Chapter 174: Late
Bai Yi lay on the ground, blood profusely flowing out from the wound on his chest. He couldn’t summon a single ounce of strength now. He had already fought for a very long time trying to break out of New Christchurch, and this battle just now had entirely used up whatever he had left. The other battles had ended long ago as well, and everyone else's conditions weren’t much different from Bai Yi’s.
Although Bai Yi’s team had been steadily growing in strength over the past year, the differences in their power weren’t very big after Yu Han’s attrition tactics.
Everyone lay on the ground, either dead or on the verge of death, and all of them had totally lost any ability to move.
Bai Yi’s body trembled as he tried to stand up again. At this time, if he really stayed down and fell asleep, he would remain asleep forever. However, if it was possible to move, somebody would have moved long ago. After a long while, just when even Bai Yi was about to give up, he suddenly felt something licking his face.
Bai Yi opened his eyes and realized that it was Chinchilla. This little kitten, who never grew bigger and was only the size of an open palm, never attracted anyone’s attention. Of course, with the tiny bit of strength Chinchilla had, it wasn’t possible for it to help out anyway. However, this little thing became the only one capable of moving now.
“Chinchilla.” Bai Yi faintly smiled while breathing heavily, quietly gathering the strength in his body to stand up again. The others who were still alive weren’t too different. Most of them had exhausted themselves thoroughly during the long period of intense battles, and with the addition of their injuries, none of them could move anytime soon.
However, all of a sudden, Bai Yi heard footsteps approaching.
These footsteps were very nimble and approached their vicinity rapidly. After surveying the battlefield for a while, this person very quickly ran toward Bai Yi’s location. Bai Yi lay on the ground, looking up at the briskly approaching figure, and a helpless, bitter laugh rose in his heart. Chinchilla also seemed to sense the danger and immediately turned around, blocking in front of Bai Yi.
“Uncle Bai!” Ning Xue stopped and said softly.
“En, long time no see,” Bai Yi said, his body relaxing totally as he looked up at Ning Xue. Appearing at such a time as this, when everyone had lost their ability to fight, it would just be a waste of effort to continue struggling now. Thinking about this, Bai Yi almost wanted to laugh. It was really hard to predict who would have the last laugh. He had been suspicious from the start as to why Ning Xue wasn’t by Yu Han’s side; it turned out she was just late.
Ning Xue looked at Yu Han kneeling in front of Bai Yi and softly asked, “Is he... dead?”
Bai Yi nodded. “En!”
“Is he apologizing like this?”
“Probably not, it was just a coincidence. I’m afraid he actually wanted to kill me.” Bai Yi looked at Yu Han’s eyes. They had already closed after he'd died, so of course Bai Yi couldn’t see anything. However, things had already reached this stage; how could this guy kneel down and acknowledge his mistakes? He had just happened to walk up to this point and then died there.
“Perhaps, he was apologizing!” Ning Xue pulled the black sword from Yu Han’s body and threw it onto the ground.
Ning Xue nodded to Bai Yi. “Then Uncle Bai, I’ll be leaving now. I’m sorry.”
“You aren’t going to kill me to take revenge?”
“No, Yu Han once said to me very seriously before that if he dies, then there’s no need for me to take revenge for him. Everything between the two of you will completely end here.” Ning Xue gathered up Yu Han’s corpse and slowly walked away.
At this time, the Pellegra Dragon slowly flew over, close to the ground. A big section of this dragon’s tail was broken off, and one of its wings was torn off as well. Its ‘flying’ was actually not too different from crawling. Going over to her, this false dragon looked at Yu Han in Ning Xue’s arms and cried sorrowfully, using its head to bump against Yu Han’s cold body. Seemingly, this false dragon could understand as well that this guy who hadn’t held it in disdain and had treated it as his companion wouldn’t be moving anymore.
Sharpei also slowly walked over from that direction as well. Blood flowed down from his body and he trembled with every step he took. However, Sharpei still determinedly came to Bai Yi’s side, giving off a low growl toward the false dragon.
“Enough, Sharpei!” Bai Yi said softly and reassured Sharpei.
“Little Lai, Yu Han is already dead. Let’s leave.” Ning Xue touched the Pellegra Dragon1’s head gently. The Pellegra Dragon cried out softly, licking Ning Xue’s right hand with its tongue.
“Actually, Yu Han’s dream was also to become a great hero.” After she finished speaking, Ning Xue carried Yu Han’s corpse and slowly disappeared into the distance. The Pellegra Dragon gradually followed behind Ning Xue, going wherever she was going. The only people who had been good to it were Yu Han and Ning Xue. Even it could understand the relationship between Yu Han and Ning Xue, and at this time it could of course only leave with Ning Xue.
It was also to become a great hero, huh?
Bai Yi lay on the ground, thinking about Ning Xue’s parting words. After a long while, Bai Yi gave a deep sigh. A person’s character wasn’t fixed at birth, it was influenced by all the incidents and events that happened to that person later in life. Every different encounter, every different decision, sketched the path of a person’s change and growth. Bai Yi recalled the young man he had met at Waikato University before everything started. Although he was a bit of a loner, he was definitely not a bad person.
Ning Xue carried Yu Han and stopped after going a certain distance. She then silently lay on top of him, her eyes wet with tears.
This kind of ending, Ning Xue didn’t know how to describe it either.
If she had arrived a bit earlier, then the one who'd have died in the end would have been Bai Yi. But in reality, Ning Xue did not want to kill Bai Yi, even if Yu Han hadn’t previously instructed her not to do so. However, Ning Xue similarly couldn’t accept Yu Han dying either. Although Ning Xue knew that Yu Han was growing worse and worse, she really felt something missing now that he was truly gone.
Ning Xue recalled the two LV2 experts that acted as firefighters back in the city, and suddenly felt that this was heaven’s will. Who would have known that there were still two LV2 experts hiding inside New Christchurch, causing her to waste so much time in the city?
Sigh!
After Ning Xue left, the people who still had a breath of life left in them slowly recovered and started standing up. They helped the others who were alive up as well and treated them simply.
After a simple check, grievous news slowly came in bit by bit, and tears started to flow down Bai Yi’s face.
Vala—died from poison.
Raymond—died from going berserk, he brought six other people down with him. It could be said that he died still biting onto his enemies’ corpses.
Heloise—got injured in her vital areas while trying to protect Woolf and didn’t manage to endure to the end either.
The others were severely injured as well, but the most surprising thing was that Nancy, who everyone thought was dead, actually still had one last breath remaining in her. When Betsy and Bellamy pulled Nancy off from the spiked rock, she suddenly groaned and gave them a fright. Betsy couldn’t help her shock, but a Medicinal Maker was a Medicinal Maker, after all, and their life preservation abilities were first rate.
When Bai Yi looked at Woolf, that guy was still holding onto Heloise’s corpse in a daze. When Woolf had met Heloise, she still hadn’t turned into a monster, and he had already fallen in love with her back then. Even though they both turned into monsters afterward, their relationship had never changed. Although Bai Yi had lamented that the two of them had some sort of sadomasochistic thing going on, the feelings between the two of them were very real and genuine.
With Heloise dying for the sake of protecting Woolf this time, it would be strange if Woolf was OK now.
Bai Yi patted Woolf’s shoulder, but he couldn’t find any words to say. However, at this time Momo looked toward Woolf’s side, her eyes slowly becoming pure and transparent.
“Uncle Woolf, Aunt Heloise is scolding you now. You shouldn’t be wallowing like this,” Momo suddenly said, looking beside Woolf.
Bai Yi and Woolf were both suddenly taken aback, but finally understood after looking at Momo’s eyes. Momo now definitely saw Heloise’s soul. However, this wasn’t a special environment like Wellington; if nothing unexpected happened then her soul would be like the remnant soul they'd seen a while ago and would disappear quickly.
Woolf immediately turned his head and asked loudly, “Where is Heloise, where?!”
“She’s at...!” Momo wanted to say that she was right beside Woolf, but Momo was suddenly stunned for a moment, and abruptly took two steps forward, before shouting loudly, “Don’t move!”
Everyone who was initially tending to their wounds jumped at Momo’s exclamation, and they all looked at her in puzzlement. At this time, Momo took a look at everyone around her, before her gaze stopped on a wooden necklace that Woolf was wearing. Momo fixated upon and stared at Woolf’s necklace, her face full of confusion.
“What happened?”
“Aunt Heloise’s soul disappeared.”
“Disappeared!?” Woolf immediately started shouting loudly again.
“No, that’s not right either. I should say that her soul was sucked into that necklace of yours,” Momo said seriously. Following her words, everyone’s eyes stopped on the necklace on Woolf’s neck, although none of them could see anything.
Bai Yi suddenly remembered something. “Woolf, I seem to remember that your necklace was made from the branch of the Soul Release Tree, right?”
Woolf nodded dumbly. “En.”
“Do you still remember the special scene we saw at the Soul Release Tree? The vengeful spirits were automatically attracted to and got sucked into the Soul Release Tree as if they were being purified.”
“Heloise’s soul will be purified?!” Woolf immediately panicked.
“No, I’m saying, is it possible that this branch could absorb the soul and temporarily preserve it?” Bai Yi gave a possible theory, giving everyone else a big shock. Although Bai Yi wasn’t very clear in his explanation, everyone had more or less come into contact with fantasy stories of some kind. Hence, a notion formed in all of their minds.
Branch—soul preservation—revival!