Chapter 24: Powerless
Inside the hospital room, a corpse riddled with holes lay on the ground, blood splattered everywhere. Its eyes were vacant, and its body was shriveled and wrinkled, like a balloon emptied of air.
Yu Lianyun had collapsed to the side, while Wei Jiang, Li Yingqi, and the others, who had barely finished the fight, sat on the ground, gasping for breath.
Wei Jiang and Li Yingqi didn’t rest for long before sending out another request for help.
The Mysterious Group Headquarters had a total of twelve main combat teams, known as the “Twelve Zodiacs.” Each Zodiac team leader was a Mystic Investigator with an A-rank title. Currently, only one A-rank squad was stationed at headquarters: the Tiger Group, led by He Jia’an.
The leader of the Mysterious Group was not at headquarters. He always communicated with organization members through teleconferences or by finding spokespersons. As of now, no one within the organization had ever seen the leader in person.
It wasn’t that the Mysterious Group didn’t want to assign more personnel to guard headquarters; it was simply a shortage of talent. Anomaly events were occurring every day across the vast Shenzhou region. Having one of the twelve main forces remain to guard was already the limit.
The sudden change at the shelter due to the female corpse was unforeseen. After all, no one expected the danger level of the female corpse to escalate so dramatically.
Generally, the danger level of anomalous things could be determined. Anomalies like the female corpse, considering their ability’s scope of influence, trigger conditions, and destructive power, could be rated as B-class in the internationally recognized standard danger rating system—an anomaly that could cause localized loss of control. However, the female corpse’s danger level had now risen because the entity behind it had changed, causing a shift in the main subject of its invasion. Currently, besides He Jia’an and Bu Gaojun, no one knew what level the female corpse could reach.
“Does anyone else feel a bit cold?” Li Yingqi suddenly asked. She wiped sweat from her neck, feeling her body temperature rapidly draining away as the surroundings grew chilly.
“It does feel a bit colder,” Wei Jiang replied after a moment’s pause, his pores constricting as he sensed the gradual decrease in the ambient temperature.
The other two Mystic Investigators also felt it. The group unconsciously drew closer to each other, hoping to feel each other’s body heat and ward off the cold.
At the same time, the building began to shake, feeling as if it were about to crumble.
A sense of being surrounded by danger inexplicably washed over them.
“If one Chen Jinshan could slip through our scrutiny, could there be others?” Li Yingqi heard hurried footsteps in the dark corridor outside the hospital room. Her heart sank to the bottom, and she gripped her pistol again.
“I don’t think we need to guess anymore,” Wei Jiang’s temples throbbed. This was a sign that his electro-sensory ability was activating, sensing a massive quantity or overwhelming intensity of electro-waves. At this very moment, three Three-handed Ice Giants, no less powerful than Chen Jinshan, were sprinting towards them.
Suddenly, the wall to their side exploded, and a grotesquely deformed Law Enforcement Officer male crashed through, his third arm, emerging from his spine, tightly clutching a limp corpse of a medical worker. The head of the corpse was already twisted and crushed, brain matter oozing out from the force of the grip.
Before everyone could react with shock, two more monsters, possessed by the Three-handed Ice Giants, burst through the wall and into their presence. The three terrifying monsters pressed in, slowly cornering everyone, their shadows falling over the faces of the four.
Boom, boom, boom—
The Flesh and Blood Lycoris was aggressively invading the Mysterious Group Headquarters building, devouring concrete and steel. The battle between it and the Blessing Incarnation was pushing the entire building to its limit, and it was on the verge of collapse.
Sensing the building could collapse at any moment, He Jia’an, his heart growing heavier, knew he couldn’t wait any longer. He exchanged a glance with Bu Gaojun and immediately took action, activating a mechanism that sealed a bottle of green oil and throwing it out.
Boom!
A burst of green flame erupted, rapidly engulfing the entire flesh-and-blood room. The Flesh and Blood Lycoris, caught off guard by the sudden change, let out a chilling roar and howl as if it felt pain deep in its bones.
Without hesitation, He Jia’an and Bu Gaojun headed straight for the coffin-like Transport Pod.
The two Blessing Incarnations, Yao Zhenzhen and Yu Lianyun’s father, who were fiercely confronting the Flesh and Blood Lycoris, seemed completely unfazed by the threat. They continued to madly tear and devour the flesh-and-blood room covered by the Flesh and Blood Lycoris’s body.
The will to survive ignited human potential. The two humans in the flesh-and-blood room ran at incredible speed. He Jia’an and Bu Gaojun, who had barely been attacked, quickly managed to enter the Transport Pod, the two large men forced to squeeze into the confined space.
Although the feeling of being squeezed together was incredibly awkward, He Jia’an and Bu Gaojun felt an unprecedented sense of peace.
As long as they could survive, what was a little awkwardness to endure?
The green flames ignited by the green oil burned brighter and brighter, soon enveloping the entire room in a sea of green fire. The Flesh and Blood Lycoris, an incarnation of a deity born from the female corpse, struggled and wailed in the flames. It was important to note that even the tearing wounds inflicted by the Blessing Incarnation earlier had not made it cry out like this. Who would have thought that a small bottle of green liquid thrown by an ordinary human could cause it such immense damage!
It seemed, just as the ancient books recorded about green oil, that the flames it caused possessed the power to burn souls, directly harming the spirit and soul of the deity behind the female corpse.
Seeing this, the two vengeful spirits transformed from blessings let out mocking cackles, then slowly dissipated into two wisps of black smoke that passed through the sea of fire and disappeared. This seemed to indirectly confirm that blessings were not formed from souls.
Boom!
The first floor of the shelter in the Mysterious Group Headquarters building suddenly experienced a violent explosion. The green sea of fire consumed the entire floor, flames roaring 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 confronting three possessed humans, seized the opportunity. Wei Jiang carried the unconscious Yu Lianyun on his back, and the surviving Mystic Investigators quickly broke through the enemy’s encirclement and fled the scene.
Although they didn’t understand what had happened upstairs, this was their chance to escape.
Boom!
Just as Li Yingqi and the others were escaping, descending the emergency stairwell, the ceiling of the corridor suddenly collapsed. A large mass of flesh-and-blood vines shot down like a runaway train, devouring an unlucky accompanying Mystic Investigator.
This terrifying impact also caused the ground to collapse. Li Yingqi and the others had no time to express any grief or sorrow; horror consumed their entire consciousness. The ground gave way beneath them, and they fell into the ruins of the collapsing building.
After an unknown amount of time, Li Yingqi slowly regained consciousness in complete darkness. The cold remained, and the pain and strong smell of blood in her environment stimulated her brain.
She thrashed and fumbled in the narrow, dark space, finally finding her cracked mobile phone. Using its flashlight function, she illuminated the ruins she was in.
All around were the corpses of the victims. Some were crushed into paste by wall panels and cement, others were impaled by rebar and sharp debris in fatal areas of their bodies, and some were dismembered, their bodies torn in half. The scene was a river of blood, filled with despair.
Here, Li Yingqi saw the corpses of the two Mystic Investigators who had guarded the hospital room door. They had been parasitized by flesh-and-blood vines, their bodies rapidly shriveling.
At this moment, Li Yingqi, her head feeling groggy, belatedly realized her stomach hurt. She lifted her clothes and saw a disgusting vine, like a blood maggot, burrowing into her body on her once smooth and fair abdomen.
A hint of panic flashed in Li Yingqi’s eyes. Before the vine could completely burrow into her body, she quickly grabbed the other end, gritted her teeth, and pulled hard. The tearing pain, like her intestines rotting and her heart being ripped out, twisted the beautiful girl’s face into something no different from a hellish demon.
With a squelch, Li Yingqi felt a large mass being pulled out of her body. She then forcefully threw the nearly half-meter-long vine far away. Soon, the vine, having lost its source of parasitism, writhed on the ground like a flopping grass carp. It struggled for only a moment before rapidly withering and dying.
Li Yingqi’s face was deathly pale. She looked down at the hole in her abdomen. Her once flat and smooth stomach was now shriveled in a small area, missing who knew what flesh, blood, and organs. She felt her bodily functions rapidly declining.
“Xiao Li…” A weak call made Li Yingqi, who was losing her will to fight, suddenly reignite her hope. She turned her head sharply and shone her phone’s flashlight. Her surprise quickly turned to deep despair.
Her former comrade, the partner she cherished, Wei Jiang, now had almost half of his body missing. The area below his navel was smashed into two hanging halves by a cement slab, and countless vines were devouring his legs. It was clear he wouldn’t survive. Beside him, Yu Lianyun lay almost unharmed. Wei Jiang had protected Yu Lianyun with his life.
“Da Jiang!” Li Yingqi, enduring the intense pain, crawled to Wei Jiang’s side.
“There’s medicine…” Wei Jiang murmured, saying nothing else. He closed his eyes halfway and died quietly.
Li Yingqi knew this was Wei Jiang’s reminder. Suppressing her grief, she rummaged through Wei Jiang’s pockets. In a small pocket inside his vest, she found a small black box. Opening it, she found a red pill inside—a precious item.
This red pill was a reward Wei Jiang had requested from the organization’s higher-ups after a mission. It was a medicine named the “Death Return Pill,” recorded in a book identified as an anomaly, the 《Mystic Farmer’s Pharmacopoeia》. Several of the medicinal ingredients used were rare anomalous creatures. Due to the rarity and difficulty of obtaining the materials, the success rate of its creation was extremely low, making the red pill exceptionally valuable.
The Death Return Pill possessed the miraculous efficacy 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 took the pill and survived the ordeal, she would only have a lifespan of less than a few years.
“Fighting for life with King Yama, no good end.” This was the author of the 《Mystic Farmer’s Pharmacopoeia》’s note on this medicine.
At this moment, Li Yingqi deeply understood. Her brows were furrowed, her smile shifting between bitterness and self-mockery, a hint of madness showing on the surface.
She closed Wei Jiang’s eyes, which could not be closed in peace, and finally swallowed the Death Return Pill.
The effects of the Death Return Pill took hold rapidly. Li Yingqi felt a pain in her eyes, and the whites of her eyes began to turn red. Her vision gradually turned red, and everything before her became a world of blood. This was another side effect of the Death Return Pill.
After a period of painful convulsions, Li Yingqi felt her strength recover, and the hole in her abdomen disappeared. Her mobility returned to its peak. She quickly grabbed Yu Lianyun’s arm and pulled her towards the exit.
Navigating through the dangerous ruins, Li Yingqi, after immense hardship, finally led Yu Lianyun to safety.
Outside the ruins, she looked at the world of blood before her. The night sky was no longer dark but red. The crescent moon in the sky, like a mocking smile, was also bright red. In Li Yingqi’s eyes, everything seemed negative and bloody.
Just as Li Yingqi was spacing out, a sinister whisper sounded in her ear. Li Yingqi looked back and saw, atop the pile of countless corpses and reinforced concrete, a bride in a red wedding dress standing tall and chanting strangely. Flesh-and-blood vines entwined her body, slowly shifting and forming into a giant Lycoris radiata. The bride’s upper body was exposed outside the flower’s core, her eyes vacant as she mechanically whispered.
This blasphemous and abominable sight made Li Yingqi, who had just survived death, feel a deep, soul-piercing fear once again. That immortal and powerful female corpse had risen again, standing atop the ruins, drawing nourishment from the sea of corpses and blood, transforming into the most vicious and cruel demonic flower in this mortal world.
“How could this be…” Elsewhere, He Jia’an and Bu Gaojun, who had survived thanks to the sturdy Transport Pod, also saw this scene. The intensely eerie sight delivered the strongest stimulus, deeply shattering their reason.
Even the green fire that could ignite souls couldn’t kill this perverted female corpse. Having absorbed more flesh and blood life, the female corpse only grew stronger. Humanity’s methods were like tiny crayfish to these beings; they could cause temporary pain and minor damage, but in the end, we would be devoured.
“No, this isn’t real,” Bu Gaojun cried, holding his head and sitting on the ground. His face was flushed, his eyes wide, and his voice quickly shifted from trembling to wild laughter.
Seeing this, He Jia’an didn’t hesitate. He picked up a stone and smashed it onto Bu Gaojun’s head, controlling the angle and force just enough to knock Bu Gaojun unconscious.
Carrying Bu Gaojun on his back, He Jia’an turned and ran, his eyes wide open, countless memories of past missions flashing through his mind.
“It’s this feeling, this feeling of walking a tightrope. I’ve experienced such great terror today. I can’t think about anything, nor do I want to. Just the slightest thought of what I just saw pulls me into an abyss of eternal damnation.” He Jia’an’s rapid breathing sounded like an old steed after a long run, breathing in the essence of life.
Behind He Jia’an, countless vines quickly slithered through the gaps in the ruins, like a pack of greedy snakes chasing prey, and the prey was gradually escaping its ferocious natural enemies.
At the same moment, the vines the female corpse had sent out in all directions were searching for other life forms to devour. Li Yingqi and Yu Lianyun had not taken many steps before they were surrounded.
The earth trembled. The surface of the earth was like skin, and the flesh-and-blood vines were like worms that had invaded the skin, gnawing at the earth.
In less than a few minutes, a fifty-meter-tall Flesh and Blood Lycoris bloomed wantonly on the earth dominated by humans!
Please collect!
