Halfway up the mountain, Ji Hui put down his binoculars, his expression complex.

The Thorn Lands only appear at night, so they arrived early and waited for someone to appear every day.

After seven days, they finally saw Shi Jinzhe, a Shi Jinzhe they didn't even dare to recognize.

Let's just consider him a person.

Half of his body was wrapped in red silk, and blood was dripping from his body. His stiff expression showed no emotion. A thorny branch with only a few thorns left hit him from behind, but Shi Jinzhe seemed not to feel it, his face blank.

Ji Hui felt a strange sense of guilt. He should have checked the forest again to see if there were any wild beasts or poisonous creatures, if there were any better paths, and if the placement of a certain rock could have been more reasonable so that Shi Jinzhe could save some effort.

"well."

He wiped his face. "Pusheng, what are we going to do next? Go up to the mountaintop?"

The sound of blowing his nose was intermittent. He looked in the direction of the sound and saw Pusheng and Yan Ruoying holding each other's hands tightly, tears streaming down their faces.

"...No, you two, why are you crying like someone died? Huh? Pusheng? Couldn't you have seen it beforehand?"

"Knowing and seeing with one's own eyes are two different concepts."

Pusheng pinched his nose and blew his nose, blowing the tissue away with the force of the snot.

"You two should find a safe place to hide in a bit, I'll go up by myself."

"Why?"

He gave a tactful reason: "I'm afraid that if Sheikh knows or sees it with his own eyes, it will be even more exaggerated than what I did, and it could endanger your lives."

"Forget it." Ji Hui put away the binoculars. "There's more than one way to get here from the abandoned city. Shi Jinzhe must have something important in the thorny area. Do you remember how the thorns grew like crazy the night before? Something that can make such a large forest appear and disappear like a ghost, I don't think hiding is a good idea. Let's go together."

“That’s right.” Yan Ruoying retied her shiny hair and was the first to set off.

Pu Sheng stretched out his hand: "Hey...no, that's not the reason. Don't be impulsive."

At the mountaintop, the air seemed to freeze.

It's as if the pause button has been pressed here; there's no wind or sound, and even getting close causes you to stop breathing.

Yan Ruoying felt as if someone was pressing hard on her throat, causing her to spasm unavoidably. She bent over and knelt on the ground, unable to move forward even an inch.

The air was thick with a chilling atmosphere, and the mountaintop seemed to be covered by a transparent dome. They didn't see Shekh, but Pusheng said she was there.

The tightness in her throat made Yan Ruoying feel like she was about to vomit. She vaguely sensed that she was still some distance away from the transparent cover that enveloped Shekh, but she really couldn't go any further. It felt like a thousand-pound stone was pressing on her back, and she couldn't straighten her back at all.

"How...can we go...ugh..." Yan Ruoying gagged and vomited green bile. For a moment, she felt like she was going to die here.

Pusheng pulled her up, pushed her back, and handed her to Ji Hui, who was also kneeling on the ground, saying, "You two can go down now."

In fact, he also had a very difficult time walking. He was half-bent over, his fingers were swollen and enlarged, as if they were filled with water, and he was weak and unable to exert any strength. The closer he got to the summit, the slower his movements became.

"Wait…"

Yan Ruoying's movements were particularly slow, as if she were taking out her skill card in slow motion.

She was speechless in that situation, and simply handed the card forward.

She wanted to leave the game, and since she couldn't do anything else, she decided to contribute this.

Pu Sheng accepted her "Good Fortune" gift and smiled at the two of them.

When he received the card, his engorged fingertips were flattened, and the rebound was very slow, so slow that the time it took for his skin to turn from white to red was enough for Pu Sheng to see how his fingerprints curved and grew.

Time flowed very slowly, each second seemed to take shape, and as time slowly passed through his body, he felt a fine granular sensation, like the touch of fine sandpaper gently rubbing against his skin.

Pu Sheng loosened his collar and took out a specially made throwing knife he had borrowed from Ji Hui.

The system had no choice but to temporarily imprison Shekh here, but before leaving, it left a loophole: it imprisoned time around her. If the stagnant time is not broken, even if Shi Jinzhe gets here, he will not be able to touch her.

This is the debt of gratitude he truly wants to repay, the favor he truly wants to help.

He wants to use the Heavenly Secret Card to restart the time that Shech was suspended.

With the moon high in the sky, Pu Sheng finally reached a point where he could not break through any further and raised his knife to cut open his skin.

The game cannot detect specific skills obtained through unofficial means. Unless you know in advance what card you are given, like Shi Jinzhe, this is the best way to hide the card. That is why he was able to enter this round of the game as a player with the character "Nine". However, there is only one way to take out such a card.

It might be considered foolish behavior, but he gained a lot of happiness in the extra twenty years he lived. He should repay what he owes, and that's how he deserves the name his master gave him.

Ji Hui and Yan Ruoying, now outside the slow-motion timeframe, watched as Pu Sheng slowly opened his chest, revealing a throbbing heart. Their hearts leaped into their throats with tension.

At the same time, Shi Jinzhe, covered in blood, appeared on the path behind them.

He had more wounds than he had the previous evening, and blood dripped from his body as he walked. Upon closer inspection, Ji Hui discovered that he had new cuts on his body.

Judging from the direction he took, he found something to row himself.

...Pu Sheng was right again; Shi Jinzhe would lower his health bar to the lowest level when he was near the mountaintop.

Ji Hui didn't know exactly how thick his health bar was. An ordinary person would have died from blood loss long ago, but Shi Jinzhe, despite looking seriously injured, could still walk and run.

Ji Hui's first childbirth was marked by an excessively thick blood clot, a painful experience he lamented.

Just as Shi Jinzhe was striding closer to the mountaintop, Pu Sheng took out his heart on the other side.

The system wasn't here, and the time that slowed his death was enough for him to finish what he was doing.

He and Shi Jinzhe moved toward the same position at different times, one fast and the other slow, until their speeds became the same.

As the heart and the lucky card were placed on the ground, a cracking sound filled the air. The invisible barrier was broken, and Shi Jinzhe stepped onto the mountaintop where time had been unfrozen, using his last strength to run.