I pointed toward a glowing circular object flowing in the air not far away.

“That is a holy pearl.” Grandpa Jin was surprised.

“I thought only demons had holy pearls.”

He nodded, “That’s very true, but some creatures are blessed by Goddess Aniela so they also possess the pearl. On this continent, not only demons can cultivate, but also the beasts. If this Spotty Boar lives and cultivates long enough, it might even gain some wings.”

Oh dear, if so, it would certainly be a flying pig!

The holy pearl glowed with pink light, and slowly rose toward the sky.

I was afraid that it might fly away, so I jumped to grab it in my hand to take a closer look.

“No, LiNa!!”

Grandpa Jin looked panicked, and came right for me, “Are you all right!?”

I was a bit confused, “I am ok.”

He took a deep breath for relief, “LiNa, please remember not to touch any holy pearls unless you are certain it’s alright. This is a Spotty Boar’s pearl, I am afraid that it might contain the same poisons, so it’s better to be careful.”

Oops! I did something stupid again!

My hand shook and the holy pearl dropped right on the ground, and happily bounced twice. Was I getting poison now!?

As I was freaking out inside, Grandpa Jin took a look at my gloved hand, and did not observe anything strange.

“It looks like the pearl has no effect outside the body. Still, LiNa, only a cultivator, knows the right way to handle a holy pearl, we commoners need to be careful.”

I let out a huge breath, and picked up the pretty pink pearl, “That scared me a bunch! But Grandpa Jin, how come it doesn’t fly anymore?”

He smiled, “You took it down, interrupting its natural ascension, so it fell back into our world again.”

Well, that was interesting.

“It’s getting late, we better head home now. It will be a few days before we reach home, the young man is still waiting for us.” Grandpa Jin said.

I nodded, and put that precious pearl in my pocket, then followed his footsteps toward home.

The way back was relatively smooth, we did not encounter any more Spotty Boars or other strange creatures.

When we got back to the little hut, Grandma Sha was wiping the young man’s forehead with a wet cloth. He definitely looked worse than when we left the house. Even though I was not a doctor, I could tell he didn’t have much time left. If he could make it through tonight, it would be another miracle.

We took out the little bag with Death Berries, and with our gloves hands cautiously poured out the berries. There were three of them, bright red and lay quietly on the palm of the hand. They were like cranberries with black polka dots, who in the world could have imagined they were deadly, just one could kill a demon. If it could kill a demon, I wouldn’t be surprised that it could kill a human since demons were so much more tolerant to injuries and in general stronger.

“How many?” I asked.

---------Dead Silence---------

For no one really knew the exact amount to combat the chronic poison that was turning into a potent one and eating away his life. If too little was given, it would not be enough and that could speed up the spreading of the existing poison. If too much was given, he would be killed by the Death Berries instead.

There was no doctor here, therefore Grandma Sha and I both looked at Grandpa Jin for an answer.

He was the wisest old man here.

After a few minutes, Grandpa Jin said, “LiNa, should we try with two? The chronic poison seems to have been there for many years, it must have eaten away into the bones. I am afraid one berry is not going to be enough. This is a gamble, for I have no confidence this would work, but like you said before, we should give it a try.”

Grandma Sha nodded her head.

I didn’t know either, but this was his last chance. We had looked for the snow lotus and even got chased by a deadly Spotty Boar. We had gone this far to save his life, there should not be any hesitation at this point.

“Yes, Grandpa Jin.”

He sat next to that young man, and carefully fed two of the berries to his mouth. Surprisingly his throat moved once, seemed to swallow them down, and then………

Nothing happened?

Wait----------------

All of a sudden his body started to shake manically, like a worm wriggling on the hot and dry pavement and was desperate to go back to the soil!

His teeth clenched, and grinded so hard that I thought I could hear it. His fists were held tightly, and blue veins were showing on the back of his hand and neck.

Those blue eyes opened instantaneously, wide as a startle animal!

His eyes were opened so wide that the white space was clearly seen. There were more and more red veins appearing on the whites of his eyes, that made them look bloody like a vampire.

He started to groan like a wild animal in unbearable and agonizing pain!

I had never seen him like this before. When I changed his bandages and even dug maggots out the wounds, he never made a sound. I thought he couldn't feel pain at all. Now he reacted so violently to the Death Berries, it scared me a lot, due to the fact that I was the one who came up with the idea.

Damn, I was also the one who gave him the pain!

These berries were so acutely toxic that they gave no pretty death at all!

Abruptly all the veins started to turn from blue to black, on his hands, neck, and forehead, and even the sides of the face! Those veins seemed to grow and crawl onto more and more skin!

“Go grab that one last berry! Now!” Grandpa Jin shouted.

I pulled myself together out of the shocked mode and found that berry and came over quickly. His expression was so painful. His body was wriggling and quivering so hard that scared me quite a lot. I didn’t even realize my own hands were also shaking, while holding that tiny berry.

“LiNa, hurry! Put it in his mouth!”

Grandpa Jin pulled his arms back and held super tight so that dude wouldn’t accidentally hit anybody or kill himself.

I tried hard to avoid seeing those bloodshot eyes staring right into my soul. They were super bloody and he groaned at me like an animal. I bet a thousand purple amethyst coins that he was seeing a whole other world right now. His spirit was another thousand miles away.

I hesitated out of stupidity, I worried he would freaking bite my hand. I would be certain that he would bite it down to the bones and crush all my fingers.

“LiNa!”

I finally recovered from my daze, and shoved that last berry into his mouth super fast, so fast that there was no chance of getting onto my fingers.

He immediately wanted to spit it out, and I had no time to lose.

I huddled over and put both of my hands over his mouth and pushed him down to force him to swallow that berry.

Oh boy, I was scared to death but there was really no choice!

His deep blue eyes stunned for a second, then I saw his throat move once.

Finally swallowing that last berry down, what a relief!

But then----------

All of a sudden, instead of red veins, the white part of his eyes had completely turned red, and the black veins on his skin kept on growing. He reacted so violently that Grandpa Jin almost lost hold of those arms. I got pushed off to the ground with no mercy at all.

Grandma Sha hurried over to help to constraint him. I got back on my feet and joined this “beast taming”. If there was someone walking by, it would be quite a scene to look at.

The table and stools, the old decorations on the wall, basically everything in this small room got turned over. There were three people grabbing onto a bloodshot eye young man, and still couldn’t even seem to hold him still.

His strength was no joke!

This “wrestling” was no fun game. I got punched in the stomach, pushed onto the wall, and threw across the room like a tiny pillow. I had no idea that a dying man had this kind of strength. We were like three little monkeys dangling on a tree, except that tree could move quite violently and mercilessly.

Out of my breath, I screamed, “Grandpa Jin! What is going on now!”

He was running out of breath as well, “I am not sure either! This is the first time I have ever fed someone Death Berries! Hurry, grab that arm, grab that arm!”