Zuo Qingya tested Li Mohan's breathing, and what surprised him was that Li Mohan had stopped breathing.
He thought Li Mohan's breath was weak and he hadn't detected it, so he switched to feeling Li Mohan's pulse. The moment he touched it, he was even more astonished; there was no pulse either. Could it be that Li Mohan had died? Or had he always been possessed and returned to life in a borrowed body?
Ye Huohuo saw his surprised expression clearly. Her eyes grew more anxious, and she forced out a few words from her throat, "Save him quickly!"
The effort of uttering these three words felt like her throat was being ground to pieces, but she couldn't care less. If she couldn't speak, she wanted to crawl over to check Li Mohan's condition, but her body was too weak. Lu Yao quickly restrained her, "Don't move around, Little Uncle-Master is here, he'll find a way."
"Don't move, I'll try to save him!" Zuo Qingya said, wasting no time. He gathered his spiritual energy at his fingertips and touched Li Mohan's brow, first probing his soul consciousness.
His brow gradually furrowed tighter. With a sound of surprise, he moved his fingers as fast as flying, tapping several crucial acupoints on Li Mohan's body. Finally, he infused a wisp of golden spiritual energy into Li Mohan's body.
Li Mohan, like someone who had just emerged from water, gasping for air as if about to suffocate, took a deep breath. His entire being seemed to have regained its vitality.
"What's going on? Did he just... stop breathing?" Lu Yao exclaimed, looking at Li Mohan, who had just managed to catch his breath.
She was utterly perplexed. How could this person be so strange? He was young but possessed astonishingly high spiritual power. What she found most incomprehensible was that he could just appear, just faint, and then feign death. What in the world was going on?
"Who exactly are you?" Zuo Qingya stood in front of Li Mohan. They were of similar height, and in terms of physique, Li Mohan was more robust, while Zuo Qingya, perhaps due to his habitually light diet, appeared leaner.
One exuded a cold, stern demeanor, while the other had a refined and handsome presence. Either of these two men would have caused a frenzy among girls if they were out in public. Yet, in this setting, the atmosphere between them was incredibly peculiar.
The first thing Li Mohan saw upon opening his eyes was such an elegant and handsome young man. He frowned slightly. "Who are you?"
Zuo Qingya was almost amused to the point of anger. "You were about to kill me just now, and now you're pretending not to know me. What is the meaning of this?"
What Zuo Qingya said was the truth. The killing intent Li Mohan had displayed towards him earlier had not only been felt by Ye Huohuo but by him as well. At that moment, he genuinely felt Li Mohan would make a move against him, and he was certainly no match for him.
This was why, when he discovered Li Mohan had no breath and no pulse, he hadn't wanted to intervene, feeling he was saving an enemy. If not for seeing Ye Huohuo's desperate attempt to save Li Mohan, he truly wouldn't have wanted to save this man who made him feel uncomfortable just by looking at him.
Li Mohan was momentarily stunned, then his gaze swept around the surroundings. Upon seeing Ye Huohuo lying in Lu Yao's arms, he strode forward in two quick steps, pulling Ye Huohuo from Lu Yao's embrace into his own. Furthermore, his gaze towards Lu Yao held a hint of hostility.
"How are you?!" He lowered his head, and as he looked at Ye Huohuo, his previously sharp eyes softened considerably.
Seeing Ye Huohuo looking as if she had just returned from a trip to hell, Li Mohan's brow furrowed tightly, and the heartache in his eyes was impossible to conceal. It was a stark contrast to his previously indifferent expression while watching Ye Huohuo suffer, as if they were two different people.
Lu Yao, who was closest to them at that moment, saw the expression on Li Mohan's face very clearly. "Tsk, your face changes faster than flipping a book. Do you have multiple personality disorder? You..."
Before she could finish speaking, Li Mohan suddenly looked up, his eyes shooting out a cold glint like lightning. "Who injured her like this?" He then glanced at the underground room. "Who locked you all in here?"
"Ah?..." Lu Yao was stunned by his barrage of questions. It took her a while to gather her thoughts.
"Here? We came by ourselves. We discovered the Bloody Robe Ghost here and wanted to see what was going on." Lu Yao explained. However, seeing Li Mohan's dagger-like stare, she suddenly realized he probably wasn't asking about that and quickly changed her tune. "No, we were locked in a dark room by the captain of the detention center, and then we encountered the Bloody Robe Ghost and ended up here."
Li Mohan looked at Ye Huohuo's dry, cracked lips and suddenly remembered something. He took out a small bottle of water from his outer pocket. He unscrewed the cap and fed her small sips of water.
Ye Huohuo had been severely dehydrated. This water was like a timely rain for her. The burning dryness in her throat was immediately relieved. Like a person parched in the desert, after drinking two small sips and regaining some strength, she immediately grabbed Li Mohan's hand and began to drink the water greedily.
However, the bottle Li Mohan carried was indeed small, perhaps only about 200 milliliters. Ye Huohuo drank it dry in just a few sips. She licked her lips; her dry lips were much better after being moistened by the water.
"More!" she finally managed to say a couple of words with slightly more ease.
"It's all gone. I'll take you out now, and you can drink as much water as you want. And the one who hurt you..." He trailed off, his cold eyes conveying what he intended to say.
Lu Yao had been watching their interaction from the side. "Strange!" she murmured softly.
Just as she was about to ask something else, she felt her shoulder being squeezed. She looked up and saw Zuo Qingya standing beside her, one hand resting on her shoulder. Clearly, he had squeezed it just now, and his intention was obvious: to tell her to stop talking.
Lu Yao had no choice but to close her mouth again, though her confusion remained. She resolved to ask Ye Huohuo for clarification when she had the chance.
Li Mohan bent down, intending to lift Ye Huohuo into his arms. However, Ye Huohuo struggled slightly. "I can do it myself!"
After drinking the water, her condition had clearly improved a lot. She ignored Li Mohan, who was supporting her, and reached out to Lu Yao. "Help me!"
Lu Yao extended her hand without a second thought and helped Ye Huohuo up. However, as she stood, she moved her injured body, and Ye Huohuo involuntarily gasped in pain.
"Are you alright!"
All three spoke at the same time, and the atmosphere suddenly became awkward.
"Who are you two? How are you with her?" Li Mohan's gaze shifted between Zuo Qingya and Lu Yao, his eyes showing a degree of vigilance, especially when he looked at Zuo Qingya.
"Little Uncle-Master, is this guy's brain malfunctioning? He feels like a completely different person," Lu Yao whispered to Zuo Qingya, smiling foolishly at Li Mohan.
"If I'm not mistaken, the person just now wasn't him. This one is the real Li Mohan," Zuo Qingya transmitted his voice to Lu Yao using the unique secret sound transmission technique of the Maoshan Sect.
Lu Yao's eyes widened, almost exclaiming, "Possession?" Zuo Qingya shook his head slightly, his meaning unclear, whether he meant it wasn't possession or that he wasn't sure.
Li Mohan, seeing that the two were not answering his questions but seemed to be conversing privately, couldn't hear their words as he didn't know the Maoshan Sect's secret sound transmission. However, he could tell from their expressions that something was amiss.
"Answer me! Who are you?" he asked again.
"We are Ye Huohuo's fellow Daoists from the Xuanmen," Zuo Qingya replied calmly, his eyes meeting Li Mohan's with an unreadable gaze.
Li Mohan's gaze returned to Ye Huohuo. "Is that so?"
"Yes, this is my friend, and this is her Little Uncle-Master. We are all fellow Daoists from the Xuanmen." Ye Huohuo's voice was still hoarse, but she could now form a complete sentence.
She struggled to stand upright and then, supporting herself against the wall, walked towards a corner. The gazes of the others were all on Ye Huohuo, and no one noticed Li Mohan's hand slightly raise before clenching into a fist and lowering again.
"What are you doing? You're injured like this, and you're not resting, why are you running around?" Lu Yao started to go to her, but Ye Huohuo waved her hand, refusing her help.
She slowly walked to the corner, bent down, and picked something up from the ground...