Zhang Heng found Song Jia in the innermost stall of the bar's women's restroom.
Fortunately, the translator had only passed out. Zhang Heng gave her a rough examination and found nothing seriously wrong with her, so he woke her up. Song Jia looked utterly bewildered and had no memory of what had happened earlier.
Her memory stopped at washing her hands after using the restroom. She had no idea she had already taken a trip to death's door.
If the guy calling himself Nyarlathotep had not originally planned to slip that freshly extracted vertebra into Zhang Heng's body without anyone knowing, he probably would not have spared Song Jia's life. He likely had a way to smooth over everything that had happened tonight afterward.
Still, Zhang Heng had not come away empty-handed from his encounter with Nyarlathotep.
The further improvement of his Water Control Ability was secondary. What truly mattered was that he had obtained the final piece of the puzzle concerning his origins from Nyarlathotep. Combined with the story Sachus had told him before and Loki's final words before dying, he could finally begin to reconstruct what had happened back then.
Of course, Zhang Heng did not believe Nyarlathotep had really been as honest as he claimed, laying everything bare. In truth, almost everything Nyarlathotep had said during their conversation had revolved around persuading Zhang Heng to willingly accept that vertebra.
That bloody little thing clearly did more than help him resist the mental assault of the master of the Underground City. Zhang Heng believed Nyarlathotep had concealed other details as well. But on the other hand, in order to make him put the vertebra into his body, Nyarlathotep had indeed been unprecedentedly candid about other matters.
More importantly, though, was the attitude Nyarlathotep had displayed. From beginning to