Her heart felt empty, not knowing whether it was anger, resentment, melancholy, or entanglement. It seemed she had explained everything with Gong Yin, yet also seemed nothing had been truly clarified. Though the truth was clear, her emotions were even more unsettled. In comparison, harboring hatred and resentment toward him before had seemed simpler. At this moment, she hardly knew whether to hate or forgive, whether to let go and start anew, or let go and leave forever.

His difficulties seemed genuine, but the reasons weren’t sufficient to ease her heart. Cui Jie’s death, her heartbreak, those days of near-desperate agony—all stemmed from his arbitrary decisions. She acknowledged he loved her, believed he loved her, but why wouldn’t he trust her? Why wouldn’t he give her a chance to try her best?

Why couldn’t he give her respect and trust? When lovers were together, even dying together would be willingly accepted, wouldn’t it?

Moreover, there was Cui Jie’s death—a chasm between her and him that was difficult to cross for the time being.

To make the act more convincing, he had abandoned Cui Jie. In the eyes of someone like him, people like Cui Jie were like ants, who could be sacrificed at any time for the needs of those in power.

But she came from modern times, where life was incomparably precious in her heart. Compared to her dear friend’s life, all those reasons seemed too weak.

No matter how many hardships, they were no reason to casually throw away others’ lives.

This was the greatest conflict between her and his values—the incompatible difference between modern and ancient people regarding human rights and awareness of life’s value.

She also acknowledged she loved him, but her wounded heart hadn’t healed enough to forgive easily.

The deeper the love, the deeper the resentment. She would rather have experienced all those hardships along this journey by his side.

If she just turned the page like this, she felt she would be failing her dear friend—forgetting others’ innocent deaths just to selfishly fulfill her own happiness.

She sat silently in the darkness for a long time, her heart tangled like a mess. After a long while, she sighed softly and stood up.

If she couldn’t sort it out, then she shouldn’t meet again for now.

As for the outcome, she would leave it to fate and destiny.

His desire for her to be strong was still correct. Perhaps when she became more powerful with broader horizons, she would naturally know how to resolve many things.

Behind her, Gong Yin still lay quietly in the darkness. She vaguely heard sounds from above and vaguely heard his breathing was irregular, but her own heart was in chaos, so she didn’t pay attention for the moment.

After walking two steps, she couldn’t help but look back. In the darkness, Gong Yin’s body glowed slightly—it was sweat.

She felt something was wrong. How could someone with Gong Yin’s constitution keep sweating like this?

She couldn’t help but return, taking Gong Yin’s torn clothing, pushing him, wanting to wake him so he could dress and wipe himself clean. Otherwise he would catch cold.

Gong Yin had been maintaining a position of loosely holding her. When she pushed like this, his body suddenly tilted to one side.

Jing Hengbo was greatly alarmed.

This posture… made one think of very bad things!

How could he show such a powerless posture?

Jing Hengbo’s heart began pounding as she hurried to press on his heart. The heart was ice-cold, frightening her into a cold sweat. Then she remembered this spot was naturally cold on him. Carefully feeling, though the heartbeat was slow, it was still there. Still worried, she tried his breathing—it was low and rapid, his face slightly flushed, his forehead quite hot, as if running a fever. Yet his body was still ice-cold. His condition was very strange.

Though she couldn’t determine if he was sick or injured, he was obviously very weak. From his slightly trembling limbs and the sweat covering his body, exhaustion was certain.

Resentment was instantly suppressed as guilt and heartache filled her heart—this journey of frantic rushing must have been very difficult.

When she had originally forced him to appear, she hadn’t thought he would have any problems. Because she had calculated beforehand, giving him ample time to reach Sinking Iron. With either his martial arts or his military strength, no one along the way should have been able to stop him.

Those who could stop him, like Cheng Gumo or that hidden person, should have all been attracted to Sinking Iron by her. He shouldn’t have been in danger.

Precisely because she had considered all possibilities beforehand and left Yan Sha as backup, no matter how she calculated, aside from herself, no one should be harmed in this chess game. Only then had she dared to take the risk and force him into the game.

But now it seemed he had still been blocked, rushing along this way through who knows how many obstacles, nearly arriving too late.

Jing Hengbo frowned. She still felt something was wrong. Was the enemy hidden in the shadows really so powerful as to delay Gong Yin again and again? With Gong Yin’s authority, position, and abilities, what reason could have delayed him again and again? The hidden enemy was definitely in Sinking Iron. Those left on the road to block him were just the opponent’s subordinates. Could they force Gong Yin to such weakness?

In her heart, Gong Yin was incomparably powerful, which was why she dared try this risky gambit to force him. But the current situation made her uneasy. She reached out to take his pulse, holding his wrist for a long time before remembering she didn’t know how to read pulses. She could only let go in disappointment.

With no way to ask her questions—she knew Gong Yin wouldn’t answer, and he seemed to lack the strength to answer now—she grabbed the torn undergarment to wipe him down, preparing to dress him. Otherwise he would catch cold.

Having cared for Yelu Qi before, her movements were quite practiced. When her fingers wiped across his chest, feeling the smooth, warm skin beneath, her heart suddenly began beating faster, and her ears grew slightly warm.

She became somewhat dazed, holding the undergarment, remembering when she had wiped down Yelu Qi. Though she had also found his skin very beautiful and his figure excellent—male beauty that made one’s nose bleed—she had been able to appreciate it calmly. Though somewhat nervous, she hadn’t been very shy. Nothing like now, where she trembled like she was in heat, seeing moon-like skin and wanting to touch while wiping, seeing the lustrous slight redness on beautiful jade and wanting to pinch while touching. From time to time she forgot he was still a patient, wanting to sleep, wanting to be in heat, with heart palpitations she couldn’t suppress.

Was this because… she liked him?

Or was she just a lustful female predator with her brain in her crotch?

She wanted to slap herself again.

It took a long time to collect herself and quickly dry him, but his condition was obviously very poor. As soon as she wiped away one layer of sweat, another quickly appeared. The wet, beautiful man was very seductive, but she began to worry. Sweating like this, he would become dehydrated and something would happen.

She couldn’t keep wiping him like this—it was useless. She found his deep robe, wanting to dress him, but discovered the clothing was also covered in dust and grime. Not having been washed for several days, it was slightly stiff. Wearing it on a sweating body would be very uncomfortable.

She thought about it and began undressing herself.

Her red dress outside had already been burned. Inside she wore red long shirt, long pants, and undergarments. The red upper garment was still clean, and it was soft satin, very comfortable. The upper garment was wide with dropping shoulders—her own design. He might be able to wear it.

She put her clothing over his head. He seemed somewhat conscious and raised his arms to resist, but after lifting them a few inches, Jing Hengbo caught them, simply grasping both his arms and raising them over his head, supporting him to put her red upper garment on him.

It fit perfectly. What drooped at the shoulders for her was just right for him. His upper body was lean without being bony, strong and smooth with no excess flesh—the kind of touch where fingers could bounce off. Wearing her garment wasn’t too stressful.

After dressing him, she looked and couldn’t help laughing with a “pff” sound.

Really beautiful.

That person’s snow-white face was set off by the fire-red clothing, appearing even more crystal-clear like jade and snow, vivid to the point of seduction.

He always wore white, which although it extremely complemented his ice-snow frost-cold temperament, also seemed too cold—distant and untouchable, impossible to approach. But just changing the color, that feeling of “I am outside the red dust in frost and snow” suddenly lessened greatly. His whole person appeared clear and beautiful to the point of being almost cute.

“You should wear red…” Jing Hengbo stared with a direct gaze, murmuring a few sounds, suddenly feeling somewhat dazed.

When should he wear red?

Wedding night…

Her heart suddenly skipped, then grew cold. She bit her lip and turned to stare at the wall for a while. After a long time, she turned back, looking at him with somewhat reluctant intensity for a few moments before putting his robe over her own red clothing.

As for the outermost robe of Yelu Qi’s, it was already filthy beyond belief, so she forgot about it.

After arranging his clothing and looking at his complexion again, she still felt something was wrong. She stood up to look above, testing—it seemed to be blocked. But it didn’t matter. Since there was an underground chamber, there should be an exit.

It was still relatively safe now. She sat cross-legged beside him, wondering if this condition was caused by her sealing his true power, so she tried to release it. She recalled the unique release method of the Mingyue Heart technique, pressing her palm on his lower abdomen, trying to draw out that thread of her true qi.

Her palm shook slightly. She could feel her own not-very-profound true power quickly flowing out along the meridians, but unfortunately, wisps of cold qi also flowed out following her true qi.

Her heart jumped in alarm, thinking she shouldn’t be like the Star Absorption technique, also absorbing Gong Yin’s true qi? That would be even worse. Then she remembered the Mingyue Heart technique had never mentioned having such an effect. If it had this effect, the old lady would have been world’s number one long ago.

That cold qi was very cold. She could withdraw her palm but stubbornly held on, wanting to see what was actually happening. When the cold qi entered her body, her whole body shuddered violently. She felt this ice-snow qi was different from the feeling Gong Yin usually gave her—more fierce and malicious, with three parts fire-burning qi mixed in. When entering the body it was ice-cold, but when circulating through the meridians, it was so hot that even her heart seemed to ache.

She had more than once had Gong Yin use true qi to smooth her meridians and heal injuries, so she understood pure Prajna Snow. That was similar to Mingyue Heart—bright, clean, clear and gentle flowing qi. She felt it could be described as clear and moist like water essence, definitely not like this current almost violent qi. If Prajna Snow was a blade of ice and snow, this was a poisoned, ghastly green sharp blade.

Ziwei had told her that true qi wouldn’t randomly run wild. Qi that scattered everywhere was mostly not original source qi and was harmful to the human body. Her heart rejoiced, thinking she had found the reason for his weakness. He seemed to have been injured before, and it would be good to guide out this foreign, wild-running true qi.

So even though half her body was frozen numb at this moment, and the palm connected to his lower abdomen felt like needle-stabbing sharp pain, she didn’t let go. Instead, she leaned forward.

In the darkness came chattering sounds—that was the sound of her teeth chattering. Frost and snow gradually condensed on her fire-shortened broken hair, then rustled down, flashing in the darkness and disappearing, then flashing and disappearing again…

She struggled against the cold qi, bit by bit absorbing his chaotic qi. She vaguely saw the blue-green qi between his brows seemed to have disappeared quite a bit, feeling slightly comforted in her heart.

While absorbing his rampaging poison qi, she couldn’t help using the Mingyue Heart technique to check his internal condition. The Mingyue Heart technique was called “bright moon” with the meaning of “bright moon in sky, reflecting myriad phenomena without dust”—it could explore the operational trajectories of most martial arts in the world. But for some reason, she couldn’t use true qi to explore his entire body, only feeling that the Prajna Snow true qi near his dantian was relatively normal. Perhaps she hadn’t practiced enough.

She suddenly made a soft “eh” sound, feeling his lower abdomen seemed somehow wrong. One place had meridians that were particularly wide, as if the flesh and blood in that area was missing a part.

Martial artists’ meridians were generally wider, but that wideness was overall. Like his case where only one place was suddenly wide was very strange, and she could feel the meridians there were slightly disordered.

That wasn’t any vital point, and that place seemed to have already healed. She didn’t pay much attention, just felt that position seemed a bit strange. Unable to help thinking about it there, with this moment of distraction, she suddenly shuddered, feeling a fierce cold qi suddenly attack, swooshing to scatter her true qi and pressing straight toward her heart meridian.

In that instant she felt as if a sharp blade had suddenly been thrust backward into her five organs and six bowels!

The pain pierced to the bone!

In this moment she only had time to gather her last bit of true power to protect her heart meridian.

She felt her entire internal organs seemed to shake, like waves hitting shore, moonlight illuminating cliffs. The surging tide ultimately couldn’t resist heaven’s power, responding to the moonlit tides and gradually calming down.

She opened her eyes, gasped, looked down, and “pff”—spat out a mouthful of purple blood.

While spitting blood, she still didn’t forget to look back—he hadn’t awakened yet. She breathed a sigh of relief. She felt her whole body inside and out was both painful and cold, without a bit of strength left, only wanting to collapse and lie down.

However, she still struggled to look back at the blood she had spat out, reaching to scrape around on the ground, using dirt to cover the blood traces.

Afterward she felt angry again, resentfully wiping her muddy hands on his body.

Feeling his breathing had finally calmed somewhat, she was slightly relieved. She hadn’t been able to guide out all that fierce qi, and didn’t dare try again. If she tried again and lost her life, that would be one thing, but the key was that even if she saved him awake, if he woke to see her dead, he’d probably commit suicide, wasting two lives.

Now, whether it was her or him, neither was just one person. Both bore heavy responsibilities and countless lives. No one could be willful.

When extremely tired, one becomes too lazy to care about any grievances. She collapsed with a bang, falling beside him again. When falling, she felt she had become an ice person, with ice cracking sounds from inside her body.

She smiled bitterly, thinking this was just great. This guy’s injuries and illness weren’t healed, and now she had collapsed too. If enemies came immediately, this would be troublesome.

But being underground, she probably didn’t need to worry about this?

While thinking this, she suddenly heard strange sounds.

…

While Jing Hengbo and Gong Yin were endlessly entangled underground, the city-seizing battle on the surface had entered its final phase.

The city wall defenders, already struggling greatly against the soldiers Yelu Qi had brought, lost the effectiveness of the moat as each member of the Jade Shine Dragon Cavalry was skilled. When the Yan Sha Army arrived, Yelu Qi already had the upper hand. With the fierce, competitive Yan Sha Army’s arrival, the war immediately entered a white-hot state. Those rough men who bared their chests even in deep winter raised their battle axes, charged wildly on horseback, reaching halfway up the city walls in one bound, with those beside them laughing that they were too slow!

Under the stimulation of this life-disregarding fighting style, the noble and self-respecting Jade Shine Dragon Cavalry also refused to be outdone. The black and white armies competed, seizing the city walls in a quarter hour.

The Sinking Iron Army was just an inland army with little warfare experience. Where had they seen such armies? Combined with being frequently shocked, they lost the will to resist after several encounters.

The Yan Sha Army’s grand commander split the city wall’s banner with one axe blow, laughing loudly: “You guard the city walls, we’re going to grab Old Cheng’s tail!” He led soldiers whistling down.

Yelu Qi looked enviously at his retreating figure, secretly resenting that he had taken on the hard job—even outsiders could enter the city first to check on Jing Hengbo!

Turning his eyes, he suddenly saw Gong Yin’s guard captain catch a carrier pigeon.

Gong Yin’s guard captain had arrived one step after Gong Yin at Sinking Iron, not following into the city but staying by Yelu Qi’s side for protection. He bore Gong Yin’s secret guard markings, and staying behind also helped Yelu Qi stabilize military morale.

Yelu Qi saw that secret guard’s expression freeze when receiving the message, becoming very curious about the letter, but he couldn’t inquire of Gong Yin’s guard, so he had to let it go.

The guard captain looked at the letter and destroyed it. He drew out a tube from the pigeon’s leg, looked at it—inside was a thin roll that was indeed a human skin mask. Moreover, it was an extremely fine human skin mask, otherwise it couldn’t be so thin.

He felt faint puzzlement in his heart.

It was normal for his master to need human skin masks sent from Dige, but he hadn’t requested any before. Suddenly sending such a mask seemed strange no matter how he looked at it.

He didn’t think much about it. Seeing the battle was fierce, he tucked the tube at his waist and joined the city assault team.

…

At this time, Cheng Gumo was in the palace city, laughing as he looked down at the surrendering soldiers below. He wasn’t in a hurry to give speeches, only staring at the blazing fire scene. The bigger the fire, the happier his laughter.

As for people not emerging—that made him even happier.

Watching the fire势 go from large to small with still no one emerging from the fire scene, he couldn’t help bursting into loud laughter, pointing with his horsewhip.

“Brothers,” he said to those shame-faced surrendering soldiers, “rest assured. Today you surrender to me and become my brothers. From now on we’ll share fortune and face hardship together. If I have a drink, you’ll have one too!” He turned to instruct the quartermaster: “Register and catalog the brothers, assign them to various battalions. Issue new military uniforms—no negligence allowed!”

The quartermaster hurried to comply. Cheng Gumo gazed at the ten thousand intact troops below, his heart blooming with joy, thinking that bitch queen had killed his only son, and now was repaying with ten thousand elite soldiers—heaven had eyes indeed.

“Stop looking so dejected!” He laughed heartily. “Is that bitch Jing Hengbo worth your reluctant attachment? Is following a woman so honorable? She’s just a stupid woman who grows a pretty face but no brains, putting you all in fire pits just to save one friend! Her friend’s life is a life, but your lives aren’t? If not for this general’s magnanimity, you’d be in mass graves now! Is such a master worth shedding a single tear over?”

The soldiers hung their heads with gloomy expressions, feeling Cheng Gumo’s speech made sense but still feeling uncomfortable listening to it. They also felt the queen wasn’t that kind of person.

Her dance on the hall roof amid great fire was so mournful and stunning. Everyone couldn’t forget that scene’s magnificence and splendor, couldn’t forget her eyes in that moment.

Despair and deep affection.

Such a person wouldn’t treat countless generals and soldiers’ lives as child’s play.

“As for you!” Cheng Gumo suddenly pointed at Qi Sha, Tian Qi, Ying Bai and others, saying viciously: “Execute without mercy!”

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to recruit these experts, but seeing these people’s eyes, he knew it was wishful thinking. Better to strike first.

No one paid attention to him—all were looking at that fire. Yi Qi impatiently circled the fire scene, irritably cursing: “So noisy!”

Fierce light flashed in Cheng Gumo’s eyes, the bloodthirsty desire in his chest growing more intense. He waved his hand, and a large group of Kanglong Army rushed forward.

Swords were about to sing.

Suddenly another sound arose.

The sound of galloping hooves.

Accompanying the horse sounds came loud laughter, shouting, killing sounds, and the Yan Sha Army’s bold and passionate challenge calls.

“Old Cheng!” Someone laughed from afar. “Finished showing off your might? When you’re done, it’s our turn to give you a poke!”

Cheng Gumo turned around in shock on his horse.

He saw a mass of black heads rolling through the palace gates, through the corridors. The cold light of blades reflected on bare chests, splashing blood covered the road behind.

Black banners without words or signs, soaked in blood, murderously fierce.

The Yan Sha Army!

Cheng Gumo’s vision went black, nearly falling off his horse.

The hundred-battle general immediately understood the entire strategy, immediately understood—he’d been fooled!

Yan Sha was Jing Hengbo’s backup plan!

He had wrapped Jing Hengbo in dumplings, and Jing Hengbo would wrap him in reverse—those who make others into filling become filling themselves!

He had laughed at the queen’s recklessness, celebrated the queen’s stupidity, thought women were just long-haired and short-sighted, willful and selfish without considering the big picture, leading herself and the army into a dead end.

Little did he know that in the end, he had only laughed at his own stupidity.

The Yan Sha Army’s wild charging momentum was like a black banner descending from overhead.

One of Cheng Gumo’s deputy generals reacted quickly, immediately shouting: “First kill these prisoners…”

He knew that at this time the prisoners would definitely turn, and what they’d face next would be attacks from inside and outside—the situation armies most feared encountering.

“Swoosh.” With a sound, a wine flask pierced through clouds like a streak of black light, smashing into his face. His mouth full of teeth immediately scattered everywhere.

Ying Bai’s wine flask.

The prisoners had already awakened, cheering and yelling as they rushed to the pile of weapons they had just turned in, grabbing whatever they could to stab the soldiers in front of them.

Ying Bai’s voice rang out timely: “Kanglong who surrender can also be spared!”

The Kanglong Army, shocked into stupor by the overwhelming Yan Sha Army and the suddenly rebelling Crossbar Army, came to their senses and looked at each other.

They had just been accepting surrenders, and in the blink of an eye they were supposed to surrender?

They seemed unwilling, but fight? Yan Sha was their own country’s army anyway, Crossbar was the queen’s army—all were friendly forces. This expedition had been unjustified from the start. Should they continue down the wrong path now?

In a moment of hesitation, the Yan Sha Army had already rushed to their faces. Those black, gleaming muscles throbbed, battle axes in their hands reflected blood and sky light. Looking at those desperadoes’ expressions, one knew these people didn’t care about friendly forces or not—if you didn’t surrender, they’d kill you with three cuts and six holes!

“An unrighteous army finds little support!” Ying Bai’s voice was clear, heard clearly by tens of thousands. “Kanglong, it’s not too late to turn back now! Do you really want to face the combined siege of Jade Shine Dragon Cavalry and Yan Sha with a rebellious army, dying with eternal infamy?”

A moment of dead silence and uproar, then someone shouted: “We surrender! Commander Ying Bai! Yan Sha brothers! We were kept in the dark too—we didn’t know beforehand we were besieging the queen!”

“Lost but returning to the right path—congratulations!” Ying Bai laughed loudly. “This deserves a great toast!”

But the Yan Sha soldiers cursed in dissatisfaction: “Bullshit! No fun! Screw off! I charged so far and don’t even get to swing my blade!”

Before that shout of “surrender,” Cheng Gumo had already struck his horse hard, charging outward.

The situation was hopeless—better to preserve the green mountains than worry about having no firewood!

His personal guard unit naturally wouldn’t surrender, protecting him as they charged backward. At this time the Crossbar Army hadn’t fully rearmed and still had to guard the Kanglong Army, so he only faced Yan Sha.

The two armies crashed together with a thunderous collision, instantly splattering blood at the point of contact!

The truly final siege battle belonging to the Sinking Iron War began!

…

Half an hour later, Cheng Gumo’s personal army, fighting with nearly half casualties, ultimately still protected him as they broke through the Yan Sha Army’s encirclement, charging toward the city outskirts.

Every member of the Yan Sha Army had fierce temperaments, disliking dense battle formations and advance blockades. Seeing enemies, they charged up to hack, and though brave and intimidating, this also easily gave others opportunities to exploit.

But there was still the Jade Shine Dragon Cavalry before the city, with Yan Sha howling in pursuit behind. Whether Cheng Gumo could successfully exit Sinking Iron Royal City really depended on his luck.

Jing Hengbo’s subordinates had no heart to pursue, seeing the fire diminishing, they began entering the fire scene to search.

The Sinking Iron Army had originally followed Tie Feng Lei’s orders to cooperate with the Kanglong Army. Now that Kanglong had surrendered and Tie Feng Lei was dead, only Tie Xing Ze remained of the royal family and would certainly succeed to the throne. So they naturally accepted Tie Xing Ze’s orders, laying down weapons and turning to help with the search.

Gong Yin’s guard captain also arrived, reported the city gate situation to Ying Bai, and joined the search team.

The place where Gong Yin and Jing Hengbo had embraced and fallen was originally at the highest point in the palace center. After the great fire, buildings had collapsed into rubble, making it difficult to distinguish. Everyone could only estimate the general direction and search bit by bit around that area.

“Strange, with such a large palace, how could this fire burn so fast and thoroughly?” Tian Qi questioned while searching.

Tie Xing Ze, opposite him, raised his face blackened by fire and smoke: “This used to be the empress’s sleeping palace. Later when the court expanded, this location was good, so it was expanded into the main hall. The empress’s sleeping palace was called the Pepper Room. The four walls and wall interlayers were coated with pepper mud, and there were fire passages underground. There were probably many flammable materials, so it burned especially fast.”

Tian Qi said: “You’re quite familiar with the royal palace. Makes sense—it’ll be yours in the future.”

Tie Xing Ze sighed long with a melancholy expression: “Let’s find the queen first. If we can’t find the queen, sitting on this throne won’t be enjoyable.”

Tian Qi suddenly slapped his forehead: “Right! I think our thinking is all wrong. How did we forget about Jing Hengbo’s teleportation? She wasn’t injured—how could she just sit and wait to be burned to death? Maybe she teleported away then, but with thick smoke and great fire, we didn’t see. Her teleportation can go quite far now. We should search nearby too.”

Everyone found this reasonable. Tie Xing Ze immediately said: “I’ll first take the palace guards to search around the palace city.” He immediately selected people and left. Qi Sha and others also felt this possibility was greater, shouting as they searched throughout the palace.

Only Gong Yin’s guard captain continued searching on the ruins, his expression worried. He knew his master’s physical condition and was very concerned he might not escape this calamity.

While searching a high section of ruins, his foot caught on a loose piece of charred wood, making him stumble. He steadied himself against a broken wall and continued searching.

With debris everywhere, he didn’t notice that the tube containing the mask at his waist had fallen during that stumble.

The tube rolled down to the ground, passing through cracks in the surface, rolling all the way down.

Finally “pop”—after passing through countless cracks and cave-ins, it landed on someone’s head.

“Ouch.” Jing Hengbo rubbed her head as she woke up. “Which bastard hit my head…”

She thought her cursing was loud, but when the sound came out it was very low. She felt her throat hurt and her whole body was stiff. Looking down, she didn’t know when she had burrowed into Gong Yin’s embrace again, probably feeling too cold and unconsciously crawling into his arms while sleeping.

She felt she wasn’t quite right—there was a cold true qi in her body that kept clashing around, hitting her meridians painfully and making her whole body weak. And Gong Yin… Gong Yin still hadn’t awakened?

If he still hadn’t awakened by now, that would really be wrong.

She touched his hand—it seemed he wasn’t sweating anymore. She went to touch his face but ended up touching his lips. Her fingertip was suddenly bitten lightly as he said lowly: “Awake?”

Hearing him awake, Jing Hengbo immediately felt relieved. She asked: “What’s wrong with you?” While withdrawing her finger, she hatefully wiped it on her clothing to show disgust.

Gong Yin’s lips curved wearily. He had forced himself to wake up, floating and sinking in dizziness, his consciousness constantly reminding himself he couldn’t sleep long—if he slept too long, Jing Hengbo would become suspicious. By constantly calling to himself like this, he had actually managed to wake himself up.

With his current condition, he should actually rest for a period, completely avoiding martial arts use to let his body repair itself. The body’s choice of automatic long-term sleep was inevitable, but he didn’t dare just sleep like that, afraid of frightening her.

He vaguely felt that during his unconsciousness, something had happened. Jing Hengbo’s body temperature also seemed abnormal. Feeling somewhat uneasy, he wanted to try her pulse, but when his fingertip reached out, it was powerless, so he had to stop.

Jing Hengbo had already keenly noticed, frowning as she stared at him—he seemed very weak?

…