“How truly moving….” Xuan Hao expressed what might have been genuine admiration.
“Unfortunately, your sacrifice was meaningless.”
Xuan Hao even clapped his hands. “I have no need, and no reason, to kill you, do I? Why must you block me?”
“If you wish, you can leave right now.”
Hearing this, Long Qi and his companion looked at each other in disbelief.
At the same time, the Doctor’s encrypted communication reached their ears, his voice a little dry:
“Long Qi, Long Jiu….”
Both nodded slightly in acknowledgment.
The Doctor’s voice continued: “I need to conduct an experiment. One of you needs to make a sacrifice, and the other, kill this BOSS.”
Long Qi’s pupils suddenly constricted.
The two exchanged glances, a hint of hesitation flashing in their eyes.
“Can it really be done?”
Long Qi looked at the body the BOSS occupied, their former comrade—Long Shi Er.
“Uncertain…”
The Doctor’s voice was also unsure.
“Understood!”
Long Qi nodded lightly. Without needing more words, the moment the Doctor’s voice fell….
The long blade in his hand spewed a sharp Qi vortex, and his entire being, like a leopard pouncing on its prey, erupted with all his strength and speed to the extreme at this moment!
“Clang!”
The long blade transformed into an afterimage, difficult for the naked eye to catch.
“Puff!”
His target was precisely his brother, with whom he had spent countless days and nights.
Accompanied by splashing blood, the long blade pierced through the tactical vest on Xuan Hao’s body, almost splitting him in half.
The entire process was extremely fast.
Of course, Xuan Hao didn’t bother to defend.
It was meaningless anyway; just a shell. If it died, it died.
“Heh heh….”
Xuan Hao’s eyes held a playful mockery.
His body then fell to the ground, blood spreading beneath him.
“Puff!”
At the same time, Long Qi plunged the long blade through his own chest, ending his life.
Long Jiu stared blankly at everything.
Although he already knew the plan, when this moment unfolded before his eyes, an uncontrollable sadness still welled up in his heart.
“Long Jiu, report your status!”
“How do you feel?!”
Through the communicator, the Doctor’s low, urgent inquiry came through.
Looking at his comrade, whose body on the ground had lost its warmth, Long Jiu sighed silently:
“The moment the BOSS and Long Qi died, I felt an indescribable, chilling Qi!”
“It was like a cold current piercing through the skin, directly into the bones, into the brain—that kind of cold.”
“It couldn't be blocked, nor could it be resisted!”
Hearing this, the other end of the communication was silent for a few seconds.
A moment later, the Doctor’s voice sounded again, even more solemn:
“Now? Are you still yourself? Can you control your body?”
Long Jiu slowly inhaled, then exhaled forcefully.
He tried to move his body again, raising his arm.
“I can now.”
Long Jiu’s voice was extremely low. “At least for now, I can still control everything. I don’t feel like my mind has been invaded.”
“Very good!”
The Doctor’s voice was faint. “Stay vigilant, try to feel all subtle changes in your body, and await my next command!”
There was a hint of anticipation in his tone.
“Understood!”
Long Jiu nodded in affirmation.
Forcibly suppressing all emotions, he focused all his attention on his own sensations, like the keenest hound.
One second… two seconds….
Time flowed slowly.
Five seconds… ten seconds….
The special operations room was eerily quiet.
Long Jiu suppressed his heavy heartbeat; the air seemed to solidify.
Twelve seconds… thirteen seconds….
“Doctor.”
Long Jiu’s voice suddenly sounded, with an extremely subtle change that even he himself seemed not to have noticed.
“What is it?”
The Doctor’s voice came through.
Long Jiu’s brows furrowed slightly, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes.
He forcibly suppressed the anomaly, his speech slowing by half:
“I feel very tired, like I’ve been awake for three days and three nights. I can’t quite control the urge to close my eyes.”
“It’s here… I should soon no Long Er be myself.”
“I understand, Long Jiu.”
Through the communicator, the Doctor’s complex voice came through. “Thank you for your sacrifice. Your sacrifice is of great significance.”
Hearing this, Long Jiu breathed a sigh of relief.
The remaining resolute expression on his face suddenly twisted into a smile mixed with relief, liberation….
And a strange sense of satisfaction.
“Doctor, is this information useful?”
Long Jiu’s voice sounded, but his tone and rhythm were completely different.
Another brief pause.
“Very useful.”
The Doctor’s faint chuckle sounded.
Long Jiu nodded slightly.
A few seconds later, he raised his arm and gently touched his earphone.
In those pupils, all traces of Long Jiu’s struggle and loyalty had completely faded, leaving only cold indifference.
“Doctor….”
Long Jiu spoke again.
His voice had completely transformed into Xuan Hao’s tone, hoarse and cold: “It’s meaningless, isn’t it?”
Moving his body, Xuan Hao said faintly:
“To test me with two lives, Doctor, you are truly mad. They could have lived. What a pity.”
In the monitoring room, the Doctor’s eyes were sharp.
The number on his stopwatch was fixed at 19 seconds.
“Nineteen seconds, then?”
The Doctor’s voice reached Xuan Hao’s ears. “You need approximately ten to twenty seconds to achieve absolute control over a new host, do you?”
Xuan Hao smirked, chuckling softly:
“No, Doctor. If I wished, I would only need… one second.”
“Is that so?”
The Doctor pondered:
“Long Er was an exception. As an O3-level Martial Artist, it took you nearly three minutes to completely control his body, which means….”
The Doctor’s voice rose, as if he had discovered a fatal flaw:
“The more powerful the Martial Artist, the stronger the barrier between their consciousness and body, and the Long Er it takes for you to exploit a loophole. This is a very obvious fact.”
He pressed on, posing the most crucial question:
“Actually, I’m very curious….”
“If, at the moment of killing your current host, there were only Martial Artists like Long Er, or even more powerful Martial Artists, within a 200-meter radius of you, would you still be able to possess a body?”
“Interesting.”
Xuan Hao grinned.
Two hundred meters? How ignorant, and how self-important.
The Doctor continued: “Then, if it were a 400-meter radius, or even 800 meters with no one around, what kind of change would you undergo?”
“Would you weaken from being unable to transfer in time?
“Or would you completely vanish?”
“Heh heh….” A few seconds later, Xuan Hao’s low chuckle sounded. “Doctor, you can try it.”
“Let’s see if everyone in this base dies, or if you find my so-called weakness first. Want to give it a try?”
“I’m also looking forward to it,” the Doctor said calmly.
“Of course….” Xuan Hao continued: “We don’t necessarily have to be enemies, Doctor.”
He walked to the surveillance camera, his tone very sincere:
“I still have my previous suggestion….”
“In this world, riddled with holes and plagued by disasters, why must we be enemies?”
“Powerful forces, why can’t we cooperate?”
