“We could only rush this much.” Old Yuan, his messy hair atop his head, handed a spatial device to Xiahou Shaoxuan with an exhausted look. “Sixty guns and one hundred potions in total.”
Xiahou Shaoxuan took the spatial device. After remaining silent for a long while, he gave Old Yuan a military salute.
“Thank you!”
“No need!” Old Yuan waved lazily, then turned around and staggered out of Xiahou Shaoxuan’s room. “You just need to bring that brat Kumu back to me safely. Although I’m curious why those zombies are making such a huge fuss to capture him, you youngsters’ secrets aren’t something this old man is interested in asking about. I haven’t slept for several days. I’m dead tired. Whoever comes over early and makes a racket, this old man will definitely kick him to death…”
The door slowly closed. Old Yuan’s voice gradually faded into the distance.
Xiahou Shaoxuan tightly clenched the spatial device in his hand, his dark eyes cold and grim.
His ability had now broken through the absolute peak and entered the Breakthrough Stage. Although it had yet to stabilize, if he truly faced that person, it was not impossible for him to contend with him.
The optical brain in his hand gave a faint vibration.
Xiahou Shaoxuan put away the spatial device and opened the optical brain. An YI’s virtual image appeared.
“Major General! The Special Operations Squad is fully equipped and ready. Please give your orders!”
Xiahou Shaoxuan lowered his eyes. He picked up a golden military insignia from the table and fastened it onto his shoulder.
“Set out!!”
“Yes!!”
“Teacher.”
Wuma Yan walked to the window and draped a large cloak over Lian Qiguang. His voice was gentle, as though he was afraid of frightening the person before him.
Lian Qiguang indifferently pulled the curtains shut, then turned around and walked past Wuma Yan to the rocking chair, lying down. His eyes were slightly closed, and from beginning to end, he did not look at Wuma Yan even once.
Wuma Yan’s hands tightened slightly. His exquisite features were hidden in the darkness, carrying a hint of gloom.
Looking at Lian Qiguang on the rocking chair, Wuma Yan closed his eyes, concealing the bloodlust in their depths. He walked to Lian Qiguang’s side and bent down, his icy fingers gently brushing aside the loose strands of hair on Lian Qiguang’s forehead.
“Teacher, the moonlight is beautiful tonight. Let’s go outside for a walk.”
“Get out.”
Beneath that flat voice was a heart-chilling coldness. Lian Qiguang turned his face away, avoiding Wuma Yan’s hand. In just a few short days, Lian Qiguang had become even thinner. His originally rosy lips had now turned pale.
“Teacher, if this continues, your body won’t be able to endure it. If Teacher gets sick, I’ll be very angry.”
Facing Lian Qiguang’s coldness and disregard, Wuma Yan’s smile did not diminish. His voice was clearly gentle and considerate, yet it gave Lian Qiguang an inexplicable chill.
Lian Qiguang opened his eyes, a pair of deep, silent black eyes staring coldly at Wuma Yan.
“Are you threatening me?”
“No. How could I threaten Teacher?”
Wuma Yan’s sharp fingernails gently traced over Lian Qiguang’s handsome brows and eyes. His red lips, buried beside Lian Qiguang’s ear, whispered softly,
“I’ll listen to Teacher. Whatever Teacher wants, I’ll get it for you.”
Lian Qiguang forcefully pushed Wuma Yan away, stood up, and walked toward the door with an expressionless face.
He opened the tightly closed door.
The blood-red moon shrouded the earth beneath an eerie crimson glow, as though carrying endless sins.
Watching Lian Qiguang’s retreating back, something flashed through Wuma Yan’s eyes. He quietly followed.
Lian Qiguang walked to the side of a pond in the courtyard and stood with his hands behind his back, silently watching his reflection in the water.
Wuma Yan stepped forward, wrapped a cloak around Lian Qiguang’s thin body, and embraced him from behind.
“Teacher, it’s cold.”
Lian Qiguang raised his head and looked toward the sky. His expression was flat, his black eyes numb. He paid no attention to the sudden embrace, as though it did not exist.
This kind of Lian Qiguang made Wuma Yan somewhat panicked.
Lian Qiguang could hit him or curse at him, and he would not be angry. But Lian Qiguang was completely ignoring him like this, as though he did not exist at all.
Wuma Yan tightly held Lian Qiguang’s soft, warm body in his arms, yet he still trembled from the cold.
Clearly, this person was right beside him, held in his arms without the slightest distance between them.
But why?
Why was he still so cold and lonely, just like those countless terrifying days and nights throughout those three thousand years?
Heavy sorrow lingered around them.
The depths of Wuma Yan’s lowered eyes carried helpless grief.
Clearly, he had already embraced this person.
So why was he still so sad…?
“Teacher.”
Wuma Yan forced a faint smile, carrying a humble plea and cautious tenderness.
“Everyone knows that you’re coming. They’ve all been looking forward to it. Teacher, let’s go see them together, okay?”
Silence.
That kind of silence seemed to separate him from the entire world, as though Lian Qiguang could disappear at any moment.
The light in Wuma Yan’s eyes dimmed.
He slowly released Lian Qiguang and carefully held his shoulders, smiling.
“Let’s go, Teacher. I’ll take you to meet them.”
Like a puppet on strings, Lian Qiguang was led away by Wuma Yan.
They left the ancient courtyard, boarded a vehicle pulled by mutated beasts, and arrived at a huge villa located in the center of District Seven.
Inside the uniquely designed and luxurious villa, every few steps, several high-level zombies could be seen passing by.
Faced with the temptation of Lian Qiguang’s human aura, however, none dared offend him. They all moved aside, respectfully bent at the waist, and paid their respects without daring to raise their heads and look at him.
Wuma Yan led Lian Qiguang across the enormous courtyard and down a long corridor. Finally, a highly intelligent zombie led them to a large door.
After bringing the two of them there, the highly intelligent zombie left.
Wuma Yan smiled at Lian Qiguang and said gently,
“Teacher, we’re here. They’re all waiting inside.”
The door slowly opened.
Lian Qiguang’s pupils contracted slightly.
As the door opened wider, he looked inside.
In the spacious, clean hall stood a neatly arranged group of people, a hundred pairs of crimson eyes staring directly at him.
Lian Qiguang’s hand, hidden inside his sleeve, tightened slightly. A hint of ridicule flashed through his eyes.
They really were all familiar faces.
Half of them were people who had interacted with him before. Although he did not know the others very well, they still looked familiar. They had probably crossed paths several times in the past.
“Sir!!”
All one hundred and three people bent at the waist in unison, respectfully bowing ninety degrees.
Lian Qiguang silently lowered his eyes and slowly walked inside.
His footsteps landed on the polished floor, producing faint scraping sounds that were especially clear in the silent hall.
Lian Qiguang passed one familiar old acquaintance after another.
Suddenly, he stopped in front of a thin man.
Looking at the thin man, Lian Qiguang remained silent for a long time before slowly reaching out and placing a hand on his shoulder.
“…Su Lang.”
The man’s body trembled slightly. He slowly raised his head.
It was a face Lian Qiguang had once known extremely well, but now it was frighteningly pale. His pair of blood-red eyes no longer contained the warmth they once had.
Su Lang curved his lips into a smile, straightened his body, and gave Lian Qiguang a perfectly straight military salute, exactly as he had three thousand years ago.
“Sir.”
Lian Qiguang suddenly became somewhat dazed.
Su Lang.
The soldier he had personally trained, and also the person he had once trusted the most.
“Su Lang, your… lover, where is he?”
Su Lang’s body stiffened slightly. The smile at the corners of his lips became somewhat rigid, while pain and struggle spread through his cold blood-red eyes.
“He’s already dead.”
His low voice suppressed a sorrow so painful it was heartbreaking.
Seeing Su Lang’s suffering, Lian Qiguang really wanted to ask:
Then why are you still alive?
Your lover is already dead. What else are you unable to let go of?
What could possibly have allowed you to endure those desperate days and nights for three thousand years?
But looking at Su Lang’s trembling shoulders, the words at the tip of Lian Qiguang’s tongue were silently swallowed back down.
Lian Qiguang turned around and continued walking inward.
Finally, he stopped in front of a handsome and refined man. His eyes turned slightly cold.
“Qi Yin.”
The man raised his head and slightly curved his lips toward Lian Qiguang.
“Lord Dark Light.”
Qi Yin.
He had once been a mystic who lived in seclusion in the mountains during the apocalypse, proficient in astronomy and geography, capable of divining the past and seeing the future.
Later, when the zombie plants underwent their second mutation, Lian Qiguang had rescued him while out on a mission and brought him back to the base.
“You saw through my fate and divined my rebirth.”
Lian Qiguang reached out and gripped Qi Yin’s chin, expressionless as he looked into Qi Yin’s blood-red eyes.
“I wonder what price you paid.”
Qi Yin smiled, seemingly not displeased by Lian Qiguang’s restraint.
“Being able to meet Sir again, no matter what price I have to pay, Qi Yin has no regrets.”
Lian Qiguang stared closely at Qi Yin’s expression, remaining speechless for a long time.
After a while, Lian Qiguang released Qi Yin’s face and turned around, walking to the inner side of the hall.
Expressionlessly, he looked at the one hundred and three super-intelligent zombies.
“Teacher.”
Wuma Yan walked to Lian Qiguang’s side and smiled gently.
“Everyone is very happy to see you.”
Lian Qiguang swept his eyes over everyone and said coldly,
“I have never associated with zombies. As for zombies, the only thing I accept is the crystal cores inside their brains.”
His heartless words caused the light that had originally appeared in everyone’s eyes to instantly fade.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the hall became unbearably strange.
“For the sake of your selfish desires, you imprisoned them for three whole thousand years.”
Lian Qiguang looked at Wuma Yan beside him. The last trace of emotion in his eyes disappeared completely, replaced by endless disappointment.
“Wuma Yan, is this what I taught you back then?”
“No!”
Wuma Yan became somewhat flustered.
“I didn’t…”
“You became the very monster you once hated most, the monster you wholeheartedly wanted to drive away and slaughter.”
Lian Qiguang closed his eyes and brushed away Wuma Yan’s outstretched hand.
“How disgusting.”
“Wuma Yan, I’m truly angry now.”
Lian Qiguang stepped around Wuma Yan and walked toward the outside of the hall.
“Teacher!!”
After returning from the villa, Lian Qiguang locked himself inside his room.
No matter how Wuma Yan knocked on the door, Lian Qiguang did not give him another response.
That fragile wooden door could be crushed by a single finger from Wuma Yan.
But he did not dare.
He was afraid.
Afraid that he would once again see the disappointment and murderous intent in Lian Qiguang’s eyes that drove him mad.
His Teacher…
Had truly developed murderous intent toward him.
After sensing Wuma Yan leave the courtyard, Lian Qiguang opened his eyes and stood up from the rocking chair.
He looked at the completely enclosed room, removed his clothes, and placed them on the rocking chair, leaving his aura inside the room.
Then he turned around and entered the space.
The boundless forest was just as it had always been.
Only now, trapped within this green cage, there was also a highly intelligent zombie.
When it saw Lian Qiguang, the zombie, which had originally been extremely violent because of the life force surrounding it, suddenly became even more ferocious.
Its aura of killing intent grew increasingly dense, and its face, already almost identical to that of a human, twisted as it stared viciously at Lian Qiguang.
Lian Qiguang stretched out his hand.
A vine grew from his palm, rapidly wrapping itself around Lian Qiguang.
Lian Qiguang expressionlessly looked at the zombie and lightly flicked his finger.
The vines scattered.
“Come here.”
His indifferent voice caused a roar to erupt from the zombie’s mouth.
Its body flashed, instantly transforming into a shadow as it viciously pounced toward Lian Qiguang.
Lian Qiguang narrowed his eyes slightly.
The vines rose upright, forming four walls.
The zombie crashed heavily into the vines.
A shrill scream immediately rang out as it was thrown backward.
Lian Qiguang turned his palm.
A hundred vines flew out, intertwining together and wrapping the zombie tightly within them.
The moment the vines touched the zombie’s body, they left behind charred black wounds that could not heal.
The zombie let out one shrill scream after another, continuously struggling with its body.
But the vines only tightened further, deeply embedding themselves into the zombie’s flesh.
“Pfft!”
One vine pierced into the zombie’s chest.
The zombie roared before falling heavily to the ground. Its mouth opened and closed, but it could no longer move.
Lian Qiguang spread both hands.
The hundred vines wrapped around the zombie rapidly tightened.
In an instant, they tore the zombie apart into thousands of pieces.
Lian Qiguang walked over to the zombie, which now had only its head remaining.
He reached out one hand and silently looked at the seed in his palm.
Then he turned his head and looked toward the lake, an unreadable flicker moving through his eyes.
“Forced purification… irreversible?”
The virus had been fused into the blood.
Using the lake water to merge with it, he had forcibly evolved this weakened body that did not originally belong to him, completely fused his soul with his body, and thus eliminated the existence of a bottleneck, allowing himself to continuously break through.
“Just reaching the Illusion Stage has already given him this kind of power?”
Lian Qiguang looked at his own hands and murmured softly.
“But what price will someone who goes against the laws of heaven like this ultimately have to bear?”