Chapter 65: Chapter 65 - The Toxic Asset and the Unorthodox Merger

Su Bai froze on the spot.

The voice from inside the ruined hut was raspy and weak, but the words were sharp enough to cut glass.

"Do you need help?" Su Bai asked calmly, still standing outside the wooden door.

"I said go away! Nobody asked for your help!" the girl shouted back.

Just then, Su Bai heard a low, agonizing groan. It was the sound of someone whose body was breaking down on a cellular level.

This time, Su Bai didn’t ask for permission. Corporate mandate required a thorough inspection of all potential assets.

He pushed the door open.

As he barged into the gloomy hut, the young woman lying on the ragged furs glared daggers at him.

Her skin was a sickly, ethereal violet, covered in a thin sheen of corrosive sweat. But as Su Bai looked into her eyes, he didn’t see the viciousness of a monster. He saw profound guilt, absolute helplessness, and deep pity.

"Leave now before it’s too late!" she yelled. She looked incredibly angry, but Su Bai’s keen intuition caught the desperate, underlying concern in her voice. She was trying to scare him away to save his life.

Su Bai completely ignored her warning.

He crossed the room in two strides, knelt beside her makeshift bed, and firmly grabbed her wrist.

"Don’t touch me!" she shrieked as she tried to yank her arm back.

But Su Bai’s grip was ironclad. He sent a gentle, frictionless stream of diagnostic Yin Qi directly into her meridians.

The moment his Qi entered her system, Su Bai was utterly shocked.

Her constitution was incredibly unique, but it was currently tearing her apart. Her body was constantly generating spiritual-grade acid.

However, because she had never cultivated, her physical organs were still made of soft, fragile mortal flesh.

’This is a structural disaster,’ Su Bai’s corporate brain analyzed. ’It is like trying to store military-grade rocket fuel inside a cheap plastic water bottle. The plastic isn’t allergic to the fuel, but the sheer chemical friction and density are physically melting the bottle over time.’

The poison wasn’t poisoning her... it was violently eroding her mortal infrastructure. Su Bai could only imagine the unimaginable, slow torture she had endured every single day of her life.

As Su Bai pushed his Spiritual Sense deeper, he found something unbelievable.

His eyes widened.

This woman possessed a Heavenly Spirit Root! That meant she had peerless, continent-shaking talent, just like him.

But there was a massive complication. Because of her corrosive constitution, her Heavenly Root had mutated into a Blight-Wood Root. Instead of metabolizing natural Qi into healing energy, her corrupted root metabolized it into highly lethal, organic venom.

It was bleaker and more destructive than his own former ’Dead Wood’ root.

But to Su Bai?

His heart began to race. A massive, thrilled smile threatened to break across his face. She wasn’t just a walking biological battery. She was an all-you-can-eat, premium cultivation buffet!

Suddenly, Su Bai’s intense concentration broke.

He noticed the woman’s face was turning a dangerous shade of blue. Her chest was completely still.

She was... holding her breath.

Ever since he had stepped close to her, she had stopped breathing entirely. She was terrified that exhaling her toxic mist would make him suffer. She looked like she was on the absolute brink of passing out from oxygen deprivation.

Summoning the last of her fragile, mortal strength, she shoved both her hands against Su Bai’s chest. She was desperately trying to push him away.

But how could a starving, dying mortal push away a Foundation Establishment cultivator? Su Bai didn’t even budge an inch.

Finally, she reached her absolute physical limit. Her lungs gave out.

She exhaled.

A heavy, invisible cloud of hyper-toxic gas washed directly over Su Bai’s face.

The woman stared at Su Bai. Her angry facade completely crumbled, replaced by a look of crushing guilt and total helplessness.

"I’m sorry," she whispered. Her voice trembled with despair. "It’s better if you die a quick death... than suffer longer like my father did."

Before Su Bai could even process her words, the woman suddenly bit down hard on her own lower lip.

Highly corrosive, dark purple blood gushed from the wound.

And then, she lunged forward.

She grabbed Su Bai by the collar and crashed her lips directly against his.

Su Bai’s eyes flew wide open.

He instantly realized her intention. She was trying to mercy-kill him. She thought he was already fatally poisoned by her breath and was destined to slowly melt into a puddle, so she was delivering a massive, concentrated dose of venom straight to his bloodstream to give him a quick, painless death.

It was a terrifyingly twisted, deeply empathetic act of mercy.

Su Bai didn’t resist. He let her toxic blood and saliva flow into his mouth.

And then, the Reversal Body activated.

BOOM.

It wasn’t just EXP. It was a massive, euphoric explosion of pure, flawless vitality. The taste of her spiritual-grade poison hit his mutated system like the finest, most intoxicating wine in the heavens. It was premium, high-octane fuel that sent a literal shiver of pleasure down his spine.

Rationality, logic, and corporate professionalism were instantly thrown out the window.

Instead of pulling away, Su Bai completely lost control. He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulled her flush against him, and kissed her back with overwhelming passion.

He aggressively savored the toxic blood. He was completely addicted to the taste and the rush of pure energy it provided.

It was the woman’s turn to be utterly, completely shocked.

Her eyes widened to the size of saucers. She had only wanted to kill the man! Why was this stranger suddenly kissing her like a starved beast finding a feast?!

Her fierce determination melted into utter confusion. She struggled, whining softly against his lips. She balled her tiny hands into fists and began weakly punching Su Bai’s solid chest.

Thump. Thump.

But Su Bai didn’t let go. He hadn’t had his fill yet. The taste of her poison was too good.

It took another full ten seconds for Su Bai’s corporate brain to finally reboot and realize the sheer magnitude of his HR violation.

He abruptly pulled back, releasing her waist and sliding a few feet away across the floorboards.

The woman collapsed back onto her furs. She was panting heavily. Her ethereal violet face was completely flushed with a vibrant crimson blush.

She looked indignant, thoroughly violated, and like she was about to burst into tears.

But she forcefully held her tears back. Even her tears were highly acidic, and she stubbornly refused to let them fall.

"You pervert!" she shrieked as her voice cracked in pure disbelief. She pointed a trembling finger at him. "How are you not dead yet?!"

Su Bai sat there, then stared at her indignant, blushing face. For the first time, his heart pounded with something other than the thrill of a good business deal.

He looked incredibly guilty. He opened his mouth to apologize, but his brain was completely short-circuiting. He had never lost control of his own actions like that before.

Unconsciously, Su Bai licked his lips.

He savored the lingering taste of her poison. It really was the most delicious thing he had ever tasted in the cultivation world. No, even the finest Michelin-star meals from his past life couldn’t compare to the sheer, intoxicating rush of her venom.

He looked at the girl. She was beautiful, she possessed a Heavenly Root, she was a literal walking goldmine of premium EXP, and beneath her prickly exterior, she had a heart kind enough to try and spare a stranger from pain.

Su Bai looked her dead in the eyes and completely bypassed all normal social conventions.

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

The girl froze completely. Her jaw dropped. Her mind shattered into a million pieces.