Chapter Text
Thwack!
In a flash, Li Yingjie was on stage and swiftly motioned a round kick at Qi Long, who neatly dodged it and moved to the side. It was followed by barrels of punches thrown aimlessly all over Qi Long.
Qi Long avoided them all, and in a flash, he was behind Li Yingjie, aiming to strike. Li Yingjie turned around and met the incoming attack with his own fist.
Clash!
The motions were infused with domain energy and they both were hurled back by the intense collision, nevertheless standing their ground perfectly fine.
The same cannot be said for the spectator soldiers in the training ground. They were already a safe distance away while viewing the fight, but it wasn't enough. They were impacted greatly. They could feel the blood and bile rising from their throats. Most couldn't keep their balance against the mixture of two strong forces and crashed into the nearest walls.
It was truly scary, they couldn't even observe the Team Leaders' fights anymore for inspiration, ah. They got a whole lot stronger again. It was impossible to be on the same plane as them now when they activated their domains!
Xie Yi rubbed his temples in exasperation and quickly evacuated the soldiers out of the training ground. He cannot continue with the bets like before, how regretful.
Well, there's always the video recordings.
He then quickly notified the medical team for immediate treatment and handed them the wounded soldiers. He predicted the fight would last around forty minutes or so, given that both Qi Long and Li Yingjie seemed to just want to let off some steam, and instructed Meng Lan to fix the training grounds accordingly.
Hells, even the cleaning and revival automation of the training grounds temporarily malfunctioned...just why are these two idiots so enthusiastic today??
The training ground looked like such a mess! He was glad Boss wasn't here to see all this. He would've taken one glance at their surroundings and increased their hell training for breaking stuff so badly, creating a mess, and making it look like he, the Boss, was raising a bunch of savages.
Xie Yi shuddered and impatiently waited for the fight to end. He also stayed at a safe distance. Qi Long and Li Yingjie both successfully got promoted to a higher domain rank after the Battle of the 13 Lords, while Xie Yi stayed 'dead' throughout...so not much of the same luck for him.
He was later revived when Boss found this special sort of material that can be used to create bodies to hold sentient spirits and spiritual energy in Lord Qian's secret compartment. For months, it felt so foreign despite being the exact replica of his old body that he had to practice basic motions all over again. Boss made sure he would regain his previous level of prowess and personally saw through his recovery training.
One-on-one sessions with Boss were so grueling back in those months that Xie Yi actually missed being dead....on top of that, Shiyu's experimentations to perfect the body were something else, to say the least. Never mind, they both were doing all these for his own well-being...he'll just block out all these micro-traumas. It's good to be alive after all, and finally, the spirit and the body seem to have meshed properly. He could move and fight just fine, like in the Pre-Nebula Base phase.
Xie Er was, however, deeply affected. He was always in deep slumber every now and then. Boss told him it wasn't concerning, he needed to recuperate carefully. After that, Xie Er will have to go through the same torture..erm training by Boss. Then they will have to learn how to control the body together harmoniously..again. So it's gonna be round two of that special tortu-erm training all over again.
Never mind, he was lonely without Xie Er anyway. Maybe it would be the brotherly bonding time they needed. Better to think optimistically.
Xie Yi was afraid if he didn't cope with positive thoughts, he would end up crying...
This latest battle made the companions suffer drastically. All the companions had to take heavy doses of Nuwa agents, depleting their entire supply. In the first few months, they stayed quiet and wary because of that, giving the impression that the fight was still continuing or the Lords won and were cultivating to increase their spiritual energy by consuming the enemy's. Nobody would dare to even breathe near the territories because of that, much less enter. It bought them time.
Thankfully, Shiyu once experimented with the soil in Lawless Lands and decided to grow some Nuwa plants in a pot, which turned out to be a success in those months. So they had a reliable supply now.
Few of them got injured more than the others.
Zhao Jun almost left them, but Boss fortunately made it just in time to freeze his body and grab his spirit back from whatever Limbo they were in. Otherwise, he would've needed a new body like Xie Yi.
That bastard still gloats about it to him to rub salt in the wound when he comes back from Boss's special recovery training all haggard. Sob, he was the truly pitiful one in this regard. Woe is him!
Then little sister Luo Chao turned into stars and cosmic particles, but Boss was able to revive her. Depending on the nature of their domain, especially if it's an elemental one, they can shapeshift into that element. Like how the Boss can turn into ice, and its other iterations such as water, steam, frost, mist, etc, Luo Chao's domain can turn her into cosmic entities. By somehow using his spiritual energy, Boss must've transfigured her body back into the original form from the star-like state. Then infused it with the soul like he did for the rest of them who were in the Limbo.
One cannot think of Luo Chao without also remembering her identical twin brother, Luo Lang.
Xie Yi's heart aches whenever he is reminded of Luo Lang...so he purposely tried not to think about him until now. When he was in the early stages of recovery, like a paralyzed patient, unable to move his body at all, but just feel the sensations, with all these basic needs being taken care of by robots, he was visited by his friends.
Boss recommended minimum contact would be the best since he couldn't move his mouth properly at that time. So, they all just kept it short and conveyed their joy. That's when he came to learn about Zhao Jun, Luo Chao, and...Luo Lang. The reason they didn't come to see him, was because they were bedridden themselves.
Luo Lang suffered a massive head injury that put him into a comatose state at that time. But thankfully, thankfully he woke up. However, the damage left some problems in Luo Lang's domain energy and the memory area. He cannot seem to recall a lot of memories in between.
That included the memory of the letter he left Luo Lang after perishing at the Nebula Base...
Back then, Xie Yi sighed in relief, even though he felt a bit bitter. He was fretting about this issue since he woke up. That stupid letter was written because he knew he had a high chance of dying in the Nebula Base, so he didn't want to have any regrets.
But now that he magically came back from the dead, thanks to his magical omnipotent Boss, he didn't know how to face Luo Lang and his feelings about his letter...he was afraid to face the worst outcome...
So it was for the best that Luo Lang... forgot. Now he can keep his feelings hidden for an indefinite amount of time like he always intended to.
Boss says that most memories will recover, but not all. So they will have to remind Luo Lang of some things. He doesn't need to be reminded of this one thing.
So they can be best friends forever, without any awkward distance between them.
He shouldn't dare to hope for more...it was an impossible dream...but it still hurts...
Xie Yi forced himself to think of something else.
Ugh, being friends was amazing, wasn't it? Speaking of friends, those personalities of Luo Lang are really something, there seem to be a lot of weird ones.
There was one who randomly visited him once. He was overjoyed at first thinking Luo Lang was able to walk, but turned out it was a personality made from his spiritual power instead. Luo Lang's physical body and soul were still recovering. The personality then shook his head and mumbled how 'someone who doesn't look good when in bad shape is not that handsome, to begin with...oh well, not for me anyway.' Then swiftly left.
What was even all that about?
[A/N: Lol, not everyone can look as heavenly as Li Lanfeng in bruises and bandages]
Just as he was lost in his own thoughts, the fight came to an end.
Sure enough, around forty minutes later of constant clashing of spiritual energy, Li Yingjie was defeated by a fraction.
Qi Long was, after all, the second strongest after the Boss, with Li Lanfeng being an anomaly that shared this position, and Yingjie was in a much lower power rank among the core Team Leaders...although he probably tops Xie Yi now in the ranking. It's amazing he lasted this long, purely out of anger and spite at that.
Xie Yi grabbed two bottles of cool water from the nearest automatic high-tech water filter, the only one that was surprisingly still functioning, and approached the two idiots. One was leaning against the damaged rails and another sat on the cracked floor, panting.
"I...haah..I was already sick this morning and now you just...haah, cough...made it worse! Qi Long, how the hell do you plan to compensate me? Cough."
"Compensate?? Why should I? Did I tell you to pick a fight with me?"
"Well, your face did. It's basically a magnet for fists, begging to be smacked! So that's on you! Hmph."
Qi Long was speechless, he rubbed his fists, ready for round two. But Xie Yi interrupted them.
"Do you guys WANT Boss to punish us? Is having peace just too boring for you two?"
They both quit bickering immediately. Xie Yi handed one bottle to Qi Long before lifting Li Yingjie up from the ground and handing him the other one.
"I'm calling Meng Lan now to fix whatever massacre you guys did in here."
Li Yingjie, finally having vented his frustrations fully, chugged down the cool water with relish. He felt lighter.
But now that he's not brain-fried with rage, he is starting to be acutely aware of his body's conditions.
Damn, the chest discomfort and coughs aren't going away. Did Shiyu inject a virus instead of virus-prevention medication??
"Are you okay?" Qi Long asked, also refreshed from the fight and the cool water. Yingjie's coughs were mild, but they did not intend to stop.
"I wish I could say yes bu-"
That's when something strange happened.
=====
Li Shiyu forced himself to stop moping and proceeded to run tests on his newest project, the Flower Corpse. He needed a distraction from the current affairs. It was hard at first but soon...something caught his eye and he immediately zeroed in on it. The more he looked into it, the more engrossed he became, completely forgetting about his surroundings. He was lost in his own world.
Just as he was deep in concentration assessing a certain material...
"What are you doing, Shiyu."
A cool voice came out of nowhere, jolting the doctor out of his senses. He turned around and saw Ling Lan's face right beside him, which surprised him so much that he lost his footing. He wasn't expecting the Commander to come here at this moment at all!
If Boss had genius-level stealth skills before, then Boss right now was like a ghost, unknown and unseen by anyone, except for those who he wants to make his presence known, to haunt and torment.
"Bo-Boss, why are you here?"
Ling Lan raised an eyebrow. "Why can't I be here? It's not like you're hiding something are you?" Ling Lan meant it in a lightly teasing way. But she forgot that 'lightly teasing' and her image doesn't actually go together in the minds of her companions, it's incomprehensible.
So, being already nervous as he is, paired with Ling Lan's cold image and 'interrogation' tone, Shiyu became even more scared.
'Did Boss find out I like Luo Chao? The question seems to imply that he does...does he want me to confess my crimes now in order to lessen my death sentence?...'
"Get up, Shiyu. I just wanted to check the progress of the anomaly. My senses are telling me it's going to be bothersome somehow. It's not a big deal, I can come later. I am sorry to disrupt you like this." Of course, Ling Lan wasn't going to admit that she was bored and wanted something fresh to entertain her.
Her Profound Insight did make her feel something about the flower corpse was amiss, but it was a momentary impulse. She felt nothing since the first time she laid eyes on that corpse, so whatever problem that might occur in the worst-case scenario shouldn't be that hard to deal with. Therefore, with an Ah-Q mentality, Ling Lan decided to solve the problem if it came knocking.
She helped Shiyu up from the ground.
'So my death sentence is going to be suspended because there are official matters? It's a good thing I was researching the exact thing Boss wanted. Let's just take a long time to explain so Boss moves on to another task after this and forgets to settle scores with me.'
Shiyu wished his cousin would come sooner and settle this matter for him. Before that, he should really avoid interacting with Boss. The boss's attitude is so confusing that it can indeed be scary.
Ling Lan was actually thinking the exact same thing. Why was Shiyu so much on edge with her? Was it because she caught on to his little 'crush'? Frankly, it would be better if Leopard came and settled everything. She couldn't figure out the heads and tails of this situation at all!
"You came at the right time, Boss. I found something fascinating about the flower-covered body."
He motioned at the glass case in front of them. The glass case was multi-functional. It was made of an intricate material that preserved substances from decomposing, hence the pristine condition of the corpse. It also emitted a sort of ray that penetrated the body and reflected back to the glass. The inner parts of the body were then shown in the monitor connected to the glass case by processing the reflected ray.
Ling Lan looked at the monitor with a frown. The inside was a mess. From the windpipe to the lungs, even the mouth and nostrils were covered with an entire plant system! There were vines and leaves...and of course, flowers everywhere.
"That's not the most interesting part, Boss. Cough, if you look over here..." Shiyu pulled out a remote control and proceeded to rewind the footage shown on the monitor screen.
Ling Lan's frown deepened. "The flowers...they kept on growing since yesterday."
"Yes. Not only that, but they seem to be healthy despite lacking both water and sunlight. They are not ordinary flowers."
"That, I can see. Have you found out why exactly this is the case?" This matter was indeed intriguing.
Li Shiyu went over to his desk and started searching for something. He grabbed a file and presented it to Ling Lan.
"This is the result found from the spiritual energy scanner. Have a look at it, Boss."
Ling Lan opened the file and began to study it.
She then looked back at the image on the monitor.
"This core-like thing...it's not appearing on the monitor. It's related to the body's spirit energy."
"You're correct, Boss. Cough, something must've caused the spiritual power of the person to fluctuate so badly, that it gave rise to the core located at the heart. The core is sucking the spiritual energy to form physical flowers around the subject's respiratory system. The subject has been confirmed to have died from breathing difficulties. Cough.
The core is really slow at sucking the spiritual energy, so there is still the remaining energy of the body that is causing the flowers to grow. They will stop growing and multiplying when all of the spiritual energy is consumed. Cough.
This can be classified as a spiritual disease. The cause is still unknown."
Ling Lan glanced at Li Shiyu. "I think you need a break. You have been coughing too much."
"It's nothing, Boss. I only caught a slight cold from that brat Li Yingjie." Li Shiyu didn't think it was a big deal.
But then Li Shiyu couldn't stop coughing, the problem at hand seemed to have gotten a bit intense. "Wait a minute, Boss. Cough, cough cough. I'll come back after finding the medication for my sudden cold. I'll take care of this matter swiftly, please don't worry. Cough, cough."
Li Shiyu then proceeded to search for some vials at his desk. His coughing still not ceasing.
"If you say so." Ling Lan was worried but there was nothing she could do about it, so she decided to trust Li Shiyu and redirected her attention to the file. Peaking under the first scan, she saw that there was another scan beneath it. This piques her interest. She turned over the first one to take a good look at the new one.
Just by the look of the body build and the scanning results, this one was different from the first. It must've been a different subject.
Suddenly, Ling Lan started to have a bad feeling. The longer she stared at it, the more that feeling grew. Her instincts seemed to be telling her that something was wrong with this scan result. She looked closer at the scan, assessing it carefully.
Then, she saw it.
Her eyebrows shot up. This was certainly unusual. But she could be mistaken. Anyhow, Shiyu's consultation on this was needed, immediately.
"Shiyu, quick, come take a loo-"
Before she could finish her sentence, the mainframe of the lab started to make a static noise and soon, Meng Lan appeared on screen. She looked quite distressed about something.
"Boss, please hurry to the training ground. Something strange happened-"
"COUGH COUGH COUGH."
Ling Lan's head shot back to where Li Shiyu was. His coughs became more violent than before. But, then it stopped completely.
That was not the only concerning matter. Much to both Ling Lan and Li Shiyu's surprise, resting in Shiyu's hands, the very hands he used to cover his mouth just a few minutes ago...were four white petals, pristine and pure like the moon.