"So what do you want to do?"
Gouzi didn't want to continue the topic. If it continued, he would only feel more like a useless waste.
"I want... to ask you for a cup of blood."
Xiao Man didn't deliberately prolong her tone; she just felt her request was too strange, making it difficult to utter.
"Blood?"
Gouzi had thought of countless possibilities but never imagined she'd be squatting at his door in the middle of the night just for a cup of blood!
"That's it?"
"That's it!"
Gouzi looked up and asked Yatdan, who had remained silent as gold since the beginning, "Do you have a knife?"
Yatdan shook her head.
Xiao Man took out a dagger from her embrace and handed it to Gouzi with both hands.
Gouzi: "..."
Gouzi took the dagger speechlessly and glared at her, "You're not going to make me use a teacup, are you?"
"No!"
Xiao Man shook her head, then carefully took down the bag at her waist, opened it, and took out a small bronze cauldron. The cauldron had a movable copper piece. She nudged it, and a few small holes were revealed beneath the copper piece.
"Drip here!"
Xiao Man said.
Gouzi's movements paused slightly. He then placed the dagger on the table and asked with a somewhat serious expression, "What is in here?"
"Centipede!"
Yatdan shivered, feeling as if thousands of insects were wriggling and crawling on her.
"You want to feed a centipede with my blood?"
"Yes!"
Xiao Man nodded, "Is that okay?"
"The reason?"
"This centipede is the best I've selected from over a dozen poisonous creatures. I want to see how it changes after drinking your blood."
"And then?"
"Then... there's no then. I have to feed it blood first and then see."
Gouzi understood. This girl intended to use him as her mobile blood bank for experiments.
"Alright!"
Gouzi cut his wrist and dripped his blood into the bronze cauldron.
The centipede in the bronze cauldron suddenly became active, and the small cauldron vibrated from the impact. Xiao Man held down the cauldron. After Gouzi dripped about thirty-odd drops of blood, Xiao Man called a halt. Yatdan got up and took out a handkerchief to bandage Gouzi's wound.
The three of them leaned in, their six eyes fixed on the bronze cauldron.
The centipede inside gradually stopped moving. Whether it was poisoned to death by Gouzi's blood or had had enough, Xiao Man shook the cauldron and looked up at Gouzi and Yatdan.
"See?" she asked.
"Let's see!"
Gouzi replied.
Xiao Man carefully inserted her little finger's fingernail into the small hole and lifted it upwards. It was lifted up. This was also a movable piece. The moment Xiao Man pried open the movable piece, a black shadow suddenly shot up. Gouzi, with quick hands and eyes, grabbed the shadow.
"Hiss~"
The black shadow bit Gouzi's tiger's mouth fiercely. Gouzi gasped in pain.
He looked at his palm, watching the centipede struggling in his hand.
The centipede was blood-red all over, with over a dozen legs on each side. It was about as long as an adult's entire hand. The whiskers on its head twitched. Yatdan's hair stood on end, and she jumped back several steps with a whoosh.
"It changed color!"
Xiao Man leaned closer to observe. She said to Gouzi, "It was black before."
"Do you think it changed color after drinking your blood, or after biting you?"
Gouzi mused, "It should be after drinking blood."
Xiao Man nodded, "Mm, it should be."
Yatdan's scalp tingled. She felt that letting the two of them into her room was the biggest mistake she had ever made.
...
Jia Huan was interrogating Chi Yan.
The physical constitution and resilience of an异人 (yìrén - extraordinary person) were far superior to those of ordinary people. He had been beaten into an inhuman shape by Ying Yi, yet he had not breathed his last.
"You say, where do异人's abilities come from?"
Nan Shiying leaned against the chair. Ji Jinmo would have preferred to hold her and lie on a soft, warm bed rather than sit in a prison. Upon hearing Ying'er's question, he thought for a moment and then replied, "Brain mutation."
Nan Shiying nodded, then suddenly sighed, "I regret it a little too."
Her words were abrupt and without context, but Ji Jinmo understood. She regretted not bringing back the body of that 异人 for dissection and research, but instead chose to burn it.
"Isn't there still one?"
Nan Shiying shook her head, "Forget it!"
Researching蛊毒 (gǔdú -蛊 poison) and dissecting Miao people was for treating illnesses, not for controlling this power. But 异人 were different. Nan Shiying was actually afraid that she would sink into the vortex of power. When she reached out to the 异人 and dedicated herself to researching the source of their abilities, she couldn't guarantee that she could resist the temptation of 'creating a god.'
Ji Jinmo held Nan Shiying's hand. Everything was up to her. Whether to research or not, it was her will.
Jia Huan, after exhausting all his efforts, still couldn't pry Chi Yan's mouth open. Nan Shiying patted Ji Jinmo's hand. Ji Jinmo released her hand. Nan Shiying got up and walked to Chi Yan's side. Looking at the bloody and mangled figure, she smiled, "Your companion is dead. Oh, the one who played with dirt."
"But not by our hands. He died at the hands of another of your companions. He was alive, peeled of his mud armor, and then his insides were ripped out. He died a very miserable death. You tell me, I really can't figure out why you're holding on."
"Heh~ heh~"
The lump of mud let out rapid gasps. It was indistinguishable where the mouth was or where the eyes were. It was even as if the sound was coming from every opening in its body.
"Nan... Nan Shiying, you, you, you are indeed a disaster. You, you are a disaster. There's no mistake, no mistake..."
Tu Xingsun was dead, his insides ripped out. Whether it was that ghost elder or Ji Jinmo's men, one thing was certain: Nan Shiying was a disaster, a great disaster. Not killing her at the beginning was their biggest mistake.
Nan Shiying listened closely. From his intermittent, barely-there voice, she discerned a chilling killing intent and endless regret. I am a disaster?
Nan Shiying smiled, a hearty laugh.
"Thank you for your kind regard, I am immensely grateful."
With that, she turned to Jia Huan and said, "No need to interrogate. In this capital city, the only person who hates me so much and regards me as a calamity and disaster is only one person—Nan Chaoyin."
"Thank you!"
She sincerely thanked Chi Yan.
In Chi Yan's blurry vision, her shadowed silhouette seemed to encompass the entire hell.