Chapter 2375: Chapter 2439: Madness
The old man said so, and Li Yifei couldn’t say otherwise. He hung up the phone and heard someone calling him from the other side. He hurried over and found it was a pregnant woman. She had been placed on a bed by several people, struggling to come over. Li Yifei took a look and saw that the pregnant woman’s face had turned somewhat red-black, as if she was suffocating. Her belly was high and bulging, clearly several months pregnant, and even about to give birth.
"Mr. Li, please save my wife, she... was fine yesterday, but this morning she said she felt unwell. I thought she was going into labor, but there was no reaction in her belly, and she started to fail. I beg you!" the man who came with her immediately said.
The pregnant woman had already fallen unconscious, her complexion worsening as they spoke. Li Yifei agreed, grabbed the pregnant woman’s hand, and infused True Qi into her body, first protecting her heart meridians. Then he felt two strands of evil qi inside the pregnant woman. Had Li Yifei been half an hour later, or even less, the pregnant woman might have died, and her unborn child... its heart had already stopped. Li Yifei gritted his teeth and cleared the evil qi, then said to Brother Wang, "Go to the village entrance, have Hu Yu’er delegate some people immediately to send this pregnant woman to the hospital for an induced labor. Her baby’s heartbeat has stopped!"
"What?" Several men were shocked, and the woman’s husband widened his eyes. After confirming he hadn’t misheard, he immediately shouted, "That’s impossible, Mr. Li, please save her. She’s pregnant with a boy. I already have three daughters and just want a boy, how can he die? If she dies, my son can’t die!"
Upon hearing this man’s words, Li Yifei’s expression changed. He knew that in some places gender preference was serious. He had heard online debates about saving the mother or the child, but seeing it with his own eyes and hearing it with his own ears, Li Yifei still felt a chill under the blazing sun. He could hardly believe the dark-skinned, short-statured man, who was also invaded by evil qi.
"What nonsense are you talking about? The child is dead, so it’s dead. The adult is more important!" Brother Wang slapped the man on the head, nearly knocking him over, but the man obstinately insisted, "The adult can die, the child must live. It’s a boy, a son. If he’s gone, my parents will curse me to death. No, absolutely not!"
"Slap!" Li Yifei directly slapped him, sending him flying, cursing, "Beast!"
Seeing Li Yifei suddenly hit the man and call him a beast, the villagers were stunned, but Brother Wang reacted and said, "Quickly, carry Lihua to the village entrance, they have someone to take over there!"
"Right, right, everyone move quickly, don’t waste time!" The other men instantly reacted, hastily lifting the pregnant woman whose heart meridians had been stabilized and evil qi driven away by Li Yifei.
The man slapped by Li Yifei staggered up with loose teeth and a swollen face, covering half his face and still shouting, "Stop, I have to save my son!"
****, Li Yifei cursed, kicked a stone, hitting the man’s back. The man ran a few steps before tumbling headfirst to the ground, twitching a few times before lying still.
The other people exchanged glances, all looking at Li Yifei!
"Don’t mind him, you all hurry and continue mobilizing door to door. Everyone must remain calm. Check the weak bodies of children and the elderly first, if they’re sick, treat them; if not, evacuate the village. If anyone acts on their own, trying to escape privately, don’t blame me for taking action!" Li Yifei announced loudly, his voice carrying hundreds of meters, ensuring the entire village could hear.
The others quickly nodded and hurried off.
"I need to find a way to quickly restore True Qi, otherwise I won’t hold out much longer!" Li Yifei thought, just as a few people carried a child over. The child was already covered in dark qi, barely inhaling, clearly not lasting much longer. Li Yifei swiftly used True Qi to expel the evil qi. The child’s condition was severe; even after clearing the dark qi, recovery wouldn’t be immediate, requiring a period of rest. Li Yifei had no other options. It’s all he could do. If he used more True Qi to help the child completely recover, given his current state, he wouldn’t be able to save many people.
Police reinforcements arrived, though they were only from the town police station. County law enforcement was on the way, including a riot squad. With over ten additional officers, maintaining the scene became easier. There were also medical staff from the town, even though healthcare facilities were poor, it was better than nothing. The pregnant woman and the child recently treated were quickly transferred to the hospital for care.
Li Yifei, holding a walkie-talkie, said to Hu Yu’er, "With police support, let Shanshan come in. During this period, keep away from anyone being sent out, assign someone not onsite for transport since your bodies haven’t been checked for infection risk!"
"Alright! No problem!" Hu Yu’er quickly replied, and soon Xu Shanshan ran in. Li Yifei saw the sweat on her forehead, helping to wipe it, and said, "Shanshan, go to the seaside and ask Ao Bai what’s happening. I can’t leave right now, so I can only rely on you!"
"I’ll head over right away!" Xu Shanshan replied. Just as she was about to leave, Li Yifei grabbed her hand. Xu Shanshan turned back to look at him, and she heard Li Yifei say, "Be careful, don’t trust completely!"
Xu Shanshan pursed her lips, nodded slightly, and dashed towards the seaside using her agility. Li Yifei had just finished examining a group of children and instructed them to be taken away, when he saw several people approaching from a distance, carrying someone.
"Mr. Li, please take a look at this. This person suddenly went crazy and just bit me!" Several men carried over a man whose hands and feet were bound. From a distance, they shouted to Li Yifei. The speaker also lifted his arm to show Li Yifei the wound. On his arm was a large wound, seemingly bitten by some kind of animal, but in fact, it was this bound man who bit him.
Li Yifei glanced and frowned. The wound on the bitten man’s arm was already darkened, and the blood oozing out was black and had a tofu-like texture. The wound emitted a foul odor, clearly a rapid transformation. The bound man didn’t appear to be someone who neglected personal hygiene; he was wearing a white shirt and slacks, looking very much like a white-collar worker. The bitten man seemed normal, but Li Yifei noticed his eyes, a trace of black qi flickered in his pupils as if it were alive, fleeting, but Li Yifei caught it.
"Give me your hand!" Li Yifei immediately said. The bitten man began to grab the biter’s hand, but Li Yifei corrected him: "Your hand!"
"Mine? Oh, thank you, Mr. Li. But I’m alright, though it hurts a bit, I can bear it. Please save him first; he looks terrible!"
"Forget about him, give me your hand!" Li Yifei scolded. The man quickly reached out his hand. Li Yifei grasped it and infused his True Qi, feeling a cold, evil aura emerge. The aura vanished as if teasing Li Yifei, or desperately trying to flee. Li Yifei’s True Qi chased after this cold evil qi, but this time the evil qi was different. It seemed to have a consciousness, rapidly traversing and hiding within the man’s meridians.
The meridians of an ordinary person are very narrow, unless widened through cultivation. So, the surge of this cold evil qi within was an extremely painful experience.
"Hold him down!" Li Yifei saw him struggling and urgently instructed those nearby.
"Oh, okay!" The surrounding people reacted with confusion but immediately acted upon Li Yifei’s words, pinning the bitten man down. Li Yifei added, "Find something hard to stuff in his mouth, prevent him from biting his tongue!"
"Alright!" one person responded. After thinking for a moment, he took off his shoe and stuffed it into the bitten man’s mouth.
The cold aura finally hid in the man’s head. Li Yifei hesitated momentarily but decided to infuse True Qi into his head. Given that the evil qi had developed consciousness, it was evidently more advanced than any encountered before and needed to be eradicated. Moreover, a new situation arose—those carrying this evil qi began biting others, and those bitten carried it too. Failing to stop this could lead to a zombie apocalypse.
The thought of such a scenario, as depicted in films and novels, sent chills down Li Yifei’s spine. This wasn’t a joking matter and must be contained. So, gritting his teeth, Li Yifei surged his True Qi through the man’s cranial meridians, chasing the fleeing evil qi, simultaneously setting up blockades in the other meridians.
The others watched as Li Yifei held the bitten man’s hand with one hand and tapped him with the other. The bitten man struggled furiously, his eyes bulging with rage, even turning completely black in the end. It was a terrifying sight, but Li Yifei knew what it meant—the evil qi was making a desperate last stand, seeing escape was impossible, it strove to destroy the man’s eyes.
Black blood oozed from the man’s eyes, frightening the others into stepping back a few steps, some even fell on their backs. The bitten man, now uncontrolled, suddenly opened his eyes wide and lunged to bite Li Yifei’s shoulder.
"Mr. Li!" The others exclaimed in fear. Li Yifei’s pupils contracted, but in the next second, the bitten man released his bite, as his body was shoved away by Li Yifei. His front teeth left on Li Yifei’s clothing, but hadn’t penetrated.
Li Yifei released his True Qi Armor, exhaled a sigh of relief, and said, "Alright, he’s no longer a problem. But you better keep him tied up, and stuffing his mouth isn’t a bad idea either!"
