Weren't You Looking for Me?

Xie Jin shouted into the nether mist, "Li Weiyi! Your senior brother Zhao Meng is in our hands, and he's in pathetic shape. Both of his kneecaps are smashed to pieces! "Aren't you two devoted brothers? Hand over the Buddha relic, and we'll arrange for a doctor to treat him right away. "To hoard a single Buddha relic, you really are selfish. A spineless, cowardly weakling afraid of dying. Haha, nothing but a turtle shrinking into its shell..." Zhao Meng's legs and right arm had been broken by steel rebar, swollen purple from cut-off circulation. Xie Tianshu ordered his men to strip the clothes and pants from the man. Instantly, the dislocated arm bones and the forward-snapped shins were laid bare before everyone's eyes. It was a gruesome sight that sent chills down the spine, agonizing just to look at. Seeing him like that and listening to the muffled, agonizing groans that continually escaped his lips, even Xie Tianshu lost interest in torturing him. In such an excruciating state, any further torture seemed superfluous. "I'm getting old. You have to admit it when age catches up with you!" Kong Fan buttoned his clothes as he walked out of the medical tent. He complained about getting old, but the smile on his face couldn't conceal the smug triumph in his heart, glowing as though he had returned to his youth. He had only been inside for ten minutes. At the sight of the flabby, fleshy Kong Fan, Gao Huan's eyes went bloodshot with rage. He roared, "You're all fucking scum! I'll kill you!" Before Gao Huan could charge forward, a member of the kitchen crew kicked him to the deck. "Kid, you've got good taste. She really is fair and tender." Kong Fan gave a sneering, gloating laugh, looking as if nothing would please him more than to infuriate Gao Huan to death. Strolling over, he looked down at Zhao Meng lying stripped on the ground and said, "Still haven't gotten anything out of him? Xiao Lin, run to the kitchen tent and find a pot of chili oil. Fry it until it's boiling hot, then bring it over to spice things up for our first mate." Before long, the expedition member called Xiao Lin came running back with a steaming bowl of chili oil. Kong Fan instructed, "Pour the chili oil into his wounds. If he still won't talk, pour it down his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth all at once." The chili oil in that bowl had to be at least two to three hundred degrees. Just listening to Kong Fan's description made many of the expedition members tremble with fright, unable to imagine that someone could be so cruel. Only Zhao Meng remained calm, inwardly cursing that he lacked even the strength to kill himself for a quick death. He felt utterly pathetic, having dragged his sect's reputation through the mud. *Whoosh!* A shrill gust of wind tore through the air. A long streak of yellow light shot out from the nether mist, striking Xiao Lin directly in the right shoulder blade. It was a sword—the Yellow Dragon Sword. The entire blade punched clean through, leaving only the hilt protruding from his back. The violent momentum swept Xiao Lin off his feet and hurled him through the air, slamming him down two meters away. As Xiao Lin let out a bloodcurdling scream, the scalding chili oil flew from his grip and splashed across Kong Fan's feet. "Ahhh!" Kong Fan shrieked in agony, hopping wildly on one foot as bloody blisters swelled across his instep. *Clatter!* The sound of metal scraping against stone merged with heavy, rapid footsteps, bursting out from the depths of the nether mist and appearing before everyone's eyes in the blink of an eye. Li Weiyi advanced, dragging a spear behind him. Its tip scraped against the deck, kicking up a trailing trail of sparks. He moved with astonishing speed, scarcely slower than the Ghost Bear Emperor. Just as Xie Tianshu drew his handgun to shoot, the ten-foot black spear was already bearing down on his head with the crushing weight of Mount Tai. The wind generated by the swinging shaft tore at the eardrums. *Squelch!* Xie Tianshu ducked his head away by a hair's breadth. Yet the spearhead cleaved into his right shoulder, slicing through the joint like a knife through bean curd. His entire arm went flying. *Boom!* After severing Xie Tianshu's arm, the heavy spear slammed onto the deck, smashing a sunken crater into the surface. The pistol clattered to the deck alongside the severed limb. Xie Tianshu collapsed, clutching his spurting stump as he thrashed and convulsed in agony. Darkness swam before his eyes, driving him to the brink of passing out. "Brother Shu!" "It's Li Weiyi! He's all by himself! Kill him together!" Only then did the crowd shake off their stupor from the sudden onslaught. Though a few noticed that the spear Li Weiyi wielded was one of the heavy weapons from the skeletal humans—an unbelievable feat—now was clearly no time to back down. Led by Xie Jin, a total of five men lunged at Li Weiyi from different directions, brandishing an assortment of stun guns, riot shields, steel rebar, and kitchen cleavers. A single glance toward his crippled senior brother was enough to kindle an incandescent fury in Li Weiyi. He swept his gaze across them, his killing intent laid bare. Only seven days had passed! How could they have turned so utterly vile in just seven days? A week ago on the Arctic Ocean, they had still been chatting, laughing, full of youthful vigor and camaraderie. "Little Li, be careful... there's too many of them!" Old Liu, the head of the technical group whose hands were tied behind him, finally found the courage to speak up when he saw someone punishing these brutes. Like Old Liu, the others felt the sudden joy of a faint ray of light breaking through a pitch-black night of despair. Yet at the same time, they were gripped by dread. After all, Li Weiyi was only one man, vastly outnumbered. Even facing a concerted assault from five men, Li Weiyi showed no fear. A scorching current surged from the center of his right sole, and he sprang forward in two ferocious leaps. Ten feet per stride, his spear swept horizontally. *Bang!* The kitchen crew member armed with the cleaver never imagined that Li Weiyi could leap like an ape, almost seeming to glide through the air. Before he could dodge, the spear sent him hurtling dozens of feet away like a broken scarecrow. The ten-foot black spear weighed hundreds of jin. A single strike could crush every bone in a man's body. The cook crashed heavily outside the medical tent, blood spilling from his mouth and nose. He never rose again, his life undoubtedly extinguished. A security guard carrying a riot shield lunged to scoop up the fallen pistol. Li Weiyi caught the movement from the corner of his eye. How could he let the man succeed? *Thwack!* He hurled the black spear. It streaked nearly ten meters, punching straight through the riot shield and the security guard behind it, pinning him to the deck as a torrent of blood spilled out. It was brutally savage, cutting men down like weeds. Xie Jin and the others were terrified, their courage shattered, caught in paralyzing indecision. "Weren't you looking for me? Come on!" With that roar, Li Weiyi shot forward toward Kong Fan like a loosed arrow. Seeing that Li Weiyi possessed superhuman strength and speed, Kong Fan didn't dare face him head-on. Decisively, he lunged to grab Zhao Meng, intending to use him as a hostage. Without the weight of the black spear, Li Weiyi moved even faster, swift as a gust of wind. Before Kong Fan's hands could touch Zhao Meng, the wind of Li Weiyi's approach was already blasting against his face. *How can he be so fast?!* Scared out of his wits, Kong Fan abandoned Zhao Meng and threw a desperate, full-force punch forward. He wore the imperishable silver-thread gloves, granting him formidable power. Li Weiyi didn't evade, meeting the blow with a punch of his own. With a dull *crack*, Kong Fan felt as if his fist had slammed into a solid iron wall. Pain flared through his fingers as though they were snapping, and the bones along his entire arm rattled incessantly. That single punch shattered his delusions of transcendence, violently reminding him that he was still nothing more than a mortal. Terror gripping his heart, he spun around to flee. Li Weiyi gave chase, effortlessly pulling the Yellow Dragon Sword from Xiao Lin's shoulder blade as he ran past. In just seven strides, he caught up to Kong Fan and brought the sword down across his back. *Slash!* A gash nearly half a meter long and half a hand deep opened across Kong Fan's back, tearing diagonally down from his left shoulder and severing his spine. With a short, strangled shriek, he collapsed facedown onto the deck. Right at that moment, Sima Tan and two disheveled security guards stumbled frantically out of the medical tent. Catching sight of Kong Fan lying nearby in a pool of gushing blood and Li Weiyi standing like a blood-drenched god of slaughter with sword in hand, all three were so terrified their knees gave out, sending them tumbling to the deck. Li Weiyi paid them no heed, turning back toward the center of the fight. *Rip!* A casual flick of the Yellow Dragon Sword sliced through the ropes binding Gao Huan's wrists. In the next breath, Li Weiyi leaped more than three meters into the air, crossing a distance of five or six meters to bring his sword down toward another figure lunging for the handgun. The man, a security guard clutching a length of thumb-thick rebar, seized the pistol, a wild grin spreading across his face. The Yellow Dragon Sword plummeted from the sky and sheared through his neck. His head dropped and rolled away like a gourdvine fruit, blood erupting from the severed stump like a geyser. Li Weiyi's clothes were instantly dyed crimson with blood. With a flick of his foot, he kicked the handgun toward Gao Huan. Gao Huan snatched the weapon and charged straight toward the dying Kong Fan, firing three rounds in rapid succession. *Bang! Bang! Bang!* With every shot, a hoarse roar tore from his throat, driving him into a frenzy. Next, he spun toward the disheveled trio of Sima Tan and the two guards. The three scrambled to flee, running faster than they ever had in their lives. Gao Huan pursued Sima Tan, firing repeatedly. On the fourth shot, the bullet found its mark. Shot in the thigh, Sima Tan tumbled to the deck. Seeing Gao Huan closing in, he dropped to his knees, kowtowing frantically as he begged for mercy. "Gao Huan, Gao Huan, we're classmates! You can't kill me... killing me is against the law..." *Bang! Bang...!* Gritting his teeth, his eyes murderous, Gao Huan didn't listen to a word, pulling the trigger again and again. No one knew how many shots he fired until the magazine was completely empty, yet he kept snapping the trigger several more times. Out of bullets, Sima Tan lay crumpled on the ground, his head riddled with bullet holes. Gao Huan shuddered all over, his breath rattling in his chest. Clenching his jaw, he raised the empty gun and smashed it into Sima Tan's face, pounding it over and over until the entire skull was reduced to a mangled mess of flesh and bone. Only then did he collapse onto the deck, drained of every shred of strength. The other two disheveled security guards plunged headlong into the nether mist, too terrified to look back. Gradually, silence settled over the deck once more. Qi Shanshan walked along the bulwark with light, measured steps, her beautiful eyes brimming with astonishment. She couldn't believe Li Weiyi was this formidable, single-handedly wiping out the entire opposition. Looking at his tall, upright figure standing with sword in hand, paired with his calm, handsome face, ripples inevitably stirred across the calm lake of her heart. She couldn't help but admire Cai Yutong's keen eye. With his arm severed and blood pooling in a wide stain beneath him, Xie Tianshu's face grew paler by the second. Xiao Lin's injuries were lighter, but he didn't dare stand up. The slightest twitch would draw Li Weiyi's gaze straight toward him. That gaze was no different from the stare of the god of death. Xiao Lin babbled in terror, "I didn't do anything! It was all Kong Fan's orders, he forced us! Li... Brother Li... I won't do it again, I swear! From now on, I'll do whatever you say!" Ignoring him, Li Weiyi kept his gaze locked onto Xie Jin and the remaining security guard armed with a stun gun. At the same time, he directed the scalding current along the silver trace veins toward his ears, pushing his hearing to its absolute peak. Old Liu had just warned him to watch out for Chen Hong. Chen Hong held the rifle, and it was his ambush that had wounded Zhao Meng so severely in the first place.