Chapter 76 - Ice Sculpture and Sick Beauty
The Dragon Bone Platform is about to become the second Guixu Sect's garrison base...
The sound of Tie Niu grinding iron carefully, the slight "gurgling" sound from Luo Hongyi's medicine bowl, the unchanging rustling sound of Chen Bo sweeping the floor... The daily noise on the keel platform seemed to be paused at the moment Xie Zhao's eyelashes trembled.
Su Tang was lowering her head, carefully wiping the evil dust from Xie Zhao's pale fingers with a relatively soft piece of animal hide. She wiped slowly and gently, as if afraid of disturbing anything. Suddenly, she felt the fingers beneath her fingertips curl ever so slightly.
She suddenly froze, and her psychic eyes widened instantly!
"Second...Second Brother?!" Su Tang's voice trembled with disbelief, as if she was afraid of shattering a dream, but also with a cry of ecstasy.
This sound was like a stone thrown into a calm lake!
The iron ox, which was grunting and grinding the bottom of the black iron pot, froze in an instant, its huge body suddenly turned around, and its bronze face was mixed with iron chips and astonishment.
Luo Hongyi was carefully stirring the sticky medicinal paste in the stone bowl with a bone needle when she forgot to control the emerald green poisonous fire at her fingertips and suddenly jumped. She looked up suddenly, the laziness on her beautiful face completely gone, and her eyes were as sharp as lightning, fixed on Xie Zhao's face.
The little white deer held the rabbit in his arms, his clear big eyes unblinking.
Chu Linyuan sat cross-legged on the edge of the platform, his back straight, like an eternal ice sculpture. The Immortal-Slaying Spear before his knees lay silent, and the faint light around him, absorbing the evil spirit, flowed steadily.
However, at the moment Su Tang screamed, the bony hand on his knee tightened almost imperceptibly for a moment! His knuckles turned white from the force, almost embedding into the cold keel.
He still didn't open his eyes, but the heavy aura around him showed an extremely subtle fluctuation, like an undercurrent surging beneath the ice.
Everyone's eyes were focused on Xie Zhao's face.
The tightly closed eyelashes trembled slightly again, like butterfly wings brushed by the wind. Then, extremely slowly and with great difficulty, as if carrying a heavy burden, they opened a crack.
Those peach blossom eyes, which always shone with cunning brilliance or burned with the golden flames of talismans, now resembled dust-covered glass, dull and lifeless. Their gaze was unfocused, a blank, dead silence. It was as if they had struggled out of a long, cold nightmare, their soul still not fully returning to its place.
"Uh..." A groan, so weak it was almost inaudible, escaped from his dry, pale lips. The sound was hoarse and broken, like the whine of an old bellows.
"Second Brother! You're awake! You're really awake!" Su Tang couldn't hold back any longer, tears burst out, and she threw herself beside Xie Zhao. She wanted to touch him but didn't dare to use force, so she could only hold on tightly to the animal skin mat under him.
Tie Niu's huge body stood up suddenly, and he took a few steps forward. But he was afraid that his big movements would cause wind, so he stopped abruptly, half squatted down, and said in a muffled voice, clumsily with great surprise: "Second brother! How...how do you feel? Are you hungry? I'll make you...uh...some soup!" He raised the black iron lump in his hand, the edges of which had been polished to be relatively round.
The emerald-green poisonous fire on Luo Hongyi's fingertips stabilized, and she let out a long, silent sigh, as if a heavy burden had been lifted off her shoulders.
Her beautiful face was once again filled with her signature laziness and sarcasm, and her red lips curled slightly: "Oh, you finally woke up? I thought you were going to sleep in Bingtuozi's ice coffin forever." Although the words were harsh, her eyes quickly scanned Xie Zhao's face, confirming the extent of his recovery.
Xie Zhao's dazed pupils struggled to focus amid the cacophony. He shifted his gaze vacantly, his gaze sweeping across Su Tang's tearful face, Tie Niu's iron-shavings-stained grin, Luo Hongyi's familiar, mocking expression. Finally, with some effort, his gaze slowly settled on the dark figure still sitting cross-legged at the edge of the platform, its back to him.
Chu Linyuan still didn't turn around. His back was straight, cold, and silent. Like a piece of ancient black ice that refused to melt.
Xie Zhao's lips moved very faintly a few times, as if he wanted to say something, but no clear sound came out. Only a hoarse sound of air flow came out of his throat.
Luo Hongyi observed this and picked up a small bowl made of dark gold bone fragments. It was filled with warm medicinal paste that exuded a strange herbal fragrance. She walked over to Xie Zhao and unceremoniously pinched his chin. "Save your energy and drink the medicine first! I spent a lot of effort to make this 'Resurrection Grass Paste'. Don't waste a single drop!" Her movements were rough, but she carefully controlled the force and slowly fed the warm paste into him.
A bitter taste with a strange aftertaste spread in the mouth, and a gentle warm current slid down the throat, slowly nourishing the exhausted internal organs.
Xie Zhao's scattered eyes finally gathered a faint light. He swallowed the medicine paste with difficulty, but his eyes never left Chu Linyuan's back.
After feeding her a bowl of medicine paste, Luo Hongyi casually tossed the bone bowl to Su Tang, took out a relatively clean cloth to wipe his hands, and raised an eyebrow at Xie Zhao: "How do you feel? You won't die, right?"
Xie Zhao leaned on the animal skin mat that Su Tang had temporarily folded up, and blinked very slowly, trying to dispel the blurriness in front of his eyes.
Every inch of my body felt like it had been taken apart and then barely put back together. I felt heavy, in great pain, and so weak that I could hardly even lift a finger.
The depths of his soul felt as if being repeatedly scraped by countless blunt knives, leaving behind the burning pain and tearing sensation of the backlash of the blood from the Burning Life Talisman.
He opened his mouth and tried several times before finally squeezing out a weak and hoarse voice: "...like...like being...trampled...by ten thousand...iron bulls..." The voice was very broken and intermittent.
Tie Niu scratched his head and chuckled: "I... I didn't step on you..."
Luo Hongyi sneered: "If you can feel the pain, it means you are not completely stupid yet."
Xie Zhao ignored Luo Hongyi's ridicule. He turned his eyes with difficulty and looked in the direction of Chu Linyuan again.
That figure, in the pervasive murderous aura, seemed so cold and distant.
He twitched the corners of his mouth, as if trying to produce his usual, slightly teasing smile, but it only pulled at the corners of his cracked lips and the muscles on his face, causing a sharp pain.
He took a breath, and with all his remaining strength, he spoke hoarsely and intermittently to the silent figure. His voice was weak but clear:
"Master... Senior Brother..."
"I...I'm like this..."
"Does she look like...the legendary...sickly beauty?"
The moment the words fell, the entire platform fell into dead silence.
Su Tang stared at Xie Zhao blankly.
The silly smile on Tie Niu's face froze.
Luo Hongyi rolled her eyes, but the corners of her mouth curled up almost imperceptibly.
At the edge of the platform, Chu Linyuan's back, sitting cross-legged like an ice sculpture, suddenly shook!
His hands, pressed against his knees, clenched until the knuckles turned white, suddenly loosened as if struck by an invisible force! Then, they clenched again with a fierce force! The joints made a subtle, teeth-grinding sound of friction!
He still didn't turn around. But his back, which was as straight as a spear, was now so tense that it was trembling slightly!
The murderous energy surrounding him suddenly became chaotic for a moment, like a calm surface of ice being thrown into a huge rock, causing a violent wave of ripples! The Immortal-Slaying Spear at his knees sensed the violent fluctuations in its master's emotions and emitted a low, suppressed hum!
"Puff...cough cough cough!" After Xie Zhao asked that question, he seemed to have used up all his strength and started coughing violently. Light golden blood foam overflowed from the corner of his mouth again, staining the clean cloth that Su Tang hurriedly handed over red.
"Xie Zhao!" Luo Hongyi's face changed, and he immediately stepped forward. A faint green poisonous mist lingered around his fingertips again, pressing it against his chest, forcibly suppressing the violent coughing and churning blood.
The moment Xie Zhao coughed up blood, Chu Linyuan's clenched hands suddenly loosened! He stood up abruptly! His movements were so fast that they brought with them a gust of cold wind! He finally turned around!
Deep within those icy eyes, beneath the unmelting ice, surged rage and panic that could burn everything, as well as the naked pain of being forcibly torn apart!
He stared at Xie Zhao coughing up blood, and at the "sick beauty" smile that was forced out on his pale face, which was uglier than crying. A bone-chilling murderous aura swept out uncontrollably, causing the temperature of the platform to drop sharply in an instant!
What did he want to say? What did he want to do? Was he furious at his reckless behavior? Or was he panicking that his life force might be extinguished at any moment?
Finally, all the emotions turned into an extremely suppressed roar, which slammed hard onto the cold keel platform:
"have a good rest!"
After roaring, he no longer looked at anyone, abruptly turning around and sitting cross-legged once more! His hands pressed firmly against the restless Immortal-Slaying Spear, forcibly suppressing the spear intent that was churning again due to the violent fluctuations in his emotions! His back was as stiff as a rock that could crumble at any moment.
Under Luo Hongyi's control, Xie Zhao's coughing and wheezing gradually subsided. He watched Chu Linyuan's back, which rose and fell violently, then finally returned to a cold and stiff state. He watched his hands nearly crush the Immortal-Slaying Spear. A faint smile, a mixture of pain and an indescribable sense of relief, crossed his dim peach-shaped eyes.
He closed his eyes and responded very weakly and submissively:
The platform fell silent again, leaving only the faint and labored breathing of Xie Zhao, the sound of Tie Niu grinding iron more cautiously (he didn't dare to create sparks again), and... Chu Linyuan's heartbeat as heavy as a drum, and the unwilling low hum of the Immortal-Slaying Spear in his hand.
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