Chapter 1010: Death

Li Huowang stared at the note lodged among the flesh and blood, his eyes wide with disbelief. For this to happen, Qing Wanglai must have inserted the note into his brain right from the start!

This meant the man had anticipated everything, even down to Li Huowang shooting his brains out?!

As the mangled body collapsed into the blood on the ground, Li Huowang, clutching his increasingly painful abdomen, gritted his teeth in defiance and pulled over the blood-stained note.

"If you are reading this note, it means I was right again. Well? Don't these correct predictions prove that my beliefs are accurate?"

"However, whether you believe it or not is irrelevant. Once the arrow is shot, there's no turning back; my plan, once set in motion, will not stop."

"Also, a reminder: the poison in my body is chronic, but the one in the test tube is acute. I won't give you a day or two to find a cure."

"Heh heh, you just had a day or two to live, and now it's suddenly gone. How does that feel? Are you scared?"

"You will all die soon—my apologies, I wrote that incorrectly. You are all projections; more precisely, all of you projections will collapse."

Yang Na's painful groans reached his ears, making Li Huowang's hand, clutching his blood-stained fingers, turn white and tremble from the exertion.

"As your projections collapse, a singularity will form within the entire projection world. This singularity will expand outwards, powerful enough to reclaim all projections of the real world within eight days."

"Don't worry, this is just the beginning. Without your interference, the first layer of projection there will also quickly collapse, and my plan will achieve success."

Li Huowang clutched his stomach, kneeling on one knee. His vision began to blur, and even the words on the paper became difficult to discern. Qing Wanglai's acute poison was rapidly corroding his body.

Li Huowang rubbed his bloodshot single eye fiercely, then looked at the note's content again.

"Li Huowang, your thinking is too primitive, just like Zhuge Yuan's – ignorant, foolish, and utterly lacking in common sense. You've clearly wasted your studies."

"But fortunately, I exist. Precisely because of me, the true world was not destroyed by your childishness. I saved the entire world; I am the savior."

"Once this crisis passes, the true world will project again. At that time, I will project into a better Qing Wanglai, and I will no longer be a mere projection. I will have taken a significant step closer to true existence."

"Damn you, Qing Wanglai!" Li Huowang's vision went black, and he staggered before collapsing. The bleeding he had just managed to stop now began to seep out continuously.

He struggled to prop himself up, looking at the others. Their condition was no better; they lay sprawled on the ground.

Pale-faced Wu Qi was drawing his own blood, seemingly attempting to find a cure.

"Nana! Nana!!" Li Huowang stumbled and crawled over, helping Yang Na, who was clutching her stomach, off the ground.

With a pained expression and tears welling in her eyes, Yang Na bit her lip hard. Leaning against Li Huowang's embrace, her voice emerged as a faint whisper: "Huowang... my stomach... it hurts so much... Am I going to die?"

Seeing Yang Na's miserable state, Li Huowang's breathing hitched. He immediately placed his hand on her abdomen, gently rubbing through her clothes. "Don't be afraid, there will be a way. You won't die, I'll find a way! Just hold on."

"Hahaha!" A piercing laugh suddenly erupted from nearby. "And you're still trying to find a way? What can you possibly do in this situation? Your woman is dead. Hahaha!"

Li Huowang snapped his head up, seeing the voice came from Dice. Weakly, Dice lay pointing at Li Huowang, laughing mockingly.

A surge of rage shot through Li Huowang. He almost roared and lunged, ready to plunge the blood-stained combat knife in his hand deep into Dice's chest.

But he forcibly suppressed the anger. Li Huowang roared at Dice, "What are you laughing at?! Don't forget, you were also completely played by Sanqing!"

"You coveted Sanqing to turn you into a Siming, but he coveted your life! And you're supposed to be the head of the Zuowang Dao! Yet you were played for a fool! Disgraceful! Absolutely disgraceful!"

After his outburst, Li Huowang immediately changed his tone. "Dice! Never mind what happened before, we're in this together now! If you have any backup plans, use them quickly! If you don't, we're going to die!"

Dice pushed his reflective aviator glasses up his nose with a finger and shook his head indifferently. "I have no backup plan. I'm a good sport; I accept my loss. Others risked their lives for this scheme, and it's their due."

"No! That's impossible!" Li Huowang rushed over and picked Dice up. "Dice!! I've fought you so many times, I know you! You must have a trick up your sleeve, right? It's impossible for you not to have taken precautions against Qing Wanglai!"

In response to Li Huowang's interrogation, Dice opened his mouth in a lazy yawn, then reached his right hand to scratch under his left armpit. "Ugh, I thought this would be more exciting. Is this all there is?"

When he pulled his right hand out from under his armpit, he was holding a gun. Just as Li Huowang gripped his combat knife tighter, he saw Dice aim the pistol at his own temple.

"Not fun. Not fun at all. Not even as interesting as before."

As Dice pulled the trigger, his temple was instantly pierced by a bullet. He had simply committed suicide.

"Damn it!" Enraged, Li Huowang kicked Dice's corpse, then looked around, searching for any other way out.

However, to achieve his goals, Qing Wanglai wouldn't allow anyone to easily disrupt his plans.

The poison had already taken effect, and it was acute. In this fatal situation, there was simply no hope of survival.

With a soft thud, Chen Hongyu, a sausage still stuffed in her mouth, slumped to the ground, head bowed, utterly lifeless. She was dead.

Li Huowang understood this was just the beginning. As Qing Wanglai's poison intensified, all the Siming in Baiyujing would perish.

The abdominal pain and other physical abnormalities continued to worsen. Li Huowang's eyes showed intense resentment; he was unwilling to die like this, unwilling for the people he cared about to perish so easily.

This time, he turned his attention to Zhao Shuangdian. He walked over to the woman, whose hands were still resting on her keyboard.

Yet she wasn't typing; the computer screen displayed a continuous cascade of data, like a waterfall, seemingly calculating something automatically.

Li Huowang gritted his teeth and helped Zhao Shuangdian up, only to find she was no longer breathing. She was dead too.

"Can you be of any damn use?!" Li Huowang, veins bulging, roared at Zhao Shuangdian's corpse, his voice raw with despair.

"H-Huowang..." Hearing a weak voice, Li Huowang hastily dropped Zhao Shuangdian's body and stumbled towards Yang Na.

"Huowang... I'm sorry... I think I'm... going to die... You must live... *sob*..." As Yang Na cried, tears mixed with a trace of blood streamed from the corners of her eyes.

As she continued to weep, Yang Na's voice faded. Her pale hands slipped limply from Li Huowang's grasp.