Xiahou Hetian rolled across the ground, narrowly dodging the giant python’s attempt to swallow him. The searing pain from his split-open back filled him with resentment. He really had no idea what kind of bad luck they had run into. Originally, they had encountered another group, and both sides’ objective had been each other’s nutrient agents. But just when the two sides were about to fight to the point of mutual destruction, this damnable snake had appeared.
This snake already possessed Earth-rank abilities. As for himself, even though he had advanced to Human-rank Level 8 because of the energy core Xiahou Shaoxuan had given him in the past, he still would not be a match for this monster, let alone now, when all of them were injured.
“Dammit, are we all going to die here today?” Xuanyuan Zhe spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva, wiped his face, and still wore that carefree, frivolous smile.
“If you want to die, don’t drag me down with you.” Xiahou Hetian snorted coldly. “My target is that person. I haven’t beaten him yet. I won’t be reconciled to dying.”
“Beat him?” Mu Anqi curled his lips, spat out the sand in his mouth, and nodded toward the giant python. “Then we’d better let it eat us.”
“You!”
“I have a feeling!” Shentu Sihao smiled, only to grimace in pain from the wounds on his face. “We definitely won’t die today. Besides, I haven’t even established a good relationship with my idol yet. I don’t want to die.”
“You’re still thinking about him?” Mu Anqi rolled his eyes.
“I’ve decided.” Shentu Sihao clenched his fist. “When we get back, I’ll transfer schools and get into the same class as my idol. Didn’t they have a saying in ancient times? ‘Those near the water get the moon first.'”
“Believe me, my brother will chop you to pieces!” Xiahou Hetian snorted.
Apparently angered by their carefree attitude, the giant python hissed furiously. Its enormous body moved rapidly as it lunged toward them.
Its massive tail swept across. Xuanyuan Zhe was caught off guard and struck by the snake’s tail, sending his entire body flying. Seeing the giant python right in front of him, Xiahou Hetian, who had originally been fleeing, suddenly stopped. He looked at Xuanyuan Zhe, secretly gritted his teeth, cursed, and without caring about anything else, threw himself forward and shielded Xuanyuan Zhe with his body, sending his fire-type ability crashing toward the giant python.
Just as the giant python opened its enormous mouth and was about to bite Xiahou Hetian, thin frost suddenly spread across the top of its head. In an instant, the giant python’s head was frozen into a lump of ice.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden turn of events.
Lian Qiguang slowly walked over. The giant python still maintained its attacking posture, its head frozen in ice that shimmered silver beneath the moonlight.
Lian Qiguang walked to the giant python’s side. With a faint crack-crack, the ice began to split into fine spiderweb-like cracks. Then, with a thunderous boom, the ice shattered, and the giant python’s head broke apart along with it. Its enormous body collapsed with a crash.
“！！！！” Everyone.
Instant… instant kill?!
“Idol!!” Shentu Sihao was the first to recover and cried out in surprise.
Lian Qiguang glanced at everyone, his gaze finally stopping on Xiahou Hetian. After remaining silent for a long while, he turned toward the giant python’s corpse.
“I say…” Xuanyuan Zhe pushed the stunned Xiahou Hetian aside and said helplessly, “Why did you jump in front of me? Or did you think one person wouldn’t be enough for it to eat?”
“Hmph!” Xiahou Hetian snorted coldly. “Am I the kind of person who would stand by and watch someone die? Besides, you’re my brother.”
The last sentence was spoken extremely softly, but Xuanyuan Zhe still heard it. The smile on his face also became a little more genuine.
Everyone said that Xuanyuan Zhe and Mu Anqi were Xiahou Hetian’s followers and subordinates, that the two of them stayed by Xiahou Hetian’s side merely to curry favor with him and with the Xiahou family. Yet no one knew that beneath what outsiders saw as flattery was the brotherly bond between three men who would live and die together.
“Idol, I knew you’d come save us.” Shentu Sihao ran to Lian Qiguang’s side with a grin.
Lian Qiguang gave Shentu Sihao a cold glance. The darkness in his eyes immediately made Shentu Sihao choke on his words. Lian Qiguang withdrew his gaze, walked to the giant python’s side, and gathered an ice spike in his hand. With a swift rise and fall of his hand, a piece of bright-red snake meat fell into his palm.
Lian Qiguang turned around, found a clean spot, and sat cross-legged. He pressed his palm against the ground and condensed an ice table, placing the snake meat on top.
“What are you going to do?” Xiahou Hetian walked over to Lian Qiguang and asked suspiciously.
“Eat.”
Although the lake water had kept him going, Lian Qiguang had gone a full day and night without eating and was already extremely hungry. Although this giant python had mutated, it did not carry any viruses and was edible.
“Then… then I’ll help you roast it.” Xiahou Hetian awkwardly crouched beside Lian Qiguang. As he spoke, he was about to summon his fire-type ability.
“Where there is one snake, there will be a snake colony. If you want to attract tens of thousands of pythons to attack us, go ahead and light a fire.”
Lian Qiguang spoke indifferently.
It wasn’t that Lian Qiguang was timid or afraid of trouble. Although his abilities were powerful, he could not withstand endless waves of attacks. Moreover, his body was currently unwell.
In his previous life, he had once been ordered to go to a laboratory in a city to search for equipment. On the way back, they had passed through a small valley. An ability user had casually killed a mutated snake and eaten it, which ended up attracting an attack from an entire snake colony.
Tens of thousands of poisonous snakes had coiled together and surged toward them. The densely packed mass was enough to make one’s scalp crawl.
That time, their entire team had two hundred people.
In the end, only he was left alive.
Lian Qiguang was not afraid of snakes, but ever since that incident, it had still left a shadow in his heart. Even now, thinking about it made goosebumps rise all over his body.
A snake colony?
Tens of thousands of them… giant pythons?
Just like that one from before?
Xiahou Hetian froze. The others around him also went rigid.
Did he mean that they were currently inside the “encirclement” of a snake colony?!
“Then… what are you going to do?” Xiahou Hetian gestured toward the snake meat in front of Lian Qiguang.
Lian Qiguang looked at the snake meat. An ice blade formed in his hand. With several swift motions, the entire piece of snake meat instantly fell apart, forming thin slices.
Under the horrified gazes of everyone present, Lian Qiguang picked up a pair of ice chopsticks he had formed, grasped a slice of blood-soaked snake meat, and calmly put it into his mouth.
“You…” Xiahou Hetian’s eyes widened as he stared at Lian Qiguang’s moving mouth.
The others immediately felt their stomachs churn and hurried to the side to vomit.
“Are you crazy!” Xiahou Hetian rushed over and grabbed Lian Qiguang by the shoulder. “Spit it out! If you’re hungry, here, take my nutrient agent.”
Seeing Xiahou Hetian pull out the single remaining nutrient agent he had without hesitation, Lian Qiguang’s eyes flickered slightly.
“No need.”
“Don’t be stubborn! Can this even be eaten? It’s raw! Spit it out!”
“Why can’t it be eaten?” Lian Qiguang broke free of Xiahou Hetian’s grip, picked up another piece of snake meat, and put it into his mouth, his expression remaining impassive.
“When I was driven into a dead end, I even ate corpses. Compared to that, this is already a delicious meal that I was lucky enough to have.”
Lian Qiguang thought for a moment, then added, “Human corpses are very sour.”
Corpses?
He had eaten human flesh?
The people who had just finished vomiting immediately felt even more nauseated and began vomiting again.
“Cor… corpses? What nonsense are you talking about?” Xiahou Hetian stared blankly at Lian Qiguang.
“You are a soldier.” Lian Qiguang raised his head and looked at Xiahou Hetian, speaking calmly. “If one day you go to the battlefield and become trapped in a desperate situation, with your equipment gone, your food gone, and nothing around you except layer upon layer of enemy corpses, what will you do then?”
“I…”
“Starve to death for the sake of so-called dignity? Or eat human flesh?”
Lian Qiguang picked up a piece of snake meat and waved it in front of Xiahou Hetian. A drop of cold blood splashed onto Xiahou Hetian’s face, making him shudder.
Xiahou Hetian remained silent for a long time.
Looking at Lian Qiguang calmly eating bloody raw meat, he slowly extended one hand and picked up a slice from Lian Qiguang’s “food.” Blood still dripped from the snake meat in his hand. Xiahou Hetian felt sick to his stomach, and his expression was ugly as well.
Lian Qiguang ignored Xiahou Hetian’s struggle. He ate the snake meat, feeling exceptionally good.
Although it carried a hint of bloodiness, at least it was fresh. It was still meat. Compared with those strange nutrient agents, Lian Qiguang much preferred this.
Xiahou Hetian remained silent for a long time. Finally, he gritted his teeth, stiffened his neck, and shoved the snake meat into his mouth.
The rich bloody and meaty taste spread across his mouth. Xiahou Hetian’s expression changed, and he could no longer endure it. He turned around and ran to the side, vomiting violently.
Shentu Sihao crouched down beside Lian Qiguang. Carefully watching Lian Qiguang’s expression, which had not changed in the slightest from beginning to end, he asked softly,
“Idol, who bullied you? Won’t Major General protect you?”
Lian Qiguang’s hand paused slightly.
After remaining silent for a long time, Lian Qiguang moved his chopsticks again and said indifferently, “At that time, I didn’t know him.”
“……” Shentu Sihao.
“What did you mean by ‘driven into a dead end’?” Xuanyuan Zhe walked over and asked suspiciously.
Although Lian Qiguang had ostensibly been using the desperate battlefield situation as an example for Xiahou Hetian, Xuanyuan Zhe’s intuition told him that this story was real, and that the protagonist of the story was Lian Qiguang.
But according to what he knew, Lian Qiguang had grown up in District Three and could not possibly have had any opportunity to come into contact with war. So how could he have…
Lian Qiguang held the chopsticks, his eyes fixed intently on the blood-soaked snake meat. His expression remained blank.
“I trusted the wrong people and was forced into a desperate situation. If I don’t avenge this hatred, I will die unwillingly.”
“And then?” Shentu Sihao pressed.
“I ate rotten corpses for a month and survived. Then…”
Thinking of those “good friends,” a terrifying coldness flowed through Lian Qiguang’s eyes.
“I crippled their abilities, severed their limbs, and sent those with abilities to the laboratories. Those without abilities were thrown out to feed the zombies.”
“Zombies?” Shentu Sihao asked in confusion.
“Infected,” Mu Anqi explained quietly.
An eerie silence fell over the surroundings.
Lian Qiguang’s ruthlessness made them feel cold all over. They knew what the laboratories were, and they also knew what happened to those who entered them.
And then there were the infected…
Either one of those things meant a fate worse than death.
At that moment, the way everyone looked at Lian Qiguang became strange.
“What are you looking at?! What are you looking at!!” Xiahou Hetian returned after vomiting and stood in front of Lian Qiguang, glaring at everyone. “Get the hell out of here!”
“Young Master He!” A young man stood up and said softly. “We don’t have enough food anymore. We have to go to another academy to seize some. You…”
“If you want to leave, just say so!” Shentu Sihao stood up and glared at the young man. “Get the hell out!!”
“Want to leave? Fine!” Xuanyuan Zhe stood up and looked at the young man with the corners of his lips raised. “Leave the nutrient agents behind.”
“You!” The young man looked up, his face filled with anger. “Don’t push people too far!”
“Yes, I’m bullying you. If you want to leave, leave the nutrient agents behind. Otherwise…”
Xuanyuan Zhe was smiling, but his eyes were ice-cold.
“Hmph! Consider yourselves ruthless!”
The young man looked at Lian Qiguang behind Xuanyuan Zhe and, intimidated, viciously pulled the two nutrient agents from his pocket and threw them onto the ground before turning around and leaving.
Xuanyuan Zhe gestured for Mu Anqi to pick up the nutrient agents, then looked at the others and raised an eyebrow.
“Who else wants to leave?”
Once one person did it, others followed.
Before long, only Xiahou Hetian, Shentu Sihao, Xuanyuan Zhe, Mu Anqi, and Lian Qiguang remained.
Mu Anqi looked at the nutrient agents in his hand and gave a contemptuous snort. The disdain on his face was obvious. He was already too lazy to waste any more words.
Lian Qiguang stood up. Ignoring Xiahou Hetian and Shentu Sihao’s concern, he pulled a large pile of nutrient agents from his pocket and threw them to Xiahou Hetian.
“After you finish eating, go to sleep.”
After saying that, Lian Qiguang turned and left.
Lian Qiguang did not know why he had suddenly been reminded of the past and told Xiahou Hetian and the others all those things. But he understood that the strange movement in his abdomen had caused him to become abnormal. Even he himself found this abnormality unfamiliar.
He was truly afraid.
He missed Shaoxuan.
If Shaoxuan were here, he could tell him about it. Shaoxuan would definitely coax him and make him happy.
Inside the monitoring room, an eerie silence filled the air.
Xuanlang and Zhong Mu shrank their heads and did not dare say a word. The other soldiers who were operating the monitors and watching the other students also held their breaths, afraid of provoking Xiahou Shaoxuan, whose aura was oppressive at that moment.
Watching Lian Qiguang curled up on the sand and gradually falling asleep, Xiahou Shaoxuan felt an unbearable heaviness in his chest.
He knew that Lian Qiguang had come from Ancient Earth. He also knew what a terrifying and horrifying hell Lian Qiguang had experienced.
But he only knew that.
He did not know Lian Qiguang’s past.
Nor did he know what Lian Qiguang had gone through during those three thousand years.
Back then, when Lian Qiguang had told him about his past, he had only spoken of how he was born, how he rose to prominence, and how he died.
He had never told him how painful and despairing his life had been.
What Xiahou Shaoxuan knew about Lian Qiguang—three thousand years’ worth of knowledge—was limited to what was written in the books.
He did not know how painful it had been when the people Lian Qiguang trusted betrayed him.
He did not know what kind of sorrow he had felt when he tortured those people to death.
He, too, had once experienced desperate situations. He had also eaten raw flesh covered in blood.
But he did not know about the human flesh Lian Qiguang had spoken of.
If one day he truly reached the kind of situation Lian Qiguang had described, Xiahou Shaoxuan felt that even he—even if he truly had to starve to death—would never eat human flesh.
That was a deeply ingrained moral boundary born from having grown up in a peaceful world.
This side of Lian Qiguang made his heart ache.
And it frightened him a little.
He felt that this version of Lian Qiguang was so far away from him—so far away that no matter what he did, he could never reach out and touch him.
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