Chapter 1195: I Have a Second Plan
“It might be a way of dying you’ve never experienced before.” Song Qi slowly extended his hand and placed it before Ma Shier’s eyes. “That is—being blown to pieces by me.”
“Blown to pieces…?” Ma Shier furrowed his brow as he looked at Song Qi. “Sounds pretty satisfying.”
Ma Shier reached out without a care and clasped hands with Song Qi.
What Song Qi had to do next was both difficult and easy.
It was to treat Ma Shier’s body as a single entity, then transform it into a human bomb that could move freely.
“Twelfth, only the two of us know about this.” Song Qi said. “Not only must it be kept secret, but we also have to think of a foolproof plan. Once Vermilion Bird finds out that we know… he’ll likely take precautions.”
“Seventh Elder Brother, you’re smarter than me.” Ma Shier said. “You think it through, then teach me.”
“Alright… I need you to find every possible way to touch Vermilion Bird.” Song Qi said. “Especially when he’s on the verge of major harm.”
“I think I get it…”
“I’ll be responsible for attacking Vermilion Bird with full force and putting him in a near-death state.” Song Qi said. “If White Tiger’s words are true, then Vermilion Bird will definitely transfer his consciousness away when he’s dying.”
“Holy shit, brilliant!” Ma Shier laughed. “Motherfucker… After he transfers into me, the two of us will blow him up together!”
Song Qi nodded, then withdrew his hand that had been clasped with Ma Shier’s.
The deployment of “Detonation” was complete. Now, with just a single thought from him, his close teammate before him would turn into fireworks on the spot.
Although he felt he had a trump card, Song Qi still hadn’t fully grasped the meaning of “Puppet.”
His teammates were currently using their bodies to intercept Vermilion Bird. Did he still have time to continue comprehending it?
If someone really was controlling Vermilion Bird, then “Cat” would inevitably be landing all its attacks on a lump of dead meat. The outcome awaiting “Cat” could only be total annihilation.
Song Qi slowly clenched his fist, feeling he needed to add one final layer of insurance for the entire “Cat” team.
This layer of insurance couldn’t even be told to Ma Shier.
After all, Ma Shier would die in the “first ring.” He only needed to know that his death was meaningful.
And Song Qi himself would be the “second ring” of this assassination plan. This time, he had no choice but to gamble—gamble that Vermilion Bird was in the same bizarre state as Xuanwu, a state beyond normal human understanding.
Only then would he, as the “second ring,” have a certain probability of killing him.
The odds of winning this gamble were far too slim; even Song Qi himself had no confidence whatsoever.
…
Song Qi looked at Ma Shier, who was letting out a manic laugh, and slowly extended his hand.
“You think I’ll die like this?” Ma Shier laughed. “You guys really are disobedient… I’ve used that body for many years… and you’ve gone and turned it into a sieve…”
Song Qi nodded, staring at Ma Shier and asking, “Originally you flashed next to people to kill them, but now you’ve switched to ‘teleporting’ to kill. So you don’t have ‘Space Leap’ anymore… right?”
Ma Shier’s face twitched slightly, then he squeezed out a smile: “What do you mean?”
“It means that now… you can’t dodge and you can’t run.” Song Qi straightened his arm, then subtly pinched his fingers together.
At that moment, Ma Shier’s body began to twist and swell. He had never imagined that this body had been infused with “Immortal Art” in advance.
“Wait… wait a moment…” Ma Shier’s gradually bloating body squeezed out an unpleasant sound. “Wait just a moment…”
His expression grew flustered, and he stretched out his hands to grab at nothing, but there was no one beside him.
“Filthy thing—get out of my brother’s body.” Song Qi said.
“Let’s negotiate…” Ma Shier trembled as he spoke. “Let’s negotiate! I can give you…”
Boom!
Before Ma Shier could touch anyone, his body, like a water balloon filled to bursting, let out a muffled explosion.
Everyone felt a spray of blood rain across their faces—warm and foul.
The few remaining people raised their hands to shield their faces, feeling nothing but flying flesh and blood before them. Perhaps this was “Zhongyan Land.”
This time… had Vermilion Bird finally vanished into thin air?
“Lao Qi… you guys just now…” Qian Wu, standing to the side, looked at the scene with lingering fear.
“Don’t worry, Fifth Brother. Everything is going according to plan.” Song Qi’s gaze did not relax; instead, he stared intently at the nearby chunks of flesh.
Now came the “second ring.” If this “second ring” paid off, “Cat” could win.
“’Cat’ was always meant to eat ‘Sparrow.’”
Within moments, Song Qi indeed spotted a small, strange piece of flesh at the spot where Ma Shier had just exploded.
This piece of meat looked different from the rest—it was writhing.
Qian Wu immediately sensed something was off and was about to step forward, but Song Qi reached back to stop him.
“Fifth Brother, thank you for all your care over the years.” Song Qi said. “I hope we still have a chance to drink together.”
“Lao Qi…” Qian Wu slowly furrowed his brow.
“I didn’t expect my gamble to pay off.”
Song Qi stepped forward, reached down, and grabbed the piece of meat from the ground. Then he turned it over in his hand to see three eyes rolling wildly on it, surrounded almost entirely by tooth marks.
“The ‘eyes’ are the real body, aren’t they?” Song Qi looked down at the meat in his hand and asked with a smile. “I was wondering before why biting the eyes in your mouth would deepen your ‘conviction’… So it turns out you weren’t biting the eyes at all—you were biting yourself. Deepening your conviction in extreme pain and fear—that makes sense.”
Hearing this, the three eyes on the piece of meat all looked at Song Qi, then a slit opened in the middle of the three eyes, as if it were a mouth.
An unpleasant voice rasped hoarsely from that mouth: “Really… disobedient…”
“If I’m not mistaken, these three eyes of yours are ‘Soul Capture,’ ‘Puppet,’ and ‘Soul Transfer,’ right?” Song Qi could clearly feel that the shredded meat in his hand was restless, but he held it tightly, making it impossible to move. “Inside your own mouth, using ‘Puppet’ to control yourself to achieve a floating effect… that’s interesting.”
It was only then that Zhou Mo realized what Earth Pig meant by “far”—after all, what he had touched wasn’t the true body of the “Echoer.”
“…So you know everything…” The shredded meat seemed to grin as if laughing.
“The body of your original host had ‘Space Leap.’ In your near-death state, you ‘leaped’ this lump of meat out, then ‘Soul Transfered’ into Nineteenth, and finally made contact with Ma Shier.” Song Qi’s hand squeezed with increasing force. “It’s just a pity that this lump of meat of yours has been strengthened. Even if Twelfth’s whole body is blown to bits, it might not be enough to kill you.”
“Ha… haha…” The shredded meat continued to grin. “Even though you know my secret… so what? My ‘Soul Capture’ and ‘Soul Transfer’ are still here. You’re… paralyzed now… and I’ve touched you…”
“No.” Song Qi denied it. “Vermilion Bird, it wasn’t you who touched me—it was I who touched you.”
“What…?”
“You’re already in a dead end.” Song Qi said. “I’ve already infused ‘Detonation’ into your body. My own body will be destroyed in one minute as well… This is your end.”