Although the guard’s guess still revolved around food, at least it wasn’t entirely about meals this time.
Yun Ji instantly transitioned from crawling in darkness to crawling in light.
She abruptly sat up, her previously listless eyes suddenly gleaming with brilliance as she nodded vigorously.
The guard met her deranged gaze—the kind that would turn her into a wild boar frantically charging at him until food was produced if she wasn’t fed—and couldn’t help but make a pained expression as if suffering from a toothache.
He really didn’t want to have any involvement with the people in this Death Row Prison.
Including Yun Ji.
Whoever was imprisoned here, regardless of how formidable they might have been in the past, were now failures with little chance of turning their situations around.
While Yun Ji could escape this place through death in three months, the other four had been explicitly ordered to be kept in a state where they could neither live nor die, enduring a prolonged and hopeless existence.
Getting involved with them would bring him nothing but harm.
But!
Yun Ji loved eating the food he cooked.
Everyone else would flee at the sight of his cooking, but not Yun Ji!
Not only did she not run away, she actually enjoyed eating it!
What was this if not finding a kindred spirit?
Yun Ji was the soulmate for his culinary career that he had finally encountered after all these years!
But even a kindred spirit wasn’t enough.
When comparing a kindred spirit to his own life… there was no comparison, his life was definitely more important.
Having some contact with Yun Ji was already his limit—he didn’t dare say half a word about anyone else.
Hardening his heart, the guard didn’t want to answer questions related to heads. He snorted coldly and was about to leave when, as he stood up, he saw Yun Ji looking up at him.
Yun Ji’s face was still swollen, having nothing to do with beauty and barely qualifying as cute.
But her eyes were very bright, completely unlike someone who is poisoned, burning with vigorous vitality.
When she filled those brilliant eyes with tears, looking at him tearfully like an abandoned puppy or kitten, his heart still raced for a moment, then—
He turned to leave.
Just kidding, even if Yun Ji were the most beautiful woman in the world, she still wouldn’t be more important than his life.
Just as he turned around, Yun Ji swiftly threw herself to the ground, reaching through the bars to grab his ankle.
The moment she grabbed him, a chill crept up from his ankle, and the guard suddenly felt a shudder as if being dragged to hell by a ghost.
He turned back and, sure enough, saw Yun Ji take a deep breath. He immediately panicked and said:
“Wai—wait—”
“WAAHHH BOOHOO WAAAA!!!”
A scream comparable to pig slaughter erupted the next second, repeatedly echoing through the Death Row Prison as if ten thousand mosquitoes were madly buzzing in his ears.
[Guard, guard! How can you be so cruel, how can you leave without answering me, guard!]
[I’m weak, helpless, and all swollen! What will I do without you? How can you bear to abandon a poor little thing like me alone in this terrible place!]
[Fine, abandon me if you must, but how can you stand by and watch my little companion die? My little companion is so adorable, small and delicate, only the size of a head—how can you be so heartless!]
Yun Ji’s loud accusations dealt tons of damage to the guard.
The guard’s vision darkened, his head buzzing.
At this moment, he finally remembered the terror of being dominated by Yun Ji’s ghostly howls in his dreams, which made him dream of being chased by a group of green-faced, fanged Evil Ghosts, leaving him too afraid to sleep for three days and three nights.
Those Evil Ghosts kept shouting while chasing him: “Food! Food!”
Did she really love his cooking that much?
So obsessed with eating that you won’t even let him sleep properly, still giving him nightmares!
The guard’s lips twitched upward, inexplicably pleased, then quickly flattened them again. Yielding to the ear-piercing complaints with a pained expression, he said:
“He doesn’t need to eat in the first place!”
Yun Ji fell silent.
She stared at him wide-eyed, as if unable to process what he meant.
Seizing the opportunity, the guard pulled his leg back and said impatiently, “I’m telling you, this guy has considerable cultivation—there’s no way he’d starve to death. Stop worrying about him. Even if his body were chopped into mincemeat, he’d still survive.”
Yun Ji’s eyes widened in shock.
Seeing her reaction, the guard paused his retreating steps, sighed, and added,
“When you picked up his head, didn’t you notice his dismembered body right beside it? He’s a monster. Leave him be—he won’t die.
“I’ll go make you a meal.”
With that final remark, the guard hurried away.
Yun Ji remained seated, blinking slowly.
Why is this guard so obsessed with cooking? She hadn’t even finished her last meal, and he’s already preparing the next?
She lowered her gaze to the head in her lap.
It wasn’t that she didn’t believe the guard.
But when his words formed coherent sentences in her mind, the impact was truly staggering.
Chopped into mincemeat and still alive? How powerful is that?
Yet, glancing at the head in her arms, she felt a sense of acceptance.
For someone whose head could declare independence, having a resilient body seemed only natural.
This is a fantasy world, after all. Normal, completely normal.
Yun Ji cleared her mind, picked up her meal, and began eating.
Throughout, she seemed to think of nothing, yet perhaps she pondered a great deal.
After finishing her meal, she gazed into the endless darkness and then at the still-unconscious head in her arms. Finally resolving herself, she stood up, cradling the head.
She wanted something to do.
Or rather, she now wanted to help the head wake up.
She had never experienced decapitation herself, but using her imagination, she reasoned that the head and body were originally one whole. Separated for too long, there might be consequences. If she brought the head to its body, perhaps he would awaken?
Yun Ji acted on her impulse.
When Feng Liansu had visited earlier, she had carefully surveyed the cell. In the direction where she found the head, there was a Blood Pool filled with masses of flesh and blood.
She guessed that must be where the head’s body was stored.
The Blood Pool was close to the wall. Feeling her way along the wall, she inched forward until her toes encountered a sticky sensation, then halted.
When she had picked up the head earlier, perhaps too terrified, she hadn’t noticed how thick the scent of blood was in this area.
She sneezed, crouched down, and reached out to feel ahead.
The texture under her hand was indescribable—slimy, soft matter wriggling slightly, clinging to her fingers with the slightest touch.
Maybe what she was touching wasn’t minced meat but a swarm of squirming insects.
Imagination became the most terrifying tool at that moment. The thought of a mass of insects made her recoil in fear, wanting to flee. But gritting her teeth, she restrained herself and sat quietly in the darkness for a while.
Once her heartbeat steadied, she mustered her courage and reached out again.
This time, she seemed to feel a few fingers—probably not insects after all.
So, minced meat moving on its own was normal. This is a fantasy world.
Yes, completely normal.
Yun Ji sat quietly beside the minced meat, holding the head. When she grew tired, she lay down.
She had no idea how long she had been lying there, but the severed head showed no signs of waking. Faintly, she heard the guard’s approaching footsteps and could only hug the head disappointedly as she shuffled back toward the bars.
To her surprise, when the guard saw her, his pupils dilated in shock. He staggered half a step backward before staring at her in terror and exclaiming:
“How did you get covered in blood?!”
By the light from the guard’s lantern, Yun Ji finally noticed she was drenched in blood.
Had she been lying in a pool of blood earlier?
Seeing the guard still frozen in shock, she lifted her head and chirped brightly: “Awoo!”
[This is normal!]
Yes, this was normal.
It definitely couldn’t be that she had gone mad.