Chapter 57: Third Master Xiao, Sorry…..
It was several minutes later when the arrow rain finally passed.
The first thing Lin Yan did after the arrow rain stopped was to check on Wu Xie. During those few minutes, Wu Xie lay there motionless. If not for the arrows above occasionally trembling slightly, he would have thought Wu Xie was already dead.
In the nearly month since he had transmigrated, apart from tomb raids, his most leisurely and happiest days had been spent with Wu Xie. In his heart, Wu Xie was no longer just the NPC protagonist who protected his life, but a brother with flesh and blood, who could cry and laugh, to whom he could entrust his life!
Lin Yan didn’t know if it was because of his appearance that the plot had deviated. Although he didn’t remember if they encountered danger here in the original work, Wu Xie absolutely wouldn’t die here! It was all A Ning’s fault! She could have dodged it herself, but why use others as shields? He didn’t care how powerful the company behind her was. If anything happened to Wu Xie, she could accompany him below!
“Wu Xie, how are you? Can you hear me?” He gently patted Wu Xie’s cheek, looking at the arrows on his body, not daring to help him up for the moment.
At this time, Fatty’s voice came from behind him: “This Fatty Ye isn’t dead? This, why does it feel like it doesn’t hurt? Am I in so much pain that I’m hallucinating?”
He abruptly turned his head and watched wide-eyed as Fatty groggily pulled out an arrow from his arm—
Nothing happened.
No scream, no blood spurting out, nothing at all. Only because Fatty pulled too hard did he yank off a small piece of clothing attached to the arrow.
“This, what’s going on?” Fatty looked blankly at the arrow, then at the small patch of slightly reddened skin where he was hit. The sharp arrowhead on the arrow gleamed coldly under the searchlight, but there was no wound on his body from being pierced, only some scraped skin beside it. “Could this thing be fake?” Fatty gradually grew bolder and poked his skin again with the arrowhead. The moment the arrowhead touched his skin, it actually retracted into the arrow shaft!
“This, this is fake? No wonder it doesn’t hurt!” Fatty suddenly realized, hurriedly pulling out the other arrows on his body. He couldn’t reach the ones on his back, so he turned to Zhang Hao, who had also gotten up: “Old Zhang, help me pull the ones on my back. I can’t reach them myself!”
Lin Yan was stunned by the scene before him. So these arrowheads were all fake? He quickly and carefully removed one from Wu Xie’s arm. Sure enough! The wound was just reddened, with some scraped skin around it! That means
He hurriedly pulled out all the arrows from Wu Xie’s body, checked his breath—it was still normal, just that he hadn’t woken up, probably knocked out from the impact, briefly unconscious. So he moved Wu Xie to lean against the stone wall beside them, preparing to go back and check on Wu Yong, who looked even more like a porcupine. He was A Ning’s first meat shield and had been smashed by her, so he should be more seriously injured.
But just as he stood up and took a couple steps back, he saw a jaw-dropping scene—
Fatty was grimacing as Zhang Hao pulled the arrowheads from his back, occasionally reaching back to scratch the itchy scraped spots. And the Zhang Hao behind him. Although he knew it was probably Zhang Qiling in disguise, when he removed the disguise… it was really freaking stimulating!
Although he didn’t know how it was described in the original work, seeing Zhang Qiling suddenly grow a few centimeters taller while walking, become thinner with longer arms and a straighter back, it was really… like a classic magic show—changing a living person!
After helping Fatty pull out the arrowheads, Fatty turned back puzzled: “Old Zhang, why aren’t you talking?”
As soon as he turned his head, he saw Zhang Qiling reach up and brush across his face with a “whoosh”—pulling something off from back to front.
It was a human skin mask.
Seeing Zhang Qiling’s familiar face and the bangs falling down without the wig, Fatty stumbled back three steps in shock: “Holy shit! Holy shit! Little, little brother, how did you do that? No, it was you all along? That greasy, chatterbox bald guy was you? Holy shit!”
He looked around and spotted Lin Yan staring in shock, grabbed him and said: “Holy shit, little comrade Lin, Fatty Ye only learned today what fucking bizarre things exist! I always thought bone shrinking techniques and such were fake, made up, but damn, there’s one right in front of me!”
He shook Lin Yan twice, then went to pester Zhang Qiling amid Lin Yan’s helpless glance. He strode up to Zhang Qiling, originally wanting to grab his hand directly, but chickened out after a glare, so he just circled around him: “Young comrade, what’s your deal? You can shrink bones and disguise yourself…”
Lin Yan ignored the excited Fatty who was practically jumping and turned to check on Wu Yong still lying on the ground. He hadn’t gotten up for so long, probably injured by the arrow impacts like Wu Xie, knocked breathless. So he first pulled out all the arrows from Wu Yong’s back, then flipped him over to check if any remained on the front.
When he flipped Wu Yong over, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Beneath Wu Yong was a pool of blood. Looking closer, the arrow in his wound had been pushed halfway into his body, blood flowing down along the shaft from there. He checked the wound—it had been forcibly inserted by someone! So it was A Ning… The blood kept flowing steadily from under Wu Yong, already forming a small puddle. Looking at Wu Yong’s face, it was deathly pale, lips purple—this was excessive blood loss!
“What’s wrong?” A voice came from behind. He turned and saw Wu Xie had woken up and walked over.
He gave a bitter smile and pursed his lips: “Wu Yong, he… I don’t know.”
Zhang Qiling saw the scene, walked up, probed Wu Yong’s carotid artery with two fingers, checked the wound, and shook his head: “He won’t make it. At most five minutes before excessive blood loss kills him.” Then he silently stepped aside.
Fatty leaned over, saw the result, and sighed with a shake of his head: “Sigh, what a pity. These arrows were all fake. If not for that woman…”
Lin Yan fell silent, not knowing what to say.
This was the first time he watched someone die right in front of him.
When Da Kui fell earlier, he was dizzy; the other corpses were just corpses. But now, a person was bleeding uncontrollably before him, body temperature dropping, face growing paler.
Like transforming from a vibrant living person into a fragile ceramic doll.
After a long while, Wu Xie spoke: “Did he have any last words?”
Zhang Qiling shook his head: “He won’t wake up.”
Wu Xie’s eyes reddened: “Are we just going to watch?!” Although he hadn’t spent much time with Wu Yong, he had a good impression of this man not much older than him. Whether co-surviving on the ghost ship, the fish head hotpot before diving to the seabed, or his excited chatter introducing equipment.
How could such a good person be harmed by A Ning? Were all the people in her company this callous with human life?
From this moment, he felt a surge of disgust toward the company lurking behind A Ning.
Just as Wu Yong’s breathing became faint, about to stop, his eyes twitched, as if trying to open. Lin Yan rushed forward and grabbed his hand: “Wu Yong, Wu Yong, can you hear us?”
Wu Yong’s eyes rolled slightly, as if searching for someone, and three words escaped his cracked lips: “Third Master Xiao”
“What did you say?” Wu Xie leaned close to his lips but couldn’t hear clearly. Wu Yong’s voice was too faint; aside from Zhang Qiling, probably only Lin Yan heard it.
Wu Yong seemed to sense something, his mouth curved slightly, and he said his final three words.
“Sorry.”
The next second, his chest stopped rising and falling.
He died.
