Chapter 21

The immortal radiance permeated out from the ancient-style buildings at the stern of the ship along with the mist.

However, blocked by courtyard walls over ten zhang high, one could only see the row upon row of tops of those ancient-style buildings, with red gold glaze for tiles and flowing light divine wood for beams. There were pavilions, halls, ancient towers...

Between the courtyard walls, which were as towering as city walls, and the nine-story ship building, was an empty deck area a hundred meters wide.

Xie Jin no longer had his previous arrogance and insolence, sitting on the first stone step of the bronze-cast gate, holding a steel pipe, looking toward the ship building passage from time to time in fear.

He had truly become a bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring, seeing shadows as snakes.

The stone steps behind him had dozens of levels.

At the top of the stone steps was the bronze-cast gate leading into the courtyard wall, about three zhang high, very magnificent and imposing. The left door was embossed with the lights of ten thousand homes, while the right door was a starry scene like the Yellow Springs river; one didn't know where in the universe it was.

"Doctor Qi, how is the situation now?"

Seeing Qi Shanshan walking out of the passage, Xie Jin grabbed her like a straw, his spirits slightly lifted, and he hurriedly stepped forward to ask nervously.

Qi Shanshan brought good news: "Rest assured, Li Youyi and those people from Laboratory 705 have both suffered heavy losses; for the time being, no one can spare the energy to deal with you."

"Great!"

Xie Jin's mind became active, and he said, "Let's plan it out. You poison the food, and I'll launch a sneak attack. We'll finish off that murderous thug Li Youyi and the people from Laboratory 705 together."

"Good, I have the same intention."

Qi Shanshan took out a bag of food and handed it over: "You haven't eaten all day, have you? I see you're almost too hungry to have any strength left, and it's a bit cold; you should eat something first."

Xie Jin was indeed hungry to the point of starvation long ago. While wolfing down the food, he said with a muffled voice, "Li Youyi must have swallowed the sarira, which is why he became so powerful. But no matter how powerful he is, he's still flesh and blood. Using poison, deadly poison, we can definitely kill him... By then... Ah... You... the food you gave me..."

Xie Jin felt a twisting pain in his abdomen, as if his stomach were filled with razor blades. His body couldn't stand straight at all, and he stared at Qi Shanshan in disbelief.

Qi Shanshan took three steps back, hands in her pockets, her eyes indifferent: "You said it yourself, poison the food, deadly poison, poison made from the black dragon's corpse blood."

"Bitch! We lost so miserably... it must be because of you. You and that pretty boy are in cahoots... Pfft..."

Xie Jin rushed toward Qi Shanshan, but after only three steps, he fell to the ground.

While convulsing, he spat out blood foam from his mouth.

Visibly, his skin began to turn black and fester.

Qi Shanshan walked over, kicked Xie Jin lightly, and confirmed he was dead before saying to herself with contempt: "You only got half of it right. I wasn't in cahoots with him before; I was truly helping you. Now, though..."

Qi Shanshan allying with Xie Tianshu and the others was the only choice for survival she could see at the time.

But she looked down on the character and ability of Xie Tianshu and the others.

Especially after learning about Liu Ying's encounter, she was even more glad for the appearance of Li Youyi, a perfect partner. He had strength, good looks, loyalty, was quick-witted and decisive, and could sympathize with the weak but was never soft-hearted toward enemies.

She didn't want to just be Li Youyi's partner.

She wanted to remove the word "partner."

But she also knew that she had missed the best opportunity to capture Li Youyi. If she could have foreseen today, she would have snatched that bowl of fish soup from Cai Yutong's hands no matter what.

No longer immersed in regret, Qi Shanshan dragged Xie Jin's body toward the ship's side.

As long as she cleaned up the traces here and didn't let Li Youyi discover the clues, she would completely cut off the past. In the future, there would be plenty of ways to capture him.

No matter how outstanding he was, he was still just a hot-blooded young man.

"Xie Jin probably never dreamed that the most terrifying person on this ship is not me, but you."

Just as she had laboriously dragged Xie Jin's body to the ship's side, Li Youyi's voice rang in her ears. No matter how calm Qi Shanshan was, she was still badly frightened.

But, in the short time it took her to stand up and tidy her messy hair, she already had a way to respond and asked calmly, "How long have you been here?"

"Since Xie Jin fell."

Li Youyi's tone was calm, standing in the ship building passage, his figure tall and heroic.

The two were more than twenty meters apart.

"So, you just watched? Watched me like a penguin, clumsily and laboriously dragging a corpse?" Qi Shanshan pouted resentfully, as if she didn't realize the anger in Li Youyi's heart at this moment, nor could she see the disappointment and heartache on his face.

Li Youyi frowned, having no intention of "flirting" with her.

This wasn't a matter that could be handled with a few witty remarks.

He walked into this deck area shrouded in immortal radiance, where there were four other expedition members' bodies on the ground, along with various chemical devices and drugs.

In the corner was the massive corpse of the bear-like creature, its abdominal wound rotting and emitting a pungent stench.

Clearly, the day it fell onto the bronze ship, it had died from severe injuries.

It was the Huang Long Sword!

The wound opened by the Huang Long Sword, even if it were an extraordinary creature, could not heal itself; instead, the wound would accelerate its rot.

The bodies of the four expedition members each had their own miserable state.

Some had skin that had burst, leaving only flesh and bones; some had scales growing on half their bodies, with the other half festering; some had tentacles growing on their heads, but their skulls were shattered.

Li Youyi said: "So, the four expedition members who went to investigate the stern and never returned were actually used by you for live experiments! Releasing this news, while deliberately getting the bear-like creature's blood near the ship building, was to scare people, so that all the expedition members wouldn't dare to come here."

"That day, by the ship building, you must have been afraid that Gao Huan and I would come to the stern and discover your secret, which is why you drove us away, right?"

"Xie Tianshu dared to drink the dragon blood also because he had already obtained the definitive experimental results from you."

"The reason everyone fainted after eating breakfast was also because you provided the drugs to Kong Fan."

Li Youyi stared fixedly into Qi Shanshan's eyes: "You are so terrifying, you disguised yourself so well, there were no flaws to be found when you lied. I was almost deceived by you!"

Qi Shanshan's eyes turned red, feeling extremely aggrieved, her voice sobbing: "I... I had no choice. You also saw Liu Ying's fate. If I didn't take the initiative to do something, the one jumping down today would be me. Only a person with value can live, have a voice, and status."

Li Youyi said: "Doctor Qi, how many people died because of you? If you hadn't provided them with drugs, they might not have been able to succeed."

Tears streamed down Qi Shanshan's eyes, and she said: "I am not you. I don't have your powerful strength. I can't control my own destiny; I can only choose to compromise. When Xie Jin put a knife to my throat, I either died or helped him. You tell me, how should I choose?"

Li Youyi no longer knew whether he should believe her!

Qi Shanshan had helped him and saved him more than once.

But she was too smart, too good at lying, and too good at making up stories.

Every expression of hers, every word, seemingly spoken with intense emotion, must have been carefully considered. Even Xie Tianshu, Kong Fan, and the others were likely just her pawns.

Because she must have had a way to kill them, just like she killed Xie Jin.

"You saved me, so this time, I won't kill you. But someone will definitely settle accounts with you for what you've done." Li Youyi made it very clear; it was just that he wouldn't kill her this time.

Qi Shanshan's eyes were sorrowful: "Did you only save me once?"

At this moment, Li Youyi deeply realized the principle that one must never owe favors.

Qi Shanshan was teary-eyed and added: "Right, I deserve to die, but I saved Yutong, I saved you. Even when the whole world says I deserve to die, you absolutely have no right to say that word. If you go and tell them now, they will kill me immediately, and the ending will be just like those two security team members thrown into the Soul Sea."

"You won't kill me, but I will die because of you."

Li Youyi could choose not to pursue the life and death of others to the end; after all, he wasn't some righteous judge.

But Qi Shanshan had a part in his senior brother becoming like this.

Li Youyi said: "You are still useful now, so I can give you a chance. You help me heal my senior brother, and then let him decide how to deal with you."

"But if my senior brother doesn't make it through this, and something happens to him, everyone will have to pay with their lives. Even Heaven won't be given any face!"

Li Youyi carefully searched Qi Shanshan's entire body, confirmed there were no dangerous items, and asked: "Where is Senior Cai?"

Qi Shanshan could never have imagined that Li Youyi, who was usually so sunny, kind, and humble in front of her, would have such terrifying eyes when mentioning his senior brother just now, with a coldness that seemed to penetrate her bones.

At this moment, she truly felt how terrifying it was to offend Li Youyi on matters of principle.

If she hadn't done those two or three things right before, she would definitely be a dead person by now.

Qi Shanshan led Li Youyi toward the second floor of the nine-story ship building: "No one dares to come up here; it's very safe. I hid her here so that this riot wouldn't affect her."

The passage on the second floor of the ship building was still filled with stone figurines.

Passing through these stone figurines, they finally saw Cai Yutong lying on the ground.

"I only drugged her; there's nothing seriously wrong... Eh, why hasn't she woken up after so long?" Qi Shanshan realized something was wrong.

"Senior... Senior Cai..."

Li Youyi squatted down to check Cai Yutong's condition.

"So hot!"

As soon as his hand touched Cai Yutong's forehead, Li Youyi was startled.

Her body temperature was terrifyingly hot, not at all like a human's body temperature.

"Let me see."

After checking the temperature on Cai Yutong's face, Qi Shanshan immediately started to take off her clothes, but thinking of something, she looked at Li Youyi to the side.

Li Youyi turned away.

But he mobilized the scorching Qi from the center of his right foot and gathered it in his ears.

After removing her clothes, Qi Shanshan saw a large number of golden meridians appearing under the skin on Cai Yutong's chest, as if they had grown from her heart, extending to her whole body, with strands of golden light like flame filaments flowing through them.

"Didn't you say that a human body can withstand one-tenth concentration of Jin Wu blood? Why did such a disaster happen suddenly?" Qi Shanshan stared at the unconscious Cai Yutong and said, as if talking to herself, her tone full of confusion.

"Senior drank Jin Wu blood?" When Li Youyi turned around, Cai Yutong's clothes had already been covered back up.

Qi Shanshan nodded: "She believed that if the Jin Wu blood were diluted, the human body could withstand it, so she experimented on herself. But her body temperature now has exceeded sixty degrees and is still rising rapidly."

Thinking of something, Qi Shanshan immediately took out the cross pendant and put it on Cai Yutong's neck.

This cross pendant, an immortal object, was originally obtained by Cai Yutong first.

It was Qi Shanshan who had taken it from her after drugging her.

She felt that the cross pendant might be able to suppress the destructive power of the Jin Wu blood, because when Cai Yutong wore it, such changes hadn't occurred.

Just like the dragon-like mutation required wearing the dragon-pattern thumb ring.

After taking away the cross pendant, the power of the Jin Wu blood was released, thus beginning to endanger Cai Yutong's life.

Fortunately, the Jin Wu blood was diluted and released slowly. Otherwise, by the time she and Li Youyi arrived here, Cai Yutong might have already burned into a pile of ashes.

After putting on the cross pendant, Cai Yutong's body temperature climbed even faster.

A moment later, she was completely wrapped in golden flames.

Li Youyi and Qi Shanshan didn't dare to get close at all and retreated far away.

"So eerie! The temperature of these golden flames is not low, but her body is actually completely undamaged."

The golden flames were very dazzling, but Li Youyi could see that Cai Yutong's body outline inside the flames was very complete, without damage, which was too inconceivable.

After all, she was just a mortal of flesh and blood.

"Whoosh!"

The golden flames suddenly roared, and in the sparks, a pair of gorgeous wing light shadows several meters long appeared, as magical as a pupa breaking its cocoon to become a butterfly.

The two retreated further, holding their breath.

The flames burned for about a quarter of an hour and showed signs of receding.

The light was no longer so scorching, and Cai Yutong's body lying on the ground gradually appeared, with a layer of mortal shell on the surface cracking and falling off, and the skin inside was dazzlingly white.

"You... why don't you go down first?" Qi Shanshan said cautiously.

Li Youyi naturally saw that something was wrong; although Cai Yutong hadn't turned into ashes, the fabric of her clothes had turned into ashes.

Thinking that Qi Shanshan shouldn't be harmful to Cai Yutong, Li Youyi walked down the stairs and returned to the first-floor deck area. The image of Cai Yutong feeding him fish soup surfaced in his mind; while his heart felt warm, he was also secretly worried.

Not long after.

Whispers of the two women came from the second floor of the ship building, and Qi Shanshan was telling something.

Li Youyi's heart relaxed, and the corners of his mouth lifted involuntarily.

But he didn't go up to the ship building and waited quietly below.

After his mood relaxed, his gaze suddenly saw the three-zhang-high bronze-cast gate above the dozens of stone steps in the distance, and feeling curious, he walked over.

(End of this chapter)