The person before him never expressed his true feelings. He wanted to stand at the pinnacle above everyone, not caring what price he paid for this, always wanting to be the god who manipulated others’ life and death… loving that feeling where countless people’s fates depended on his momentary mood… He had many desires – clothing, food, housing, transportation, even servants and women all had to be the best… Walking this path, he wouldn’t hesitate even to sacrifice brothers’ dignity and lives, and if someone could surpass him, he’d choose mutual destruction… How could such a person just die like this?

Moreover, he… he had thrown himself over Liu Yan’s body, taking an arrow for him.

What exactly was he thinking? You’re truly incomprehensible. Even though I grew up with you, I’ve never known what you’re thinking…

Liu Yan slowly exhaled. On Green Mountain Cliff, it was also like this – jumping down after him, first saving his life then taking his palm strike. Today was the same… Everyone says you’re deep and calculating, but I think you’re an idiot, right? He reached out and tore open Tang Lici’s back garment, pulling out the short arrow that had penetrated deep into his back. Fortunately the arrow was short and had struck off-center. Though it had entered more than two inches into the flesh, it hadn’t injured heart or lungs. Seeing there was also an arrow wound on his left shoulder, he was startled, roughly wiping with torn cloth, but discovered Tang Lici’s clothes were completely soaked with water. Turning his body over, the stab wound he’d caused with the tree branch wasn’t serious. The branch was soft and blunt, only tearing open a patch of skin and flesh, a shallow wound of about two fen.

“Cough… cough cough…” After Liu Yan shook him twice, Tang Lici suddenly opened his eyes. As soon as he opened them he tried to sit up. “I…” Liu Yan pushed him away and said coldly, “What’s wrong with you?” Two arrow wounds and one scrape shouldn’t have made Tang Lici like this.

“I’m fine.” Tang Lici slowly drew a breath, still smiling. “I said… I definitely have a way to save you.”

Liu Yan spat. “Save me? You said you definitely had a way to save Fang Zhou, definitely had a way to save me – hahaha… Now Fang Zhou is dead, dead and will never live again, and me…” He tore off his black face veil, revealing that ghostly face. “Looking like this… do you call this being saved by you?”

Tang Lici pressed his hand to his abdomen, his brows deeply furrowed. “There’s always… a way… ugh…” He gritted his teeth. “Your face and legs can always be healed, and Fang Zhou – I preserved his genes, I can do cloning when I get back…”

“Ridiculous! Even if you clone his body, can you clone his person? His thoughts, his music – can you clone those too? Do you really think you’re a god? You’re just a genetic freak your parents bought with money! Do you really think you can do… do everything?” Liu Yan laughed loudly. “Hahaha… Why not admit it? Those you’ve killed to death are killed to death. Fang Zhou is dead and can’t possibly live again. Why deceive yourself? Why save me? Can saving me reduce your guilt? Or are you saving me for your grand martial world plans now that you don’t have the antidote to the Crimson Ghost Nine Hearts Pill? Do you think you’re showing brotherly affection? I never believe what you say! Because you never tell the truth!”

“Ugh…” Tang Lici shook his head, covering his face with his hand, his voice somewhat low and weak. “I’m not feeling well. Some things… we’ll talk about in a few days…”

Liu Yan panted several times and looked him up and down. “What’s wrong with you?”

Tang Lici closed his eyes and sat leaning against the tree. “I’m fine.”

Liu Yan sneered. “Do you think your modified genes really make you immortal?”

Tang Lici had lost much blood, yet his face wasn’t pale but rather flushed red like drunkenness. He coughed softly. “I really… feel very unwell… temporarily don’t… talk to me…” He leaned against the tree to regulate his breathing. As his true qi flowed, the wound on his back began bleeding again.

Liu Yan sat beside him watching. After a while he suddenly said, “If you continue like this, before your internal breath is regulated, you’ll die first from blood loss.”

Tang Lici gasped, his right hand’s five fingers gripping the white clothes at his abdomen. “I…”

Liu Yan reached to press his abdomen, only feeling something unknown beating slightly under the soft belly. “What is this?”

Tang Lici coughed once. “Fang… Zhou’s heart. I transplanted it in…”

Liu Yan was greatly shocked. “What?”

Tang Lici quickly drew another breath and smiled slightly. “I want to heal his heart, then transplant it back into his body. Without a heart, the Skill-Exchanging Great Method can temporarily… temporarily substitute for the heart… to keep blood flowing…”

Liu Yan angrily said, “Nonsense! You’re completely delusional, acting completely recklessly! In a place like this with no equipment, no medicine, you dug out Fang Zhou’s heart and still expect him to live? You’re completely insane! Moreover – moreover, how did you transplant his heart into your abdomen? There are no major blood vessels in the abdominal cavity. How would you connect the heart? Where exactly did you connect his heart? It’s completely… completely…” His mind went blank, completely unable to think of what words to use to describe Tang Lici’s willful recklessness. “You’re completely treating his life and your life as a joke!”

Tang Lici smiled faintly, opening his eyes. His gaze couldn’t find focus. “But… at that time, he was about to die… I… I said I could definitely save him, but didn’t know how to do it… You and Zhumei couldn’t help me… I… I couldn’t bear to watch him just die like that…”

“So you taught him the Skill-Exchanging Great Method, then had him transfer his power to you, then you dug out his heart and buried it in your own belly…” Liu Yan’s whole body was trembling. “What are you doing? You – you -“

Tang Lici’s gaze gradually became confused. “I took his money because I had to keep him from dying. I needed martial arts, needed ice coffins, needed medicine, needed money… I also really hate days without money… Because of these things, Zhumei once came back and slashed me with a blade… heh…”

Liu Yan angrily said, “If I had known about all this nonsense back then, I would have slashed you with a blade too, maybe ten or eight slashes. Who knows what you’re doing… Fang Zhou’s life is a life – isn’t your life a life too? One death among four people isn’t enough – you want two to die?”

Tang Lici laughed, raising his finger as if wanting to touch something, then slowly lowering it again. “Saying these things makes me feel… you actually haven’t changed… at all…”

Liu Yan sneered. “You not only like to deceive others, you like to deceive yourself too.” After a pause, he said, “Where did you connect Fang Zhou’s heart?”