[System: You are under attack by an unknown force, your heart will be under great pressure]
[System: Countdown 10, 9...]
The Taste of Death added two points, the Dragon Tiger Mountain ritual added 7 points. Jian Jing was 10 seconds away from death.
In the 1st second, she shot an arrow from the right position. The bow and arrows belonged to Andrei, who had lost them on the life raft. She had brought them along.
Although the bowstring was damp and the arrow slightly crooked, it didn't matter. The aiming card could solve these problems.
She shot the arrow with perfect accuracy and saw it pierce Qi Tian's chest.
In the 2nd second, the countdown still hadn't disappeared.
This proved that Qi Tian wasn't dead.
He pulled out the arrow that had pierced his heart, bringing out wisps of tendrils mixed with blood.
Severely wounded again, Qi Tian had no strength to retaliate. He tersely ordered his two subordinates: "Kill her."
In the 3rd second, the Screenwriter rushed out to intercept them.
Jian Jing paid him no attention at all. She climbed over the railing and jumped in directly from outside the window, lunging towards Qi Tian in one swift move.
Qi Tian staggered back. At the same time, the awakened tendrils raised their branches like disturbed snakes, converging on her one after another.
Jian Jing took out her Tang sword and swiftly cut them into pieces.
In the 4th second, the Middle-aged Woman pulled out a gun, its black muzzle aimed at her.
The safety wasn't even off. Who was she trying to scare? Jian Jing stepped sideways, grabbed her wrist and twisted, easily taking the gun for herself.
"Get out," she said in English.
The Middle-aged Woman hesitated, only backing away without leaving.
In the 5th second, the tendrils made a comeback.
Qi Tian asked with a cold smile: "Do you dare to blow it up this time? There's no second ship to save you."
Jian Jing didn't speak. The show's survivors were still asleep in the guest rooms. The old men and women in the room had inhaled an unknown gas and sat like clay statues on meditation cushions, their minds unclear.
Whether blowing up the ship or shooting up the room would inevitably harm bystanders.
Qi Tian knew she wouldn't dare.
But so what?
In the 6th second, Jian Jing inserted the tip of her sword into the center of the tendrils. Her left hand lit a lighter, and the flame immediately ignited the long tendrils wrapped around the sword hilt.
The tendrils, damaged, immediately devoured the nearest old man, converting his flesh and blood into nutrients for repair.
Qi Tian's vocal cords were damaged, his voice as hoarse as two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together, rough and dry: "To kill me, they all have to die."
"Who cares," Jian Jing didn't hesitate at all and fired at the twisted tendrils.
There were seven bullets in total. She showed no mercy, giving them all to the tendrils.
In the 7th second, it began desperately devouring the surrounding elderly, trying to repair itself with their life force.
But Jian Jing wouldn't give it a chance. Her Tang sword rose and fell unpredictably, cutting off all the tendrils that intended to devour.
In the 8th second, her heart felt slightly uncomfortable, as if an invisible hand was gripping the fragile organ. The external pressure made it beat rapidly.
"It's over," Qi Tian revealed the weapon hidden in his wheelchair armrest, his withered finger on the trigger.
Jian Jing turned to look at him, her expression mocking.
Qi Tian suddenly became aware of something unusual.
The 9th second.
His heartbeat gradually slowed, as if he had been anesthetized. His body's efficiency plummeted, the muscles began to relax, and his fingers were completely unable to pull the trigger, frozen in place.
The gun slipped to the ground.
Jian Jing picked up the gun and aimed it at his forehead.
Her teeth lightly clicked.
The 10th second.
She pulled the trigger.
The bullet spun, accurately entering his forehead and exiting through the back of his skull, bringing out some minute gunpowder and red and white brain tissue.
However, at the same moment, black tendrils covered the wound.
Qi Tian's throat made a "ho ho" sound. He wasn't dead yet: "Killing me... isn't... that..."
She raised her Tang sword, the snow-white blade slicing through his neck as smoothly as cutting tofu.
Blood splattered, and the head flew off, the eyes blinking rapidly.
"In witchcraft culture, only beheading prevents resurrection," Jian Jing smiled. "Thank you for your story, it was quite good inspiration."
In the 11th second, the severed head rolling on the ground faced her, the corners of its mouth splitting into an eerie curve.
Tendrils extended from the severed neck, and a large number of roots grew from the body's cross-section. The two intertwined in the air, tightly entangled.
The tendrils contracted, pulling the fallen head closer to the body, somehow still maintaining its life.
The 12th second.
The smile froze on the severed head, the movement of the tendrils suddenly halted.
[System: Countdown 1--]
[System: Curse lifted]
In the 13th second, Qi Tian died.
On the lonely head, the eyes were wide open, as if disbelieving his own death until the very last moment. However, his withered body, like a dried-out tree scorched by fire, suddenly lost its vitality and crumbled to the ground.
Grey dust rose from the floor.
The tendrils gradually quieted, falling off the bodies of the old men and women, curling up to the size of a fist.
Jian Jing exhaled softly.
Actually, the first arrow she shot at Qi Tian had been poisoned.
She was a law-abiding citizen and would never purchase poison herself, nor would the system provide her with poison.
She had used the strychnine from Melanie's poisoned taxi driver and the curare she had stolen in the Southeast Asian jungle. The combination of the two worked wonders.
Although the tendrils were supernatural, after several encounters, she had figured out their working principle.
Just as they resided in the tentacles, the tendrils parasitized the human body, repairing tissues through blood vessels. They couldn't move through muscles or bones - otherwise, the parasitized body would have been riddled with holes long ago.
Blood vessels were their pathway. To block their repair, one had to obstruct the blood vessels.
The poison from the curare tree could paralyze the heart and close off blood vessels, making it perfect for dealing with Qi Tian.
Moreover, worried that Qi Tian might have some sense of the cursed time, she hadn't extended her seconds in advance. She had only stuffed a soft candy made from the Taste of Death into her mouth as a precaution.
As expected, 10 seconds weren't enough. She used 3 more seconds.
But the result was very satisfying.
The arrow wound, the poison, the sword wound had absolutely critically injured Qi Tian. Add to that the burning of the tendrils and the cutting off of the branches, the tendrils' abilities were greatly weakened. Finally, they were unable to repair Qi Tian's body before death.
The immortal tree could only repair the body, not bring the dead back to life.
Qi Tian's brain was destroyed, his head cut off, his heart damaged. Even the greatest immortal couldn't save him now.
The curse finally disappeared completely.
Jian Jing felt light-hearted, as if a great burden had been lifted.
With the person dead, everything else would be easy to handle.
She looked at the Middle-aged Woman, the only conscious person at the scene, and smiled slightly at her frightened gaze: "How about we make a deal?"
*
At noon, the fishing boat docked at Busan, South Korea.
The guests who had been terrified for an entire day, along with some surviving staff members, finally let their guard down slightly as they set foot on land.
Everyone was eager for an explanation.
But the Korean Police Agency sent them to the hospital, suppressing the news under the pretext of recuperation.
"Why aren't we allowed to contact the outside?" Raj protested vehemently. "We almost died this time, we must be given an explanation!"
The police officer assigned to receive them said: "The incident is still under investigation. Please cooperate with the examination."
"What's there to investigate? Everyone on the ship saw it, a huge monster," said Linnaer. "What you should do is send us back, not detain us!"
The police officer: "I'm sorry, I'm just following my superior's orders. Please don't make it difficult for us."
Unable to get any answers, the group could only probe each other for information.
"The fishing boat that rescued us was strange," Min-cheol Park said. "From the crew's tone, they didn't sound like seafaring people."
Wataru Kojima: "Was there a problem with the ship?"
"No, the ship was definitely a fishing boat, but the people might not have been."
Min-cheol Park demonstrated the acumen of a frontline reporter, pondering: "When we first boarded the ship, I asked a crew member to borrow a phone to call my family, but he refused, saying he didn't bring a phone. I was too tired and hungry to think about it at the time, but now that I consider it, it doesn't seem quite reasonable."
Wataru Kojima also said: "Indeed, if the satellite phone could get through, they should have called for help right away. Why did the director's team still bring the phone when they boarded?"
They all sensed something amiss but couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation at the moment.
At this point, Connor Lee suddenly said: "Have you guys ever seen a movie where the captain deliberately hired people to attack his own ship to claim a huge insurance payout?"
"I remember that, but the production team has no reason to do this," Wu Lie said. "I heard from the staff that the ratings for this episode were very good, so they have no need to do something like this."
The air fell silent.
After a moment, Kumiko Terauchi said, "Maybe I'm overthinking it, but when we disembarked, I felt like there were far fewer crew members than before."
She was known for being observant, so the others didn't dismiss her concerns. Instead, they tried to recall: "You're right, there weren't many people left. Could they have disembarked before us?"
This... didn't make sense, did it?
Even if it was for the sake of secrecy, the first people they should control would be the survivors like themselves. Why would the unrelated crew members be controlled before them?
Unless they were more important.
Wataru Kojima was silent for a while, then asked, "Has anyone seen Jian Jing?"
Jiang BaiYan replied, "No, Jing Jing didn't come with us."
Wataru Kojima became anxious: "Was she taken away? Is she in danger?"
"If we're not in danger, Jing Jing is even less likely to be," Jiang BaiYan calmly said. "She might have gone to investigate the issues you mentioned."
Another silence fell.
Min-cheol Park walked to the window and looked out, but seeing only guards, he said, "We don't have any other options now, but we shouldn't worry too much. The live broadcast just ended, so our personal safety should be guaranteed."
According to the schedule, the program recording wasn't over yet, with a celebration banquet planned for tonight. The whole world was watching them, so the Korean authorities wouldn't dare to do anything too extreme.
Especially since this was an American program.
The group was convinced and returned to their hospital rooms to rest.
Soon after, a nurse came to draw blood and perform a routine physical examination.
Around 5 PM, someone brought their personal belongings.
Min-cheol Park checked his luggage and, as expected, found that everything in his personal camera had been deleted.
"Why did you delete my videos?" he demanded of the guard.
The security personnel didn't answer his question.
At 6 PM, dinner was served – typical Korean cuisine.
At 8:30 PM, Jian Jing returned.
The guests immediately surrounded her, asking with concern, "What exactly happened?"
Jian Jing said, "Water source pollution causing marine life to mutate, or the military conducting secret experiments leading to test subjects escaping and colliding with our cruise ship – which one do you want to believe?"
The group looked at each other in bewilderment.
Both explanations were quite shocking.
Liu Sau-chi asked, "By ocean pollution, do you mean nuclear waste contamination?"
Hiroto Ishikawa reacted strongly: "Don't talk nonsense, all discharged water is properly treated."
"Everyone knows what's really going on," Raj shrugged.
Andrei said, "I think it's the US military bases conducting experiments. They've always done things like this."
Connor Lee cautiously stated, "This is an international issue."
But some weren't so easily fooled. Min-cheol Park gestured for her to speak privately: "Miss Jian, please answer me honestly, does this incident have anything to do with the 3Q Group?"
Jian Jing looked at the veteran reporter curiously and asked, "Why would you ask about the 3Q Group?"
"To be frank, this incident feels very familiar to me," Min-cheol Park hesitated, then chose to trust his instincts and told her, "Something similar happened twenty years ago. In recent years, there have been constant scandals surrounding the 3Q Group, and I've heard their chairman is associated with a certain religious sect."
Jian Jing answered his question with another question: "Do you know about the Heart Redemption Society?"
Min-cheol Park nodded slightly: "It used to be a very famous religious group, with many high-ranking officials as followers. Then, for some reason, they suddenly vanished without a trace."
Jian Jing seemed lost in thought for a while, then said, "Now isn't the right time to discuss this. Let's keep in touch later."
Min-cheol Park understood and didn't pursue the matter further.
After he left, Wataru Kojima approached.
"Jian Jing, are you hiding something from us?" he asked directly. "The two explanations you gave don't seem to be the whole truth."
Jian Jing looked at him and let out a soft sigh.
