49: afterwards

Langqi Village.

At this moment, the village had fallen into silence. The usual hustle and bustle of daily life had vanished completely; now, only Zhou Yan and his companions remained.

No, actually, that wasn't quite right.

In a way, as long as Zhou Yan clicked on his experience bar, not a single person from this village was missing.

"Alright, there we go."

Zhou Yan withdrew his hand from Han Wenqing's face, stepped back a few paces, and smiled, gesturing for him to check for himself.

Han Wenqing looked at his smooth hands in disbelief, then touched his youthful, hairless face.

"Ohhh! Ohhh!"

With a series of strange cries, Han Wenqing ran toward the seashore in a frenzy of joy. Sure enough, in the reflection on the water's surface, he had returned to being that high-spirited youth.

"This... this, this! I actually had the chance to restore my Peak appearance!"

Watching his pleasantly surprised expression, Zhou Yan smiled and shook his head slightly.

This kid is too good at posturing. At most, he can be considered delicate-looking, yet he claimed he was as handsome as me when he was human.

Zhou Yan glanced at the flicker of hope in Yi Sanyi's eyes and said with some regret.

"Your transformation lasted too long; you have completely become a Half-Demon. At least for now, I have no way to handle it."

The reason Zhou Yan could help Han Wenqing restore his human form was that his luck had exploded, directly dropping Chen Yan's skill book, "Path of Evolution (Fragment)."

Speaking of this "Path of Evolution (Fragment)," it was truly extraordinary.

Although it dropped from Chen Yan, a Foundation Establishment boss in a backwater mountain gully, its upper limit was extremely high—it was actually a Rank 5 skill book.

Don't be fooled by the word 'Fragment.' After the panel's appraisal, this was a skill with a Soul Transformation upper limit.

As the strongest skill Zhou Yan currently possessed, he naturally learned it without a second thought and then used a Skill Upgrade Card to raise it by one level, moving it from Entry level to Proficient.

(Proficiency levels: LV1 Entry, LV2 Proficient, LV3 Mastery, LV4 Minor Achievement, LV5 Major Achievement, LV6 Perfection, LV7 Peak.)

Upon upgrading, countless bits of knowledge and memories manifested in Zhou Yan's mind, as if he had undergone countless trials. Every procedure and every technique could now be skillfully applied and mastered by Zhou Yan.

This also allowed him to spot the flaws in Han Wenqing's body with just a glance. By following those flaws to strip away the wolf-like parts, he allowed Han Wenqing to return to human form.

However, Han Wenqing also lost the cultivation and physical strength gained from the wolf transformation, reverting to the Middle Stage of Qi Refining. But looking at his narcissistic behavior, he probably didn't mind.

But for people like Han Yue and Yi Sanyi, who had undergone years of modification, Zhou Yan was unable to perform such modifications.

Perhaps raising the skill by another level could do it, but the next level would require Zhou Yan to use 5 Skill Cards or attempt to increase proficiency himself.

But currently, there was no source for obtaining Skill Cards, and he couldn't produce the remaining three cards at a moment's notice.

As for cultivating it himself, Zhou Yan's head throbbed at the thought of Chen Yan's abysmal level of mastery.

Seeing that she had lived for at least two or three hundred years and was still stuck at the Entry level, he felt the future of his own proficiency improvement was bleak.

"Is that so..."

Yi Sanyi was slightly disappointed, but then he said with a free and easy expression, "I've been a monster my whole life. Whether I can change back before I go... it doesn't really matter."

Yi Sanyi was dying.

His Poison Armor had been shattered by Chen Yan, and most of the toxins had been injected into her body via the poison needles.

While this had indeed injured Chen Yan, the shattered Poison Armor had also been driven into Yi Sanyi's flesh, allowing the residual toxins to be absorbed by him. It could be said he sacrificed 100,000 HP just to annoy the opponent.

If it were just an injury, Zhou Yan could use Spells to heal him, even if they weren't the conceptual god-tier Spells from the System's online game version.

But they were, after all, Spells developed by top-tier Sects to accompany their Cultivation Techniques; their quality was quite substantial.

However, in Yi Sanyi's condition, unless he took out a Medicinal Pill from his inventory, how could a mere Qi Refining Cultivator dispel a toxin capable of harming a Foundation Establishment Stage expert?

Medicinal Pills were precious, and while Zhou Yan wasn't stingy, he simply wouldn't save someone like Yi Sanyi.

This guy had some integrity, but an evil person is an evil person; doing one good deed wouldn't wash away his sins.

Just like Second Nine Jia—was he truly in the wrong? He was simply unable to resist Giant Abyss's overwhelming power and merely continued doing what previous village chiefs had done.

He had resisted too; now he was secretly helping Yi Sanyi, and in the past, he might have been secretly helping Yi Erjiu.

He was indeed good to his villagers, but that couldn't deny the fact that he had caused too many families to be ruined.

The Han family's life was bitter, but that was because their bitterness was seen by Zhou Yan, so it was considered bitter.

As for the others, those who served as fish beds in the fishery—whether their lives were bitter or not, they didn't even have the chance to speak of it.

"Giant Abyss's strike used a Spell that rendered your Half-Demon body unsustainable. Combined with the toxins throughout your System, you likely have less than a week to live."

"In the coming week, you won't be able to use your Half-Demon form and will be affected by the toxins. One could say you're no different from a common Mortal now. You could consider this living the Mortal life you yearned for, even if there aren't many days left."

Having said this, Zhou Yan looked at Yi Sanyi and said with a smile.

"But this is also quite good, isn't it? It saves me from having to kill you personally."

Hearing this comrade-in-arms, with whom he had fought side-by-side for less than two days, suddenly speak such cold words, Yi Sanyi didn't curse Zhou Yan for being heartless. Instead, he smiled back at him.

"Before you came out, did your elders never tell you that you are far too merciful?"

Zhou Yan had expected Yi Sanyi to say many things, but he hadn't expected him to say this.

"I am an evil man, and doing evil comes with a price. Everything now is already the best outcome I could have imagined."

"I've done evil my whole life, yet before I go, I can actually fulfill a dream."

"If you don't act now, and by some chance I encounter some Opportunity that allows me to survive, do you think you'll be able to face those I've killed?"

Zhou Yan looked at Yi Sanyi and frowned. I didn't kill you, yet you're lecturing me? Is your ideological awareness really this high?

Yi Sanyi said nothing more, only reminding Zhou Yan that Han Yue was still waiting for him. Then, he shouldered Second Nine Jia's corpse and walked toward a certain part of the village.

"If you don't want to be a soft-hearted fool who works himself to the bone for nothing, then come find me in Water City. It's the old place."

Yi Sanyi didn't look back, just walking slowly like that.

It was clear that after becoming a Mortal, carrying a fairly sturdy old man was quite a struggle for him.

Without overthinking Yi Sanyi's words—since he said to find him in Water City later, he would know what he intended to do once he went to see for himself.

Zhou Yan also left, heading in the opposite direction of Yi Sanyi, toward the location of Han Yue's house.

"Handsome, too handsome! Although I thought I was handsome before, only after experiencing loss can I realize that I had always underestimated my own appearance."

Han Wenqing was still by the sea, admiring his lost-and-found appearance.

"Sigh~, tell me, if a handsome guy like me were to just disappear from this world, what a great loss that would be for Great Yu."

"You guys..."

Han Wenqing squatted and admired himself for a long time before finally realizing something. He hurriedly stood up and looked behind him, only to find that it was already empty.

"Where is everyone!"

Han Wenqing had been talking to himself for ages, only to suddenly find that there wasn't a single person left around him.

"I don't know the way!"

Langqi Village was not small. If Han Wenqing still had his dog nose, he could have relied on scent to find Second Nine Jia's or Han Yue's house.

But now, he was just a weak, pitiful, and helpless—but very handsome—ordinary Cultivator.

Han Wenqing looked at the vast village and fell into deep despair.

Finally, he let out a pained wail.

"What a sin!"