Lying in a bed of silken sheets looking like a dehydrated log was Li Fengguang.
His hair had gone completely white--a classic effect of Permanent Weakness Incense. The way that Permanent Weakness Incense functioned was by taking root in one's meridians and slowly sucking up a good chunk of their life force. Though the life force eaten up by the inhaled scent would return over time, the remnants of the incense would remain within the body like a parasite, waiting to eat up any replenishments and leaving the host with just enough life force to stay alive, but not enough to function in daily life.
In addition, Permanent Weakness Incense had a different effect on each person. Depending on their original constitution, it might have a stronger or weaker effect.
Clearly, Li Fengguang's original constitution...had not been so good.
His skin was like that of dried fruit: wrinkly and dry, clinging to his bones and nonexistent muscles like a film that made one's spine crawl. His eyes had sunken back into his head and were clouded over with a white sheen. Spittle gathered at the corner of his dry lips.
What a pitiful sight!
Qiu Yunru couldn't look at him directly. Though he didn't feel bad on the whole for causing such a horrible man to end up in this situation...he couldn't help but feel a little disgusted and guilty seeing someone in a position like this, caused by his own hand. He reminded himself over and over that this was a bad man as they approached the bedside.
Li Chenyuan towered over Li Fengguang's weak form, eyes cold and cutting like knives.
"Why haven't you run? Song De is gone. Did he leave without you?" He sneered, tossing the letter at Li Fengguang. It fluttered down, settling on his pitiful form. Li Fengguang was so weakened that he couldn't move to pick it up, his sunken eyes merely flitting to it.
Fang Hai stepped forward. "We should have him moved to a secure location. Perhaps Fan Yao Peak can find a method to allow him to speak so that we might question him."
In the bed, Li Fengguang's eyes flashed. He suddenly opened his mouth.
Qiu Yunru was nearly blasted backward by the stench. This man must either be eating shit, or his mouth hadn't been opened for a week straight! What a smell!
However, he wasn't distracted by it for long. Sitting there on Li Fengguang's tongue was a round little pill, shining brown in the dim bedroom light. Qiu Yunru's stomach turned over.
"Stop him!" He called out, rushing towards the bed.
But it was too late; Li Fengguang's brittle yellow teeth clamped down on the pill, spilling its contents down his own throat. Immediately, that old man's mouth began to steam, and his body began to shake uncontrollably.
He had really just taken poison!
Qiu Yunru rushed to the bedside and began hurriedly taking out items from his pack to create an antidote. He had the ingredients to cure various poisons--he had prepared well before this first mission. However, as he pried Li Fengguang's stinking mouth open, his heart sank. What kind of rare poison was this?
Green and steaming--it was Heart-Stopping Poison!
Of course he hadn't prepared for such a thing! Heart-Stopping Poison was one of the rarest and most dangerous poisons in Spring Blossoms, Autumn Fruits. In all of his playthroughs, he'd never encountered it once!
How was he to know that, once he was inside the game itself, it would appear?
By now, it was too late. Li Fengguang's body stopped convulsing, his heart nearly sputtering out. Though he was nearly dead, it seemed he wasn't quite done yet. His sunken and cloudy eyes grew murderous, and he raised a trembling, sickly arm to point at Li Chenyuan.
"A thousand...curses. Just like...your father...!" He croaked. His voice was so hoarse that it was like the grating of metal sheets on metal sheets!
Li Chenyuan's face went white.
With that, Li Fengguang went still. His arm fell to the bed, and his body steamed quietly in the silent room, leaving Qiu Yunru, Fang Hai, and Li Chenyuan staring at his corpse.
It was an awkward affair after that.
Fang Hai and Qiu Yunru examined the room before anyone was allowed to enter to dispose of the body. Indeed, everything they found seemed to confirm the fact that Li Fengguang, former lord of the Li household, had really been performing demonic summonings. On the wall behind the canopy of his bed, they found various summoning circles drawn in traces of old blood. They were exactly accurate to various summoning circles Qiu Yunru had read of in the Jade Clouds Sect library. Only someone with a deep knowledge and research of demonic cultivation could create something like this!
What's more--written into these summoning circles was a direct command for any monsters or demons to seek out Li Chenyuan and kill him!
In the end, they could only conclude that the letter of confession had been true.
Li Fengguang had, in hatred and revenge, tried to murder his nephew even while bedridden, and, seeing that cultivators had come to inspect the scene, had confessed and committed suicide on the way out!
As Li Fengguang's body was removed, Qiu Yunru noticed Li Chenyuan standing in the corner of the room, clutching his cracked fan very tightly.
He couldn't help but feel a wave of pity for this poor child. Not only had he just witnessed his elder dying by his own hand, but he had confirmation that his own uncle had been viciously trying to murder him for months now, after years of being abused by that man.
Anyone would be shaken!