Chapter 131 - 112: Cut Open

Chapter 131: Chapter 112: Cut Open

Zhou Qian’s struggles and convulsions were growing more frequent. If he hadn’t been exhausted from the torment, Huai Yu’s meager strength wouldn’t have been able to restrain him at all. But now, with his hands bound, he could only lie there as she gestured across the back of his hand and his palm.

She was literally just gesturing—everything was based on guesswork and experimentation, and she had zero medical experience. She hastily sterilized the eggshell knife over a flame (honestly, with the mutated spider venom being so potent, she didn’t even know if burning it would help).

But there was no other way.

It had only been a few minutes since he was removed from the medicine, yet Zhou Qian’s endurance was rapidly dropping as the pain spread faster. The hideous black bulge connecting the back of his hand to his palm began to squirm, slowly branching out into fine, spiderweb-like veins on both sides.

Seeing this, Huai Yu hesitated no longer. Gripping the small eggshell knife, she gently sliced from the gruesome mark on the back of his hand all the way down to his palm.

It really was just a gentle slice! She swore to God! But the eggshell knife was far sharper than she could have imagined. With that single stroke, the entire patch of blackened flesh peeled back. Crimson blood and thick black fluid gushed out, quickly pooling into a foul-smelling puddle on the floor.

She pulled away the towel on Zhou Qian’s face and noticed that his brows had actually relaxed slightly. Clearly, the pain was no longer as intense.

"It worked!" she thought with pleasant surprise. Tentatively, she poured some of the celery-leaved buttercup medicine from the bucket onto the wound.

His hand suddenly clenched into a fist, forcing the gruesome wound to widen, but even more black fluid gushed out. A moment later, only bright red blood remained.

Huai Yu was ecstatic! Soon, she shifted her gaze to Zhou Qian’s arm.

Zhou Qian woke up from a groggy stupor. His vision was pitch-black. A wet, strange-smelling towel seemed to be draped over his face, making his every breath heavy with moisture. Then, a sudden, agonizing pain wracked his entire body.

It felt as if his flesh had been ripped apart by a mob, his body balled up and beaten for three days straight, before his leg was viciously chopped off...

He struggled, feeling nothing but pain and numbness. His arms were bound, and one leg seemed to brush against the edge of a narrow space.

Then, the memories vaguely returned to him. The banyan tree’s aerial roots had crushed his leg bones. The Kou Spider’s silk had firmly bound him to the web, right before the creature sank its fangs into his immobilized leg.

His aching leg had turned icy cold for a split second, as if something had burrowed inside. The next moment, a piercing agony radiated from the limb—a pain so intense that it stripped away his sanity. He only remembered that someone had turned back and dragged him away.

"The neurotoxin has already begun to spread—"

"The Kou Spider’s digestive enzymes have started melting his shattered bones and the flesh of his leg..."

"The left leg is swollen and necrotic—don’t press on it! Don’t press! Everything under the epidermis has melted into digestive fluid..."

"Quick! Don’t hesitate! Where’s the bone saw? Immediate amputation is his only chance of survival—"

"The neurotoxin is too potent; the spider antivenom is useless! He’s going into shock—"

"Electric scalpel..."

A chaotic jumble of countless images and voices drilled into his mind. Yet, the only thing he remembered with absolute clarity was the pain. It was an endless, escalating agony that pushed him past his breaking point—

And Huai Yu!

She had come!

Zhou Qian snapped his eyes open. Was he already dead? Had he been laid to rest in the Rose Corridor?

But if he was dead, why was he still blind and in so much agony? He shifted his head. The wet towel slipped off his face and dropped into the water below with a SPLASH.

His vision was still enveloped in darkness, save for a faint flicker of firelight coming from the stove, but everything was too blurry to make out.

He opened his mouth to speak. Just then, a hand fumbled over in the dark and accurately grabbed the towel. Giving it a symbolic one-handed squeeze that wrung out an insignificant amount of water, the hand shook the towel open by the edges and draped it right back over his face.

The rough fabric scraped against his cheekbones and cheeks, sending another sharp jolt of pain through him.

Darkness reclaimed his vision, and his nose and mouth were once again filled with that unpleasant, damp, and strange smell.

Zhou Qian’s body felt so tingly it was as if thousands of ants were crawling beneath his skin. At the same time, the pain was so excruciating it felt like he had been meticulously carved up like a Peking duck. Speaking of duck, he was starving; his stomach was growling violently.

He couldn’t help but weakly shake his head again. He heard the towel drop with another SPLASH.

"Sigh..." In the darkness, someone let out a helpless breath and muttered, "Why did it fall again?"

Zhou Qian opened his mouth. It took him a long while to remember how to speak, finally squeezing a raspy voice from his throat. "Is that... Huai Yu?"

Instantly, a chaotic CLATTER rang out as objects tumbled to the floor, followed by a loud THUD and Huai Yu sharply inhaling a breath of cold air.

It sounded like she had stubbed her toe or bumped into something.

A moment later, a faint light source bloomed in the room. Zhou Qian blinked his blurry eyes, taking quite a while before he could finally make out the young girl limping toward him.

He managed a weak tug at the corners of his lips. "Little Yu," he whispered, his voice impossibly faint.

Huai Yu stared at him, her eyes burning with overwhelming joy. "Zhou Qian, Zhou Qian, Zhou Qian, Zhou Qian!!! You’re finally alive!"

She leaned in, her hand reaching out as if by second nature to fish the soggy towel from the water and plop it right back onto his face. A second later, she seemed to realize what she was doing and hurriedly yanked it off.

The rough cotton loops scraped against his cheeks, eliciting another sharp jolt of pain.

"Hiss..."

Huai Yu scrambled in a panic. "Sorry, sorry! It became a habit... How are you feeling right now?"

Zhou Qian wanted to smile, but his body simply hurt too much. Still completely in the dark about his current condition, he opted for the honest truth. "It hurts."

Noticing the young girl tense up, he feared he had scared her and hurriedly added, "It’s so strange, though. My leg was the part that got severed, yet now it just feels numb. The rest of my body, however, feels like it’s suffered death by a thousand cuts."

Huai Yu was speechless. Her expression grew increasingly awkward.

"What’s wrong?" Zhou Qian asked in confusion. Talking tugged at the wounds on his cheeks and cheekbones, bringing about a widespread sensation of tight, stretched skin. He couldn’t help but suck in another sharp breath of air.

"It’s nothing..." Huai Yu stammered. "The poison in your body was just too potent. I didn’t know what else to do, so as a last resort... um... I used a small knife to slice open your skin to drain the venom out."

"And as for the places I had to drain..." She held up her pinky finger. "There were... quite a few of them."

After she spoke, she casually trailed her fingers through the water. Realizing it wasn’t warm enough, she expertly scooped a basinful out and unscrewed the nearby kettle to pour some hot water in.

Zhou Qian’s chilled body seemed to instantly warm at the sight. He offered a slow, incredibly gentle smile. "It’s okay. Surviving this ordeal is already the greatest stroke of luck."

He thought his smile looked very forgiving and reassuring, but Huai Yu only cast a single glance his way before quickly dropping her head again.