691 - The Outcast Writer of a Martial Arts Visual Novel

"Ugh! Wh-where am I?" As soon as he struggled to open his eyes, sunlight pierced into them. It felt like waking up under the influence of medicine after a severe case of the flu. He wondered if the events of last night were merely a horrific nightmare. But the pain in his shoulder was a clear indication of reality. Feeling the warmth of the sun in stark contrast with his sapped energy, he barely managed to lift himself up. A bowl of medicine was extended to him. "You were poisoned by corpse venom. Avoid unnecessary movements." "Elder Siwang..." Elder Siwang, with a look suggesting he had much to say, offered the medicine. "Drink it and meditate." "Thank you." He swallowed it immediately and began meditating. The effect of the medicine started to expel the poison that was weighing down his body. As the pungent smell filled the room, Siwang opened a window. With the poison easily dispelled and his mind clearer, he began to recollect the situation. 'Elder Siwang wants to kill me.' This isn't my room. It resembles the architecture of last night. Is this Elder Siwang's quarters? Who was that woman then? 'Something Siwang was experimenting with.' How can I survive this ordeal? I needed to find a clue. "If you plan on keeping your eyes closed, I might as well help you close them permanently." He's perceptive. Delaying further wasn't an option. "It appeared you had much to discuss and that you wanted to ask me something, so I needed a moment to collect my thoughts." He responded with a natural smile as he opened his eyes. "Dodging the conversation with clever little tricks like that is typical of someone trying to avoid the matter." "I have questions." "I'm the only one asking questions." That's not going to work. My life is on the line here. Unless my life isn't the collateral, could you please give in? I need more information. I nodded with a light smile, speaking as if it was only right that I do. "I doubtless caused trouble for you, Elder Siwang. I will answer as much as I can. However, considering you tried to have me killed, at least I should know what tried to kill me, as a matter of principle." "I can't say." He wishes to keep it a secret. If it's difficult to talk about, then there's a way. "It didn't move with the stiffness typical of Jiangshi, but its actions were more akin to a beast, not a human." "It was human." Siwang immediately denied it, then furrowed his brow as if he realized his mistake. I expected as much. He referred to it as his life's work. A researcher would have pride, and scratching at that pride would elicit a reaction. He dropped a clue. Time to latch onto it. "You mentioned I was poisoned by 'corpse venom' just now." Claiming it's human, yet it has corpse venom like a Jiangshi. If Siwang is reacting irritably, it must be a vital point. Perhaps something that wasn't fully transformed. A person similar to a Jiangshi. A Jiangshi resembling a person. It's difficult to precisely define, but Elder Siwang wishes it to be human. My guess might be right. Siwang read the meaning in my gaze and, with a small sigh, spoke as if confessing the truth. "It was my life's work." "Your life's work?" "Whether it's human or Jiangshi, what does it matter now? It's tasted blood because of you, and will soon become a blood-craving evil spirit." "Evil spirit, you say?" "Corpse transformation. A Jiangshi that tastes human blood becomes a demon, craving the blood of human kin." "When you buried a Jiangshi in the wilderness, you said it wouldn't matter if they didn't taste human blood to avoid corpse transformation." I've heard of that story. Indeed, there were suspicions about the situation last night too. 一 No!!! You must never taste blood! Spit it out! Vomit it all!!! Was that why Elder Siwang cried out in despair to the blood-soaked woman? "When that child awakens, it will come for you first. It will want to devour you before anything else." "I eat so unhealthily that it might lose its taste for me." My blood probably isn’t tasty at all. My cholesterol levels are high, and my liver's in bad shape from drinking too much, so I'm essentially junk food. "Do you think you can brush it off with humor?" I tried to lighten the heavy mood with a joking tone, but it wasn’t enough. I understand it's a serious situation. 'Describe how it feels when a foreign laborer invades your laboratory in the middle of the night, erases your life's research, and taints your materials.' It's akin to a death sentence. Guilty, as charged. Even a regular scientist could take lethal action under such circumstances, let alone being up against someone as formidable as Wei Neishi Xuan. "Is there no way to prevent the situation from worsening?" It's a troublesome affair, yet a solution must be sought. —— "Once a Jiangshi begins corpse transformation, the way to stop it is by ingesting the spiritual and physical essence of the one whose blood it tasted first. There is only one way to halt a child undergoing corpse transformation." Siwang stared at me for a long moment before speaking again. "Then let’s execute that method immediately." "Your life." "I retract my suggestion." That scared the daylights out of me. "If that child truly becomes an evil spirit, the martial world will face a major calamity. Erasing you from this world may prevent the immediate danger." "I've lived diligently to have my life end as a simple patchwork solution." Elder, I'm not your average black-haired man, you know. Remember who I’m the successor of. Recall who I am the son-in-law of. Maintaining a smile, I alluded indirectly. "Don’t delude yourself into thinking your connections with the Gold Ghost will spare you. The Zhuge family? They might be troubled temporarily, but as time passes, it’s the Zhuge family that will find itself in deeper difficulty." Siwang spoke, unable to hide his burgeoning wrath. There's no exaggeration there. Siwang is the one who could turn allies into enemies overnight, the worst opponent imaginable. "Is there no other option?" "You have no choice in the matter." This is maddening. I'm in an unjust situation, like a foreign laborer breaking into a lab at midnight. Waking up to find myself in a lab wasn't my intention. But alas, no one's buying this excuse. How on earth can I navigate my way out of this? 'Hmm?' While I was searching for words, I felt a contemplating gaze upon me. Could he have something to say? "However, before drawing a conclusion on this matter, there is something I wish to know." "Please, go ahead." Why did you invade the laboratory? How did you get in? Why did you awaken the woman? These were the questions swirling in my mind, yet Siwang's actual question caught me off guard. "How did you awaken her?" "What...?" "How on earth did you... awaken her?" —— ‘This isn’t a simple question.’ The desperation in Siwang's voice betrayed his unresolved curiosity. ‘There’s a way to survive.’ If there’s a weakness, there’s a way out. My mind was racing. Lifelong research, a woman's voice, a desperate question, the frozen chamber, not a Jiangshi but a human. I quickly pieced together the situation and clues I had encountered. What is the most important clue I have now? ‘The woman’s voice.’ The woman in the frozen chamber. Could it be... "Have you ever heard her voice?" Start with a question. Let's shed light on the narrow path I managed to find. "What?" "When was the last time you spoke with the woman?" "That’s none of your business." Siwang's expression hardened, as if I had prodded a painful memory. Good. Just as I expected. Let’s proceed boldly along this path. "I just heard it recently." "What did you just say?" That was a lie. But it was the optimal statement to grab the elder’s attention. "Since arriving at Yungei, I've continually heard the voice of a woman I've never encountered before speaking to me." "Are you telling me to believe such nonsense?" YW9peUx5cktZYXhyU2hzY1VsMkQ0V3dDWFdPclRkRzZ1UG1xRnByOGdLeEV2TzZFSUs3ZW1xb0VKRTVGOUhFcA "If you genuinely wish to confirm the facts, ask Young Master Yunjisan. I’ve been consulting him about this for days." A blend of lies and truth. I was telling him it was cross-verifiable with certainty. "She really spoke to you...?" For the first time, Elder Siwang wore an expression of disbelief, sensing the truth in my words. "At first, I thought I heard a ghost’s voice in my sleep, but this time I realized I was in front of the frozen chamber. She must have been desperate to reach out." "It would take even Zhuge Family members several days to locate the mansion’s entrance due to the array installed. Yet you not only found the entrance but also the room where that woman was kept? That’s stepping too far with lies!" I have a peculiar constitution that ignores such arrays. If a foreign laborer infiltrated a 24-hour guarded security facility and then claimed he could exploit security flaws even in his dreams? Who would believe that? Absurd as the situation is, there was a way to clarify things. "You referred to it as your lifelong research." "What?" "In other words, research you’ve yet to succeed in, even in a lifetime.” "What are you getting at?" No denial came. A woman unawakened despite a lifetime’s research. And suddenly, a man who can hear her voice appears. At last, everything became clear why I awoke in front of the frozen chamber. "Haven't you ever wondered why a black-haired man could become the son-in-law of the Zhuge Family?" “Patience has its limits too...!” The way to clarify everything, even the means for survival, had become apparent. "Jiangshi arts. Arrays. Although many arts exist in the martial world, they are ultimately just attempts to mimic Heaven’s work. But consider this." Only one thing remained to be done—demonstrate. I snapped my fingers. “What?!” With a surprised voice, golden light began to flicker from my fingertips. Even the formidable Siwang had never witnessed such an energy before. This wasn’t the internal force manifesting as tangible power. It closely resembled celestial energy. Yet it wasn’t something from an immortal. "Elder, could it be...?" “What kind of energy is this...?” The power accumulated while walking my path as a black-haired man. The energy, made tangible by Sanhasa’s blessings, now apparent. "Does it not occur to you that the solution to completing Elder Siwang’s research might be right before your eyes?" The power of the Heaven-defying Ones. Clear proof that could resolve everything. ———— 一 Please, examine the woman’s condition once more in detail. Siwang dashed urgently. It had been so long since he tried so desperately for anything, as he swiftly opened the door to the room where the woman was kept. “This is nonsense.” He dismissed it as the words of a desperate man begging for his life. I cannot believe this. It’s an unbelievable tale. Siwang, or Unwoo Jin, repeated this to himself, but his hands trembled as he opened the lid of the chamber. “It can’t be.” Siwang’s hands worked frantically. He infused energy into the woman’s body. A body that should have undergone significant corpse transformation by now. However. Siwang’s expression hardened. “She’s resisting the corpse transformation?” He had purged most of the blood, but not all was expelled. Logically, the corpse transformation should have been advancing rapidly. “How could it be...?” 一 Imagine there’s a man who can hear the voice of heaven. The words the black-haired man had spoken darted through Siwang’s mind. Although the Jiangshi tasted blood, there’s a way to suppress the corpse transformation. 一 If the one person who could hear the woman’s plea for help were me, what would you do? The black-haired man and the woman in the ice chamber. In the end, Siwang had no choice but to draw a conclusion. “They really were connected?” Siwang’s expression was now colored with astonishment.