The green lines, like pale bamboo shoots, covered the spots where the blood vessels had been. Within just a few breaths, Li Ziran's arm first became stiff, then rigid, and finally developed obvious stone-like markings.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
His entire arm had completely petrified. As a Witch Doctor, he knew what had happened.
A curse!
A special magical condition.
Li Ziran sat amid the tangled weeds and smiled bitterly. Unfortunately, he had run into some bad luck.
A curse carried within the bloodline of a higher race—this was supposed to be a basic skill he had mastered.
He could not help recalling the first time he had appeared in the Wasteland, when his teacher had effortlessly turned him into a frog.
The Green Frog Tribe Witch Doctors of the amphibian race were a branch of wizards. They practiced some witchcraft, but placed greater emphasis on healing.
Organ modification, meanwhile, was an even more obscure and extreme path within the Witch Doctor system.
His teacher had taught him his only Transformation Spell and carefully instructed him in the complete Witch Doctor system.
Witchcraft, curses, medicine, Transformation Spells, divination.
These were called the five abilities of a wizard, and different wizard professions had developed from their different applications.
Li Ziran was a Witch Doctor. Through his own experience, he had successfully comprehended the Transformation Spell and the more profound art of organ transplantation, becoming the most unconventional kind of Organ Witch Doctor.
It was not that he did not want to become a normal wizard. It was simply too difficult.
More than anyone, he wanted to understand these powers that completely transcended nature. Unfortunately, whenever he entered those fields, the knowledge already in his mind would reject them.
For example, he knew that the foundation of organ transplantation was neural connection. But he could not understand how curses worked. How could someone predict what had happened two hours ago, or make another person wish they were dead from several kilometers away?
He had once spent two years trying to achieve something in curses and divination. Unfortunately, apart from memorizing a pile of complicated deduction formulas, he had not grasped even a bit of the true essence.
Even now, he still had not figured out how curses took effect.
Studying curses should have been a wizard'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 weak 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 an expert on curses and could provide Li Ziran with the most effective solution.
However, this business still needed to be handled properly.
By this point, he had already invested quite a bit. The medicinal materials used in the surgery alone had cost two silver coins.
The friendship of one Wolf was far less practical than 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 instrument tray, revealing boxes of distinctly separated paints.
Li Ziran carefully dipped into bright red paint and smeared it over Medusa's intact eyeball. Then, using a small knife, he began slicing open the capillaries around the eye socket bit by bit.
Fresh blood mixed with red paint instantly streamed down the green skin. Li Ziran bent down and rubbed the bits of flesh removed from Wolf onto the surface of Medusa's eye, little by little.
Then, he began drawing lines around the eye socket, gradually applying paint within those lines.
About half a quarter-hour later, Li Ziran finished. At a glance, Medusa's intact eye looked as though it had been forcibly gouged open, with red blood dripping down in a terrifying sight.
Of course, that was merely an illusion. The real eye was hidden beneath the paint, achieved through some special painting techniques.
He needed to fool Wolf.
That was not enough, though. Making Wolf believe him would 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 from the corner of the eye bit by bit.
He was very careful. He could not blind Barbaro, but he had to ensure that when Barbaro woke up, his eye would hurt badly enough to feel as though it had undergone surgery.
Once everything was ready, Li Ziran put away the scalpel and applied a wakefulness potion to Barbaro's body.
In an instant, Barbaro seemed to break free from death. He began weakly kicking his legs, and after a brief adjustment, all four limbs started thrashing wildly, making the entire crossbar ring loudly.
"Ribbit! Ribbit! Ribbit!"
Barbaro kept croaking, as if protesting.
Li Ziran lightly bit open his middle finger and dabbed bright red blood onto Barbaro's brow.
At once, something marvelous happened.
The blood slowly seeped into Barbaro's body. Scarlet veins appeared across the frog's skin, flowing rapidly like rivers, and the entire frog began growing swiftly.
In the blink of an eye, the frog had lost its shape. Wolf-like features began to emerge on the gradually forming body: a firm wolf snout and triangular ears. Finally, those absurdly long eyes appeared. Half a quarter-hour later, Barbaro had completely returned to Wolf's original form.
The only difference was that his blind eye had now been replaced by a triangular pupil, while his other intact eye kept streaming tears.
Only a Witch Doctor's own blood could undo a Witch Doctor's spell.
"I'm sorry, Lord Barbaro," Li Ziran said dejectedly.
Barbaro rubbed his eye, but the more he rubbed it, the more his other eye felt as though sand had gotten into it, and the harder the tears flowed.
"What do you mean, Li? What's wrong with my eye?"
"Nothing much. It's only a side effect of the failed surgery, but I have to tell you some bad news." Li Ziran's voice was slightly choked.
"Bad news? What are you trying to say?" Barbaro asked nervously.
"The surgery failed when I transplanted the last eyeball," Li Ziran said regretfully. "I'm very sorry. My ability 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 will only tear up for a short while and return to normal after half a day. Unfortunately, you'll only have one Medusa eye." Li Ziran deliberately made his tone heavier.
"Oh... wait!" Barbaro suddenly realized something. "You mean my other eye!"
Only then did he realize that he could see. It was simply different from his previous vision. There were no colors, only a pale expanse. Within his pupil were tiny specks like stars, and when he focused on one of them, he immediately felt a strange force frantically drawing upon the blood energy within his body.
When he instinctively tried to withdraw it, a beam of white light suddenly shot from his pupil and landed directly on Li Ziran.
Li Ziran, who had still been about to speak, began visibly petrifying at an astonishing speed. Before he could even blink, his entire body had frozen in place like stone.
The sudden change terrified Barbaro. He hurriedly turned his head away before reaching out toward Li Ziran.
"I'm sorry, Li. I didn't mean to."
But no one answered. He finally touched Li Ziran, who was hard as a bluish stone on an ice field.
"This... this..."
He kept stammering, unable to figure out what to do. Just when he was at his wits' end, Li Ziran, who had completely turned to stone, moved.
The stone skin on the surface began to peel away, gradually replaced by flesh and blood. At last, he completely broke free from the petrified state.
"Barbaro, what were you doing just now?" Li Ziran demanded angrily. Rather than Barbaro being careless, it would be more accurate to say that Li Ziran had done it deliberately.
And when his entire body had been petrified, he had deliberately pulled up the sleeve on his left arm, revealing a completely blackened stone arm.
After gaining the Petrifying Eye, Barbaro would inevitably need someone to test it on. In this enclosed space, Li Ziran himself was undoubtedly the best candidate.
But it involved some risk. He might have been completely petrified by the Petrifying Eye.
Of course, Li Ziran had his own confidence. First, Barbaro had only just acquired the Petrifying Eye and might not be able to activate all 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 worthwhile.
"No... no... I didn't mean to! Li, I'm sorry, just now..." Barbaro was incoherent, but he could not hide the excitement in his heart. "I never thought it would work. Li, this is truly incredible. You're the greatest Witch Doctor I've ever seen! From now on—no, every day from now on—we'll be friends. I'll compensate you. All the corpses in Gray Wolf Territory... Li, your arm!"
After getting excited for so long, he had finally noticed what Li Ziran most wanted him to see.
Li Ziran smiled bitterly. "Your handiwork. You didn't think the Petrifying Eye could be dispelled so casually, did you? Barbaro, congratulations. You've given me a stone arm!"
Barbaro was flustered, but the shock 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 act the part to the end. He took out the only four silver coins in his pocket. "Barbaro, I only have this much money."
"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 everything clearly just now. With your character, you're 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 make a fortune. Do you know where I got Medusa? Walk northwest from Gray Wolf Territory for half a day, and a swamp suddenly appears there. That's where I picked up this Medusa. There are quite a few Slave-Catching Groups there. There may be a major battle soon. If you go there, you'll definitely be able to collect corpses!"
Before you continue