Chapter 896 - On The Way

Chapter 896 - On The Way

Li Huowang stood frozen in place, his gaze fixed on Qing Wanglai. He trembled, trying his best to suppress his anger.

Qing Wanglai looked so sincere that if Li Huowang hadn’t known his true nature, he might have believed him.

Although he had long known that Qing Wanglai was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, every time he revealed his true colors, Li Huowang still found himself surprised. Qing Wanglai could use his companions as bait to deal with the enemy without batting an eyelid.

“You... you!” Li Huowang shook his head, trying to say something. In the end, no words came out.

He turned away and approached Chen Hongyu’s corpse, her face a mangled mess. He reached out with his trembling hands to lift her body.

“Sister Chen, how could you just die like this? You were the Siming in charge of decay!”

“You can’t die! If you die, decay will vanish too...”

Li Huowang couldn’t help but think of the Abbess when he saw Chen Hongyu. She was now gone, just like Qian Fu. The sight of someone he had previously chatted with dying like that filled him with pain.

“Enough. Get ready, we’re moving on.”

Li Huowang felt someone pat him on the shoulder and flung the hand away forcefully. He turned to glare at the person who had tapped him—Zhao Shuangdian.

Zhao Shuangdian didn’t offer an explanation. She simply looked at Li Huowang. “What did I tell you before we started? Follow orders, no matter what happens. We don’t have time for grief.”

Li Huowang stared into her eyes and slowly laid Chen Hongyu’s body down. “All of you are the same! You’re just like the others! You’re responsible for Chen Hongyu’s death too!”

Click! Zhao Shuangdian pressed the barrel of her black sniper rifle against Li Huowang’s chest. “Don’t forget what I said earlier. Li Huowang, let me ask you one more time: are you refusing to follow my orders?

“If you refuse to comply, whether you realize it or not, you’re already one of them.”

As she spoke, her team coldly looked at Li Huowang and surrounded him. This included the two men they had recently met as well as the Ba siblings.

Li Huowang gritted his teeth and gripped his knives’ handles tightly.

As the tension peaked, Qing Wanglai stepped in and positioned himself between Li Huowang and Zhao Shuangdian.

He smiled, patting Li Huowang on the shoulder as he guided him out of the encirclement.

Zhao Shuangdian’s reply left Li Huowang speechless. He thought the others would reject this ridiculous idea, but none of them objected.

“I must have been out of my mind to have trusted you all,” Li Huowang muttered, stepping into the dark unknown. The rest of the group followed closely behind.

In the pitch-black desert, Li Huowang could only trust his instincts and keep walking. Whether he trusted his instincts or not made no difference since he couldn’t see a path anyway.

Dawn slowly broke. Despite walking all night, they were still in the same desolate desert. The surrounding landscape hadn’t changed at all.

Li Huowang shoved past the others and struggled to remove his helmet, which revealed his sweat-soaked face. “I’m tired! Let’s rest for a bit!”

He lay down right where he was without waiting for a response.

Spending a night stumbling in heavy gear had drained him, especially after their exhausting journey to wherever they were.

Wu Qi walked over and handed him a bottle of clear liquid from her medical kit. “Drink this. Don’t get dehydrated.”

“What is this?”

“Saline solution for cleaning wounds.”

Li Huowang gulped it down, not caring about the saltiness. His body felt much better after that.

Li Huowang sighed deeply and looked at Wu Qi with a complicated expression. “Sister Chen Hongyu is dead.”

“I know,” Wu Qi replied.

She took the bottle from him and drank a large gulp. A hint of sadness appeared on her face as she gently patted Li Huowang’s sweat-drenched hair. “It’s okay. Don’t be afraid.”

“Sister Wu, I’m not afraid. I just don’t understand them, and I don’t understand you either.”

“If you can’t understand, then don’t try to. Just focus on yourself. Empathy can lead to depression.”

“Focus on myself...?” Li Huowang muttered.

He took another big swig from the bottle. He looked around at the barren desert and mumbled to himself, “Why is the place where god Yu’er exists so strange? Is this really the elephant where the Simings live?”