Chapter 15: Unresolved Issues

Qi Xia looked troubled. He had already tried pulling out the harpoon, but its barbs were cleverly designed, making it almost impossible to remove from a body.

Watching the fresh blood gush out, Qi Xia was momentarily stunned.

Had they really died?

If someone was dead, could they still be injured?

Qi Xia steadied himself. This wasn't the time to ponder such questions. Instead, he needed to cut the rope immediately.

Now, all the harpoons were slowly retracting. How could he use another harpoon to sever his rope?

One thing was certain: when all the ropes retracted into the wall, the harpoons would disappear completely, and Han Yi Mo would die.

"I have to find a way to secure one harpoon... but how on earth..." Qi Xia furrowed his brow and quickly scanned his surroundings.

It was time for another gamble.

He grabbed two slowly retracting harpoons from the ground, then swiftly tied their ropes together with a dead knot.

"Hey! Stop crowding around Han Yi Mo," Qi Xia called out. "Do what I'm doing! We need to leave at least one harpoon behind."

Lin Geng instantly understood his idea and grabbed two harpoons, tying them together neatly with a knot.

But her knot looked strange—something Qi Xia had never seen before.

He didn't have time to think about it and focused on the two harpoons in front of him.

As the ropes continued to contract, the two lines were now pulled taut against each other.

At this rate, it wouldn't be long before one rope snapped, leaving the other behind.

Qi Xia slowly stepped back. The ropes were making an eerie sound. If his guess was right, the snapping rope could injure someone under that immense tension.

Sure enough, in the next second, one rope snapped with a loud crack.

The other rope, still attached to its harpoon, flailed wildly in the air before slamming onto the ground, leaving a deep mark.

Qi Xia rushed forward, trying to untie the broken rope before the harpoon retracted into the wall.

But he discovered that the two ropes, due to the massive force, had deformed completely. Forget untying them—it was hard to even recognize their original shape.

"I'm done!" Lin Geng shouted from nearby. "Whoever's strongest, hurry and help cut the writer's rope."

"Done?"

Qi Xia turned to look and saw that Lin Geng's knot was cleverly designed, separating automatically when the rope broke.

Li Jing Guan hadn't even finished tying his first knot yet. Hearing this, he quickly set down the harpoon in his hands and said:

"I'll do it—give it to me!"

After taking the harpoon, Li Jing Guan dashed over in long strides and reached Han Yi Mo just as he was about to be pulled to the wall.

Fortunately, the harpoon's tip, though pointed, had fine edges that could work like a small knife.

Qiao Jia Jin stepped up to help as well. Although Qi Xia had come up with the plan first, Han Yi Mo was now less than half a meter from the wall.

The tearing pain made it impossible for Han Yi Mo to resist; he could only retreat slowly with the rope, or the barbs in his chest would make him writhe in agony.

Li Jing Guan grabbed the rope behind Han Yi Mo, paused briefly to aim at the section closest to his body, and began cutting with the sharp harpoon.

His hand was steady, each strike landing precisely on the rope.

But the rope was tougher than expected; after several cuts, it only had a small notch.

He quickly assessed the situation and realized it was getting tricky.

The rope would eventually be severed, but time was what they lacked most.

In less than a minute, Han Yi Mo's body would touch the wall, and cutting the rope from behind would be impossible then.

"Hey, is it not done yet?" Qiao Jia Jin asked anxiously. "You're going so slow—you're gonna kill this guy!"

"Don't yap!" Li Jing Guan snapped coldly, then put more force into his cuts.

As Han Yi Mo's body inched closer to the wall, sweat beaded on Li Jing Guan's face.

His mental fortitude was impressive; despite the tense atmosphere, he didn't make a single mistake with the small harpoon, each strike hitting the previous notch.

But with Han Yi Mo now less than thirty centimeters from the wall, Li Jing Guan's arm was starting to falter.

Qiao Jia Jin acted quickly, positioning himself behind Han Yi Mo and using his own body to hold him back. This way, Han Yi Mo would take some injury sooner, but the distance to the wall wouldn't change for the moment.

"Officer! Hurry!"

Li Jing Guan took a deep breath and kept cutting. By now, the rope was more than half severed but still holding.

Han Yi Mo groaned in pain; the harpoon had pierced through his body and its barbs were digging back into his chest. His clothes were soaked with blood, a horrifying sight.

"Am I going to die..." Han Yi Mo gritted his teeth and said. "I'm really going to die... Who the hell wants us dead..."

"Act like a man!" Li Jing Guan said sternly. "So many people are busting their asses to save you—don't go whining on me!"

Han Yi Mo fell silent at those words; he knew Li Jing Guan was right. Everyone was scrambling around, and he couldn't afford to hold them back.

The barbs sank deep into his flesh, and he let out muffled grunts, clenching his teeth.

Zhao Yi Sheng quickly grabbed a strip of cloth and stuffed it into Han Yi Mo's mouth.

After all, in extreme pain, someone might bite through their own teeth.

The group clustered around Han Yi Mo.

Those twenty seconds felt like hours. Li Jing Guan methodically cut away.

Finally, with one last strike, the tough rope split apart.

At that moment, both Han Yi Mo and Qiao Jia Jin collapsed from exhaustion.

The people around them rushed to help them up.

It looked like Han Yi Mo had been saved.

Zhao Yi Sheng immediately pulled Han Yi Mo aside and began examining his wound. The injury was as expected—still needed to remove the harpoon from the front.

The biggest issue now was stopping the bleeding.

Zhao Yi Sheng thought for a while and ended up using several cloth strips to pack the wound around the harpoon.

"Hey, doctor, aren't you going to take out the harpoon?" Qiao Jia Jin asked.

"I can't take it out—he'd die," Zhao Yi Sheng said with a serious expression.

"Die?" Qiao Jia Jin was confused and stepped forward, shoving Zhao Yi Sheng. "What the hell? We went through all this effort, and now you're not going to save him?"

"I'm saving him right now!" Zhao Yi Sheng impatiently shook off Qiao Jia Jin's hand. "To put it bluntly, the harpoon has to stay in for him to survive."

"Why?" Xiao Ran asked from the side.

"If we pull out the harpoon, all that's left is a wound that keeps bleeding—death is just a matter of time," Zhao Yi Sheng replied calmly. "With it in, he'll be in terrible pain, but at least he won't die from blood loss. Those smaller wounds will stop bleeding soon enough as the blood clots."