Deathly silence. Bone-chillingly cold.
The collapse of the World Tree server's core platform seemed to have paused, like the last gasps of a dying beast. The massive, fractured metal platform tilted, its edge a bottomless abyss of darkness. The air was thick, suffocating, filled with the stench of metal dust and charred fungi, mingling with the sticky, rotten pressure of the Fungus Master rising from the depths of the earth, like billions of rotting hands strangling their throats.
Pei Du knelt in the cold metal dust, oblivious to the wounds where rough sand and gravel had sunk into his knees. His entire body was stiff, except for his arms, which, like welded iron hoops, tightly grasped the cold, bloodstained, almost weightless body in his arms.
Xu Shuangyao.
She resembled a shattered, discarded puppet, thoroughly ravaged. Her face was the pale pale of blood loss, her lips bloodless and cracked. Her long lashes covered her eyelids, lifeless. The wound on her neck—the tooth mark left when he lost control—was now completely torn and exposed, revealing the bone. The edges of the flesh were charred and curled, as if burned by an invisible force. Viscous, dark red blood slowly and continuously seeped out from the horrific gaping wound, soaking his clasped arms and the thick dust beneath her, creating a blinding, ever-expanding expanse of crimson.
Her breathing was so weak that it almost disappeared. Every difficult and long-interval inhalation was accompanied by the murmur of a broken bellows deep in her chest. The breath of life, like a candle in the wind, was rapidly fading away in this cold, decaying tomb.
"Shuang...Yao..." Pei Du's throat creaked with a crackling sound, like sandpaper scraping against each other, each syllable carrying the sweet, fishy taste of blood foam. His body trembled uncontrollably, not from the cold, but from an overwhelming fear and a regret that could tear his soul to pieces! Everything that had just happened—the tyranny of him being possessed by both the will of the Fungus Lord and the contamination of the Crown, the destructive scene of him personally unleashing the thorn energy to bombard the core interface of the World Tree, and finally... the moment when Xu Shuangyao pounced on him, using an embrace, blood, and all her essence to awaken him, only to be severely damaged by the backlash of the uncontrolled purifying torrent within him—was like the most brutal slow motion, with a bloody and distorted sense of reality, playing over and over in his newly regained consciousness!
It was him! He was the one who pushed her to the brink of death!
"No...it shouldn't be like this..." His trembling fingers carefully, almost reverently, brushed across the blood and dust stains on Xu Shuangyao's cold cheek, trying to wipe away the unsightly marks, as if that could erase the sins he had committed. But the cold touch from his fingertips felt like a red-hot iron, burning his soul to the point of screaming! The phantom of the crown of thorns hovered between his eyebrows, emitting a pure yet cold golden light, reflecting the traces of blood and tears crisscrossing his face, and also reflecting the bottomless fear and despair in his eyes.
He suddenly looked up, his bloodshot eyes like a trapped beast on the verge of death, frantically scanning the crumbling, silent ruins! The collapse had temporarily stopped, but the deep underground mushroom master's low roar and decaying pressure, like a maggot on the tarsal bone, became clearer and heavier! The huge metal platform beneath his feet groaned under the weight, and cracks spread like a spider web.
"Save her! Who can save her?! Qingluo! Qingluo!!" Pei Du roared hoarsely into the collapsing void, his voice swallowed by the empty silence, leaving only a desperate echo. The young man with green hair and silver eyes had long since dissipated into a speck of light, channeling his final strength into the wound on Xu Shuangyao's neck...
Wound…
Pei Du's gaze was fixed on the horrific laceration on Xu Shuangyao's neck! Blood was still pouring out, but... something seemed different.
Deep within the writhing, charred flesh, at the very base of the hideous, constantly bleeding wound… a faint, yet remarkably pure, emerald green light flickered tenaciously, like a firefly struggling for survival in a dark tomb! The light was faint, obscured by the constantly gushing blood, but Pei Du could see it clearly! The shape of the light… resembled an extremely tiny, curled-up bud! Within the bud's veins flowed strands of silvery-white light!
It was Qingluo! It was the shadow of the "seed" that had melted into the wound before it dissipated! It was using its last bit of strength to maintain Xu Shuangyao's dying life!
Hope! Like the last straw a drowning man grasps!
Pei Du's eyes instantly blazed with a desperate glint! The Crown of Thorns! The only power he possessed now! Though violent and uncontrollable, it contained a powerful life force! It had once repaired his wounds and even suppressed the erosion of mycelium! If only... if only he could channel even the tiniest portion of it into her body...
"Hold on... Shuangyao... I... I'm going to..." Pei Du's voice choked and trembled. He carefully laid Xu Shuangyao's body flat on the cold dust. He knelt beside her, took a deep breath, and tried to suppress the severe pain and confusion churning in his body. He slowly raised his right hand, his fingers covered with burning gold patterns trembling slightly as he tried to approach the wound on Xu Shuangyao's neck that shone with a faint emerald green. The shadow of the crown of thorns between his eyebrows began to spin faster and faster with his thoughts. A stream of pure golden energy slowly flowed out from the crown like a docile little snake, flowing along his arm and converging at his fingertips.
He wanted to carefully inject this crown energy representing "purification" and "vitality" into the green buds that sustained Xu Shuangyao's life!
The fingertips were getting closer and closer to the hideous wound, and the golden energy flow emitted a warm and vital wave...
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