One by one, strange and unfamiliar items were pulled out by Han Li, sorted into two piles by how suspicious they looked, and set aside.
He grew gradually more astonished—Doctor Mo had accumulated quite the motley collection of oddities. Many of them were clearly lethal at a glance.
A sleeve arrow coated with blood-congealing poison.
A packet of toxic sand steeped in serpent venom.
Over a dozen razor-sharp returning boomerangs.
...
As the pile of items grew, Han Li's breathing quickened. The more carefully he dug through them, the more alarmed he became.
Only now did he truly understand just how fortunate he had been when he fought Doctor Mo. If the man hadn't wanted to capture him alive, he would have been dead long ago.
He wiped the cold sweat from his face and gave himself a bitter laugh: "Here I am, a living person, scared half to death by a dead man's belongings."
At last the search was complete, and Han Li began examining the items he had deemed suspicious, one by one.
"This little bottle smells awful. Seems to be some kind of antidote—probably harmless."
"This strange weapon looks like a small wheel. I have no idea what it's used for, but it probably has nothing to do with that giant. I'll set it aside for now."
"As for this sachet..."
Han Li handled the items while muttering to himself, clearly relishing the activity. At the moment he was holding an ordinary sachet embroidered with plain white silk.
Ordinarily, such a mundane object would arouse no suspicion. But Han Li reasoned that while it would be perfectly normal for an ordinary person to carry one, its presence on someone like Doctor Mo—the kind of ruthless figure he was—made it decidedly unusual.
He held it in one palm and weighed it lightly—it felt very light, as though nothing heavy was inside. He gave it a squeeze; it had a papery feel, suggesting pages or something similar were concealed within.
Han Li perked up. He opened the sachet and, as expected, found several sheets of paper inside.
A quick glance told him it was Doctor Mo's own handwriting, which gave him some reassurance. But when he read more carefully, his expression froze—it was a last testament, written by Doctor Mo and addressed to him.
Han Li frowned, curiosity surging. He picked up the sheets and read through them thoroughly.
When he finished, he let out a long, heavy sigh toward the sky, then knitted his brow, his expression growing troubled.
He clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing like a little old man, walking almost without thinking. Every two steps he would stop, mull something over, then, unable to make up his mind, walk a few more steps, stop again, and resume his deliberations.
Like this, without realizing it, Han Li circled around Doctor Mo's corpse over and over, like a donkey pulling a millstone. His face shifted between flushed and pale, betraying a churning of emotions he could not control.
This kind of restlessness occurring in Han Li—if Li Feiyu found out, he would surely burst out laughing on the spot.
The reason Han Li was so shaken was that the letter left him with both a terrible piece of news and an impossible dilemma. The antidote to the "Corpse Worm Pill" was itself poisonous—a rare and insidious yin toxin. According to the letter, the only remedy was his family heirloom, the "Warm Sun Jade." Nothing else could cure it, not even the legendary supreme detoxifying elixirs.
Therefore, across those few pages, Doctor Mo had explained clearly to Han Li that this testament and the hidden poison he had administered were contingency measures for the worst possible outcome. If his Body Seizing attempt failed and something went wrong, the person most likely to survive would be Han Li. To settle his affairs after death, he proposed a simple deal in the letter—one that would benefit both sides. It would free Doctor Mo from worry about what happened after he was gone, and it would give Han Li a vast fortune and untold advantages.
As to whether Yu Zitong might be the one to survive instead, Doctor Mo had given it no consideration at all. In the letter he spoke of the man with open contempt, calling him not only cold-hearted by nature but also craven and greedy for life, possessing nothing more than petty cleverness. Even as a cultivator, he would never amount to much. The one laughing last would certainly not be him.
When Han Li read this part, he couldn't help but smile bitterly to himself. Doctor Mo, for all his meticulous scheming, had probably never imagined that in the end he would fall into the trap of the very person he held in such low regard. If Han Li hadn't concealed his true progress with the Eternal Spring Technique, he and Doctor Mo would most likely have perished together, leaving Yu Zitong to reap all the benefits from the sidelines. Of course, Doctor Mo himself was partly to blame—he had been so intoxicated by the dream of becoming an immortal that his judgment had been clouded. It seemed that no matter what level of cultivator one was, one must never be underestimated.
According to the letter, the deal Doctor Mo proposed was straightforward. He required that Han Li, within a year at the latest and two at the worst, make a trip to his home. First, the yin toxin in his body would flare up after two years. Second, Doctor Mo had a wife, concubines, daughters, and a considerable estate. Before leaving, he had made many arrangements and deployed smokescreens to deceive prying eyes, but if he stayed away for too long, his unruly subordinates and his enemies would grow suspicious and pose a threat to his family. Therefore, Han Li had to reach them before things went badly wrong, protect his wife and children, settle them somewhere safe, and ideally steer them away from the conflicts of the martial world so they could live ordinary lives free from want.
As compensation for the poisoning and the ambush, and as a reward to convince Han Li to help despite their past, Doctor Mo was willing to betroth one of his daughters to Han Li. The dowry would consist of half of his entire estate plus the "Warm Sun Jade."
Doctor Mo had already handed the jade to his first wife before departing, specifying that it was to serve as part of the bride's dowry. So for the sake of his own survival, whether Han Li wanted to marry or not, he had to go.
Doctor Mo also made clear that his enemies and adversaries were formidable, and his former subordinates would not be easy to control. With Han Li's current abilities, facing them head-on would be beyond him. To that end, he had prepared two false identities in a hidden compartment of his residence, complete with tokens and handwritten letters of authentication for Han Li to choose from. The letter also included lists of trusted associates, suspicious individuals, and known enemies, along with specific matters requiring attention.
Finally, as proof of his sincerity in leaving this testament, he appended at the end the methods for controlling and summoning "Tie Nu the giant" and the "Cloud Wing Bird."
What struck Han Li as somewhat baffling was that Doctor Mo had vaguely indicated Tie Nu was a Corpse Person—a body devoid of soul and spirit, merely a walking corpse whose original spirit had long since been reincarnated. He told Han Li not to grieve upon seeing it. This left Han Li rather perplexed—did he really look like the sentimental type?
But setting aside the poisoning entirely, when faced with such an enormous fortune, to claim Han Li was not tempted would be a complete lie. Always sharp when it came to money, he found Doctor Mo's proposed deal genuinely fascinating. As for marrying the man's daughter—that stirred something unusual in Han Li's heart as well, now that he had reached the age of first romantic stirrings. After all, judging by Doctor Mo's original appearance, his daughter could hardly be ugly.
Yet the risks involved were far from trivial. One misstep could cost him his life. Enemies whom Doctor Mo himself had considered dangerous were not the sort one dealt with lightly.
Doctor Mo, who had arranged his final affairs with watertight precision, had used his life, a beautiful bride, and a vast fortune—interlinked in a chain of obligations—to bind Han Li inseparably to the safety of his wife and children. It seemed Han Li had no choice but to swallow this pill of poison wrapped in honey with a bitter face.
(End of Chapter)