Shi Jinzhe put down Shehe and ran to Mu Bai in two quick steps. As he got close, he tripped and stumbled, falling to his knees.
He looked down and saw the ground covered with layers of vine roots.
The roots were attached to Mu Bai's body, and the veins on his face rose up, their pulsating marks resembling the winding mountains seen when looking down at the earth.
Mu Bai blinked, quite surprised.
He looked Shi Jinzhe up and down, his gaze lingering on Shi Jinzhe's white hair for two seconds.
"you……"
"Don't speak yet." Shi Jinzhe pressed his kneeling hand against Mu Bai's chest, continuously channeling life force into him.
Although it was described as his chest, the texture of his palm felt more like rough tree bark. He could only tell from the regularly distributed protrusions that they were his former ribs.
Mu Bai's condition was far worse than Shi Jinzhe had imagined. He had said he could hold on for another two or three years, but in less than two months, Mu Bai had become like this.
Shi Jinzhe suppressed the indescribable feelings in his heart, silently mobilizing the energy within his body, unable to utter another word.
His emotional receptors seemed to be much slower to register. Compared to Bai Weishuang, who was his mother, the real feeling of Mu Bai being his father only suddenly and heavily weighed on him when he saw him on the verge of death.
Shi Jinzhe knew that he was the child his mother had carried for ten months and had given birth to with great difficulty, and he knew that he must have a mother. Therefore, when he saw Bai Weishuang's video, saw that willow branch, and heard Cheng Yun talk about her, he had a concrete image of her.
As for the image of his father, Cheng Yun occupied too much of his first twenty years. Before meeting Mu Bai, he had never thought about his biological father at all.
People you haven't seen for too long can become strangers, especially for someone with his slow-to-warm-up personality. The sudden appearance of someone who doesn't exist, even if that person is his father, couldn't erase the sense of estrangement that comes with the joy of finding a relative.
However, when he saw Mu Bai looking like he was about to die, the fear that something had happened to Mu Bai finally overwhelmed all the unreality.
Shi Jinzhe sped up, focusing only on his hands, unaware that golden light was rising from within the valley.
The color of those light spots gradually changed from gold to white, gathered and fell, all flowing into Mu Bai's body.
Only when he felt the texture of his hands soften did Shi Jinzhe dare to breathe a sigh of relief.
The lines on Mu Bai's face faded, and human skin was reconstructed. Gradually, his body struggled out of the withered vines and transformed back into a human.
"That's enough, that's enough."
Mu Bai awkwardly sat up from the ground; he hadn't moved in so long that he hadn't gotten back into the habit.
He gazed at Shi Jinzhe's pale face: "You've progressed faster than I expected."
"No, I'm still too weak."
Shi Jinzhe looked at Mu Bai's legs, which had not yet recovered, and his voice was a little hoarse.
Mu Bai's body was like a bottomless pit; his life force was almost completely drained before he could barely be restored to this state.
"How did your health get so bad? Is it related to giving me the Golden Vine?"
"It has nothing to do with that," Mu Bai reassured him. "It's just that the invading black mist expanded its range, and after resisting twice, it drained a lot of life force."
Upon hearing about the black mist, Shi Jin frowned, his worry for Mu Bai only increasing.
"I don't know when I'll be able to come here again. I'll give you some more life force then."
"unnecessary."
"Yes, it is necessary." Shi Jinzhe's attitude was unusually firm.
"You don't have any extra life force right now, so there's no need for that. This is enough for me." Mu Bai felt a little helpless; things were already much better than he had imagined.
"OK."
Shi Jin bent down and placed his hand back on Mu Bai's chest. "Limits are reached by breaking through them. How will you know if you don't try?"
"Extremes also come with risks. If you can do it once, you can do it a second time. Things don't have to be done all at once."
At this moment, Shekh stepped forward and reminded Shi Jinzhe: "Use the scepter."
"The energy in the scepter is not yet..." Shi Jinzhe stopped halfway through his sentence, realizing what Sheh wanted him to do.
He licked his dry lips, feeling incredibly lucky; no one could be luckier than him.
"Thanks."
Shi Jinzhe took out his scepter, absorbed the purified energy from the black-gold crystal, and then activated the purification array.
Then, Shekh placed his hand on the black and gold crystal.
Mu Bai looked around, about to ask what they were doing, when the energy transmission that had just been interrupted resumed.
He coughed and saw that the black-gold crystal in front of him was undergoing a cycle of absorption, purification, and extraction.
Shehe provides energy, and Shi Jinzhe uses crystal purification to extract the life force he can use, which is then sent into Mu Bai's body.
After a long while, the tree roots beneath Mu Bai sank into the soil. His legs were also freed from their restraints.
He was helped to his feet by Shi Jinzhe, and felt the long-lost joy of being able to move freely.
Mu Bai approached Shehe: "Thank you for your hard work. Taking root here will require even more energy for my legs to fully recover."
Shekh stood firmly with his hand on the top of the scepter. If Mu Bai's leg didn't recover soon, she would have to take off the ribbon.
There's a reason why Mu Bai has been able to sustain this world for so long without any special skills; his energy storage capacity is truly astonishing.
Shi Jinzhe looked over, his eyes filled with concern: How are you?
Shekh shook his head: It's nothing, it's just that there was much more energy than expected, which was a bit of a surprise.
Mu Bai chose to pretend not to see their subtle actions.
He bent down and reached into the flowers, and a white outer robe appeared in his hand.
Shi Jinzhe helped him drape the drape over his body to cover his old, faded clothes.
Mu Bai straightened his clothes: "How did you get back here so quickly?"
Shi Jinzhe: "This was sent by the system as a reward for completing the game."
"System, you can't be so kind. Tell me, what kind of world is willing to let that thing make concessions and offer it as a reward?"
"A world where humans have been transformed into monsters."
Shi Jinzhe briefly explained the situation of this instance to Mu Bai, but Mu Bai interrupted him when he mentioned that the auxiliary system was repositioning the world anchor point.
"Relocate the world anchor?" Mu Bai frowned. "The system actually sent you to this kind of instance?"
"Is there some kind of explanation for this type of dungeon? The players in my dungeon are even worse than me..."
Mu Bai: "There's a theory that the worlds where the system needs to relocate the anchor point are worlds that have been invaded by something else, which would be very difficult."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com