The next second, the fat woman's eyelids fluttered slightly, but she showed no intention of opening them. Mu Anxiao stared intently at the fat woman's face for a few seconds, then quickly forgot her own injuries and her gender. She began searching the fat woman's body for silver needles.
Not far away, Gu Yan did not notice Mu Anxiao searching for silver needles. Instead, she thought Mu Anxiao was scared. She muttered, "Ridiculous," turned around, and vanished in a black light.
At the same time, Mu Anxiao sensed demonic energy behind her. She quickly stopped what she was doing, turned her head to look behind her, and saw the black smoke gradually disappearing into the air. She muttered, "It's Gu Yan." Then, she thought that the direction was wrong. Her eyes sank. As soon as she turned back, the fat woman opened her eyes.
"What happened to me?" she said, looking at Mu Anxiao.
Seeing the fat woman's confused expression, Mu Anxiao thought for a moment and asked, "Do you usually have any illnesses?" She took the fat woman's arm.
Following Mu Anxiao's movement, the fat woman stood up and said, "No, my health has always been very good." With Mu Anxiao's help, she stood up.
To avoid traumatizing the fat woman, Mu Anxiao deliberately said, "If you've always been healthy, you wouldn't have collapsed so suddenly. It's this..." She suddenly wanted to check if there was any demonic energy inside the fat woman. "Let me take your pulse. If something is wrong, I'll prescribe some medicine, and you'll feel at ease. How about that?" She looked gentle.
The fat woman had never been cared for by anyone like this before, so she smiled at Mu Anxiao's words. "You know how to take a pulse? No wonder you only wanted wound healing medicine. So you've been trying to heal yourself all this time." As she spoke, she still extended her hand to Mu Anxiao.
Mu Anxiao then casually took the fat woman's wrist and said, "I don't have that kind of skill." As she felt the pulse, she discovered that there was indeed demonic energy in the fat woman's body, but it was not life-threatening. This made her doubt Gu Yan's technique. Thinking this, she turned her head again towards where Gu Yan had been, her brow furrowed.
Then, the fat woman looked down at her wrist, which was being held tightly by Mu Anxiao, and frowned. "Uh, is it done?"
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao sighed softly, immediately withdrew her gaze fixed on that direction, and turned back. She inadvertently noticed something reflecting light on the fat woman's head. "Uh, could you bend down a little?" she said, releasing the fat woman's wrist, suspecting it was a silver needle!
Seeing that Mu Anxiao wasn't trying to trick her, the fat woman cooperated and bent down a little, saying, "Why are you asking me to bend down? Is there something on my head?" She noticed from Mu Anxiao's gaze that Mu Anxiao was looking at her head.
"How did you know there was something on your head?" Mu Anxiao didn't think too much about it, her outstretched hand paused.
The fat woman replied, "I saw you looking at my head and asking me to bend down, so..." She looked up at Mu Anxiao. "I thought there must be something on my head, which is why you're acting like this."
Hearing this, Mu Anxiao breathed a sigh of relief and said, "There was something." As she spoke, she shifted her gaze, pinched one end of the silver needle, and thought, 'It seems Gu Yan's demonic arts have improved quite a bit.' Thinking this, she pulled out the silver needle, tilted her head to look at the sky, and concluded that Gu Yan must have acted from above.
At the same time, the fat woman felt pain, so she took a step back and stood up, looking at Mu Anxiao and asking, "What did you pull out of my head?" She raised her hand to touch the top of her head. "It hurt quite a bit."
"Nothing, it was just your..." As she spoke, Mu Anxiao inadvertently noticed the hairpin on the fat woman's head and continued, "The tip of your hairpin poked your head, and I helped you with it." As she said this, she hid the hand holding the silver needle behind her back.
The fat woman laughed when she heard this. "So that's what it was. I thought something had pricked my head." She glanced at Mu Anxiao's hand behind her back, hesitated, and asked, "Do you believe me now?"
"Yes," Mu Anxiao nodded. Based on Gu Yan's actions alone, Mu Anxiao realized that Gu Yan seemed to target people who had suffered setbacks or those with emotional fluctuations. The fat woman was just like that earlier. However, the fat woman had not reached a point of utter despair, so the silver needle had not fully penetrated her head. From this process, Mu Anxiao discovered that the consumption of mortals by demonic energy actually required a process. Therefore, Mu Anxiao speculated that only when their emotions fluctuated would the silver needles 'act.' Gradually, their souls would be stripped away. Thinking about this process, she realized that Ouyang Ye was indeed a ruthless character, using the melancholy emotions of mortals to achieve his grand plan. In the end, he would emerge unscathed, with all the blame falling on his subordinates and these mortals who risked their lives.
Thinking about it, Mu Anxiao suddenly found herself unable to fathom what Ouyang Ye truly intended to do.
So, she sighed softly, looked at the fat woman who was staring at her with confusion, and said after thinking for a moment, "Could you turn around?" She wanted to clear the remaining demonic energy from the fat woman's body but couldn't do it in front of her, so she came up with this plan.
The fat woman nodded upon hearing this and said, "Yes." As she turned around, cooperating with Mu Anxiao, she asked, "You seem preoccupied. Is something bothering you?" She left only her back facing Mu Anxiao.
Mu Anxiao calmly watched the fat woman's retreating back and said, "It's nothing. You collapsed suddenly just now, so I'll use my qi to heal your injury. That way, it won't happen again next time." She put the silver needle into her money pouch, extended her finger, and pressed it onto the fat woman's back.
Then, the fat woman showed a surprised expression. "You know qi? That's amazing." She dared not turn around.
Mu Anxiao replied, "I learned some when I was a child, but my father taught it to me. It's not for public knowledge. My father told me not to tell anyone, so..." She began to try and channel her energy. "You shouldn't tell anyone either, okay?" As she spoke, she felt a trace of demonic energy beginning to surge towards her fingertips, so she held her breath and concentrated.
The fat woman responded with a "Mm," and then, sensing the pressure from Mu Anxiao's fingertips, she dared not speak.
After a while, Mu Anxiao completely removed the demonic energy from the fat woman's body. She lowered her hand and said, "Go. Don't look back." Then she took a step back, looked down at the black light on her fingertips, and swallowed.