After pacing back and forth for several more minutes, Han Li finally stopped.
"Whether I make this deal or not... I'll decide when the poison proves truly impossible to cure," he concluded with a deep sigh. The weight of the decision still weighed heavily on him. He turned to glance at the giant outside, recalling the cryptic words in Mo Dafu's letter. His curiosity piqued, Han Li decided to test the method of controlling the giant.
He crouched down and picked up a small bronze bell from the pile of items. The bell was intricately made, small enough to fit in one hand, but it had a finely crafted, balanced proportion. The only unusual thing about it was the faint traces of bloodstains on its surface. It looked like a high-quality item but was clearly not an ordinary bell.
Han Li inspected the "Soul Calling Bell" closely. According to Mo Dafu's instructions, this bell was capable of controlling the giant—a feat Han Li found hard to believe.
He cautiously held the bell in his left hand, grabbed a small dagger in his right, and carefully approached the giant. When he was about two meters away, Han Li halted, unwilling to get any closer in case something went wrong.
The giant had its back turned to him, standing motionless.
Ding! A clear, bell-like sound rang out as Han Li lightly tapped the bell with the dagger. He frowned, thinking it was just an ordinary bell sound. Could this really control the giant?
He was beginning to doubt it, but before he could act on his suspicions, the giant's shoulders twitched slightly in response. Han Li's heart skipped a beat—there was a reaction! He quickly tapped the bell again.
Ding! Ding! Ding! The sound grew more rapid, and the giant's body started to tremble. After a few moments, the giant's steps became unsteady, and it eventually collapsed to the ground in a heap, completely unconscious.
Dust kicked up from the giant's fall, and Han Li, unprepared, ended up coughing and sneezing repeatedly. But he didn't have time to worry about that. His focus was on the giant. He quickly rushed to its side, yanked off its hood, and revealed the bloated, grotesque face underneath. Han Li recoiled slightly, an involuntary shiver running down his spine.
Suppressing his discomfort, Han Li used the dagger to make a small cut on his own wrist. Blood began to flow freely, and he smeared it on the giant's face. The blood sank into the giant's skin, as if being absorbed, until not a drop was left on the surface. Han Li watched in shock, his heart pounding in his chest. Even when his own blood began to seep through the cloth he had used to bind his wound, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the bizarre sight.
When all the blood had been absorbed, the giant's eyes snapped open. It slowly stood up, its expression vacant and lifeless. But when its gaze met Han Li's, Han Li felt a strange, foreign sensation welling up inside him. It was both unfamiliar and strangely comforting, like something had been added to his soul. This sensation—like the affection a pet might feel for its owner—clung to him, pulling at his mind.
Han Li was taken aback for a moment, but quickly regained his composure. He saw the giant's face soften, an almost obedient look appearing where there had once been a cold, lifeless expression. Han Li felt an overwhelming sense of control over the giant, as though he could command its every move, every breath.
Suppressing his excitement, Han Li issued his first command, testing the giant's obedience. "Destroy that stone door."
The giant didn't speak a word. It simply took several large steps toward the stone door. With a mighty swing, it brought both fists together and smashed the door into pieces. In just a few strikes, the stone was reduced to rubble. Then, like a whirlwind, the giant turned and returned to Han Li, standing obediently, awaiting further orders.
Han Li couldn't contain his joy. To have such a powerful ally who would follow his every command—he could hardly believe it. With this strength at his disposal, any danger would be trivial.
He continued to observe the giant with admiration, his excitement growing. The giant's previously grotesque features now seemed more tolerable, even somewhat endearing. In fact, as he looked closer, he began to feel a strange sense of familiarity. The giant's face, which had once seemed so alien and frightening, now appeared almost... familiar.
"Familiar?" Han Li froze, his eyes widening in realization. This face—he had seen it before. But where?
He studied the giant's features more closely—its swollen eyes, the broad nose, the chin, and the oddly proportioned face. Slowly, a horrifying thought crept into his mind. If he rearranged these features—shrinking them and reassembling them into their original shape—the face would look strikingly similar to someone Han Li had known well... someone who had disappeared several years ago.
"Zhang Ge?" Han Li whispered under his breath, his voice barely audible. It was a name that sent a chill through his body. The giant's features mirrored the face of his long-lost friend, Zhang Tie, whose disappearance had never been explained.
The realization hit Han Li like a thunderbolt. Could this giant truly be Zhang Tie's body, his soul long gone, as suggested by Mo Dafu's final cryptic words? The thought of Zhang Tie's soul having left his body, replaced by something else, was enough to make Han Li's stomach churn. But why had the giant's body grown so large and terrifying? What had happened to Zhang Tie's original form?
Han Li's hands trembled as he gently ran his fingers over the giant's face, tracing the lines that seemed to belong to someone he once knew so well.
Was this really Zhang Tie? Was the giant before him merely a shell, a puppet bound by some dark force? The more he thought about it, the more disturbing the idea became. Han Li couldn't stop the shiver running down his spine. This discovery only added another layer of complexity to the strange and dangerous world he now found himself in.
He took a deep breath, steadying himself, but the mystery of the giant and the dark forces surrounding him only deepened. Would he ever find the answers he was looking for? Or would this twisted reality only become more tangled as time went on?