Although Officer Li’s heart was already filled with doubt, he still moved swiftly, stabbing the wooden stick into Xuanwu’s heart several times in succession.

Each place that was pierced only turned into boundless black, without a single drop of blood flowing out.

Officer Li and Song Qi beside him stared at the heart in their hands for a long time, each already calculating in their minds.

Song Qi knew this matter wouldn’t go so smoothly. Xuanwu’s “Immortality” should share commonalities with Jiang Shi’s “Immortality”—that is, when not receiving damage, they appeared like ordinary people, but when receiving damage, the wounds would be replaced with a pitch-black color similar to the starry sky.

This black color would allow the owner of “Immortality” to avoid all fatal damage until the effect of “Immortality” ended. At that time, if the wounds still remained, all the fatal damage would burst forth at once, causing the owner of “Immortality” to die instantly.

But would Xuanwu’s “Immortality” ever disappear?

“I clearly took out this heart… yet I have no way to deal with it.” Officer Li’s eyes dimmed. “I don’t know what the meaning of my persistence has been…”

“Don’t overthink it.” Song Qi said. “Si Ge, no one else present could have done this, but you can.”

“I…”

“Did you notice?” Song Qi lowered his head to look at Xuanwu and asked.

“What?”

“Everything Xuanwu has, we have too.” Song Qi said. “Immortality, Pocket Retrieval, Wangyou—we’re not inferior to her in any way. The only thing we don’t have is ‘Leap,’ but Xuanwu is determined to die, so she’ll only stand in place waiting for us to walk up and kill her. Neither we nor she need ‘Leap.'”

“What does this prove…” Officer Li shook his head. “Although I don’t want to say something demoralizing, the things I retrieve can’t affect her, while the things she retrieves can instantly kill us… We’re not even on the same level as her.”

“Si Ge…” Song Qi paused. “Don’t lose heart. We already have Xuanwu’s heart in our hands—are you afraid we won’t have a countermeasure?”

“You have…?”

Officer Li nodded slightly after hearing this and handed the heart in his hand to Song Qi.

The heart already had some black spots on it, traces left from being repeatedly pierced.

After taking the heart, Song Qi slowly closed his eyes. Now he only needed sufficient conviction to complete the most bizarre explosion.

But this time, the conviction was difficult to infuse into the heart in his hand.

Wanting to believe that something itself was a bomb wasn’t difficult for Song Qi now. The difficulty lay in the fact that this heart still had warmth and was beating vigorously—it was clearly a living thing.

Wanting to make himself believe from the bottom of his heart that a living thing was an explosive… the success rate was unimaginably low.

But there was that one time… Song Qi had done something similar. Who said that something with warmth and still beating couldn’t become an explosive?

As long as there was no way out, even an ordinary person could definitely release an “Echo” that surpassed conviction.

He remembered that time he had broken all the fingers on one hand and thrown them at a strong Earth-Rabbit. Those fingers should have all exploded, right…? That was “conviction.”

He still remembered the warmth on those fingers…

If even his own flesh and blood could become explosives, why couldn’t Xuanwu’s heart?

Compared to that time… the situation now was much better.

Since ordinary piercing couldn’t cause damage to Xuanwu and her heart, then he would blow it into mincemeat.

Song Qi held the heart in his hand for a long time, then slowly opened his eyes. The heart in his hand was now sparking with flames.

“Song Qi… you…”

“Xuanwu!” Song Qi shouted from the high ground. “Face your heart.”

As his words fell, he viciously threw the heart in his hand toward Xuanwu. Xuanwu felt this scene was somewhat familiar.

Not long ago, she had also thrown Qinglong’s heart to Qinglong.

But Qinglong had dodged then… Should she dodge too?

Before she could think through this question, the heart flying through the air began to distort and deform. The flickering sparks began to fill the surrounding space. The members of the “Cat” team immediately realized the situation and the few closest to Xuanwu began to quickly retreat.

Xuanwu blankly extended her left hand. Just as she was about to touch the heart, it exploded with a thunderous boom.

A violent “Deflagration” swept across Xuanwu’s entire body in an instant. Since this was an open outdoor area, Song Qi could also infuse all his conviction without reservations, causing the scale of the “Deflagration” to be larger than ever before.

Not knowing whether Xuanwu was in pain or frightened, her scream instantly came from within the flames.

There were ten thousand ways to die in this world, but who would be killed by their own beating heart?

Everyone covered their eyes waiting for the shockwave of the “Deflagration” to dissipate, but during this time, Su Shan’s eyes never closed. She stared at Xuanwu’s body without pause, trying to find Xuanwu’s weakness among the many pulsing “ripples.”

Xuanwu was clearly surrounded by “Immortality” all over her body, yet the heart that Officer Li had pulled out clearly didn’t have “Immortality”—the black starry sky only appeared after being attacked.

Su Shan had worked in the criminal investigation technical department for many years doing analytical research, and could only use her professional expertise to try to explain the strange phenomena of the “Land of the End.”

Could this prove… that the places where Xuanwu was wrapped by “Immortality” were only her skin, and all her internal organs were not currently surrounded by “Immortality”? Not only were they brightly colored, they could even make Xuanwu feel heart-wrenching pain in an instant.

“In other words, ‘Immortality’ is a suit of ‘armor’ that appears at any time to protect its owner.” Su Shan murmured softly. “But this ‘armor’…”

The sound waves of the explosion dissipated, and Xuanwu emerged from within. But her appearance now was somewhat different from before.

She hunched over, her left hand covering her chest, as if experiencing extremely intense pain.

The next second, Xuanwu reached her hand into her own chest, as if searching for something.

She felt her heart hurt very much, yet her heart was also very far from her.

This wonderful feeling was different from the last time.

The pain was very close to her, yet her heart was very far from her.

Her arm had already reached into the starry sky depths of her own chest, yet no matter what, she couldn’t grasp that agonizing heart.

Everyone looked at Xuanwu. Who in this world could reach their arm into their own chest? And even if they could…

Who could make their arm not pierce through from the other end?

Xuanwu’s grotesque, tragic, trembling, and helpless figure left everyone present silent.