Heart (Second Update)

Chi Li looked puzzled and immediately got to his feet. Outside the window, two stories above the ground, he saw a familiar face he had not seen in a long time—

Bai Qi's guard.

The guard held his index finger to his lips, then silently mouthed for Chi Li to open the window from inside.

Chi Li hesitated for a moment before doing as told. Yet the window that had previously been completely locked down under an electronic restriction now opened. Even more confused, Chi Li became certain that something had happened. "What's going on?"

The guard still gestured for him to keep quiet, guiding Chi Li through the window. He whispered, "It's complicated. I can't explain it clearly right now. The emperor has sent people to arrest you. Si Jinyan can't get here in time, but Mr. Bai saw this coming and sent me to help you."

Chi Li frowned, instinctively sensing that something was wrong. He asked the part that troubled him most. "How did Mr. Bai know?"

The guard ran ahead and slipped into the bushes in the back garden, turning to beckon Chi Li over. "Keep up. They'll be coming in any second. If the emperor's men catch you, you'll really be finished!"

The guard's face was scrunched up with anxiety. He looked only a little over twenty, but he was sharp-tongued and nimble.

Chi Li's expression darkened. He stopped where he was, gripping an angular shard of stone he had picked up along the way. He demanded coldly, "And why should I trust you?"

Chi Li had long anticipated that his identity would sooner or later be exposed to more people. But even if the guard was telling the truth, he and Bai Qi were not close enough for this.

The guard grew frantic. "Just trust me! The emperor's personal guards are in the front courtyard right now. Your butler is holding them off. And Mr. Bai isn't an ordinary person. He can foresee..."

Before the guard could finish, he clamped his mouth shut. "I can't tell you those things."

Chi Li recalled the window, which had suddenly become openable despite having been under lockdown, as well as the fantastical sensory ability Bai Qi had mentioned when they spoke before.

Just then, a piercing alarm suddenly rang throughout the entire estate.

The guard froze, then grabbed Chi Li and took off running. "Go!"

Chi Li frowned. The relentless alarm blared beside his ears, keeping his nerves stretched taut, but he decided to follow the guard for now.

"Keep heading southeast. Don't stop," the guard said. "It's a little far, but whatever you do, don't stop. Once you reach the foot of a small hill with two dead trees growing on it, you'll naturally know where to go."

Chi Li still felt as though he had overlooked something. "I'll know where to go?"

The guard wiped the sweat from his forehead. "...Yes. Once you get there, someone will come meet you and send you back."

"Send me back?" Chi Li narrowed his eyes. "Send me where?"

The guard honestly shook his head. "I don't know. Mr. Bai only told me this much and told me to repeat it to you."

Still full of doubts, Chi Li ran for nearly half an hour. The alarm had almost faded beyond hearing when, during that brief lull, gunfire suddenly erupted behind him. Someone had caught up!

Chi Li's heart lurched. The guard said, "They caught up! How are they so fast..."

"You go first." The guard shoved Chi Li, slowing down to block those behind him.

"What about you?" Chi Li asked.

The guard did not seem panicked at all. He replied calmly, "I only need to complete the task Mr. Bai gave me."

Chi Li frowned.

Too many mysteries lay before him, but as Chi Li looked toward the forest stretching away from the estate, the corner of his mouth suddenly curved upward slightly. Whatever those mysteries were, he had gotten out in the end.

As long as he was out, where he went and what he did would be his choice.

The guard told him to hurry, and Chi Li no longer hesitated, running southeast.

Yet just as his figure disappeared into the hazy woods of dawn, the guard who had remained behind to cover him suddenly removed a compact sniper pistol from his waist. It was only palm-sized, but it could track a marked target within a hundred miles. Its bullets, made with Mermaid Scale, possessed tremendous penetrating power.

Looking through the scope, the guard aimed. The scope's beam could penetrate solid objects and track objects that had been marked beforehand. Only once the mark had been erased or struck could it no longer fire.

The nerve that had long kept Chi Li exceptionally alert to danger after hovering at death's edge suddenly tightened. He sensed the danger in advance and twisted aside, but the bullet still struck him.

The bullet entered directly through the left side of Chi Li's back and pierced his chest. His eyes trembled, and he dropped to his knees.

It was the location of his heart.

·

Before the incident, Si Jinyan received a call from Qiu Rui. He said that Lu Jiu's side had developed a drug capable of replicating the effects of Chi Li's pheromones and asked Si Jinyan to come to the research institute for testing.

Before receiving the call, Si Jinyan had attacked Chi Li after losing control. Hearing this, he glanced once more at Chi Li lying on the bed with his back to him, then got up and left.

Si Jinyan entered the research institute and was taken to a laboratory.

When an extremely potent anesthetic mist began filling the laboratory, Si Jinyan realized something was wrong—but it was already too late.

When he woke again, the drug had forced him fully into his Mermaid form. He was suspended from an iron frame, his several-meter-long tail hanging limply. Near its tip, a fist-thick iron chain had been nailed through it. The chain was connected to a device that continuously injected Si Jinyan with anesthetic.

His wrists were likewise bound by iron chains extending into the corners of the room. A syringe made of special metal had been inserted into each wrist, allowing Si Jinyan's blood to be extracted.

The room was extremely dry, its moisture deliberately removed. Si Jinyan had already been forced into his complete Mermaid form. His silver-black hair, upon closer inspection, resembled countless tentacles writhing in the air, clearly just as displeased with the overly dry environment.

Si Jinyan swept his gaze across all the researchers outside the experimental chamber, but did not see Lu Jiu.

Then Si Jinyan remembered that he had not seen Lu Jiu at all since entering.

He had fallen into a trap.

Si Jinyan looked dangerously at the people bustling about outside the glass chamber, their eyes filled with fear whenever they looked at him.

Thinking of something, Si Jinyan's tail lashed uneasily.

The person on duty outside the glass chamber had been watching Si Jinyan's every movement. It was his first time seeing such a terrifying yet beautiful monster in person, and when he saw that Si Jinyan had awakened, his heart leaped into his throat.

When he saw that, even under an anesthetic dose so powerful that its diluted form could sedate at least five giant elephants, Si Jinyan's tail could still move, he hurriedly sounded the alarm and shouted in panic, "Quick! Increase the anesthetic injection! He's awake! He can still move!!"

Si Jinyan had no strength to play these little games with them.

Yet moments later, a violent pain suddenly tore through his heart!

The pain continued, growing ever stronger. Si Jinyan had experienced this once before...

A hollow place within his atrium suddenly began to pound violently. There should have been nothing there, yet now it drove every organ and nerve in his body through pounding, fullness, tension, and pain originating from his atrium—like the sustained, desperate throbbing of someone on the verge of death.

Si Jinyan murmured two words.

The researchers saw only that Si Jinyan, who had been hanging his head moments ago, suddenly looked up. The golden vertical pupils spread through his eyes, eventually replacing the black pupils and transforming them into entirely golden irises.

The iron chains rattled. His massive tail slammed against them with brute force, trying to break free. The pierced scales regenerated with astonishing speed, and the edges of the chains showed faint signs of being worn through and severed by the silver-black scales.