Wei Tianyang clenched his Bone Fist, timing her swinging claws.
The few remaining Medicine People tightly grasped the woman, Bai and Bald Uncle also joined the fray, tightly entangling her sole claw.
Wei Tianyang rushed forward and swung his fist towards her chest.
The woman flew outward.
Before that, he had heard the sound of bones breaking and muscles tearing.
She flew more than thirty meters, spat out a mouthful of hot blood, and collapsed at the edge of the drainage outlet, her gray-white long hair gently fluttering in the wind.
The battle had ended.
There were only a few Medicine People left, around twenty.
He walked over to the woman, saw her chest deeply dented in, her mouth spewing fresh blood, her strong body limp, the opened bandages fluttering in the wind, her abdomen struggling to rise and fall.
She had relied solely on her muscles to resist a ten-ton punch, and even though she was enhanced by the Black Medicine, it was a drop in the bucket.
Moreover, as she had said, they were all incomplete products, the enhancement was not perfect.
Wei Tianyang looked towards the outside of the drainage outlet, the black river extending towards the horizon, the rolling gray-green mountains distorted by the billowing heat, and he realized it was now summer.
At that time, the woman reached out and grabbed his ankle.
Wei Tianyang clenched his fist, looked down, but saw no intention of battle in her.
"Take my body... out of here... I don't want to stay here..." the woman said.
Wei Tianyang loosened his fist and picked her up.
The wound on her chest had gradually darkened, the left collarbone had begun to show signs of annihilation.
He carried her out of the drainage outlet, wading through the thigh-high black water, and walked toward the nearby shore.
At that moment, he suddenly realized that the Medicine People were not following.
So, he turned back to look at them.
Bai, Bald Uncle, Glasses Beast, and a strong man stood at the drainage outlet, with thousands of Medicine People behind them.
They smiled, looking at him.
"Everyone, hurry and follow! We are free!" shouted Wei Tianyang.
Glasses Beast shook his head and smiled, "It's your freedom."
Bai and Bald Uncle also smiled. They didn't speak but just silently watched Wei Tianyang.
The strong man said, "This is your freedom, 1202. You are the last and most successful among us. Go back to your mother's side! Go."
Behind the four, the thousands of Medicine People also smiled and waved goodbye to him.
Wei Tianyang gazed at the drainage outlet, the previous events flashing through his mind like a slideshow.
The deserted large morgue, hospital beds filled with twisted, blackened bodies...
The hallway flashing red lights, where he stood alone, watching groups of guards with guns being knocked down by an invisible force, being dragged, and dying twisted...
He struggled to wake from that filthy bed, taking every step until this point alone...
They indeed existed, they were the evidence of Tiantai Pharmaceutical's numerous crimes, the witnesses who couldn't speak.
The drainage outlet was now empty, a smile appearing on Wei Tianyang's face.
"Goodbye, everyone." he said.
Wei Tianyang carried the woman to shore, the weight in his arms growing lighter.
Her entire left side had become nothing but a skeleton, her heart still desperately beating but already half blackened, with thin black lines clinging to its surface.
She exhaled and said, "I smell it... the scent of earth..."
The woman's heart stopped beating, her mouth slightly open, no breath remaining.
The heart, annihilated to the size of a plum pit, was dark and sticky, clinging to the flesh on the inside of her chest cavity.
Soon, her entire left side vanished completely, leaving patchy bandages hanging off Wei Tianyang's left arm.
As her body completely disappeared into his embrace, Wei Tianyang's skeletal right forearm suddenly lit up with ring after ring of grayish-white luminescence, resembling several silver bracelets.
The light flickered for just a few seconds before a rush of heat surged up from his right fist and then flowed up his right arm toward his heart.
A strong surge of agitation rose within him, his legs weakening as he knelt on one knee, something heavy pressing on his chest, causing discomfort.
He took a deep breath and suddenly smelled many different odors.
He closed his eyes and felt as if the odors were chains, crisscrossing each other in midair, originating from everywhere to form a kind of network.
A bird flew overhead, its scent like a string of long footprints suspended in midair; the black river emitted a subtle, hardly noticeable smell, and within the fragrance of the earth were hidden more than a dozen other scents.
He stood up, sensing something profound, and stretched out his right hand with fingers spread; the next second, sharp black bones suddenly elongated like five black bone knives.
Wei Tianyang looked closely at his right arm and suddenly understood.
He had absorbed this woman's abilities...
With his right fist, he could punch with a force of over ten tons.
Anything he struck would corrode and dissolve.
Killing someone with superpowers allowed him to absorb their powers.
If fatally wounded, he could immediately heal by sacrificing his right hand.
Also... he could see the deceased...
Wei Tianyang felt agitated and perturbed.
What was he now?
The price the woman mentioned, the toxins accumulated in the marrow had not yet taken effect, at least Wei Tianyang had not noticed any further anomalies in his body.
Besides, after the collapse of the platform, the black giant who had saved him was object 091...
The mystery deepened. He picked up the kraft paper file he carried, holding twelve pages that might hold the answers.
But he couldn't understand the Western script.
The collapse of the base continued, the fallen steel columns now covering the drain. The steel platform was like an iron disc lodged in the muddy ground, with the smoking wreckage of a heavy helicopter to its south.
Ruan Yu had vanished without a trace, and no helicopter rotors could be heard in the sky, only the continuous dull thuds of large buildings collapsing.
It was then that he suddenly remembered that it had been a year since he had died on that injection table...
At this thought, he became anxious and looked around. It was truly a deserted wilderness here, utterly unknown.
He calmed his mind, closed his eyes, and sniffed at the sky.
In his imagination appeared numerous intersecting networks of scents—bison dung, raindrops on bird wings, the exhaust left by passing vehicles, and... the smell of household garbage and leftover food...
He opened his eyes and looked eastward. There was a town in that direction!
Although he didn't know how far the strange building was from the town, since he could smell it, it should be reachable on foot within a day.
Wei Tianyang was anxious, and before setting off, he looked at his skeletal left calf and right forearm, then wrapped them with the bandages left by the woman.
Although his fingertips were still somewhat exposed, at least from a distance, it wouldn't look too abnormal.
And so, he set off, leaving behind everything that was burning and collapsing.