Chapter 30: Science Cannot Explain, Heavenly Eye Recognizes the Specter
"Thank you."
Qin Bingruo looked at Zhang Xuanyao and said earnestly.
"No need for thanks."
Zhang Xuanyao waved his hand, maintaining the demeanor of an expert.
"I did it for justice, and by the way, to earn some... ahem, by the way, to accumulate some Karma."
"Besides, President Su paid, and paid quite a lot."
Qin Bingruo bit her lip.
She knew Zhang Xuanyao was intentionally joking around, not wanting her to feel burdened.
This man.
He clearly looked like a slacker, greedy for money and lustful.
But at critical moments, he was more reliable than anyone else.
"Regardless, you saved everyone."
Qin Bingruo paused, her gaze falling on his hospital gown.
"Are you... really okay?"
"I heard you overexerted your body to catch that evil cultivator?"
When she heard the news in the hospital, her heart almost stopped.
"I'm fine, just a bit weak."
Zhang Xuanyao scratched his head and blinked.
"I just dealt with an evil cultivator; that guy had some skill, and it drained quite a lot of my mana... oh no, it drained quite a lot of my magic power."
"That's why I'm here in the hospital to recover since I'm physically exhausted."
He said it lightly.
But Qin Bingruo knew the danger involved was definitely not as simple as he described.
Even someone of Director Liu Changqing's level was just a pawn for that evil cultivator, which showed how terrifying the opponent was.
It was already a stroke of luck that Zhang Xuanyao was able to retreat unscathed.
"Right."
Zhang Xuanyao suddenly remembered something and put away his playful expression.
"How is your sister... Qin Xiaoya doing?"
Upon hearing the words "Qin Xiaoya," Qin Bingruo's eyes instantly dimmed.
The shyness and excitement from just a moment ago vanished completely.
In their place was deep helplessness and pain.
She lowered her head, looking at her toes.
Her hands gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, her knuckles turning white.
"Xiao Wang said she was conscious when she was rescued, but she fell into a coma once she arrived at the hospital. I don't know why either."
Her voice was hoarse, carrying a trace of a sob.
"The doctors say her bodily functions are recovering, but her brain... hasn't shown any response."
"It's like... she lost her soul."
Zhang Xuanyao narrowed his eyes slightly.
Lost her soul?
If it were before, he might have considered it a superstitious claim.
But now.
He had the Heavenly Eye, the Five Thunders Method, and was holding the 【kongqing feather branch】 he had just drawn.
This matter might truly be a case that matched his expertise.
"Take me to see her."
Zhang Xuanyao straightened his body and adjusted his somewhat disheveled Daoist robes.
Qin Bingruo looked up abruptly.
A glimmer of hope flashed in her eyes, but it immediately turned into hesitation.
"But you are currently..."
"What about me?"
Zhang Xuanyao puffed out his chest, slapping it with a loud thud.
"I am currently strong enough to kill an ox."
"Besides."
He leaned closer to Qin Bingruo, lowered his voice, and said mysteriously.
"If she lost her soul, the doctors in this hospital won't be able to cure it."
"You need to find a professional."
Qin Bingruo looked at the face so close to her.
In those eyes flickered a light that inexplicably made her feel at ease.
Just like that day at Qingfeng Temple, when he said, "It will be better once you cry it out."
As if possessed.
Qin Bingruo nodded.
"Okay."
"She is in the intensive care unit; I will take you."
The two walked side by side toward the elevator.
As they walked, Zhang Xuanyao calculated in his mind.
If she really lost her soul, then this 【kongqing feather branch】 would come in handy.
If he could wake Qin Xiaoya up.
This Karma value would probably be another huge sum.
And...
He secretly glanced at Qin Bingruo beside him.
This police beauty's favor was something even more valuable than money.
"Um, Officer Qin."
"Hmm?"
"I have something to say, but I'm not sure if I should say it."
"Go ahead."
"Your outfit... looks quite good."
Qin Bingruo's footsteps faltered, her earlobes instantly turning bright red.
The elevator door slid open with a "ding".
On the floor where the intensive care unit was located, the smell of disinfectant in the air was at least three times stronger than below.
At the end of the corridor, that heavy isolation door was tightly shut, like a mouth rejecting everyone from a thousand miles away.
Qin Bingruo walked in front, her footsteps somewhat unsteady.
"Captain Qin."
The two young criminal police officers guarding the entrance immediately stood at attention and saluted when they saw Qin Bingruo.
Their eyes were bloodshot, clearly having stayed up all night.
"How is the situation?"
Qin Bingruo's voice was very soft, as if afraid of disturbing something.
"Same as before."
One of the criminal police officers shook his head, glanced at Zhang Xuanyao behind Qin Bingruo, and hesitated to speak.
Wearing a hospital gown, draped in a tattered Daoist robe, and wearing a pair of disposable hospital slippers on his feet.
This look made him look like someone who had escaped from the psychiatric ward no matter how you looked at it.
"Open the door."
Qin Bingruo didn't explain and directly gave the order.
The criminal police officer was stunned for a moment, swiped the card, and the heavy airtight door slowly opened.
It was very quiet in the ICU.
Only the electrocardiogram monitor made a monotonous and rhythmic "beep, beep" sound.
On that large hospital bed lay a thin, small figure.
Too thin.
Twelve years of imprisonment made Qin Xiaoya look nothing like an eighteen-year-old girl, but rather like an underdeveloped middle school student.
Her skin presented a ghastly pale color from years without seeing sunlight, and one could even clearly see the blue-purple veins beneath her skin.
Her body was covered in tubes.
A ventilator mask covered most of her face, revealing only a pair of tightly closed eyes.
Qin Bingruo walked to the bedside, her hand resting gently on the glass wall.
Her fingertips trembled.
That was her sister.
Her only relative in this world.
"What did the doctor say?"
Zhang Xuanyao walked to her side, hands in his hospital gown pockets, his gaze falling on Qin Xiaoya.
"All vital signs are recovering."
Qin Bingruo's voice was somewhat choked with sobs.
"Nutrient solution has been infused, dehydration symptoms have been alleviated, the brain CT shows no organic damage, and even the external injuries caused by that... that beast are healing."
"But she just won't wake up."
"The chief physician came by just now and said... it might be that her psychological defense mechanism has been activated, and she is subconsciously refusing to wake up."
Speaking of this, Qin Bingruo turned her head, her bloodshot eyes staring fixedly at Zhang Xuanyao.
"Daoist Zhang, you said she lost her soul."
"Can you really save her?"
This was her last straw.
For things that science could not explain, she could only turn to this seemingly unreliable Daoist in front of her.
Zhang Xuanyao did not answer immediately.
He took two steps forward, his entire face almost pressed against the ICU viewing glass.
Golden light swirled in his eyes.
【Heavenly Eye, open!】
His vision changed instantly.
The originally pale hospital room was veiled in a layer of grayish mist in Zhang Xuanyao's eyes.
The precise medical instruments were still running, but hovering above Qin Xiaoya's body was a mass of black energy.
That was not ordinary black energy.
It was a mass of resentment that had a physical form, as viscous as asphalt.
It looked like a giant toad, clinging tightly to Qin Xiaoya's chest.
Its limbs, like suction cups, clamped onto her limbs, and that face with indistinguishable features was facing Qin Xiaoya's mouth and nose, greedily sucking on the faint Life Qi within her body.
Every time the ventilator delivered air, this black shadow would expand a little.
And Qin Xiaoya's originally weak soul fire was teetering on the edge with every breath.
"Tsk."
Zhang Xuanyao clicked his tongue, his brow furrowing into the shape of the character "river".
"This is not a psychological defense mechanism."
"This is clearly a ghost pressing on the bed."
Qin Bingruo's body stiffened.
"Ghost... ghost pressing on the bed?"
"And not an ordinary ghost."
Zhang Xuanyao pointed at the black shadow inside the glass.
"This girl was imprisoned for twelve years. A place like that cellar has heavy Yin Qi and deep resentment. She was in extreme fear and despair for years; these negative emotions are simply the best feed for dirty things."
"Plus, that old pervert Zhou Jianshe probably didn't do fewer wicked deeds in that place."
"This thing is a'Specter' raised in that cellar."
"It is now treating your sister as its host, wanting to use her body to return to life, or simply to suck her dry and become a spirit itself."