Song Qi slowly took a step forward.
He knew that even if Xuanwu was pitiable, they were still adversaries. If Xuanwu didn’t die today, it would mean the deaths of everyone on the “Cat” team.
After all, for Xuanwu, death was the only release—she was no longer human, yet she continued to endure inhuman torment.
Su Shan lowered her head and glanced at her feet, noticing a fragment of Xuanwu’s heart had somehow flown up and landed beside her.
She recognized it as a piece of “heart” at a glance because it was pitch-black, writhing and pulsating on the ground like a worm.
A faint glow emanated from it, barely revealing the shadow of two Chinese characters: “Undying.”
An idea suddenly struck her. She widened her eyes, taking in every detail of the scene before her.
Everywhere she looked, in every corner, flickered traces of “Undying.” Xuanwu’s heart had shattered into countless fragments, each one now an independent black worm. Though seemingly separate, they were interconnected, pulsing in unison.
In other words—the “heart” was still functioning.
Even shattered into countless pieces, it continued to beat rhythmically.
Just like Xuanwu’s arm—though Ma Twelve had carried it far away, it could still attack independently. Controlled by Xuanwu’s will, it was as if some invisible force bound the flesh and organs together.
Su Shan crouched down and picked up the pulsating, worm-like fragment of Xuanwu’s heart. It truly bore signs of life, throbbing in sync with the countless other fragments. Rather than saying Xuanwu had no heart, it was more accurate to say her heart was everywhere.
But what was it that connected these fragments?
As she pondered, the ground assault team launched their attack.
“Giant” Wang Ba, “Forget Sorrow” Luo Shiyi, “Undying” Jiang Shi, and “Shuttle” Cui Shisi stepped onto the battlefield together.
Their assault was straightforward and brutal, but what caught Su Shan’s attention most was “Shuttle” Cui Shisi’s fighting style.
She wielded two peculiar weapons, resembling small hula hoops. Upon closer inspection with her “Spirit Vision,” Su Shan saw that Cui Shisi had applied “Shuttle” to both hoops.
The “Cat” team’s coordination was flawless. Jiang Shi took one of Cui Shisi’s hoops and began circling Xuanwu.
Cui Shisi’s punches, delivered through her own hoop, would instantly emerge from Jiang Shi’s hoop—a brilliant application of “Shuttle.”
The bizarre assault left Xuanwu momentarily unable to defend herself. Unfortunately, Xuanwu was protected by “Undying,” rendering the punches harmless—some even passed harmlessly through her body.
Seeing this, Wang Ba activated “Giant,” enlarging Cui Shisi’s elusive fists the moment they appeared. But at best, this only forced Xuanwu back a step, achieving little else.
Watching from the rooftop, Su Shan narrowed her eyes thoughtfully.
“‘Shuttle’…” she murmured under her breath.
In some ways, Cui Shisi’s punches emerging from another hoop were no different from Xuanwu’s detached arm.
Both had left their original bodies yet could still move freely.
“Wait…” A realization flickered in Su Shan’s mind. She fixed her radiant eyes on Xuanwu, scrutinizing her closely.
What if the “Undying” covering Xuanwu’s body was, in essence, a form of “Shuttle”?
Every attack aimed at her body was redirected by the “Shuttle” enveloping her—sent elsewhere, into another space.
Even if her limbs were severed, the “Shuttle” effect persisted, forcibly maintaining the connection between the detached parts and her main body.
Su Shan doubted anyone in the “Final Land” had ever analyzed Xuanwu’s abilities from such a seemingly scientific perspective. Just contemplating the concept made her head spin.
She squeezed the pulsating heart fragment in her hand again. Though three-dimensional, it contained space within. If she attacked it with a toothpick, the toothpick might vanish inside, lost in the vast starry expanse within.
“This is too abstract…”
Closing her eyes, Su Shan analyzed Xuanwu’s current state.
A body shimmering like the cosmos, an arm that could plunge into thorns…
“I think I get it…” she said. “She’s like a… three-dimensional… door?”
The bewildering statement reached Officer Li and Song Qi, who exchanged confused looks.
“A three-dimensional body that functions like a door—something you can enter, where things can be ‘shuttled’ elsewhere…” Su Shan explained. “That’s it…”
“Got a plan?” Officer Li asked, turning to her.
“I don’t know if it counts as a plan… but I have a bold idea,” Su Shan replied. “It might be futile, or it might be brilliant… I’ve never encountered anything like this before. The only way to solve an abstract problem is with an abstract solution.”
“Go ahead,” Song Qi said. “If there’s even a sliver of a chance to break this stalemate, we should try it.”
Su Shan nodded solemnly, then pointed at Xuanwu’s pitch-black form.
“What do you mean…?” Officer Li asked.
“I want to go inside,” Su Shan said.
A stunned silence followed.
“If Xuanwu’s body is like a door or a cave—something that can swallow and transport objects—can it swallow… a person?” Su Shan pressed, her expression deadly serious. “What would happen if someone went in?”
The silence stretched for over ten seconds before Song Qi finally spoke.
“You… wait…” he said. “Does this tactic even make sense? I’m not sure I follow…”
“I’m going to jump into the starry expanse of Xuanwu’s body,” Su Shan declared. “I want to see where the things she swallows go. What kind of space is inside?”
“No… hold on…” Officer Li hesitated. “I think I get what you’re saying, but that still doesn’t seem right…”
“Why not?”
“Even if there’s something unusual about the space inside her body…” Officer Li paused. “It’s like encountering a shark. Destroying its internal organs can kill it quickly, but no one chooses to be swallowed by it first.”
“That’s because being swallowed by a shark is almost certainly fatal for a human,” Su Shan countered. “But Xuanwu’s interior is unknown. We can’t apply the logic of what we know to something we don’t.”
Song Qi mulled over her words. It was an unorthodox approach, but it might just work.
However, Su Shan couldn’t be the one to go. Someone else was better suited.
“You can’t go. I know the perfect person for this,” Song Qi said. “When she’s enraged, her entire body turns into a sea of flames. She’s the ideal candidate for this mission.”
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