A Record of A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

Chapter 50: Fragrant Binding Thread

At this moment, Doctor Mo recalled how, at the very beginning when he entered the room, Han Li had insisted on not letting him close the door. It seemed that right then, the young man had already laid the groundwork for using sunlight reflection as a trap. For someone so young to think so thoroughly and set such a meticulously cruel chain of traps—it caused this old hand to fall headlong into a situation he could hardly escape from. The depth of this person’s scheming was truly inconsistent with his age and experience. Could it be that this person was a natural genius, a prodigy reincarnated?

The more he thought about it, the more frightened Doctor Mo became, sweating profusely all over.

After this setback, Doctor Mo’s caution toward Han Li grew even stronger. He faced Han Li carefully, no longer daring to act rashly.

For some unknown reason, Han Li only stared at Doctor Mo with his eyes, showing no intention of attacking. The two of them suddenly fell silent—a tense standoff, eyeing each other like a big fish staring down a small one.

After a while, in the awkward atmosphere, Han Li suddenly spoke a sentence that left Doctor Mo dumbfounded and stunned on the spot.

“Old Mo, let’s make peace. Or how about I surrender? What do you think?”

After saying this, Han Li threw his weapon decisively to the ground, revealing a set of pearly white teeth and flashing a smile like a simple-hearted country boy.

“Surrender?”

At first, Doctor Mo thought he must have misheard, but he quickly realized what was said. He glanced at the iron spike Han Li had discarded and felt a surge of disbelief, retorting fiercely:

“What kind of trick are you playing? Don’t think I’ll believe your nonsense. If you wanted to surrender, you could have done so at the start. Why wait until we fight to the death and then pull this stunt?”

Han Li smiled quietly at Doctor Mo, remaining silent and seemingly accepting the accusation. The two fell into a standoff once again.

After a short while, Doctor Mo suddenly seemed to think of something extremely amusing. He bent over, clutching his abdomen with both hands, and burst into loud laughter. His laughter was unrestrained, so genuine that tears streamed from the corners of his eyes.

“Ha ha! Ha! Ha ha! How... how interesting! I actually forgot such an important matter and ended up fighting with you... fighting so openly,” Doctor Mo said, his voice unclear amid intermittent laughter.

Han Li furrowed his brows briefly but then relaxed as if it didn’t matter. He glanced out the window, the smile at the corner of his mouth growing wider, and calmly said:

“Old Mo, don’t you think we’ve wasted too much time? It’s time to end this.”

Doctor Mo was momentarily stunned and stopped laughing.

He slowly straightened up, stiffened his expression, and stared at Han Li without emotion. After a long pause, he said coldly:

“I also think it’s time to end all this.”

Suddenly, both of them felt confident and certain of victory, as if they had each found the trump card to control the other and force them to submit.

After a brief silence, Han Li spoke first, full of confidence in what he held—believing it would make Doctor Mo back down and abandon any other thoughts.

“Old Mo, do you know your life is in my hands?”

The moment Han Li spoke, it shocked Doctor Mo.

“My life is in your hands?” Doctor Mo sneered, disbelief written all over his face.

“Don’t you feel anything strange about your wound?”

“Nonsense! I looked carefully. Your short sword didn’t—” Doctor Mo began to retort, but halfway through his sentence, his expression changed drastically, recalling that it wasn’t the short sword that wounded him but the hidden spike.

“It seems I don’t need to say more. Old Mo, you already understand what I mean,” Han Li said with a cheerful grin.

“So what if that’s true? Don’t forget, I taught you all about potions and poisons. What poison could I not cure?” Doctor Mo quickly returned to his usual calm, responding confidently.