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It felt as if all the blood in his body was being drained.
At S1's chest, where the dagger had pierced and the tube had injected poison, a continuous flow of dark red blood was seeping out.
Blood was also gushing from his mouth.
With his back pressed against a massive block of building debris weighing at least a ton, his spine was contorted in an unnatural and eerie manner.
Just moments ago, as the ceiling collapsed, Qi Yang thought he heard a few sharp, clear sounds.
The sound of ribs breaking.
Qi Yang's right hand was tightly pinned between his body and S1's.
The scorching heat emanating from S1's abdomen seemed to paint a vivid image in Qi Yang's mind—ribs piercing through the skin, tearing through intestines, and blood gushing everywhere.
The overwhelming redness flooded Qi Yang's vision, and a blinding, heart-wrenching crimson that made his entire face feel like it was on fire. As the blood continued to drip from S1's mouth onto his own cheeks, Qi Yang felt...
There was no escape.
"S...S1?"
Even now, he couldn't fully believe what was happening. Tentatively, he called out.
The scene outside his embrace, where he had watched S1 transform from a mutated beast into a human, the words spoken with that familiar "zizi" sound, and the scars on S1's body that Qi Yang could recognize even with his eyes closed—none of it could make Qi Yang fully accept this fantastical turn of events!
Talking, at least, was something parrots, mynahs, and a few other special animals could do.
But this...this was turning into a human.
Qi Yang had once told Jing Xia that over the years, the Huaxia Ninth Bureau had been dedicated to researching these supernatural phenomena, but they had never made any significant breakthroughs.
He was certain that Su Weishang's green jade had created a dimensional space due to a mutation in the CMK matrix element.
Now, he was on the verge of completely overturning his previous beliefs.
S1's nose was straight and high-bridged.
At this close distance, Qi Yang almost felt like he could touch it if he tilted his head slightly.
His gaze met the terrifying scar running down the center of S1's nose. At this proximity, he could clearly see the burnt, charred flesh peeling back.
He had seen this scar on the face of the white mutated beast before, but it had never struck him as viscerally as it did now.
When the wound was magnified to fifteen centimeters in length and deeply etched into a face that resembled a human's, Qi Yang finally realized just how brutal he had been back then.
"Zizi...it hurts...zizi Yang..."
Intermittent words spilled from S1's mouth.
Though his ability to speak was not fully developed, Qi Yang could roughly guess what he was trying to say. His right hand, free and unconstrained, trembled slightly as it slowly reached up to touch S1's face, which should have been handsome and flawless.
Qi Yang stared into those translucent, crystalline eyes.
Though they were vastly different from a human's, there was a certain ghostly beauty to them.
Seeing his own reflection in those eyes, Qi Yang felt as if he had been purified as his heart was unusually calm and serene.
His bloodstained fingers gently caressed the scarred face, and for the first time, Qi Yang felt his iron-clad heart soften. Or perhaps...no one could witness such a scene and remain unmoved!
The blood seemed like an unbreakable mist that dampened Qi Yang's palm.
This was the first time Qi Yang truly felt that S1 might not make it and that he might...actually die.
No matter how powerful his regenerative abilities were, they couldn't withstand repeated attempts on his life.
The stab to the heart, the injection of potassium cyanide, and now the collapsing boulder—any one of these would have killed a normal human instantly.
Only S1 could have endured this long.
Qi Yang's thin, unfeeling lips curved into a slight smile as he closed his eyes and silently calculated the amount of blood S1 had lost. Amid the scattered screams and sounds of struggle around him, Qi Yang felt an unusual sense of peace.
It was as if he had returned to a time long ago, when he didn't need to pick up a scalpel.
Qi Yang's eyes snapped open.
His fair face now smeared with thick blood, adding an unusual brilliance to his otherwise pale complexion.
He sighed softly and the smile on his lips grew wider. "Forget it. I told you last night, from today onward, I won't hate you anymore. Humanity won't hate you either. Everything you needed to repay has been repaid. From now on..."
His voice suddenly faltered.
"Zizi Yang...Yang...zizi..."
Qi Yang suddenly laughed then took a deep breath, his smile tinged with sorrow and helplessness. "There is no 'from now on' for you. But perhaps this is for the best. Even if you had survived this, the suffering you would have endured would have been far greater. Maybe it wouldn't have been me conducting the experiments, but...I doubt whoever took over would have been as ruthless as I was."
"Cough..."
Another mouthful of blood flowed down S1's finely chiseled jaw, but this time, it dripped onto Qi Yang's lips.
Startled, Qi Yang opened his mouth slightly. His lips trembled as if he wanted to say something, but the blood instead slid down his throat and into his stomach.
Every drop of blood that entered felt like a slow, burning fire.
Qi Yang was lost in thought for a long moment before he let out a bitter laugh and whispered, "S1, go in peace. I'll...I'll leave you with a whole body." With that, Qi Yang closed his eyes and quietly awaited the final moment of farewell.
Now that he knew S1 had the ability to transform into a human, the thought of this mutated beast dying so completely, even...in a way that saved him, stirred something deep within Qi Yang.
No matter how cold-hearted or ruthless he was, there was a part of him that couldn't help but be moved.
Humans always say, repay evil with good.
S1 had killed three of Qi Yang's most talented assistants, and in return, Qi Yang had subjected S1 to every conceivable punishment he could imagine.
There were many ways to conduct experiments and many methods to dissect tissue, but Qi Yang had always chosen the most painful and cruel ones—all for the sake of his own selfish motives.
Now, this mutated beast owed him nothing, and yet...
Qi Yang owed him a life.
Time stretched out, with each second ticking by with excruciating clarity in Qi Yang's ears. But he knew it wasn't the sound of time passing or water dripping.
It was the sound of S1's blood hitting the ground, with each drop a sharp, piercing reminder.
It was...the sound of life slipping away and inching closer to death.
Living was hard, but dying was easy.
...
"Bang—"
Accompanied by a deafening roar, Qi Yang suddenly felt a flash of light.
He instinctively opened his eyes, only to be momentarily blinded by the intense brightness.
Through squinted eyes, he saw that the massive boulder that had been pressing down on them had been effortlessly lifted away.
Standing there was a towering, grayish-white mutated beast with its savage, predatory eyes glaring menacingly.
An enemy attack!
Qi Yang immediately understood.
The sudden earthquake finally had an explanation, and the lack of rescue efforts made sense now.
S1, already at the brink of collapse, lost the support of the boulder and immediately began to topple over.
Without even realizing it, Qi Yang gently and swiftly caught S1's body before carefully laying it down on the ground strewn with debris.
While the massive mutated beast hadn't yet noticed their presence, Qi Yang quickly scanned the area for a weapon.
Upon spotting a silver energy cannon lying on the ground, he didn't hesitate.
He sprang to his feet and dashed toward the high-powered electromagnetic cannon.
But he had grossly underestimated the strength of this mutated beast.
In the blink of an eye, a massive, grotesque foot came crashing down in front of Qi Yang. He reflexively leaped back and narrowly avoided being crushed into a pulp.
Qi Yang assessed the situation and realized that within a 200-meter radius, there was no help to be found.
His expression grew increasingly grave.
He wasn't an evolved individual, and at the moment, he had no access to any weapons.
Faced with such a situation, unless he could find extremely powerful reinforcements, there was no way out.
As he thought this, Qi Yang's gaze fell on S1, who was lying weakly on the ground.
S1's back was a mangled mess of flesh and blood while his entire body limp and lifeless.
Just as Qi Yang hesitated for a moment, he saw the massive mutated beast reach down toward S1.
Without a second thought, Qi Yang charged at the beast and grabbed a long knife that was embedded in the ground and then swung it with all his might!
"Clang—"
The bright, black blade shattered upon impact with the beast's body and flying off in the opposite direction.
The beast's skin, harder than steel, only bore a faint scratch.
But the attack had halted the beast's movement, and it turned its gaze downward to Qi Yang, who was barely the size of its toe.
"…Human……die……foolish……"