The emerald blade swelled catastrophically in Xiang Lie's pupils!
He tried to evade, but his body, still locked from the previous awkward movement, was rigid. And that longblade, pulsing with malevolent energy, moved like a specter, granting him no chance for recovery!
A sickening thwack—!
The dull, wet sound of a blade slicing into flesh echoed with gruesome clarity in the narrow corridor.
Xiang Lie felt a tearing, soul-shattering agony explode in his right shoulder! A pain far beyond any ordinary knife wound, as if his very essence was being ripped asunder! The blade, perilously close to his carotid artery, sank deep into the proud, massive bulk of his right trapezius—into Ah You himself!
Sizzzzzzzz…
A wisp of white smoke curled from the wound, accompanied by the stench of burning flesh. The green blade, as if imbued with a venomous curse, was furiously corroding his very tissue!
'MYO-GOD SYSTEM: WARNING! THRONE DAMAGE HAS EXCEEDED THRESHOLD LEVEL 1! REPAIR BLOCKED! REPAIR SPEED DECREASED BY 70%! REPAIRING… REPAIR FAILED… RESTARTING…' In his mind, the cold, mechanical system alert became frantic and chaotic for the first time, like a machine teetering on the brink of collapse.
Xiang Lie could distinctly feel his usually miraculous healing ability become agonizingly sluggish. The searing pain from the wound clung to him like a parasite, relentlessly assaulting his nerves.
"Giving up on me now, at such a crucial moment?" He gritted his teeth, cold sweat beading on his forehead.
"Xiang Lie! We must retreat!" Jing's voice was frantic in his mind, filled with unprecedented panic. "Your body is in overload! If you keep fighting, you will die!"
"No!" Xiang Lie refused without a second thought. He clamped his left hand onto Ye's knife-wielding wrist, preventing the blade from sinking deeper, his eyes bloodshot with pain and fury. "If we leave, what about Luo?!"
"But your body…"
"I'm fine!" Xiang Lie snarled, cutting Jing off with a suppressed roar. "Keep guiding me. Don't consider my emotions, and don't worry about whether Ah Zuo or Ah You will be displeased! Just tell me what to do!"
Jing seemed momentarily stunned by Xiang Lie's fearless resolve. She fell silent for a beat, then her voice reverted to cold, professional precision, like the most intricate tactical computer. "Alright. Relax your wrist, don't try to meet her head-on! Her strength surpasses yours! Lightly touch the spear's butt to the ground, use the earth to absorb her impact! Leverage her force against her! Yes! Exactly! Flow with the momentum of her cleaving strike, use the spear shaft to deflect her blade outwards, shunting her force!"
Xiang Lie's fighting style underwent a radical transformation in that moment. He no longer sought wide, overpowering frontal clashes. Instead, he became like a slick, elusive reef. No matter how ferocious Ye's assault, the black spear in his hand always managed, with the most exquisite angles and minimal effort, to guide the lethal blade harmlessly aside. The spear shaft danced through the green blade-light like an uncatchable eel, darting, weaving. Every seemingly perilous engagement was defused by his cunning finesse, a feather-light redirection of a thousand pounds of force. On the metal walls and floor, the deflected blade left gashes—raw, shocking scars—but Xiang Lie himself suffered no further substantial injury.
Xiang Lie's innate talent was laid bare in this moment. He grasped and perfectly executed every one of Jing's commands almost instantly, as if he were born a master of the spear.
"Xiang Lie… you are absolutely the most talented 'Master' I have ever witnessed!" Jing couldn't help but exclaim with genuine admiration after a successful block.
"Now!" Jing's voice abruptly rose. "Her old strength is spent, her new strength yet to rise!"
The Turn-and-Thrust! Ye, her guard wide open from her missed cleave, saw Xiang Lie's wrist twist, the spear striking out like a dragon, and her face instantly contorted with terror! She had expected Xiang Lie to be a beat slow, hindered by his own musculature, as before.
Yet, just as she believed victory was within her grasp, preparing to meet Xiang Lie's counter-attack with a grotesque grin, the tip of the black long spear, without warning, violently extended by half a meter! This sudden, shocking alteration was entirely beyond Ye's anticipation! She only had time for a shriek of horror, throwing herself backward with all her might. The suddenly extended spear tip grazed her nose by mere millimeters, snagging a wisp of blood-tinged hair!
Ye stumbled and scrambled to the far end of the corridor, her gaze on Xiang Lie filled, for the first time, with raw apprehension and lingering fear.
"Xiang Lie! Why did you hesitate?!" Jing's voice was filled with exasperated regret. "What a perfect opportunity that was! Just a fraction faster, and you could have pierced her heart!"
Xiang Lie gasped for breath, watching Ye, who was also panting, across the corridor. The hand gripping the spear trembled slightly. He whispered in his mind, "That last strike… if it had connected, would she have… died?"
Jing fell silent. After a long moment, she sighed, a note of weary resignation in her voice as she explained: "She is a degraded form! No longer one of our sisters! She is cunning, treacherous, driven only by the instinct to consume! To show her mercy is to be cruel to ourselves! Ah, what a pity… now she's on guard, seizing the opportunity again will be difficult."
Just as they lamented the lost opportunity—
CRACK—!
A single gunshot, dull and powerful, utterly unlike Ling's previous energy blasts, abruptly echoed through the base. The sound was not loud, but it carried an undeniable finality.
At the end of the corridor, Ye, poised to launch another attack, suddenly stiffened. A small, yet terrifyingly kinetic, solid slug pierced precisely through Ye's left temple, exiting from the right, trailing a fine mist of blood. The madness and savagery on her face froze. All light in her crimson eyes rapidly receded like an ebbing tide, leaving behind only endless void and stillness.
Thud.
The green longblade slipped limply from her hand, striking the ground with a sharp clatter. Then, as if all her bones had been removed, her entire body slowly, almost gracefully, sank to its knees, before finally losing all semblance of life.
Everything was over.
Xiang Lie stared blankly at the slowly collapsing corpse, for a moment unable to fully process what he was seeing. He instinctively followed the direction of the gunshot.
There, at the opposite end of the corridor, a man stood silently, having appeared at some unknown moment. He wore a pristine white lab coat, gold-rimmed glasses perched on his handsome face, his demeanor refined and gentle. In his hand, he held a classically designed revolver, from which a faint wisp of smoke still curled.
Seeing Xiang Lie looking his way, he slowly holstered the revolver, a familiar, warm smile, like the first breath of spring, gracing his features.
It was Mister Yi.