fear in him; once his mental body was destroyed, he would truly die.

Having finally achieved near-immortality as an adult insect, Ji Ye didn't want to die.

Although he had lived for a century, his will to survive was stronger than ever before.

"Li Hao, where are you going?"

Ji Ye heard a woman calling him, and a memory suddenly flooded his mind, making him feel that the woman's voice was very familiar. It was his mother, and Li Hao was his name.

Ji Ye knew that this memory fragment belonged to the body he was occupying. The original owner of this body was named Li Hao, a college student. Today, he came to the funeral home with his parents and many other relatives because his grandfather had passed away, and today was the day of his grandfather's cremation.

Ji Ye suddenly realized that the old man's consciousness that appeared after being cremated in the crematorium was Li Hao's grandfather.

However, because it did not undergo the forty-nine-day pupal stage of gestation, like a premature baby, the old man's mental form was extremely fragile and had been completely defeated by the man in the white hat, thus being utterly destroyed and no longer existing.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye. After obtaining a new body, Ji Ye no longer had to fear the sunlight. He only felt that the consciousness hidden in his body was continuously releasing a special kind of energy.

This energy can strengthen his current body, making it stronger and faster.

When the middle-aged man in the white hat came out of the hall, he saw that the outside was full of people, all of whom were family members and relatives of the bodies waiting to be cremated.

He saw a short, thin boy running very fast at the back of the crowd, and he was certain that this boy had been possessed by the mind-body.

At this moment, Li Hao's parents were shouting Li Hao's name and chasing after him in the direction he was running, but how could they catch up with Li Hao, whose body had now been taken over by Ji Ye?

As the man in the white hat exited the hall, he saw so many people outside. Ji Ye's sudden run had already caused a commotion, and many people were looking in that direction. To avoid causing a bigger disturbance and attracting attention, the man in the white hat did not chase after Ji Ye directly in the direction he had fled. Instead, he avoided the crowd and went around to the other side of the hall, intending to intercept Ji Ye from the direction of the funeral home's exit.

After he walked around the buildings, he saw a large cemetery, and not far away on the other side was the exit of the funeral home, but he could not see Ji Ye.

The man in the white hat had initially guessed that Ji Ye would escape through the exit of the funeral home, but now it seemed that he was wrong; this entity was more cunning than he had imagined.

He lost sight of his target, but the man in the white hat wasn't anxious. Instead, he stopped, took out a cigarette, and lit it.

He took a drag of his cigarette before muttering to himself, "This is a bit troublesome, but..."

"You can't escape..."

After he finished speaking, two long plumes of smoke billowed from his nostrils, resembling two thin, long snakes.

***

Ji Ye ran wildly, not fleeing towards the exit of the funeral home, but heading towards the forest on the other side. He sped up, passing through a row of cemeteries, climbing over a wall, and entering a grove of trees.

The funeral home is surrounded by cemeteries, mountains, and lush forests, making it the perfect hiding place.

Once he was sure the man in the white hat wasn't chasing after him, Ji Ye stopped, leaned against a large tree, and breathed heavily.

I didn't feel anything when I was on the run, but now that I've stopped, I can feel the sweat pouring down my back and the soreness and numbness in my legs.

He is still adapting to this body. Although his mental body contains powerful energy that can strengthen this body, the original quality of this body is too poor.

Li Hao's mother was in a car accident while pregnant with him, resulting in premature birth. Li Hao was weak and sickly from a young age, and was thin and short. This recent run, with the energy released by his mental body, caused his body to work beyond its limits, resulting in some damage. His leg muscles were strained in several places and were severely congested.

"This body is far too fragile; we need to find a way to replace it with a younger and stronger one."

Ji Ye rested for a while and discovered a problem while adapting to the body. For the mind-body, the body and flesh were both a sanctuary, allowing the mind-body to no longer fear sunlight and to touch the real world through the body, but also a cage. Before the cage was destroyed, he could no longer get rid of it at will.

This made Ji Ye frown. He had originally planned to find a better body before changing to another one, but now he realized that changing bodies was not easy.

Fearing that the man in the white hat would come looking for them, Ji Ye only rested briefly before continuing on his way.

He was familiar with the area around the cemetery and funeral home. He walked through the woods and down a small path on the other side. He followed the path towards the city, avoiding roads with surveillance cameras as much as possible and choosing only secluded paths. He was thinking about the origins of the man in the white hat.