"Hela, what happened to her?!" Liu Xiaogang turned to Xing Lan, his face full of worry.
Xing Lan glanced in Hela's direction, but said nothing as tears streamed down her face.
A little bewildered, Liu Xiaogang followed Xing Lan's gaze. His eyes widened instantly, his pupils trembling violently.
"He... la." Liu Xiaogang's teeth ground together as his hand slowly closed around the spear planted in the ground. His knuckles turned white from the force of his grip.
Over the past month and more, Liu Qianggang had long since come to regard Hela as his companion and had decided she was the girl he would one day win over. Every day, just looking at Hela's beautiful face made all his exhaustion vanish in an instant, and the whole world seemed beautiful.
But now...
Liu Xiaogang stared fixedly at the culprit before him, his eyes seemingly ready to spew fire.
"Ah!!" The spider old man seemed to sense Liu Xiaogang's power as well. He reached out with his one remaining forelimb and his two enormous hands, attacking all at once.
Gripping the end of his spear with one hand, Liu Xiaogang took a step forward, then shot out like an arrow loosed from a fully drawn bow.
A tremendous destructive force slammed into the spider old man like an explosion. His enormous body was shredded in an instant, turning into a great cloud of bloody mist.
After easily killing the spider old man, Liu Xiaogang immediately rushed toward Hela, who had been cut in half at the waist. Xing Lan, meanwhile, was still slumped on the ground, unable to recover her senses.
"Miss Xing Lan! Are you all right?!" A familiar voice came from behind her. Xing Lan turned her head slightly and saw Si Xiaobei and the others.
"Miss Xing Lan, what's wrong? Why are you sitting here? Are you hurt?" Si Xiaobei hurried over to Xing Lan, anxiously questioning her as he checked her body.
Looking at Si Xiaobei, Xing Lan could no longer hold back her tears. "Little Brother Xiaobei... it's, it's all my fault. I'm the one who got Hela killed. I, I... boo-hoo-hoo~" Xing Lan threw her arms around Si Xiaobei and burst into tears.
"What?! Miss Hela, she..." Si Xiaobei's little face went deathly pale in an instant.
Only Feng Xuan, standing nearby, wore a strange expression. "Hela isn't dead, though. Look, isn't she just fine?
"Hey, that's a pretty trendy outfit. Even showing off your belly button."
Feng Xuan spoke as he watched Hela slowly walk over. Liu Xiaogang, who had rushed over to her earlier, was now standing rooted to the spot, mouth hanging open, as though he had seen something incredible.
Hearing Feng Xuan's words, Xing Lan slowly lifted her head from Si Xiaobei's embrace. When she saw Hela standing there completely unharmed, Xing Lan froze for a moment, then flew over and knocked her to the ground.
"Boo-hoo-hoo! Hela, I thought you were going to collect your lunchbox! You scared me to death! Boo-hoo-hoo~!" Xing Lan clung to Hela, tears and snot streaming down her face. Liquid that could have been either dripped onto Hela.
Si Xiaobei patted his chest, too, relieved of a great burden. "That scared me to death. I thought Miss Hela had really died."
But Nanming's expression grew serious, and he asked Xing Lan, "Xing Lan, why did you think Hela was dead?"
Si Xiaobei and Feng Xuan also looked curiously at Xing Lan, wanting to hear why. After all, with all those tears and snot, she didn't look as though she had been lying or joking.
"Huh?" Xing Lan lifted her head. The angel froze for a moment, then began to think. Her brows soon furrowed slightly.
"Uh... well, because I saw her get cut in half at the waist?" Xing Lan sounded a little uncertain. After all, Hela was right there in front of her, whole and unharmed.
"Huh?!" Sure enough, everyone looked incredulous. "Um, are you sure, Xing Lan? Were your eyes playing tricks on you? Isn't Hela lying right under you, completely intact?" Feng Xuan said.
Xing Lan scratched her head in confusion. "I think it's strange too, but I definitely saw that monster cut Hela in half."
Nanming glanced at the obvious cut in Hela's clothes around her belly button. His eyes narrowed slightly, and he turned to Liu Xiaogang. "Xiaogang might have seen something," he said slowly.
Only then did everyone turn to Liu Xiaogang, who was still holding the same pose as before, like a statue.
"Hey, Gangzi! Did you knock yourself silly just now? What are you standing there in a daze for?" Feng Xuan called out to Liu Xiaogang.
Liu Xiaogang stiffly turned his head and spoke in a trembling voice. "I... I just saw Hela put her own body back together."
Those words struck everyone else like a bolt from the blue.
"Hey, Gangzi... you haven't really gone stupid, have you? What nonsense are you talking about?" Feng Xuan swallowed.
Liu Xiaogang shook his head. "No, I saw it with my own eyes.
"Hela really was cut in half just now. Her upper body was lying on the ground, and her lower body was still standing.
"Just after I got there, while I was wondering what to do, Hela's upper body suddenly crawled up. Then her lower body squatted down, the cut surfaces joined together, and she grew back together..."
Everyone froze. Xing Lan looked incredulously at Hela beneath her and asked tentatively, "Hela, is what Xiaogang said true?"
Hela blinked her large, peach-pink eyes, then nodded twice.
Xing Lan fell silent, as did everyone else.
Hela had been cut in half, then put herself back together. What did that mean?
It meant that either she had the ability to regenerate or come back from the dead, she carried a [Variant Artifact] with a similar ability, or someone had saved her.
But the last two possibilities were so unlikely as to be almost nonexistent. The most likely explanation was that Hela had a regeneration ability or an ability to come back from the dead.
But the problem was, why did Hela's regeneration ability seem so similar to that of [HeLa Cell], who had massacred City C? Add to that the place where Hela had been found, and it was hard for everyone not to sink into thought.
"Old man... old man, y-you can't leave me behind, old man..." The old woman nearby suddenly ran over and fell to her knees. Looking at the Variant's remains on the ground, she could not help bursting into tears.
Everyone came back to their senses. Xing Lan slowly got off Hela, then shot the old woman a fierce glare.
Liu Xiaogang also came jogging over, spear in hand.
"Old man... how could you be so heartless... abandoning me again... ah..." The old woman beat the ground, tears streaming down the wrinkles on her face. She looked even more distraught than Xing Lan had over Hela just now.
Si Xiaobei felt a little sorry for the sobbing old woman. Feng Xuan, meanwhile, looked at the Variant's remains with disgust. "Another disgusting Variant, a [Puppet Worm]."
"[Puppet Worm]?" Xing Lan looked at Feng Xuan.
"It's a disgusting Variant that grows by parasitizing corpses. It's also a little intelligent, and uses the deceased's family to hide itself, just like with this old woman. Then the deceased's family lures innocent people in so the deceased can stay with them in this form.
"This kind of Variant is relatively common, but you've been pretty lucky and just happened not to run into one on any of your missions."
"What a hateful Variant..." Xing Lan looked at the old woman kneeling on the ground and weeping. "But the people parasitized by [Puppet Worms] have already turned into monsters. Why do their families still willingly protect them?"
"They're someone to hold on to, I suppose. Life isn't all that beautiful, after all. Some people can't go on living if they don't have even one person to hold on to." Feng Xuan let out a deep sigh, and Xing Lan nodded, only half understanding.
Nanming slowly walked up behind the old woman and spoke. "Hello, ma'am. You've broken the laws of the Great Xia Nation by sheltering a Variant. Please come with us."