IWOL Chapter 330: Unchangeable

Dong Zheng rolled on the spot, dodging them. But there was a snake lying in wait, and the moment he stepped near it, the snake opened its mouth and directly sank its fangs into Dong Zheng’s leg!

The sharp fangs pierced the tactical suit and his skin, and injected venom into Dong Zheng’s body. The neurotoxins flowed through his bloodstreams all over his entire body. In as little as ten minutes, Dong Zheng would have died from the damage it would have wreaked on his nervous system!

But Dong Zheng had the power of body.

The ferociously vicious toxin was immediately dissipated by the power of body, and even the bite wound quickly healed. Dong Zheng jumped up and raised his hand to block the whip that was slashing toward his face. His crossbow entangled the whip, refusing to relent under the tremendous force of the blow. Like this, they confronted each other.

Shit! Tang Ji cursed to himself. He took the initiative to abruptly loosen the force of his hold, causing Dong Zheng’s figure to fall backward a little. The nine-section whip that was wrapped around the crossbow morphed into a snake and returned to Tan Ji’s hand, causing Dong Zheng to fall backward some more.

The whip snapped again at rapid speed. Dong Zheng’s kernel provided him with an accurate judgement on the whip’s trajectory, but there was no time for him to dodge. As a result, he could only tilt his head to one side as best he could, allowing the whip to run across his cheek. Due to the controlled nature of his evasion, the whip barely touched his eye, though its intent was to gouge out the entire eye.

The black whip was poisoned, and it’s tip was an arrow carved with vicious blood grooves. When it slashed across Dong Zheng’s cheek, it left a deep line, running from the bridge of his nose to the root of his ear. The edges of the wound were puckered, overflowing with blood.

The pain only made his mind clearer. As the wound automatically closed, Dong Zheng shot an arrow at Tang Ji, directly piercing his left shoulder.

Tang Ji’s attention was completely attracted by the healing wound on Dong Zheng’s face. With eyes widened in disbelief, he shouted hoarsely, uncaring of his bleeding shoulder, “Who are you?”

He could control time, and now his wound was closing. How could this be possible? How could this person have both the power of time and the power of body? Cui Zuojing and Victor were still buried under the snow!

Dong Zheng’s only response was to shoot another arrow. Tang Ji dodged, but it still tore through his clothes and gouged out a strip of flesh from his arm.

Dong Zheng wanted to quickly solve the trouble in front of him, because he had to catch up with the team and save Allen.

After a few more moves, Tang Ji noticed Dong Zheng’s desire to quickly end the battle. He made a quick decision, and narrowed his eyes as his lips once again rose into a horrible smile.

—No matter what your purpose is, I definitely will not let you accomplish it easily!

One hour later.

Dong Zheng slammed foot down on Tang Ji’s back, pinning him in place. The black-haired youth’s arms were covered with large and small wounds, and the dripping blood stained the snow a blushing red. He violently pulled out the arrow embedded in Tang J’d back. Blood gushed out, and Tang Ji immediately began to struggle violently.

The nine-section whip had fallen to the side, and Tang Ji’s constant companion of a snake was stiff, as if on the verge of death. Dong Zheng himself wasn’t much better off. His clothes were torn, and he was dizzy, an after effect of his kernel being overdrawn. He’d mobilized every advantage he could and still needed a full hour to barely gain the upper hand.

Without saying a word, he notched the arrow on the crossbow, aimed it at Tang Ji’s head, and pulled the trigger.

“No, no, no! Don’t kill me!!!”

Just as the arrow was about to penetrate his skull, the brand on the side of Tang Ji’s neck suddenly exploded with a powerful force, directly blasting the arrow away!

This was the Queen’s restriction and the Queen’s protection of her heirs.

The energy enveloped Dong Zheng, throwing the power of body and the power of time into agitation. For a moment, Dong Zheng’s figure became illusory. Tang Ji seized this opportunity. He swiftly maneuvered up and grabbed Dong Zheng’s ankle even as he kicked Dong Zheng away.

Dong Zheng staggered backward. His back foot stepped in air, and he fell more than 100 meters down the cliff.

Boom——!

The sound of his body smashing into the thick layer of snow was incredibly loud. Hearing it, Cui Zuojing frowned and looked in the direction of the sound, but he didn’t see anything.

“What’s that sound?” Lin Hangzhi also heard it. He’d just escaped from being chased by a swarm of insects and now he was panting for breaths.

“I don’t know.” Cui Zuojing turned back and said, “Allen’s situation is urgent, let’s hurry up.”

The avalanche had separated the team into two groups. Dong Zheng, Dong Linhai, Allen, and Wang Que were on one side while Cui Zuojing and Lin Hangzhi were on the other. Not long ago, Dong Zheng had told him that Allen had been paraticized and that the situation wasn’t very optimistic. Even Victor was helpless.

Ignoring that muffled sound in the distance, Cui Zuojing and Lin Hangzhi hurried on with the fastest speed. Under the cliff, Dong Zheng struggled to climb out of the five or six meters pit of snow. As he stood up, snow fell from his hair and all over his neckline, making him shiver in the cold.

As he looked at the sun’s position in the horizon, the bad premonition in Dong Zheng’s heart became more intense. Without delay, he immediately ran toward the distant cliff.

Halfway there, a giant red insect the size of a passenger plane flew past him overhead. Its two wings vibrated and buzzed, and the color wing membranes were brilliant under the sunlight.

No! No no no no!

Dong Zheng’s heartbeat and breathing almost stopped for a moment. Those bloody images rushed to his eyes again. Allen, with the long parasite inside his neck, slashed at his arm with a dagger, leaving behind only the broken half of his right arm and the red-stained snow…No! ‌He mustn’t allow the same thing to happen again; he absolutely mustn’t!

Dong Zheng ran crazily in the same direction as the red insect. But how could it be possible for him to keep up, labored with snow underfoot as he was? Soon, the insect’s figure flew over the mountain peak and rushed to the team on the other side of the mountain.

The snow was too thick and too deep. He fell down several times and immediately got up to catch up. When he finally approached the cliff imprinted in the depths of his memory, he heard sounds of crying from above.

Dong Linhai and Wang Que, crying with grief.

Dong Zheng looked up in a daze. Snow fell into his eyes, but no tears came out.

No, he could still look for Allen. In the past, he couldn’t find a way down the cliff, but now he himself was under the cliff!

Dong Zheng moved forward at the fastest speed and finally approached the location where Allen fell. It was a glacier slit, only two or three meters wide. The giant red insect was hovering over it, but could not enter. In the end, it had to fly away empty-handed. ‌

Dong Zheng walked into the slit step by step.

Finally, he saw Allen.

Allen was lying on the ground in a pool of frozen blood. His red hair was messy, his sea blue eyes were on the verge of winking out, and only a portion of his right arm remained. The bloodied flesh at the fracture was frozen, so that not a single drop of blood could even flow out. There was a terrifyingly big bulge above his neck, the creature inside squirming.

Hearing the sound of footsteps approaching, the fingers on Allen’s intact hand twitched, and he seemed to want to turn his head to take a look, but he couldn’t manage to.

Dong Zheng approached, passed his hands under Allen’s armpits, and lifted him against the ice-cast wall. Allen was 1.9 meters tall, but now, Dong Zheng felt that he seemed to barely weigh anything.

When his body was moved, Allen finally had a clear view of Dong Zheng. Despite his damaged mind, he recognized him as Domingo, from Dusk Island.

“Just bear with it for a moment.” Dong Zheng knelt on one knee beside Allen, held his head with one hand, and pulled out a dagger with the other.

Dong Zheng looked at the bulge at the base of Allen’s brain. With deft movements, he sliced the skin there and used the sharp tip of the blade to directly pierce the parasite that had already half-penetrated into Allen’s brain.

He slowly pulled out the parasite, which was swollen dark red with blood. There were some white brain tissue hanging on its countless legs. Dong Zjeng threw the parasite on the ground and stomped on it hard.

Blood splattered out from under his army boots.

Dong Zheng grinded down on it hard, venting his sadness, resentment, and unwillingness on it. Not until it was dead did he finally pull back his foot. He lowered himself next to Allen and asked in a low voice, “Not too bad, right?”

Allen looked at Dong Zheng and opened his mouth, his voice barely audible, “….Who are you?”

Dong Zheng was silent for a moment. He gazed at Allen for a long time, and finally said, “My name is Domingo.”

“Who are you…?” Allen asked again.

This time, Dong Zheng didn’t answer. He checked the wound on Allen’s severed arm. It was completely frozen and frostbitten. Even the Stitch-Heart Bear would be helpless against it. The only thing that could help him now was the power of body, but Dong Zheng had no idea how to actively use the bit of Victor’s power in his body.

He slowly loosened his hold on Allen’s hand and tried his best to keep the tears in his eyes from flowing down, Squeezing his eyes shut, he said in a choked voice, “Sorry, I… still couldn’t save you.”

The sentence that he’d spoken out of his own mouth completely shattered the construction of his heart. At this moment, it had never been so clear to him that, no matter how hard a person may work toward a goal, there might be no result in the end. There was no escape, no change. Even if he was unreconciled, what could he do?

‌Have the courage to face everything, except the result?

Allen looked at him, and from those blue eyes, Dong Zheng could read a faint speculation. But Allen didn’t say anything. Blood bubbled up from the corners of his mouth, but he continued to look at Dong Zheng, and he asked, “I… still have the option to become a prisoner or an NPC… right?”

“Yes, death is not the end of life.”

The light in Allen’s eyes began to fade and he asked haltingly, “….If I become an NPC, will I still…remember you?”

“Kether will wash away all your memories, but you have to believe that even if you’d forgotten everything, we will still remember.”

Yes, we always remember you, from beginning to end…

The corners of Allen’s mouth raised ever so slightly, barely noticeable. By now, he was also bleeding from his ears and his nose, and the dark pupils at the center of his eyes spread toward the edges.

“Thank…”

The words “Thank you” went uncompleted.

Dong Zheng knelt there motionless for a long time, holding Allen’s intact hand, which no longer had the temperature of a living human.

At last, he took a deep breath and raised his hand to close Allen’s eyes. When he stood up, frozen ice on the wounds of his leg shattered and fresh blood gushed out, soaking his black pants. Now that they were no longer frozen, they could finally heal.

From his pocket Dong Zheng took out a slip of the yellow talisman paper that Ren Heming had given him during Chaos Library’s test. He found the severed arm that had been tossed down, which had luckily landed not far away, and put it on Allen’s body.

After combing Allen’s messy red hair, Dong Zheng arranged him flat on the snow. He took a few steps back and threw down the talisman paper.

Flames rose, warmly enveloping everything.

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