Returning a Peach with a Plum

A green line, like a pale bamboo shoot, covered the spot where the blood vessel had been. Within just a few breaths, Li Ziran's arm first grew stiff, then rigid, until distinct stone-like patterns appeared.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

His entire arm had completely petrified. As a Witch Doctor, he knew what had happened.

A curse!

A special magical state.

Li Ziran sat atop the tangled grass and laughed bitterly. Unfortunately, he had run into something truly unlucky.

A curse carried within the bloodline of a higher race—this was supposed to be a basic survival skill he had mastered.

He could not help recalling the first time he had appeared on the Wasteland, when his teacher had effortlessly turned him into a frog.

The Green Frog Tribe Witch Doctors of the amphibian race were an offshoot of witches. They practiced part of the witchcraft system, but placed greater emphasis on healing.

Organ modification, meanwhile, was a more obscure and extreme path of cultivation within the Witch Doctor system.

His teacher had taught him the only Transformation Spell and patiently instructed him in the complete Witch Doctor system.

Witchcraft, curses, healing, Transformation Spells, divination.

These were called the five abilities of witches, and different witch professions branched out according to the abilities they possessed.

Li Ziran was a Witch Doctor. Based on his own experience, he had successfully comprehended the Transformation Spell and the even more profound art of organ transplantation, becoming an exceptionally obscure Organ Witch Doctor.

It was not that he did not want to become a normal witch. It was simply too difficult.

More than anyone, he wanted to understand this power that utterly transcended nature. Unfortunately, whenever he entered those fields, the knowledge already lodged in his mind would reject them.

For example, he knew that the foundation of organ transplantation was neural connection. Yet he could not understand how curses worked. How could someone predict what had happened to another person two hours ago, or make someone wish they were dead from several kilometers away?

He had once spent two years trying to achieve something in curses and divination. Unfortunately, aside from memorizing a pile of complicated deduction formulas, he had not grasped a shred of the true essence.

Even now, he still did not understand how a curse took effect.

Studying curses should have been a witch's specialty, yet it had become Li Ziran's greatest headache.

His increasingly rigid arm told him that the surgery could not continue. Moreover, his faint spiritual perception sensed that the pale threads on his arm seemed to be vibrating at some strange frequency.

Like they were transmitting a signal!

That was clearly not a good sign.

Now, he had to find his teacher. His teacher was a master of curses and could provide Li Ziran with the most effective solution.

However, this deal still needed to be handled, and handled properly.

By now, he had already invested quite a bit. The medicinal materials used in the surgery alone had cost two silver coins.

The friendship of one Wolfman was nowhere near as practical as two silver coins.

But he still needed some camouflage. Looking at the frog still completely paralyzed on the crossbar, Li Ziran flipped over the surgical tray, revealing neatly separated boxes of pigments.

Li Ziran carefully dipped into bright red pigment and smeared it over Medusa's intact eyeball. Then he took a small knife and began cutting the capillaries around the eye socket bit by bit.

Fresh blood mixed with red pigment instantly flowed across the green skin. Li Ziran bent down and slowly smeared the scraps of flesh removed from the Wolfman over the surface of Medusa's eye.

Then he began drawing curves around the eye socket, gradually applying pigment inside them.

About a quarter of an hour later, Li Ziran finished. At a glance, Medusa's intact eye looked as though it had been viciously gouged open, with red blood dripping down in a horrifying sight.

Of course, that was only an appearance. The real eye was covered beneath the pigment, nothing more than some special painting techniques.

He needed to fool the Wolfman.

That was not enough, though. Making the Wolfman believe him could not be so simple.

Li Ziran looked at Barbaro's intact right eye, picked up a silver needle from the surgical tray, and began pricking downward bit by bit along the corner of his eye.

He was very careful. He could not blind the other man, but he had to ensure that when the other man woke, his eye would hurt badly—at least enough to feel as though it had undergone surgery.

Once everything was ready, Li Ziran put away the scalpel and applied the awakening potion to Barbaro's body.

In an instant, Barbaro seemed to break free from death. His legs began twitching weakly, and after a brief adjustment, all four legs started kicking wildly, making the entire crossbar ring with a metallic hum.

"Ribbit! Ribbit! Ribbit!"

Barbaro croaked without pause, as though protesting.

Li Ziran lightly bit open his middle finger and dotted bright red blood onto Barbaro's brow.

At once, something marvelous happened.

The blood slowly seeped into Barbaro's body. Bright red veins appeared across the frog's skin, flowing swiftly like rivers as the entire frog rapidly grew.

In the blink of an eye, the frog had lost its original form. Wolfman features began emerging from the gradually formed body: a firm wolf muzzle and triangular ears. Finally, absurdly long eyes appeared. After a quarter of an hour, Barbaro had completely returned to his original Wolfman form.

The only difference was that his blind eye had now been replaced by a triangular pupil, while his other intact eye was constantly streaming tears.

The only thing that could undo a Witch Doctor's spell was the Witch Doctor's own blood.

"I'm sorry, Lord Barbaro," Li Ziran said dejectedly.

Barbaro rubbed his eye, but the more he rubbed, the more his other eye felt as though sand had gotten into it, and the more fiercely the tears flowed.

"What do you mean, Li? What happened to my eye?"

"It's nothing. It's merely an aftereffect of the failed surgery, but I have to tell you some bad news." Li Ziran's voice caught slightly.

"Bad news? What are you trying to say?" Barbaro asked, nervous beyond measure.

"The surgery failed when I transplanted the last eyeball." Li Ziran said mournfully. "I'm very sorry. My skill was insufficient. To make up for the suffering you've endured, I'll give you some compensation."

"Failed? Then my eye?"

"It's fine. You won't go blind. It'll only tear up for a short time, and it will return to normal after half a day. The regrettable thing is that you can only have one of Medusa's eyes now." Li Ziran deliberately put extra weight into his tone.

"Oh... wait!" Barbaro suddenly reacted. "You mean my other eye!"

Only then did he discover that he could see. Yet his vision differed from before. There were no colors, only a vast pallor, dotted with grain-sized specks like stars within his pupil. When he focused on those specks, he immediately felt a strange force wildly drawing out the blood vitality within him.

When he instinctively tried to pull back, a beam of white light suddenly shot from his pupil and landed squarely on Li Ziran.

Li Ziran, who had been about to speak, began petrifying at a speed visible to the naked eye. Before even a blink had passed, his entire body stood frozen in place like stone.

The abrupt change terrified Barbaro. He hurriedly twisted his head elsewhere before reaching out to feel for Li Ziran.

"I'm sorry, Li. I didn't mean to."

But no one answered. At last, he touched Li Ziran, who was hard as a bluestone on an icefield.

"This... this..."

He kept stammering "this" over and over, utterly at a loss for what to do. Just as he was at the end of his rope, Li Ziran, who had completely turned to stone, moved.

The stony layer on his surface began to peel away, gradually replaced by flesh and blood. In the end, he completely escaped the petrified state.

"Barbaro, what were you doing just now?" Li Ziran demanded, pretending to be angry. Rather than Barbaro being careless, it would be more accurate to say Li Ziran had done it deliberately.

Moreover, when his entire body had made contact with the petrification, he had deliberately pulled up the sleeve on his left arm, exposing an arm that had turned completely black stone.

Once Barbaro possessed the Petrifying Eye, he would inevitably need someone to test it on. In this enclosed space, Li Ziran himself was undoubtedly the best candidate.

But there had been some risk. The Petrifying Eye might have completely petrified him.

Of course, Li Ziran had his own confidence. First, Barbaro had only just acquired the Petrifying Eye and might not be able to unleash all of its power. Second, the transplanted eyeball had come from an underage Medusa.

Judging from the shock, guilt, and delight on Barbaro's face, this risk had been worth it.

"No... no... I didn't mean to! Li, I'm sorry, just now..." Barbaro was somewhat incoherent, but he could not hide the excitement in his heart. "I never thought it would succeed, Li. This is truly magnificent! You are the greatest Witch Doctor I've ever seen! From now—no, every day from now on, we are friends. I'll compensate you. All the corpses in Gray Wolf Territory... Li, your arm!"

After getting excited for so long, he had finally seen the thing Li Ziran most wanted him to see.

Li Ziran smiled bitterly. "Your handiwork. You didn't think the Petrifying Eye could be undone so casually, did you? Barbaro, congratulations. You gave me a stone arm!"

Barbaro was panicking, but the astonishment and joy in his eyes could not be concealed. "No, I didn't mean to... You... Medusa... right... I'll give this Medusa to you. Forty silver coins!"

Things had gone more smoothly than Li Ziran expected, but he still had to keep acting to the end. He took the only four silver coins from his pocket. "Barbaro, this is all the money I have."

"Give me however much you have. You're my friend now, and I trust you. I'll wait for you in Gray Wolf Territory. I saw it clearly just now—your character is absolutely trustworthy." Barbaro snatched three silver coins from Li Ziran's hand, leaving one behind.

"What is this?" Li Ziran asked suspiciously.

Barbaro chuckled. "Li, you've taken such good care of me. As your friend, how could I not take care of you? This silver coin is to help you get rich. Do you know where I found Medusa? Walk northwest from Gray Wolf Territory for half a day, and you'll suddenly come upon a swamp. That's where I picked up this Medusa. There are quite a few Slave-Catching Groups there. A great battle may be coming. If you go there, you'll definitely be able to collect corpses!"