Chapter 43: Exhaustion and Bloody Embrace
She tried her best to open her eyelids, and the blood-red afterimage remaining on her retina slowly faded away, and the world came into focus again.
A face.
Dried black blood and fresh red covered every inch of his skin, but his tightly closed eyes, high nose bridge and knife-like lip lines still revealed a devastating handsomeness.
It's burning fire.
Only then did she slowly realize that she was hugging him tightly in a protective posture.
Zheng Qiuyu turned his head suddenly and looked around.
Everywhere I look, there is nothingness.
The entire [Hundred Demons' Cry] Canyon resembled a painting thrown into a shredder by a deity: mountains, land, vegetation... everything was ripped into its most primitive "particles" and then brutally erased. The air was filled with a palpable "vacuum" left behind by the collapse of laws. Every breath felt like a weakening of one's very being.
She and Zhuo Huo were lying in the center of this absolutely dead silence that had been forcibly "formatted".
“…”
Zheng Qiuyu let out an incomprehensible hissing sound from her throat. She didn't care about her body that was about to fall apart. She stretched out her hand tremblingly and wiped away the blood stain on her burning forehead almost roughly.
There, on the blood-colored mark of the love poison chain, several new cracks appeared, like ferocious lightning, traversing it. They were deeper and longer than all the previous cracks combined, as if in the next second, this "anchor" that maintained his existence would completely shatter into dust with a crisp sound!
Her heart was gripped tightly by those cracks and twisted into a ball.
Silent Soul Abyss! Now, immediately, right now!
This thought was like a wild weed that grew wildly, instantly occupying her entire mind.
She struggled to get up, but the tearing pain deep in her soul hit her like a tsunami. Her vision went black and the whole world began to spin, almost making her faint again.
Her spiritual energy sea was so dry that a horse could run on it. All over her body, the wounds left by the aftermath of the chaos felt as if countless ants were gnawing at her flesh.
Unprecedented weakness, and unprecedented... clarity.
She looked at the man in front of her, who had fallen into a dead silence. He was a head taller than her, with a slender figure, but now he seemed like a silent black mountain that she needed to carry on her back.
There was a flash of madness in Zheng Qiuyu's eyes.
She gritted her teeth and, using her last bit of dignity and strength, flipped over his body and tried to throw him onto her thin back.
It's too heavy.
This is not the weight of one person at all; it is the weight of a world that she has bound with lies, schemes, and her life!
"boom!"
The heavy weight crushed her last bit of support, her knees gave way, and she slammed forward onto the ground. The sharp gravel pierced the flesh of her knees without resistance, embedding deeply.
Blood dyed the ruins beneath her red.
"Zhao Huo...you're so heavy..."
She lay on the ground, gasping violently, her voice as hoarse as an old bellows.
"I asked you to be a weapon... Who asked you to be a hero?!"
"You're just a broken machine, and you're trying to imitate a human's hard work... Do you know how difficult it is to repair this 'limited edition' of yours if it breaks down?"
"I really know how to thank people... With so many rich partners back then, why did I choose to embrace you, the craziest and most reckless one!"
The harsher she cursed, the steadier her hands on the ground became.
She didn't give up.
Like a she-wolf that was forced into a desperate situation, she let out an unwilling growl from her throat, adjusted her posture once again, arched her back, wrapped her arms around him tightly, and used all her strength to push upwards!
"Get up, for me!"
This time, she stopped.
She staggered and swayed, but she finally carried him on her back.
His cheek rested on the side of her neck, and his hot breath mixed with the smell of blood sprayed on her skin, bringing a shuddering itch.
This is the first time she has traveled through two lives.
For the first time, she was so willing to carry the man whom she once regarded as a "life-saving tool" and "the ultimate burden".
Zheng Qiuyu identified the direction and took a step forward.
One step, one blood mark.
The gravel in her knees repeatedly ground her bones as she walked, and every step felt like walking on a sea of fire and knives.
Blood oozed from her knees and the soles of her worn feet, leaving behind a shocking line of footprints leading to "life" on the gray ruins.
Consciousness began to blur again.
Dark spots appeared at the edge of his vision, and strength was slowly draining away from his fingertips.
She can't hold on any longer.
Just when she thought she was about to fall into the abyss along with the world on her back——
On her abdomen, the mark of the "Chaos Divine Fetus" that she regarded as the biggest lie suddenly jumped.
Like a real heartbeat.
A weak, yet overwhelmingly pure, warm current surged forth from the mark! It wasn't a gentle stream, but a disciplined army, instantly charging through her limbs and bones, forcibly suppressing the collapse of her flesh, even squeezing out the most torturous piece of gravel in her knee with a "pop"!
The severe pain subsided slightly and a little strength returned.
It was the "divine fetus" passively protecting its master. Or rather, it was the little thing responding to its mother's determination in its own way.
"Good son, I'll give you a chicken drumstick when we get back!"
She forced a smile that was uglier than crying and continued walking.
In the wilderness, a thin figure, carrying her god on her back, staggered but never stopped.
Sudden--!
Her consciousness, which had been stretched to the extreme due to the severe pain, trembled violently like a plucked string!
In the distant sky, a sword light appeared!
The sword light was pure and majestic, shining like the sun, carrying the aura of burning all the evil demons in the world, and it was breaking through the air at a speed that could tear through space, heading towards the center of this "divinely silent" place!
The moment the brilliant sword light tore through the void and appeared, Zheng Qiuyu's reaction was even faster than he thought!
All the muscles in her body instantly tensed to the brink of tearing, not because of fear, but because of the beast instinct of having its territory invaded by the ultimate predator!
"laugh--"
With an extreme side slide, she carried Shaohuo on her back and hid behind a huge piece of broken rock that was cut in half in a very twisted posture, awkwardly but swiftly.
"Bang!"
Her back slammed hard against the cold rock wall, riling countless wounds all over her body. The excruciating pain overwhelmed her consciousness like a tsunami, and her vision instantly went black, with a fishy-sweet taste surging in her throat.
“Huh…”
She bit her tongue tightly, using the sharp pain to force herself to maintain a last shred of consciousness. She didn't even dare to check her injuries, but simply used all her strength to push the burning body inwards, using her already broken and frail body to completely block him from the unknown terror.
Then, she restrained all her breath and used her spiritual power to suppress her drum-like heartbeat and heavy breathing.
The whole person seemed to have turned into a lifeless, blood-stained "rock".
Only a pair of bloodshot eyes with pupils shrunk into needle points stared at the approaching light from the cracks in the rock, intently and without a trace of human emotion.
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