Treatment

With his blood warm, Yu Xing tasted the unfamiliar yet familiar flavor in his mouth, an unexpected calmness settling in. He maintained a subtle state of mind and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

The chilling aura appeared for only a moment before disappearing like a fish in the sea.

The Witch Doctor looked at his blood, withdrew her hand, neither concerned nor surprised, only sighing, "It seems you're really badly injured... Come in, I'll apply some medicine for you."

"I..." Given what he had just seen through the crack in the door, Yu Xing was very reluctant to go in. Who knew if he would end up being one of those hanging there? Moreover, when the Witch Doctor touched him, he felt like he had touched some kind of allergen, and the sudden pain was still fresh in his memory.

A thought crept into his mind... the Witch Doctor wasn't a good thing for him.

"Come in." The Witch Doctor walked in front and opened the door completely. Yu Xing looked over and was stunned to find that the inside was empty and simply furnished, with no hanged corpse at all.

There wasn't a single one.

But...

A look of confusion crossed his eyes. Could it be that his injury wasn't just memory loss, but that he'd also bumped into something that made him prone to hallucinations?

Were the burns on the Witch Doctor's face and the swaying corpse in the house hallucinations caused by his state of tension?

In this situation, this is the most reasonable explanation he can think of: damage to a nerve in his brain has caused auditory and visual hallucinations, and even a blurred concept of time, making him feel that there are not 24 hours in a day...

That seems reasonable.

Everything around him was normal; the only abnormal thing was himself.

Yu Xing followed the Witch Doctor into the house, touched her disheveled hair, and a look of inquiry flashed in her eyes.

Yes, it's perfectly reasonable.

But he didn't believe that was the truth.

Ultimately, it's just self-deception. Will fabricating a seemingly plausible explanation really improve his situation?

Cannot.

Something strange must have happened here, and some kind of danger is approaching him.

Stepping into the Witch Doctor's house, Yu Xing looked up and realized that there was no beam in the middle of the room that could be used to hang a corpse.

It seems that the hanging corpse door might have been just an illusion, or perhaps a symbol from his subconscious.

He suspected that there must be related experiences in his lost memories, otherwise, he wouldn't have felt that palpitation and grief.

With that thought in mind, he withdrew his gaze from the roof and began to observe his surroundings.

The only thing that piqued his curiosity was a small stone statue that seemed to be enshrined in the center of the room. The statue had long hair and a long robe, and its face was indistinct. It looked like there was a plate in front of it containing something, but Yu Xing couldn't see it clearly.

The room was too dark.

"Sit down." The Witch Doctor lit a kerosene lamp and placed it on the table. The dim light shone on her face. She pointed to a wooden chair and gestured for Yu Xing.

Yu Xing lowered her head and sat down as instructed. The Witch Doctor turned and went into another room. After a while, she came out with a medicine box and a set of black clothes.

Should we really treat him?

Yu Xing remained calm as she watched the Witch Doctor open her medicine box, which contained various medicines, bandages, gauze, and tools such as scissors.

The Witch Doctor said, "I've studied medicine, so I can examine your wound and maybe help it heal faster. And this set of clothes... it belongs to my husband, but he's rarely home and never wears it. I'll give it to you so you won't be scantily clad; it wouldn't be good if the village girls saw you like that."

The Witch Doctor herself was probably thirty years old, so what she said wasn't wrong.

Yu Xing had no choice but to accept the situation and agree.

The Witch Doctor then began to unwrap the bandages from his upper body, layer by layer. Yu Xing took the opportunity to examine his injuries. It seemed the wounds weren't as severe as he had initially imagined; they were mostly just superficial bleeding. However, the shape of the wounds...

It was as if something had brutally ripped out their flesh, leaving behind gaping, bloody holes.

"..."

Sure enough, the Witch Doctor asked, "How did you get this injury?"

"I have no idea."

"Oh, I forgot what you said, you don't remember who you are or where you came from, right?" The Witch Doctor took out an ointment that Yu Xing couldn't name and skillfully pressed it gently around the blood hole with a cotton swab.

The bleeding from these wounds had stopped, but they were still gruesome and terrifying. Yu Xing suddenly felt that perhaps the wounds themselves weren't as serious as he had expected, but rather that they were healing quickly? Or perhaps his endurance was increasing?

He suppressed his suspicions and replied to the Witch Doctor, "Yes, I might have injured my brain."

At this moment, Yu Xing remembered that she hadn't explained her purpose to the Witch Doctor yet, so she carefully said, "Well, actually, when I woke up from my coma, I was in a village on the other side of the woods, but something seemed to have happened in that village, and I couldn't find any food, so I came all this way. I'd like to know, besides these two villages, are there any other towns or cities nearby?"

The Witch Doctor paused in applying the medicine. "I know that little village, but you said something happened to them?"

A hint of surprise flashed in her eyes, but she quickly calmed down, even showing a sense of understanding. "Perhaps this is the price of greed and betrayal. That little place might be a bit noisy during this time, but you—you made the right decision to leave them and come here."

Um?

Yu Xing initially thought the incident in Old Zhang's village might be related to the Witch Doctor, but if the hanged corpse was a hallucination, the possibility of this connection would decrease.

Now it seems that the "trouble" the Witch Doctor mentioned and the "trouble" he mentioned are not the same thing at all.

What betrayal and greed? What noise?

All he saw was desolation.

Yu Xing decided not to refute the Witch Doctor yet, but to inquire later. He reminded her, "So, are there any other towns nearby...?"

The Witch Doctor chuckled softly, "You have someone you're looking for?"

"No."

"Then why go to town? Let's stay here." She bandaged the spot where Yu Xing had applied her medicine. "Or we can stay here for a while and then decide whether we want to stay permanently. Believe me, this place is more mysterious than you think; we are blessed by the gods."

A sense of confusion flashed through Yu Xing's mind.

Immortal?

She's called Witch Doctor, and she says the village is blessed by the gods. Ah... why do the villagers listen to her so much? Have they been brainwashed?

However, being outnumbered and outmatched, and indeed hungry, Yu Xing hesitated for a moment before agreeing.

If something is really wrong, it would be better for him to eat and drink his fill before running than to be unprepared now.

After the bandages on his upper body were changed, Yu Xing rolled up his wide trouser legs and watched as the Witch Doctor squatted down to apply medicine to his legs.

The wounds on his legs were not dense; there were none on his thighs, only bloody holes on his knees, the backs of his knees, and his ankles, so they wouldn't cause any embarrassment.

When villagers go to work in the fields, they often roll up their trouser legs; it's become a common sight.

Only...

Looking at the location of these wounds, Yu Xing had an idea formed.

It seems as if the creator of these wounds intentionally restricted his movement. These joints are used with every step he takes; if it weren't for his seemingly high pain tolerance, he probably wouldn't even be able to leave the Old Zhang.