Chapter 1137: Deserve

Ma Shi'er took the "arm" and left, and the scene immediately fell into silence, as if nothing had just happened.

Song Qi paused for a moment, signaling to the people on the rooftop to coordinate the next round of attack tactics.

Now that Xuanwu was missing one arm, it provided some advantage, no matter how you looked at it.

"Oh... that's bad..." Jiang Shi suddenly remembered something and turned toward the direction where Ma Shi'er had run off, saying blankly, "I forgot to tell Shi'er about the bad news regarding 'Bumie'..."

"Oh, damn it!"

From a distance, Ma Shi'er's scream echoed, faint and distant, as if he had already run far away but was still within the range of "Jianmo".

"This... this arm is hitting me! Oh, come on...!" His voice grew fainter, "Is there anyone to help out? Son of a gun, this is Xuanwu's arm, how am I supposed to fight it myself... Ouch!"

"Oh..." Jiang Shi turned back casually, "No worries, it looks like Shi'er already knows."

Everyone carried on as if nothing had happened, focusing intently on Song Qi's signals and the Xuanwu on the ground amid Ma Shi'er's fading screams.

After Song Qi made a series of hand signals, everyone nodded in unison.

A moment later, the entire "Mao" team's coordinated assault resumed, with tactics nearly identical to the previous ones. They used props and "Huixiang" to unleash a wide-area attack, combining various strange phenomena that once again swept over Xuanwu's entire body.

Although Xuanwu was missing an arm and couldn't block the broad attacks, the group still struggled to inflict any substantial damage.

All the strikes hit Xuanwu directly, yet they seemed to sink into the sea—loud and impactful but stirring no ripples at all.

"What an incredible 'Bumie'," Jiang Shi muttered to himself, arms crossed as he squatted on the rooftop. "When will I ever have that kind of ability?"

Li Jingguan stared down at the scene from the rooftop for a long time before tossing away his cigarette butt.

"Song Qi," he said softly, "I'm going to give it a try."

"'Give it a try' means...?" Song Qi asked, turning back.

"Even if the opponent looks strange, at the end of the day, it's still a humanoid form," Li Jingguan explained. "What would happen if I managed to pull out Xuanwu's heart?"

Song Qi thought about the question but found it hard to pin down an answer.

Though no one knew for sure, Song Qi just had a feeling that Xuanwu wouldn't die.

Even if all humanoid beings could die, Xuanwu certainly wouldn't.

"I'm not sure," Song Qi answered honestly. "Xuanwu's current state is just too bizarre."

"Song Qi, based on your experience, if I try to pull out Xuanwu's heart..." Li Jingguan asked with a troubled expression, "would she completely lose her temper and end up killing all of us?"

"Well..." Song Qi pondered, lowering his head. "Ge, to be honest, I've seen a lot of people who say they 'don't want to live,' but survival is a human instinct. Once someone realizes they're about to die, their subconscious will make them fight to stay alive, so it's very possible that Xuanwu would be provoked."

"So... should I try or not?"

"Go ahead," Song Qi said. "We don't have any other breakthroughs. If Xuanwu does get furious, we'll all bear the consequences together."

"Alright then..." Li Jingguan nodded, then reached his right hand into his pocket and closed his eyes.

Xuanwu emerged once more from the thick black mist, appearing as calm as ever.

For her, the successive attacks were just novel experiences of death, and for a long time, she had considered this the closest she'd come to actually dying.

Maybe with a little more effort...?

If the others pushed a bit harder, coordinated more closely, and made their "Xianfa" even more powerful, she might finally fall here.

It sounded so reasonable...

A guardian of rules dying on the path of guarding them—that would be the most fitting end for her.

So she wouldn't have let anyone down—not the "rules," not the people she'd killed before, and not Qinglong, who had kept her from starving.

The "Mao" team also felt that Xuanwu was unlike any enemy they'd faced.

Rather than calling her a "divine beast," she seemed more like a supremely powerful "native" inhabitant.

Every enemy in the "End Lands" required immense wisdom to handle, but not Xuanwu.

She only accepted the simplest ideas, like "you kill me first, then I'll kill you"—straightforward and direct.

Yet the most direct things were often the hardest, and even with "divine power" and "Tianxingjian" on their side, they might not gain the upper hand against her.

It was clear Xuanwu wanted to die; she'd given them every opportunity, but they just couldn't kill her.

"You all..." Xuanwu said softly as she walked forward, "put in a bit more effort... Are you almost succeeding...?"

No one dared to answer Xuanwu's question, since failure or success would mean death for them all.

Success would bring Qinglong's wrath; failure, Xuanwu's.

"I can feel it..." Xuanwu continued, dragging her long hair as she moved, "I can feel that you're getting closer and closer to success..."

No sooner had she spoken than Xuanwu felt her heart suddenly throb.

But the sensation felt incredibly distant, as if it had come from another space and entered her mind.

"Hmm...?"

She looked down at her body but saw nothing unusual.

In the next instant, Xuanwu felt a sharp pain in her heart, as if a piece had been torn from her chest, sending a chilling agony straight to her brain.

This pain was more intense than any before, as if something had attacked her from deep inside her body.

"Bumie" could no longer hold back this bone-piercing torment.

Behind Song Qi, Li Jingguan trembled as he extended his hand, holding a fresh, beating heart.

The heart was wrapped in specks of starlight, as if it had been transmitted from another space.

Song Qi turned back in shock; he never imagined Li Jingguan's plan would succeed so smoothly. Nearby, Su Shan stared with wide eyes.

What they were seeing was Xuanwu's heart—her vital core.

If the heart was destroyed... would she be doomed?

Li Jingguan acted quickly, picking up a sharp piece of wood from the ground and thrusting it forcefully into the heart.

At that very moment, Xuanwu let out a wail on the distant open ground, startling everyone nearby.

But in the next second, Li Jingguan sensed something was wrong—it felt as if he'd stabbed into a bundle of straw.