The light outlined the curvaceous silhouette of a tall figure, it was clearly a woman.
With her body slightly turned, she had a pair of glowing eyes similar to Wei Tianyang's, only hers were blue.
She slowly walked toward Wei Tianyang, her gray-white hair fluttering forward in the wind blowing through the drain outlet.
As she drew nearer and completely emerged from the dazzling light, Wei Tianyang could finally see her clearly.
The woman had pale skin, her eyes wrapped in white cloth, and her hair as soft as a dog's fur.
Her shoulders and arms were covered in white fur, her whole body wrapped in bandages, wearing no clothes at all.
The muscle revealed between the bandages was very strong, her arms thicker than Wei Tianyang's thighs, bulging with veins.
Her arms began to darken in color from the elbows down until her forearms and hands were completely black.
On her forearms were many scratch marks, looking as if they were made by herself.
Wei Tianyang held back the Medicine People behind him, turning his head and spoke softly, "You all go up first."
The strong man and Bai, along with the Medicine People who had yet to exit the stairwell, retreated.
Black wastewater churned, flowing out of the wastewater outlet.
The woman lifted her head, sniffed in the direction of Wei Tianyang, and said, "I smell you."
Her voice was low, with an age much older than Wei Tianyang. 20 years old? 30 years old? Hard to tell.
Wei Tianyang didn't move, replying, "We don't necessarily have to fight, the exit is right behind us, let's leave this place together."
The woman shook her head, "There's no exit."
Wei Tianyang knew she couldn't see, he urged, "It's just twenty steps behind you, we can follow the water flow and leave this place!"
The woman sighed and stretched out her left hand for Wei Tianyang to see.
On the back of her hand was a reversed unsealed triangular symbol.
"We are both unfinished products," she said slowly.
Wei Tianyang clenched his fists, anger rising in his heart.
Unfinished products?
How did perfectly fine humans end up becoming objects in someone else's words?
Through the entire drug trial, the Medicine People cooperated, but Ruan Yu had never planned to pay them.
She made promises to the struggling people, then deceived them into giving up their lives.
One by one, people who had hoped for a secure future ended up as little piles on the operating table after a week or two...
For what?!
"We are not the unfinished products she speaks of! We are complete people! Come with me!" Wei Tianyang shouted angrily.
The woman said, "There's no way back, once the Black Medicine entered our bodies, we were already dead."
Her white cloth covering her eyes dampened, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"We can use the power they gave us to take revenge! Let them know, the poor are not born to be bullied!" Wei Tianyang continued.
"You still don't understand... the cost of this power," the woman said, "Every time you use your ability, lethal toxins build up in your spinal cord... They will cripple you, paralyze you, even kill you... Only by injecting a suppressant can the toxins in the spinal cord be neutralized..."
After speaking, she crossed her hands in front of her chest, fingers spread wide, her pitch-black finger bones clicking as they began to twist and deform.
The tips of her fingers thinned out as if squeezed by some external force, turning the round fingertips into sharp blade-like shapes.
The part that was originally the pad of her finger turned into a blade edge, changing color from deep black to gray-white.
As all five fingers transformed into blade shapes, they suddenly extended, just like swords leaving their sheaths, instantly growing half a meter long.
The woman spread her arms wide as if she held ten long swords in her hands, her fingers moving and tips rubbing against each other, emitting a dangerous sound.
"There's no turning back now, our bodies are our prisons. We can't escape," the woman said.
Instinctively, Wei Tianyang stepped back, his right fist clenched, that strange feeling arising again.
A surge of power emerged from his heart, flowing into his right arm which wasn't yet fully enveloped by muscle. Grey-white glowing patterns intersected, flickering in and out.
"I don't want to fight you…" Wei Tianyang said.
"I'm sorry… I don't either… but they will take care of my child…" the woman replied.
No sooner had she spoken than she charged at him.
"They won't keep their promise!!"
Wei Tianyang yelled, his eyes' sclera turning black and red pupils flickering with angry light, tears of blood streaming down his cheeks.
Unknowingly, hundreds of Medicine People had already rushed to his front.
"Kill her! Kill her!!!" the Medicine People shouted as they charged at the woman.
"No! This isn't right! I don't want to kill her!!" Wei Tianyang yelled, reaching out to stop the Medicine People.
When his hand brushed through their bodies, it grasped at empty air.
The woman was quickly overwhelmed by the Medicine People, who fell upon her, biting with teeth, scratching with nails, punching and kicking, ripping the bandages off her body and biting blood marks into her shoulders and back.
But soon, the woman burst out of the encirclement with brute strength and ten long claws. She swung her arms, throwing a dozen Medicine People into the sewage without causing a splash.
"Is this… your superpower?!" the woman exclaimed.
"Stop!" Wei Tianyang shouted.
No sooner had he spoken than the woman, fast as lightning, was right in front of him.
Their faces inches apart, almost touching noses, she emitted a warm, urine-like scent, like that of a large dog.
Wei Tianyang looked down to see the woman's right claw had completely pierced his chest, leaving only the wrist outside.
That was where the heart was.
A mouthful of black blood flowed from his lips, dripping down his chin as fear and sadness engulfed Wei Tianyang.
But a look of surprise slowly appeared on the woman's face too; she breathed heavily, her breath hot on Wei Tianyang's chest.
The woman slowly withdrew her right claw from his chest to find that her entire right claw was gone.
Beneath Wei Tianyang's torn surgical clothes, the punctured wound slowly healed, releasing scorching heat.
The woman's right claw, broken off inside him, had melted into a small ball from the high temperature. As the wound completely healed, it remained forever inside his body, merging with his flesh.
New flesh grew over the wound, marked by several grey-white glowing lines that flickered intermittently, identical to those on the black giant's body.
Pain made Wei Tianyang's brow bead with sweat; his right arm, which had almost been fully covered by new muscle, now returned to its skeletal state, as if... it had been consumed?
The woman quickly retreated, and then, the remaining Medicine People swarmed in, surrounding her once more.
Wei Tianyang's vision blurred as he nearly fell, but a burly man appeared beside him, steadying him.
"She killed you once, don't give her a second chance," the burly man said.
Wei Tianyang's expression changed.
With only one claw left, the woman still overwhelmed the Medicine People; her claw effortlessly tore them apart, turning them into a white mist.
The woman couldn't see but could smell. No matter how many surrounded her, she quickly sensed Wei Tianyang's direction. However, the Medicine People formed a wall of flesh blocking her path, preventing her approach.
"Don't hate me…"