To avoid the attack of the One - Eyed Buddha Mother, I stepped backward, but was embraced around the waist by Si Jiangchen.
"Xiao He, want to taste what it's like to be a demonic god?"
He whispered seductively in my ear.
"No!"
I shook my head firmly. The scene in the hallucination just now, where I bit the woman's neck, was still lingering in my mind. The salty and fishy taste seemed to still be lingering in my mouth.
"...You're just like me. You have to live by eating people. Don't resist. I'm just helping you recognize yourself..."
Si Jiangchen's fingers had already wrapped around mine holding the soul bottle. A searing breath suddenly burned from my palm, as if I was holding a red - hot charcoal. The scorching feeling spread from my palm to my forearm, then to my upper arm, and finally reached my heart.
"Thump! Thump! Thump!"
Each heartbeat intensified that scorching feeling. My mouth involuntarily opened slightly, just like a fish thrown into boiling water. Even the air from my nostrils was hot.
"...Ugh, so hot!!"
I couldn't help but let out a soft moan.
The blood - red mist twining around my arm now had a cold feeling seeping into my body through the pores on my skin.
"Try to eat her."
Si Jiangchen tightened his grip on my hand.
"...No, no!" I still had a shred of rationality. I still remembered the scene in the ghost market when Si Jiangchen ate the two in - laws of the Du family. They died with their souls disappearing...
I didn't want to become a zombie like him. I wanted to hold on to my last moral bottom - line!
I heard Si Jiangchen's soft laughter in my ear.
Suddenly, he bit my neck. The magma - like heat that had gathered in my heart seemed to find an outlet all of a sudden. It rushed out and instantly devoured all my rationality.
Thirst! So thirsty!
Heat! Scorching heat!
I wanted water, ice! I wanted anything that could soothe the hunger and thirst in my heart!
Just then, the cold air twining around my wrist condensed into something like ice and snow. I involuntarily took a bite!
Just like ice meeting magma, in an instant, the cold air evaporated into countless water droplets that seeped into my body. Vaguely, I seemed to hear someone's wailing and roaring...
It was like cursing me, and also like pleading with me. But my mind was already blank. I only knew to greedily absorb more water to moisten my parched body.
The water droplets gathered more and more. Each drop seemed to have a human face, making all kinds of expressions at me... I was submerged in countless grudges.
"Ugh!!!"
I finally couldn't help spitting out a mouthful of blood, and then woke up from the hallucination. In front of me were Si Jiangchen's slightly squinted eyes.
"Awake?" He was holding me and sitting leisurely on a chair in the ward.
"Yang Fan?!!!"
I trembled and struggled out of his embrace.
I saw Yang Fan lying on the ground face - up. The wound on his forehead had already formed a thick scab. The red mist of the One - Eyed Buddha Mother lingering on his body had disappeared. Aunt Yang was staring at me in horror, as if I were some kind of fierce beast.
"He's okay!"
Du Peilin had bent down and felt the pulse on Yang Fan's neck. Then he looked up, his eyes shining, at Si Jiangchen behind me. "You have a problem!"
Si Jiangchen smiled. "It's your Du family that has a problem! How can you shift the blame onto others... Du Peilin, go home and ask your elder brother what he has done that defies heaven's law!"
"Buddha Mother! Where is the One - Eyed Buddha Mother?!!"
I was still in a state of panic. The lives of all the people on this floor now depended on this room.
"Gone..."
Si Jiangchen's hand still held my waist, and his thumb gently rubbed the skin on my abdomen. "It's in here."
"What do you mean?"
I had a faint feeling of unease in my heart, but still couldn't believe it.
"Xiao He, you ate that demonic god!"
Du Peilin helped Yang Fan up from the ground and threw him back onto the bed. Then he turned to look at me coldly and asked, "Judging from your proficiency, you should have eaten... quite a few people, right?"
"No, I've never eaten people!"
I shook my head desperately and denied. "...I'm not a bad person. I'm not a ghost!"
"G... Great Master!!! Miss Du is not a bad person! She saves people. She has saved a lot of people!"
Aunt Yang, who had been huddled in the corner, now stood up tremblingly and blocked in front of me. "I don't care what she is. She saved our old couple's lives, and now she has saved my son's life. She's a good person!"
She rambled incoherently. Du Peilin stared at her for a while, and finally his expression softened.
"You're really a strange guy..." He shook his head. "All the people around you are speaking well of you... But you're a zombie! Even Zifeng had a fight with me because of you! Hehe, you're really charming!"
"... " I didn't understand the meaning of his words, so I just remained silent.
Du Peilin then looked at Si Jiangchen and said, "Mr. Si... No matter what your purpose is for getting close to Xiao He, I hope you can bear the final karmic retribution."
"My karmic retribution is none of your concern."
Si Jiangchen still had that lazy smile. "As for your Du family, after planning for so many years, I hope you won't end up fishing for the moon in the water!"
"... Hehe, I'm too lazy to care about the affairs of the Du family in northern Henan. He can do his own evil, and I'll cultivate my own way."
Du Peilin squinted his eyes. "But, Xiao He, let me make it clear first. Once I find out that you've done something evil, I'll execute justice on behalf of heaven immediately!!"
Then, he smiled at Aunt Yang and said, "Don't protect Xiao He like a broody hen. Take care of your son's life first!"
"... Is this matter really solved?"
Aunt Yang couldn't quite believe it. She had just seen me being held by Si Jiangchen like a puppet, and then I vomited blood and fainted.
And Yang Fan had let out a strange cry, as if his soul had been taken away, and then he fell to the ground face - up.
"Isn't it solved?"
As Du Peilin spoke, he walked out of the ward swaying. He reached out his hand to Uncle Yang and the young lawyer standing outside the door. "Give it back to me!"
"What?!"
Uncle Yang and the young lawyer almost exclaimed in unison.
Just now, when Uncle Yang went out, he found that his wife wasn't following him. He immediately wanted to rush back in, but unexpectedly, there was a green glow in front of the door. No matter how hard he tried to rush in, he would end up back in the corridor!
Uncle Yang rushed in and out like a fool again and again. The two security guards at the door thought there was something wrong with his mind! But since there was a lawyer from Fir Capital with them, they didn't want to get involved.
Fortunately, after only five or six minutes, Du Peilin walked out swaying. "Give back the talisman I gave you just now!"
Uncle Yang was stunned for a moment. He had really never seen a Taoist take back something that he had given to the client!