Chapter 218 Fighting the Fire "Jiang Yuhuo, I've given you my heart..."
A feeling of suffocation rose in his throat, and the scorching heat seeped into Li Mengbai's flesh. He felt no pain, but rather a surge of pleasure that made his eyes gleam as he rubbed and twisted the object with even greater force.
Jiang Yuhu grabbed his neck and used her last bit of strength to push him away, her fingertips piercing his skin, leaving red marks and bloodstains.
Just as she was about to let go after exhausting all her strength, Li Mengbai pressed her hand down.
"Do you treat him the same way?"
His hand pressed down on her slowly, his gaze gradually becoming unfocused and hazy as he struggled to breathe. Suddenly, he uttered, "Did you leave your mark on him like this too?"
"When you're making love... do you press yourself against him like this?"
Upon hearing what he said, Jiang Yuhuo was immediately shocked and furious, and immediately tried to withdraw his hand as if fleeing from something dirty.
Li Mengbai's gaze grew increasingly sinister. He pressed her hand down firmly, placing it on her collarbone. "You can treat him like this, so why can't you treat me? What is it about me that he doesn't?"
"Ha, you don't know, but I saw it all! He came out of your tent at night, disheveled, and in front of Ji Qiu'an, he showed those marks... He pretended to be indifferent, but I could see how smug he looked at that moment!"
"You shameless, despicable thing!"
"Smack—"
The angry curses were interrupted by a sharp sound.
Jiang Yuhuo bit his tongue until it bled, forcefully breaking through the effects of the calming incense. His blood and qi surged, and he immediately slapped Li Mengbai across the face.
Her eyes were practically spitting fire. "You're the one who's utterly shameless!"
"Li Mengbai, if you hate me, then kill me with your own strength!"
She raised her hand, and the Dingchun Sword flew towards her. "Come on! This is a grudge between us. Don't drag others into it. Let's fight. Either you die, or I die. Wouldn't that satisfy you?"
Li Mengbai didn't retaliate, but covered his left cheek where he had been hit, and chuckled softly, "You're really naughty... I've told you not to use your spiritual power, not to use the mermaid pearl... but you never listen to me."
Soon, as if to prove his words, Jiang Yuhuo collapsed, limp and lifeless. Her strength was only restored for a moment before being drained again, and the calming incense's effects were actually catalyzed by the spiritual energy and the mermaid pearl.
Li Mengbai caught the limp woman and leaned down to whisper in her ear, "How can you fight me like this? Aren't you afraid of dying?"
Jiang Yuhuo, barely clinging to her last shred of consciousness, said, "What...what's there to be afraid of? Anyway...I'm...not going to live..."
He managed to utter a few words before falling into a deep coma and losing consciousness.
Li Mengbai looked at the person who had collapsed into his arms, his gaze calm and gentle like never before. "You will live on, you will live longer than anyone else."
He took her hand and pressed it against his heart. "I found a way. I wanted to tell you this good news that day, but you ended up with someone else... You have no idea how sad I was. My heart ached so much that I wanted to kill you and then kill myself."
"But in the end, it still decided to save you."
A painful groan rang out, causing the entire illusion to distort for a moment.
The air was thick with the stench of blood...
Jiang Yuhuo felt nauseous as a foreign, sweet-smelling object invaded her throat, even while unconscious. Li Mengbai held her tongue and forced her to swallow the sweet, sticky object.
"Jiang Yuhuo, I've given you my heart..."
"This is the best thing in the world, and I'm giving it only to the one I love most." Li Mengbai held her as they sat against the screen, stroking her hair gently. A strange smile appeared on his pale face. "I want to stay in your heart... I want there to always be a place for me in your heart."
Strength and warmth gradually drained from the body... The candlelight in the illusion blurred into countless phantoms.
Li Mengbai recalled the great fire he had often dreamed of since childhood. He stood outside the fire, watching Gongsun Chan's originally ferocious and terrifying face become peaceful and serene in the flames, as if she had found liberation within it. What was it like inside the fire? Behind him was endless darkness and snakes, insects, and rodents that he could not shake off. He stared at the firelight, inexplicably drawn to it.
It's warm and bright; how can you resist getting closer?
Later he understood that, perhaps like his mother who died by self-immolation, he was destined to rush into the fire, even if he were burned to ashes.
He found the warmest and brightest flame.
His fingertips traced from the center of her forehead to her eyebrows, eyes, nose, and lips... His fingertips lingered, his gaze tender. Li Mengbai quietly looked at the person in his arms, as if he were seeing that body he had only met twice.
That was the winged person who had been entangled with the Li family for hundreds of years, and also Yu Huo, his beloved.
It is her past, and also her hope for the future.
"sorry……"
Tears streamed down his face as he held her tightly, sobbing and apologizing repeatedly.
"Fishing lights... fishing lights... if we could do it all over again, could you tell me how I should love you..."
"sorry……"
Jiang Yuhuo felt like she had a very long dream. In the dream, she was trapped in a dark prison. She wanted to escape, but no matter how she tried, she couldn't find a way out. There were also unseen monsters in the darkness who forced her to eat disgusting things. Her stomach churned, and she wanted to vomit but couldn't.
It was as if that thing, once it entered her body, took root, its roots spreading out until they pierced her heart, as if trying to drain all the nutrients from her body, before finally merging into her completely and disappearing without a trace. But suddenly, a dull ache gripped her heart, and an overwhelming sorrow, like the surrounding darkness, enveloped her completely. Why was she so sad…?
"Fishing lights, fishing lights..."
Jiang Yuhuo slowly opened her eyes and saw Jia Yue's face.
The first thing Jiang Yuhuo saw when she woke up from the nightmare was someone she trusted, and at that moment, she felt a lump in her throat.
She thought she would never see him again...
Jia Yue hugged her and patted her back reassuringly, "It's okay, it's okay... I'm here."
Enveloped in the familiar fragrance of Udumbara, Jiang Yuhuo finally felt completely at ease.
Li Mengbai disappeared, and the illusion vanished. She was not dead; she was in a camp filled with miscellaneous items, with Jia Yue.
She reached out and hugged his body.
Seeing that she had finally woken up, Jia Yue's heart, which had been pounding, finally settled down a little. After waiting for a while in Zhang Zhenyang's tent without seeing her return, he immediately went out to look for her, but he couldn't find her anywhere. The connection with the mermaid pearl had suddenly disappeared. Everyone said they had seen her, but no one could say where she had gone.
Even their presence was erased; it must have been done intentionally. Anyone capable of such a thing is likely up to no good.
The siege was over, and the person she wanted to kill with her own hands had died by her sword. Just when everything was about to settle down, the person who was by her side a moment ago disappeared without warning.
Jia Yue was overwhelmed with panic and fear, but she still had to restrain herself and calm down to investigate her whereabouts.
Fortunately, the man wasn't without flaws. He found remnants of spiritual energy on Ji Qiu'an and tracked him all the way here, shattering the deeply hidden illusion with a single arrow. The illusion that had blinded him dissipated, and Jiang Yuhuo sat alone in a dimly lit corner, covered in blood, unconscious.
In that instant, his blood seemed to freeze, and he was transported back to the collapsed Spirit-Sealing Array, to the moment when his disciple presented him with the Azure Pearl.
He could no longer bear this loss.
Thank goodness... thank goodness...
"Are you hurt anywhere? You're covered in blood..."
Jia Yue released her and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.
He didn't finish his story; the blood wasn't just on his body, but also on his palms, the corners of his mouth... It was a horrifying sight.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Yuhuo lowered her head and realized that her clothes were wet and sticky. The black color did not show the bloodstains, but the strong smell of blood could not be hidden. One of her hands was also covered in blood.
This... is not her blood.
Could it be Li Mengbai's...?
But she was already unconscious, and there was no third person in the illusion, so why was Li Mengbai bleeding?
"What exactly happened?" Jia Yue looked at her with concern. The air was thick with the smell of blood, making it hard not to worry about whether she was injured.
"I'm fine," Jiang Yuhu shook her head.
She didn't hide anything and told Jia Yue the whole story of how Li Mengbai impersonated Ji Qiu'an, but she omitted the part about Ji Qiu'an meeting him outside her tent... She clearly saw the intense killing intent in his eyes.
“If he does this again, I won’t be lenient.” Jiang Yuhu leaned against his shoulder.
Jia Yue paused, her hand stroking her back. "There won't be a next time."
He would kill Li Mengbai before he could lay a hand on her.
"Fishing lights..."
Jiang Yuhuo leaned on his shoulder and responded with a soft "hmm". The calming incense in her mind still had some effect, making her less energetic than usual. As Jia Yue helped her clean the bloodstains off her body, she obediently leaned against him.
With him by my side, I feel at ease doing anything.
"Shall we become sworn brothers?"
Jiang Yuhuo was so surprised that he would suddenly ask such a question that he immediately sat up.
How could they form a pact?
She... was already dying...
Jiang Yuhuo pursed her lips, about to speak, when a long, slender, cool finger pressed against her lips.
"Shh, don't rush to refuse, listen to me first."
“I know what your concerns are… because you know this body doesn’t have long to live, and you don’t want to make me sad, right?” He took her hand, intertwined it with her fingers, and said, “If that’s all, I want to tell you that you can live on until I die… we will go to the end together.”
"How is this possible?"
She was well aware of the condition of this body. Although her power was constantly increasing, it was clear that this body was nearing its limit. If the original body were still alive, she could switch back. But now, she could only exist with it, or perish.
"It's not a possibility, it's a certainty."
Jia Yue touched the faint, almost invisible merfolk mark on her forehead; now it was time to tell her.
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Author's note: It's just been revised; the content hasn't changed much.
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