Starting with a beautiful woman's private doctor

"A red string?"

Li Guanqi repeated it, as if he hadn't heard clearly.

"The red string on Xiao Ran's hand."

Chu Nan's voice was calm, but every word carried an undeniable force. "You said it was for treating her, but her pulse and mental state clearly didn't match. In my opinion, it wasn't treatment at all, so... what exactly was the purpose of that red rope?"

Li Guanqi was silent for two breaths, then smiled.

This time, the laughter wasn't faked; rather, it was the kind of laughter that comes from being exposed and then simply letting go of the pretense.

"You noticed?"

Li Guanqi leaned against the stone pillar, his posture relaxing instead. "That makes sense. After all, you're not just a doctor, you're also a martial arts master. It's normal for you to be sensitive to things at the spiritual level."

"It won't hurt to tell you."

He raised his left hand, the red rope on his wrist gleaming dimly in the moonlight. "The red rope is indeed not a healing artifact; its function is... to invigorate the spirit and lock the soul!"

"Irreversible damage to the soul is a basic common sense in the cultivation world. Not to mention me, even if a Great Luo Golden Immortal came, it would be impossible to restore a person with a damaged soul to their original state."

Li Guanqi's tone was very calm, "That little girl has been plagued by illness since childhood, and now she has been attacked by curses, her soul has already been damaged."

"The real purpose of my red string is to forcibly hold the remaining soul in place and prevent it from deteriorating further. To put it bluntly, it's to keep it alive."

"But merely keeping him alive is not enough."

Li Guanqi continued, with a hint of smugness in her voice, "The red rope can only make her appear energetic on the surface, but it cannot truly repair the damage."

"To truly bring her to life, or at least make her appear to come alive, we need a different approach."

He paused, looked up at Chu Nan, and a hint of undisguised greed flashed in his eyes. "That is... dual cultivation."

When he uttered those two words, a hint of greed flashed clearly in his eyes.

"Xu Ran's constitution is very special. She was born with a missing soul, but it is precisely because of this incompleteness that she has formed an extremely rare 'empty orifice'."

"Those with empty orifices are known as superior furnaces in the cultivation world because their bodies can contain and transform external true energy without hindrance. When practicing dual cultivation, their transformation efficiency is more than ten times that of ordinary people."

"So, the reason I put the red string on her was not to save her. Besides making Xu Yi believe me, there was another reason: to nourish her soul."

Li Guanqi's smile became more relaxed. "Nurture her to her best condition, and then use the dual cultivation method to absorb the innate vital energy accumulated in her body."

"Do you understand the Way of the Furnace? The furnace is not a disposable item; it can be used repeatedly."

"Her 'empty aperture' constitution allows her to continuously absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth and transform it into innate primordial energy. I only need to do this every now and then—"

He hadn't finished speaking.

Chu Nan's figure disappeared from the spot and reappeared in front of Li Guanqi.

It was not a burst of speed with the Lotus Step, but a pure dash driven entirely by anger, without any technique.

His right hand gripped Li Guanqi's neck, his five fingers tightening, and his true energy flowed into the other's neck meridians.

Locking Dragon Knot – This move was originally a technique for seizing joints, but now he used it as pure suppression.

As the five fingers gripped his throat, the Lotus True Qi burned Li Guanqi's trachea and blood vessels like five branding irons.

Say one more word.

Chu Nan's voice was terrifyingly calm, "I'll annihilate your soul!"

Li Guanqi's face turned purple, and his lips moved as if he wanted to speak, but he could only utter hoarse, breathy sounds.

He raised his hand and grabbed Chu Nan's wrist, trying to use the gray mist to shake off the other's grip.

But Chu Nan's arm remained motionless, and the Lotus True Qi evaporated all the invading gray mist.

"Wait...wait a minute..." Li Guanqi squeezed out a few words from his throat.

Chu Nan loosened his grip slightly, giving him another chance to speak.

"Cough cough cough..."

Li Guanqi coughed violently and gasped for breath, "If you kill me, Xu Ran won't survive either."

"The red rope is a magical artifact that I crafted myself. Only I know how to maintain it. If I die, the red rope will lose its effectiveness within three months. At that time, her soul will dissipate more quickly and she will die in even greater pain than before."

Chu Nan didn't loosen his grip, but he also didn't tighten it further.

Li Guanqi caught that moment of hesitation and immediately quickened his pace: "Let me finish. The dual cultivation method is also beneficial to the furnace. Apart from causing a dull expression, the lifespan of the furnace will be greatly extended."

"This has been verified by countless generations of cultivators; it's not some evil technique. Xu Ran... she's already mentally challenged. Even if she's a little dull, what difference would it make? She wouldn't even realize it herself!"

"Is this a loss for you? No! Her lifespan has been extended, her life has been saved, isn't that what you wanted?"

"I'm only taking her innate vital energy; it doesn't cause her any real harm. It's a win-win situation!"

He spoke with such sincerity that it made Chu Nan feel disgusted!

It wasn't because he was lying, but precisely because he genuinely believed every word he said.

He genuinely believed that it was reasonable to use a girl with a fragmented soul as a furnace, that the logic of "she was mentally challenged anyway" was valid, and that everything he did was correct.

This kind of honesty is more infuriating than any lie.

Chu Nan's hand began to tighten.

It didn't tighten gradually; it activated the power of the Dragon Lock to its limit in an instant.

Lotus True Qi flowed from his five fingers into Li Guanqi's neck meridians, and the scorching golden True Qi burned through his meridian channels like magma.

Then it travels upwards along the meridians, invading the skull and the sea of ​​consciousness where the spirit resides.

Li Guanqi finally realized that Chu Nan really wanted to kill him!

He strained to raise his right hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together and drawing a tiny circle in the air.

The Mirage's escape technique—Mist Escape!

Disciples who have cultivated to the level of Four Illusions or above will seal a wisp of their natal true mist within the jade bracelet.

This wisp of true mist is not ordinary illusionary mist, but a type of mist forged from one's own essence and divine consciousness.

Once activated, the mist seed can instantly vaporize the caster's body, dissolving it into the surrounding moisture and air, and then re-condense the body at a pre-set safe location.

This secret technique comes at a great cost. Using it once will cause one's cultivation level to regress by at least one realm, and it will take at least three years to refine the mist seed again.

But in the face of life and death, none of that matters.

A dazzling gray light emanated from the jade bracelet.

Li Guanqi's body began to disintegrate from the edges. First, his fingers became transparent, then his palms, forearms, and shoulders, like a painting being erased from the edges, gradually turning into grayish-white mist.

"Chu Nan, you are very strong."

His voice had become ethereal, as if it came from a very distant place, "But you can't kill me, wait until I return to the Mirage—"

However, he didn't finish the second half of his sentence.

Suddenly I felt a tightness around my neck!

His neck didn't fog up?!