Was that so? No wonder she felt uncomfortable again. How could this heart of hers be so fragile? Much more fragile than she had imagined.

Even someone like her had things she cared about most, things she absolutely could not lose. Either he didn’t strike, but once he did, he precisely targeted what she thought was her invincible vital point. Truly exceptionally vicious.

Dense snowflakes the size of bowls began to fall in the room. The ground rapidly formed a thick layer of frost. Xuan Yi gradually felt as if she couldn’t breathe. That fluffy mass blocked her chest, slowly giving rise to an intense pain that made her tremble.

She remembered now—back then, when the ten-thousand-year fire rock needle pierced through her heart, this coldest heart of the Zhuyin Clan was scorched until it nearly boiled.

It truly hurt so much she wanted to perish on the spot.

Shao Yi also began to furrow his brow. Cradling her head, he leaned forward to press against her lips. Icy fingers blocked his chin. Her eyes seemed to say: Only if you promise me.

His tone was cold: “I can also take back the heart feather and watch you perish.”

Then take it back! Don’t think of threatening her with her own life. This move was no longer useful now. Her vital weakness was not herself, but those things he held in his grasp. If she couldn’t keep them safe, perishing together would be quite good. It would fulfill the Qingyang Clan’s wish. The grudges between the two clans—they would have won. She wouldn’t care about these things at all.

She didn’t think about that other snow-colored figure. If she didn’t think about it, she could be a bit more resolute.

Shao Yi stared at her for a very, very long time—so long that he could already feel that he too was about to be unable to breathe. Then he slowly grasped her ice-cold wrist and pulled it to the sides. Her body rigidly slumped at the edge of the bed. He pressed down upon her, lowering his head to heavily kiss her lips.

Regenerative divine power like strong liquor slid down her throat, rapidly filling that empty place in Xuan Yi’s chest. The scorching intense pain eased considerably.

The aura of the Nine Heavens phoenix sprayed on her face. Xuan Yi immediately turned her head away. His exceptionally scorching breath lightly fell by her ear. After repeating this several times, he suddenly leaned over again and once more kissed her ice-cold lips.

Like the contact between cold ice and fierce flames—only for an instant. Xuan Yi pushed him away with one motion. Because of her heart wound relapse, she had become heavier than Mount Tai, her strength incomparably great. Shao Yi was pushed back several steps by her. Then he wiped his lips with his fingertip, his expression calm, not knowing what he was thinking.

Xuan Yi only felt dizzy and heavy-headed. That sense of exhaustion from when her heart wound relapsed years ago and she returned to Mount Zhong once again swept through her body. She desperately held on to avoid falling into deep sleep, opening her mouth intermittently: “I’m right here, not leaving. Send them back.”

Shao Yi slowly walked to the bedside, sat down cross-legged, and laughed lowly: “Little loach, that won’t do.”

It won’t do? Xuan Yi looked at him coldly for a while. He continued: “I also can’t let you fall into deep sleep again. The situation is even worse than I imagined. There’s no time to sleep anymore.”

Dense ice blades flew up dancing, stabbing toward him mercilessly with violent killing intent. Shao Yi didn’t dodge, letting these ice blades pierce into his body. Suddenly feeling another ice blade about to pierce in from his back and heart, he immediately shifted his body. This time he didn’t let it pierce into his right chest. His long hair lightly swept up, like a phoenix’s tail feathers stirring, rolling up that ice blade and tossing it away.

Gold and azure interwoven radiance overflowed and pervaded across his skin, stretching out thread by thread. Shao Yi touched his own heart, pinched with his fingertip, and a mass of gold and azure interwoven, exceptionally gentle radiance fell in his palm, still carrying divine blood that had not yet congealed.

“Come.” He unfastened Xuan Yi’s clothing ties. She struggled with all her might, but because of those ice blades in his body, his hands also became incomparably heavy. She struggled for quite a while, but he didn’t move a fraction.

This time, different from last time when he had torn off her clothing ties with anger, he was extremely cautious and slow. Slowly unfastening the ties of the crimson war general attire, he gently peeled open the collar to both sides like peeling flower petals. Her pale, large expanse of skin was exposed.

Shao Yi pressed her down with one hand, and with the other hand pinched that mass of bloodstained radiance, bit by bit piercing it into her heart.

Like being pierced through the heart by another needle again, Xuan Yi drew in a sharp breath of cold air. This mass of radiance was the phoenix heart feather? It could actually pierce through the dragon scales of the Zhuyin Clan! He suddenly pressed down with his palm. The gold and azure radiance pervading his skin flowed like water, converging above her heart. Xuan Yi only felt that this time the regenerative divine power like strong liquor was directly poured into her heart. The pain made her break out in cold sweat all over.

“When I saved you last time, you were unconscious.” Shao Yi looked down at her, his half-wet long hair spread by both her shoulders. “So you didn’t know—being saved by a phoenix heart feather is very painful.”

More than very painful—even torture was nothing more than this! Xuan Yi was in such pain that her vision repeatedly went black. Her two feet kicked hard on the bed. Catching a glimpse of him watching her suffer torture at his leisure, she was simply furious to the heavens. At this moment she had no way to vibrate her divine power, so she simply grabbed his hair in one motion, wound it countless times in her hand, and pulled with all her might.

Shao Yi made a “hiss” sound and heavily pressed down on her body with the momentum, lowering his head extremely close to see layer upon layer of cold sweat emerge from her jade-porcelain-like skin. She actually didn’t cry out once. Those god clan members who had once been treated by phoenix heart feathers while conscious—nine out of ten would wail like ghosts and howl like wolves.

Formidable. She was truly formidable.

Shao Yi’s two hands slowly cradled her face, examining her for a long while. Her pale lips had already been bitten through. She was still biting.

If she bit them to shreds, he would also be in pain.

He gripped her jaw. Just as he was about to lower his head, suddenly his hair was wound another circle in her hand. His scalp hurt terribly, so he raised his head to look at her cold eyes.

Their four eyes met. After a moment, Shao Yi’s hand gripping her jaw shook slightly. His voice was gentle: “Originally I thought that with Junior Brother Fucang accompanying you, after taking away the little Dragon Lord and the Dijun, you could probably endure through it. I never expected he would actually leave you behind. No choice—it has to be me. Even now I only have five heart feathers total. You alone have used three. Our account is getting bigger and bigger.”

The blood from his ice blade wounds fell on Xuan Yi’s body, then was slowly wiped away by him with his sleeve. Afterward, he pressed his face against her bare heart, listening to her chaotic and difficult heartbeat gradually return to normal bit by bit. With the third heart feather going in, it finally had an effect.

A layer of golden light burst from Shao Yi’s body, swiftly cutting off the hair she was gripping. Those ice blades inserted in his body also fell beneath the bed one after another. He didn’t go to heal the wounds, slowly sat up straight, got off the bed, and turned his head to glance at the little loach on the bed covered in blood and in disarray. At this moment, her heart probably didn’t hurt anymore. What hurt now should be these wounds.

Let her hurt a bit longer.

Xuan Yi used all her strength to fasten all the clothing ties, turned over, and stared fixedly at his blood-soaked back: “Tell me, are they still alive?”

Shao Yi poured a cup of tea, turned around to lean against the table and sip lightly, saying leisurely: “They’re living quite well right now. Whether they’ll be alive in the future depends on you.”

Xuan Yi managed to sit up from the bed with difficulty, arranging her disheveled clothing: “I want proof.”

Shao Yi thought for a moment: “There’s no proof. If you don’t believe it, I don’t care either.”

Xuan Yi drew a breath and looked at him fixedly for a moment: “Phoenix heart feathers affect us both the same. As long as the heart feather connection isn’t severed, your life is also in my hands. Although it’s difficult to harm the Zhuyin Clan, I still have methods.”

Now that these words came from her mouth, he really had to believe them.

Shao Yi looked at her face still bearing traces of blood and suddenly said: “They’re in Qiongsang City. Do you want to go?”