261: chaos fire

Wei Ziqing took a deep breath, turned around, and faced this chaotic vortex directly.

His figure moved like the wind as he charged towards several frenzied villagers who were surrounding a terrified old man and brandishing hoes. The bone sword in his hand transformed into several precise flashes of cold light—not slashes, but swift, pinpoint thrusts.

The sword tip lightly touched non-vital areas of those villagers, such as their arms, shoulders, and necks, instantly injecting a nerve-paralyzing toxin.

The movements of the several villagers suddenly stiffened. The madness in their eyes was rapidly replaced by confusion, and then their limbs went limp as they slumped weakly to the ground, temporarily losing their ability to move.

"Those who can still move, who haven't taken their 'Immortal Pills,' run to the open space at the village entrance! Look out for each other!"

Wei Ziqing shouted at the villagers cowering and trembling in corners or barely maintaining their senses as he moved swiftly. His voice, transmitted through the armor, carried a convincing, calm power.

He saw a mother and daughter being cornered by two frenzied villagers waving firewood axes. He immediately flew forward, kicking the frenzied villagers away mid-air while simultaneously delivering precise strikes with his bone sword to paralyze them. He helped the terrified mother and daughter to their feet and pointed towards a relatively safe path:

"The fire is smaller over there, go quickly!"

Elsewhere, a villager with half his body on fire was running around screaming. Wei Ziqing rushed over, tore down a damp cloth hanging nearby, wrapped it around the person to beat out the flames, then delivered a light chop to the back of the neck to knock him unconscious, dragging him to a safe corner.

His movements were swift and efficient, like a swallow darting through a storm. Each action precisely resolved a local crisis, pushing salvageable lives towards safety.

The paralyzing toxin of the bone sword became the most effective non-lethal means of control, allowing him to quickly clear paths without harming innocent lives.

However, the village fire was spreading, the number of frenzied villagers was greater than anticipated, and thick smoke and battle cries filled the surroundings.

Wei Ziqing knew he couldn't quell all the chaos instantly. All he could do was race against time,

within the scope of his ability, to control the situation as much as possible, reduce casualties, create an opportunity for Lu Jianchuan and Shen Mingyuan to pursue the mastermind, and buy time for the official rescue forces that would arrive later.

Just as Wei Ziqing was desperately fighting the chaos in the front part of the village, and Lu Jianchuan and Shen Mingyuan were pursuing the Immortal deep within, in the remote house on the other side of the village, Reiko was experiencing a despair greater than the fire.

The sudden flames, explosions, and screams outside made her soul fly away and her spirit scatter. "Stone, hurry! We have to leave now!" She didn't bother with the simple travel bag she had half-packed, grabbing her son's hand and trying to rush outside.

However, she couldn't pull him along.

Reiko turned back in shock to see Little Stone standing motionless, completely deaf to the surrounding chaos.

In The boy's eyes at this moment, the world had completely changed—everything was covered in a writhing, viscous blood-red hue. His mother's anxious face blurred and distorted into unrecognizable patches of color.

The distant screams and his mother's nearby calls all transformed into layers of malicious, low whispers, roaring in his mind and driving away all reason.

"Stone? What's wrong? Don't scare Mommy!" Reiko grew even more panicked, squatting down and shaking her son's shoulders hard.

Little Stone still didn't respond. His gaze, or rather, his forcibly distorted perception, slowly shifted, finally "locking onto" the direction of the kitchen—there, against the blood-red background, a cold, alien metallic gleam attracted him.

He took a step, walking stiffly towards it.

"Stone! Where are you going? Come back!" Reiko hurriedly followed, a sense of foreboding washing over her like ice water.

She watched helplessly as her son picked up the knife from beside the kitchen chopping board—the one used for chopping vegetables, not sharp but deadly enough.

"Put it down! Put the knife down now!" Reiko's voice distorted with extreme fear as she lunged forward to snatch the knife.

Just as her fingers were about to touch the handle, Little Stone moved. Driven by the crimson vision and endless whispers, he erupted with speed and strength beyond his years, charging forward violently!

*Thud.*

Even though the knife tip wasn't sharp, driven by the full force of the child's strength, it still managed to pierce the thin clothing and sink into Reiko's abdomen.

Time seemed to freeze.

All of Reiko's movements and cries abruptly ceased. She looked down in disbelief at the knife handle embedded in her body, then slowly raised her eyes to look at her son's face, so close yet utterly vacant. Excruciating pain now surged like a tsunami, but the heartbreak hurt even more.

"Stone... what's... wrong with you..." Overwhelming grief crushed everything. Her questioning turned into a blood-soaked sob, tears gushing forth. "What's wrong... my child... what's wrong..."

She slid weakly down the wall to sit on the floor, blood seeping from the wound in her abdomen rapidly staining a large area.

Little Stone seemed to be touched by a sliver of instinct from the warm liquid and his mother's broken sobs. He released his grip on the knife handle, staring blankly at his own hands, then at his mother.

Summoning her last ounce of strength, Reiko stretched out her trembling, blood-stained hand—not to push him away, but to gently encircle her terrified son, pulling him towards her cold embrace.

Her voice grew faint, reduced to a breathy plea, like a final sigh in this corner filled with the scent of blood and dust:

"Hold... hold me one more time..."

At that moment, Wei Ziqing, having dealt with the nearby chaos and rushing over upon hearing the abnormal commotion, burst into the small house.

What met his eyes was this frozen scene: under the mingling light of the dim oil lamp and the fire outside the window, a dying mother tightly held her dazed child. Blood spread between them. The mother's pale face bore tear tracks not yet dry, and her lips seemed to retain the trace of that plea that hadn't fully vanished.

Little Stone slowly turned his head, his blood-stained hands hanging in mid-air.

Witnessing the tragic scene, Wei Ziqing's mind buzzed, but instinct drove him to act immediately.

He took a swift step forward. With a light flick of his right-hand bone sword, he precisely knocked the kitchen knife embedded in Reiko's abdomen away. Simultaneously, the flat of the sword tapped Little Stone's wrist, injecting a tiny amount of paralyzing toxin. The child's body stiffened and he fell into a deep sleep.

"Ugh..." Reiko's pained moan was faint; she was already too weak to move.

"Hang on!" Wei Ziqing spoke rapidly.

His sharp gaze swept the room, instantly locking onto a target—the relatively clean, coarse cotton quilts folded on the *kang* (heated brick bed).

He rushed over, tore open the quilt cover, and with forceful hands, *riiiip*—quickly tore out several clean cloth strips of varying widths.

He returned to Reiko's side, carefully lifted the clothing around the wound, folded the widest and thickest cloth strip into a pad, and pressed it firmly against the most heavily bleeding wound.

"Endure it!" he commanded in a low voice. Using a long cloth strip as a bandage, he began wrapping it around her waist and abdomen quickly and tightly to apply pressure and stop the bleeding. His technique carried the decisiveness of a martial artist dealing with external injuries, each wrap steady and firm.

After swiftly completing the basic bandaging, he didn't hesitate. First, he securely fastened the sleeping Little Stone to his back with a cloth strap. Then, bending down, he lifted the barely breathing Reiko in as stable a manner as possible, holding her horizontally in his arms.

"We're leaving this place!" Carrying Reiko and with Little Stone on his back, he charged out of the house, plunging into the night interwoven with flames and chaos outside, and ran with all his strength towards the direction from which rescue might arrive.