The filming set.
It was still that same bookstore, still that same old tree, but the person standing beneath the tree no longer had the same feelings as before.
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Yin Lan stood under the tree, staring blankly at the young man before her, her eyes filled with pain, struggle, and sorrow. Before her accusatory words could even leave her mouth, her eyes reddened first.
Yin Qi stood quietly at the courtyard entrance, holding a box of new books, as if he had already anticipated something. The smile that had been on his lips slowly faded.
"Sis?"
"Was it you?"
Yin Lan asked in a hoarse voice.
"What?" Yin Qi tilted his head slightly, evading the question. "Didn't Sis want to reopen the bookstore? So I had people thoroughly clean this place. Look, these are books I specially acquired. Having them in the shop in the future can attract more customers!"
"You know that's not what I'm talking about."
Emotions churned within Yin Lan's heart, but she merely closed her eyes, striving to restore clarity to her mind.
"If Sis doesn't like it, I can also—"
"Yin Qi!"
As Yin Qi spoke, Yin Lan finally lost control of her anger, sharply cutting him off.
Yin Lan rarely lost her temper. She usually spoke with great composure, and even when furious to the extreme, she would only hit people harder, never shouting so loudly to directly pour out all the suppressed rage within her.
Yin Lan's voice startled the birds roosting in the tree, and after the panicked birds cried out and fled the area, the entire courtyard abruptly fell silent.
No sound of wind, no chirping of birds, not even the sound of human breathing.
Yin Qi looked at Yin Lan, his handsome face seemingly masked by a heavy disguise. As usual, he moved his muscles to form a smile, but in this environment, it carried an eerie quality.
"Did you kill Old Wu?"
"Did you also kill Zhang Yiyu's entire family?"
"Where have all the test subjects overseas gone?"
"What exactly are you doing? Answer me!"
As Yin Lan spoke, a hint of mockery actually appeared on Yin Qi's face.
"Sis, what does any of that have to do with me?"
A gunshot tore through the sky. Immediately after, the books in Yin Qi's arms scattered across the ground. He was forced backward by the headshot, staggering back several steps.
Yin Lan instinctively reached out to support him, but images of her dead companions flashed through her mind. In the end, however, she coldly lowered her hand, watching the wounded man with a complex expression.
But Yin Qi didn't fall either; after stumbling back a few steps, he steadied himself.
Right in the center of his forehead was a bloody hole pierced by a bullet. Fresh red blood continuously gushed from the bullet wound, quickly staining his eyes red and streaming down his facial contours to his chin, dripping blood steadily.
Originally a young man with a sunny disposition and cheerful personality, paired with blood-red eyes, the aura around him abruptly transformed in style.
He twitched the corner of his mouth and looked toward Wu Wu and Evan who were running over.
Wu Wu immediately positioned himself in front of Yin Lan, saying sternly, "Yin Lan, don't be fooled by him! He's the leader of that organization! The people hunting us have always been his subordinates! He's the one who wants immortality!"
Evan also raised his gun, watching Yin Qi warily. "Yin Lan, we should evacuate this place quickly! This guy has been lurking beside us for so long; this place is no longer safe! He'll definitely try to wipe us all out in one go!"
Yin Lan didn't speak, merely staring at the blood-soaked young man, countless thoughts swirling in her eyes.
Finally, she just gently pushed Wu Wu, signaling him to move aside, then stood before Yin Qi again, carefully observing this relative who had accompanied her for many years and shared her bloodline.
On the lonely path to immortality, having someone of the same bloodline exist was undoubtedly a form of psychological comfort.
But perhaps she had been wrong.
Yin Lan closed her eyes, remained silent for a long time, and finally reached out her hand, opening her palm toward Yin Qi. "Give me your fragment."
Yin Qi blinked, allowing the blood on his face to flow freely, staring fixedly at Yin Lan. "Sis, you want me to die?"
After learning the secret of the fragments, they had used instruments with relevant functions to confirm the current location of the fragments on their respective bodies and re-hid them, essentially creating hidden "death points" for themselves, undetectable by others.
Generally, if the "death point" was breached and the fragment stolen, they would immediately lose their vitality and eventually turn into a pile of dried bones.
Yin Lan asking for Yin Qi's fragment was asking for his death.
"Yes." Yin Lan said decisively. "All of this should have ended long ago."
Yin Qi lowered his eyes, remained silent for a moment, then snorted a laugh. "Well, of course not."
The last glimmer of hope in Yin Lan's eyes completely vanished.
"Then it really is... there's no other way..."
The woman murmured softly, "I can't let you continue down this path of repeated mistakes—"
The next moment, her fist was the first to strike Yin Qi's face, directly sending him flying backward, crashing into the courtyard wall behind him.
Wu Wu also threw the twin blades in his hands, shouting sharply, "Yin Lan, catch the blades!"
Yin Lan raised her hand, but before her fingers could even touch the hilts, she felt an extremely fast gust of wind sweep past her face—
Startled, Yin Lan abruptly looked up and indeed saw Yin Qi appear out of thin air, his hands steadily snatching the two long blades. His figure moved nimbly, bending backward into a mid-air flip, tracing a sharp and elegant arc, then landing lightly behind Yin Lan. He raised his hand for a horizontal slash, one blade cutting into Wu Wu's neck.
That speed was simply too fast. So fast that Yin Lan only had time to see Yin Qi leaping and lingering in the air one second, and the next second she was splattered with Wu Wu's blood.
"Wu Wu!"
Evan raised his gun to fire, but in the blink of an eye, intense pain shot through his wrist. The other blade in Yin Qi's hand was firmly lodged in the bone of his wrist—if Evan weren't a test subject with a special physique, his hand would have likely flown off with that strike.
The situation with Wu Wu was similar; the blade was stuck in her neck, but she managed to grab it with her hands in time, preventing Yin Qi from pulling it back, and shouted, "Yin Lan, get out of here, now!"
Just from this single encounter, they finally understood the vast gap between them and Yin Qi.
How laughable and naive they had been to confront Yin Qi rashly!
Having already seized multiple fragments, Yin Qi was now terrifyingly strong. Forget about them, ordinary test subjects; even Yin Lan was no longer a match for him!
Facing Yin Qi meant certain death for them!
"Go!"
As Wu Wu spoke, he prepared to lunge at Yin Qi to block him, but Evan beside him was faster. He directly yanked the blade from his wrist, clenched his other hand into a fist, and hammered it toward Yin Qi's chest.
However, Yin Qi's reaction was too swift. He released the handle of the blade, shifted his body slightly to the side, and simultaneously used his other hand to violently punch through Evan's chest—
"Pfft—"
Evan spat a mouthful of blood, his expression rapidly turning ashen.
—In Yin Qi's hand, he now held a blood-stained fragment.
"This... this is impossible..." Wu Wu murmured, "How could you know—"
Before she could finish her sentence, Yin Qi had already turned around, retrieved the blade stuck in Evan's wrist, and swung it toward Wu Wu—and his target was precisely the location where Wu Wu had hidden her fragment!