Offerings
Lin Zhouze was trapped in the water dungeon, watching the entire process of Shi Youchen being unilaterally beaten. His cries could only be heard faintly, so faint that the sound of Shi Youchen's own heartbeat was louder than that.
To be honest, he had previously had the upper hand in his one-on-one training with Yan Zhiyuan, and his close combat skills were by no means weak, but now...
"Ugh" another unexpected upward kick, Shi Youchen's chest paused, and the whole person was kicked away, falling on the water prison that trapped Lin Zhouze.
"Cough... cough..." A sweet, fishy taste surged in Shi Youchen's throat, but he swallowed it back. His body, already affected by hydrogen sulfide, was ill-suited for close combat. Although the concentration was low, excessive exposure still caused significant damage to his sensory functions.
Through the flowing water curtain, Shi Youchen seemed to see Lin Zhouze's mouth opening and closing, as if he was saying something to him.
"...Run...there's an arrow..." Shi Youchen leaned over to listen, "Run! There's an arrow!"
As Lin Zhouze's weak voice fell, Shi Youchen felt a sharp pain in his left shoulder. Drops of blood fell onto the water curtain, staining Lin Zhouze's already obscured and slightly blurred vision with a brilliant crimson hue.
The arrow shot out from Shi Youchen's left chest. The end of the shaft was connected to the waterline, and Yan Zhiyuan held the end of the waterline in his palm. "What a shame, it almost went straight through the heart. I guess I need to work on my accuracy."
Shi Youchen felt severe pain even when breathing. He half-lay on the water prison and said to Lin Zhouze inside: "I know...you will be sad to hear me say this, but he is indeed...Yan Zhiyuan..." After working together for so long and undergoing so many special trainings, a person's fighting habits and style cannot be easily imitated.
Shi Youchen didn't seem to need any response from Lin Zhouze. He just forced a smile as if he had completed some kind of mission.
Then, in front of Yan Zhiyuan, he made a series of gestures to Lin Zhouze in the water dungeon. Just as Yan Zhiyuan was wondering when the association had issued new instructions, Shi Youchen smiled brightly, grasped the front half of the crossbow with his right hand, and pulled with all his might.
When Yan Zhiyuan was pulled back, he was in a relaxed state and his attention happened to be on other things, so he did not expect this.
The water line connecting the crossbow bolt dissipated and disappeared. Shi Youchen covered the wound with his left palm and grasped the silver crossbow bolt with his right hand, swung it backward with force.
During the time when Yan Zhiyuan was entrusted to provide special training for Shi Youchen, he not only taught him close combat skills, but also imparted several core elements of combat for people with special abilities, the most important of which was to adapt to local conditions.
Prioritizing the search for areas with abundant water resources that would be beneficial for combat, and utilizing readily available energy sources nearby to conserve energy, was Yan Zhiyuan's primary combat habit. Even though he held back on his own strength, combat habits couldn't be changed overnight.
Shi Youchen discovered this and took advantage of it.
As expected, Shi Youchen's backhanded crossbow bolt was intercepted mid-flight by the water curtain. The sound of a heavy object entering the water and the rush of water synced perfectly. From losing his balance and half-kneeling on the ground, Yan Zhiyuan regained his balance and dispersed the "barrier" in front of him in just ten seconds.
"Not bad." He looked at Shi Youchen and put down his left hand and said, "You are worthy of being the one he has chosen."
By this point, he had realized that the other party had exploited his habits and the surrounding environment to cleverly rescue Lin Zhouze from the water prison in a remarkably short time. If he had had a few more seconds to react, he wouldn't have subconsciously diverted the energy source closest to the threat—the water in the water prison behind Shi Youchen.
Shi Youchen lowered his left hand. The through-hole wound on his left chest had healed. Fortunately, it hadn't hit any vital organs. Unfortunately, his already precarious condition had forced him to mobilize his energy, accelerating the flow of toxins within his body. The wound had healed, but his vision was completely blurry.
So he simply closed his eyes. Fortunately, Lin Zhouze had already escaped...
"You let him jump into the lake. Aren't you afraid that I will use my power to kill him underwater?" Yan Zhiyuan took a few steps forward and picked up the crossbow arrow on the ground. He took a few more steps forward and stopped right in front of Shi Youchen.
He aimed the crossbow at Shi Youchen's left eye: "Aren't you afraid?"
Shi Youchen closed his eyes and didn't even feel the arrow pointing at him. He simply used the sound to identify the distance and knew that Yan Zhiyuan was already in front of him. He smiled and said, "The water in this lake is beyond your control, because 'it' itself is a product of supernatural power."
"Otherwise you wouldn't have transferred the energy used to create the water prison, but you had to do it." Shi Youchen's tone was much calmer than before, "Because your 'water' ability not only didn't increase in this environment, but was suppressed by 'it'."
"You can't catch Lin Zhouze."
Yan Zhiyuan's usually expressionless face suddenly showed a flicker of emotion. Then, he put his fingers together and flipped them, and four curtains of water rose around them, instantly transforming into a water room. Unlike a water dungeon, a water room didn't block out the air, but conversely, the view inside and outside wasn't as clear as a water dungeon. Even if someone looked closely, they couldn't see clearly what was going on inside.
Inside the water house, Yan Zhiyuan threw away the crossbow in his hand. He looked at Shi Youchen's closed eyes and asked, "Shi Youchen, don't you want to know why I stand on the opposite side of the association? Don't you have anything you want to ask?"
"..." Shi Youchen's fingertips curled up. "Yes, a lot." Are you from the Maintenance Bureau? Were you threatened? When did this happen? Was it the Maintenance Bureau that attacked the training base tonight? What was their purpose? What's the situation outside?
"But it doesn't matter anymore." He sighed softly.
Yan Zhiyuan: "It doesn't matter why. I want to kill you and him."
"Then there's no need for you to stop the arrow and dilute the poison." Shi Youchen's tone rose noticeably. "Yan Zhiyuan, you simply don't have the determination to kill both of us."
After this sentence, his tone returned to a steady state. "Although I don't know what you want to do, Lin Zhouze has already left. There is a training base under the lake that connects to the outside teleportation array. You can't catch him."
"...Hahaha, okay, okay!" Unexpectedly, Yan Zhiyuan burst into laughter, "You are smart enough and cruel enough." His eyes became sharp, even though he knew Shi Youchen couldn't feel it, he still stared at those familiar eyes.
"You could have stayed out of this, but you insisted on coming here. That's fine, but I don't believe that with your level, you can't hear those hints." Yan Zhiyuan seemed a little angry. "Then, knowing that there might be danger, why didn't you leave? Why did you insist on staying!"
Shi Youchen didn’t understand: “So what are you dissatisfied with? Is it me who was involved? Or is it me who failed to take Lin Zhouze away?” The emphasis of the first question was on “I”, while the emphasis of the second question was on “Lin Zhouze”.
The other party fell silent, and when he spoke again, his tone was as gentle as usual: "Since you have entered the game, then be a pawn of me, your old friend."
Before Shi Youchen could react to the deeper meaning behind his words, he heard a whisper close to his ear: "Didn't you say I can't catch Lin Zhouze? What if he comes back on his own?"
The next moment, the walls and ceiling of the water house transformed into dozens of water arrows, which then transformed into ice arrows in mid-air. Shi Youchen, already suffocated by the poison and having lost all four senses, with only partial hearing remaining, had no idea what was happening. He instinctively sensed danger and tried to move, but his ankles were already pinned to the spot by the dense water ring, unable to move at all.
"Puff" sounds erupted one after another, and under Yan Zhiyuan's control, the ice arrows pierced into Shi Youchen's limbs one by one. The front half of the ice arrows that penetrated through the flesh and blood were stained with warm blood, but strangely, it was not bright red.
Drops of blood fell from the arrow body to the ground, gathering into a small pool of blood with an unusual crimson purple color.
When Youchen was attacked like this, he could not fall to the ground because his feet were restrained, and he still stood upright. However, he did not feel any pain when his limbs were pierced until he heard a shrill scream.
“There is dust!!!”
As Lin Zhouze struggled to climb out of the lake, he saw a scene that nearly suffocated him. He saw the two men facing each other not far away, saw the formation of sharp swords, saw Shi Youchen's body pierced by the moonlight, and saw Yan Zhiyuan's calm eyes when he turned his head.
Calm and peaceful, as if it was someone else who did these things and not him.
The restraints on Shi Youchen's feet were untied, and his body, which was full of holes, could no longer support himself. He knelt forward and then lay on the dirty and muddy ground.
"I'll kill you!!!!" When people reach their peak emotions, they can generate strength that transcends their limits. Lin Zhouze, who should have been exhausted by now, felt his eyes bloodshot, but instead, he swiftly picked up the other crossbow bolt lying at his feet and rushed towards Yan Zhiyuan.
...
Shi Youchen opened his eyes, and as his consciousness gradually returned, he smelled the salty and wet smell of rain, felt the coldness on half of his face, and heard the sound of "tick-tick".
Then he felt a tingling sensation in his limbs. He raised his head a little with difficulty, opened his mouth, and tasted the astringent taste of rain.
All his senses have returned.
What's going on? Wasn't he already severely poisoned and on the verge of death? How did he come back to life now?
He tried to stand, but his limbs were too weak to support him. The rain seemed to intensify. What was the situation now? Had word of the attack spread? Had Yan Zhiyuan left? Lin Zhouze...
Lin Zhouze! He remembered hearing Lin Zhouze's voice before he lost consciousness. He didn't listen to his own departure from the teleportation array in the lake, he was back!
Why? Is there something wrong at the bottom of the lake? Is the teleportation array destroyed? Or are there enemies at the bottom of the lake? Or...
His body was still shattered, but his mind was already churning. Shi Youchen began to cough violently, choking on the rain that poured down on him while he tilted his head back.
"Tsk." At this moment, a pair of black short boots appeared in his sight, accompanied by a sound of obvious disgust, "Why is it so ugly?" The raindrops that kept falling on Shi Youchen's face stopped, or rather, were blocked.
He looked up and saw a man standing next to him with an umbrella.
That figure looks so familiar...
"You should recover from your injuries yourself. I have something more urgent to do." A familiar voice.
“...07?” Shi Youchen spoke, his voice no longer hoarse.
"You can still recognize me. It seems that the toxins in your body have been cleared." 07 stood beside Shi Youchen with an umbrella and walked forward on the accumulated water with a "patter" sound.
Hearing the noise coming from above his head, Shi Youchen tried hard to turn his head to see, but found that the big black umbrella just blocked all view above.
It seems that I can only focus on recovering from my injuries first. Shi Youchen closed his eyes again in weakness.
07 left the black umbrella with Shi Youchen, holding the other transparent umbrella as he walked towards the water house ahead. He held the umbrella with his left hand and raised his right palm, pressing it against the water curtain. "Splash!" Yan Zhiyuan's energy collapsed before him, and the water house instantly crumbled, revealing the scene inside.
Yan Zhiyuan and Lin Zhouze knelt face to face, both with their eyes closed and their hands hanging down. There was no difference in their postures.
The only difference was that there was a crossbow arrow stuck in Yan Zhiyuan's heart. Perhaps Lin Zhouze was not as strong as him after all, so the arrow did not penetrate his chest, but was embedded in his body.
07 sneered: "Idiot." and walked towards Yan Zhiyuan.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
