"People have destinies—kings, nobles, generals, ministers, ordinary mortals. These destinies cannot be seen, yet in the unseen darkness, they have long been ordained by Heaven."
"Of course, destinies can change through your own efforts. For example, with an ordinary destiny, if you study hard behind a cold window for decades, you may still be granted a fief and made a minister."
Xu Zimo explained.
"But your mother's destiny is an abnormal one. She is transforming from a human toward a beast.
"Yet because the transformation was incomplete, she can neither become a beast nor return to being human.
"That is how she ended up in her current state."
"But why did my mother suddenly become like this when she had been perfectly fine?" Dong Heng hurriedly asked.
By now, he somewhat believed Xu Zimo.
After all, he had sought out so many doctors. As the saying went, long illness made a good doctor.
He had more or less figured out a few things himself.
Moreover, Xu Zimo spoke in an even tone, without the slightest exaggeration.
That only made him more convincing.
"Was your mother ever injured by a demonic beast when she was young?" Xu Zimo asked.
"I don't know about that." Dong Heng thought for a moment before finally shaking his head.
"Yes. When I was young, I once went up the mountain to gather herbs and was attacked by a demonic beast I had never seen before."
At that moment, the old woman lying on the bed woke up.
She looked at Xu Zimo as though she had seen a lifesaving straw.
She said, "That demonic beast was ten meters long, its entire body covered in venom sacs, with two fangs growing beside its mouth.
"When it attacked me, I thought I was surely doomed. Later, an