"Your hands, do you not want them anymore?" I asked with a sneer, looking at the woman.

The woman's face was as gloomy as water, but she stood far away, not saying a word. However, the speed at which the ghostly hand was draining my life force slowed down considerably.

I smiled and said, "Since I can poison you, I can also detoxify you. You can control Tower City, so you should know what I want, right?"

The woman remained silent for a moment before saying, "What do you want?"

I held up a finger. "First, I want all my companions and myself to leave Tower City safely. As for who else you want to kill, that's beyond my concern."

"Second, I want to take away Half-Section Pagoda, and Huo Tang's Earth Soul."

"Third, however much lifespan you took from me, I want you to return double. Not a single bit less!"

The woman's hands, hanging by her sides, clenched into fists, but she said coldly, "I can return your lifespan to you first. But, I need to see your sincerity."

As the woman spoke, I could already feel the lifespan I had lost rapidly returning, even more than before.

As I slowly released my right hand, my arm was also visibly returning to its original color.

The woman suddenly moved, appearing beside me and seizing my pulse.

Jiang Jiuyuan instinctively wanted to come to my aid, but I stopped her with a look. The woman ignored the exchange between Jiang Jiuyuan and me, raised her hand, and cut open my wrist. Only when she saw the blood flowing from my wrist did she shake off my arm. "I guess you didn't lie to me!"

She was verifying whether I could undo the Teng Snake poison. If I couldn't even save myself, what was there to talk about in terms of a deal?

I smiled faintly. "I've already shown you my sincerity. What do you say?"

"You call that sincerity?" The woman's eyes were instantly filled with murderous intent.

I laughed and said, "You haven't even shown me any sincerity yourself. What kind of deal are you talking about?"

"If we're talking about sincerity, you have to let me see my friends safe and sound first, right? You have to let me verify the authenticity of Huo Tang's Earth Soul, right?"

"You haven't done either of those things. What sincerity do you expect me to show?"

The woman's chest heaved with anger. "Fine! Go along the secret passage into the city. I'll wait for you there!"

After the woman spoke, she disappeared without a trace.

Only then did I breathe a sigh of relief. "Let's go!"

As I supported Jiang Jiuyuan forward, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Hall Master, don't you think that ghost god is a bit strange? She clearly has the ability to kill us. Why would she retreat so easily?"

I shook my head. "That woman isn't the ghost god who controlled the entire city just now. She's either a servant of that ghost god or a split incarnation of her. I'm more inclined to the former."

Without waiting for Jiang Jiuyuan to ask again, I explained, "The simplest flaw in her is her appearance. Beauty is a woman's nature. If you possessed supreme magic power, would you make yourself more beautiful or make yourself uglier?"

"Don't you think they're too different? And..."

I said in a deep voice, "I suspect that the ghost god in the city should be sleeping, or trapped by some kind of restriction that prevents it from acting at will. Otherwise, we would have died long ago. That woman wouldn't have had to come out so quietly to find people."

"If it were a one-on-one fight, that woman wouldn't be our match. Ye Yang and I simultaneously drew our swords and blades, forcing the ghost god out. But, she couldn't stay out for too long."

"Therefore, her only option was to lock us up in the tunnel and then eat us one by one."

Since we entered Tower City, that woman had been trying to deal with us in a covert manner.

This gave Ye Yang and me the false impression that Tower City didn't have any powerful ghost gods.

But the truth was the opposite of our assessment.

I continued, "Ever since that woman appeared, I've been thinking about a question: Why do the ghosts we see have four eyes? Why do hands grow on the places that woman has touched?"

"Later, I finally understood. That woman is planting parts of the ghost god's body into the bodies of living people, like growing vegetables."

"For example, that hand on you. If no one touches it, it will suck you dry after a certain amount of time, and the hand will fully grow."

"When that woman has collected all the parts of the ghost god's body, she can help her master escape."

"So, none of the parts that woman planted in other people can be missing. Isn't this where my Teng Snake poison comes in handy?"

After I finished speaking, I heard the woman say coldly, "It's a pity you're a man. If you were a woman, I would definitely plant my master's brain in you."

I smiled. "So, your master's body can only be planted in a woman?"

"Shut your mouth! Don't ask questions you shouldn't." After the woman snorted coldly, she disappeared.

But I frowned slightly.

Now it seems that I have temporarily gained control of the situation, but what should I do next?