Wanwan and Zhang Shuying both walked toward the ritual altar. Initially, Lin Family Disciples tried to stop us, but allowed us to pass with a glance from Lin Huan.
After ascending the altar, I said to Lin Huan, "Grandfather, I'm quite curious about Lin Gang's gift as well, so I came up to take a look."
"I am too," Zhang Shuying sneered, "Lin Gang, if your gift fails to impress the Taoist Master, he'll beat you until you're spitting up milk." Zhang Shuying spat on a piece of red talisman paper and stuck it on Lin Gang's forehead.
With a casual flick of his fingertips, the sorcery-bound ropes restraining Lin Gang easily fell away.
Lin Gang's face bore a malicious and hideous smile as he slowly pulled out a box from his chest and deliberately handed it to me, "My dear niece, Wanwan, do you recognize what's inside this box?"
As soon as Lin Gang finished speaking, I had a bad feeling in my mind.
But filled with malevolence, he opened the box, and as the wrinkled finger of a girl appeared, my head swam with dizziness.
"You... you..." I felt a surge of blood rush to my chest, nearly causing me to vomit blood.
It was simply... a loss of all humanity... heartless to the extreme...
Lin Gang knew all too well the soft spots in human nature.
He knew that I cared about Tangtang and couldn't stand anything happening to her.
That's why he deliberately showcased this severed finger to me, as though flaunting a war trophy.
Lin Gang tapped the lid of the box regretfully, "If it were reattached within twenty-four hours, it could have been restored perfectly. But it's been cut for three days now, and the finger has withered like this; it seems not even a deity can reverse this."
"What the hell is this? It looks like a child's finger. Whose unlucky child is it? I've had my eyes on you, so where did you get this finger from?" Zhang Shuying's eyes widened as he cursed nearly incoherently.
It was evident that he too could not stand it, desperately trying to conceal his heartache.
I could hardly breathe, "During the time Lin Gang was made to kneel in front of the Lin Family's gate, there must have been an accomplice... the accomplice gave it to him."
The Lin Family was exceedingly insular; it would be impossible for outsiders to approach the sect's gates.
The only possibility was that during Lin Gang's prolonged kneeling, the traitor had approached him and handed over the finger.
Lin Gang wore a look of disdain. The more shocked and devastated we appeared, the more pleased he was with himself for having grasped our vulnerabilities, "If you had been a bit kinder to me at the start, my heart would have softened, and I would have handed it over. You could have used the finger to reattach it, and Lin Xintang wouldn't have to live her life missing a finger."
"Damn it! You chopped off Tangtang's finger! I thought it looked pale and delicate, so familiar," Zhang Shuying erupted.
Zhang Shuying completely lost his composure; he leaped up, his shoes ejecting a sharp knife, as he aimed for Lin Gang's head, "I should kill you, should have killed you when I captured you."
This guy was as fast as lightning; I couldn't intercept him in time, "Don't, Xintang's life is still..." in his hands.
Before I could finish, Lin Huan swept through with a calm leg strike.
Meeting the whirlwind kick of Zhang Shuying, both men recoiled two steps backward.
Lin Huan: "Don't act rashly."
"How can I not be impulsive? Tangtang is such a treasure; she had her finger chopped off by this scum!" Zhang Shuying completely broke down, his eyes bloodshot as he roared like a wild beast.
"Lin Huan, out of everyone here, you most want to keep Lin Xintang safe," Lin Gang said with a faint smile, leisurely closing the box and tossing it toward Lin Huan, "As your son, of course, I should relieve you of your worries. Consider this severed finger a gift to you."