On the White Bone Road, with dark, twisted forests lining both sides, a faint red glow had begun to spread through the darkness at some unknown point.
"...I wasn't lying about what I said before."
After a brief silence, Lin He spoke coldly.
"Hm? What necessary connection is there between whether you lied and whether I believe you?"
Weighing the Emerald Box in his hand, Bai Zhi casually put it into his Inventory.
"Thanks for the gift. But I'll still keep my promise and deliver these to your sister."
"...I clearly saw the Flesh Bud parasitize your body just now. Even if you have some special item, it should be absolutely impossible for you to—"
"Hm? You mean this?"
Pulling something out from behind his back, Bai Zhi tossed it from afar to Lin He's feet.
"Just a little sleight of hand."
After lowering his head to look at the severed hand by his feet in slight confusion, Lin He suddenly became extraordinarily enraged.
"What the hell do you stuff into your Inventory every day!?"
At his feet lay an abnormally pale severed hand. Layers upon layers of Flesh Buds had begun rapidly proliferating across its back, making the entire hand look rather grotesque.
"When I was treating someone earlier, one Patient's hand simply couldn't be reattached. And since it was preserved quite well and hadn't decayed much, I casually took it with me. I was planning to soak it in formaldehyde for research after getting home."
Bai Zhi shrugged, looking utterly unconcerned.
"You have no idea how hard it is to get a corpse for research in today's peaceful society, and I'm a law-abiding good citizen. I'm not bragging—I even received an Outstanding Young Pioneer certificate back then. I also won the Orphanage's top punching champion title several times,