Chapter 713: Blood Compensation
“Deserve to die?” As if hearing something incredibly ridiculous, the woman giggled lightly. Her laughter grew louder and louder, echoing among the rapidly restructuring walls, “—Deserve to die?!”
“It’s time to teach you the most important lesson, little kid—this is how the rules of this world operate. Those who die are the ones who shouldn’t die, and the more someone deserves to die, the more they won’t die!!!”
There was a chilling madness in her laughter.
“Kindness, conscience, friendship, love?”
“Darling, those are all worthless pieces of scrap paper.”
“Only power… power is the unbreakable truth! If you are strong enough to trample everyone under your feet, strong enough to ignore all enemies, then you won’t have everything taken away from you, and then you can survive in this cruel world!!”
In a place no one could see, the scarlet liquid seeping from the wall pipes began to bubble and roll.
A deathly pale, vicious ghost began to form bit by bit, slowly crawling out of the darkness.
“…!!!”
Suddenly, Chen Cheng felt a chill down his spine. He shivered and jerked his body around.
The pitch-black Tang sword swung out reflexively, drawing a sharp arc in the air.
The next second, a vicious ghost was cut in half at the waist, barely inches from the back of his head. Before it even fully formed, it turned back into red water and fell to the ground.
However, the situation didn’t get any better.
The corridor here was narrow. The slash Chen Cheng just swung couldn’t be stopped in time, and the trailing edge of the blade inevitably left a deep gouge on the wall.
Viscous red liquid continuously poured out of it.
As soon as one disappeared, a second and third puddle of red water began to bubble again. Those ghostly shadows that were originally faint gradually solidified, being manufactured and bred right before their eyes.
Seeing this, Chen Cheng’s pupils couldn’t help but shrink.
He panted and gritted his teeth, saying, “Sorry, I subconsciously—”
“…”
Hugo’s gaze fell on the wall—although the wall was recovering, the cut Chen Cheng left behind showed no signs of disappearing.
He raised his head.
He didn’t know when, but Dan Zhu’s laughter had vanished.
Suddenly, Hugo seemed to realize something. He took a sudden step forward, “…No need to apologize, you did very well.”
“Logically speaking, the rules of your talent should only work on living things.”
After all, this kind of irreparable “certain injury” was meaningless on dead objects.
But it had reappeared on the wall.
At this point, many details closely linked together.
The Tarot Master’s solo decision, Dan Zhu’s hasty departure, and the brand-new passage behind the wall prioritizing efficiency above all else.
“In many high-difficulty instances, the buildings and the core figures merge into one.” Hugo raised his head, his deep gray eyes locked tightly on that bright red knife mark. “—And here, I’m afraid it’s the same.”
“Wait, you mean…”
Chen Cheng froze.
“En.” Hugo nodded.
The damage to the cruise ship is damage to Dan Zhu, and the wound Chen Cheng just created on the wall would be exactly replicated on Dan Zhu.
That was why the Tarot Master decided to die alone.
Otherwise, Dan Zhu would possess almost all the privileges and power of the cruise ship without having to fulfill any obligations or pay any price. Under this premise, facing a fully powered Dan Zhu with all of them heavily injured, they would have no chance of winning whatsoever.
And they would absolutely never allow him to do so.
This also meant that, contrary to the arrogant tone Dan Zhu just showed, right now…
She was probably extremely fragile.
Orange Candy seemed to realize something. she stepped forward abruptly: “Put it that way, we can attack Dan Zhu by destroying the ship’s body?”
“Theoretically, yes. But the efficiency is too low; the damage we cause cannot keep up with the cruise ship’s self-repair speed.”
Hugo’s gaze fell on Chen Cheng—he had only swung one strike just now, yet the blood color on his chest had become deeper, almost shocking under the dim light—he said calmly, “The only person who can deal true damage has a talent that is nearing its limit.”
“We still have to go to the captain’s cabin.”
“But, I think, this time… it should be very difficult for Dan Zhu to stop us from approaching.”
They were now in the coremost area of the cruise ship.
Which meant that an unhealable wound was also tangibly carved into the enemy’s heart.
*
Inside the captain’s cabin.
The light here was dim, the place chaotic and messy like a tornado had passed through.
The woman curled her body low, one hand gripping the armrest of the chair tightly, while the other hand pressed hard against her chest, her slender fingertips turning white from excessive force.
In her only intact eye, the pupil trembled and shrank to a pinprick.
She could clearly sense that those few people were rapidly closing in on this direction. However, the intense pain tortured her from within, rendering her temporarily unable to move.
…Chen, Cheng.
She should have killed him earlier!!!
Murderous intent almost materialized and poured out from her eye.
This kid’s talent was too troublesome and too targeted—even if its usage was limited, it was a threat that couldn’t be ignored!
Rustle, rustle.
Red vines snaked forward on the ground.
They sprouted rapidly at a terrifying visible speed, growing and expanding, soon covering the floor and walls layer by layer, forming a giant cocoon that tightly wrapped the entire captain’s cabin.
Finally, everything returned to a dead silence.
No. 8 had already led them through the most difficult section to walk. Plus, the location of the captain’s cabin hadn’t changed, so it didn’t take Chen Cheng and the others long to find their way here.
Soon, accompanied by a loud bang, the door of the captain’s cabin was violently smashed open from the outside.
“Quick,” Hugo’s urgent voice rang out from outside, “get in!”
With barely time to breathe, several figures rushed straight in through the violently breached door.
The next second, a gray-white mist mixed with blood streaks solidified into a high wall behind everyone. Like an indestructible boulder, it firmly blocked the newly formed vicious ghosts behind it.
Inside the captain’s cabin, they could only hear the muffled scratching sounds of the vicious ghosts coming from outside.
Panting, everyone looked up.
Unlike the corridor outside that was still repairing itself, this place had almost returned to its original state.
However, unlike in their memories, this place had completely become a nest of floral vines.
In the darkness, they coiled and twined like living creatures inhabiting this place.
Some were so thick it took two people to embrace them, while others were thin, tough, and sharp like knife tips. Blood-colored flowers of various sizes bloomed all over the vines. They bloomed fiercely, extremely wild and frantic, continuously releasing a thick, rotten floral scent outward, as if wanting to firmly squeeze into every inch of space here.
Suddenly, the originally very quiet vines came alive without any warning!
They tumbled and surged from all directions. This time, their target was extremely clear. All the most extreme, intense, and deep-seated murderous intent was entirely focused on one person—Chen Cheng!
Head, eyes, throat, chest—in an instant, almost all the fatal spots on Chen Cheng’s body simultaneously became targets of attack.
Pervasive and impossible to defend against!
“Ha!”
Accompanied by a loud sneer, the heavy, rusted long knife smashed down hard. The next second, several vines that had attacked close were uniformly severed, falling down one after another, struggling and twisting on the ground.
“Making a move?”
Orange Candy arched her back like a cheetah ready to pounce. Her sharp eyes carried clear murderous intent. Even though her body was extremely thin and small, at this moment she stood on Chen Cheng’s side, firmly blocking all attacks coming from the right for him.
She raised her chin, her face full of mockery,
“—Sure, bring it on.”
At the same time, they stopped at a position merely a dozen centimeters away from Chen Cheng’s right-hand side. The sharp tips were lethally poisonous, but seemed to be blocked by some invisible force and couldn’t advance an inch.
Looking closely, the state of that small patch of air seemed to have been twisted, turning into some translucent, gelatinous medium.
Tough, solid, and unbreakable.
Behind the air, the woman slowly raised her pale face.
Her face didn’t have a hint of color, quiet and composed, but the rims of her eyes were glaringly red.
Deep within the shadows of her eye sockets, the pupils burned with a cold fire that seemed ready to burn the world down.
—While Orange Candy blocked Chen Cheng’s left side, Wen Ya simultaneously firmly guarded Chen Cheng’s other side.
With the situation progressing to this point, all conspiracies had turned into open schemes.
All bargaining chips, information, pros and cons were thoroughly laid out on the table.
They all knew each other perfectly well.
Although Dan Zhu had obtained the highest authority of the cruise ship, she was also equally restricted by her identity as the captain. The damage to the cruise ship had made her almost lose her mobility, and only by staying in the captain’s cabin could the repair of the cruise ship continue. Although Hugo and the others possessed the only lethal weapon that could break the rules and ignore conditions, because the owner of this power had overdrawn his talent, he couldn’t activate it regardless of the cost.
—When all information gaps were erased, what remained was only unreserved slaughter.
The few of them seemed to share a tacit understanding as they simultaneously took a step forward and rushed forward fiercely!
A scarlet cigarette butt flickered, and a gray-white mist mixed with blood streaks rose, twisting into gossamer-thin wandering clouds that drilled into the gaps between the vines.
And the moment it completely permeated in, it violently expanded as if alive—
The originally tight and seamless pores were instantly forced open several times their size, unexpectedly creating a hollow big enough for them to pass through just like that!
“Go!” Hugo gritted his teeth, a trace of blood seeping from the corner of his lips.
The forced-open vines squirmed and roared, and the floor and walls began to tremble violently along with them. They began to frantically, time and time again, unreservedly launch attacks at the few people venturing deep within them.
Disregarding the cost, making a desperate wager…
Just to completely strangle these hateful bugs that had drilled deep into their body!
The dense offensive poured down like raindrops.
Even though Orange Candy and the others possessed reaction abilities and combat instincts tempered in actual combat, they couldn’t withstand an attack like this. Not to mention, they were already at the end of their ropes…
Pfft!
One after another, deep cuts exposing bone appeared on their skin, crisscrossing and dripping with blood.
Thwack!
Sharp vines pierced viciously through shoulder blades, twisting cruelly and making ear-piercing sounds of cracking bones.
However, no matter how severe the injuries they suffered, no matter how immense the pain they endured, Chen Cheng, who was protected in the center, remained completely unharmed. They would rather use their own bodies as shields to send him deeper in!!
Chen Cheng bit his teeth dead tight. His nose was filled with the strong smell of his companions’ blood, and his mouth as well.
He endured, just staring straight ahead, his eyes burning with cold and intense murderous intent.
Their paces were tight, their coordination tacit.
Like a snow-bright sharp knife, fully revealing its edge, forging ahead relentlessly, plunging deep into the heart of the cruise ship!
…
Deep within the vines, Dan Zhu sat in her original spot. She stared fixedly ahead, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her bizarrely beautiful face was devoid of blood, her expression almost ferocious.
She couldn’t hurt Chen Cheng.
It was three top-tier anchors who, in an almost self-mutilating manner, protected him at all costs.
Even though she had used every trick she had, she still couldn’t break through such a dense and solid defense no matter what.
She could only watch helplessly as this knife got closer and closer to her, but had no way to stop it!
“…” Dan Zhu tightened her fingers, her sharp blood-colored nails digging deep into her palms. Fresh blood meandered down her skin like thin red snakes.
Suddenly, her eyes flickered, and her lips twisted into a cruel smile.
If she couldn’t hurt Chen Cheng, then she wouldn’t hurt him.
—It wasn’t as if there weren’t other targets to wear down.
Hugo was the first to notice the anomaly—the omnipresent smoke was his eyes and ears; he could catch even a slight change in the airflow—his breath hitched abruptly, and he whipped his head around:
“Careful! Dan Zhu’s target has changed!!”
The vines from all directions no longer targeted the heavily protected and unreachable Chen Cheng, but directly changed their target!
Tightly guarded, is it?
Then I’ll smash your shield first and pierce your armor!!
“Wen Ya! She’s targeting you!”
Hugo quickly determined the direction the vines were targeting and warned sharply.
Sure enough, before his voice even fell, vines glowing with blood color surged over fiercely.
Wen Ya didn’t dodge or hide. Her suppressed, calm pupils reflected the knife-sharp spikes, and the air in front of her had quietly changed its medium, reflecting a cold, bizarre luster.
However, a second before they were about to touch the air wall, they abruptly changed direction without any warning!
Not good!!!
Seeming to realize some ominous premonition, Wen Ya’s pupils shrank.
This was just a feint!
In just an instant, a thinner and more bizarrely shaped vine had silently struck right in front of the real target.
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
The blood-red flowers growing on it bloomed in an instant, and a fragrance as thick as a red-pink mist immediately steamed up, rushing right into her face.
This time, the target Dan Zhu chose wasn’t Wen Ya, whose status and strength were more balanced and conservative among everyone, but rather Orange Candy, who was more difficult to deal with and fought more crazily!
Before entering the captain’s cabin, everyone had been strictly protected by Wen Ya’s talent to ensure they wouldn’t be parasitized and propagated by pollen during combat. But this time, its purpose didn’t seem to be this.
The floral scent was intense, like an evil hook stirring one’s heart.
Orange Candy’s steps suddenly staggered.
She lifted her head.
Her expression was blank and dazed, her voice very light, full of confusion: “…Dad, Mom?”
“Where is this?”
“Orange Candy!!”
The next second, an urgent warning exploded in her ear:
“Retreat!!!”
Hugo also realized his error in judgment. At the same time Chen Cheng used his talent just now, he had already stepped forward quickly.
The cold gray smoke swarmed up, pulling the combat-incapable Orange Candy backwards.
But unlike before, this time, Orange Candy didn’t wake up immediately.
“Why is it red everywhere here…” she muttered softly, her unfocused eyes looking into the air, as if searching for something that had already passed away and couldn’t come back even if time flowed backward. She asked helplessly, “Dad, Mom… why won’t you open your eyes?”
“My body hurts so much…”
Even though Wen Ya reacted fast enough to step forward and plug the gap, a crack inevitably appeared in the originally tightly defended formation.
And in such a battle, facing an opponent like Dan Zhu, even a half-second flaw was extremely fatal.
In just an instant, the situation had completely reversed!
Using this sliver of a gap, the vines rushed forward madly, smashing the gray smoke wall that originally blocked them firmly to pieces, pressing inward and swallowing again.
Just like that, the four were forcibly separated.
Hugo protected Orange Candy, while Wen Ya followed Chen Cheng. The two pairs were instantly separated by a distance of a dozen meters.
“No time to regroup—!”
Chen Cheng gripped the hilt of his Tang sword tightly and said sharply.
“Let’s go!”
Wen Ya seemed to realize something: “Wait, you…”
But before her voice could fall, the next second, the pitch-black Tang sword swept across fiercely. The fatal vines in front of them were neatly sliced off. The tip of the blade embedded deep into the ground, cutting through the solid ground and leaving a deep gouge as easily as a hot knife slicing through butter.
—Chen Cheng had used his talent.
And the moment he swung the blade, a brand-new wound appeared on his already riddled body, stretching from his left chest to his right abdomen. The flesh split open, and fresh blood flowed freely.
A terrifying side effect, exchanged for an equally terrifyingly powerful effect.
The Tang sword cleanly cleaved the vines, leaving a gap that couldn’t be filled, and the wound deep into the ground brought heart-tearing pain to the master of the cruise ship, causing her talent to briefly stiffen.
Space was cut open, and a hole was created.
Through it, they finally came face-to-face with the end.
In the place where the culture medium originally was, that layer of glass wall had disappeared, and the nutrient fluid behind it had all drained away, leaving absolutely no trace. Replacing it was a brand-new captain’s seat. It grew from beneath the ground, formed by twisting, entangled blood-colored floral vines, decorated with blood-colored skulls and blooming flowers.
The woman, adorned with blood, sat high on the seat, her face pale without a trace of blood.
As if feeling the gaze cast upon her, she slowly raised her head.
Finally, the person in power of the guild and the traitor stood opposite each other, their eyes meeting.
*
On the other side.
Orange Candy still showed no signs of recovering.
Her talent had been overdrawn too much, so this time the side effect also lasted exceptionally long.
Hugo stood beside her, his body swaying. As if unable to control himself, he lowered his head and coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. He was also at the end of his rope.
He could feel his internal organs collapsing at a visible rate, turning into smoke particles diffusing within his body.
But he also clearly knew that now was not the time to rest.
Suddenly, the surrounding vines fell into a standstill. Hugo knew this must have been Chen Cheng’s doing.
He used the back of his hand to wipe away the overflowing blood, looked down at Orange Candy, and said:
“We have to go help—”
Before he could finish his sentence, a bone-chilling coldness suddenly struck from behind. Hugo’s pupils shrank drastically, and his body reflexively spun to the side!!
“Snap!”
A crisp, clean sound.
Following that, he felt cold.
Hugo froze. Seeming to realize something, he looked down, belatedly looking toward his right arm.
His arm was gone.
It was empty from the shoulder down.
Thick fresh blood dripped and poured out from the incomplete limb, turning into a blood mist and rising before it even had time to drip down.
“Crunch, crunch, crunch—”
A bone-chilling chewing sound came from ahead.
He raised his eyes.
As the vines loosened due to pain, an extremely massive, highly oppressive figure appeared within them. A pale, cold face, dead, lifeless eyes, and the bloody maw on his chest that was already incomplete but still chewing.
Although covered in blood and panting heavily.
It was still undoubtedly Ye Lin.
Hugo’s expression changed drastically—wait, Ye Lin? Wasn’t he…
But the next second, he suddenly froze.
No.
Strictly speaking, he hadn’t seen Ye Lin’s death with his own eyes. Earlier in the corridor, all his attention had been drawn by his old friend, so much so that he didn’t have the energy to care about other things. And thinking back now, it seemed he really hadn’t seen Ye Lin’s corpse lying across the corridor during his escape.
Hugo stared fixedly at the other party’s figure, his eyes solemn, as if facing a formidable enemy.
Facing just one Dan Zhu was already extremely tricky, and now adding a Ye Lin—even in a near-death state, he was not to be underestimated—and now he had lost an arm, and Orange Candy had lost her combat ability.
No matter which angle you looked at it, it was an unbreakable dead end.
Before he could think of a solution, suddenly, Ye Lin raised his head without any warning, lifting his face and sniffing the air.
Not knowing what he smelled, his expression suddenly changed drastically.
Not even having time to continue targeting the disabled and confused duo in front of him, he spun around abruptly, completely disregarding his own body that was at its limit and near death. With a reckless, urgent manner, he strode towards the back in large steps.
Watching Ye Lin’s back, Hugo was suddenly taken aback.
“…”
Seeming to realize something, he didn’t even care about the still-unrecovered Orange Candy, much less his already devoured right arm. He gritted his teeth and stumbled after him, leaving a trail of blood behind.
The last bit of his cigarette had been used up when saving Orange Candy, and even the generated smoke had dissipated, unable to be gathered again.
And now, having lost an arm, he could no longer light a cigarette.
Unable to use his talent, what should he do?
*
The moment the hole appeared in the vines, Wen Ya immediately seized the opportunity.
The next second, the air in front of her twisted with it, forcefully resisting the edges of the tear, stopping the vines from blocking it again.
Chen Cheng passed through the hole.
The pitch-black Tang sword dragged by his side, the tip hanging down, scraping against the ground and making a sharp metallic clashing sound. His blood-stained hand gripped the hilt, and viscous blood dripped to the ground like a tap that wasn’t closed tightly.
However, Dan Zhu was Dan Zhu after all.
Even though that hit just now had hurt to the marrow, she still recovered at the fastest speed.
The vines that were originally trapped motionless retracted like snakes, like a barrier she could command at will, firmly coiling by her feet.
Dan Zhu pressed her chest, facing the blade that was close at hand, slowly showing a mocking smile.
“Since all our cards are on the table, we might as well speak frankly.”
“You’ve used up two strikes in total just now, one in the corridor, one just now. Although my body can’t move, my talent is still free to use,” As if to verify Dan Zhu’s words, a cluster of vines climbed up her wrist and wrapped around her fingertips. She continued carelessly,
“It can attack, it can defend, and it can also snap your pretty friend’s throat behind you when you make your move.”
“However, your talent is indeed very strong—I must admit this—so, if you can swing more than three strikes next, then I will undoubtedly die.”
“But if you can’t…”
Dan Zhu dragged out her voice. She raised her narrow eyes, her tone carrying a terrifying smile,
“You and all your friends will become fertilizer for these lovely flowers of mine.”
And Chen Cheng didn’t seem to be frightened by what the other party said.
“I said,” he stared coldly at Dan Zhu not far away without changing his expression, his tone devoid of inflection, repeating word by word, “—You deserve to die.”
“Haha…” Dan Zhu laughed. Even though laughing intensified the pain in her chest, she still couldn’t stop laughing. “Alright, then try to kill me.”
Even before the laughter died down, the surrounding vines suddenly sprang up!
Wen Ya reacted extremely fast. She lunged forward, and the air around her changed medium with her talent, becoming something viscous like asphalt. Even Dan Zhu’s vines became sluggish because of this. In these brief few seconds, the space in front of her left a small defensive blank area.
Chen Cheng forcefully kicked off the ground, and in just an instant, he was right in front!
The cold, pitch-black blade of the Tang sword sliced open everything blocking it, striking fiercely with a crushing momentum—the sharp metallic sound whistled, as if wanting to sever space along with it!
But the next second, a bizarre smile seemed to flash across the woman’s blood-colored lips.
A vine hidden underneath at some unknown time hooked lightly, pulling her own body to one side.
Such an almost sun-piercing strike just forcefully swept past her shoulder, embedding deep into the back of the chair.
Pfft.
This time, the knife cut appeared on Chen Cheng’s neck.
Flesh split open, and blood poured out like a fountain.
—An inch deeper, and his head would have fallen.
Dan Zhu’s shoulder bone was shattered, and blood soaked with thick floral scent immediately scattered, but the smile on her face grew wider.
“The last strike, is it?”
Dan Zhu’s prediction was right.
If Chen Cheng could swing three strikes, she would undoubtedly die. If it were two strikes, victory or defeat would be hard to tell. But if it was one strike…
Then defeat was destined.
The already prepared vines climbed up, reaching toward the shocking wound on Chen Cheng’s neck, seeming ready to drill in from there the next second and tear apart the body in front of them—
“…Ugh.”
Suddenly, a very light muffled grunt rang out from not far away.
In the chaos, logically speaking, it shouldn’t have attracted much attention.
But strangely, Dan Zhu’s ears precisely caught this sound. She couldn’t help but, almost uncontrollably, turn her head over.
Immediately, her gaze was drawn over.
A few meters away, the scattered vines couldn’t block that tall figure, nor that pale, numb face she had long grown tired of and hated.
Expressions of shock, panic, and urgency were frozen on his face.
As if he hadn’t noticed that right in his chest, a streak of blood-colored smoke had already pierced through.
“…”
Hugo, half his body soaked in blood, half an arm missing, stood swaying unsteadily in the back.
Care leads to chaos.
Smelling the scent of Dan Zhu’s blood, Ye Lin was too anxious. And the right-arm-less Hugo and the reality-disconnected Orange Candy no longer posed a threat, no longer needing to be worried about. He was anxious to return and confirm his lover’s safety, but didn’t expect…
Hugo would use his own blood smoke, condensed from the blood pouring from his severed limb, turning it into a sharp blade of gold and stone, piercing straight through Ye Lin’s unguarded back, deeply penetrating that wound that was already almost fatal, forcibly tearing it open, turning it into a massive hole that could never be repaired again.
Ye Lin’s body swayed.
Like in slow motion, his massive body slowly toppled over, finally crashing to the ground with a “boom”, kicking up a cloud of blood-colored dust.
“………………”
Dan Zhu stared at his corpse, suddenly frozen.
She gazed at Ye Lin’s corpse, her eyes suddenly becoming somewhat…
Blank.
On that always bizarrely charming, enchantingly beautiful, cruel and capricious face, for the first time appeared a somewhat blank, seemingly at-a-loss expression.
“Ugh—”
Chen Cheng’s eyes were blood-red, his masseter muscles taut. One hand gripped the hilt tightly, while his other hand grabbed on again. Both hands exerted force simultaneously. The Tang sword was forcibly driven by him, pressing down fiercely, pressing deeply in from Dan Zhu’s shoulder that was no longer guarded.
At the same time, the skin on his neck was torn simultaneously, blood splattered, windpipe exposed, bones bent.
A miserable scream, unable to be distinguished whether it was madness or agony, erupted from his throat:
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh—”
Pfft———
The woman’s body was crossed by the sharp blade.
Blood radiating an intense floral scent sprayed out, incredibly tragic.
“…”
Dan Zhu lowered her head and looked at the blade piercing through her chest, her expression peaceful but carrying confusion.
As if still not quite understanding…
She clearly wanted to die the least.
Everything she did was to live on forever.
Why did she suddenly space out just now?
Why did she lose a battle that she clearly should have won?
Just like she also didn’t understand why she had to stop pursuing when she realized Ye Lin was in danger, why she still had to use vines to take him away and protect him firmly in the center when the tool was already near death and had completely lost its value—
Before she could figure out the answers to these questions, her consciousness began to gradually fade.
She closed her eyes.
All the flowers in the world began to wither.
The cruise ship trembled wildly.
Watching Dan Zhu’s face gradually lose its vitality, Chen Cheng breathed a sigh of relief—he knew, he had succeeded.
The moment he realized this, his body also began to lose its strength. His body swayed and fell to one side, his vision pitching black. The Tang sword slipped from his hand, and the moment it hit the ground, it turned into specks of light and disappeared.
Continuous blood poured from his throat, completely soaking the clothes on his body. It clearly should have been very warm, but he felt cold. The wounds on his body that had endlessly tortured him since he entered Nightmare began to grow numb bit by bit—
The good news was, he didn’t feel pain anymore.
The cold grim reaper walked with steady steps, quietly arriving before him.
From far away, Wen Ya’s panicked voice seemed to ring out. Chen Cheng tried hard to hear what she said, but it was like it was separated by a heavy membrane. The jumbled syllables were intermittent, unable to reach his ears no matter what, let alone form complete sentences.
Finally, Wen Ya’s voice also began to grow distant.
Further and further… softer and softer…
The world seemed to become very light, very light.
However, suddenly, intense pain assaulted him.
Something heavy violently yanked him downward!
Chen Cheng was smashed hard onto the ground. The next second, a bone-piercing pain came from his neck, and then, every wound on his body began to ache sharply. The numb nerves were activated once again, hurting him so much he almost wanted to scream.
“…Ugh.”
But what finally came out was an airy sound so weak it was almost nonexistent.
Chen Cheng struggled to lift his eyelids, which were as heavy as lead, and slowly looked to the side.
A little girl looking only three or four years old was sitting beside him.
Seeing Chen Cheng looking over, she tilted her head, revealing a brilliant, toothless smile, speaking clumsily and even leaking a bit of air:
“Look,” she proudly showed off, “this time, I made it.”
*
Not far away.
Hugo’s face was as pale as paper. He lowered his head, somewhat with difficulty using one hand to tightly bandage the end of his arm, but even so, blood-red dust still poured out from it.
He staggered to his feet, rejecting Wen Ya’s supporting hand beside him.
While everyone else was circling around Chen Cheng, who had narrowly escaped death, he went against the flow, slowly walking toward the corpses of Dan Zhu and Ye Lin.
With Dan Zhu’s death, the vines occupying the entire captain’s cabin also disappeared.
She lay quietly in the pool of blood, a blank look still remaining on her face, as if issuing a permanent and silent inquiry to the void, but she would never have the chance to get an answer again.
Ye Lin fell a few meters away.
The aura of death was frozen on his face. One hand reached toward Dan Zhu not far away, but forever remained outside the distance where he could touch her.
The Tang sword pierced through her heart, the blood blade passed through Ye Lin’s chest.
Two twisted, broken, blood-stained hearts leaned together.
Like the ‘Lovers’.
“………………”
Hugo didn’t say a word. He just reached his blood-stained left hand into his pocket.
After fumbling with difficulty for a long time, he pulled out an old, yellowed photograph.
This photo had been sandwiched among the stack of photos Chen Cheng gave him in the elevator. When Chen Cheng took the other photos back, Hugo had kept this one and didn’t return it—after all, it was a rare thing that could remind him of the past.
In the photo, against a blurry background, a man with deep eyes and a woman with a brilliant smile leaned intimately together, seeming to be joking about something, completely unaware that their figures were frozen in this instant.
Their past was frozen in this photograph.
He bent down and placed the photo between the two corpses.
On the ground, viscous fresh blood spread out, staining the edges of the photo bit by bit, finally swallowing the entire photo, and the faces of the two perished with it.
Only the text on the back, even though stained with fresh blood, remained clear and unchanged, even becoming more vivid with the passage of time.
—”Even death can’t part us.”
【Even death cannot separate us】
