Please... Don't Die

With the complete refinement of the strange flame, an unprecedented wave of comfort spread through his limbs and bones.

It felt like he had just soaked in a hot bath, or like a man dying of thirst for three days finally drinking ice-cold nectar.

His cheeks flushed with an unnatural redness due to the extreme abundance of spiritual energy, and his previously rapid breathing became long and heavy.

The feeling was lazy, satiated, and even carried a hint of an afterglow.

He narrowed his eyes slightly, feeling the surging power within his body in a daze. His body leaned back uncontrollably, hands propping him up on the wet grass behind him, forming an extremely relaxed spread-eagle posture.

It felt so good that a low, hoarse groan escaped his throat.

"Mmm..."

The sound was not loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the dead silence of the rainy night.

Not far away.

Su Wanyin had just crawled back from the gates of hell, her body still as weak as a candle in the wind.

She struggled to prop up her upper body. Her red dress, soaked in rain and cold sweat, clung tightly to her, outlining a breathtaking curve.

She raised her head, and her misty peach-blossom eyes happened to catch this scene.

Gu Yang was slumped on the ground.

His face was flushed, his eyes glazed, and he was panting heavily.

Even his usually straight back seemed somewhat hunched and trembling at this moment.

Boom!

Su Wanyin's mind went completely blank.

Tears burst from her eyes without warning.

"Li... Li Feiyu..."

She reached out a trembling hand, wanting to touch the man, but afraid of shattering his current fragility.

A misunderstanding.

A complete and utter misunderstanding.

In Gu Yang's view, this was just a food coma after a full meal.

But in Su Wanyin's eyes, this was terminal lucidity before death, caused by a terrifying backlash after he forcibly swallowed the strange flame to save her.

"That was the Nine Netherworld Soul-Locking Flame..."

Su Wanyin bit her pale lips, her heart aching so much she couldn't breathe.

"Even an old monster like Mo Yuan was tortured by it for fifty years. To save me, Li Feiyu actually chose to use his body as a furnace and forcibly absorb it..."

"The flush on his face isn't vitality at all; it's the final flash of life after burning his origin blood essence!"

"His current sluggishness must be because his meridians are shattered and his spiritual energy is exhausted. He probably doesn't even have the strength to move a finger, right?"

Rain mixed with tears flowed into her mouth, so bitter it made her panic.

Su Wanyin looked at the man—whose very name was fake, yet who had given her the most genuine warmth—and the defensive wall in her heart, named exchange of benefits, completely collapsed into ash.

In the Demonic Sect, relationships between people were nothing but naked exploitation.

Mo Yuan raised her for twenty years just to refine her into a human pill.

Those men who kept claiming they loved her only coveted her Heavenly Charm Physique, thinking only of how to conquer her in bed and use her to improve their cultivation.

Only Li Feiyu.

This man who had barely looked her in the eye from start to finish, who kept saying he was just passing by or found her noisy.

At the critical juncture of life and death, he gave the hope of life to her and swallowed the deadly strange flame into his own stomach.

"Idiot..."

"How could there be such an idiot like you in this world..."

Su Wanyin propped herself against the ground, crawling toward Gu Yang bit by bit.

Muddy water soiled the skin she usually cherished the most, and thorns cut her palms, but she remained completely oblivious.

Drip, drop.

That was the sound of blood mixed with water falling into the mud puddles.

Su Wanyin's originally white, jade-like hands were now a bloody mess.

She did not use any spiritual energy, because all her meridians had become incredibly fragile from the recent rampage of the strange flame.

Just like that, like a mortal woman humbled into the dust, she dug her nails into the soil, inching her way toward the figure lying by the scorched rocks.

That crimson cloud-silk dress, originally as bright as fire, had long been torn to shreds.

Red strips of cloth hung messily on her body, unable to cover her long but scratched thighs, let alone the snow-white skin heaving from her violent panting.

She crawled extremely slowly.

Every inch she moved was accompanied by piercing agony.

But her peach-blossom eyes, now devoid of their usual calculation and charm, held only a nearly maddened, desperate fear.

"Don't die..."

"Please... don't die..."

Her voice was terribly hoarse, laced with sobs as it echoed through the deathly silent forest.

Finally, her hand, covered in dirt and blood, touched the hem of Gu Yang's gray robe.

Scalding hot.

It was a temperature like a red-hot iron block.

Su Wanyin's heart trembled violently. In her understanding, this kind of temperature had only one explanation—soul burning.

To save her, he had not only swallowed the Nine Netherworld strange flame, but was even burning his own divine soul and blood essence, attempting to forcibly suppress that demonic fire capable of destroying everything.

"Li Feiyu..."

She suddenly threw herself forward, burying her disheveled little head tightly into Gu Yang's embrace.

It was as if she wanted to use her own body heat to retain the life force rapidly draining from this man.

Gu Yang let out a muffled groan under the sudden weight, and his slightly glazed eyes slowly opened.

What met his eyes was Su Wanyin's tear-stained face, tragically beautiful to the extreme.

The loose hair on her forehead was wet with cold sweat and rain, sticking to her pale cheeks. Those eyes that were always full of tender affection were now swollen like two walnuts.

"You... you idiot..."

Su Wanyin's delicate body trembled, her cold hands weakly pounding against Gu Yang's scalding chest.

"You're a rogue cultivator... Aren't you supposed to value profit above all else? You saved me, you could have just taken the storage bag and left... Why did you swallow that fire?"

"That's the Nine Netherworld Soul-Locking Flame that Mo Yuan refined for fifty years... It'll kill you... Do you know it'll kill you?!"

"Why did you absorb it? Why would you go to this extent... for someone like me?"

As she cried, she frantically used her torn sleeves to wipe the sweat from Gu Yang's face.

But Gu Yang's face was getting redder and redder. It was the outward manifestation of the True Sun Fire surging within his body.

In Su Wanyin's eyes, this was the frantic overdrawing of life in its final moments.

...

Gu Yang's consciousness was actually very clear at this moment.

Even clearer than ever before.

He was at the peak of sage mode. Hearing the woman's heart-wrenching cries beside his ear, he felt somewhat helpless.

Big sister, I'm leveling up here.

This fire is a massive tonic. If I don't absorb it, am I supposed to save it for the New Year?

He struggled to open his eyelids, and his gaze fell upon a tear-stained face, pale yet still stunningly beautiful.

Su Wanyin's hair bun had long come undone. The jade hairpin he had given her was stuck crookedly in her hair, and a few wet strands clung to the corner of her mouth. She was a mess, but breathtakingly beautiful.

"Don't... be noisy..."

Gu Yang's voice was hoarse, carrying a hint of annoyance at having his leveling-up interrupted.

But to Su Wanyin's ears, this sounded like the murmur of someone utterly weak and dying.