Chapter 63 Medicine

So far, this matter has involved a great many people. When Braids introduced her, he mentioned that the owl-faced woman was a descendant of some Small Gold-Inlaid lineage, and her surname wasn't Zhu, but Wen, named Wen Yun.

A Partridge Woman in her twenties would have been an astonishingly brilliant talent back in the old society. It seems Braids has gathered quite a number of formidable experts around himself this time.

Just at that moment, the dungeon trapdoor was lifted from above.

"Get down!"

"Behave yourself! If you dare try running again—heh, heh—did you see what happened to your friend just a moment ago?"

Researcher An was disheveled as she was shoved down the ladder, and shortly after, the person above tossed down a snakeskin burlap sack.

The sack was rounded in shape, and it was unclear what was stuffed inside. When it hit the ground, it bounced a few times and rolled right up to Researcher An's side.

"Spit." That person spat toward our direction and slammed the trapdoor shut again.

"Are you alright? Are you hurt?" Being shoved down a ladder from such a height made me worried, so I hurried over to help her up.

Researcher An kept repeating a single phrase: "We shouldn't have run, we shouldn't have run, we shouldn't have run."

"Yunfeng, go talk to her. She's completely terrified." Sister Red shook her head after seeing Researcher An's state.

Knowing this woman was extremely timid, I softly comforted her: "Look at me, it's just me, don't be afraid. Where are your two companions?"

Five minutes later, a glimmer of clarity returned to her eyes.

With trembling hands, she pointed toward the snakeskin burlap sack that had been thrown down from above.

Confused, I glanced at the sack and cautiously walked over to untie it.

Inside was another layer of a plastic bag. I felt it with my hand first, and could only tell it was a spherical object.

"What is this?" Holding the opening of the cloth bag wide, I peered into it under the dim light.

"What is it, Yunfeng?" Sister Red asked, seeing me freeze.

Stumbling back two steps, I stammered and screamed in terror: "A... a human head!"

"It's Old Xu's head!"

Perhaps my words triggered Researcher An, as she began shaking her head continuously, muttering under her breath: "It's our turn soon, it's our turn soon, we're next..."

"What about Li Zheng?"

"Dead, dead, they're all dead." Researcher An sat cross-legged on the ground in agony, her eyes wide with terror, as if she had witnessed something horrifying.

"A living person, just a few hours ago he was completely fine..." The image of Li Zheng in his white lab coat surfaced in my mind. This man had even made a pact with me, saying that if we both managed to walk out alive, I should look him up at Times Square in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

Little did I expect that just a few hours later...

Sister Red asked Researcher An in a deep voice: "Let me ask you, who killed those two? Was it Braids? He went to such great lengths to bring you all here, and even spent a fortune transporting so many medical instruments. True, you were scared and ran off, but even so, you were of immense use to him. Why would they kill anyone?"

"Could it..." Sister Red looked at Researcher An suspiciously, asking, "Could there be a hidden story behind their deaths?"

"You definitely know something!"

"Speak!"

"I don't know, I don't know, I know nothing at all, I didn't see anything, I'm begging you, stop asking..." Researcher An clawed frantically at her own hair, pulling out large handfuls at a time.

In the darkness, Sister Red stood up.

She walked over to Researcher An and squatted down.

"Look up at me."

Researcher An raised her head with a dazed expression.

"Slap! Slap! Slap!" Using all her strength, Sister Red delivered three loud, echoing slaps to her face.

The slaps were so loud that even I felt the sting. The corner of Researcher An's mouth began to bleed.

Sister Red said coldly, "Are you awake yet? If that's not enough, I don't mind helping you with a few more."

With blood at the corner of her mouth from the beating, Researcher An whimpered, "It's the medicine, it's the corpse, the corpse bit Old Xu to death, it was a corpse soaked in water."

"Make it clear! What medicine! What corpse! Whose corpse!" Sister Red interrogated her harshly and relentlessly.

Subconsciously, I reached into my pants pocket and felt a cold texture.

Pulling the item out, I found a glass vial filled with pale blue liquid.

"Medicine? Is it this kind of medicine?" I held up the vial and asked.

Upon seeing the pale blue liquid inside the small glass vial, Researcher An's pupils dilated instantly, and her body trembled as she nodded repeatedly.

I frowned and asked, "Didn't you say this stuff was useless? That it was just a semi-finished product, and that with current technology, it was completely impossible to achieve?"

"No, it's not like that! We were wrong, the teacher was wrong! The teacher should never have sent us to Shunde!"

Pointing at the glass vial in my hand, she said tremblingly, "That—that is not something of this mortal world, that belongs to demons!"

"What is? Demons?" With her companions dead right in front of her, I assumed she had been traumatized and was starting to talk nonsense.

Seeing that Sister Red and I remained unconcerned, Researcher An suddenly went wild. Taking advantage of my inattention, she violently snatched the glass vial right out of my hand!

"Don't come closer!" she screamed, holding the vial aloft.

As she moved up and down, the pale blue liquid inside the glass vial sloshed from side to side, looking as though it might spill out at any second.

"Stay back! I'm going to let you see it with your own eyes! Once you see it, you'll know I'm not crazy, everything I'm saying is the truth! You have to believe me!"

"Don't get excited! Put the bottle down first, we believe you!"

Researcher An completely ignored the persuasion. Of her own accord, she walked over to the burlap sack containing Old Xu's head.

Opening the sack, Researcher An's hands shook as she carefully lifted Old Xu's head out, holding it level with both hands...

Though the lighting was poor, I could still clearly see that blood was trickling from the corner of Old Xu's mouth, his eyes were bulging, and he had died with eternal regret!

A young, pretty woman in her twenties, holding her hands high and carrying a freshly severed human head—the scene was bizarre and terrifying to the extreme!

Using her teeth, Researcher An pulled out the glass stopper of the vial. She parted Old Xu's upper lip and dripped three drops of the pale blue liquid into his mouth.

Time ticked away second by second.

Holding the head level, Researcher An said with a trembling voice, "Look! See for yourselves if what I said is true!"

The moment her voice fell, the scene that followed made the goosebumps all over my body explode!

I saw Old Xu's eyeballs suddenly move! And this was the head of a dead man!

The deceased Old Xu's eyes had nothing left visible except the whites, and both Sister Red and I clearly witnessed the whites of Old Xu's eyes rolling up, down, left, and right. He looked just like a newborn infant, curiously sizing up the surrounding world.

The entire process lasted less than three minutes before returning to normal. The head became motionless once again, its eyes fixed and unmoving, completely indistinguishable from before.

"We believe it! We believe you! Put that thing down right now!"

With a loosening of her hands, Researcher An dropped Old Xu's head, and it rolled away with a clatter.

Seeing is believing; hearing is a secondary source. Just a moment ago, it had only been three drops—merely three drops of that pale blue liquid!

If someone were to drink a whole bottle, what would they turn into? Could it be... that this stuff can genuinely make some high-ranking figure within the Evergreen Society grow young again?

Researcher An made a gesture to return the glass vial to me. You've got to be kidding—having just witnessed that scene, how could I possibly dare carry this thing on my person anymore? What if I accidentally tripped and the bottle broke?

Taking a deep breath, I tried my best to stay calm. What had just happened exceeded the limits of my understanding.

I looked at Researcher An and asked, "What else? I remember you mentioned something about a corpse earlier. What was that about?"

"No, no, not a corpse."

With a panicked look in her eyes, she glanced wildly about and said in terror, "It's not a corpse, it's a demon! Oozing pus all over, with very long hair, very short stature, naked, like a little old woman."

That immediately reminded me of a scene I had witnessed earlier.

Earlier, Chen Jiansheng had crushed Pisan to death with a stone when Pisan wanted a cut of the money. I had seen with my own eyes how Pisan's corpse dissolved completely inside the large hide vat.

I had noticed that a dark shadow was soaked in the white liquid inside the vat, and by its silhouette, it had four limbs, looking just like a person.

Suspicion stirred in my heart: "The Golden Coffin and Silver Sarcophagus previously held Second Brother, and the tomb owner's corpse was nowhere to be seen. Could it be that that group of people hauled the original corpse out of there and soaked it in the large hide vat?"

Second Brother had been missing for several months. When we found him, two four-legged snakes were still biting down on his belly, and Chen Jiansheng's gang had claimed Second Brother's blood wasn't the right type—a mishap that left Second Brother's life or death currently unknown.

The more I thought about it, the more terrified I became, and cold sweat began to bead on my forehead. Researcher An said it wasn't a corpse, but a toothless old woman with very long hair, very short stature, and pus oozing all over her body...

I was sweating because I suddenly recalled a certain person.

Before descending into the tomb, on the day I was celebrating Li Jing's birthday at the Star Grand Hotel, I had later run into Yao Yumen and a few men in suits.

Yao Yumen had called me over to the second floor to eat together. As we ate, she casually pulled out a luopan compass. I remember very clearly that the silver needle on that compass had been spinning unceasingly, pointing directly behind my back.

I also remembered a remark she had made.

Yao Yumen had smiled and said, "Yunfeng, there's a toothless old woman standing behind you, watching you eat."