Having broken free from the large pillar's restraints, Gu Xiaoli screamed even more recklessly, spreading her arms wide like a hook and reaching straight for Yang Hongtao's shoulders. Her small mouth, which wasn't very big to begin with, was now wide open to its limit, baring her white teeth as she bit down hard on Yang Hongtao's throat.
Yang Hongtao was sweating profusely. After all, the woman in front of him seemed to be mentally unstable, probably because she had been traumatized by Zhou Ziwei's seduction and abandonment.
You could say she was a pitiful victim, a weak person being bullied. What could Yang Hongtao do to a girl like that? He couldn't hit her, and he certainly couldn't kill her! It's truly... not afraid of fierceness, not afraid of ruthlessness, but afraid of someone completely irrational! When you encounter a mentally ill person, you can't reason with them!
Fortunately, Yang Hongtao wasn't the kind of pedantic "great philanthropist." He had no intention of performing some kind of heroic act like Buddha cutting off his own flesh to feed an eagle. Seeing that Gu Xiaoli had already endangered his life, he didn't care about anything else. In his desperation, there was nowhere to hide in this cramped house, so he had no choice but to use both hands to tightly grab Gu Xiaoli's wrists. At the same time, he lowered his head and slammed it hard against Gu Xiaoli's chin, thus temporarily preventing her from biting him.
Yang Hongtao's headbutt was both accurate and forceful, causing Gu Xiaoli to let out a miserable scream of pain, most likely because she bit her tongue in the impact.
However, at the same time that scream rang out, Yang Hongtao seemed to hear a sinister, cold laugh coming from Gu Xiaoli's body.
A scream of pain and a cold laugh rang out almost simultaneously, both emanating from the same person. The two sounds intertwined, like a duet between a man and a woman, creating an eerie harmony.
Yang Hongtao was startled and suddenly looked up into Gu Xiaoli's eyes. Although the room was dimly lit, Yang Hongtao could still see that her eyes were like two spinning kaleidoscopes, constantly changing with different emotions and temperaments.
Sometimes melancholic, sometimes alluring, sometimes desperate, sometimes ferocious...
Yang Hongtao had never seen anyone's eyes hold such a rich array of emotions at once. He paused for a moment, then became suspicious and couldn't help but growl in a low voice, "Who exactly are you? Why are you taking over Gu Xiaoli's body?"
Gu Xiaoli, who was struggling desperately, trembled slightly upon hearing this, temporarily stopping her struggle. She slowly raised her head, looking at Yang Hongtao with curiosity, and grinned, asking, "You... you can actually hear my voice! Hehe... Well then, I'm even less likely to let you go! I haven't drunk fresh human blood in a long time, tsk tsk... Looking at your delicate skin, your blood must be very sweet! Perfect for me to taste fresh... hehehe..."
With a piercing, sinister laugh, Gu Xiaoli's petite body suddenly unleashed an immense power. With a forceful swing of her arms, Yang Hongtao's arms immediately went numb as if struck by lightning, leaving him completely powerless, allowing her to easily break free of his grasp.
Then Yang Hongtao saw a blood-stained mouth grow larger and larger in front of him, like an infinite abyss...
"Om Mani Padme Hum—"
Now that he knew Gu Xiaoli was possessed by an evil spirit, Yang Hongtao naturally didn't need to be polite to her. The six-syllable mantra that he had recited countless times in his heart resounded from the depths of his soul once again, immediately transforming into holy halos that enveloped the entire small dark room.
"No--"
As the first halo of light appeared, Gu Xiaoli involuntarily let out a shrill, desperate cry. It was a fear that came from the depths of her soul, like a ferocious beast suddenly encountering its destined enemy. Faced with a fatal blow, it could not muster even a shred of confidence to resist.
The first halo rapidly contracted from the outside inwards, centered on Yang Hongtao. As the halo passed over Gu Xiaoli's body, Gu Xiaoli's body trembled violently. Then, like an invisible fishing net gliding through water, the halo passed through Gu Xiaoli's body without any hindrance, but it forcibly scraped out a faint human figure from that body.
Immediately afterwards, a second and a third halo appeared out of thin air, instantly transforming into a pure light that mercilessly swallowed the shadow.
After all six halos disappeared, Yang Hongtao felt as if his soul was filled with chaotic and turbid gas, scattered here and there, intertwined and conflicting with each other, giving Yang Hongtao the feeling that his soul was about to burst.
Oh no, this... where did this evil spirit come from? How can it possess such immense soul energy? It's more than twice as powerful as my soul energy at its peak! No wonder I felt so terrible after devouring this evil spirit...
Yang Hongtao inwardly groaned. When he discovered that Gu Xiaoli was possessed by an evil spirit, he was secretly pleased, thinking that he had gotten a freebie and a ready-made tonic to replenish the soul energy he had lost in the past two days.
But who knew that this supplement was far too potent, seemingly beyond his current tolerance?
Not only was the evil spirit's own soul energy too enormous, but even after being purified by the sacred halo of the Six-Syllable Mantra, it was not completely purified soul energy. As soon as Yang Hongtao absorbed it into his soul, it immediately rebelled.
Although it was just a wisp of lingering resentment and malevolence that couldn't truly devour Yang Hongtao's consciousness and replace it, it was like a rat dropping in a pot of soup—its harmfulness was not to be underestimated.
Yang Hongtao is now like Sun Wukong with the golden headband on, the pain and fear from the depths of his soul keeping him on the verge of collapse at any moment.
Now he realized that even though supplements are good, you can't eat too much of them! Right now, his soul can only hold a bowl of water, but he poured in a whole pot of water... Even if his container is flexible, it could burst at any moment!
Yang Hongtao trembled violently, his consciousness drifting into a hazy state. He knew that he couldn't afford to slack off at this moment; he had to persevere, otherwise... the only outcome would be his soul being scattered!
Volume 1: The Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 45: Humanity
In order to preserve his consciousness and fight against the remnant malevolent energy within his soul, Yang Hongtao had no choice but to relinquish control of his physical body. He poured all his energy into the depths of his soul, chanting the magical six-syllable mantra over and over again, and releasing holy halos into his own soul space with all his might, constantly restraining the chaotic and berserk soul power.
And from time to time, it would catch a wisp of remnant soul's malevolent aura...
Yang Hongtao's body, having lost control of his consciousness, could no longer stand still. When Gu Xiaoli's body bumped into him, his legs went weak and he collapsed.
At the same time, due to inertia, Gu Xiaoli fell directly onto Yang Hongtao, her wide-open mouth biting Yang Hongtao's neck, and a salty, fishy smell filled her mouth.
Ugh... After choking on the fresh blood, Gu Xiaoli's body convulsed for a moment, and she slowly regained her senses.
When she realized she was lying on top of a blood-soaked, lifeless man, she immediately covered her ears and let out a blood-curdling scream...
"Brother... he... he really was bitten to death by me! Then... what should I do?"
Gu Xiaoli, who had already regained consciousness, simply wiped the pollutants off her body with water, changed into a clean set of clothes, hugged her knees, curled up on the edge of the bed, and kept glancing at Yang Hongtao, who was lying motionless on the floor. Her eyes were filled with fear and panic.
Da Zhuzi had just hit his head on the wall and bled quite a bit. Although the bleeding had stopped, he looked extremely weak. He had checked Yang Hongtao several times and found that Yang Hongtao's breathing and heartbeat had indeed completely stopped, so there was no way he could come back to life.
Hearing her sister's words, she could only sigh softly and say, "Yes... although I was unconscious at the time, it's clear that no one else had been in this room. Since he... that kid is dead, then I'm afraid... you really did drain his blood! Oh... but Xiaoli, don't be afraid. You've been mentally unstable for over a month, and you don't even know what you're doing. Even if you killed someone, it wasn't your intention. I heard that... mentally ill patients don't seem to be held legally responsible for murder!"
Gu Xiaoli said with a mournful face, "But... I'm all better now. If... if they examine me and find out I'm not mentally ill at all, then... wouldn't I have to pay with my life for them!"
"Well... if all else fails, we won't report it!" Da Zhu gritted his teeth and said, "Anyway, it's that Zhou kid's fault. He played with your feelings and then dumped you... making you look like a ghost for over a month. Even if you kill him, it'll be his retribution! Don't worry! No one except Erluzi and his gang should have seen Zhou kid come here, and Erluzi and his gang are all my good brothers. If I just let them know, they definitely won't say a word. Hmm... even if someone else saw him, I doubt anyone would know who he is. Tonight, I'll put him in a sack and throw him into the Dangyang River to feed the fish. I guarantee no one will know. Then my brother and I will go straight back to our hometown. Even if the police want to investigate, they won't be able to find us."
"But... wouldn't this be too tragic!"
Gu Xiaoli was so frightened that she covered her mouth with her hand again, sobbing silently for a few moments before choking out, "Actually, brother, you've misunderstood. Mr. Zhou and I... we did have sex once... but it was... it was consensual, and I knew he had a wife. I just wanted to be with him for a while, then have him invest some money to open a small shop, which would be better than working as a waitress in a hotel all the time. Who knew that on my way home after my night shift that day, I felt something bump into me, and then I knew nothing more... This means... the reason I've become like that lately isn't because of Mr. Zhou at all. This... originally had nothing to do with him! Isn't what we're doing... isn't it too unfair to him?"
"It's too late to say all this now!"
Dazhu sighed and said, "Anyway, he's dead now. You didn't kill him on purpose. We... sigh... you're my only sister. How can we just watch you pay for someone else's life? Don't worry about it. I'll handle this!"
After saying that, Da Zhuzi stood up, picked up a burlap sack, walked to Yang Hongtao, squatted down, and pulled Yang Hongtao's legs up to stuff them into the sack.
"Hey... don't do that! I'm not quite dead yet, and you're already in a hurry to destroy the evidence?" Yang Hongtao said, then suddenly sat up, startling Gu Xiaoli and her brother into screaming in unison.
In fact, Yang Hongtao had already been awake for a while. After repeatedly chanting the six-syllable mantra deep in his soul, he finally succeeded in completely absorbing the soul energy of that evil spirit. As for the remaining trace of malevolence of that evil spirit, it gradually disappeared without a trace. However, Yang Hongtao could not be sure whether that trace of malevolent energy had been completely purified or hidden away.
After obtaining all the soul energy of that evil spirit, Yang Hongtao's soul had grown to a level he had never reached before. He estimated that the soul energy of this one evil spirit was roughly equivalent to the energy possessed by more than two hundred remnant souls that had been exposed to sunlight, which was simply unimaginable!
However, every gain has its loss. The amount of soul energy absorbed this time was far too large, exceeding Yang Hongtao's normal absorption capacity. This forced him to repeatedly recite the Six-Syllable Mantra in his soul space to purify and compress the violent soul energy. Consequently, during this purification process, the memories left by the evil spirit in the soul energy were inevitably severely damaged. As a result, although Yang Hongtao obtained unprecedentedly powerful soul energy this time, he did not gain any valuable memory information.
As a result, Yang Hongtao knew almost nothing about the origin of the evil spirit. He only vaguely felt that the evil spirit should be an old ghost that had been around for many years. He didn't know how it had managed to avoid the exposure of sunlight and how its soul had gradually become more refined and powerful. This gave it its current strength, allowing it to find a gap and enter the body of a living person, forcibly taking over their body for its own use.
Judging from the way the evil spirit possessed Gu Xiaoli, Yang Hongtao suspected that the reason why the evil spirit became so powerful was likely related to its frequent consumption of the blood of living people and animals.
However, the demon's memories had been completely erased, and Yang Hongtao had no way of verifying them.
Moreover, even if Yang Hongtao could actually prove this, he probably wouldn't use such a cruel method to forcibly enhance the power of his soul.
After absorbing all the soul energy from that evil spirit, Yang Hongtao felt an unprecedented surge of energy. However, his body remained frail beyond belief. He had only been knocked to the ground by Gu Xiaoli and had a little blood on his neck when he felt weak all over and couldn't muster any strength.
He then lay there silently, slowly recovering his strength, while listening to the conversation between the brother and sister, feeling deeply moved.
Although Da Zhuzi was planning to throw his body into the Dangyang River, Yang Hongtao was not angry with him. If it were anyone else, they would probably do the same. When it comes to one's own interests, morality and justice are all nonsense. Human nature is despicable.
If it were someone more ruthless, it wouldn't be impossible for them to dismember him or feed him to the dogs.
Moreover, Yang Hongtao didn't die at all. Even if he did, it was because of that evil spirit that he was killed, and it had little to do with the brother and sister. Naturally, Yang Hongtao had no reason to hate them.
Volume 1: The Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 46: The Laboratory
Yang Hongtao didn't make things difficult for Gu Xiaoli and her brother, but he didn't intend to help them much either. Anyway, Yang Hongtao didn't owe them anything. In fact, you could say that he saved Gu Xiaoli's life. If he hadn't devoured the evil spirit that was possessing Gu Xiaoli, she would probably have been tortured to death by that evil spirit sooner or later.
Although Yang Hongtao was taking the blame for someone else this time, the fact that he unexpectedly gained such a huge amount of soul energy was a pleasant surprise, so the trip was not in vain.
Thinking about how he was supposed to go to the Xinda Chemicals laboratory today and meet with Wang Xuewei and her father at eight o'clock in the morning, but it was already almost ten o'clock, he figured the father and daughter must be getting anxious by now. He should have called Wang Xuewei first to explain, but... only now did Yang Hongtao realize that he didn't even know his nominal wife's phone number... This imposter husband was really not doing a good job!
Yang Hongtao didn't have time to waste any more words with Gu Xiaoli and her brother. He found a piece of paper to wipe the blood off his neck, dusted himself off, and then hurriedly left the shantytown, hailing a taxi back to the city.
After returning to the city, Yang Hongtao first went to the parking lot, drove his Mercedes-Benz, and then returned to the New Century Garden villa community.
Sure enough, before he even reached his doorstep, Yang Hongtao saw his nominal father-in-law, Wang Guohui, pacing around in circles in front of the villa like an ant on a hot plate.
Yang Hongtao got out of the car, smiled somewhat apologetically at his father-in-law, and said, "Dad... I'm so sorry, something came up and I kept you waiting."
"Ah...it's okay, it's okay...as long as you're back, it's okay..." The past two hours have been quite a ordeal for Wang Guohui. He drove over himself before 7:30, but his daughter told him that his precious son-in-law had gone out for a walk early in the morning.
He didn't pay much attention at first, but when it got to eight o'clock and Yang Hongtao still hadn't returned, he became a little anxious. He urged Wang Xuewei to call several times, but without exception, the calls went unanswered. This made Wang Guohui restless. He wondered if the formula Yang Hongtao mentioned was real, and he was also worried that Yang Hongtao had found a better partner and kicked Xinda Daily Chemicals out of the game.
Just when Wang Guohui was about to despair, he was overjoyed to see Yang Hongtao appear. At this moment, he naturally did not dare to put on airs as a father-in-law and scold Yang Hongtao. He simply asked why Yang Hongtao's phone was always unreachable.
Yang Hongtao hurriedly explained that he had lost his old phone and had just gotten a new one yesterday, along with a different number. He then immediately exchanged phone numbers with his father-in-law and repeatedly assured him that he would make a sample of the vaporized laundry detergent powder today. This finally appeased the old man, who then happily called out to Wang Xuewei to go to the laboratory together.
Yang Hongtao had no idea where Xinda Daily Chemical's laboratory was, so instead of driving himself, he and Wang Xuewei got into Wang Guohui's Santana.
Wang Xuewei clearly had a lot of opinions about Yang Hongtao, but since her father was right there, she couldn't do anything about it. However, her cold demeanor made Yang Hongtao, who was sitting next to her, feel as if he were sitting next to a freezer.
Since Yang Hongtao didn't really consider her his wife, he was too lazy to bother coaxing her. So he simply closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, letting Wang Xuewei sulk by herself.
We walked in silence for about half an hour before arriving at the laboratory dedicated to Xinda Daily Chemicals.
Professor He and his assistants had been waiting eagerly for this moment. All the equipment and raw materials needed for the experiment had been prepared in full, just as Yang Hongtao had requested.
Without saying a word, Yang Hongtao immediately gathered all the laboratory staff and assigned them tasks. They were divided into groups of several people, each responsible for a specific procedure. Some were responsible for purifying raw materials, some for pH balance, and some for purification and distillation...
Moreover, Yang Hongtao did not seem to hide anything from Wang Xuewei and her father when he did these things, which made Wang Guohui feel even more favorably toward this strange son-in-law.
After all, if the gasified laundry detergent powder is successfully developed, no one understands better than Wang Guohui what that means. In the face of such an expensive experimental formula, kinship and friendship are meaningless. So it would be normal for Yang Hongtao to demand that all technology be kept secret before a formal cooperation agreement is signed. But now, Yang Hongtao's actions clearly show his extreme trust in the father and daughter.
In fact, Yang Hongtao trusted that the father and daughter were not the kind of people who would abandon their support after using it. Another reason was that the preliminary work did not require much technical skill, so it didn't matter if others learned it.
To formulate vaporized laundry detergent powder, the truly challenging step is the final one: strictly blending and proportioning all the purified materials and reducing them to a white powder.
The mixing ratio of these materials is extremely demanding; even a difference of one percent will definitely lead to failure. Moreover, the mixing process must be repeated three times before the final shape can be determined.
The applied chemistry expert obtained the experimental data by sheer chance and ultimately succeeded. Otherwise, even if you knew all the raw materials needed for this gasified laundry detergent powder and the initial production process, it would be useless if you didn't know the final mixing ratio.
Even if you're willing to put in the effort to experiment repeatedly, if you don't know the secret of the final ratio and the subsequent steps, then you might not succeed even if you experiment a million times.
Because of this advantage, Yang Hongtao was not afraid of others seeing the production process of the gasification laundry detergent powder. The final step of blending and mixing had to be carried out in an absolutely closed environment. Even if Yang Hongtao wanted people to observe on-site, he would have to make sufficient preparations in advance.
Today, Yang Hongtao certainly didn't intend for others to observe, so he didn't inform the lab staff in advance to prepare.
Although the initial production process was quite complicated, the speed was not slow due to the collaboration of multiple people. It officially started at 11:00 a.m. and was basically completed by 5:00 p.m.
During this period, Yang Hongtao naturally stayed in the laboratory every step of the way, providing guidance on any problems that arose during the experimental process. Yang Hongtao possessed all the academic memories of that applied chemistry expert, so he was naturally very familiar with the work in the laboratory. Occasionally, he would take a few steps, and judging from his skillful technique and scholarly demeanor, he looked like an old expert who had spent half his life immersed in chemical experiments.
This made Wang Xuewei, who was already quite familiar with Zhou Ziwei's background, secretly puzzled. She really couldn't understand how a delinquent youth who hadn't even finished high school could be so knowledgeable about chemistry experiments. However, this also gave her more confidence in what Yang Hongtao had said earlier, and she looked forward to the future even more.
After completing the preliminary work, Yang Hongtao, Wang Xuewei and her father, along with the laboratory staff, had a boxed lunch together, and then he went alone into the fully enclosed mixing laboratory.
Once he went inside, he fell silent, leaving Wang Xuewei and her father, Professor He, and the others outside anxiously waiting.
However anxious they were, they had to endure it; otherwise, if it affected the experimental results, none of them could bear the responsibility. More than two hours later, the laboratory door slowly opened with a "beep," and Yang Hongtao walked out, looking exhausted.
When everyone saw the two small bags of white powder he was carrying, completely sealed in moisture-proof bags, their eyes lit up. However, the powder looked no different from ordinary laundry detergent. It seemed that the experiment's success would have to be verified through practice.
Volume 1: The Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 47: The Largest Shareholder