The Curtain Falls

After Xie Tianshu's dragon-like mutation, his body's defensive power became extremely strong, and he quickly stood back up.

But his body was numb, his muscles sore and aching.

"Shua!"

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

A yellow sword light sliced through the air, slashing toward his abdomen.

Xie Tianshu instinctively swung his claws to block.

"Puchi!"

The sword edge, with overwhelming force, severed his scale-covered hand and left a deep wound on his abdomen.

Blood gushed out uncontrollably.

"Ah..."

Xie Tianshu trembled in pain, terror, and confusion, retreating quickly while letting out a sharp scream.

This agony surpassed even the earlier severing of his right arm, carrying a sense of despair. He had become so strong, transforming into a demon with boundless strength, yet he was still utterly defeated.

Earlier, the sword in Li Weiyi's hand couldn't even break through the black scales on his body.

Why had it suddenly become so sharp?

His claws were cut off like tofu.

He would never know that the Yellow Dragon Sword, driven by scorching airflow, and the Yellow Dragon Sword in its normal state were two completely different things.

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

"Bang!"

The head hit the ground, and the corpse toppled.

In an instant, the entire world seemed to fall silent.

Li Weiyi looked at the thick blood still flowing from the neck of the headless giant corpse, then at the bloody slaughterhouse filled with dead bodies around him. Only Zhao Meng and Chen Hong, both with severed legs, still lay there.

The other research team members had long since fled after Xie Tianshu's dragon-like mutation, watching timidly from a distance.

Whether they were afraid of him or terrified of the corpses littering the ground was unclear.

This bloody scene was too horrifying for people who had never experienced killing before. All the nightmares they had ever had, from childhood to now, couldn't compare to this.

Gradually, the killing intent ignited by hatred and rage within Li Weiyi dissipated, as if all his strength had been drained away. His blood-soaked hands trembled uncontrollably, and he could barely hold the Yellow Dragon Sword.

A nauseating feeling, as if his stomach was about to turn inside out, surged up along with physical discomfort.

Killing for the first time, and so many people.

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

Li Weiyi's heartbeat was like rapid drumbeats. His mind went blank one moment, then blood-red the next. He sat down on Xie Tianshu's chest. His eyes met the severed head on the ground, but his pupils weren't focused at all.

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

"Weiyi... it's Sister Shanshan..."

Li Weiyi's emotions recovered. He slowly exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, then began practicing the Jade Void Breathing Technique. His eyes gradually regained focus as he looked at Qi Shanshan's beautiful, delicate face so close to him. "I'm fine. It's just that for a moment..."

"Don't say anymore!"

Qi Shanshan reached out a finger and pressed it against Li Weiyi's lips. The gesture was overly intimate, and she comforted him gently, "We know. They deserved to die. Don't carry any psychological burden."

Li Weiyi felt that Doctor Qi's behavior was too unusual, even lacking a sense of boundaries. She hadn't treated him like this before. Back then, she had called him and Gao Huan "the crippled and the broken."

Soon, more and more research team members gathered around, all concerned about Li Weiyi's safety.

They weren't afraid of Li Weiyi, only 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 act because he was saving them.

In times of national crisis, heroes are honored; in moments of mortal danger, gods are worshipped.

Li Weiyi was certainly no god, but he was the one who led them out of the darkness when they were most helpless and in danger.

Unaccustomed to being surrounded by so many people, respected, revered, flattered, and fawned over, Li Weiyi quickly stood up and fled like he was escaping, going to check on his Senior Brother's injuries.

Qi Shanshan, wearing her medical uniform, followed him like a shadow, her fragrance wafting in the air, staying close by his side.

As if she had decided to stick with him.

Zhao Meng had already been carried into the Medical Tent and laid flat on a medical bed. He had long since passed out from the pain, his face as pale as paper, his breath faint.

"Senior Brother, Senior Brother..."

Li Weiyi gently touched Zhao Meng's swollen, purplish-red legs. The wound at the knee revealed a fractured bone. The injury on his shoulder wasn't much better, with the bone severely dislocated. It was a shocking sight.

He quickly turned to Qi Shanshan and pleaded earnestly, "Doctor Qi, please save my Senior Brother."

"Leave this to me for now."

Thinking of something, Qi Shanshan added, "Weiyi, Sister Shanshan knows you're only worried about your Senior Brother's safety right now, but you need to go collect those Immortal Objects first. They're rightfully yours. Don't let those who didn't lift a finger take them. Otherwise, in the future, they might use their supernatural power to become the next Xie Tianshu, the next Kong Fan."

Old Liu and the other core members who had followed Zhao Meng, gathered around the hospital bed, nodded vigorously. Now, they looked to Li Weiyi as their leader.

They felt that this Doctor Qi was truly remarkable, always knowing what needed to be done in the moment and foreseeing what might happen next. This required extreme rationality and composure!

As for themselves, they had yet to fully emerge from the terror of the upheaval they had just experienced.

Two female research staff members were left in the medical tent to assist Qi Shanshan.

Old Liu and the others walked out of the medical tent and began kicking and punching Chen Hong, who lay wounded on the ground, venting their pent-up anger.

The Corpse Cloth Soft Armor, originally belonging to Zhao Meng, was naturally stripped from Chen Hong's body and handed over to Li Weiyi for safekeeping.

Li Weiyi noticed that after this battle, everyone treated him with extreme respect, even more so than they had ever treated Captain Gao. Without him needing to lift a finger, people retrieved the Silver Thread Gloves, Scripture Belt, and Dragon Pattern Ring from the corpses and brought them to him.

Three research team members even carried the ten-foot-long Black Spear to the entrance of the medical tent and placed it at his feet.

Li Weiyi found it both amusing and exasperating. Was he being forced into a position of leadership?

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

"Brother Weiyi... or little brother, just call me Keke."

Qin Ke was a student of Professor Xu and a classmate of Gao Huan.

Among the research team, besides Cai Yutong and Qi Shanshan, she and Liu Ying were the youngest and most attractive. But she was very timid; when handed a shotgun, she didn't dare keep it and threw it straight into the sea.

Li Weiyi found the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish, very close to Han Qin's body.

After wiping the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish clean, he put it back around his neck. Then he crouched down to examine Han Qin's head. The spot where the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish had struck had fractured the bone, with swelling and bruising.

There was no breath from his nose or mouth.

"From thirty meters away, it can still kill a man. It seems I'll need to carry some stones, metal shards, or throwing knives on me from now on—they could rival a pistol."

With his current strength, the key to killing with a stone was accuracy.

And his eyes, nourished by the scorching airflow, had extraordinary vision. Combined with the Flying Needle Technique he had learned in his sect, accuracy was no issue at all.

Xie Tianshu, Chen Hong, Kong Fan, and even the Security Team members—these people were all too weak. That was why Li Weiyi's long-range sword throws succeeded repeatedly. But against a true expert, casually throwing or discarding a sword would be a grave mistake.

Director Yang lay curled up on his side on the ground, his body drained of blood, withered like a bundle of bones.

His hair had turned completely white, his eyes were cloudy and lifeless, and he was clearly on the verge of death.

Seeing Li Weiyi approach him.

He used his last breath to tightly grip Li Weiyi's pant leg, straining his neck to lift his head, as if trying to say something.

Li Weiyi helped him sit up. Seeing him in such a pitiful state, he felt a surge of emotion. In just seven short days, how had it come to this? It truly felt like a lifetime had passed.

Director Yang clutched Li Weiyi's wrist tightly and, in a hoarse, pleading tone, said, "Go back to Earth... go back immediately. You must take the Buddha's Sarira... to the Ganlu Temple Underground Palace. You must... you must... or else..."

The strength in his fingers faded, and he passed away.

"What does that mean? Why go to the Ganlu Temple Underground Palace..." Li Weiyi felt for his pulse. It had stopped. He gently laid Director Yang back down on the ground.

Qin Ke, standing nearby, said, "It's said that the Buddha's Sarira was found in the Ganlu Temple Underground Palace."

Li Weiyi thought that Director Yang's insistence on retrieving the Buddha's Sarira and returning to Earth might be related to this, so he went to question the two restrained research staff from Laboratory 705.

But they knew very little and were unclear about the situation at the Ganlu Temple Underground Palace.

For now, returning to Earth was beyond their control. Li Weiyi had no choice but to set the matter aside for the time being. There were more important things to deal with on the ship.

The Ghost Bear Emperor at the stern of the ship. The White Bone Demon in the burial mound.

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

And this upheaval still had many unanswered questions.

Gao Huan and Old Liu led more than twenty young and strong research team members, armed with protective shields, stun guns, steel rebars, kitchen knives, and various other weapons, as they walked into the Nether Mist to search for the five who had escaped with Xie Jin.

Li Weiyi walked into the medical tent, just as Qi Shanshan finished disinfecting, stopping the bleeding, bandaging, and setting Zhao Meng's wounds and bones.

But Zhao Meng's eyes were still tightly shut, his face pale, and he had not woken up.

Li Weiyi looked at the fine beads of sweat on Qi Shanshan's forehead and said, "You've worked hard..."

"Take off your clothes."

Qi Shanshan was tidying up various medical supplies.

Li Weiyi was taken aback.

Qi Shanshan turned around, her tone both reproachful and concerned. "Are you only worried about your senior brother's injuries? You're hurt yourself, but you don't say a word. Are all men so chauvinistic?"

"It's just a minor injury. Nothing serious."

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

The left shoulder had been hit by a small amount of lightning released from the Black Iron Seal. His clothes were carbonized, and the skin was severely damaged—it was indeed quite painful.

The right wrist had been cut by the edge of the Ice Coffin at the bottom of the burial mound. The wound had scabbed over, but it had split open again when he used the Black Spear. That spear was too heavy; even with Li Weiyi's current strength, using it was still a strain, hurting both his opponent and his own bones and tendons.

These injuries, to someone who had cultivated the scorching airflow like Li Weiyi, were indeed nothing.

In less than a day, they would be mostly healed.

But Qi Shanshan insisted, so Li Weiyi had no choice but to take off his clothes and let her bandage him.

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