Chapter 32

When I woke up, I was in Old Zhou's house, in his guest room, covered with his 'cherished' quilt.

Yes, anything he used frequently was 'cherished' by him. Due to his obsession with cleanliness, he absolutely wouldn't allow anyone else to touch them.

Since Old Zhou rarely had people stay at his place, his so-called guest room only had a solitary bed, with no sheets or bedding prepared. I was quite surprised and touched that he even let me use his quilt, and the pillow was probably one he used regularly too.

I guess in his heart, besides his future wife, only I and Chen Zhong had this kind of treatment. No one else would have it.

I didn't know what time it was, but from the light seeping through the thin curtains, it seemed to be early morning. Last night, in a daze, I only remembered a sudden sharp pain in my chest, followed by a severe pain in my shoulder, and then I closed my eyes. I wasn't sure if I had fallen asleep or fainted.

I only remembered having a dream all night, but I couldn't recall its content at all. The only thing I remembered was seeing my hand holding a sword in a desolate and harsh environment.

What did this signify? I couldn't figure it out. People have many dreams in their lives, and not every dream has meaning. After a while of pondering without any results, I stopped thinking about it.

Just thinking about the severe pain in my shoulder last night, I turned over and got up, wanting to see what was wrong with my shoulder. But when I touched my right arm, the bone-chilling, knife-like pain made me groan involuntarily.

Looking down instinctively, I saw three long, black claw marks on my arm, like the marks left by a fierce ghost.

"Just a wisp of a soul, and it's so powerful?" My face turned grim. Knowing that dealing with a fierce ghost was already difficult, the fact that a wisp of this cat demon's soul had such power was alarming. This made me think of my life-bound formation. What exactly was going on? I subconsciously touched my body and found that my shirt had been taken off. In a panic, I looked around and saw my yellow cloth bag hanging on the coat rack. I almost ran over to it and opened it, seeing the bright red life-bound formation seal. It turned out Old Zhou had carefully put it away for me.

Just as I was relieved, the door was slammed open, and Qin Hainian appeared, rubbing her head with an innocent look. Her glasses had slipped down to her nose, and she was looking at me.

Damn, I was only in my underwear. How could this woman barge in without any warning? I glared at Qin Hainian with a grim face, rolled over, and pulled the quilt over me. Qin Hainian, however, didn't seem to care and walked in with a smile, saying, "You're wearing boxers, what's there to be shy about? Besides, I've seen you in swim trunks before when we went swimming in the summer."

As she spoke, Qin Hainian came to my bedside and patted my stomach, saying, "Oh, you're blushing? Hmph, if I see you, I'll take responsibility."

I was speechless and couldn't help but shout at Qin Hainian, "Take responsibility for what?! Qin Hainian, can you be any more of a man? I think you won't find any other man who would want you besides clinging to Old Zhou."

My shout made Qin Hainian's face darken. I suddenly felt guilty. Had I said too much?

The next moment, Qin Hainian grabbed my neck and shouted, "I like clinging to Zhou Zheng, that's my devotion. What do you mean no man would want me?"

She didn't really squeeze hard, but it made me dizzy. Before she could let go, Old Zhou shouted from outside the door, "Qin Hainian, what are you doing?"

Qin Hainian was stunned for a moment, then quickly let go of me. I was caught off guard and hit my head on the wall. If Old Zhou weren't here, I would have cursed her to death, but seeing her pretending to be a shy and gentle lady, I could only curse her a hundred times in my heart.

At this moment, Old Zhou looked very domestic. He was neatly dressed and even wore an apron with a cartoon Snoopy on it. That was Old Zhou's 'battle robe' for cooking, which was always clean. I used to laugh every time I saw it, but now I was completely numb to it.

"Old Three, I've cooked some porridge and made some side dishes. Do you want to eat here or go out to eat?" I glanced at the wound on my arm and thought it was 'yin poison' and needed to be treated quickly. Besides, I wasn't that weak, so I casually said, "Let's eat outside."

At this moment, Qin Hainian interjected very 'ladylike,' "Third Brother, my cooking is also very good. I got up early to make some nourishing porridge for you. But Zhou Zheng was worried I would get tired, so he insisted on doing it himself."

"Get lost!"

"Out, I need to get dressed!"

Qin Hainian and I almost shouted at the same time. Qin Hainian had to leave in a hurry. Who didn't know that her cooking was a disaster? If Old Zhou was smart and didn't want his kitchen destroyed, he wouldn't let Qin Hainian cook. The only dish she knew how to make was probably the 'Mother Chicken Soup' she once made for Old Zhou to nourish his body.

Thinking about this, I found it amusing. Having friends around made me feel warm, so warm that I immediately forgot the helpless and lonely feeling of being entangled by the bloody aura yesterday. With them around, I felt the world was vibrant, and my life had its own happiness.

With this thought, my mood calmed down a lot. As I was getting dressed, I recalled the sharp, bloody aura from yesterday. I had instinctively thought it was a malevolent aura, but now, upon careful reflection, that aura didn't have the sharp, unstoppable, and uncontainable 'ferocity' of a malevolent aura. Instead, it was filled with a sense of resentment. I couldn't quite describe it.

Outside, Old Zhou was already urging me to eat.

After washing up, I sat at the dining table. There was perfectly cooked white porridge, carefully wrapped steamed buns, and a few side dishes, all clearly made by Old Zhou. Even the plating was serious. Old Zhou had excellent cooking skills, all thanks to his obsession with cleanliness. He always thought restaurants below a certain level were dirty. But as a single man, he couldn't always eat at high-end restaurants, so he cooked for himself.

I looked helplessly at Qin Hainian slurping her porridge and Old Zhou in his Snoopy apron. I suddenly wondered if their combination would be strange if they really got together.

Thinking about this, I felt like laughing. Then, Old Zhou suddenly said seriously, "Old Three, teach me how to draw talismans."

"Cough, cough." The porridge was cooled by Old Zhou but was still slightly hot. When he said this, the porridge I was sipping got stuck in my throat, and I started coughing.

Qin Hainian, who was enjoying her porridge, was even worse. She couldn't help but spit it out. Since she was looking at Old Zhou, she sprayed him in the face again.

"Qin Hainian!" Old Zhou stood up angrily and, without a word, grabbed Qin Hainian's arm and dragged her out. But who was Qin Hainian? A tough, iron-willed man, and a cultivator. If she didn't want to move, Old Zhou couldn't drag her.

She wiped Old Zhou's face while pretending to be virtuous and said, "Oh, Zhou Zheng, don't be angry. I'm here to help Third Brother, remember?"

Old Zhou was speechless and sat down sullenly, gritting his teeth and saying to Qin Hainian, "I've never seen a woman as stupid as you!"

Qin Hainian retorted, "In the village, I'm known as a genius. You just don't know."

This kind of farce often happened in their lives, and I had lost my sense of novelty. I just asked curiously, "Qin Hainian, how are you helping me?"

"You'll see." Qin Hainian turned and looked at me with a mysterious smile, as if she really had some skills.

After breakfast, Qin Hainian dragged me to the sofa. She grabbed my arm and, with a 'frightened' look, mercilessly cut three slashes on my arm, precisely on the three black wounds. Then, she took out a strange-looking bug and placed it on my arm.

At that moment, my arm was bleeding. The blood wasn't black just because the wound was black. I wasn't poisoned, but infected with 'yin poison.' Strictly speaking, this wasn't a poison of the living world.

If I didn't treat it, my yang energy would gradually heal it. But a large loss of yang energy would also deplete the vital energy of my yang body, leaving me weak after the wound healed.

However, as a Taoist, I had many ways to treat such injuries, but I was inexplicably dragged here and cut three times by Qin Hainian.

"Qin Hainian, you're a cultivator. Do you even know that this injury is caused by yin energy? To dispel yin energy, you don't just grab a bug to suck my blood." As I spoke, I looked at the bug on my arm, which felt cold and had a strange appearance with white stripes.

Qin Hainian looked at me as if I were an idiot and said, "Who said I don't know? Do you know what this bug is? It's very rare and only exists in places where yin energy gathers, even forming a mist."

"You're bluffing. Could there be such a place?" I looked at Qin Hainian with a bad temper.

"I'm not bluffing. This bug was found in a famous evil place, where there were very powerful zombies." Qin Hainian looked serious, but her glasses still slipped down to her nose.