The Curtain Falls

Following his flood dragon mutation, Xie Tianshu possessed immense defensive resilience, and he soon scrambled back to his feet. Yet his body was numb, his muscles aching and limp. Whoosh! Without giving him time to fully recover, Li Weiyi's figure was already upon him. A yellow sword beam sliced through the air, cleaving straight toward his midsection. Xie Tianshu instinctively raised his claws to block. Squelch! With crushing momentum, the blade severed his scale-covered claw and gouged a deep trench across his abdomen. Blood gushed out uncontrollably. "Aaargh!" Shivering in agony, terror, and bewilderment, Xie Tianshu stumbled backward with a shrill shriek. This torment eclipsed even the earlier loss of his right arm, plunging him into despair. How could this be? He had grown so formidable, metamorphosing into a demon of boundless might, yet he was still utterly routed. Just moments ago, the sword in Li Weiyi's hand couldn't even pierce his black scales. Why had it suddenly become so terrifyingly sharp? His claw had been shorn away like soft tofu. He would never learn that the Yellow Dragon Sword fueled by hot qi and the Yellow Dragon Sword in its dormant state were entirely different implements. Because his misshapen, grotesque head had already been lopped off by Li Weiyi. Thud! The head dropped to the ground, and the colossal corpse collapsed. In an instant, the entire world seemed to fall dead silent. Li Weiyi stared at the thick blood welling endlessly from the neck of the headless giant, then glanced around at the slaughterhouse littered with corpses. Only Zhao Meng and Chen Hong, both with shattered legs, still lay there. The rest of the expedition members had fled the moment Xie Tianshu transformed, hiding in the distance and peering out with timid trepidation. It was hard to tell whether they feared him or the sea of corpses strewn across the deck. To people who had never witnessed slaughter, this gory spectacle was far too horrific—all the nightmares of their lives combined could never rival such a scene. Gradually, the killing intent ignited by grief and rage drained from Li Weiyi's body, leaving him as though every ounce of his strength had been hollowed out. His blood-drenched hands trembled uncontrollably, and he could barely keep his grip on the Yellow Dragon Sword. A wave of visceral revulsion and nausea surged up, threatening to empty his stomach. This was his first time taking a life—and he had killed so many in one breath. The shock to his soul was even greater than the moment he had plummeted onto the Bronze Ship. Li Weiyi's heart hammered like a rapid drumbeat. His mind swung between a blank haze and a sea of crimson as he slumped down onto Xie Tianshu's chest. His eyes met Xie Tianshu's severed head on the deck, though his pupils were completely out of focus. Qi Shanshan walked up beside him, crouched down, and gently tugged at his sleeve. "Weiyi, Weiyi, don't scare your sister Shanshan... What's wrong?" "Weiyi... It's sister Shanshan..." His senses slowly returning, Li Weiyi exhaled a breath of stale air and began circulating the Yuxu Breathing Method. Life gradually crept back into his eyes. Looking up at Qi Shanshan's exquisite, beautiful face so close before him, he said, "I'm fine... It's just, for a moment..." "Don't say another word." Qi Shanshan pressed a finger against Li Weiyi's lips in an overly intimate gesture, comforting him gently. "We know they got what they deserved. Don't carry any guilt on your conscience." Li Weiyi felt Dr. Qi was acting strangely, even showing a distinct lack of boundaries. She had never treated him like this before. Back then, she had referred to him and Gao Huan as the Crippled and the Maimed. Soon, more and more expedition members gathered around, all showing deep concern for Li Weiyi's well-being. They had never been afraid of Li Weiyi; they had only fled in terror from Xie Tianshu. What did it matter that he had killed people? Li Weiyi had risked his life to save them. In times of national calamity, people revere heroes; in moments of mortal peril, they worship gods. Li Weiyi was certainly no god, but when they were at their most vulnerable and desperate, he was the one who had led them out of the dark. Unaccustomed to being surrounded by so many people—their gaze filled with respect, awe, ingratiation, and flattery—Li Weiyi hastily stood up and hurried away as if fleeing, heading to check on his senior brother's injuries. Qi Shanshan followed him closely like a shadow in her physician's coat, a gentle fragrance trailing in her wake. It seemed she was determined to stick by his side. Zhao Meng had already been carried into the medical tent and laid flat on a cot, but he had long since passed out from the excruciating pain. His face was as pale as golden paper, and his breathing was faint to the point of vanishing. "Senior Brother, Senior Brother..." Li Weiyi gently touched Zhao Meng's swollen, purplish legs. At the knees, fractured bones protruded from the lacerations. The shoulder injury was just as gruesome, the joint severely dislocated and horrifying to behold. He hastily looked to Qi Shanshan, pleading earnestly, "Dr. Qi, please save my senior brother." "Leave this to me for now!" Recalling something, Qi Shanshan added, "Weiyi, your sister Shanshan knows you only care about your senior brother right now, but you need to go collect those imperishable items first. You earned them. Don't let people who didn't lift a finger take them, or down the road, they might grow arrogant with supernatural power and become the next Xie Tianshu or the next Kong Fan." Surrounding the cot, Old Liu and the other loyal followers of Zhao Meng nodded vigorously. By now, they looked entirely to Li Weiyi for direction. In their eyes, Dr. Qi was truly remarkable—she always knew what needed to be done in the moment and foresaw what might happen in the future. That demanded supreme rationality and composure! As for the rest of them, they had yet to fully recover from the sheer terror of the recent catastrophe. Leaving two female researchers inside the medical tent to serve as Qi Shanshan's assistants, Old Liu and the others stepped outside and immediately began kicking and punching the severely injured Chen Hong on the ground to vent their fury. The corpse-garment soft armor on Chen Hong, which had originally belonged to Zhao Meng, was naturally stripped off and presented to Li Weiyi for safekeeping. Li Weiyi discovered that after this battle, everyone treated him with utmost deference, exceeding even the respect once accorded to Captain Gao. He didn't have to lift a finger—someone took the silver-thread gloves, the scripture belt, and the dragon-patterned thumb ring from the bodies and brought them before him. Three expedition members even carried the ten-foot black spear over to the outside of the medical tent and set it down at his feet. Li Weiyi didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Was this an imperial robe being thrust upon his shoulders? One of the research team leaders even instructed Qin Ke to remain by Li Weiyi's side and assist him with whatever tasks she could. "Brother Weiyi... Younger Brother, you can just call me Keke." Qin Ke was Professor Xu's student and Gao Huan's classmate. Among the expedition, aside from Cai Yutong and Qi Shanshan, she and Liu Ying were the youngest and most attractive. However, she was exceedingly timid—when she had gotten hold of the shotgun earlier, she hadn't dared to keep it and had tossed it straight into the sea. Li Weiyi located the Daozu Taiji Fish, which lay near Han Qin's corpse. Wiping it clean, he hung it back around his neck. He then crouched down to examine Han Qin's head. Where the Daozu Taiji Fish had struck, the skull was fractured and swollen with dark hematoma. There was no breath left in him. "To kill a man from thirty meters away... It seems I ought to keep some stones, metal shards, or throwing daggers on me from now on. They could rival a pistol." With his current physical strength, the critical factor in killing with a stone was accuracy. With his eyes nourished by hot qi, his vision was extraordinary, and paired with the flying needle technique he had once learned in his sect, pinpoint accuracy was second nature. Xie Tianshu, Chen Hong, Kong Fan, and the security group members had all been too weak, which was why Li Weiyi's thrown-weapon surprise attacks had succeeded again and again. Against a genuine master, casually throwing or abandoning one's weapon was a cardinal sin. ... Director Yang lay curled on his side upon the deck. Having lost a massive amount of blood, his body was shriveled into a bag of bones. His hair had turned entirely white, and his eyes were cloudy and lifeless—he was clearly on the verge of death. Seeing Li Weiyi walk over, he used the last scrap of his strength to clutch Li Weiyi's pant leg, straining his neck and struggling to lift his head as if desperate to say something. Li Weiyi helped him into a sitting position. Seeing him in such a wretched state, Li Weiyi couldn't help but sigh with deep emotion. In just seven short days, how had things come to this? It truly felt like an eternity had passed. Clutching Li Weiyi's wrist tightly, Director Yang rasped in a pleading tone, "Return to Earth... Hurry back... You must take the Buddha relic... to the Ganlu Temple underground palace as soon as possible... You must... must... otherwise..." The strength in his fingers drained away, and he breathed his last. "What does he mean? Why go to the Ganlu Temple underground palace...?" Li Weiyi checked his pulse; the man was already dead. He gently laid Director Yang back down onto the deck. Standing nearby, Qin Ke spoke up. "Word has it that the Buddha relic was discovered in the Ganlu Temple underground palace." Li Weiyi figured Director Yang's obsession with recovering the Buddha relic and returning to Earth might be tied to this, so he went over to question the two bound researchers from Lab 705. However, the two knew very little and had no idea about the situation regarding the Ganlu Temple underground palace. At present, returning to Earth was entirely beyond their control, so Li Weiyi could only set the matter aside for now. There were far more pressing concerns aboard the ship. The Ghost Bear Emperor at the stern, the white bone demon in the grave mounds... They were far more dangerous than Xie Tianshu, Kong Fan, and Director Yang! Furthermore, this uprising still held many unanswered questions. ... Gao Huan and Old Liu led over twenty able-bodied expedition members into the nether mist, armed with riot shields, stun guns, steel rebar, cleavers, and various other weapons to hunt down Xie Jin and his four companions. Li Weiyi stepped back into the medical tent just as Qi Shanshan finished disinfecting, staunching, bandaging, and splinting Zhao Meng's wounds and broken bones. Yet Zhao Meng's eyes remained shut, his face deathly pale, still showing no signs of waking. Noticing the fine beads of sweat on Qi Shanshan's forehead, Li Weiyi said, "Thank you for your hard work..." "Take off your clothes." Qi Shanshan was packing away various medical supplies. Li Weiyi froze in surprise. Qi Shanshan turned around, her tone carrying both reproach and concern. "You only care about your senior brother's injuries? You're hurt yourself and haven't said a peep—are all you men so chauvinistic?" "They're just minor scratches. Nothing serious." Li Weiyi's injuries were on his left shoulder and right wrist. His left shoulder had been grazed by a small discharge of lightning from the black iron seal; the fabric was charred, and the skin was severely burned, throbbing with intense pain. His right wrist had been sliced by the rim of the ice coffin at the bottom of the mound. It had already scabbed over, but wielding the black spear had torn it open again. That spear was too heavy; wielding it with Li Weiyi's current strength was still a strain, and striking an enemy recoiled against his own tendons and bones. To Li Weiyi, who had cultivated hot qi, such injuries were indeed insignificant. They would be mostly healed in less than a day. Yet Qi Shanshan insisted, so Li Weiyi had no choice but to take off his shirt and let her dress his wounds. As Qi Shanshan bandaged his wrist, Li Weiyi studied her face and eyes, then asked, "I heard that before the mutiny broke out, you took Senior Sister Cai away. Where is she now?"