Lan Ying's head must have been hit by rocks in the water, bleeding profusely.
Her beautiful face was filled with panic and fear.
Her constitution was not as strong as Li Chonglou's, and now she had fallen into Liu Zhibo's hands.
She could only be at his mercy.
"Where are they?" Li Chonglou pretended to ignore Lan Ying, struggling to get up. Every part of his body ached as if it were being torn apart.
He looked down and saw countless scrapes and cuts.
In contrast, Lan Ying and Liu Zhibo were in better condition than him.
"I'm talking to you, are you deaf!" Liu Zhibo yelled maliciously when Li Chonglou didn't answer, "Believe it or not, I'll cut her throat right now?"
As he spoke, he gripped the dagger tighter.
A trickle of blood seeped from Lan Ying's fair neck, frightening her into trembling all over, but she dared not make a sound.
"What does it matter to me if you cut her or not?" Li Chonglou's eyelids twitched. He deliberately raised his voice and shouted, "If you have the guts, cut her now! After you're done, we'll have a good spar. I'll beat you to death, you old beast!"
Liu Zhibo, a vicious villain like this, could kill as easily as eating and drinking, without any psychological barriers.
Lan Ying was defenseless and held hostage.
At this moment, any display of concern would be exploited by Liu Zhibo, with unpredictable consequences.
It was fortunate that Li Chonglou's state of mind was calm and undisturbed, allowing him to act convincingly.
"Bastard, beast!" Lan Ying's pretty face turned deathly pale, her beautiful eyes filled with intense hatred as she spat.
She never expected Li Chonglou to be so heartless, showing no tension at all about her being held hostage.
After all, she had saved him before. Did he not even understand gratitude?
She had even thought better of him earlier.
He was not human at all!
As the person involved, Lan Ying couldn't think rationally at this moment. She was dizzy with anger from Li Chonglou's words.
Her reaction also confused Liu Zhibo.
Indeed, since they arrived, he hadn't seen any interaction between Lan Ying and Li Chonglou.
So, calling them friends was less accurate than calling them employer and employee.
Originally, he had woken up first on shore and prepared to deal with Li Chonglou directly, but he hadn't expected Li Chonglou to wake up immediately.
He could only settle for the second best option and take Lan Ying hostage.
He hadn't expected Li Chonglou to be so unfazed, his plan had miscarried.
"Miscarried?" Liu Zhibo was bewildered.
Li Chonglou, watching his expression change, seized the opportunity to curse, "It's just the three of us here. Brother Xu and President Su are unaccounted for."
"Instead of looking for a way out, we're infighting and even resorting to murder."
"Is there something wrong with your IQ?"
The moment he woke up, with the help of the LED light on his body, he had already assessed his surroundings.
A spacious stone cave, with an underground river flowing through it.
However, this section of the river channel was flat, and further ahead, it branched into three. One had a rapid flow, and the other two were slightly gentler.
They had drifted ashore near the gentler ones, which gave them a chance to reach the bank.
And that intense sound of rushing water, perhaps, was the direction of Xu Lie and Su Yinchuan.
The disappearance of the two weighed heavily on his mind.
But he couldn't afford to worry about that now.
The priority was to deal with this scumbag Liu Zhibo before he could rest assured to search for the others.
"Kid, you're too young to fool me!" Liu Zhibo's expression became ferocious again after a moment's hesitation.
He thought he had seen through Li Chonglou's disguise.
At this juncture, he would never let Lan Ying go.
But he wouldn't kill her immediately either.
After all, there was no clue on how to escape later, and if he ran out of stamina over time.
Perhaps Zhu Mingzhe's suggestion was correct.
People needed to eat meat to have strength.
Lan Ying had already become mobile food in his eyes.
As for Li Chonglou, although this kid was young, he gave him an unfathomable feeling. He could hide and he could hold his ground.
Moreover, he was Lin Zhendong's disciple, and they had a deep enmity.
Such a person had to be eliminated.
Otherwise, even if they escaped successfully, he wouldn't survive.
"Sigh, why are you so untrusting of others?" Li Chonglou spread his hands in a gesture of resignation and sighed, "If I wanted to kill you, I would have done it in the cave long ago. In this situation, we should put aside our past grievances and work together to find a way to survive."
"My master isn't dead, so what enmity can't be resolved?"
"Be more broad-minded. You were a decent tomb raider, and now you've become a kidnapper. Why bother?"
Admittedly, Li Chonglou's voice was extremely persuasive.
Especially when spoken from the position of a weaker party, it increased Liu Zhibo's confidence.
From the beginning until now, Li Chonglou had a good mind, but in terms of martial prowess, he was always weak.
He was thin and frail, so Liu Zhibo was not afraid of him acting rashly.
Moreover, he held a knife in his hand.
So, he genuinely believed that Li Chonglou was powerless to resist him.
However, his usual caution prevented him from releasing Lan Ying. Instead, he smiled thinly and said, "You have a point. Let's think about how to get out!"
"Come here and tell me in detail."
He intended to lure Li Chonglou closer and stab him through the heart, sending him to his doom.
As for finding a way out, he was capable of doing it alone.
"It seems you still don't believe me." Li Chonglou shook his head helplessly. "You want me to come over and kill me to eliminate future trouble, right?"
They were both thousand-year-old foxes; who could deceive whom?
Seeing that his persuasion was useless, Li Chonglou couldn't be bothered to expend more effort with words.
He was not a person who excelled at verbal sparring anyway.
It was just that he was at a disadvantage now and had to use this to make Liu Zhibo lower his guard.
"If you know, then it's fine!" Liu Zhibo's expression turned sinister, and his face changed. "Kid, I've observed you for a long time. You're exactly like Lin Zhendong!"
"If I let you leave alive, disaster will surely befall me."
"Only one of us can live between us."
"The more you say you don't care about this woman, the more it proves you have something to hide."
Upon hearing this, Lan Ying's heart suddenly trembled. The resentment and disgust in her eyes quickly faded.
How could she have been so foolish? She could still remain clear-headed when it wasn't about her.
Now that she had become a hostage, her self-preservation instinct was triggered.
Li Chonglou's words were clearly meant to prevent her from being harmed, intentionally spoken to Liu Zhibo.
Even Liu Zhibo had heard it, and she had actually taken it seriously.
In an instant, her pale face flushed crimson.
Liu Zhibo could clearly feel the change in Lan Ying's emotions. A sinister glint flared in his eyes, and he threatened again, "Are you coming or not? If you're a second late, I'll cut off a piece of her flesh!"
As he spoke, he moved the dagger away from her neck and aimed it at her arm.
Lan Ying's down jacket was long gone, leaving only a thin thermal inner layer.
When the tip of the dagger pricked her, fresh blood immediately seeped out, causing her to frown in pain.
But she gritted her teeth and remained silent.
After all, she was the daughter of the boss of the underground forces in Xihai and the goddaughter of Su Yinchuan. She had been dealing with people from the underworld since she was young. She lacked many things, but loyalty and resilience were never in short supply.
Even if it hurt terribly, she did not want to cry out and embarrass herself.
If it weren't for being hungry for two days and lacking the strength, she would have taken the opportunity to fight Liu Zhibo.
"Wait, I'm coming. You're really a beast!" Li Chonglou's eyelids twitched wildly, and he couldn't help but roar.
After all, he was still a man. Lan Ying had saved him. Although she had always disdained him, it was irrelevant to the greater cause.
Now, because of him, she had become a hostage.
If he were to watch her be tortured to death, even with his strong mental fortitude, he could never forgive himself.
With a hardened resolve, he leaned against the cave wall and staggered towards Liu Zhibo.
The short distance of three to four meters felt like an insurmountable chasm.
Li Chonglou walked very slowly. It was unavoidable, as his body was covered in wounds, and he was in great pain, yet he had to walk towards his death.
Lan Ying's forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat, her teeth gritted as she glared at Li Chonglou.
Liu Zhibo did not rush him. A smug look spread across his face as he pulled out the dagger and licked it.
His actions were extremely perverse.
It was as if the warm blood on Lan Ying's body could further ignite his beastly nature.
In an instant, the entire right arm of Lan Ying's thermal inner layer was stained with blood, causing her to tremble uncontrollably from the pain.
The cave was not cold; there was no wind, and the temperature was constant.
Otherwise, it would have been even more agonizing.
"Liu Zhibo, I'll replace her, alright." Li Chonglou stared intently at Liu Zhibo, afraid he would stab Lan Ying with the dagger again. He gathered his breath and shouted.
He was no longer sure which event his master referred to as the great tribulation.
Ever since entering the cave, the aura of death had been surrounding him.
Liu Zhibo would show him no mercy. The best outcome would be a swift death, which was better than being tortured to death.
Xu Lie was missing. This time, he had no one to rely on.
He had to depend on himself.
Qi, damn Qi!
He hadn't expected the battle in Zhonghai to have such severe consequences.
But even if he had known, he would still have acted without hesitation to save his senior sister.
However, this feeling of powerlessness now was truly maddening.
One step, two steps...
Each step was like moving closer to death.
Under the illumination of the LED light, Liu Zhibo's ferocious expression and the glinting dagger in his hand were undoubtedly death warrants.
And this cave would be his burial ground.
No one would even find this place.
"Mom... Yu Xin, fate is ironic..."
"You all live well!"
Li Chonglou's mind raced with thoughts, but there was not much sadness.
He had died once before, so he wasn't overly sentimental about facing death.
The only thing he couldn't let go of were his loved ones.
They were what he cared about most in this world.
If they could live well, what was there to fear in death!
Scenes from his past and present lives flashed before his eyes. Li Chonglou had already covered the distance of more than three meters.
Seeing Li Chonglou's vacant eyes, as if he had given up resisting, Liu Zhibo could no longer hide his smugness.
He sneered, "You and your master are both trash. You can't escape my grasp in the end!"
He reached out and grabbed Li Chonglou, kicked Lan Ying aside, and moved the dagger to stab him in the neck.
Just then, a sharp glint appeared in Li Chonglou's vacant eyes.
A strange smile appeared on his face. "If you want to kill me, you'll have to be prepared to die with me."
As he spoke, his body coiled like a shrimp, and before the dagger could pierce his body, he violently rammed into Liu Zhibo's chest.
Even without Qi, he still had his past combat experience.
It was useless against an opponent of vastly superior strength, but it was just right for dealing with someone like Liu Zhibo.
Liu Zhibo hadn't expected Li Chonglou to struggle desperately. He had no time to dodge, and with a look of horror, he allowed himself to be slammed into by him.
They both fell into the underground river behind them, and the current swept them towards the turbulent waterfall.
"Li Chonglou!" Lan Ying cried out, her beautiful eyes wide with shock.