Zhang Shun roared, “My bones are going to break, ahhhh—!”
Zhang Shun raised his hand to protect his head. A stone slab fell from the sky, smashing to pieces on his arm and scattering limestone all over the floor. Second Young Master Zhang was knocked back a few steps, his back hitting the wall. The black shadow from above the corridor immediately jumped down and hit him with an elbow, causing him to spurt blood from his nose and mouth.
“As expected of someone with Buddha bones, you’re fine even after all this.” The black shadow’s face was revealed in the dim light of the corridor. It was identical to Chu He’s, and even smiled a little. “Speaking of which, it’s one thing for Zhou Hui to recognize that I’m an imposter, but how did you recognize me?”
Zhang Shun pushed him away and ran madly down the corridor. “I’m not telling you! If I tell you, you’ll come back and trick me again?!”
Half an hour ago, Zhou Hui and Zhang Shun arrived at the hospital. Before the car even stopped, they saw a person fall from the building, landing with a thud on the hood of the car.
Zhang Shun was shocked. “Brother!”
Second Young Master Zhang rushed out of the car and saw Chu He rolling on the ground, struggling to get up before falling again. Zhang Shun immediately helped him up. He saw that half of his brother’s face was covered in blood, and bloody foam came out of his mouth when he spoke, his hand trembling as he pointed upstairs.
Zhang Shun looked up and saw flashes of fire from a certain floor of the hospital building. Every few seconds, white lightning, carrying stones and broken bricks, shot out from the windows. He was stunned. “What is that?”
“Shenwan Tiansi… has rebelled,” Chu He panted. “Team Five has been completely wiped out, they’ve all rebelled.”
Zhou Hui got out of the car but didn’t come over, standing in place thoughtfully.
“Don’t talk! What do we do now? How do we handle this?” Zhang Shun felt that his brother’s body was very cold, and his hands were trembling with fear. “Where are you injured! That guy surnamed Zhou, hurry up and help!”
Only then did Zhou Hui walk over quickly, touching the back of Chu He’s ear to check his temperature. “We have to take him to the hospital for treatment. He might have internal injuries—how did Team Five rebel? Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have brought so many people from the Yellow Hat sect over. That idiot Yu Jingzhong should have suppressed them.”
Zhang Shun gritted his teeth, helped Chu He up, and walked towards the hospital building. The power supply system had probably been mostly destroyed. The backup power in the lobby could only supply the indicator lights, and the elevator couldn’t be opened at all. The door had been dented into a terrifying shape by some external force.
“Take… take the stairs,” Chu He said intermittently, blood pouring out of his mouth as if it were free every time he spoke. “Don’t worry about Team Five for now, Yu Jingzhong is locked in the fourth basement level…”
“No, brother! You’ve lost too much blood and your temperature is too low, you need a blood transfusion first!”
Zhou Hui walked ahead without a word. He heard Chu He say in a low voice from behind, “There’s a blood bank and a special monitoring room on the fourth basement level. Let’s go there first… But the blood bank has already been destroyed. When they evacuated in a hurry just now, they blew up the blood bank to block the passage to where Yu Jingzhong is being held.”
Zhang Shun asked anxiously, “Then what do we do?”
The main lights in the corridor were broken, and only the emergency lights were on. Many places were very dark. Zhang Shun stumbled along, supporting his brother. Zhou Hui, at the front, took out his phone for light and said without looking back, “Little brother-in-law, just give your brother some of your blood.”
Zhang Shun opened his mouth, about to agree, but at that moment, Chu He covered his mouth and coughed twice, saying very weakly, “Just a little blood is enough… You have Buddha’s blood, a little bit is enough.”
At these words, Zhang Shun paused.
His pause was particularly obvious in the darkness. After a moment, a slightly hesitant voice sounded out. “But… we have different blood types, right? Is that okay?”
Chu He shook his head. “Your blood doesn’t have so many rules. Besides, there’s special equipment in the blood collection room. That impostor Yu Jingzhong used this equipment to extract the Buddha’s blood.”
Zhang Shun’s expression suddenly changed completely. He asked, “Who are you?”
Chu He was puzzled. “I’m your brother.”
“No!” Zhang Shun suddenly pushed Chu He away. “Who are you?!”
Chu He was pushed back half a step. “What’s wrong with you? I’m your brother!”
“No, you’re not!—Zhou Hui!”
Zhou Hui calmly turned around. A characteristic reflection of a barrier wall flashed before his eyes. A thick, invisible barrier immediately spanned from the corridor entrance to the fire door, trapping both “Chu He” and Zhang Shun inside. “I am your brother—what’s going on? What did you misunderstand?”
“You’re not. My brother doesn’t talk with that tone!” Zhang Shun’s tone became more and more certain. “You’re the one who impersonated Yu Jingzhong too, right? What do you want my blood for?”
“Chu He” stared at his brother for a long moment, then suddenly laughed. The laughter grew louder with the shaking of his shoulders, and finally, his voice completely changed into another person’s, which was particularly strange on Chu He’s face. “Truly remarkable… How did you figure it out? Did Zhou Hui give you a hint?”
“I didn’t give him any hints, Yangjin Pingcuo,” Zhou Hui said calmly. “You’ve only seen Feng Si’s face when he was living in seclusion in H-City, but you don’t understand his character at all. It was inevitable that you would expose yourself.”
Just as he finished speaking, the ground under their feet suddenly shook violently. The vibration came from above. Wall dust and rubble rained down on everyone’s heads. Faintly, the sound of earth-shattering impacts and explosions could be heard from upstairs. Zhou Hui looked up and said, “I thought you had already captured Feng Si and was planning to use you to lead us to him. Now it seems unnecessary… Little brother-in-law, it will take time to break the barrier. How about I go up and save your brother first? Can you hold on for a while?”
“Go quickly!” Zhang Shun immediately rolled up his sleeves, revealing his Buddha seal, and stared fiercely at Yangjin Pingcuo. “I knew something was wrong. It turns out to be a fake! I’ll handle this here. Damn it, you want my blood? Do you issue a blood donation certificate?!”
Yangjin Pingcuo laughed. “Don’t be so angry, Second Young Master Zhang. It’s still up in the air whether you can handle me.” As he spoke, he suddenly drew two short daggers from his sleeves and pounced. Fortunately, Zhang Shun dodged by reflex. The next second, the blade’s edge grazed his nose and embedded itself in the wall. A moment later and his entire nose would have been sliced off!
Zhou Hui flashed and ran upstairs, shouting, “He won’t dare to kill you! And he can’t stand the Buddha seal. Remember to just burn him with your palm!”
Zhang Shun shouted, “Hurry up and save my brother!” Then he ducked his head, narrowly avoiding the dagger. He felt a coolness on his head, and a lock of hair floated down.
Second Young Master Zhang’s two-thousand-yuan hairstyle had been split in two. He was instantly furious, thinking, You really think I’m a Hello Kitty just because I’m not showing my power? You think you can be as arrogant as my brother beating me up just because you have his face? He then used brute force to block Yangjin Pingcuo’s stabbing dagger, flipped him over, and pinned him against the wall, trying to snatch the two short daggers.
No matter how tough Yangjin Pingcuo was, he was definitely not as tough as the Cursed Corpse. Even the Cursed Corpse’s head was burned to ashes by the Buddha seal, so of course, he would be even more vulnerable. In the struggle, his face and arms were burned several times by the Buddha seal. The golden flame instantly burned his flesh dry, turning the entire patch of skin pitch black.
Yangjin Pingcuo roared in pain and fury, frantically hacking with his dagger. Zhang Shun was caught off guard and felt a coldness in his abdomen. He immediately thought, Fck!* and quickly retreated.
However, behind him were the stairs—fighting in the corridor meant narrow space. As soon as he retreated, he fell down, tumbling down the stairs to the next floor with a series of clangs. Zhang Shun felt as if his bones were about to break. He touched his abdomen and his hand came away covered in hot blood. Fortunately, he didn’t feel his intestines, so it probably hadn’t pierced through.
He staggered to his feet. At that moment, he looked up and saw Yangjin Pingcuo forcibly break off a stone slab from the collapsed wall and smash it down on his head!
Zhang Shun had no time to dodge. He scrambled to his feet and protected his head with his hands. He felt a powerful blow from the stone slab and almost spat out a mouthful of old blood.
“F*ck you—! Using me as a blood cow, and you’re still so ruthless—!”
Yangjin Pingcuo leaped down from mid-air and hit Zhang Shun with an elbow, causing him to spurt blood from his nose and mouth.
This was much more brutal than when Second Young Master Zhang led a gang of hooligans to trash a place and fight for girls in school. It wasn’t on the same level at all. It almost knocked him silly. But Second Young Master Zhang was, after all, the type who would grab a brick to smash an arcade at seven or eight, and pour paint on his brother’s car in his teens. When he got fierce, he was very fierce. He roared and burst up to poke Yangjin Pingcuo’s eyes.
Even if he wasn’t poked, if he was seared by the Buddha seal in his palm, those two eyes would be done for. In a panic, Yangjin Pingcuo had no choice but to retreat. Zhang Shun took the opportunity to rush past him and run downstairs for his life!
“How did you recognize me?!” Yangjin Pingcuo shouted. “Could it be…”
Yangjin Pingcuo’s disguise skills were flawless. The fact that he could achieve the position of deputy team leader with this skill alone was a testament to it. In so many years, he had never failed twice in a row. If that dying beauty Yan Lanyu could find a flaw because Yu Jingzhong hadn’t slept with him, then what about this rich second-generation good-for-nothing? Had he slept with his brother?
Zhang Shun roared, “I’m not telling you! If I tell you, you’ll come back and trick me again?!”
Just as he finished speaking, Zhang Shun missed a step and, with a sad and angry scream, tumbled down the stairs again. This time, he was stopped midway by Yangjin Pingcuo, who leaped down from mid-air. He was then picked up, his hands pinned, his hair grabbed, and his head slammed against the wall. After five or six loud bangs, Zhang Shun had blood pouring from his mouth. Only then was he flipped over and stepped on. “—Are you going to talk or not?” Yangjin Pingcuo asked sinisterly.
Zhang Shun spat out a mouthful of bloody foam. Yangjin Pingcuo wiped his face and said coldly, “I advise you to be obedient. If I were you, I would try to stall for time and wait for someone to save me right now—but the hope of Zhou Hui coming back is very slim. He and that nine-tailed fox don’t really like Buddha bones. The possibility of them intentionally leaving you behind as cannon fodder is quite high.”
Zhang Shun spat again. “You think I’ll believe you?!”
“It doesn’t matter if you believe it or not, but out of pity for you, I’ll give you a chance to stall for time.” Yangjin Pingcuo sneered and repeated, “How did you recognize me? How could my disguise possibly have a flaw?”
Zhang Shun finally couldn’t help but curse, “The flaw is huge, okay?! If it were my brother, when Zhou Hui asked me to give blood, he would either tell me to shut up or directly order me to give 200CC. He would never say something like ‘a little bit is enough.’ He never says anything without a precise quantity!”
Yangjin Pingcuo said, “Oh,” thoughtfully. Zhang Shun continued, “And, if I ask a stupid question, he wouldn’t even bother to answer. If I asked him what to do about different blood types, he would definitely ignore me. At most, he’d say, ‘Don’t worry about it, just do as I say’—and you actually patiently explained to me about Buddha’s blood and what equipment to use?!”
“…” Yangjin Pingcuo said, “How many years of mental abuse have you endured from your brother?”
Zhang Shun flatly denied it. “It’s not like you say!” He grabbed the foot that was stepping on his chest and twisted it hard. This was a move he had learned from TV, where the protagonist often used it to coolly break the villain’s ankle, causing them to fall to the ground and wail in pain.
But Second Young Master Zhang was not fated to be a protagonist. Yangjin Pingcuo only fell because he was caught off guard, and the fall nearly made Zhang Shun spew his intestines out of his mouth. Amidst the screams, they rolled down the corridor. Zhang Shun used his body to pin down Yangjin Pingcuo while desperately pressing his palm on his neck. With a sizzling sound, the golden light of the Buddha seal almost shot out from his palm. Yangjin Pingcuo was burned so badly his eyes bulged, and his throat made a gurgling sound. He desperately tried to pry Zhang Shun’s fingers off, and with a crack, he broke his thumb.
Zhang Shun cried out in pain. He let go, and Yangjin Pingcuo flipped him over, about to cut his carotid artery with a dagger. This was actually a very crazy move, because once the carotid artery was cut, the blood would gush out uncontrollably. Not to mention extracting Buddha’s blood to prolong the life of the big shot, Yangjin Pingcuo himself might be burned to death on the spot by the Buddha’s blood.
Fortunately, Zhang Shun was delirious with pain at this point. He roared and grabbed the blade firmly with his hand. In an instant, his palm, marked with a swastika, was cut open horizontally. Then, Yangjin Pingcuo subconsciously pulled the blade back, causing Zhang Shun to roar in pain again. In the chaos, he pressed his hand on Yangjin Pingcuo’s open mouth!
It was truly a coincidence in the struggle, but then something even more surprising happened. Zhang Shun’s split palm instantly felt a warm current penetrate to the bone, as if something warm and moist was being eagerly sucked from the Buddha seal into his palm, through his blood vessels, spreading to his chest, and quickly soaking his entire body. And Yangjin Pingcuo suddenly lay motionless on the ground, his limbs stiff, his eyes full of shock.
“You… actually…”
A gurgling sound came from Yangjin Pingcuo’s throat. Zhang Shun suddenly realized something was wrong and quickly pulled his hand back. However, the next scene almost scared him to death. Yangjin Pingcuo’s face rapidly caved in, his entire body like a punctured balloon, and within a few seconds, he had completely turned into a dry skeleton!
This skeleton made a creaking sound and struggled to reach out a pale hand. Zhang Shun watched with wide eyes as that claw-like thing reached out to him. His vision went black, his mind went blank, and he let out a soul-shattering scream, scrambling away on all fours like a madman.
The skeleton struggled to get up, but then its hand bones and chest bones broke and shattered. A pile of bones and skin fell down, collapsing on the ground with a clatter, motionless.
Zhang Shun: “Ahhhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhh—!”
“Zhang Shun!” At that moment, Chu He rushed down from upstairs, stepped over the skeleton lying in the middle of the corridor, and shouted, “What’s wrong? Be quiet!”
Zhang Shun kicked frantically. “Ahhhh, don’t come over! I didn’t do it! Don’t come over, ahhhh—!”
Chu He held his brother’s chin, forcing him to raise his face, and pried open his eyelids, making him stare at him.
Chu He was too injured to maintain his Dharma form and had returned to his normal human state. His face was pale and plain. At first glance, there was nothing striking about it, but his eyes were bright and calm, extremely spirited, as if they held an indescribable, soul-captivating power.
Zhang Shun gasped violently, panting. After a long while, his scattered pupils gradually focused, and he reached out with trembling hands to hug his brother.
Chu He obediently let him hug him. He was about to ask what was wrong when his whole body suddenly trembled.
“Brother?” Zhang Shun watched with wide eyes as Chu He went limp and was startled. “Brother, what’s wrong with you… F*ck?!”
An overwhelming force once again came from where his palm was touching Chu He, this time even hotter and more turbulent. If the warm current just now was a small stream, this time it was a tsunami. In an instant, Zhang Shun was stunned by the endless power. Then, he saw his brother staring straight at him, seeming to want to say something but unable to.
“Brother?” Zhang Shun said with a trembling voice, his gaze suddenly falling on the scattered skeleton of Yangjin Pingcuo not far away.
In a flash of lightning, he had an epiphany and猛然pushed his brother away, standing up!
Chu He didn’t say a word and fell directly. The next second, Zhou Hui flew down from upstairs, caught Chu He, and quickly checked his pulse.
“I… I don’t know anything. What’s going on?” Zhang Shun stood on the side, his whole body cold. He looked at his brother and then at his own hand, trembling. “Did I… my brother… No, impossible. How could this happen…”
Zhou Hui turned and punched, and with a loud bang, he sent Zhang Shun flying to the ground!
Zhang Shun’s head hit the wall with a thud. He was stunned for a moment, and after a long while, he came back to his senses from the sharp pain. He saw Zhou Hui holding Chu He horizontally, staring down at him in the darkness.
“It would have been better if you didn’t exist,” he said coldly, the gloomy anger in his voice almost uncontrollable. “If it weren’t for you, no one would have ended up like this today.”
Zhang Shun opened his mouth in vain, wanting to say something but unable to utter a single word.
Zhou Hui stroked Chu He’s hair, turned, and strode away.
On the fourth basement level, a guard stood at the door of the monitoring ward. He seemed to have heard something and looked up at the corridor.
The lighting system had been completely destroyed, and only the emergency indicator lights cast a faint green glow in the corridor. The ground trembled a couple of times from time to time, an explosion from some unknown battlefield.
The guard tightened his grip on his gun and looked around warily.
—At that very moment, a black shadow appeared silently behind him and, with lightning speed, chopped him on the back of the neck.
If the force of this blow had been fully released, it would have been enough to break his neck. With a flick of the hand, the guard fell without even a sound. The moment he touched the ground, the black shadow caught him first, dragged him to the corner of the wall to lean against, snatched his gun, and completed the whole process in a matter of seconds without making a single sound.
The black shadow turned around, and the faint light of the emergency indicator revealed his blood-splattered face—it was Yu Jingzhong.
Yan Lanyu was curled up unconscious in a corner, his chest showing no sign of rising and falling. Yu Jingzhong pressed his ear to the young man’s chest and, after a long while, confirmed that there was still a faint heartbeat.
He let out an almost inaudible sigh of relief. He picked up the young man, hoisted him onto his shoulder with one hand, and held the gun with the other, loading a bullet with a click.
Yu Jingzhong was not a particularly handsome man. He had a normal man’s buzz cut, his features were plain, and he was tall and sturdy, but not in an eye-catching, muscular way. If he wore a workshop worker’s uniform, he would look like a workshop worker. If he pushed a cleaning cart, he would look no different from the cleaners walking around in an office building.
However, when he stood there without a word, holding a gun, that characteristic bravery, competence, and astuteness of a northern man would make him look extremely terrifying, even causing a chilling feeling to rise from the bottom of one’s heart.
Yu Jingzhong stood at the door of the ward, not putting Yan Lanyu down. He knew that if he survived today, this young man would also survive. But if he failed, both of them would die, and even if he hid Yan Lanyu as securely as possible, he would still die.
Yu Jingzhong took a breath, and the next second, he kicked open the ward door.
With a loud bang, the door slammed against the wall and bounced back. The four guards in the ward simultaneously jumped up and rushed towards the door. At the same time, Yu Jingzhong pulled the trigger. Bang! One went down. Bang! The second went down. The third decisively opened fire. The bullet hit the rebounding door, and amidst the flying shell casings, Yu Jingzhong kicked the door open. The next second, a gunshot rang out, and the guard was shot in the forehead and fell to the ground, blood spraying half a person high.
The last guard frantically pulled the trigger, but amidst the spray of bullets, Yu Jingzhong had already dodged into the corridor. When the guard saw that the target was gone, he immediately stopped and cautiously raised his gun, approaching the door. However, in the next moment, a hand reached out from the side of the door frame, and his special watch clearly reflected the scene inside the ward and the figure of the guard.
The next second, Yu Jingzhong flashed out and pulled the trigger.
With a loud bang, the guard fell to the ground, blood splattering from his chest.
The corridor was deathly silent, as if the fierce gunfight of flying bullets had never happened. Even the gushing blood from the guard’s body made no sound. Yu Jingzhong stepped over the corpse and walked to the hospital bed. He saw that amidst all the medical equipment, the old man had opened his murky eyes.
“You…”
The old man seemed to be trying his best to say something, but after a long time, he only managed to spit out this one word.
“It’s time to end,” Yu Jingzhong stared at him, his gaze unwavering.
“Even with the help of gods and Buddhas, no one can resist life and death. Your era is over. Leave hope for more living people.”
The old man stretched out his hand tremblingly, as if he had realized something, and made incoherent sounds from his throat. But Yu Jingzhong just looked at him, shook his head, and reached out to turn off the red button of the heart pacemaker.
In an instant, the old man’s body bounced up, then he struggled to open his mouth, his face convulsing violently. At that moment, his whole body, like a snake with its spine removed, arched up twice in a very terrifying way, and then suddenly fell back onto the bed, stopping breathing.
His wide-open eyes stared straight into the void, his pupils rapidly dilating, covered with a layer of white film.
Yu Jingzhong closed his eyes heavily.
A few seconds later, he opened his eyes again, and the momentary weakness and hesitation had disappeared without a trace. He took out his phone and took a few pictures of the dead old man on the bed, then pushed the corpse off the bed, picked up Yan Lanyu, and placed him on it, quickly turning on the respiratory therapy machine and the monitoring instrument.
The screen of the central monitor by the bed showed vital signs, and there was still a very weak heartbeat. The frighteningly low blood pressure slowly stabilized with the treatment. Yu Jingzhong took a step back as if exhausted and let out a long, complete sigh of relief.
“Good,” he murmured. “You’re still alive.”
He set the photo on his phone as an attachment and, without carefully selecting the recipients, sent it to a group.
He could imagine the sensation this text message would cause at this moment, how many people would revel all night, how many would switch sides on the spot, how many who were hesitating would immediately make up their minds, and how many underwater forces would experience huge turmoil and reshuffling because of this—he didn’t care about any of this. He didn’t even care how many people were gritting their teeth and wishing him dead at this moment.
He only raised his head and looked at the young man’s pale and peaceful face.
“Good,” he repeated. “You’re still alive.”
Yu Jingzhong sat down on the floor with a plop, took out a blood-soaked cigarette from the pocket of the corpse beside him, lit it, and took a long drag. In the rising white smoke, he raised a trembling hand and wiped the corner of his eye.
