11:55 p.m. on Friday night.
Suddenly, there was a strange uneasiness in Tang Ci’s heart. The World Weekly was starting soon. If everything was going well with Lu Jiuchuan then he should send a message that said ‘in place’. This was something they had agreed upon in advance. But until now the message still hadn’t come.
Tang Ci had booked himself a room on the top floor. From the window, he could see the Ronghua Building in the distance. If he wasn’t mistaken, the top floor of the Ronghua Building suddenly burst into flames and a fiery streak glided across the night sky like a meteor.
It was Lu Jiuchuan’s summoned beast, Vermilion Bird!
In order to avoid being discovered by the hunters during the undercover period, Brother Jiu’s cards were handed over to Tang Ci for temporary custody. However, the sacred beast card recognized its master. The Vermilion Bird card could only be controlled by Lu Jiuchuan and it couldn’t be discarded. He always carried it with him. As a limited edition card, there was only one Vermilion Bird card in the entire Card World. Once the Vermillion Bird appeared, everyone knew that the person who used this card was Lu Jiuchuan.
Brother Jiu would never reveal his identity unless it was absolutely necessary.
Tang Ci’s expression changed when he had this thought and he immediately wrote in the group chat: [Xiao Lou, it is likely that something has happened to Brother Jiu. Use the Peach Blossom Spring to forcefully pull him over now!]
There were four minutes until the World Weekly.
Xiao Lou saw the message and hurriedly summoned Tao Yuanming in the room. It took 10 seconds to open the Peach Blossom Spring and then he teleported his teammates over. Everyone received the Peach Blossom Spring notification. A moment later, 12 people gathered under the peach blossom trees.
Lu Jiuchuan’s white shirt was dyed red with blood. His brow was furrowed and he covered his left arm without saying a word. Yu Hanjiang saw this and his heart shook. He hurried over and supported Lu Jiuchuan. “Brother? What happened?”
Lu Jiuchuan’s voice was low and hoarse. “My identity has been discovered. I don’t know what I did to expose myself but they knew I used the Mask card to disguise my face. It is certain that there were challengers inside the Hunters League or they wouldn’t know about this card.”
He removed the card effect and revealed his original appearance. His facial features were extremely handsome. The outline of his jaw was sharp and his sword-like eyebrows gave him a heroic spirit. It was a pity that this handsome face had an obvious scar with a length of 5 centimeters on the left side of the forehead.
Tang Ci lost his legs in the Nightmare Room while Lu Jiuchuan almost ruined his face in the Nightmare Room…
Yu Hanjiang didn’t dare think about what they experienced. In this moment, he saw his brother’s appearance that was covered in blood and felt like a knife had stabbed his chest. “Don’t talk. Your injury is more important. Mr Tang, can you treat him…”
Tang Ci sighed and summoned a healing robot.
Shao Qingge and Ye Qi’s Bug King card could only be used in the Spades and Clubs secret room while Liu Qiao’s Witch card’s antidote was for saving someone from a near-death state. Their team didn’t have any other healing card and needed to rely on Tang Ci’s robot.
Unfortunately, the robot could only treat trauma. It couldn’t do surgery to remove the bullet.
Tang Ci said, “It is almost midnight. If the bullet can’t be taken out then the wound will become inflamed and infected. If the secret room is an ancient one then you will die&#k2026; this isn’t good. Why don’t we draw the card for the Spades or Clubs secret room, dig out the bullet and then use the Bug King card to completely heal the wound?”
Lu Jiuchuan immediately refused. “No, going to an S-grade secret room now is just looking for death. We have 12 people who haven’t cooperated before. My identity has also been exposed. There might be many hunters in the Spades or Clubs secret rooms.”
Xiao Lou saw Brother Jiu enduring the pain with a frown and felt very worried. “Brother Jiu, I might be a forensic doctor but I can do simple surgery. The bullet being left in the arm isn’t fatal for now. I can help you take it out. It is just that there is no equipment like anesthesia or a scalpel…”
Lu Jiuchuan smiled at Xiao Lou. “This isn’t difficult.” Then he glanced at Chu Huaying. “Huaying, let me borrow your dagger.”
Chu Huaying handed the dagger to him without any expression.
Lu Jiuchuan handed the dagger to Xiao Lou in a light manner. “Huaying’s spider dagger can cut through iron like it is mud. It can be used as a surgical knife. After entering the World Weekly secret room, please help me remove the bullet first.”
Xiao Lou was startled. “This dagger’s cutting surface is too wide. It isn’t as thin as a scalpel. Using it to cut your skin will cause trauma and bleeding. Without any anesthetic, you’ll faint from pain…”
Lu Jiuchuan told him, “Don’t worry about this. It’s about time, so get ready.”
Everyone had a clock in the upper right corner of their floating boxes and it was showing 23:59:50 on Friday night. The countdown was 10 seconds.
Xiao Lou’s fingers were a bit stiff as he held the dagger. He silently prayed in his heart that the World Weekly was a Spades or Clubs secret room. They could directly use the Bug King card and Brother Jiu wouldn’t feel any pain. After removing the bullet, the wound would heal automatically.
Unfortunately, the keeper didn’t seem to hear Xiao Lou’s prayers.
The 10 second countdown ended and everyone’s vision turned black. They opened their eyes again and found themselves in a dark passage. The long and narrow passage seemed to have no end and there was no light around them. A gust of cold wind blew, causing everyone to shudder.
Yu Hanjiang took out the Night Pearl and found his teammates around him. This obviously wasn’t a Hearts secret room or they would be assigned different identities to solve the case… A dark environment where the team members were together—what would it be?
[Welcome to the World Weekly secret room: Headless General’s Tomb]
[You have come to the tomb of an ancient general. It is said that the ancient people were very good at building their tombs into mazes and setting up all types of dangerous mechanisms to prevent the invasion of tomb robbers.]
[Unfortunately, you have broken into the tomb and disturbed its master.]
[Task requirements: Find the treasure hidden in the general’s tomb and exit the labyrinth from the sole exit in the tomb.]
[This World Weekly is a Diamonds secret room and each team is independent. There is no time limit but the final elimination system is implemented. All participating teams are ranked simultaneously. The shorter the time it takes to leave the labyrinth and the more treasures that are found, the higher the ranking.]
[At the end of the World Weekly, the bottom 20% of the teams will be eliminated directly.]
Xiao Lou saw the notifications in front of him and his face slightly paled. This was a Diamonds secret room with independent scoring and elimination at the end!
The final elimination system was very cruel. No matter how hard one worked, all participating teams would be in the rankings. If they were in the bottom 20% then they were bound to be eliminated. It was unlike the Hearts secret room where the instance could be cleared by solving the case or the Spades secret room where they just had to survive. This time, it didn’t matter if they successfully found the exit and the treasure. They would still be eliminated if their ranking was too low!
Of course, Xiao Lou wasn’t worried that his team would be at the bottom. It was just that not knowing the timing and progress of the other teams and not having the rankings updated in real time would inevitably give people a lot of psychological pressure.
Old Mo’s expression was very ugly. “It is an elimination system and the competition will be quite fierce. In the face of life or death, many teams will show a strength that is several times more than their usual potential…”
Lu Jiuchuan whispered, “Quickly, hurry up and take out the bullet.”
Xiao Lou looked over. Lu Jiuchuan was already sitting cross-legged on the wet and cold ground. He used his teeth to tear off the blood-stained shirt sleeve, revealing a terrible wound.
Using common sense, it was impossible to do surgery in this type of environment. There was no disinfectant or anesthesia. The person experiencing the surgery would have their flesh gouged with a knife and would suffer unimaginable pain.
However, this was now the Card World. As long as he took out the bullet, the remaining wound could be left to Tang Ci’s intelligent robot to bandage and treat.
Xiao Lou held the Blood Spider dagger and looked at Yu Hanjiang. The other person patted him lightly on the shoulder and whispered to him, “Since he has asked for it, he can bear it. Let’s do it.”
Lu Jiuchuan raised his mouth in a smile. “I have to trouble you.”
Xiao Lou nodded and came beside Lu Jiuchuan. He used the light of the Night Pearl to see as he moved the Blood Spider and quickly cut at Lu Jiuchuan’s arm. The man’s muscles tensed. The stinging pain of his skin being cut open by a sharp blade made him sweat but he gritted his teeth and didn’t make a sound.
Xiao Lou knew that the slower his movements, the longer Brother Jiu would suffer. He couldn’t drag things out. It was best to act quickly.
Xiao Lou’s face was extremely serious as he stared at Lu Jiuchuan’s wound. His slender hand cut Lu Jiuchuan’s arm along the muscles. In the midst of the blood, Xiao Lou quickly found the bullet and precisely removed it with the dagger. This dagger wasn’t a scalpel and the trauma it caused was too big. Lu Jiuchuan’s arm was dripping with blood and the scene of flesh and blood caused people who saw it to feel numb.
Shao Qingge thought of Ye Qi in the 10th level who also had many bullets stuck in this body. In fact, they could’ve used this violent method to take out the bullets and let the bugs heal the wound. However, he was reluctant to let Ye Qi be cut apart. In addition, one of the places where Xiao Ye was shot was his chest and that area was more dangerous than his arms.
Now looking at Lu Jiuchuan’s sweaty and pale face, Shao Qingge felt a lingering fear. He leaned toward Ye Qi’s ear and whispered, “Remember, you aren’t invincible even if you turn into the bug king. The bug king can still be injured. There might be healing powers for 24 hours but if not handled properly, the bullets left in the body after 24 hours can be very life-threatening.”
It was only now that Ye Qi realized how dangerous the 10th level secret room had been. He nodded earnestly. “I know. Thank you.” His teammates had worked like crazy to solve the case overnight and didn’t sleep even for a minute. It turned out they wanted to leave the 10th level quickly because they were afraid something would go wrong…
Ye Qi’s eyes were slightly hot and he trembled. “Unfortunately, this is a Diamonds secret room and our Bug King card can’t be used. Otherwise, Brother Jiu’s injury could be healed immediately.”
Tang Ci used his healing robot to stitch together Lu Jiuchuan’s wound. It was just that the healing robot’s power wasn’t as strong as the bug king’s. Lu Jiuchuan had to endure the severe pain. Fortunately, the wound started to heal quickly after being bandaged and the man’s pale complexion gradually improved.
Long Sen, Qu Wanyue, Liu Qiao and Old Mo stood to the side in a shocked manner. Lu Jiuchuan was really a strong person! Xiao Lou cut his arm open with a knife and forget about shouting in pain. He actually didn’t make a single sound from beginning to end! It was worthy of being a tough soldier.
Everyone had been uneasy about four new people joining the team since they didn’t know each other. Now they saw Lu Jiuchuan’s reaction to the injury and felt shame and admiration in their hearts. Were they hugging the thigh of a great god?
Xiao Lou’s hand was sweaty as he returned the dagger to Chu Huaying. Chu Huaying put away the dagger with the scarlet spider web pattern on the handle. She looked into Lu Jiuchuan’s eyes and said lightly, “This dagger is used for killing. It is a waste to use it to dig out a bullet for you.”
Lu Jiuchuan laughed before glancing at Xiao Lou. “Thank you, you are really bold and careful.”
Xiao Lou had tried his best to avoid doing too much damage to Lu Jiuchuan’s arm. His hands were swift to make Lu Jiuchuan suffer less. Lu Jiuchuan appreciated this calmness and decisiveness at a critical moment. He thought that this was the person his younger brother liked and couldn’t help patting Xiao Lou on the shoulder as he chuckled. “You helped me once. Let my younger brother repay you well.”
Yu Hanjiang, “???”
Yu Hanjiang reacted and said with a sullen voice, “You still have the leisure to joke around!”
Lu Jiuchuan put away the jokes and waved his hand. “Let’s go and explore what is buried in this general’s tomb.”
Proofreader: Fictional Reality & Paranoid Kitten
