"AGGGHHHH!"
It was a horrific scream. It was a sound of pure agony, ripping from human vocal cords with such force it sounded like the tearing of thick canvas.
Jin Hao froze. The blood drained from his face.
"Father?" Jin Hao yelled.
He kicked the door open. The fragile wood and paper shattered inward, sending splinters flying across the room.
Jin Hao lunged into the bedchamber.
His father, Jin Ren, was thrashing violently on the silk mattress. The older man's back arched off the bed, his spine bowing at an impossible angle. His hands clawed desperately at his own chest, tearing at the bandages Suyu had applied the night before.
"Father! What is it?!" Jin Hao dropped to his knees beside the bed, grabbing his father's flailing wrists.
The heat radiating from Jin Ren's body was unnatural. It felt like standing in front of an open furnace. The man's skin was a deep shade of crimson.
Jin Hao looked at his father's neck. The blood vessels were bulging against the skin, pulsing with a frantic speed.
"My chest!" Jin Ren gurgled, blood bubbling past his lips. His eyes were rolling back in his head. "Burning! It's tearing apart!"
Su Lian rushed into the room, stopping just inside the doorway.
Jin Hao didn't look at her, but if he had, he would have seen a flash of absolute shock warp her beautiful features. Her eyes widened in genuine disbelief, her hands flying to her mouth.
This was not the plan. The Viper's Kiss was a slow acting poison. It was designed to remain dormant for thirty days, slowly eroding the heart valves, presenting as a delayed complication from his torture.
It was meant to give her a month to bind Jin Hao to her side, using his dying father as leverage.
This violent reaction was entirely wrong.
"Suyu!" Su Lian screamed, her voice shrill with actual panic. "Check him! Now! What is happening?!"
Suyu rushed forward, her own face pale with confusion. She dropped to her knees on the opposite side of the bed. She grabbed Jin Ren's wrist, pressing two fingers against his pulse point.
The maid yanked her hand back instantly, as if she had touched a hot coal.
"His pulse," Suyu stammered, her professional composure shattering. "It's... it's too fast. I can't even count it. His blood is boiling."
"Do something!" Jin Hao roared, releasing his father's wrists and grabbing Suyu by the collar of her robe, lifting her slightly off the ground. "You treated him! Fix this!"
"I... I am trying, Young Master!" Suyu gasped, struggling against his grip.
Jin Hao dropped her. Suyu scrambled to open her medicinal box. She pulled out a white pill that radiated a freezing aura… a high grade Frost Heart Pill. She forced Jin Ren's jaw open and shoved the pill down his throat, massaging his neck to force him to swallow.
"This will slow his heart," Suyu said, her hands shaking. "It will cool the blood."
They waited.
One second.
Two seconds.
Jin Ren's back arched again with a sickening crack. The crimson flush on his skin darkened to a bruised purple.
"Hao'er..." Jin Ren choked out, a massive gout of blood spraying over his chin and chest.
His eyes locked onto Jin Hao's face. They were filled with absolute terror and an agonizing plea.
Then, a wet pop echoed from inside Jin Ren's chest.
His body went rigid. His eyes fixed on the ceiling. The bulging pulse in his neck ceased instantly. The heat radiating from his skin began to fade, replaced by the cold chill of death.
Jin Hao sat perfectly still on the bloody floorboards. The world around him tunneled down to the lifeless face of his father.
"Father?" Jin Hao whispered.
He reached out, shaking the man's shoulder. The body rocked limply.
"Father, wake up. The pill is working. Wake up."
Silence.
"System," Jin Hao commanded, his internal voice flat, devoid of all inflection. "Scan him."
[Scanning... Target life signs: Zero. Cause of death: Catastrophic internal organ failure. Massive myocardial rupture due to extreme thermal and kinetic stress on the cardiovascular system.]
He was dead.
Jin Hao stared at his own hands. They were covered in his father's blood. The man he had torn a dungeon apart to save. The man he had sworn to protect. Dead in a safe house.
"Explain," Su Lian's voice cut through the ringing in Jin Hao's ears.
Jin Hao looked up. Su Lian was standing over Suyu, her face twisted in a mask of grief and furious demand.
"Explain to me what just happened, Suyu!" Su Lian demanded, her voice shaking. "You told me he was stable!"
Suyu remained on her knees, pressing her forehead against the floor. She was terrified. She didn't know what had happened. The vial she had used was the Viper's Kiss. She had checked the seal herself.
She had no idea how the man's heart had just exploded. But she knew that if she hesitated, if she showed her confusion, Su Lian would kill her right here.
"Young Miss," Suyu cried, her voice trembling. "I... I did stabilize him! I cleared his meridians and treated the lacerations! But the torture... the Jin Family dungeon guards used barbaric methods!"
Suyu raised her head slightly, addressing both Su Lian and Jin Hao. "The trauma was too deep. The beatings must have caused microscopic fractures in his heart valves. When his Qi began to circulate naturally this morning, the pressure was too much for the damaged organs. The wound trauma triggered a cascading internal failure. The Frost Heart Pill was too late. I... I couldn't save him."
Su Lian staggered back, pressing a hand to her chest. Tears began to stream down her flawless cheeks.
She turned to Jin Hao, her eyes filled with a devastating sorrow.
"Jin Hao," Su Lian sobbed, dropping to her knees beside him. "I am so sorry. I am so, so sorry."
She reached out, hesitantly placing a hand on his arm. Jin Hao just stared at his father's body.
"This is my fault," Su Lian wept, burying her face in her free hand. "I should not have relied on my maid. I should have hired a Grandmaster Healer from the city. But... I was so afraid."
She looked up at him, her tears catching the light. "The city is swarming with Jin Family guards. They put a massive bounty on your head. They are offering ten thousand spirit stones for information. I was terrified that a doctor from the outside would recognize you. I was afraid that for that kind of money, anyone would betray us and alert Patriarch Bolin."
PS: Come on guys, we just need 44 more Power Stones for a bonus chapter. Let's push it, haha.
PS: There are 10+ Advance chapters available on the Patreon for those who want to read ahead. www.patreon. com/Drrajnovel