Chapter 1141: Living Is Meaning
After speaking, Jiang Shi took a few deep breaths and looked at Xuanwu once more.
Based on past experience, he would gradually get injured, with the pain and severity of his wounds escalating as the battle intensified.
But this time, Xuanwu directly ripped out his heart. The sudden, immense pain nearly caused him to black out.
Xuanwu also noticed that the heart she had crushed seemed to be emitting a faint black color. It looked familiar, but she couldn't remember who she had seen in this state before. She casually dropped the heart at her feet and then stepped on it, flattening it.
Jiang Shi also hunched over at that moment, waiting for the searing pain to subside.
"Karma fully reaped... retribution begins..." Jiang Shi gritted his teeth. "Xuanwu, now neither you nor I have a heart. But we 'monsters' can't die even without a heart. How pathetic is that?"
"Pathetic." Xuanwu nodded. "Can the word 'pathetic' even begin to describe a monster like me...?"
"Want to try again?" Jiang Shi said. "Xuanwu, you still have a chance."
"A chance...? Try what...?"
Jiang Shi smiled slightly. "Let me think... how did that saying go?"
After a few seconds, Jiang Shi reached out and waved at Xuanwu.
"Come on, Xuanwu. Isn't killing me fun?" Jiang Shi laughed. "Good, so good. Come kill me."
Hearing this, Xuanwu tilted her head slightly. No one knew what she was thinking. They just watched as she reached down and pulled a broken bone from her own shoulder.
Seeing this, Jiang Shi became even more energized. "Come on, Xuanwu. Put down your weapon. Enjoy killing me."
Xuanwu seemed truly provoked. Before today, she had thought she was the only one in "Shangri-La" who couldn't be killed.
But first Qinglong, and now this child in front of her. They could both stand here even after having their hearts ripped out. Was she the one going crazy...?
Or had "Shangri-La" already changed?
Xuanwu threw the broken bone to the ground as well, then reached out her hand once more.
At this moment, she felt that the child before her was a bit different from Qinglong.
After all, she couldn't pull a second heart from this child's body. Her hand grasped at the air three times, all empty. That meant this child was standing here without a heart at all.
"Strange." Xuanwu paused, then twitched her left hand, conjuring a lung lobe from thin air.
"Cough..." Jiang Shi felt another chill in his chest and couldn't help coughing.
"There are other things too..." Xuanwu tilted her head. "So you still feel pain?"
She tightened her left hand, crushing the lung lobe into pieces.
"Cough! Cough, cough!!" Jiang Shi coughed violently. The sensation of a crushed lung was strange. It didn't hurt as much, but he instantly struggled to breathe.
His youthful, muffled groans once again drifted across the field. If not for the "Silence" shrouding the area, it would likely have drawn a massive crowd by now.
Jiang Shi clutched his chest, feeling that his "Indestructibility" was still quite different from Xuanwu's.
A normal person would have died in this state. But he had to bear all the pain and still stand here.
Xuanwu stared blankly for a few more seconds, then simply stopped talking. She pulled out all of Jiang Shi's various organs at once and threw them to the ground.
In addition to the heart, liver, spleen, and lungs, there were also severed fingers and teeth.
Jiang Shi only felt enveloped by overwhelming pain, his mind hazy, his speech slurred.
"Cough..."
A few minutes later, Jiang Shi knelt before Xuanwu. He neither spoke words of surrender nor took a single step back.
The atmosphere in the arena was terrifyingly silent. Everyone stared at Xuanwu, Jiang Shi, and the horrifying pile of organs on the ground.
If it had been anyone else, they would have died on the spot.
"So you really won't die." Xuanwu looked down at Jiang Shi on the ground.
"Of course..."
"So you, like me, must also long for death, right?"
"Heh... hehe..." Jiang Shi wiped the fluid he had coughed up from the corner of his mouth, slurring, "No."
"Why don't you want to die?"
"Well... how to put it..." Jiang Shi knew he was in deep trouble this time. He simply turned over, lay flat on the ground, and began to speak. "I often used to carry my severed hands, feet, or head... and run as fast as I could to find Fifth Brother to save me. I caused him so much trouble, didn't I?"
"What..."
"But he doesn't want me to die. And I don't want to die either." Jiang Shi said softly. "It hurts like hell every time... I feel like I'm dying every time..."
"Then what meaning is there in living?"
"Living is meaning." Jiang Shi said. "As long as I want to live, it has meaning. It's just that I'm too young, I haven't had time to think about it."
"That's wrong." Xuanwu said. "If a person can't even die, then living has no meaning for them."
"You are you... and I am I..." Jiang Shi coughed a few times. "You can try every possible way to kill me... but I don't want to die at all."
Xuanwu fell silent at this, just lowering her head.
"Xuanwu... did you see the looks in the eyes of everyone around me?" Jiang Shi asked. "Not a single one of them wants me to die."
Xuanwu was silent for a long time before finally speaking: "But no one in Shangri-La wants me to live. Not even I do."
"It's precisely because you don't want to live yourself that we are willing to join forces to send you to your death." Jiang Shi continued. "Think carefully... Are we really enemies?"
Bai Jiu, who had the closest bond with Jiang Shi, seemed unable to watch any longer. She didn't use her rope. Instead, she jumped directly from the high platform. A pool of water instantly formed beneath her feet, cushioning her fall.
She quickly walked to Jiang Shi's side, looked down at him.
Jiang Shi had been tortured beyond recognition. Half of his teeth had been torn out, and one of his eyeballs had been crushed.
"Cough, cough..." Jiang Shi stared at Bai Jiu. "Looks like my time is up. I'm even starting to hallucinate."
Bai Jiu looked up at Xuanwu with a serious expression. "Xuanwu, since you want to die so badly, what meaning does your life have?"
"My...?" Xuanwu paused. "The reason I have lived until now is for only two things."
"Can you tell me?" Bai Jiu asked again.
"First is to guard the rules..."
But after Xuanwu said "First," she was silent for a long time, not uttering the "Second."
Bai Jiu seemed to guess what it was, and softly interjected, "The second is to want to die?"
"Yes." Xuanwu nodded. "First, I must guard the rules. Second, I must die. These two things have a priority. They cannot be reversed."
Bai Jiu pondered the two points Xuanwu had raised. Before she could reply, she heard Song Qi's whistle sound from the rooftop once more.
Qiu Shiliu was ready.
She took off her leather jacket, revealing her sports vest. With a furious expression, she slowly walked towards Xuanwu.
Seeing this, everyone immediately moved to Jiang Shi's side, lifted him up, and quickly retreated.
"Hey, Xuanwu. Let's make a deal." Qiu Shiliu said with an angry grin.