"He was the one being ambushed...?"
Among the reinforcements outside the canyon mouth, someone spoke to the person beside him, his expression dazed. The questioning tone was forced out awkwardly only at the very end.
They had all known this full well to begin with, and it was precisely why they had rushed here; by rights, there was no need to ask at all.
Yet the scene before their eyes... what had just transpired here, represented by this very scene—there probably were not many individual incidents in Azure's history that could compare to it.
And so the question arose naturally, even as the canyon before them clearly declared: yes, a meticulously plotted ambush had indeed just taken place.
By now, Han Qingyu had sheathed his left-hand blade over his shoulder, but the dead iron straight sword in his right hand was still drawn. Blood ran from the blade down to his wrist, up his arm, and coated nearly his entire Sole Witness Legion combat uniform. It was stained with his enemies' blood as well as his own... Multiple wounds were visible on his body at a glance, and a short blade was still stuck in his chest.
Stumbling, with great difficulty under everyone's gaze, that staggering silhouette began walking out from the canyon.
As he moved forward step by step, the scene behind him gradually unfolded:
Two pitch-black, freezing stone cliffs towering hundreds of meters high;
The far end of the canyon blocked off by the rock wall, the dead end where he had begun his life-and-death struggle against over a hundred men;
And extending behind his back, along the latter stretch of the canyon trail, a road paved with corpses.
Those standing outside tried to imagine every step Han Qingyu had taken earlier, how he had walked his way out from that death trap at the canyon's end, but they simply could not fully picture it.
Meanwhile, those who had witnessed it on-site—the Cleansing Faction and Self-Preservation Faction members still lingering on both sides of the canyon—were all averting their eyes from that scene and from the weakened figure trudging forward.
Why didn't they try to kill him?
They had tried! Who said they hadn't?
God only knew how many times they thought an opening had arrived, that he could be killed, and how many had stepped up to try... And those who had tried were now all lying behind him, weren't they?
"Wait, why... why is he turning back again?"
Amid the panicked recoiling, Han Qingyu suddenly turned around, walked back along the trail, and picked up two metal blocks from the ground. He examined them closely, stuffed them into his pocket, and then smiled in relief.
Two metal blocks. The last man standing gets them all—Yuan Qing had said it himself... He probably wouldn't object to Han Qingyu taking them now.
He was already dead.
"Qingzi."
Once the distance closed a little, Wen Jifei called out numbly, trying his best to use the tone from their school days, though it still sounded unnatural.
Han Qingyu's chapped lips parted in a smile. "Yeah."
"You're not gonna die, right?" The follow-up question sounded rather faint.
"No," Han Qingyu said, shaking his head. "I'm just hungry. I want some rice."
Hungry? Craving rice, of all things.
Those present who understood—such as his comrades from the two Huaxia squads—all broke into laughter. Those who didn't understand began asking one another, while those laughing gradually found their eyes welling up with tears, turning their heads aside to hide it.
"By the way, what's his name again?" a foreigner asked suddenly.
He didn't ask because he truly didn't know or couldn't remember, but because Han Qingyu's name was simply too difficult and tongue-twisting for foreigners to pronounce. Even Yin Caixin, who knew Chinese, had chosen to keep things simple after thanking him back then, referring to him as "Mister" all along.
"Qing," another foreigner answered, though he pronounced "qing" with an awkward fourth tone, turning it into something bizarre.
"King? Oh." The first man nodded solemnly, committing it to memory.
……
In truth, Shen Yixiu and Yin Caixin, who were both exceedingly weak themselves, couldn't resist walking forward a short distance to meet him, as Han Qingyu looked like he might collapse at any second.
Only when they reached him and reached out their hands did they awkwardly realize they didn't know how to support him.
Han Qingyu noticed and shook his head. "No need."
Then he looked at the two girls standing before him. They... were covered in wounds as well.
So even for a "dead iron straight guy," certain emotions—such as the involuntary surge of feelings upon meeting again after a disaster—surfaced naturally without needing a thought.
Taking in Yin Caixin's slender frame, her bloodstained combat uniform, and her reddened eyes, Han Qingyu stepped closer and saw her bitten, broken lip, as well as the speckles of blood and grime on her face. Her skin looked as though it had been scoured by a violent sandstorm, marred by numerous fine cuts.
Almost entirely instinctively, Han Qingyu raised a hand, cupped her cheek, and said, "Good work... That Invincible Wind-Fire Wheels of yours rolled forward, right?"
Yin Caixin looked up, smiled, and nodded vigorously. "Forward the whole way."
"Impressive."
Han Qingyu smiled.
Then he turned to Shen Yixiu, stared at her for a good while, and finally blurted out, "Iron Chick, you're not broken, are you?"
What did he mean, "not broken"?! Shen Yixiu was furious. She raised her hand, wanting to give him a smack like usual, but looking him over, she couldn't find a single spot where she had the heart to land a punch.
"I'm fine... What about you?" she asked.
"Not bad, just that I really can barely walk," Han Qingyu said quietly. "You two didn't even think to come help me earlier, just stood there staring."
Shen Yixiu let out a soft laugh, then suddenly seemed to remember something. Her brow furrowed tightly as she said, "Right, when we broke out, two masked men showed up at the very end..."
"Shh." Directly questioning and investigating this matter here was practically suicidal. Han Qingyu hastily reached out to cover her mouth—clack went the iron plate.
A second time. The second time he had covered her mouth.
This time, however, Rusty Sister didn't swat his hand away. She helplessly let him cover it, fuming, "You can't even cover it! I'm... so annoyed. Just say 'shh' from now on."
"Oh, right." Han Qingyu sheepishly pulled his hand back.
Shen Yixiu shot him a look, stepped over to his side, and tilted her head to gesture toward her shoulder.
Han Qingyu rested his hand on her shoulder, and the three of them walked out together.
"By the way, are you really stronger than me? Were you really letting me win before?" Shen Yixiu suddenly asked in a low voice, seeming to care quite a lot about it.
Han Qingyu shook his head and gave a weak smile. "Before, I genuinely couldn't beat you. Now... now we're probably about even. But just now, back there, I really was stronger."
"Huh?" Shen Yixiu was completely baffled by his fluctuating strength.
"I'll explain later," Han Qingyu said.
He was telling the truth. The energy that overflowed after absorbing the metal blocks—Han Qingyu guessed it was vitalized source energy similar to the Legion Commander's Twilight strike.
Unfortunately, he couldn't actively mobilize that energy for now, and he was also a bit afraid to tap into it.
If pushed into an unavoidable corner where he had to use it, his only option would probably be to try popping two metal blocks in quick succession to see if the same effect would occur.
Upon reaching the canyon mouth, Rusty Sister stepped aside of her own accord, letting Wen Jifei take over to serve as Han Qingyu's crutch.
"Can't stand?" Wen Jifei looked at him and asked.
Han Qingyu: "Yeah. Heart hurts too much to stand."
"Why?"
"So many people rushed over to help us, I have to say something, right?" Han Qingyu whispered. "And the whole way here, everyone was running their three-dimensional apparatuses. All that source energy..."
Gesturing with his head toward the canyon behind them, Han Qingyu continued, "I want to be generous and open-handed, but just thinking about it makes my heart bleed."
Chapter 144