Chapter 38: Awake?
Time slipped by for a whole year as Chi Li guarded her day after day.
Tanglu remained asleep, like a seedling frozen by the severe cold, its quietness unsettling.
Her face was no longer so pale, and a faint trace of life appeared. Her breathing was steady and long, as if she had just fallen into a deep sleep.
But those amber eyes, always brimming with light, remained closed.
Chi Li's patience was honed to its limit and exhausted to its limit during this silent wait.
She insisted on taking care of everything herself and refused anyone's help.
However, a year of high stress, the enormous depletion of her physical and mental strength, and the recurring relapses of old injuries due to lack of proper care have gradually caused even someone as strong as her to show signs of fatigue.
She had become visibly thinner, and the dark circles under her eyes had become more pronounced. Occasionally, she would even feel dizzy for a moment when she got up.
That night, a light drizzle began to fall outside the window, the raindrops tapping against the glass panes, making a soft and lonely sound.
As usual, Chi Li carefully held Tang Lu in her arms and sat on the soft couch by the window.
She didn't light a lamp, but simply watched the sleeping face of the person in her arms quietly, using the faint light filtering in through the window, blurred by the rain.
Unconsciously, her fingertips combed through Tang Lu's golden hair, which was gradually regaining its luster.
The movements were so gentle, as if afraid of disturbing a fragile dream.
"Tang Lu..." she called softly, her voice sounding particularly hoarse and tired in the quiet rainy night.
There has still been no response.
The only sounds were the even breathing and the soft patter of rain outside the window.
A profound sense of powerlessness, like an icy tide, completely overwhelmed her at that moment.
She flattened the Xuantian Gate, terrified the Three Realms, and possessed the power to move mountains and overturn seas, yet she could not awaken the tiny life in her arms.
"How much longer are you going to sleep?" She gently pressed her forehead against Tang Lu's slightly cool forehead and closed her eyes.
She tried to inhale a little bit of the comforting, familiar scent of grass and trees, but only felt a slumbering tranquility.
On the other side of the soul resonance, there remains a gentle, undisturbed silence.
It was as if all her calls, all her worries, all her waiting had fallen into an endless void.
"I... am a little tired." Her voice was so low it was almost a whisper, carrying a vulnerability that even she herself was unaware of.
She buried her face in the soft hair at the nape of Tang Lu's neck, feeling the real yet faint life force, as if it were the only support that kept her from completely collapsing.
“They said…you might never wake up again…” She never said this to anyone, and didn’t even dare to think about it clearly in her mind.
But at this moment, in this deep night accompanied only by the sound of rain, it escaped uncontrollably from my lips, trembling.
"If...if you really don't wake up..." She paused, her arms unconsciously tightening, holding the small body in her arms even tighter, wanting to meld her into her very bones, "I will hold you like this until the world changes, until...the day when my soul is exhausted."
This is not a love confession, but a declaration of despair.
A warm drop of liquid, without warning, slid down from between her tightly closed eyelashes, landing precisely on Tang Lu's quietly closed eyelids. It rolled slowly down along that graceful arc, like a belated dewdrop.
Chi Li's body stiffened abruptly.
She actually...cried?
Having lived for tens of thousands of years and experienced countless life-and-death battles, betrayals, and separations, she had long forgotten what tears were.
But at this moment, the uncontrollable dampness was a stark reminder that the little tree spirit in her arms had unknowingly become the only, and most fatal, crack in her seemingly impenetrable defenses.
Just as that tear rolled down...
A miracle happened...
The end that had been silent, connected through soul resonance, began to ripple, extremely faintly but clearly!
That wasn't an awakening of consciousness; it was more like... an instinctive response.
Immediately afterwards, Chi Li felt the tip of the index finger of the small hand she was holding move very slightly, almost imperceptibly!
Like the slightest tremor before a butterfly flaps its wings.
Chi Li suddenly raised her head, her heart stopping for a moment.
She held her breath, her crimson-gold eyes fixed on Tang Lu's face, afraid that what she had just experienced was merely a hallucination caused by her extreme exhaustion.
Time stood still at this moment.
One second, two seconds...
Just as Chi Li was about to be swallowed by despair again, she saw Tang Lu's long, thick eyelashes, like butterfly wings unable to bear the weight of the dew, slowly and tremblingly revealing a tiny crack.
A hazy, bewildered, and drowsy amber glow faintly peeked out from the crack.
Her gaze was unfocused, wandering aimlessly, until finally, drawn by some unseen force, it slowly settled on Chi Li's face, which was close at hand, marked with wet tears and filled with disbelief.
In those newly awakened eyes, still hazy and unclear, a faint, almost imperceptible curve appeared.
It seems to be saying:
'Lili...don't cry.'
"Tang...Lu?"
Chi Li's voice was broken and fragmented, filled with an overwhelming ecstasy and cautiousness that almost overwhelmed her.
She dared not move, dared not breathe, for fear that the slightest sound would shatter this fragile miracle.
Tang Lu did not answer. She seemed to have used up all her strength. The faint smile quickly disappeared, and her eyes slowly and wearily closed again. Her breathing became deep and even again.
But this time, it was no longer a despairing silence.
On the other side of the soul resonance, that ethereal tranquility was shattered.
What reconnected was a faint, yet real, nascent consciousness.
She's back.
Her tree spirit has really returned!
Although it was just a fleeting glimpse, and although she wasn't fully conscious, she did indeed respond to her!
Chi Li remained in a stiff position, not moving for a long time.
Only after confirming that Tang Lu had simply fallen back into a deep sleep rather than a coma did the nerves that had been taut for a whole year and were on the verge of breaking finally relax.
The joy of regaining what was lost washed over her like a tsunami, leaving her weak and almost unable to hold the person in her arms.
She slowly and tightly embraced Tang Lu, lowered her head, buried her face deeply in the crook of her neck that smelled of fresh grass and trees, and her shoulders trembled slightly uncontrollably.
The rain outside the window stopped sometime ago.
A ray of cool moonlight shone gently through the clouds and windowpanes, falling softly on the two people embracing.
After a long, cold winter, it seems that a glimpse of spring has finally appeared.
In the silent world guarded by His Majesty the Demon King, a faint yet powerful echo was finally heard, enough to illuminate all the darkness.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com