Chapter 1184: 689: The Withdrawn Fist

Chapter 1184: Chapter 689: The Withdrawn Fist

Countdown 168:00:00.

The world is bright again.

The square on Whale Island was first silent, then sobbing began to emerge from the crowd, and finally everyone burst into tears.

Of the 4,811 time travelers in the academy, only 4,139 remain. Because of their involvement in the defense of District Three, nearly everyone except the children is wounded.

Out of the 132 family members from City No. 10 who came to the island, 19 perished, leaving 113.

They too are all wounded.

And Kunlun… everyone perished.

Qing Chen stood silently in the square, unable to bear looking at the remains of the Kunlun members, 631 skeletons in total, with only Iodophor’s body still relatively intact.

He saw that Iodophor’s neck was stripped of flesh, leaving only bones, his hands bloodied and torn, yet still tightly guarding his abdomen.

There lay what he brought back with his life.

“It looks like there’s something hidden in his abdomen,” Lu Yuan said softly.

Lu Yuan tried to pry Iodophor’s hands apart, but those hands still held tight, impossible to pull open.

Lu Yuan crouched beside the body, incessantly wiping his tears, crying so hard he couldn’t speak.

It was the first time Kunlun had suffered a loss of such scale; they had never faced this before.

Qing Chen walked over and said in a low voice, “Let me do it.”

He bent down to lift Iodophor’s arms, and as soon as Qing Chen touched them, the arms that had been tightly clasped suddenly loosened.

Qing Chen was momentarily stunned.

He knew Iodophor had passed away, yet the body still reacted in such a way.

The 12 blade-like hard drives within the abdomen were meant for Qing Chen; no one else could retrieve them.

Only when Qing Chen arrived did his body relax that hold.

This defied medical logic. Qing Chen had heard of people who could only close their eyes after seeing their kin, but he always considered it a coincidence or rumor.

Not until today did he believe such things truly happen.

Qing Chen could hardly control himself; he took several deep breaths before finally determining to gently open Iodophor’s abdomen and retrieve the sealed bag.

Lu Yuan called out to the Kunlun members on the island, “Come lend a hand, collect and cremate the brothers’ remains.”

At this moment, some time travelers from the academy came up to Qing Chen and said, “Thank you, little Dean, thank you. If you hadn’t come to pick us up, we might have died too.”

“Thank you, little Dean.”

“Thank you, little Dean!”

The time travelers came to Qing Chen in droves, thanking him. Amidst the chaos, Qing Chen led the time travelers back to District Three.

Sometimes, even before the time travelers could thank him, he would have already returned to the depths of the city.

These time travelers were not ungrateful; they knew clearly what Qing Chen had done for them.

Qing Chen looked at these people calmly, “Go back and rest now.”

Zheng Yuandong asked, “Qing Chen, what happened in City No. 10 over the past seven days?”

“Xiao San, many here don’t know what happened in City No. 10; tell them about it,” Qing Chen said calmly, sitting aside with the sealed bag in hand, looking at the ground.

Xiao San summarized the events of the past seven days in the square, making a battle report to review and see where everyone fell short.

Zheng Yuandong listened quietly for a long time and then shared the external information he had with Qing Chen: “The various army groups in the north have been battling for six days. This war is larger in scale than imagined, and everyone is fighting fiercely. City No. 10 won’t have any rescue, so you’ll need to find a way to save yourselves.”

“I understand,” Qing Chen nodded.

“The survival number of the time travelers far exceeded my expectations. I thought it would be good if even a thousand survived that disaster,” Zheng Yuandong said softly on the side. “Thank you, Qing Chen, thank you and the Parents’ Meeting for helping them.”

Qing Chen said quietly, “Actually, if I had gone to find Iodophor and them sooner, perhaps they would have had a chance to live.”

Zheng Yuandong shook his head, “If you hadn’t gone to save the academy’s time travelers, Iodophor would have been obliged to do so. Or rather, he must have gone to save them. That’s Kunlun’s responsibility. The time travelers should have saved themselves, but they lacked the ability. It’s like in a fire, where the victim re-enters the blaze to save their little dog — can the firefighter abandon the rescue due to the victim’s folly? No, they have their mission, and Iodophor had his.”

“If roles were reversed, perhaps it would have been your turn to retrieve the hard drives from the PCE and Transport Bureau, while Iodophor would have taken people out of the front line time after time, striving to bring back team after team of time travelers to District Three. But did they have this ability? No, they couldn’t navigate the city as freely as you could, nor memorized so many refuge points.”

Zheng Yuandong said, “So, the final result is that you would still get the hard drives, and Iodophor would still die for those time travelers and children. This is Iodophor’s responsibility and fate. Of course, you both completed your tasks excellently.”

Qing Chen remained silent.

“Don’t overthink it. Kunlun’s responsibility is to protect these time travelers,” Zheng Yuandong said. “If he knew you’ve saved so many time travelers, he’d be happy in the afterlife. No one in Kunlun will blame you. We were mentally prepared for this. Trust our resolve.”

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