Curtain Fall

After Xie Tianshu's dragon-like mutation, his body's defenses had become incredibly strong, and he quickly got back to his feet.

But his body was numb, and his muscles were weak and aching.

"Swish!"

Before he could fully recover, Li Weiyi was already upon him.

A yellow sword gleam sliced through the air, cleaving toward his abdomen.

Xie Tianshu instinctively swung a claw to block.

"Splurt!"

With the force of dead wood crumbling before a gale, the blade severed his scale-covered claw and left a deep wound across his abdomen.

Blood streamed out without stopping.

"Ah..."

Trembling in pain, terror, and disbelief, Xie Tianshu staggered backward and let out a shrill scream.

This pain was even worse than when his right arm had been severed before, and it carried despair with it. He had clearly become so powerful, transformed into a demon with boundless strength, yet he had still suffered a crushing defeat.

Li Weiyi's sword had clearly been unable to break the black scales on his body earlier.

Why had it suddenly become so sharp?

His claw had been cut away as easily as tofu.

He would never know that the Yellow Dragon Sword driven by scorching air currents and the Yellow Dragon Sword in its normal state were practically two entirely different weapons.

Because his grotesque, uneven head had already been severed by Li Weiyi.

"Bang!"

The head hit the ground, and the corpse toppled over.

In an instant, heaven and earth seemed to fall silent!

Li Weiyi looked at the thick blood continuously flowing from the neck of the headless giant corpse, then at the bloody battlefield strewn with dead bodies. Only Zhao Meng and Chen Hong, whose legs had been broken, still lay there.

The other expedition members had fled as soon as Xie Tianshu underwent his dragon-like mutation, hiding far away and watching timidly.

It was unknown whether they feared him, or the corpses carpeting the ground.

This bloody scene was far too horrifying for people who had never experienced killing! Even every nightmare they had ever had since childhood combined could not compare to this.

Gradually, the killing intent ignited by rage and fury within Li Weiyi faded away. It was as if all his strength had suddenly been drained from him. His blood-covered hands trembled without pause, and he could barely hold the Yellow Dragon Sword.

A wave of emotional and physical nausea struck him, as though he might vomit up his stomach.

It was his first time killing someone, and he had killed so many.

The impact on his heart was even greater than when he had fallen into the Bronze Ship.

Li Weiyi's heartbeat pounded like urgent drumbeats. His mind alternated between utter blankness and a sea of blood. He sat down on Xie Tianshu's corpse's chest, his eyes meeting Xie Tianshu's head on the ground, though his pupils were not focused at all.

Qi Shanshan walked to his side, crouched down, tugged at his sleeve, and called softly, "Weiyi, Weiyi, don't scare Sister Shanshan. What's wrong with you..."

"Weiyi... I'm Sister Shanshan..."

Li Weiyi gradually regained his composure and slowly exhaled a foul breath. Then he began the Jade Void Breathing Technique. Light gradually returned to his eyes as he looked at Qi Shanshan's beautiful, delicate face close before him. "I'm fine. It's just that, for a moment..."

"Don't say it!"

Qi Shanshan stretched out a finger and pressed it against Li Weiyi's lips. She was far too close, consoling him tenderly. "We know they deserved to die. Don't carry any psychological burden."

Li Weiyi felt that Doctor Qi was acting far too strangely, even somewhat lacking in boundaries. She had not been like this with him before. Back then, she had called him and Gao Huan Heaven's Cripple and Earth's Lame.

Very soon, more and more expedition members gathered around, all deeply concerned for Li Weiyi's safety.

They were not afraid of Li Weiyi. They had only been afraid of Xie Tianshu, which was why they had hidden far away.

So what if he had killed people?

Li Weiyi had risked his life to save them.

When the nation faced calamity, heroes were revered; when people faced danger, gods were worshipped.

Li Weiyi was naturally no god, but when they had been at their most helpless and perilous, he had been the one to lead them out of darkness.

Unable to get used to being surrounded by so many people treating him with respect, awe, flattery, and fawning, Li Weiyi hurriedly got up and fled as though escaping, going to check on his senior brother's injuries.

Qi Shanshan, dressed in a doctor's uniform and trailing fragrance like a shadow, followed closely at his side.

As though she had decided to stick to him.

Zhao Meng had already been carried into the Medical Tent and laid flat on a medical bed. But the pain had long since made him faint. His face was the color of gold paper, and his breath was faint as mist.

"Senior Brother, Senior Brother..."

Li Weiyi lightly touched Zhao Meng's swollen, purplish-red legs with his fingers. Split bone could be seen through the wounds at his knees. The injury to his shoulder was no better, the bones severely dislocated in a ghastly sight.

He hurriedly looked to Qi Shanshan and pleaded, "Doctor Qi, save my senior brother."

"Leave this to me for now!"

Thinking of something, Qi Shanshan added, "Weiyi, Sister Shanshan knows you only care about your senior brother's safety right now, but you need to collect those Immortal Objects first. They're yours by right. Don't let those people who contributed nothing take them away. Otherwise, one day they may rely on possessing Transcendent power and turn into another Xie Tianshu, another Kong Fan."

Old Liu and the other core members loyal to Zhao Meng, who stood around the bed, nodded forcefully. They now followed Li Weiyi's lead in all things.

They felt that Doctor Qi was remarkable. She always knew what needed to be done most urgently, and she could also see what might happen in the future. That required the utmost rationality and composure!

Meanwhile, they had yet to completely emerge from the terror of the upheaval earlier.

Two female researchers were left in the Medical Tent to assist Qi Shanshan.

Once Old Liu and the others left the Medical Tent, they began kicking and punching the gravely wounded Chen Hong, who lay on the ground, venting the hatred in their hearts.

The Corpse Cloth Soft Armor that had originally belonged to Zhao Meng was naturally stripped from Chen Hong and handed to Li Weiyi for safekeeping.

Li Weiyi discovered that after this battle, everyone treated him with extreme respect. Even Captain Gao had never received such treatment. He did not need to lift a finger; people took the Silver Thread Gloves, Scripture Belt, and Dragon Pattern Ring from the corpses and brought them to him.

Three expedition members even carried the ten-foot-long Black Spear to the outside of the Medical Tent and set it down by his feet.

Li Weiyi truly did not know whether to laugh or cry. Had he just been draped in a yellow robe and proclaimed emperor?

One of the research team leaders even instructed Qin Ke to stay by Li Weiyi's side and do whatever she could.

"Brother Weiyi... I mean, little brother, just call me Keke."

Qin Ke was Professor Xu's student and Gao Huan's classmate.

Among the expedition members, aside from Cai Yutong and Qi Shanshan, she and Liu Ying were the youngest and prettiest. But she was very timid. After getting a Shotgun, she had not even dared keep it, directly throwing it into the sea.

Li Weiyi found the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish close to Han Qin's corpse.

After wiping the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish clean, he put it back around his neck. Then he crouched down to inspect Han Qin's head. At the spot where the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish had struck, the bone was fractured and bruised blood bulged beneath the skin.

He was no longer breathing.

"From thirty meters away, it could still smash a person to death. It seems I'll need to keep pebbles, metal shards, throwing knives, and things like that on me in the future. They can completely rival a handgun."

With his current strength, the most crucial thing for killing with stones was accuracy.

And with the extraordinary vision granted by eyes nourished by scorching air currents, combined with the Flying Needle Technique he had learned at his sect in the past, accuracy would not be a problem at all.

Xie Tianshu, Chen Hong, Kong Fan, including the security team members, had all been too weak. That was why Li Weiyi's long-range sword throws had succeeded again and again. Against a true expert, casually throwing away one's sword and abandoning one's weapon would be a grave taboo.

Director Yang lay curled on his side, having lost a massive amount of blood. His body had shriveled until he looked like nothing more than a bundle of bones.

All his hair had turned white, and his eyes were cloudy and vacant. He was clearly a man on the brink of death.

He saw Li Weiyi walk over to him.

Using his last breath, he tightly clutched Li Weiyi's trouser leg, craned his neck, and struggled to lift his head, as if he wanted to say something.

Li Weiyi helped him sit up. Seeing him in such a miserable state, he could not help but sigh inwardly. It had only been seven days. How had things become like this? It truly felt as though a lifetime had passed.

Director Yang tightly grasped Li Weiyi's wrist and rasped in a pleading voice, "Return to Earth... Hurry back. You must take Buddha's Sarira... to Ganlu Temple Underground Palace as soon as possible, you must... must... otherwise..."

The strength drained from his fingers, and he let go as he passed from the world.

"What did you mean? Why go to Ganlu Temple Underground Palace..." Li Weiyi checked his pulse. He had already stopped breathing, so Li Weiyi slowly laid Director Yang back down.

Qin Ke, standing nearby, said, "I heard Buddha's Sarira was found in Ganlu Temple Underground Palace."

Li Weiyi believed Director Yang's obsession with recovering Buddha's Sarira and his insistence on returning to Earth might be connected to this, so he went to question the two Laboratory 705 researchers who had been subdued and tied up.

But the two of them knew very little and had no understanding of the situation at Ganlu Temple Underground Palace.

Returning to Earth was not something they could control at all right now, so Li Weiyi could only set the matter aside for the time being. There were still many more important matters aboard the ship.

The Ghost Bear Emperor at the stern, and the White Bone Demon in the burial mound.

They were far more dangerous than Xie Tianshu, Kong Fan, Director Yang, and the others!

Moreover, there were still many suspicious points about this unrest.

Gao Huan and Old Liu led over twenty young, strong expedition members into the Nether Mist, carrying protective shields, Stun Guns, steel rods, kitchen knives, and all manner of weapons as they searched for Xie Jin and the other five who had escaped.

Li Weiyi entered the Medical Tent just as Qi Shanshan finished giving Zhao Meng's wounds and bones basic disinfection, hemostasis, bandaging, realignment, and fixation.

But Zhao Meng still had his eyes closed, his face deathly pale, showing no signs of waking.

Li Weiyi looked at the fine beads of sweat on Qi Shanshan's forehead and said, "Thank you for your hard work..."

"Take off your clothes."

Qi Shanshan was putting away the various medical supplies.

Li Weiyi was stunned.

Qi Shanshan turned around, both reproachful and concerned. "You only care about your senior brother's injuries? You were injured too, yet you did not say a word. Are all men this chauvinistic?"

"They're only minor injuries. It's nothing."

Li Weiyi's injuries were on the tip of his left shoulder and his right wrist.

His left shoulder had been hit by a small amount of lightning released by the Black Iron Seal. His clothing had carbonized and his skin was badly damaged. It was indeed extremely painful.

His right wrist had been cut by the edge of the Ice Coffin at the bottom of the burial mound. It had already scabbed over, but the wound had split open again from the recoil when he used the Black Spear. That spear was too heavy; even with Li Weiyi's current strength, wielding it was still a strain. While it injured others, it could also damage his own tendons and bones.

To Li Weiyi, who had cultivated scorching air currents, these injuries truly amounted to nothing.

They would be mostly healed in less than a day.

But Qi Shanshan insisted again and again, so Li Weiyi could only take off his clothes and hand them to her for treatment and bandaging.

While Qi Shanshan bandaged his wrist, Li Weiyi studied her face and eyes and asked, "I heard that before the unrest broke out, Sister Shanshan took Senior Sister Cai away. Where is she now?"