Li Xiang's all-out punch had drained almost every ounce of strength from her body. Agony like tearing muscle raced through her right arm, leaving half her body numb.
She staggered back two steps, her legs unsteady and her strength spent. Swaying on her feet, she nearly collapsed onto the grass.
[Holy crap, Li Xiang is a beast. She took down a lion with one hand.]
[I can't. Girl, aren't you a doctor? Wait, are you an orthopedic surgeon?]
[You know, Li Xiang never said what department she worked in. What if she is?]
[Hold on, hold on. Whatever department she's from, this still makes no sense!]
[But she broke her arm too. I bet someone's coming to save them. We're getting a new character.]
[Lion: Girl, what the hell?]
[Li Xiang: Don't underestimate my bond with medicine!!!]
Taiju hurried forward and steadied her swaying body. "Li Xiang! Are you okay?!"
Li Xiang bit her split lip. Cold sweat poured down her forehead, soaking her bangs, and the pain made her afraid to breathe too deeply. She managed a slight shake of her head, wanting to say she was fine, but barely had the strength to open her mouth.
Only two lions had fallen. The others stared fixedly at their prey, slowly closing in around them.
Taiju was strong, but two fists were no match for four beasts. With the badly injured, exhausted Li Xiang to protect as well, he could not hold out for long.
Li Xiang told Yuzuriha and Senku to go first. Her face twisted in pain, and she was close to her limit. "Go! Run! Get out of here, then come back for us!"
Senku took Yuzuriha and left. Filled with guilt, Li Xiang said to Taiju, "I'm sorry, Taiju. I made you stay behind."
But Taiju shook his head. "We're friends, Li Xiang!"
[Waaah, that's so touching. They'll survive, right?]
[Exactly! I believe in Li Xiang and Taiju!]
[My inner monologue is getting fired up. We're friends!]
The viewpoint abruptly shifted to a hidden corner of the wooded mountains nearby.
In the shadows, where no one had time to look, Senku, who had just retreated, understood better than anyone how deadly their predicament was.
Li Xiang was badly injured and completely drained.
Senku's narrow eyes rapidly scanned his surroundings. His frantic gaze suddenly caught something at the edge of a rock face.
A stone statue stood there silently.
Tsukasa Shishio-the strongest high schooler among all primates!
Senku did not hesitate for a second.
He quickly reached for the small amount of Revival Fluid he had kept close to his body, rushed up to the statue, and poured it precisely over his head.
Sss-
Faint sizzling filled the woods as the hard stone shell rapidly peeled away and shattered.
Only seconds later, Tsukasa Shishio opened his eyes, and a chilling aura of lethal intent swept through the entire forest.
After a brief explanation, Tsukasa Shishio hurried back with Senku and Yuzuriha.
Hearing the overlapping roars of lions, Tsukasa's gaze turned ice-cold, and he darted forward.
Facing several ferocious adult male lions, Tsukasa Shishio raised his hands and struck with clean, efficient movements.
Bones cracked and screams rang out one after another. The once-terrifying pride was no more than a swarm of ants in his hands, utterly incapable of fighting back.
Within moments, every rampaging beast lay on the ground.
[Is he even human?]
[Heh, Li Xiang doesn't look all that impressive now.]
[Dude, how are you comparing those two? One's a boxer and the other's a doctor. How is that a fair comparison?]
[Quit yapping and watch the show. If you won't, get lost.]
The battlefield fell completely silent, leaving only wreckage strewn across the ground.
Only then did they have time to examine their injuries.
Li Xiang could no longer lift her right arm at all. The bones in her forearm were fractured, and the flesh was badly swollen and bruised. It was a serious injury, with genuine bone damage.
The price of taking the beast's impact head-on had been an arm snapped by the force.
Yuzuriha's eyes instantly reddened at the sight of her twisted arm. She hurried over, tore off some clean fabric, and used it with rigid wooden splints to carefully immobilize and bandage the injury.
"Li Xiang... tell me if it hurts."
Li Xiang forced a faint smile and shook her head without saying a word. Relentless waves of dull pain continued to torment her nerves.
The scenes flowed onward, and the mood suddenly became peaceful and settled as their days returned to calm.
They stopped rushing from one dangerous adventure to another and settled in the wilderness, getting down to the work of building a little cabin camp of their own.
While recovering, Li Xiang helped sort supplies and plan their living space. Everyone had clear tasks, and they worked smoothly together.
Busy figures moved through the woods day after day. A simple but warm wooden cabin gradually took shape, and the desolate wilderness slowly began to look like home.
The warm, peaceful scenes of daily life drew to a close, bringing the episode to its official end.
The viewing screen in her mind briefly went black, then immediately switched over as the third episode began right on schedule.
The entire episode unfolded as a quiet retrospective, revealing the little-known experiences of Tsukasa Shishio's past.
Light and shadow shifted across the screen, taking the scene back to modern society before the petrification.
Only then did everyone learn why Tsukasa Shishio hated the adults of the old world and insisted on selecting only the pure to begin anew.
Tsukasa had grown up poor, with only his frail, gravely ill younger sister for company. Their lives had been impoverished and difficult.
His sister had developed a rare, incurable illness in childhood and soon fallen into a brain-dead coma, kept barely alive by a ventilator and life-support equipment.
To pay her staggering medical bills and save up for her surgery, he had shouldered every burden of their lives while still very young.
He trained desperately, practiced fighting relentlessly, and battled his way through competitions. With brute strength and sheer determination, he won prize money that barely covered their living expenses and her medical bills.
He had once been innocent and gentle, going to the shore to collect beautiful shells. All he wanted was to string them into a necklace himself and give it to his sister when she woke up.
Yet even that simple, pure wish had been crushed by the malice of the world.
A domineering local fisherman used his authority to bully the weak. He falsely accused the young Tsukasa of stealing resources from the sea, then punched and kicked him without listening to a word.
No one listened to reason. No one stood up for justice. Adult selfishness, brutality, and abuse of the weak came crashing down on the boy without disguise.
From that moment on, the young Tsukasa saw the filth of the old world for what it was.
Those greedy, selfish adults who held power, monopolized resources, and bullied the weak clung to a rotten old order, exploiting innocent young people without restraint or kindness.
The gentleness in his heart froze over completely. He stopped believing in the rules of the old world, and an obsession took root-
The rotten people of the old world, its selfish adults, and those stained with evil had no right to restart the world.
He wanted only to revive pure young people and innocent, vulnerable people, reshaping the world into something clean and free of oppression.
An entire episode of tender, sorrowful memories unfolded gently, leaving an ache in the heart.
The night was still deep, and everyone beside her had fallen sound asleep.
She looked up. Not far away, Tsukasa Shishio sat alone in the shadows, his back to the others. His upright figure looked lonely, and his mind seemed elsewhere.
Clearly, he too was caught in memories of the past.
Li Xiang remained silent for a moment, then finally rose and walked quietly over.
The cool night breeze stirred their clothes. All around them, there was nothing but the sound of the wind.
She did not beat around the bush. Breaking the silence, she asked softly, "Something's weighing on you, isn't it?"
Tsukasa did not turn around. He merely nodded, his low, level voice carrying an unshakable resolve.
"I have a younger sister..."
"Most adults in the old world were rotten and selfish, steeped in sin."
"The new world we restart doesn't need people that filthy."
"I won't revive those old people, or those evil people."
That had always been his principle and his ideal, unchanged from the very beginning.
Hearing his stubborn words, Li Xiang sighed softly.
"Tsukasa, I understand your past, and I understand why you feel so strongly."
"You've seen the worst in people and suffered the most unjust abuse. That's why you want to build a new world without any filth. I can understand that."
"But have you ever considered that good and evil have always existed side by side in this world?"
She lifted her eyes to the star-filled sky, each word clear and sober. "Birth, aging, sickness, and death. Good and evil, right and wrong. They're all natural parts of the world."
"No one is absolutely pure, and no one is absolutely perfect. Good people can be selfish, and bad people can have vulnerabilities too."
"If you insist on weeding out every so-called 'bad person' and forcing an absolutely clean world into existence, that simply isn't realistic."
"A truly new world isn't one that erases all darkness. It's one that can make room for good and evil, accommodate right and wrong, and keep renewing itself through the natural course of life."
Tsukasa stiffened slightly and remained silent for a long time.
His ideal was extreme and pure; Li Xiang's reasoning was clear-eyed and realistic.
After a long while, Tsukasa slowly stood. The gloom faded from his eyes, replaced by his usual cool detachment.
He merely cast a silent glance at the camp beneath the night sky, then turned away without a word. Step by step, he disappeared into the deep mountain forest, leaving alone.
[Could you leave me a review? Thank you. Something came up today, so I'm only posting 4,000 characters. Once I'm done, I'll go back to five updates a day.]
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