Chapter 24: Twenty-Four: Powerless (Two-in-One)

Twenty-Four: Powerless (Two-in-One)

Inside the ward, a corpse beaten into a sieve lay with its entire body riddled with holes, blood pooling across the floor; the corpse's eye sockets were empty, and its body was wrinkled and shriveled, much like a balloon that had been emptied of its internal air.

Yu Lianyun had collapsed to one side, while Wei Jiang, Li Yingqi, and the others, having arduously ended the battle, sat on the ground, gasping for breath.

Wei Jiang and Li Yingqi did not rest for long before continuing to send out calls for reinforcements.

The Xuanmi Group headquarters possessed a total of twelve main combat teams, known as the "Twelve Zodiacs"; the captain of each Zodiac team was a Mysterious Investigator holding a B-Grade title, and currently, only one B-Grade team remained stationed at headquarters: the Tiger Team, led by He Jia'an.

The Group Leader of the Xuanmi Group was not at headquarters; the individual always communicated with organization members via remote dialogue or by seeking out proxies, and to this day, no one within the organization had ever seen the Group Leader's true form.

It was not that the Xuanmi Group did not want to arrange more personnel to guard headquarters, but rather that talent was scarce; every day, abnormal events occurred across the vast Shenzhou Region, and of the twelve main teams, being able to leave even one behind to stand guard was already the limit.

This sudden incident with the female corpse at the containment facility was also unexpected; after all, no one had anticipated that the female corpse's danger coefficient would surge.

Generally speaking, the danger level of abnormal items could be determined; an abnormality like the female corpse, when considering its range of influence, trigger conditions, and destructive intensity, could be rated as B-Grade in the internationally recognized standard danger rating system—a dangerous abnormality capable of causing small-scale regional loss of control. However, because the power behind the female corpse had suddenly changed the subject of the invasion, the danger coefficient had risen, though currently, aside from He Jia'an and Bu Gaojun, no one knew what level the female corpse could reach.

"Do you feel a bit cold now..." Li Yingqi suddenly asked. She wiped the sweat from her neck, feeling the temperature on her skin rapidly draining away; it was chilly all around.

"It does seem so." Wei Jiang was stunned for a moment; the pores contracting all over his body made him feel the gradual drop in ambient temperature.

The other two Mysterious Investigators felt it too, and the group unconsciously moved closer to one another, hoping to get close enough to feel each other's body heat and alleviate the cold.

At the same time, the building began to vibrate, with a sense of teetering on the brink of collapse.

Inexplicably, the group felt a sense of being surrounded by danger...

"Since one Chen Jinshan could escape our screening, could there be others?" Hearing rapid footsteps coming from the dark corridor outside the ward, Li Yingqi's heart sank to the bottom in an instant, and she gripped her pistol once more.

"I don't think we need to guess anymore." The veins on Wei Jiang's temples throbbed; this was a sign that his radio-wave sensing ability had suddenly detected a massive quantity or an excessively strong radio wave. At this very moment, three Three-Handed Ice Giants, no less formidable than the Chen Jinshan from before, were sprinting toward this location.

Suddenly, a side wall exploded; a male Enforcer with a deformed physique crashed through the wall. The third arm on his spine was tightly clutching the limp corpse of a medical worker, whose head had already been twisted and deformed by the force of the large hand, spilling brains.

Before the group could change color in shock, two more monsters possessed by Three-Handed Ice Giants broke through the wall and arrived before them. The three terrifying monsters pressed forward step by step, slowly forcing the group into a corner, shadows covering the faces of the four...

Boom, boom, boom—

The body of the Blood-Flesh Other Shore Flower was frantically invading the Xuanmi Group headquarters building, devouring cement and concrete; its battle against the Blessing Avatars left the entire building unable to bear the burden, and the building was about to topple.

Sensing that the building could collapse at any moment, He Jia'an, his heart growing heavier, knew he could not wait any longer. After giving Bu Gaojun a look, he immediately took action, activating the mechanism for the canister containing the Green Oil, and threw the Green Oil out.

Boom!

A sheet of green flames instantly exploded, rapidly sweeping through the entire flesh-filled room. The Blood-Flesh Other Shore Flower, having suddenly encountered this change, seemed to feel a pain deep into its marrow, emitting a hair-raising hiss and roar.

He Jia'an and Bu Gaojun did not hesitate and headed straight for the coffin-like transport pod.

The two Blessing Avatars—Yao Zhenzhen and Yu Lianyun's father—who were in the midst of a fierce confrontation with the Blood-Flesh Other Shore Flower, seemed completely unaware of the threat, continuing to frantically bite and exploit the entire flesh-filled room that the Blood-Flesh Other Shore Flower was covering with its body.

The belief in surviving stimulated human potential; the two humans in the flesh-filled room ran extremely fast. He Jia'an and Bu Gaojun, having suffered almost no attacks, soon successfully slipped into the transport pod, the two grown men forced to squeeze into the narrow space.

Although the feeling of being forced to squeeze together was very awkward, He Jia'an and Bu Gaojun felt an unprecedented sense of peace.

As long as one could survive, what was the harm in enduring such awkwardness?

The green flames ignited by the Green Oil grew increasingly vigorous, and within moments, they had actually shrouded the entire room in a sea of green fire. The Blood-Flesh Other Shore Flower, an Avatar of some deity born from the female corpse, struggled frantically in the sea of fire, wailing in agony. One must know that even the lacerations caused by the previous Blessing Avatars had not made it emit such wails; who could have imagined that a small bottle of green liquid thrown by an ordinary human could cause it such immense damage!

It was as if, just as the Green Oil was recorded in the Ancient Book, the flames caused by the Green Oil possessed the power to burn the soul, directly injuring the spirit and soul of the deity behind the female corpse.

Seeing this, the two vengeful spirits manifested by the Blessing emitted a mocking, strange laugh, then slowly transformed into two wisps of black smoke that passed through the sea of fire and vanished, which seemed to confirm from the side that the Blessing was not something manifested from a soul.

Boom!

A violent explosion suddenly occurred on the first floor of the containment facility in the Xuanmi Group headquarters building. The sea of green fire swallowed that entire floor, and the flames roared out from the broken walls and windows like the roar of an evil dragon.

The entire building shook violently. Li Yingqi and the others, who were in a standoff with the three possessed humans, instantly seized the opportunity. Wei Jiang carried the unconscious Yu Lianyun on his back, and the surviving Mysterious Investigators quickly passed through the encirclement of the three enemies and fled the scene.

Although they did not understand what had happened upstairs, this was their chance to escape.

Boom!

Just as Li Yingqi and the others were fleeing and heading downstairs via the emergency exit, the ceiling of the stairwell suddenly collapsed, and a large patch of flesh-vines rushed down like a runaway train, directly swallowing an unfortunate accompanying Mysterious Investigator.

This terrifying impact also directly caused the floor to collapse. Li Yingqi and the others did not even have time to express a shred of grief or sadness before horror occupied their entire consciousness; the ground beneath everyone's feet vanished, and they fell into the ruins of the collapsed building.

I do not know how much time passed before Li Yingqi slowly regained consciousness, waking up in the darkness; it was still freezing, and the pain and the intense smell of blood in the environment stimulated her brain.

She tossed, groped, and searched in the narrow, dark space, finally finding her phone with its shattered screen, and used the phone's flashlight mode to illuminate the ruins beneath which she currently lay.

All around were the corpses of victims; some had been pressed into meat paste by wall panels and cement, some had been pierced through vital parts of their bodies by rebar and sharp debris, and some had incomplete bodies, split into several pieces. The scene was a river of blood, filled with despair everywhere.

Here, Li Yingqi saw the corpses of the two Mysterious Investigators who had previously been guarding the door outside the ward; they had been parasitized by the flesh-vines, and their bodies had rapidly shriveled.

At this moment, the groggy-headed Li Yingqi realized belatedly that her stomach felt somewhat painful. Lifting her clothes to look, she saw that on her once fair and smooth belly, a disgusting vine like a blood maggot was constantly burrowing into her body.

A trace of panic appeared in Li Yingqi's eyes. She hurriedly grabbed the other end of the vine before it could burrow entirely into her body, bit her lip, and pulled with force. That gut-wrenching, heart-tearing pain caused the entire pretty face of this beautiful girl to twist until it was no different from a demon from hell.

With a squelch, Li Yingqi felt a large mass being pulled out of her body, and she then exerted effort to throw the nearly half-meter-long vine far away. Soon, the vine, having lost its source of parasitism, kept writhing on the ground like a grass carp that had been pulled ashore; it didn't struggle for long before rapidly drying up and dying.

Li Yingqi's face was deathly pale. She lowered her head to glance at the hole in her abdomen; her once flat and silky belly now had a shriveled patch, and she did not know what flesh or organs were missing. She felt her body's functions rapidly declining.

"Xiaoli..." A weak call caused Li Yingqi, who was gradually losing her will to fight, to suddenly reignite with hope. She whipped her head around and shone the phone's flashlight over, but soon, her surprise turned into deep despair.

She saw that her former comrade and partner, whom she held mutual affection for, Wei Jiang, had now lost almost half his body; the part below his navel had been smashed into two halves by a cement slab, connected only by a thread, and countless vines were devouring his legs. It was clear he could not survive. Beside Wei Jiang, Yu Lianyun lay to one side, almost unscathed; Wei Jiang had protected Yu Lianyun with his life.

"Dajiang!" Li Yingqi endured the intense pain and crawled to Wei Jiang's side.

"There's medicine..." Wei Jiang murmured a single sentence, and without saying anything else, he quietly died with his eyes half-closed.

Li Yingqi knew deeply that this was Wei Jiang's reminder to her. She suppressed her grief, rummaged through the pockets on Wei Jiang's body, and subsequently found a small black box in a small pocket on the inside of his vest. Opening the small box, she found a red pill inside; it was a precious item.

This red pill was a reward Wei Jiang had applied for from the organization's higher-ups after the conclusion of a mission; it was a medicine recorded in an Ancient Book identified as an abnormal book, the "Xuan Nong Pharmacopoeia," and was named the "Death Return Pill." The few medicinal primers used in it were certain rare abnormal creatures. Because the materials were rare and hard to come by, and the success rate of production was extremely low, the red pill was extremely precious.

The Death Return Pill possessed the miraculous effect of rapidly healing injuries, but the price was that after healing, the user would age at a rate more than ten times that of a normal person. In other words, even if Li Yingqi survived the disaster after taking the pill, she would actually only have a few years of life left.

Snatching a life from the King of Hell comes at a cost. This was the author of the "Xuan Nong Pharmacopoeia"'s note on this medicine.

At this moment, Li Yingqi understood this deeply. Her brows were tightly furrowed, the smile on her face at times bitter and at times self-deprecating, a trace of madness appearing on the surface.

She closed Wei Jiang's eyes, which could not rest in peace, and finally swallowed the Death Return Pill.

The medicinal effect of the Death Return Pill took effect rapidly. Li Yingqi felt a pain in her eyes; the whites of her eyes began to turn red, and along with it, her vision gradually turned red as well. Everything before her eyes became a world of blood; this was another side effect of the Death Return Pill.

After a bout of intense pain and convulsions, Li Yingqi felt her physical strength recover, and the hole in her belly had already vanished. Her mobility restored to its peak, she hurriedly grabbed Yu Lianyun's arm and dragged her toward the exit.

After a period of traveling through the ruins, which hid immense dangers, Li Yingqi went through all kinds of hardships and finally escaped to safety with Yu Lianyun.

Outside the ruins, she looked at the blood-red world before her; the night sky was no longer pitch black, but red, and the crescent moon, which seemed to be wearing a mocking smile in the sky, was also bright red. In Li Yingqi's eyes, it was as if everything was negative and bloody.

Just as Li Yingqi was somewhat dazed, a stealthy whisper sounded in her ear; Li Yingqi looked back to see, atop the pile of countless corpses, steel bars, and concrete, a bride wearing a red wedding dress holding her head high and chanting strangely, as strips of flesh-and-blood vines coiled around her entire body, slowly changing and combining around her, gradually transforming into a gigantic Other Shore Flower, with the bride's upper body exposed outside the flower's core, whispering mechanically with vacant eyes.

This blasphemous and detestable scene made Li Yingqi, who had already survived a death-defying ordeal, once again feel a fear that penetrated her soul; that immortal and powerful female corpse had stood up again, standing tall upon the ruins, absorbing the nutrients of the mountain of corpses and sea of blood, transforming into the most vicious and cruel demonic flower in this human world.

"How could this be..." Elsewhere, He Jia'an and Bu Gaojun, who had escaped disaster with the help of a sturdy transport pod, also saw this scene; the intensely bizarre imagery constructed the most powerful stimulation, deeply destroying their sanity.

Even the green fire capable of igniting the soul could not burn this perverted female corpse to death; having absorbed more flesh-and-blood life, the female corpse had instead become increasingly strong. Human methods were simply like a crayfish pinching a hand to these existences; although they could bring brief pain and slight injury to the enemy, we would ultimately be devoured.

"No, this isn't real." Bu Gaojun sat on the ground clutching his head, his entire face congested, eyes wide, his voice quickly changing from trembling to unbridled laughter.

Seeing this, He Jia'an did not hesitate in the slightest to pick up a rock and smash it onto Bu Gaojun's head; he controlled the angle and force well, merely knocking Bu Gaojun unconscious.

Carrying Bu Gaojun on his back, He Jia'an turned and ran, his eyes wide open, as countless memories of past missions flashed through his mind.

"It's this feeling, this feeling of walking on a tightrope; I have experienced such great terror like today before, unable to think about anything, nor wanting to think, and as soon as I think of the scene I just saw, I feel as if a voice wants to pull me into an abyss of eternal damnation." He Jia'an's rapid breathing sounded like an old steed after a long run, running out the feeling of life.

Behind He Jia'an, countless vines were rapidly weaving through the gaps in the ruins, like a greedy pack of snakes pursuing prey, and the prey was gradually unable to escape the ferocious natural predator.

At the same moment, the vines spreading out in all directions from the female corpse were also searching for other lives to devour; Li Yingqi and Yu Lianyun had not run more than a few steps before they were trapped in heavy encirclement.

The earth was trembling, the surface like skin, and the flesh-and-blood vines were like worms invading the skin, gnawing at the earth.

In less than a few minutes, a fifty-meter-tall Blood-Flesh Other Shore Flower bloomed wantonly upon the land once dominated by humans!