BFET Chapter 21

Farewell

Hearing the woman’s voice, Xie Yi lowered his head, the tension in his lips softening as he reassured, “Don’t be afraid, it’s alright.”

He reached out to help the two up, then looked up and met the man’s eyes, nodding slightly.

Intermittent scraping sounds came from the surroundings, drawing nearer.

The instant he stood up and turned around, deep and shallow scale-like patterns appeared on Xie Yi’s exposed skin. Upon closer inspection, faint spiderweb-like patterns could be seen between the scales.

He lifted his eyelids, his gaze sweeping over the approaching Mutated Entities with a chilling coldness.

In that instant, the Mutated Entities surging from all directions abruptly froze as if struck by lightning, unable to move, only able to emit grotesque cries.

Xie Yi, wielding Abyss, advanced with the firelight at his back, deftly weaving through the group of immobilized Mutated Entities, initiating a one-sided slaughter.

Only when the red light of Abyss’s blade overflowed and black blood stained the ground did Xie Yi slowly rise from the mountain of corpses.

He lightly exhaled, closing his eyes in the thick, bloody air for a moment of silence.

Turning around, he wiped the blood from his face with the back of his hand. “I was eight years old when Jiangbei fell. You told me to strive to live, and I’ve been doing my best.”

As he walked towards his parents, who were still sitting blankly on the ground in the distance, he said, “I had just awakened when I arrived in Kui City. For the first two years, I often dreamed of you. Every time I woke up, I would think that if I had been older then, stronger, maybe you would still be by my side.”

As he spoke, the surrounding scenery slowly changed. Darkness spread from the distance, gradually swallowing everything.

The firelight faded, the rumbling subsided, and the collapsed debris and corpses of the Mutated Entities on the ground also disappeared…

“Unfortunately, there are no ‘ifs’…” Xie Yi stopped in front of the two, crouching down and smiling at them gently. “Later, after a long time, I entered the training base, joined the Security Defense Team. With daily training and missions, I gradually forgot many things.”

“I can’t even remember what you looked like very well anymore,” he said, chuckling self-deprecatingly. “I don’t even have any pictures of you.”

“Although the timing and location aren’t right, I finally protected you this time.” Xie Yi’s expression was gentler than ever before as he quietly gazed at the two before him. “Also, I’m really glad to see you again. I will continue to work hard to live well in the future, so don’t worry about me.”

The man and woman, who had not spoken a word from beginning to end, were already in tears.

They stared blankly at Xie Yi for a long while before smiling at him one after the other. Then Xie Yi heard the woman say to him, “We are also very happy to see you again, to see how you’ve grown up.”

As her voice faded, a warm halo of light enveloped the two of them, and their bodies gradually became transparent.

They exchanged glances, then each reached out to caress Xie Yi’s face. Just as their hands were about to touch Xie Yi’s cheeks, a strange gust of wind swept through, and in an instant, only a scattering of starlight remained.

Returning to darkness with the world.

…

Opening his eyes again, he was immediately greeted by the sight of ashen spider silk.

Xie Yi rolled his eyes, recalling what had happened before, and judged that he should be trapped inside a cocoon of spider silk.

His body felt somewhat dull and numb, but it wasn’t a big problem compared to the spider silk binding him. He lowered his eyes to assess his physical condition, and after a moment, he lifted his eyelids—

It could be considered a stroke of luck.

Outside the spider silk cocoon, countless gray-black, gelatinous objects were hanging on it.

The giant Spider Puppet rested nearby, small Spider Puppets constantly falling off its body and climbing back on.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The muffled sound startled the resting Spider Puppet, which quickly stood up, all its compound eyes warily staring at the spider silk cocoon.

There were constantly bulging areas on the spider silk cocoon, as if something was striking it forcefully from the inside. Some of the gelatinous objects hanging on the spider silk cocoon were even being hammered off, falling down.

The Spider Puppet hissed in disbelief, its dozens of slender spider legs tapping against the ground as it abruptly spewed out several more strands of spider silk towards the spider silk cocoon, entangling it.

However, at that moment, a crisp cracking sound was heard.

A hand reached out from the spider silk cocoon.

The skin on the exposed hand was almost entirely covered with nearly black scale-like patterns, its nails sharp and tinged with bluish-gray.

The spider silk that was re-entangling seemed to have no effect on him. The hand grasped one side of the spider silk cocoon’s crack, while the other side was covered by half a hand.

Then, an even crisper cracking sound was heard, and the entire spider silk cocoon was completely torn open with a huge opening by those hands.

Most of the re-entangling spider silk was also torn apart, and a person immediately crawled out.

It was Xie Yi.

Alternating deep and shallow scale-like patterns spread from Xie Yi’s face towards his neck, outlining a cluster of blooming roses. As he poked his head out, he tilted his head slightly, looking at the Spider Puppet next to him.

The Spider Puppet instantly went wild, abruptly retreating several meters, its compound eyes randomly turning before focusing on Xie Yi again.

Xie Yi unhurriedly crawled out of the spider silk cocoon, his shoulders and back still hanging with several gray-black, gelatinous objects.

He reached out to take them off, crushing them underfoot when he threw them on the ground. Thick, grayish-white liquid splattered everywhere, seemingly mixed with a curled-up Spider Puppet inside. “Eggs?”

“Trying to use me as a breeding ground?” He turned his head to look at the Spider Puppet not far away.

The Spider Puppet’s compound eyes, which had been staring fixedly at him, gradually filled with surprise and doubt.

Xie Yi seemed to be in a good mood as he smiled at it. “What’s wrong? Is it strange that mental suppression isn’t working? Or why am I not dead yet?”

“I still have to thank you for helping me trigger the release state.” Xie Yi bent down and pulled out Abyss, which had fallen under the spider silk cocoon, brushing away the spider silk entangled on it. “So I will try to let you die as painlessly as possible.”

The instant the words fell, Xie Yi rushed towards the Spider Puppet like a gust of wind.

The Spider Puppet hissed, and countless strands of spider silk immediately spurted out from all over its body towards Xie Yi. The spider silk intertwined on the ground, wriggling and crawling out one small Spider Puppet after another, surging towards Xie Yi in a frenzy.

Xie Yi glanced at them expressionlessly. In the next instant, the densely packed, surging small Spider Puppets abruptly froze, curling up and trembling in place.

Abyss became increasingly radiant in Xie Yi’s hand. The spiderwebs condensed in mid-air were like nothing in his eyes. In just a few breaths, he had already forced his way to the Spider Puppet’s side.

Taking advantage of the Spider Puppet’s lack of reaction, he raised his knife and directly plunged it into its back and lower waist.

The Spider Puppet’s entire body was highly poisonous, and Xie Yi’s arm immediately wrinkled, rotting away piece by piece as if corroded, but he seemed to be completely unaware. “Three pollution sacs, two intact, one undeveloped.”

“As expected, it evolved.”