Chapter 12: The Thirteen Needles of Soul Revival
Ye Mengxue raised her head, and Ye Cheng felt a sharp pang of pain in his heart. How had his sister’s body grown so frail?
“Sis, you’ve suffered so much over these past seven years. Let me explain where I’ve been after we get home, all right?” he said gently.
To his surprise, Ye Mengxue, eyes rimmed red, shook her head and suddenly threw her arms tightly around him. A familiar warmth stirred deep within Ye Cheng—he was transported back to childhood, to the days when she shielded him from harm.
“It’s enough that you’ve come home. I shouldn’t have been so harsh with you before. Please forgive your sister,” she whispered, her voice barely audible, yet every word clear to Ye Cheng. He hugged her tightly in return.
“I never once blamed you, Sis.”
In that moment, all distance between brother and sister melted away, leaving only the fulfillment and joy of family reunited.
After a long while, Ye Cheng pulled back. “All right, Sis, I need to save Mom and Dad now. And, uh… you’re squeezing my neck a little too hard.”
He grinned sheepishly at Ye Mengxue.
Only then did she realize how tightly she’d been clinging to him—so much so that a red mark had appeared on his neck. Flustered, she released him at once, her cheeks flushing like a startled rabbit’s.
“Oh! Sorry!”
But as she recalled his words, her heart grew heavy once more.
“Wait—aren’t Mom and Dad already out of danger?”
Ye Cheng shook his head, reaching out to check his mother’s pulse.
“It’s not that simple,” he replied.
The parasites within their parents had indeed been removed, but like bone-biting worms, these spirit insects had already wrought havoc on their hosts’ stomachs. The organs were riddled with wounds.
In fact, the elderly couple’s stomachs were now a mass of lesions and holes. In such cases, most doctors could only shake their heads and advise the family to prepare for the worst. But Ye Cheng was no ordinary man.
From somewhere, he produced a small box.
“What’s that?” Ye Mengxue asked curiously, eyeing the wooden object in his hand.
It was a rectangular box, exquisitely carved from redwood and gilded with golden patterns—a thing of elegance and refinement.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Ye Cheng replied. With a flick of his wrist, the box soared into the air, and thirteen silver needles landed precisely in his palm.
…
At the First Hospital, in Director Wu Qingyun’s office—
“Director Wu! Director Wu!”
A young nurse burst in, breathless, bracing herself against the redwood desk.
“Ahem, next time, tidy up your uniform before entering,” Wu Qingyun coughed awkwardly, his gaze uncomfortably close to the nurse’s chest.
“Sorry, Director!” she stammered, hastily adjusting her collar before turning back to face him.
“Something’s happened, Director! Do you remember the patients brought in yesterday by Young Master Lu?”
“Young Master Lu?” Wu Qingyun immediately recalled the extravagant young man. Those two elderly patients suffered from stomach cancer—a costly disease—and the young master had insisted on the world’s finest medicines, racking up tens of thousands a day. If not for those drugs, the old couple would have died within days; they were barely alive when admitted. Later, Wu learned that this Lu was actually Lu Moyan, heir to Jincui Jewels, the leading jadeite business in Jiangcheng—no wonder he was so free with his money.
“You mean the Lu family’s young master?”
“Yes! The Lu family heir, he—he…”
“What happened?” Wu’s heart skipped. One Lu Moyan was no great matter, but the sect behind him was not to be trifled with.
“He’s dead…”
“Dead?!” Wu Qingyun was stunned, gripping the nurse’s shoulders in alarm.
“How is that possible? He was fine yesterday—how could he suddenly die?”
The nurse, startled by his outburst, replied timidly, “He was… he was killed by a slap from a young man…”
“Killed with a slap?! Take me there now!”
Wu Qingyun hurriedly followed the nurse down the hall, heart pounding with anxiety. When they reached the ward, he found a crowd gathered—mostly hospital staff—who parted respectfully at his approach.
“Director!” called the security chief, standing solemnly in his path.
“What’s going on in there?” Wu demanded, unable to see past the man’s imposing figure.
“Three people dead, all in gruesome ways. Director, you’d best stay out. We’ve just called the police.”
“Three dead?!” In a hospital, three deaths might not be unusual—but one of them was the Lu family heir! How was he supposed to handle this?
“Let me see!”
Ignoring the guard’s attempts to stop him, Wu Qingyun shoved his way forward and entered the ward—only to be chilled to the bone by the scene before him.
It was horrific.
Two bodies lay sprawled on the floor—Lu Moyan himself, and the doctor he had brought. The third was a hulking man, nearly two meters tall, whose massive form was embedded deep within the wall.
Who could have done this?
Wu almost turned to flee, but his attention was caught by a young man inside the room.
Who is that…?
Narrowing his eyes, Wu adjusted his silver-framed glasses, trying to see what the young man was doing.
“Is he… performing acupuncture?” Wu shook his head, his earlier agitation fading. “What a layman. Acupuncture for stomach cancer? That’ll only help the cancer cells spread faster. He’s just hastening their deaths.”
“Who is this young man? I don’t remember seeing him yesterday,” Wu asked the nurse.
“Oh, Director, I think he’s the old couple’s son—and… he was the one who killed those three people just now. With his bare hands!”
Wu’s expression darkened. He could sense the boy was a martial artist—there was a clear aura of spiritual energy about him.
But to kill the Lu family heir? Did he not know how powerful the Lus were in Jiangcheng?
“We must be clear about this later—make sure it’s understood that he killed them, not the hospital…”
But just then, Wu shouted again, startling the nurse into nearly dropping her phone.
“W-what is it, Director?”
Wu didn’t answer. Instead, he strode swiftly into the ward, eyes fixed on Ye Cheng’s hand—on the silver needles he was holding.
I can’t be mistaken—I can’t possibly be…
This—this is!
The Thirteen Needles of Soul Revival!