286: remember

Watching Cynthia and the Doctor being taken away, Lu Jianchuan finally turned to Wei Ziqing. Looking at the marks on his armor, he asked in a deep voice, "What happened? What was the situation over there? How did you get hurt like this?"

Wei Ziqing shook his head. The stains and shoulder plate cracks on his plain white armor became clearer under the lights. He let out a breath, his voice carrying obvious exhaustion and a hint of lingering fear. "Ugh, don't mention it... That thing... Fortunately, we happened to be fighting inside a room, which restricted its movement. Otherwise, I really would have been worn down to death by it this time."

[Wei Ziqing's Memory]

The metal door of the Analysis Room closed rapidly after the figures of Lu Jianchuan and the other two disappeared, separating the inside and outside into two battlefields.

Wei Ziqing focused his mind, his bone sword pointing diagonally at the ground, its blade faintly glowing with a dark luster specialized against biological tissue. Opposite him, that bloated, silver-white giant slowly turned around, its cloudy compound eyes locking onto its sole target.

There was no roar, no probing. It directly took heavy strides, like a collapsing mountain of flesh, using its purest volume and weight to crush toward Wei Ziqing! As its footsteps fell, the ground trembled.

Wei Ziqing's eyes narrowed; he didn't meet it head-on. At the moment the opponent approached, his plain white figure performed a light slide to the side and rear. Simultaneously, the bone sword in his hand was like a venomous snake flicking its tongue; taking advantage of the moment they crossed paths, he flicked it upward with a backhand strike!

Screech—

The sword's edge sliced across the side of the opponent's abdomen, which was covered in thick carapace, cutting a gash nearly half a meter long. There was no expected roll of flesh and blood, only a large amount of viscous, translucent, gelatinous liquid smelling of the sweet, fishy scent of nutrient solution gushing from the wound, dripping onto the floor with a soft "patter."

The giant seemed completely oblivious to this wound. The momentum of its charge didn't even falter for a second. Its massive body twisted, and its thick arm swept across again with the sound of wind! Its movement pattern was simple, but it was full of power and pressure.

Wei Ziqing ducked to avoid the sweep, the sword following his body's movement as he added another shallow cut to the opponent's arm joint, which also bled a large amount of slime. He realized in his heart: this thing either had no sense of pain, or its neural center did not rely on conventional pain feedback.

The battle unfolded within the limited space of the Analysis Room. Relying on the supernatural agility and precise swordsmanship granted by the "Hero Shadow" armor, Wei Ziqing constantly moved and dodged, leaving deep or shallow cuts on the opponent's massive body with every exchange.

More and more of the sticky liquid flowed out, pooling on the floor and causing the giant's footsteps to start slipping, making its movements appear even more clumsy.

It seemed only capable of (or only inclined toward) using collisions, pounces, and arm swings—attacks that relied on its size—like a heavy leather ball full of slime that was constantly leaking air but still stubbornly rolling. Wei Ziqing's tactic was clear: avoid the front, keep slicing, and exhaust the medium that maintained its form inside its body.

The wounds grew more numerous, and the flowing slime almost soaked half of the giant's body.

Its rough silver-white carapace began to show unnatural depressions and sagging due to internal pressure changes and fluid loss. Some parts even wobbled slightly like a deflated skin bag.

Overall, it looked like a liquid sac that had been poked with too many holes and was barely maintaining its shape.

Just as Wei Ziqing was carefully controlling his distance, preparing to find an opportunity to inject a stronger toxin—

That bloated body suddenly stiffened, and all movement stopped.

Immediately following that, all the wounds on its body surface, as well as the gaps in its carapace, simultaneously erupted with an intense, unstable silver-white light!

Wei Ziqing's pupils shrank, and without a second thought, he retreated rapidly!

Boom—!!!

It wasn't a massive explosion, but a dull sound of disintegration that pulled inward and then pushed outward! That massive silver-white body shattered before his eyes. However, it wasn't flesh and blood flying everywhere; instead, it was like a balloon full of slime being popped. A large amount of residual gelatinous material mixed with carapace fragments sprayed out in a radial pattern, covering half the Analysis Room!

Although Wei Ziqing had retreated in advance, he was still splashed by quite a bit of slime and fragments. A slight corrosive sound and the feeling of impact came from his armor. He steadied his stance, holding his sword across his chest, his heart filled with alarm and doubt: "Did the toxin trigger a collapse? No..."

In the center of the sprayed slime and fragments, the light did not dissipate; instead, it rapidly contracted and condensed!

A new figure slowly stood up from the core of that disintegrating light and slime.

It was no longer a bloated giant; instead, it had become slender and well-proportioned, its height similar to Wei Ziqing's. Its entire body was covered in a streamlined, extremely form-fitting silver-white biological carapace that was smooth as a mirror with almost no extra edges, outlining lean muscle lines like a second skin. The helmet's visor had changed into two thin, deep blue optical slits that were constantly micro-adjusting at high speed. The overall impression was one of refinement, efficiency, and a lethal sense of being born for speed.

Wei Ziqing gripped his bone sword, and his poisoned scabbard hummed slightly. "Heh, there's even a second phase."

Before his voice had even faded,

That slender silver figure moved.

There was no start-up, no warning, just like a sudden frame skip in a video—only a faint silver afterimage remained where it had originally been, and its physical form had already appeared in front of Wei Ziqing!

Fast! Incomprehensibly fast! A speed that far exceeded the limits of Wei Ziqing's dynamic vision!

He had no time to make any judgment for blocking or dodging, only relying on his battle-hardened instincts to subconsciously block with the bone sword in front of him.

Bang!!!!!

An indescribable massive force—not from a punch or a kick, but more like being hit head-on by a high-speed train! Wei Ziqing felt his arms vibrate violently, the bone sword nearly flying out of his hand. His whole body was thrown backward like a broken kite, slamming hard against the sturdy metal wall of the Analysis Room!

Thud—!

The heavy sound of impact echoed. Wei Ziqing let out a muffled groan and slid down from the wall, kneeling on one knee. A surge of blood and Qi churned in his chest, and a clear, sharp pain came from his left shoulder.

He looked up and saw that slender silver figure still standing at his original position. The deep blue visor "watched" him coldly, as if that terrifying strike just now had been done effortlessly.

Wei Ziqing leaned against the cold metal wall, enduring the sharp pain in his left shoulder and the churning blood and Qi, as he stared intently at that slender silver figure.

Unexpectedly, after completing that thunderous collision, the opponent did not pursue immediately. Instead, it stopped in the center of the room, maintaining a slightly forward-leaning, alert posture. The light from its deep blue visor moved slowly across the room, scanning left and right as if searching for something.

'It's not moving? Observing?' Wei Ziqing was surprised, but the opportunity was fleeting. He forced a breath, exerted force with his feet, and his figure suddenly charged forward. The bone sword in his hand turned into a streak of plain white cold light, stabbing directly at the opponent's chest!

Just as he started and the sword tip was about to reach the body—

That slender silver figure moved.

It wasn't the warningless flash from before, but a smoother, more precise way. It seemed to instantly shift half a body length in front of Wei Ziqing's eyes, causing the thrust to miss completely.

Immediately after, in the instant before Wei Ziqing could retract his sword and change moves, the opponent's hand had already grabbed his wrist.

In the next second, the world spun.

Wei Ziqing felt like he was a weightless object being swung by an irresistible force. His body traced a short arc, and then his back slammed hard against another wall!

Boom!

It wasn't a dull thud, but the loud sound of the wall's metal plate deforming under the strain! Wei Ziqing was almost embedded into it, and countless cracks spread out with him as the center.

He didn't even have time to feel pain before that silver figure had already closed in like a ghost again.

Fast! Incomprehensibly fast! It was no longer a simple linear charge, but a suffocating continuous suppression that included grappling, throwing, and close-quarters combat!

Wei Ziqing had just struggled to pull himself out of the wall's indentation and tried to swing his sword, but the blade only met air.

The opponent seemed to always be able to predict his every subtle muscle movement. An instant before he exerted force, it would either intercept his action with a faster strike or directly grab his joints and smash him against the walls, floor, or equipment again!

Opportunities for bone sword slashes, toxin injections... there were none at all.

He seemed to have fallen into a storm composed of light and shadow, only able to passively endure one precise and heavy impact after another. His armor let out a groan of being overburdened, and sharp pain radiated from all over his body.

Bang—Crash!!

Once again, he was thrown heavily, smashing a metal lab table and rolling into the deeper parts of the room along with the instruments on the table. A pile of overturned debris and twisted metal plates temporarily buried him.

Amidst the flying debris, Wei Ziqing endured the dizziness and sharp pain. He held his breath and curled up in the narrow shadow angle formed by the overturned tabletop and the wall. He remained motionless, only staring outside through the gaps.

That slender silver figure stopped in the center of the room, near the destroyed lab table. It slowly turned its head, the deep blue light of its visor scanning the messy room steadily from left to right, from near to far, seemingly searching carefully for the target's tracks.

Once, twice.

Its "gaze" even passed over the shadowy corner where Wei Ziqing was hidden, right under its nose, several times without stopping for a second.

Wei Ziqing's heart shook violently as an unbelievable thought arose: 'It... can't see me when I'm still?'

He thought of certain apex predators in nature that relied on dynamic vision to hunt.

Could it be that in order to support that terrifying speed, the way its brain processed visual information had undergone extreme specialization, making it only capable of effectively capturing and processing moving objects?

At that moment, because it had lost a clear moving target, the silver figure seemed a bit... confused?

It began to wander irregularly in small steps in the center of the room. Its deep blue visor continued to scan incessantly, yet it remained unable to lock onto Wei Ziqing, who was as still as a rock and right within its reach.