Chapter 67: Section 68: I Want to Live!


    Zhenjin felt as though he was on fire.


    After leaving the cave, he took the initiative to charge into the scorpion group, successively slaying three gun scorpions.


    Provoked in such a manner, the Silver Spear Scorpion became furious and led the scorpion group to encircle and kill Zhenjin.


    Previously, Zhenjin had broken the unspoken agreement, causing the scorpions to abandon their rules; all the gun scorpions attacked him.


    Zhenjin dodged to the left and right, climbed over rocks, his movements agile and flexible.


    The mountainous terrain was extremely unfriendly to the scorpion group, greatly hindering the movements of ordinary gun scorpions. Only the Silver Spear Scorpion could keep up with Zhenjin.


    ...


    Zhenjin engaged it, mostly defending. After several attacks and defenses, seeing the scorpions beginning to surround him again, he continued to retreat.


    “Good, just like that!” Despite the immense pressure, Zhenjin was pleased because the situation was precisely what he wanted—the entire scorpion group was attracted to him, allowing Zi Di and Cang Xu to escape stealthily.


    “Buy time! The more time passes, the greater their chances of escape.”


    However, the good times didn’t last long, and Zhenjin’s movements soon slowed.


    He was gasping for breath, and despite his fighting spirit, his limbs were weak, and he was unable to exert strength.


    Among the rugged rocks, he had just dodged a scorpion tail spear, when another gun scorpion appeared behind him on the left, swinging its pincers.


    Zhenjin tried to dodge, but due to insufficient strength, he was a beat too slow.


    With a muffled bang, Zhenjin was struck by the massive pincer of the gun scorpion, flinging him away.


    His back solidly hit a huge rock, causing him to spit out a mouthful of fresh blood and fall down.


    As soon as he landed, three gun scorpions surrounded him.


    Zhenjin first rolled to dodge the sweep of the pincers, then leaped up, stepping on the head of a gun scorpion to reach the boulder.


    As he soared through the air, the Silver Spear Scorpion arrived, its sharp tail piercing through the air towards Zhenjin.


    Hearing the sound of the wind, Zhenjin, in mid-air, struggled to turn around and used his Spider Blade to block.


    The scorpion tail struck the Spider Blade, bringing enormous impact force.


    Just as Zhenjin was about to use this force to reach the top of the boulder, he saw the cracks on the Spider Blade rapidly spreading.


    “Damn!” Zhenjin’s pupils dilated as he realized something was wrong, and then the entire Spider Blade shattered with a bang.


    With nothing to block it, the scorpion tail pierced directly through Zhenjin’s left shoulder blade, and with unrelenting force, pinned him entirely against the rock.


    Agonizing pain struck, and Zhenjin cried out, spewing a large amount of fresh blood.


    He tightly grabbed the scorpion tail’s tip, exerting all his strength to try and pull it out.


    However, the strength of the Silver Spear Scorpion was not something he could match, and no matter how hard Zhenjin clenched his teeth and exerted all his strength, he couldn’t move the scorpion tail’s tip by an inch.


    For a time, Zhenjin was immobilized.


    Seizing the opportunity, the Silver Spear Scorpion tried to climb the boulder using its limbs.


    But the boulder was steep, with smooth walls that were nearly vertical. The Silver Spear Scorpion pressed itself against the rock, almost standing upright, but its pincers still couldn’t reach Zhenjin.


    The scorpion tail was long, thus it could sting Zhenjin and pin him solidly on the rock wall. But the gun scorpion couldn’t climb the boulder, and since its pincers couldn’t reach Zhenjin, it couldn’t deliver a fatal blow.


    The battle fell into a strange stalemate.


    Zhenjin couldn’t escape, nor could the Silver Spear Scorpion kill him outright.


    Blood continuously flowed from the wound in his left shoulder, running down Zhenjin’s legs and dripping onto the pincers and head of the Silver Spear Scorpion.


    The Silver Spear Scorpion tried for a while but couldn’t reach Zhenjin. It screeched and screamed in frustration, its voice sharp and piercing.


    But seemingly afraid that Zhenjin might jump and escape again, it didn’t move its scorpion tail, keeping Zhenjin firmly fixed against the rock wall.


    As the blood loss increased, Zhenjin felt dizzy.


    His strength was also depleted.


    Unarmed.


    The wall of the rock was as if cleaved by an axe, also having no foothold.


    Once the scorpion tail was loosened, Zhenjin would fall and be instantly dismembered by the gun scorpions.


    “I… am about to die…”


    Death was indeed imminent.


    When Zhenjin realized this, fear swept through his entire being.


    “Be brave!”


    “Don’t be afraid!”


    “I am a Holy Temple Knight.”


    Despite his internal cries, an intense fear continued to surge from within, drowning his mind like a tide.


    If death had occurred in an instant, he wouldn’t have had time to think, and this intense fear wouldn’t have existed.


    But as death gradually approached, the immense pressure was not something he could imagine—he had to experience it to know its true terror.


    Originally, when he had killed the Monkey-tailed Brown Bear in the cave, he had felt fear upon waking.


    But the fear he felt after escaping paled in comparison to the intensity he felt at this moment.


    “I also know I am afraid, but I never truly realized I could be this terrified!”


    Afraid.


    He was afraid of dying!


    Then, because of this intense fear, Zhenjin felt both shame and disgrace.


    “Maybe I am a coward…”


    “No, no!”


    The young knight’s heart was in agony. Discovering he was a coward was more cruel to him than a heroic death.


    His blood soon pooled around, staining the entire head of the Silver Spear Scorpion red.


    Zhenjin’s vision gradually darkened, his strength ebbed away, and his struggles became weaker.


    “Well, I might be dying, but Zi Di and Cang Xu got away with their lives,” he seemed to see Zi Di and Cang Xu fleeing the cave.


    At that moment, a sense of absurdity rose in Zhenjin’s mind.


    “Those weaker than me managed to escape? I am stronger than them, and yet I am about to die?”


    “Do they even save Bai Ya?”


    “The chances are slim.”


    “If I had heeded Cang Xu’s advice and eaten human flesh, maybe I could have been saved too.”


    The moment this thought surfaced, Zhenjin wanted to deny it. But the more he denied it, the stronger the thought became!


    Thus, the young knight felt deep regret.


    Deep regret!


    “If I die, could my soul be fortunate enough to enter the Holy Temple of the Great Emperor and become a Heroic Spirit?”


    “The likelihood is too slim. Here, I can’t even convey my prayers to the Great Emperor.”


    “That means, once I die, I lose everything… my responsibilities, my family, my aspirations, my future—all will turn to nothing.”


    “If I had another choice, I would not be stubborn. I would eat!”


    “Why did I listen to the words of someone my age in my memory, saying ‘Hell is right beneath our feet, and fall is imminent’? Bullshit! I was foolish.”


    “Others’ answers are not my answers.”


    “I thought about it all night, but did I truly think it through?”


    “I want to survive, I really want to survive!”


    “I’ve realized, surviving is more important than anything else!”


    “Even if… others die, what does it have to do with me?”


    “I want to live!!”


    Huang Zao was shouting the same thing.


    “I want to live!”


    “Brother, you were right. Since you’re about to die anyway, if you sacrifice yourself, I can live.”


    “Don’t blame me, don’t blame me.”


    “It’s all because you got injured, otherwise how could we have run out of water so soon?”


    “It’s you! You killed father and caused me to lose my father at a young age. You ate mother, it’s all your fault, all your fault!!”


    Huang Zao shouted, watching his brother, his only kin in the world, gradually lose breath.


    After a moment of shock, he released his hands and buried his head into Lan Zao’s chest, sobbing uncontrollably.


    But just then, Lan Zao suddenly opened his eyes!


    His arm muscles bulged, and his fingers, like iron hooks, firmly gripped Huang Zao’s head.


    Then Lan Zao quickly flipped over, pressing Huang Zao harshly onto the sandy ground, straddling him.


    Huang Zao’s eyes widened, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpoints, unable to react to such a sudden change.


    He wanted to shout, but in the next moment, Lan Zao’s iron fist struck his eye socket. Sear?h the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.


    For a moment, it felt as if the world was spinning, his ears buzzing intensely.


    Instinctively, Huang Zao tried to push his brother away. However, Lan Zao grabbed his arm and then snapped it backward.


    Lan Zao’s strength had eerily surged beyond the limits of the human body.


    “Ah!” Huang Zao let out a terrible scream.


    Bang, bang, bang.


    Lan Zao swung his fists like a tempest, brutally beating Huang Zao as a strong boxer would ravage a frail punching bag.


    Huang Zao was powerless to resist, being beaten until he spat blood, and all his teeth were shattered.


    “Stop, stop!”


    “Spare me, I’m about to die.”


    “Brother, brother, I won’t dare anymore.”


    “Lan Zao! I’m your brother, your own brother!”


    “Brother, stop hitting me, stop!”


    The terrified Huang Zao could only loudly beg for mercy.


    But Lan Zao seemed deaf to his pleas, continuing to punch until Huang Zao no longer moved or struggled.


    Finally, Huang Zao’s arms fell limply to the ground.


    His eyes were wide open, his face unrecognizable, as he was beaten to death by Lan Zao’s relentless blows!


    Bang, bang, bang.


    Yet Lan Zao continued.


    His eyes looked vacant, lips tightly pressed together, maintaining a deathly silence.


    The motion of his punches made him resemble a machine performing repetitive motions.


    Zhenjin’s vision gradually darkened.


    As he neared death, his mind was abnormally active. But as his body moved closer to death, his mind became unclear.


    Once again, he found himself in darkness.


    Endless, boundless darkness.


    “Where is this?”


    “Am I dead?”


    “Wait… who am I?”


    Though there were no points of reference in the darkness, the young man felt himself continuously sinking.


    He had forgotten almost everything, but at this moment, a great sense of crisis enveloped his heart.


    The young man realized that if he didn’t do something, something irredeemable would happen.


    But he didn’t know what to do, what he could do!


    “What have I forgotten?”


    “What exactly have I forgotten?”


    “What should I remember?”


    “Damn it, who can answer me!”


    The young man felt extremely powerless, like he was struck by a nightmare, his mind clear yet unclear, aware of the danger he was in, wanting to fully awaken, but unable to.


    This feeling of being eager yet powerless made him especially furious!


    And his anger was like a spark that seemed to trigger something.


    “Roar—!”


    A beast’s roar suddenly erupted from the darkness.


    The roar was so magnificent and unmatched that it shattered the entire dark consciousness space.


    In reality, the previously closed-eyed Zhenjin suddenly jolted awake.


    He widened his eyes, his pupils shrinking to an extreme, his mouth opened wide, gasping heavily as if he had just been rescued from nearly drowning.


    A fierce, eerie power stirred in his heart.


    Fortune coming from the spirit’s heart, Zhenjin immediately urged this power.


    The power surged out like a released tiger from his heart!


    Zhenjin’s palms, which had previously fallen weakly to his waist, now reached out again and tightly grabbed the scorpion tail of the Silver Spear Scorpion.


    The next moment, that fierce and weird power surged into his palms, turning them a bloody red.


    The bloody light spilled out and transformed into four blood threads.


    Each blood thread was as thick as an adult’s finger.


    Like venomous snakes striking, the blood threads rapidly followed the scorpion tail, spreading across the entire body of the Silver Spear Scorpion and quickly wrapped around it.


    On the surface, the Silver Spear Scorpion looked as if it was tightly bound.


    However, the Silver Spear Scorpion seemed to feel nothing at all.


    The blood threads visibly dimmed at a visible rate, as if they were seeping into the body of the Silver Spear Scorpion from the surface.


    Yet quickly, the interlacing blood threads rapidly regained their previous luster.


    “Wait, it seems the blood light is even more enchanting and brighter than before.”


    Zhenjin squinted his eyes; just when he noticed this change, all the blood threads suddenly retracted.


    In an instant, there was nothing left on the body of the Silver Spear Scorpion.


    The blood threads returned to his palm and transformed back into the same kind of power as before, yet the scale of the power was evidently much greater than before.


    The power rapidly flowed within Zhenjin, continuously pouring into his heart.


    At this moment, Zhenjin’s consciousness also focused on his heart, and he saw the Demon Crystal in his heart again!


    “It really is the power generated by the Demon Crystal!”


    Right after Zhenjin verified his guess, the scorpion tail in his hand, like a long-weathered bone, burst all at once into innumerable tiny fragments.


    Without support, Zhenjin fell toward the rocky wall below.


    When his feet hit the ground, the fragments of the Silver Spear Scorpion also shattered again, turning into a pile of carbon ash.


    With the bizarre and eerie leader dead, the scorpions hesitated to advance, but Zhenjin, weak in the legs, stood only for a moment before sitting down on the ground.


    Seeing Zhenjin’s weakness, the scorpions gathered again.


    Several scorpion tails swung, and sharp spear tips stabbed at Zhenjin from all directions.


    Zhenjin had nowhere to hide, no way to escape.


    At the brink of life and death, he instinctively mobilized the Demon Crystal, moving with a skill that seemed almost innate.


    The Demon Crystal in his heart immediately burst forth with bright red blood light.


    The blood light radiated from within, shining over Zhenjin’s entire body.


    Clang, clang, clang!


    The spear tips of scorpion tails pierced Zhenjin, tearing through his clothes but failing to pierce his skin, only making a series of metallic collision sounds.


    At this moment, nearly all of Zhenjin’s skin turned into scorpion shell, bulging out his outer clothing.


    And it was Silver Level scorpion shell at that.


    The scorpion shell was tough, completely blocking all the scorpion tail stings.


    Then, the remaining blood light flowed downward, pouring into Zhenjin’s tailbone.


    With a soft “puchi,” Zhenjin felt a severe pain at his tailbone, and a slender scorpion tail shot out from his buttocks.


    Zhenjin shifted to a kneeling position, trying to move the scorpion tail, which ended in a sharp long spear-like tip, and it pierced through a gun scorpion like a snake shooting out of its hole.


    A fatal strike!


    The scorpions were instantly stunned.


    They couldn’t understand how a human could grow the same shell and scorpion tail as themselves, but Zhenjin’s performance was enough to prove his strength.


    Upon realizing this, the scorpions turned and fled in a rout.


    Zhenjin did not pursue them and remained kneeling on the ground, exhausted.


    Looking at the scorpion shell on his body and the elongated scorpion tail, the shock still solidified on the face of the young knight.


    “I’ve grown a shell.”


    “I’ve also grown a tail.”


    “Right, I can now actively control the Demon Crystal!!”