Chapter 16 - 11: A Dream in a Southern Village
Xiao Kong could be said to be the first person Yan Fei had ever killed in his life, but at this moment, there was no particular disturbance in his heart. After all, the man had launched a sneak attack on him without warning and had even tried to kill him, leaving him severely injured. Such a person could be described with only one word: enemy. Faced with an enemy, Yan Fei naturally had to retaliate with full force. Otherwise, if Xiao Kong didn’t die, he would have. Yan Fei was by no means a pushover, unwilling to show mercy to his enemies. He knew all too well that mercy towards an enemy was cruelty towards oneself. Moreover, Xiao Kong’s formidable performance had caused Yan Fei to feel apprehensive, which is why he had no psychological barriers to killing him.
However, upon seeing Xiao Kong’s corpse, Yan Fei still felt somewhat emotional. Life is so impermanent; one moment, a person can be full of life, and the next, they’ve become a pile of rotten flesh. So, what is the essence of life? What is the body that carries life? Where does the soul go after death?
Yan Fei lay on the ground, recovering his strength while reflecting on the transient nature of life. The mass of flesh crushed by the boulder on the slope suddenly moved, and then a hand emerged from the wreckage, pressing firmly against the ground. Then, a second hand appeared, also pressing on the ground. With the support of both hands, a head lifted from the mass of flesh. It was indeed Xiao Kong’s head, and he had miraculously not died from such an ordeal.
But Xiao Kong looked horrifying, his face a bloody mess, flesh ripped open revealing bone in some places. His nose was gone, one of his eyeballs had burst, nearly all his teeth were missing, and blood continuously leaked from his mouth. A broken rib protruded from his chest, his stomach was torn open, his colorful intestines spilling out. His legs were twisted in a grotesque angle, obviously broken.
With a ferocious glare from his remaining eye, Xiao Kong glared at Yan Fei, regardless of the blood dripping from his mouth. Dragging himself with his arms, he crawled towards Yan Fei, leaving a trail of blood behind, resembling a vengeful ghost returned from hell.
Yan Fei was shocked and his flesh crawled. If he couldn’t clearly feel the pain from his body, he might have thought he was dreaming, because this was simply too inconceivable. He had no idea what level of martial arts master Xiao Kong was, whose vitality was so strong that he could survive to such an extent. This completely overturned Yan Fei’s worldview.
Since Xiao Kong’s sneak attack on him, Yan Fei had been getting injured, and the injuries were not light. He had been forcing himself to persevere during the life and death struggle until Xiao Kong was crushed by the boulder before completely relaxing. With that relaxation, he couldn’t muster the strength anymore. So, at this time, Yan Fei was completely spent and unable to move, only able to watch as Xiao Kong crawled toward him.
Hate filled Xiao Kong as he crawled towards Yan Fei, a ghastly smile on his face, letting out a terrifying laugh through his teeth.
Just when Yan Fei had closed his eyes, resigned to death, a mysterious power suddenly surged through his body. His face lit up with joy, for he could feel his Drone Avatar had become operational again. He immediately knew it must have passed midnight, the Drone’s data began to refresh, and under the influence of the mysterious power, the Drone was fully repaired and its combat power restored. The residual effects of that mysterious power also acted on Yan Fei, repairing his severely injured body in a way he couldn’t comprehend.
At the critical moment, Yan Fei’s trump card came back to life. Under his control, the newly repaired Drone swiftly ascended and flew towards the slope where Yan Fei and Xiao Kong’s fierce battle had taken place.
Xiao Kong continued to crawl toward Yan Fei, and just as he reached his side, grinning viciously and reaching out his nearly skeletal hands to strangle Yan Fei, Yan Fei’s Drone Avatar finally arrived above the scene. Under Yan Fei’s control, the Drone hovered in midair, its Steel Ball Gun swiveling and quickly locking onto Xiao Kong. Then, with a thought from Yan Fei, a sequence of Steel Ball Bullets fired out, hitting Xiao Kong’s body.
The Steel Ball Bullets might not have the penetrating sharpness of regular bullets, but their power was not to be underestimated. As the high-velocity Steel Ball Bullets hit Xiao Kong’s body, they penetrated his flesh, bursting out in a shower of blood.
The sudden attack dealt heavy damage to Xiao Kong. He stopped trying to attack Yan Fei and screamed in agony, rolling back and forth on the ground, trying to avoid the Steel Ball Bullets’ assault. His ragged figure was utterly pitiful to see. Oddly enough, despite the agonized screaming, his face still wore that bizarre smile, creating a chilling sight.
Yan Fei, unhearing, continued to fire Steel Ball Bullets, attacking Xiao Kong on the ground. Suddenly, a bullet hit Xiao Kong’s heart. He screamed loudly, the strange smile freezing on his face, his eyes losing their light. He then completely collapsed to the ground, motionless.
Yan Fei, wary of Xiao Kong’s tenacious vitality, still couldn’t believe Xiao Kong was truly dead. He fired dozens more Steel Ball Bullets at Xiao Kong, until he blasted his head apart. Xiao Kong’s head exploded, an eyeball remarkably flying onto Yan Fei’s face, which Yan Fei disgustedly tossed away.
It was only when Xiao Kong lay still that Yan Fei finally confirmed Xiao Kong was indeed dead. If a man could still live without a head, Yan Fei would have had nothing to say.
From the Drone’s aerial perspective, Yan Fei could clearly see his own battered appearance. He had just been an ordinary citizen, and even after obtaining the Drone Avatar and carrying out so-called acts of chivalry, he had only encountered small-time characters, engaging in actions akin to jokes at best. How could he have experienced such a terrifying, blood-soaked life and death struggle, constantly facing the test of life and death? If it weren’t for Xiao Kong’s oversight and the timely effect of Yan Fei’s trump card, he might have silently perished in the wilderness.
Xiao Kong’s body was a mangled mess, not a single part of him left intact, and his exploded head rendered him a sight of true horror. Seeing Xiao Kong’s ghastly condition, Yan Fei suddenly felt a wave of nausea, almost vomiting, but he forcefully suppressed it. The aftereffects of his first kill had finally manifested. He began to slowly calm his emotions, glad that the feeling quickly passed.
Yan Fei was momentarily paralyzed, only able to lie there on the ground. As the host of the Drone Avatar, the mysterious power acted on him too, and his body was rapidly healing. That rate of recovery astonished even him. In just a short five minutes, the wounds on his body stopped bleeding and he was even able to get up and move around.
At this time, the security personnel who had received Zhang Baocheng’s orders to search for Xiao Kong and the Drone had also arrived one after another. Following the trail of the fight, they made their way to the slope nearby, where the Drone Avatar in the sky had already captured footage of them hurrying to the scene.
Yan Fei, though now capable of movement, was still far from fully recovered and had little combat power left. Not daring to stay at the scene any longer, he hastily cleaned up some traces he had left behind. Although there were certainly many things he could not erase in such a short time, that was all he could do for now. Lastly, even Xiao Kong’s battered corpse was thrown into the Universal Space to be dealt with later when there was time.
The security personnel were closing in on Yan Fei, who had no choice but to leave. Guided by the Drone Avatar in the sky, he stealthily avoided the security personnel and slipped through a gap in their encirclement, leaving the woods and returning to his minivan at the foot of the mountain. From inside the vehicle, Yan Fei could clearly see that Zhang Baocheng’s villa district was bustling with activity, lights flickering everywhere in chaos.
Yan Fei did not concern himself with Zhang Baocheng. First, he cleaned the blood off his body and bandaged his wounds. Then he took out a set of clean clothes he had prepared in the Universal Space and changed into them. He threw his blood-stained clothes into the Universal Space and carefully checked himself until he was sure there were no obvious flaws left.
In the end, Yan Fei drove his minivan, carrying the box with the Drone Avatar, and began his journey home. Perhaps his run of bad luck had been used up because, this time, his luck was exceptionally good. The journey was smooth, and nothing untoward happened all the way home.
Once home, Yan Fei felt an overwhelming fatigue, and the significant blood loss made him somewhat groggy. He collapsed onto the bed, closed his eyes, and lost consciousness.
In a state of stupor, Yan Fei seemed to experience many things and received countless pieces of information. A bizarre array of events unfolded in his mind…
Time passed, and Yan Fei suddenly woke up with a start. He opened his eyes and found himself lying in a hospital bed, his body wrapped in bandages, his back of hand had an IV needle for infusion, and the pain and weakness in his body had completely disappeared.
The ward was impeccably white, and outside the window, the sunshine was bright, the air fresh. There stood a female nurse in front of the window in a pristine white uniform. The nurse was tall and beautiful with an innocent face that radiated with the vigor of youth. She was at the window tending to the potted plants, watering them with a watering can.
The nurse looked at the plants with a tender smile on her face. The morning light on her face presented an extreme beauty.
Seeing this beautiful nurse, Yan Fei was spellbound; his heartbeat accelerated, feeling as if he had fallen in love with the nurse at first sight. He liked the nurse without any reason.
Just as Yan Fei’s heart raced, lost in thoughts of love, the beautiful nurse put down the watering can, put the plants back in place, and turned to leave the ward.
In a panic, not knowing the nurse’s name, Yan Fei blurted out, “Um… please wait a moment…”
Regrettably, the beautiful nurse seemed not to hear Yan Fei at all. She walked straight past his bed, pulled open the door, and was about to leave.
Agitated, and fearing he might never see the nurse again, Yan Fei shouted, “…wait… don’t go…”
Unfortunately, the beautiful nurse still paid no attention to Yan Fei; she pushed open the door, went out, and closed the door behind her.
As the door closed with a “bang,” the room plunged into darkness. Startled, Yan Fei sat up shouting, only to realize he was lying on his bed at home, sweating profusely. The pristine ward, the beautiful nurse—it had all been but a dream…
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