Won't Let You

When the head of the second monstrous python burst through the wall, the one in Han Qingyu's grasp was still far from dead. The creature's vitality was shockingly resilient... and if nothing went amiss, two more would arrive right behind it. Feeling a twinge of exhaustion, he glanced over his shoulder. A figure swept in through the cavern entrance like lightning, the blade light in his hand unfurling like a bolt of white silk. God Lü, an S-grade fighter said to rank among the top five super combat powers of Azure's Huaxia Front, flashed through the air at a speed the eye could barely track. His blade severed the massive python head clean off before the beast could even let out a hiss, sending it tumbling to the ground behind him. Once on the ground, perhaps not yet realizing it had lost its body, the severed head still tried to slither forward. Its headless body continued squirming and thrashing its way out of the tunnel, writhing and tangling on the floor. By the time Han Qingyu and Wu Xu finally teamed up to dispatch the python they were dealing with, Lü Moyi had already slain another monstrous python and was locked in a struggle with the final one remaining. "Any more? If not, what are you two standing around for?! Come help... We're taking this one alive so those researchers can study it!" As Lü Moyi called out, he was sprawled completely over the giant python, clinging tight to its neck. Whenever the tail whipped around to constrict him, he kicked out with his leg like a horse bucking its heels... Truly, he didn't look like a super combat power in the slightest. Han Qingyu and Wu Xu had no choice but to step in, pinning down the tail like village hands holding down a hog's legs at slaughter. Together, the three of them forcefully subdued the beast and handed it over to the arriving soldiers. With that done, Lü Moyi stood up, still wearing his mask. He clapped his hands clean and said with a chuckle, "This is our second time meeting, right?" "Yeah," Han Qingyu nodded. "I remember back then, you were just really fast at running and could only stand on the sidelines and watch... Who would have thought that in just a few short months, we'd be fighting side by side?" Lü Moyi came across surprisingly down-to-earth, completely without airs. Pondering for a moment, he added, "What do you say we find a spot to chat? I've got liquor and peanuts back at my place." A chance to talk with an elite from Azure's super combat power rankings would almost certainly offer immense benefit; it was a rare and precious opportunity... Yet Han Qingyu shook his head. "I'm sorry. One of my teammates was critically injured. I have to go look after her." Lü Moyi looked up at him and nodded firmly. "All right! It just so happens I'll probably have to accompany them inside in a bit anyway." He glanced toward the tunnel in the wall and said, "We'll chat next time we get the chance." He didn't even ask about what was inside the tunnel, merely saying, "Go on. Hurry." ... The outreach troupe's dormitory was right upstairs from the auditorium—a large room with a dozen or twenty bunks. The girls, who had breathed a sigh of relief after seeing God Lü head off, had all returned. Some were sitting, some standing, some changing clothes or tidying beds, none of them speaking. A short-haired girl walked in from outside, cradling an enameled white basin patterned with flowers that held a toothbrush cup and an unfolded towel. Stopping at the doorway, she looked around and suddenly barked in a bright, cheerful tone: "Woof, woof, woof." She was the very one who had loudly declared earlier that she'd be a dog if she ever forgave that guy again. Tittering laughter broke out and swelled into a wave of shared giggles, pulling Nie Xiaozhen back from the scene she had witnessed when she glanced back earlier. Looking around with a smile, Nie Xiaozhen chimed in, "Woof." "Heehee, then me too—woof," another girl giggled. "What's wrong with puppies? Puppies are the cutest." No one could resist the sight of him returning soaked in blood, carrying his teammate in his arms. Just as they couldn't resist the fierce way he had shooed them away at the end, or the way he drew his blade and turned back to hold the line... Covered in wounds, he had pinned the giant python back against the rock wall. "I heard he has a nickname: 'dead iron straight man.' Apparently he has no clue how to talk to girls or interact with them, doesn't know how to look after them, and treats guys and girls the exact same way." "He's only passionate about source energy, right? I heard about that too! Supposedly back in Nepal, he ran around leading two Great Spikes, shouting 'Give me' the whole way, and snatched a ton of source energy blocks from the Self-Preservation Faction." "Then he's a source-energy dead-iron straight man. No wonder he's such a monster in combat." "Actually, that bracelet of his looks a lot like one my family has... But his is bound to become famous. Wonder who'll end up wearing it someday. And with all that, he still says he's going back home for blind dates once we win the war..." "What's wrong with blind dates? If the day ever comes when he really goes home for blind dates, that'll be hilarious. Wonder how big his village is." The floodgates of conversation were open, and the mood lifted with them. Amid the laughter, someone suddenly spoke up with an aching pang in her voice: "I heard that the fully armored girl he was carrying might never be able to come out of that iron suit for the rest of her life. Sigh..." In an instant, the room fell silent. They were all girls themselves. Putting themselves in her shoes for even a moment was enough for almost every one of them to feel that despair, as well as the strength the girl possessed in the face of it. "She seemed horribly injured back there. I wonder how she's doing now..." "Han Qingyu was badly injured too." The speaker looked around. "Xiaozhen, how about we go over to the hospital to check on them?" "Yeah, let's go see them, and thank him too. If the giant pythons had broken out back then, we definitely wouldn't have escaped..." Many girls chimed in, rising to their feet. Nie Xiaozhen checked her watch. "Never mind. They're probably undergoing treatment right now. It's so late, let's not disturb them. We can go first thing tomorrow morning." The next morning, the girls went together to the research institute's internal hospital and asked the doctors and nurses they knew. The answer they received was that Han Qingyu hadn't received any treatment at all after returning last night. Together with his teammates, he had kept vigil the entire night in the ward of the girl encased in iron armor. "Then how is that girl doing?" they asked. "The girl... There's nothing we can do," the doctor said apologetically. Inside the intensive care ward, the tidy room was uniformly snow-white. The window curtains were drawn back, occasionally fluttering in the breeze. There were no doctors or nurses inside. The doctors could do nothing more. Shen Yixiu, encased in her iron armor, had been placed inside a small source energy chamber, but the hatch of the device remained open. The source energy chamber was useless to Rusty Sister now. In her current state, she was utterly incapable of drawing in source energy from outside; even the source energy blocks installed on her suit could no longer replenish energy to her body. The iron armor was not shattered, merely covered in numerous fine hairline cracks, but even so, its internal circulatory system had been ruined, unable to maintain normal function. Wu Xu, Wen Jifei, Xin Yaoqiao, He Tangtang, and Liu Shiheng all stood in the room. They had been standing there all night. They wanted to speak with Rusty Sister, but none dared open their mouths, knowing that every word she uttered brought agonizing pain. Even without speaking, she was enduring unbearable agony with every passing second. Han Qingyu sat by her side, one hand pressed against the abdomen of Shen Yixiu's iron armor. His liquid source energy could not be poured directly into Rusty Sister's body either, but it could seep through the armor to form a transient layer of source energy protection over the surface of her body. The source energy channeled into the armor constantly bled away, so he just kept channeling, over and over, without stopping. "Qingzi." With a faint creak of iron, Shen Yixiu, who had shown no bodily reaction for a long time, suddenly turned her head slowly to look at him. Her voice was faint and strained. "You're very tired, aren't you?" "Not tired at all. What's there to be tired about?" Han Qingyu replied. "Don't talk." "But I'm very tired." With those words, Shen Yixiu finally returned to being a seventeen-year-old girl. Her strength and perseverance had at last reached the verge of collapse. "..." "It hurts so much, Qingzi... It hurts so, so much." Subdued sobs rose around them as tears were choked back. Even Wu Xu's eyes were red. Han Qingyu tried to speak, but his voice caught in his throat. "Don't cry, don't cry, okay? When I was with all of you, I was so happy. I didn't want to leave, so I held on for a really long time." After saying this, Shen Yixiu went quiet for a moment. "Did you bring the little mirror, Qingzi?... Let me see the little mirror." It meant she was giving up. "No." Han Qingyu shook his head fiercely. "No. I won't let you see it." "But I... I can't hold on anymore." "I don't care," Han Qingyu said. "The person Qiaoqiao reached out to is on a plane right now, rushing here. They'll be here soon, very soon..."