VESSEL - Extinction Countdown 977: Stone Shadow Fights Evil

In the basement, fear and danger shifted focus in an instant.

The heavily armed, wounded stranger slumped in the closet’s broken remains. Yi Qing stood at the room’s far end.

At the center, Ye Shisan hovered three feet above the floor.

Blood and slime covered Yi Qing, the rancid stench and nausea surging to her head, but she froze, unmoving.

Facing a fiend like Ye Shisan, any rash move could be fatal—a truth she, a former Fireseed elite, knew well.

This is Ye Shisan’s Heart Demon!

Her Fireseed training took over, analyzing the situation. Since the Heart Demon hadn’t struck again, she needed to determine if this strange power was a physical entity or an ethereal form.

A physical entity was tangible. Though she couldn’t see what stood behind Ye Shisan, its ability to cut through reinforced concrete showed it was, at least, physical.

It had taken control of his body when danger arose, destroying all threats.

With such power, the six-legged tendril creature was no match.

Yi Qing’s experience suggested physical entities could be subdued. Restrain Ye Shisan, and physical methods could remove the Heart Demon within.

An ethereal form, however, was trouble. In her twelve years with the Fireseed, she’d only seen two. Through her Azure Eye, ethereal forms looked like plasma—limbs of fire.

Most knew matter’s three states: gas, liquid, solid. But plasma was another, seen in lightning arcs, neon lights, auroras, or welding sparks. In the universe, gas, liquid, and solid were rare; plasma made up 99% of matter. Stars, like the sun, were plasma, as were parts of Earth’s core.

An ethereal Heart Demon would be a disaster.

With no equipment and her Azure Eye gone, Yi Qing could only flee. The burly man, his chest heaving, seemed out of the fight.

His gasping breaths showed a pierced lung, a reflex no willpower could stop. He coughed, spitting blood.

The hardwood floor thudded, as if heavy steps crossed it. Ye Shisan glided toward the man.

The man looked at Ye Shisan, then at Yi Qing, giving a bitter smile—perhaps an apology. He reached for three grenades.

Yi Qing knew them: RG-80 flash-fragment grenades, each as strong as a 100mm mortar shell, with a kill radius over ten meters.

The basement, barely thirty square meters, would trap the blast. Steel shards would tear through flesh at 1,600 meters per second, and the shockwave would ricochet, crushing survivors.

No wonder he chose the basement—he’d planned to die with the tendril creature.

In a flash, Yi Qing, driven by some courage, grabbed an iron clock and threw it. “Ye Shisan!”

A soft zing cut the air. The clock split in two, then cracked twice, as if struck by something, flying apart.

Ye Shisan turned. His eyes were closed, but Yi Qing felt a cold gaze hit her.

He rushed forward.

Everything in his path—debris, objects—was cut into pieces by an invisible, sharp force, scattering like petals.

So, I’ll die in this moldy basement.

Yi Qing closed her eyes. In her final moment, she recalled a car crash case—a door sliced clean. It made sense.

For half a second, time slowed. She heard a hiss of something tearing the air. Then, a loud boom shook the ceiling. A huge black object fell.

Ye Shisan reacted, launching an attack. The object’s base sparked, the room echoing with clanging impacts.

But the attacks failed. The black mass hit Ye Shisan’s head.

Silence fell.

Yi Qing opened her eyes. Ye Shisan lay unconscious. Nearby stood a two-meter-tall black box.

She’d seen it before… when she first met YiQueen, with a girl, Azi, carrying this box.

Before she could think, a girl dropped through the ceiling’s hole—Azi.

Her cold gaze swept over Yi Qing. “YiQueen warned you. Ye Shisan’s human, but his Heart Demon is too much for you, even as a Tongmo elite.”

Tongmo, the codename for Yi Qing’s Fireseed unit, was revered in the South. Azi’s casual tone suggested her own high status.

Being lectured by a teenager was new for Yi Qing.

Azi, about fifteen or sixteen, gave off a chilling, emotionless air that unnerved Yi Qing.

Wiping the slime from her face, Yi Qing stood, legs shaking.

Azi stepped to the closet’s hole, snapping, “Dead? If not, come with me.”

No response.

Azi snorted. “Fainted? Useless.”

Despite her callous words, she moved to pull the man out.

Yi Qing spoke up. “Stop! He’s badly hurt!”

Azi glared. “He won’t die so easily. Get him back to base in time, and he might thank me.”

“Thank you? Moving him will make him bleed faster!”

“You’re too nosy. This is just a test!”

“A test?!”