After Xie Tianshu’s transformation into a Jiao-like mutant, his body’s defensive power was incredibly strong, and he soon managed to stand up again. Yet his body felt numb, his muscles weak and aching.
“Swish!”
Before he could fully recover, Li Weiyi appeared. A yellow sword light cut through the air, slashing toward his abdomen. Instinctively, Xie Tianshu raised his claw in defense.
“Splat!”
The sword’s edge, with the force of crushing rotten wood, severed his scaled claw and left a deep gash on his abdomen. Fresh blood flowed without stop.
“Ah…”
In agony, terror, and confusion, Xie Tianshu trembled, backing away quickly as he emitted a sharp, miserable cry. This pain surpassed even the despair felt when his right arm had been cut off earlier. Though he had become an immensely powerful demon, he suffered a miserable defeat.
Earlier, Li Weiyi’s sword had failed to penetrate the black scales on his body, so why, all of a sudden, was its edge so keen? His claws were sliced off as if cutting through tofu. He would never know that a Yellow Dragon Sword driven by scorching hot air was a completely different weapon from its ordinary form.
For his lumpy, bizarre head had already been chopped off by Li Weiyi.
“Thud!”
His head fell to the ground, and his corpse collapsed. In an instant, the entire world seemed to fall silent! Li Weiyi looked at the headless giant corpse on the ground, its neck oozing thick, clotted blood.
Glancing around the bloody slaughterfield littered with dead bodies, he saw only Zhao Meng and Chen Hong lying there with their legs severed. The rest of the expedition team had long since fled after Xie Tianshu’s brutal transformation, hiding in the distance and peering out timidly.
It was hard to tell whether they were afraid of him or simply terrified by the sight of so many corpses scattered all about. Such a gruesome scene was far too horrifying for those who had never witnessed slaughter. All the nightmares they’d had throughout their lives still paled in comparison.
Gradually, the killing intent in Li Weiyi’s body—ignited by resentment and anger—dissipated as if all his strength had been suddenly drained away. His bloodstained hands trembled continuously, and even the Yellow Dragon Sword felt difficult to hold. A wave of nausea and physical discomfort overtook him, as if his very stomach was about to be emptied.
It was his first time taking a life, and having killed so many people all at once. The shock to his inner self was even greater than when he had first fallen onto the Bronze Ship. Li Weiyi’s heartbeat drummed urgently, and his mind alternated between blanks and visions drenched in blood.
He sat down on Xie Tianshu’s corpse, his chest in contact with it, his eyes locked on the severed head on the ground—though in truth his pupils never really focused. Qi Shanshan moved to his side, crouching down and tugging at his sleeve as she whispered, “Weiyi, Weiyi, please don’t scare Sister Shanshan. What’s wrong with you…?”
“Weiyi… I am Shanshan,” Li Weiyi managed to say as his emotions recovered.
Slowly he exhaled a mouthful of foul air and then practiced the Jade Void Breathing Technique. Gradually his eyes brightened as he looked at Qi Shanshan’s beautifully delicate face so close before him.
“I’m fine, it’s just… a moment of…”
“Enough already!”
Qi Shanshan reached out, pressing a finger against his mouth, and pulled him close, her voice soft with comfort.
“We know. They died justly. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”
Li Weiyi thought that Doctor Qi’s behavior was so unusual—almost as if she had no sense of personal boundaries. She hadn’t acted like this before. Back then, both she and Gao Huan had referred to him with such reverence as “Heaven’s Worthy” and “Earth’s Worthy.”
Soon, more and more expedition team members gathered around, all concerned about Li Weiyi’s safety. They weren’t afraid of him—they were simply terrified of Xie Tianshu. How would taking lives be a problem?
Li Weiyi had risked his life to save them. In times of national crisis, true heroes are honored, and in moments of danger, people turn to the gods. Li Weiyi might not be a deity, but at their most desperate and helpless moment, he had been the one to lead them out of darkness.
Unaccustomed to being surrounded by so many people—people showing respect, awe, flattery, and praise—Li Weiyi quickly stood up and left in a hurry to check on his senior brother’s injuries.
Qi Shanshan, dressed in her doctor’s clothes, followed closely like a shadow, her fragrance gentle and persistent as she clung by his side, as if she had made up her mind to stay with him. Zhao Meng had already been carried into the medical tent and lay on a medical bed.
He had long since fainted from the pain, his face as lifeless as paper and his breath barely perceptible.
“Senior brother, senior brother…”
Li Weiyi gently touched Zhao Meng’s swollen, purple-red legs. At his knees, the wound was so deep that the bone had split open. His shoulder injury was similarly severe, with the bone terribly misaligned—an utterly horrifying sight.
Desperately, Li Weiyi looked to Qi Shanshan and implored, “Doctor Qi, please, help my senior brother.”
“Leave him to me for now!”
Qi Shanshan said, and then added as though she’d just thought of something, “Weiyi, Shanshan knows. I know you’re only thinking about your senior brother’s safety right now, but you must first retrieve the Immortal artifacts. They are rightfully yours.
Don’t let those weaklings with no strength fuss them away. Otherwise, who knows—if they one day gain supernatural power, they might become the next Xie Tianshu, the next Kong Fan.” The followers loyal to Zhao Meng, including Old Liu and his men, nodded vigorously.
They now saw Li Weiyi as their one and only leader. They believed this Doctor Qi was extraordinary—always knowing what needed to be done immediately and foreseeing what might happen in the future. That level of rationality and calm was not common at all!
Still, they had not yet fully recovered from the terrors of the recent catastrophic change. Two female research members remained in the medical tent to assist Qi Shanshan. As Old Liu and his men left the tent, they went out to vent their fury by relentlessly beating Chen Hong, who lay battered on the ground.
The soft corpse armor that had belonged to Zhao Meng had been taken off Chen Hong’s body and handed over to Li Weiyi for safekeeping. Li Weiyi noticed that after this battle, everyone treated him with extreme reverence—more than even they had once treated Captain Gao.
Without him having to lift a hand, people extracted from the corpse items such as the Silver Thread Gloves, the scriptures belt, and the Dragon Pattern Ring, and presented them to him. Three of the expedition members even carried a black spear nearly a meter long outside the medical tent and set it by his feet.
Li Weiyi couldn’t help but laugh through his tears. Was he being honored as if he had been cloaked in a yellow robe of authority? One of the research team leaders even ordered Qin Ke to remain by Li Weiyi’s side to perform tasks within her ability.
“Brother Weiyi… call me Ke Ke,” Qin Ke said.
She was a disciple of Professor Xu and a classmate of Gao Huan. In the expedition team, aside from Cai Yutong and Qi Shanshan, it was her and Liu Ying who were the youngest and the most beautiful. Yet she was timid—once she even dropped a shotgun into the sea instead of holding on to it.
Li Weiyi found the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish not far from Han Qin’s corpse. After cleaning the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish thoroughly, he placed it back around his neck. Then he squatted down to inspect Han Qin’s head.
The spot where the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish had struck showed fractured bones and a swelling bruise full of pooled blood. There was no more breath left.
“Even from thirty meters away, it could crush a person to death. It looks like I’ll have to prepare some stones, metal shards, or throwing knives in the future. They would be almost comparable to pistols.”
With his current strength, the key to killing someone with stones was precision. And with eyes honed by the scorching hot air and the flying needle techniques he had learned in his sect, accuracy was hardly an issue. Xie Tianshu, Chen Hong, Kong Fan, and even the security members—all of them were too weak.
That’s why Li Weiyi’s far-throwing sword techniques continually succeeded. Against real masters, however, casually throwing or abandoning a sword would be a grave mistake. … Director Yang lay on the ground, curled up and bleeding profusely.
His body had withered like a skeleton. All his hair was white, and his eyes were cloudy and lifeless, clearly the mark of a man near death.
When Li Weiyi approached him, Director Yang clutched onto Li Weiyi’s trousers with his last bit of strength, his neck straining as he mustered the effort to lift his head, as if he wanted to say something. Li Weiyi helped him sit up. Seeing him in such a pitiful state stirred deep emotions in him.
In only seven short days, how had everything changed so drastically? It felt as if a lifetime had passed. Gripping Li Weiyi’s wrist tightly, Director Yang pleaded in a hoarse voice, “Go back…
Return to Earth quickly. You must bring the Buddha’s Relics… to the Ganlu Temple Underground Palace… you must… or else…” The strength in his fingers faded, and he passed away.
“What does that mean? Why must we go to the Ganlu Temple Underground Palace…”
Li Weiyi asked as he felt Director Yang’s pulse. Already lifeless, the old man was gently laid back onto the ground by Li Weiyi. Standing nearby, Qin Ke said, “They say the Buddha’s Relics were found in the Ganlu Temple Underground Palace.”
Li Weiyi thought that Director Yang’s insistence on retrieving the Buddha’s Relics, and his desperate desire to return to Earth, might be connected to this matter. So he went to inquire with the two research personnel from Laboratory 705, who were tied up after being subdued.
But the two knew very little and were unaware of the details regarding the Ganlu Temple Underground Palace. At present, returning to Earth was not something within their control, so Li Weiyi had to set the matter aside for now. There were still far more important things to deal with on the ship.
The Ghost Bear Emperor at the stern, the Bone Demons in the heap of graves—they were far more dangerous than Xie Tianshu, Kong Fan, or Director Yang! And besides, there were many unanswered questions amidst this chaos. …
Gao Huan and Old Liu, together with over twenty young, strong expedition team members armed with protective shields, stun guns, rebar, kitchen knives, and various other weapons, walked into the Nether Fog to hunt down the five who had fled—Xie Jin and his men.
Li Weiyi proceeded into the medical tent just as Qi Shanshan was finishing a makeshift disinfection, hemostasis, bandaging, and immobilization of Zhao Meng’s wounds and broken bones. Yet Zhao Meng still lay there with his eyes tightly closed, his face ashen, still unresponsive.
Li Weiyi looked at the tiny beads of sweat on Qi Shanshan’s forehead and said, “Thank you for your hard work…”
“Take off your clothes,” she ordered.
Qi Shanshan was busy organizing various medical supplies. Li Weiyi was surprised. Turning around, Qi Shanshan chided him with a mix of reproach and care.
“Are you only concerned about your senior brother’s injuries? Even though you are injured yourself, you never said a word. Are you all such macho men?”
“I’m only slightly injured; it’s nothing,” Li Weiyi replied.
His wounds were on his left shoulder and right wrist. On his left shoulder, the Black Iron Seal’s discharged small amount of lightning had scorched his clothes, and his skin was severely damaged—painful indeed.
His right wrist had been cut by the edge of an ice coffin at the bottom of a grave mound, and though it had already begun scabbing over, it was cracked again when he used the black spear.
That spear was too heavy; with his current strength it was hard enough to use, and it ended up injuring his tendons and bones as well. For someone like Li Weiyi, who had already cultivated the scorching hot air within him, these injuries were hardly a big deal. They could be mostly healed in less than a day.
But with Qi Shanshan insisting, Li Weiyi had no choice but to remove his clothes and let her treat his wounds. As Qi Shanshan bandaged his wrist, Li Weiyi studied her face and gaze, and asked, “I heard that before the chaos broke out, Sister Shanshan took Sister Cai Xue away. Where is she now?”
(End of Chapter)