"Cure Xiao Li of the gu poison, or don't expect to leave this restaurant today,"
I drew a bright red cloth strip imbued with a fire curse from my pocket and tied it around Su Qiang's wrist.
Blistering instantly appeared on Su Qiang's skin, but the flames tunneled into her body, leaving not a spark on the surface. "Su Wan! How vicious of you, using the Life and Death Embroidery for such cruel deeds."
"You forced my hand. I made these cloth strips to deal with the Snake Servant." Ever since I encountered the Snake Servant, I was constantly on edge, so I made a few cloth strips for self-defense.
Some with Thunder charms, others with fire charms.
If I had taken out a Thunder charm instead, Su Qiang would be dead!
Dripping with sweat and weakened, Su Qiang lay sprawled on the table, trying to untie the cloth strip but my hand pressed down firmly, as a cold smile spilled over her lips, "I won't hand over the antidote, I want you to watch your good friend die, my dear cousin, I was trying to help you by letting you follow Lord Xuanjing..."
As I watched something moving under Xiao Li's skin, my anger and anxiety clashed. "I bound you with the fire charm cloth strip for your own good. Xuanjing harbors malice, always digging out your eyes, using you to have children. I'm urging you as your cousin to rein in at the brink of a precipice."
"It's you who should rein in at the brink of a precipice. The Snake Lord is using you! Using you!!"
Groaning lowly, Su Qiang's entire body was soaked as if she'd just been fished out of a pond, "Do you know... when you were eighteen, did you ever... have a child for Yu Longting? Su Wan..."
"Could your lies get any more believable? When I was eighteen, I had no interaction with Yu Longting."
I didn't believe a word Su Qiang said, "Hand over the antidote, and I'll untie the cloth strip and let you go; otherwise, it's your life and the lives of two others that stay here."
"If you kill me, Xuanjing won't let you off, you wouldn't dare! You've already angered him by destroying two of the Ancestor of Foxes' Remnant Souls. If you harm the child in my womb, he will stop at nothing to break out of the Fox Coffin and tear you to pieces," Su Qiang gasped in pain, yet stubbornly resisted.
I said indifferently, "Su Qiang, you're right. Xuanjing has just acquired your two Spiritual Eyes, and his strength must have greatly increased. I don't want to provoke him."
Yu Longting had just been severely wounded in his Primordial Spirit by Qingyang and couldn't face any more powerful enemies.
I had no reason to offend Xuanjing. All I wanted was to minimize making enemies and give Yu Longting time to recuperate in secret.
"I knew it, you wouldn't dare to offend Lord Xuanjing. Do you know why he sent me here?" Su Qiang sneered, "He warned me to tell you, if you dare destroy even a thread of the Ancestral Fox Remnant Soul, he would utterly destroy you. A Cauldron Furnace should fulfill its role, facing reality obediently."
"If it were just me, I might indeed be reluctant to throw the helve after the hatchet, but you shouldn't threaten me with my friend's life, understand?" Unhesitatingly, I jabbed Su Qiang's belly half an inch deep with her own switchblade, "I'll say it again, hand over the antidote or I will have your and your child's lives accompany my friend in burial."
"You... Su Wan... you're ruthless..."
Staring at her bleeding abdomen, Su Qiang ground the words out between her teeth. A bit deeper, and the fox fetus would be doomed.
She took out a plastic bottle from her body and placed it on the table, "Your friend hasn't been poisoned for long, one pill will be enough."
I didn't move an inch, "You eat three first and show me."
Su Qiang's face turned ominously dark, "Medicine is always three parts poison."
"If you don't take it, you can only die here with your child today." I warned dispassionately.
The cloth strip on her hand was a piece of the ancient Life and Death Embroidery, specifically used for severe punishment of monstrous beings.
Wearing it was unbearably painful, and even harder to remove.
Angry and trembling, Su Qiang took out another bottle and shoved three pills into her mouth, then threw the bottle at me, "You're ruthless."
With a cold face, I caught the medicine bottle, poured out a pill, and fed it to Xiao Li, "Swallow this, Xiao Li. It's the antidote."