He said imported, and straight into her mouth it went.
The instant he received confirmation, Ji Jue's hand had already plunged into the meat-mountain's gaping maw. And then... he started to regret it.
The slimy texture, the spine-chilling peristalsis, and that foul, washbasin-sized maw vividly illustrated the eternal truth of this world: money is hard to earn, and shit is hard to swallow.
*Why does earning a few miserable coppers off you have to be this hard?*
*Snap!*
With a crisp crack, the ferocious glare in the meat-mountain's eyes dissolved into numbness as she lost all feeling in her jaw. Ji Jue's other hand had wrenched it clean off, completely dislocating it.
Then, the nimble fingers of his right hand reached directly through her esophagus, rummaging brazenly among her squashed, deformed internal organs.
He seized her obscenely thick, fatty heart in a firm grip.
And then—the intricate patterns of Non-Offensive manifested across his fingers. The alchemy began!
Mercilessly: extraction!
Between his contracting fingers, sizzling grease immediately seeped forth, while the abundant spiritus surging within shrank rapidly under his violent scraping and grasping.
"Hrrgh! Hrrr—*aaaaagh!*"
A muffled, agonized shriek managed to burst from that gaping mouth once more. The mountain of flesh convulsed violently, and beneath taut skin as thin as paper, spiritus circuits branched out through her blood vessels like living things.
Fluid Alchemy manifested.
At this moment, all the blood surging from the heart transformed into a medium for Fluid Alchemy, channeling the power of Non-Offensive through every inch of this bloated, bursting body, leaving nothing untouched.
"Quiet—"
Ji Jue raised a finger before his face, looking down as he signaled the meat-mountain. Instantly, the shrieking cut off—because her vocal cords had been plucked out.
Then, the entire mountain of flesh began to spasm violently, twitching uncontrollably as ripples rolled across her body.
On her massive, jowly face, her eyes rolled back into white, faintly casting a shrill, eerie glint.
Beneath the paper-thin skin, shimmering streams of light could be seen converging from her blood vessels.
Accompanied by a low drone like a water pump springing to life, every soul the mountain of flesh had ever devoured was squeezed clean by the power of Non-Offensive.
Even including her own!
Countless threads of silver brilliance converged along the vessels toward the heart. Every sizable clump of residual spirit was instantly shattered by the Dissociation Art, then purified through Fluid Alchemy, extracting the purest, clearest spiritus. It coiled around his fingers, its magnificent luminescence growing brighter and brighter.
In less than a few short seconds, layer upon layer of ointment-like sweat oozed from the mountain of flesh, her terrifying bulk withering and shrinking at a rate visible to the naked eye.
In the end, all that remained was an absurd, sagging sack of skin draped over a skeleton.
The faint light in her eyes flickered intermittently, like a candle in the wind.
When Ji Jue finally withdrew his slime-coated arm from her mouth, she could no longer hold back. She vomited by sheer instinct, completely emptying her maximally distended stomach like a blown sewer main.
A nauseating waterfall erupted, disgorging viscous gastric juices, undigested meat slurry, and dry bones.
When it was over, amid the puddle of stinking acid and vomit, there remained only an unrecognizable monstrosity, its chest weakly rising and falling.
Having anticipated this, Ji Jue had already hauled the dumbstruck, withered family member in front of himself and Tong Hua, using him like an umbrella to catch every drop of the spraying vomit.
Only then did he turn around and hand what he was holding to Tong Hua.
"Hold this."
"Ew, gross!"
Tong Hua snatched up a basin from the floor to catch the large glob of solidified paste that resembled frozen lard. Furrowing her brow, she leaned back instinctively. "What is this?"
"Glycerin."
The terse reply made her delicate hands tremble again.
"Since we're already here, why waste all that fat?" Ji Jue comforted her. "Don't worry. Until it reacts with nitric acid and concentrated sulfuric acid, it's quite stable."
As he spoke, he finally released the family member, who had been splattered from head to toe. Looking down, he examined his handiwork and nodded approvingly. "See? Doesn't her complexion look so much better now?"
Only now did the mess-covered family member come to his senses. Trembling, he turned his head stiffly. "Y-You... weren't you going to use an imported treatment?"
"Didn't it go right into her mouth?"
Ji Jue spread his hands. "Can you really say the cure didn't take? Her diagnosis was malnutrition. Look at her now—she no longer has excess nutrition, so isn't her nutrition plenty good?!"
The withered monster's face twitched. Gazing at his dying wife on the hospital bed, his fury flared.
"Th-This violates hospital regulations."
He whipped his head around, glaring murderously at Ji Jue. Yet having lost his greatest reliance, he hesitated, not daring to pounce. He could only squeeze words through gritted teeth: "I'm going to file a complaint! A-A..."
Before he could finish, his face was cast into shadow by the figure looming over him.
It was like being frozen.
Under the gaze of those two eyes.
"This complies with regulations completely."
Ji Jue looked down and told him, "Very compliant. Completely within regulations. You made a request, I made a diagnosis and explained the method. As for you, you exercised your right to informed consent, accepted the proposal, and made the decision. And finally, the treatment achieved a flawless result.
"And now, after the illness is cured, you tell me you want to file a complaint?"
Ji Jue drew closer, staring intently into his face as he asked, word by word, "Could it be that... you don't want to pay?"
The withered monster's expression twitched once, then twice.
As if he wanted to bare his fangs and hiss.
All his savagery and ferocity gradually froze and dissolved under Ji Jue's stare... until he could no longer conceal his terror and dread.
"P-Pay... of course I'll pay..."
He racked his meager brains, straining to think. "B-But you didn't say how much! This is f-fraud! I want to see the director! I—"
Before him, however, Ji Jue's smile was slowly eclipsed by shadow, growing increasingly uncanny. "'No matter how expensive'—those were your exact words, weren't they?"
"I... I..."
"It's fine. Don't worry about being unable to afford it. I'm not a greedy man." Ji Jue raised a finger and promised with a smile, "Just a little bit will do. Relax. It won't hurt."
For a split second, the monster's eyes seemed to light up with baffling delight.
"R-Really?"
"Shh, don't speak—"
Ji Jue raised his left hand, splaying his fingers. Gently, delicately, tenderly, he pressed his hand over the withered monster's face.
He took hold.
Amid a terrified scream, as easily as plucking a ripe fruit from a branch, he gave a gentle twist!
*Crack—*
The melon dropped from its stem.
The scream choked off mid-throat. A shriveled corpse collapsed backward, convulsing as it repeatedly clawed at the air in futile struggle.
And on that severed head, the monster's two eyes caught one final sight: a gentle smile—and, from behind the seams of that smile, the gradual eruption of blazing flames.
The fire of boundless despair surged forth, consuming everything.
The power of Non-Offensive unfolded once more. Between the manipulations of Masterwork Nature, the support of the Primacy of Mind, and the potency of Non-Offensive itself, the skin, hair, and flesh on that head withered away completely in an instant, sloughing off and turning to dust.
Only a skull as white as jade remained. Rings of spiritus circuits emerged upon it, etching into the bone and ultimately forming a cage-like locking structure.
In less than a few seconds, using the original vessel of the soul as a foundation, a makeshift spiritus cage was finished.
Next, Ji Jue tossed the massive quantity of corrupted spiritus he had harvested into it.
A wisp of emerald spirit-light ignited within the hollow eye sockets of the skull.
Indicating to Ji Jue that there was still plenty of capacity inside.
"Looks pretty decent."
Ji Jue nodded. After wiping his hands on the headless, writhing body, he picked up a necklace lying beside it... Well, since the fellow had no neck left anyway, he couldn't wear it anymore, so he might as well gift it to him.
He brought his hands together, and when he opened them again, the silver necklace had become a chain with a clasp. One end hooked into the crown of the skull, and the other latched onto the belt beneath his lab coat.
"Mm, looks quite sharp."
Ji Jue nodded approvingly and turned back to ask, "How does it look?"
Having witnessed the entire process, Tong Hua held the basin of glycerin with trembling hands.
Several times, she opened her mouth only to stop herself.
Surrounded by the biting chill and the eerie atmosphere, she was entirely at a loss for words, tears nearly spilling over... *Is this what a Celestial Chosen of Embers is like?*
*So terrifying!*
"Well, since the treatment is concluded, I won't take up any more of everyone's time."
Ji Jue rested his hands on his hips and flashed one last grin at the other patients shivering in the ward. "I'll be back tomorrow to take care of you all. For those patients who didn't receive treatment today, please don't worry—there's enough for everyone.
"If you need anything else going forward, be sure to ring the call button for the nurses and doctors!"
Just like that, having left behind these heartwarming words, Ji Jue concluded his rounds and pushed through the door with Tong Hua.
The moment the door shut, long-suppressed howls and shrieks finally erupted in the dead-silent ward, ringing out with piercing clarity, mingled with faint sounds of chewing and sobbing.
As the lights flickered off, everything sank into darkness, lost from sight.
Amid the wailing and crying from inside the ward, the hallway outside fell deathly still.
Seeing Ji Jue's smiling face—and the "consultation fee" dangling from his waist—the patients in the hallway vanished into thin air, scattering as far away as their legs could carry them.
Terrified that this guy might offer a free charity clinic next to help resolve their pain.
Ji Jue turned around, took the basin from Tong Hua's hands, and reshaped it into a sufficiently thick bucket. Looking down at the glycerin slowly liquefying inside, he was full of anticipation.
Yet before they could make it back to the office, chilling footsteps echoed once again from the end of the corridor.
After a fleeting jolt of alarm, a doctor stitched together from corpse parts appeared before them.
Like a living nightmare, standing right before their eyes.
Ji Jue looked up at the face that was already growing familiar. "We meet again, Director Qian. Do you have any instructions for us?"
"I received a report from a patient. Someone has violated hospital regulations—"
The chief physician was still grinning exaggeratedly. Above his smile, a streak of blood trickled down into the gaps between his teeth as sharp fangs opened and closed hungrily.
A rancid, bloody stench washed over them.
He asked, "Was it you?"
Chapter 155