Leo Blaze curled up like an unborn baby, motionless and withdrawn, huddled in a corner of the materials room. <br>The other herbal activators neither dared nor wanted to disturb him and quietly went about their tasks. <br>Night fell unknowingly, and the oil lamps on the walls extinguished, the darkness enveloping Leo Blaze like a quilt. <br>He lay there like a corpse, utterly unresponsive to the changes outside. <br>At the third watch, a faint candlelight flickered at the doorway, illuminating the nearby shelves and dispersing the darkness over Leo Blaze. <br>Timid Lily White approached him with a bundle of straw, cautiously spreading it over him. <br>Then she took out a piece of mixed grain mantou from her bosom and placed it near his mouth. <br>Seeing that Leo Blaze remained motionless, she pursed her lips and gently nudged him. "Senior Brother, please eat something. You haven't eaten all day." <br>Leo Blaze's eyes were open, his unblinking gaze, numb for hours, fixed coldly on the ground, showing no sign of movement towards Lily White. <br>Lily White wanted to leave, but after a moment of hesitation, she finally took out a charm of jade from her bosom and placed it beside Leo Blaze's hand. <br>"Senior Brother, this is yours. Please take it back." <br>This time, Leo Blaze finally reacted. He looked at the object and found it to be the round charm of jade he had stolen from the previous Xuan Yang. <br>Leo Blaze still remembered handing it over to Anna Yang to exchange for money. At the thought of Anna Yang, his heart, already full of holes, began to bleed again. "This... how did it end up with you?" <br>"It's... Leo Senior Brother, you gave it to me. I said I didn't want it, but you insisted." <br>Leo Blaze slowly sat up, scrutinizing the cloud-patterned round charm of jade by the dim candlelight. <br>At that moment, he had never felt everything so real. Yet, in this reality, there was only true despair and true pain. <br>If he could choose, he wished he could remain in that beautiful illusion. <br>Seeing Leo Blaze respond, Lily White softly asked, "Senior Brother Leo, where were you caught by the Master? I am from Liang, where are you from?" <br>Leo Blaze hesitated for a moment, then dejectedly shook his head, "I don't know." <br>He truly didn't know. He did have memories of the past, but after what happened during the day, even Leo Blaze couldn't discern how much of those memories were real and how much were illusions. <br>Even being here, he felt like a madman, unable to distinguish reality from hallucination. <br>While shaking his head, Leo Blaze suddenly felt something unusual in his head. He touched it and found that his hair was matted with some blood scabs; he had been injured before. <br>Seeing Leo Blaze touch his head, Lily White explained, "That was done by Senior Brother Wang." <br>Leo Blaze knew this Senior Brother Wang was the rabbit-lipped fat man who had previously wanted to lay hands on Lily White. "Where is the person named Wang?" <br>"You... you... kicked him to death." <br>Upon hearing this, a vision of Grandpa Liu being kicked away by himself flashed through Leo Blaze's mind. He lowered his head and smiled silently, considering himself truly mad. <br>Leo Blaze reached into his bosom and pulled out a gold anklet entwined with red thread, handing it to Lily White. "This is yours, please take it back." <br>Lily White looked at her anklet and pushed it back with both hands forming a palm. "Leo Senior Brother, you were right before, this thing is useless here. You keep it." <br>Leo Blaze stared blankly at the gold anklet. But to him now, it held no use; everything he cared for was gone. <br>"Senior Brother Leo, can I use this as a reward to ask you for a favor?" Lily White's request caught Leo Blaze's attention. <br>"If you manage to get out of here alive, could you bring a message to my parents? They live at the foot of Bull's Heart Peak in Liang. Just tell them that their daughter is unfilial and can't take care of them in their old age." Saying those words, Lily White's voice choked with emotion. <br>"Senior Brother Leo, I really don't want to trouble you, but I have no other way. I suppose they'll soon take me to the alchemy chamber, I..." <br>The apathetic and numb Leo Blaze heard this and felt a chill in his heart. His eyes, once void, regained their light. <br>He glanced at the straw covering him, then at the mantou beside him. He grabbed the gold anklet with the red thread and stuffed it back into his bosom. <br>"I keep my word. Since I took your things before, I'll help you." <br>Lily White's sorrowful eyes instantly brightened, but soon dimmed again. "Senior Brother Leo, that won't do; it'll get you into trouble too." <br>"Heh... Do you think I'm afraid of that now?" At this moment, Leo Blaze had already let go of everything. He was ready to go all out; since everything he cared for was gone, what else was there to fear? <br>"Alright, Senior Brother Leo is mighty!" A male voice suddenly echoed from outside the materials room, startling both people inside. <br>As the candlelight revealed the person, there appeared a face with a sly grin and sharp features, his skin mottled like he had vitiligo. <br>This person took out two mixed grain mantou, placing them obsequiously beside Leo Blaze. <br>"Hehehe, Senior Brother Leo, have some mantou. During dinner, I remembered you hadn't eaten and made sure to save two for you." <br>"You probably don't know me, but this little one is born and raised with no grand name. You can just call me Dog Baby, hehe. Just last night, I offered seventeen coins to you." <br>Dog Baby's fidgeting, as he rubbed his hands in anticipation, practically plastered a sycophantic look on his face. Clearly, he intended to use Leo Blaze as a protector to avoid becoming an herbal activator; clever people were everywhere. <br>Leo Blaze said nothing, grabbing the three slightly hardened mantou and devoured them ravenously; he hadn't eaten all day. <br>Eating too quickly, he almost choked, prompting Dog Baby to hurriedly fetch him a cup of water. <br>With the cold underground water washing over him, Leo Blaze stuffed the three mixed grain mantou into his stomach. <br>He stood up wobbly, his legs numb from lying on the ground for so long. <br>Lily White reached out to help, but Leo Blaze pushed her away. <br>His gaze locked onto the pitch-black exit of the materials room in the distance, and he staggered out. <br>Now his enemy was no longer his sudden ailment, but the Bald Master Danyang, who used humans for Potion Making. <br>When the hideous and disgusting face of Master Danyang surfaced in his mind, a thick malice gradually filled Leo Blaze's eyes, his teeth gritting audibly. <br>Moments ago, he had been devoid of desire for life; now, he was filled with purpose. The only thing left to do was to find a way to kill him!)
