One person: Lu Jin, do I look like your master?

The sigh came from Wang Xuan, who had witnessed the irreversible tragedy unfolding below in the blink of an eye, and the last trace of bystander's indifference in his eyes finally vanished.

Just as Ma Xianhong was still immersed in the shock and unease of losing the bet, and just as Bi Yuan closed his eyes, unable to bear to watch any longer...

Wang Xuan's figure vanished from the spot without warning, as if it had merged into the night and then been separated from it!

"what?!"

Ma Xianhong suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked at the spot where Wang Xuan had just stood, but it was now empty!

Only now did he truly realize how terrifying Wang Xuan was! When Wang Xuan appeared silently behind them earlier, he had thought it was just that the other party was good at hiding.

But now, this terrifying speed, almost like teleportation, has completely exceeded their understanding of "fast"!

The next moment, their gazes rapidly shifted downwards, suddenly fixing on the center of the workshop below!

Wang Xuan's figure appeared like a ghost between Liao Zhong and Chen Duo, who were facing each other!

Below, after Chen Duo's fatal kiss, Liao Zhong's primal Gu poison, like the most violent plague, instantly invaded his internal organs!

He felt as if his internal organs were being gnawed and melted by countless tiny, greedy, poisonous insects!

The excruciating pain prevented him from standing, and he staggered and collapsed into the cold corner of the wall.

Large gulps of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs gushed from his mouth, staining his clothes and the ground red.

His vision began to blur, his hearing was deteriorating, and the world seemed to be drifting away from him.

On his deathbed, he suddenly saw a white, blurry figure appear before him.

He used his last bit of strength to focus his vision with difficulty.

An overwhelming sense of anger and despair welled up inside him. He believed that Wang Xuan was the culprit who had bewitched Chen Duo and caused all of this.

"You...you are...the one who bewitched Chen Duo..."

Liao Zhong's voice was so weak it was like a whisper, each word accompanied by more blood and unimaginable pain. The Gu poison was frantically devouring his last vestiges of life.

Meanwhile, in the conference room at the company headquarters.

Through the communicator still active on Liao Zhong, board members, especially Bi Youlong, were able to communicate.

They could clearly hear the violent panting, the sound of vomiting blood, and Liao Zhong's intermittent, painful accusations coming from the other end.

"Liao Zhong! Liao Zhong! Answer me! What's the situation on your end?!"

Bi Youlong shouted into the microphone, his voice carrying a barely perceptible hint of anxiety.

Liao Zhong is an important executive in the company, and his loss is something the company does not want to see.

However, all that came from the other end of the communicator were more violent, chilling sounds of vomiting and choking, and a sense of decay as life rapidly slipped away.

Liao Zhong was unable to respond.

"Something's wrong! Something's happened!"

Bi Youlong's face turned ashen, and he exchanged a glance with the other directors.

Without further hesitation, he suddenly pulled out a red button—the command to remotely activate the bomb embedded in Chen Duo's collar!

However, when the command was issued, there was no explosion sound from the other end of the communicator, only deathly silence... and... there seemed to be a faint, unfamiliar breathing sound?

Bi Youlong's brows furrowed deeply:

"What happened? The collar is malfunctioning?!"

Unbeknownst to them, Ma Xianhong had already tampered with the collar.

Chen Duo stood quietly, watching Liao Zhong struggle in pain, waiting for his final "relief".

When Wang Xuan suddenly appeared before her, she merely tilted her head slightly, a hint of doubt flashing in her eyes, but she showed no fear, nor did she try to stop him.

Her world was simple; all that remained was waiting for Uncle Liao's "choice."

Wang Xuan ignored Chen Duo; he didn't even look at the collar that should theoretically explode.

He walked straight to Liao Zhong, who was huddled in the corner, his life about to end.

Then, he did something that surprised everyone.

He slowly squatted down, extended a fair, slender hand with distinct knuckles, and gently placed it on Liao Zhong's head, which was trembling with intense pain.

At this moment, a tiny, yet incredibly pure, purple light seemed to shone from the depths of Wang Xuan's calm and profound eyes!

The light rapidly condensed and shifted, vaguely outlining an extremely ancient, complex, and infinitely vibrant and purifying talismanic phantom.

That is the power of the horse talisman, symbolizing the dispelling of all external forces and the restoration of perfect health!

A warm, powerful, and strange force containing the absolute rules of "purification" and "restoration".

Like warm spring water, it flowed silently into Liao Zhong's dying body through Wang Xuan's palm!

Wherever this force passed, the rampant and roaring primitive poison, which was enough to render modern medicine helpless, was like ice and snow encountering the nemesis of the blazing sun.

It emits a silent shriek, and is quickly decomposed, dissolved, and transformed into the most primordial nothingness!

The internal organs, riddled with holes and almost melted and necrotic from the Gu poison, were transformed by this powerful force.

It regenerates, heals, and restores itself to its most perfect and healthiest state at a speed visible to the naked eye!

The ruptured blood vessels healed, the failing organs regained their vitality, and the pale complexion instantly returned to rosy hue!

All of this happened extremely fast, almost in the blink of an eye!

Liao Zhong, who was struggling in pain, vomiting blood, and clearly feeling the coldness of death just a second ago, suddenly stopped convulsing and vomiting the next second!

He coughed violently twice, as if trying to cough out the last bit of blood and pain from his chest.

Immediately, an indescribable, vibrant warmth swept over his entire body!

All the excruciating pain has vanished!

All the helplessness vanished! That despairing, cold, deathly touch also vanished!

His eyes widened suddenly, his gaze shifting from unfocused despair to clear and bright in an instant, filled with extreme shock and disbelief!

He subconsciously looked down at his hands and moved his limbs.

I touched my abdomen again—it was completely healed! I even felt more energetic than before!

"Wh...what?! How...how is this possible?!"

Liao Zhong suddenly raised his head, his expression dazed as if he were in a dream.

He looked at Chen Duo, who was standing to the side with a blank but bewildered look in her eyes, and then at his own clean hands and his mouth, which was no longer spitting blood.

If it weren't for the large, shocking pool of dark red blood on the ground beneath him, which still smelled foul, he would have definitely thought that the near-death pain and despair he had just experienced were real.

It was all just an incredibly realistic nightmare!

But... that's not a dream!

He suddenly turned his gaze to the young man in the white Taoist robe who had just removed his hand from his head.

The moonlight shone on Wang Xuan, making him seem as if he did not belong to this mortal world.

His expression remained calm, as if what he had just done was merely brushing away a speck of dust.

The immense shock, the bewilderment of surviving the ordeal, and the incomprehensible confusion all coalesced into a single, weighty question, which was squeezed from Liao Zhong's dry throat:

"Who...who are you?!"

Chapter 22 Choice!

"Liao Zhong! Liao Zhong! Answer me! What's going on over there?!"

Liao Zhong heard Bi Youlong's urgent and stern questioning voice again through his earpiece.

The remote activation of the collar bomb appeared to have failed, and only an eerie silence and unfamiliar breathing could be heard on the other end of the communicator.

This left the board extremely uneasy and confused, and they could only try calling again.

Liao Zhong was pulled back to reality by the voice in his earphones, and he took a deep breath.

Suppressing the overwhelming shock and countless questions churning within him, he pressed the communicator and reported in as calm a tone as possible:

"Chairman Bi, fellow directors, I... I'm alright. A third party appeared at the scene, a young man... wearing a white Taoist robe, he... he rescued me from Chen Duo."

He carefully chose his words; everything that had happened was too shocking, and he needed time to digest and understand it.

"What?! I saved you?!"

On the other end of the communicator, more than one director exclaimed in disbelief, with Bi Youlong's voice rising eight octaves.

"You mean... he broke the Gu Child's original Gu poison?! How is that possible?!"

The company's top management was well aware of the terrifying nature of the Primal Gu; it was an incurable disease that modern medicine and most methods used by supernatural beings could not cure!

How could anyone crack it instantly?

The shock of this news even temporarily overshadowed concern for Liao Zhong's safety and anger at Chen Duo's out-of-control behavior.

Wang Xuan paid no attention to Liao Zhong's report or the shock on the board of directors' side.

His gaze lingered for a moment on Chen Duo, who was still standing quietly. His eyes were complex, with a hint of pity and a hint of understanding.

Then, he looked at the bewildered Liao Zhong and spoke calmly, as if stating a simple fact:

"Don't misunderstand, Manager Liao. I'm not a bad person with ulterior motives, and I'm not here to oppose the company."

"I'm just... cleaning up the mess for some self-righteous idiot."

His voice carried a hint of mockery, but more so a calm acceptance of everything:

"After all, the current situation is a tragedy that could have been completely avoided and had no need to happen."

Upon hearing this, Liao Zhong frowned deeply and looked at Wang Xuan warily.

"What do you mean by that? What 'aftermath'? What 'tragedy'?"

Wang Xuan did not answer directly, but instead asked:

"Manager Liao, you keep saying you understand her and take care of her."

He raised his hand again and pointed at Chen Duo, but his gaze was sharp as he looked at Liao Zhong.

"So, do you really understand her?"

Liao Zhong reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, immediately becoming agitated, as this was his long-held belief and conviction.

"Of course I know her! I watched her come out of that hell, taught her common sense step by step, and took care of her life! No one knows her better than me!"

"Oh? Since you're so confident?"

A faint, ambiguous smile appeared on Wang Xuan's lips, a smile that Liao Zhong found somewhat irritating.

"Then please tell me, what is it that she really wants?"

"She wants..."

Liao Zhong instinctively wanted to blurt out "freedom," which was also his usual belief.

But the words caught in his throat. Just moments before, Chen Duo had spoken to him directly:

"Freedom... I don't care."

Not freedom? Then what is it? Liao Zhong was stunned. He opened his mouth, but found his mind blank.

He arranged Chen Duo's life, taught her rules, gave her tasks, and protected her as much as possible... but he never really thought about it.

What does this girl, deep inside, her core enveloped by layers of poison and trauma, truly yearn for?

"See, you can't answer that."

Wang Xuan's smile faded, and his tone became flat, yet it struck Liao Zhong's heart like a hammer.

"What she really wants is actually very simple, yet very difficult."

Wang Xuan turned his gaze to Chen Duo, and his voice softened.

"What she wants is you, Liao Zhong, the only person she trusts and relies on, to truly acknowledge and accept her own choices."

Liao Zhong murmured repeatedly; the word seemed somewhat unfamiliar to him.

"That's right, the choice."

Wang Xuan's voice echoed in the empty workshop, carrying a power that penetrated people's hearts.