Histoires de fantômes

Chapitre 279

"Ah—" Another loud cry, the sound of a tiger.

I rushed to the well. Five curved blades were stuck diagonally in the tiger's back, all protruding from its chest. Blood dripped from the crescent-shaped tips of the blades, instantly forming a huge pool of blood on the snow.

Beside him, besides Sahan who had fallen after being shot, was a thin girl hidden in a gray robe.

"Youlian?" I had already guessed that the Great God Tu Liehan would only send her out again for the final, life-or-death blow. Her hands were empty, and her hood hung askew at her eyebrows, covering half of her eyes.

Tang Xin had two knives piercing his ribs, and Sahan had a gunshot wound to his forehead and throat; both of them were on the verge of death.

Even more horrifying was the sight of a steel cone, over two centimeters in diameter, protruding from Alpha's temple, which was facing me. The four Muay Thai experts, by issuing the "sand-throwing" gesture, intended to use overwhelming force to drive these four cones into Alpha's skull.

I couldn't see any blood, but the sight of the steel cone cleaving through the muscle and forcibly squeezing in was enough to send chills down one's spine.

These four experts were all struck by Tang Xin's poisoned arrow at the same time, a fatal blow, and their bodies were already stiff and motionless. I stretched out my toe and lifted the hood of one of them, revealing the face of a dark-skinned and burly middle-aged man.

“He is Mai Cai, whom Mr. Feng has met. The other three are Master Gu Longde, Muay Thai master Yu Zheng, and Ye Mansai. It’s a pity that these four masters, who had the potential to promote Muay Thai and bring it to the world’s top level of martial arts, could only die in this less-than-successful trip to Saturn.” You Lian withdrew her dazed gaze and stared at me coldly.

Mai Cai was the horse leader I encountered in the Egyptian desert while searching for the missing Tang Xin and Lu Jiacan. His arrogance had left a deep impression on me, but I never imagined that when we met again, he would be facing only corpses. Master Gu Longde was even more of a "founding father" of Muay Thai, who was said to have been living in seclusion for many years, and now I suddenly encountered him as well.

"Are they all dead?" I asked knowingly, and with a flick of my toe, the Desert Eagle was already in my hand.

“Mr. Feng, you are no match for me. My master has his reasons for making this arrangement. You may leave; my master will not make things difficult for you.” You Lian raised her chin, her gray robe parting to reveal her bloodless lips. She had been very active in attacking the Dragon Control Formation, but had accomplished nothing.

"Who should be held responsible for their deaths? In this world without laws, what rules of survival should we follow?" I felt a surge of anger rising from my chest.

"Take responsibility? Killing anyone who tries to plunder Earth's energy is taking responsibility for them," Youlian sneered discontentedly. Many people would indeed die after this scheme was completed, but the most innocent victims would be the fallen humans of Earth.

"I will take responsibility and maximize the margin for error in the Asian community, rebuilding a civilized, prosperous, and united family, eliminating all barriers between continents, families, and individuals. Like the Tower of Babel in the Bible, we will become pioneers in global communication."

The great god Tu Liehan hasn't forgotten to express his moving sentiments, but I know very well that once the gears of killing start turning, they will never stop unless a fatal attack occurs.

Part 3 is finished. Please watch Part 4, "The War of Resurrection".

Part 4: Resurrection Battle

— Chapter 1 — The Bearded Stranger's Dream —

Gunshots rang out again, and wisps of smoke rose from beneath the tiger's body. He never carried just one gun; at most, he could hide thirteen pistols in seven pockets and six joints on his body.

Youlian collapsed to the ground with a thud, like a sandbag that had been hit.

With a clang, the golden sword in Alpha's hand fell to the ground. He slowly bent down and took Tang Xin's hand. By now, seeing his golden mask no longer felt strange; it was as if he was born to be that way.

The great god Tu Liehan stepped back two paces, a faint mockery on his lips, seemingly very satisfied with the scene before him.

"This is... my destiny. Farewell. I will never meet you again, nor will I repeat the memory. Death... is liberation. I am already liberated..." Tang Xin did not die, but the strange wound caused by the curved blade was very difficult to close. As long as her body moved slightly, the wound would bleed profusely again.

A steel cone was also stuck in the center of Alpha's head, reaching all the way to the end. Judging from this, the tip of the cone might have already pierced his brain nerves.

“I know, I’ve always known,” Alpha replied softly.

"So, is there any place for me in your heart? Can you spare a corner for me?" Tang Xin's breath grew weaker and weaker, only her clear black and white eyes shone brightly.

"Yes." Alpha picked her up, looked up to determine the direction, and strode westward.

"Hey, watch out, watch out—" the tiger struggled to shout, but neither of them turned around again.

"Alright, alright, everyone, stop for a second and listen to me. This was all done with such precision, like a chemical experiment programmed in computer. Not a second off, including everyone's words and emotions—haha, especially thank you, our Earth hero Mr. Wind, you're really great, a very natural and authentic actor!"

The last person to emerge from the well was none other than Sen, an American who spent his days hiding in the underground laboratory of Villa No. 13 in Cairo.

He tilted his head and stared at me for a few seconds, then suddenly grinned and made a face: "Feng, you're really something, you managed to wait until the very end before jumping out to end things."

As I watched the tiger pounce on the tiger again, my heart sank so heavily I could hardly contain myself.

"In this round of attacks, all our personnel involved in the battle appeared under the command of computer programs, wave after wave of attacks. Your counterattacks were also entirely within the computer's calculations. The master's initial evasion and retreat were merely a feint, using the many steps of destroying this Qimen Dunjia formation to expose more weaknesses in the enemy, thus taking all possible contingencies into account. As a result, we succeeded. It proves that we can control the situation with ease, and the human brain can never defeat a computer. All of this is thanks to our life collection team, hahahaha..."

He flashed a smug laugh, revealing his white teeth.

When I first met him in the underground laboratory of the villa, I felt that his way of thinking was a bit strange. I never thought that he was also an inside man of the god Turks Khan, just like Sahan, who once influenced the beliefs of the Egyptian people.

The tiger angrily tried to spring up, but the wound on his back gushed blood, exhausting all his strength.

"Mr. Feng, I think you should remember that you willingly shed a drop of blood in my experimental center. Our scientific and technological level has already analyzed every step of your life from that drop of blood. To put it bluntly, when you are faced with ten forks in the road, the computer will accurately determine your next step. The same program can be run hundreds of millions of times without error until the end of your life. Do you understand now? We Saturnians can handle everything with precision down to the second, thus avoiding making any mistakes."

He touched a remote control in his palm, his joy overflowing and impossible to conceal.

This young man, once favored by Bill Gates, like Sahan and his ilk, was tired of the mundane life on Earth and longed to make his life more exciting. That's why he racked his brains to seek novelty and change, even at the cost of becoming a follower of the god Tu Liehan.

"Can you guess whether I'll shoot next?"

I tossed the pistol gently into the air, then deftly positioned my index and middle fingers to aim the muzzle at his throat. At the same time, the muscles in my palm bulged out with a "teleportation" motion, inserting themselves into the trigger hole. With just a slight push on the grip, the trigger would slide and fire.

“The probability of firing is 25%, the probability of not firing is 50%, and the possibility of making other choices is 25%. Hmm, Mr. Feng, what are your other choices? Why is there so much uncertainty?” He lifted his eyelids and looked at me with concern.

I shook my head with a cold laugh: "If your analysis program is sophisticated enough, it might be able to give me the main reasons why I made other choices."

He pressed the buttons on the remote control a dozen times, frowned and pondered for a while, before finally asking with a frown, "You're worried about others and don't want more bloodshed and sacrifice to happen, right?"

I was indeed thinking about others. Before my elder brother Yang Tian and Su Lun returned, I lowered my expectations and swallowed all my unhappiness at any crucial juncture that I couldn't tolerate. Tolerance is the first element for achieving great things, and I forced myself to try my best to do so.

Sen got busy with his remote control again, probably continuing his calculations to see what I was thinking.

"Wind, I know you won't shoot. Actually, the desert holds many priceless secrets. If we can dig 800 meters down, we can definitely dig 8,000 meters down and turn the whole earth upside down. I guarantee you'll find something that interests you, and you'll live a happy life—"

The great god Tu Liehan launched a psychological offensive against me from the other side, but I coldly interrupted him: "Give me that answer. The gun is in my hands right now, and I have more say than any of you. Now, give me the coordinates of the desert. Secondly, open the sealed gate and rescue Suren."

Those were the two things I cared about most, and they also concerned the future of my older brother Yang Tian and Su Lun.

He smiled and shook his head: "No, no, I only promise to tell you everything I know, but I have no further promises. As for that mysterious spot in the desert, I'll have to wait until I remember it..."

"Bang, bang," the gunshots rang out twice, a wisp of smoke slowly drifted from my palm, and the spent cartridges silently fell onto the snow.

Sen's shoulders trembled. He moved the remote control away from his chest, stared at a blood clot spreading across his lower abdomen, and said with disbelief, "You...you chose to shoot? But what good did that do you?"

"Even the best computer can't compare to the human brain, let alone keep up with the frequency of changes in human thought. So, you'd better remember this lesson." Since he could act as an accomplice of the Great God Tu Liehan, creating this fierce battle that involved everyone, I can certainly kill him to avenge Tiger and Tang Xin. We should absolutely not show any mercy to such a person.

“But…but your tolerance curve is still going on indefinitely, how could it suddenly change?” He waved the blue-gray remote control at me, his other hand covering the wound on his lower abdomen, and roared hysterically.

I find it hard to convince a computer enthusiast like him that, setting aside so-called statistical data, the depth or shallowness of human self-control is impossible to quantify. Data is just data, and reality is just reality; there is no necessary causal relationship between the two.

"You should ask your university advisor about that." I understood his stubbornness; in the digital age of the 21st century, people like him who rely on computers to make a living are born every day.

He fell into the well, letting out a long, indignant cry: "Why...why...why?"

This world is full of questions, questions that no one can answer even with a lifetime of effort. The best way is to forget them and focus only on the path ahead. Right now, all I see is the Great God Tu Liehan, so naturally, I should point my gun at him.

"It's no use, Wind. To me, a human bullet is no more lethal than a pebble. So, we should go to the Sealed Gate together and see how to open the passage into the world of the 'Asian Gear,' right?" He shrugged, not caring at all that I was pointing the dark muzzle of my Desert Eagle at him.

"Do you have a solution?" My attitude was neither humble nor arrogant, neither forceful nor pleading.

He brushed the snowflakes off his gray robe, looked up and thought seriously for a few seconds before shaking his head solemnly: "No."

We exchanged a glance and burst into laughter almost simultaneously. What's the point of winning the world if everyone is helpless against the sealed gate?

"Really?" I asked again.

"It's true, that door was sealed with extremely high energy. To open it, you need to use the same level of energy. Right now, I have nothing, so there's nothing I can do." His answer was clear enough; a few simple words ruthlessly severed all my hopes.

The gun in my hand suddenly felt heavy. Even he couldn't break through that door, and the rescue of Suren immediately became a pipe dream.

“There’s plenty of time, as long as we—” he said, adopting a persuasive gesture.

I quickly raised my gun and pulled the trigger without even aiming. We were ten paces apart, and the Desert Eagle has a precise, ideal range of four hundred meters. So, the moment I pulled the trigger, I could imagine the bullet bursting through his forehead and blood splattering everywhere.

The great god Tu Liehan suddenly stretched out his right hand and waved it in mid-air, and the bullet disappeared between his five fingers.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang," I pulled the trigger repeatedly, firing all the bullets, but without exception, they were all caught in his palm.

“I told you, bullets won’t harm me. Of course, you also have the ‘Blade of Distance,’ a weapon and swordsmanship that is one in a million. Now—” He loosened his clenched fist, the bullet fell to the ground with a monotonous clinking sound, and then with a flick of his toe, the crystal sword that Alpha had discarded was in his hand. “I’ll test your swordsmanship. Feng, you are the one who should be most grateful to me for getting to where I am now. If it weren’t for you dispelling the poisonous insect array, Sen’s computer array plan would never have had a chance to be implemented. Alright, the final battle is between you and me, that’s fair…”

I raised my right hand, and like him, I released my fingers, and the empty gun fell to the ground silently.

The various crystals inlaid on the golden sword shimmered with an eerie light, and could exert tremendous power in the hands of the great god Tu Liehan, but the sword I used was the divine blade left behind by Yang Tian, the "King of Tomb Raiders".

"Wind, every struggle for power in the universe ultimately ends in domination. I believe that after this battle, only one of us can survive to reach that cave. I promise you, I will spare no effort to open the sealed gate, because that is the goal for which I have traveled thousands of miles through the dark ley lines. So, even if you die, you can die in peace!"

He was arrogant, a demeanor he had never displayed before when he relentlessly pursued the illusionary demon's shadow beneath the pyramids. Times had changed; only after gaining power did his true nature emerge.

I still didn't draw my sword, and asked calmly, "What if you obtained the energy of the 'Asian Gear'? I remember you once said that you came to Earth to seek knowledge and learn from the successful experiences of Earthlings in avoiding the 'Great Seven Numbers' catastrophe. Now, have you learned it?"

The Great God Tu Liehan was taken aback: "I've almost forgotten about that mission. Now I just want to fly away from Earth and return to Saturn's orbit. I've been on this strange planet for too long, and I've become somewhat numb."

He had absorbed energy from the bodies of African crocodiles and Bangladeshi golden-line vipers. Even though that energy had disappeared, the instincts of certain animals remained in his mind, affecting his thinking ability. He would think before answering even the simplest questions.

"So, what about the 'Great Seven' that the Saturnians are facing? Aren't your fellow citizens all waiting for you to return and report on the gains from this space trip? Are you just going to go back empty-handed?" I steered the conversation in the direction I hoped for.

"What? What exactly are you trying to say?" He lowered his golden sword and stared at me intently.

"What I'm saying is that the 'Great Seven Numbers' are coming. If you can't acquire enough energy to escape Earth in a short time, you'll be destroyed along with Earth in this cataclysm. However, the mysterious contents of the *Azure Heaven and Yellow Springs Scripture* contain clues related to Earth's fate. As long as we obtain the scripture, everyone still has a chance. This is the basis of our cooperation—"

I wanted to continue speaking, but he suddenly raised his hand and pressed it against his neck, the spot where he had just been forced back by the crystal sword.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, taking a large step back alertly.

"I feel...it hurts so much here..." He dropped the golden sword and covered it with his other hand, but blood still gushed out and splashed five steps away.

First, a thin, three-inch-long slit appeared on his neck. Then, the wound rapidly expanded, circling his neck in a flash. As the two wounds closed together, his head flew off, bouncing more than five meters into the air, blood dripping down.

The headless body remained standing, slowly turning around to face the direction of the cave.

In the fight just now, the internal force contained in Alpha's golden sword had seriously injured the Great God Tu Liehan, but it did not immediately take effect. This kind of swordsmanship that kills without making a sound is so sophisticated that no one can match it. It is something that earthlings can never create.

With a "thud," the head of the Earth-Cracking God fell at my feet, still bearing a strange smile, his mouth wide open, yet unable to utter a sound.

"What superb swordsmanship! It's truly unbelievable! I'm in awe!" Tiger exclaimed, propping himself up to sit up and looking down at the azure blades.

I picked up the heavy golden sword and gazed at it. Each crystal was like a deep, unfathomable eye, as if it wanted to tell a mysterious story under the caress of my fingers. Alpha is gone; I can only keep it for him for now, and return it to him when I have the chance in the future.

"Wind, let's go back to the mirror. I'm tired and a little cold." The tiger turned to look at the dark well opening, straightened up, took a deep breath, gathered his inner strength, and protected his heart. Those knives couldn't be pulled out; if they were, they would create through-and-through wounds on his body, and he would lose his life.

"Are you alright?" I stared at the knife that had pierced his left chest.

“It’s still a little distance from the heart, it won’t die for now…” He staggered forward, and when he passed the headless corpse of the Earth God, he gently pushed the other’s shoulder. The corpse crashed to the ground, sending snow flying everywhere.

"Gods? Gods die too, don't they? At any time, a living person can become a god, but a dead god can't even be a human if he wants to, hahahaha—" The tiger laughed and kicked the head of the person next to my feet away.

I frowned: "Tiger, respect the dead, don't further desecrate their body."

This is an unwritten rule in the martial arts world: when a person dies, all grudges are wiped clean. If anyone disrespects a deceased enemy, he will be despised by his fellow martial arts practitioners.

Tiger turned around and stared at my face: "Feng, those rules are a thing of the past. Now, the Azure Dragon Society is about to make history, and at the same time, it will create new rules for the martial arts world."

The moment the words "Azure Dragon Society" were mentioned, a dazzling light appeared on his face, and even the curved sword stuck in his body seemed to transform into a ribbon of glory.

Not wanting to provoke him, I tore off the hem of Sahan's grey robe, wrapped the golden sword tightly around it, and then tied it to my belt.

Tiger's enthusiasm remained undiminished: "Wind, don't worry about the sealed gate ahead. The Azure Dragon Society's seventeen most outstanding Qi cultivators will arrive here soon. With their power, any obstacle can be swept away. Follow me and watch how I change history and reshape the image of the Bearded Stranger..."