The current moved fast!

The water level was dropping rapidly!

Su Man had no control over her own body — the surging current swept her away and slammed her into a tree trunk with a sickening impact!

The collision force was enough to shatter her back. If her constitution hadn’t been enhanced, a blow like that would have knocked her out instantly.

She didn’t dare think about what it would mean if the person hit had been Lu Yuwen — whether he could survive such an impact.

Her only hope now was that he had managed, just as planned, to wrap the rope around a tree branch — otherwise, if he was swept into the empty slot, the drop of four or five floors would be enough to kill him!

And even if they got lucky and the fall wasn’t lethal, being swept by the water into a pit of nearly four thousand square meters — if Su Man wanted to save him, she wouldn’t even know where to look.

The only chance was right now.

But where was Lu Yuwen?!

The water level was dropping with startling speed. Su Man looked around frantically — and at last she spotted Lu Yuwen. He had gotten tangled up in a tree, and as the water level fell, the upper half of his body was emerging above the surface.

“Lu Yuwen!” Su Man cried out to him.

Lu Yuwen’s body floated lifelessly in the water, giving no sign of whether he lived or breathed. A little farther away, another figure rocked and swayed in the churning current — equally still, equally unresponsive.

Between the two men stretched a long rope, slung over a tree branch. The branch was clearly straining under the combined weight of two people, and could snap at any moment.

Su Man gritted her teeth, let herself go, and drifted with the current — then seized the rope that ran between Lu Yuwen and Zhang Ke!

In that instant, the branch bore the weight of three. It snapped immediately.

Su Man slammed into another tree trunk in the rushing water and let out a muffled grunt. Her left hand hooked around a tree fork; her right hand held the rope in a death grip. The enormous drag nearly wrenched the bones of her right hand apart!

She tried to haul Lu Yuwen toward her, but her injured left hand had no strength to give — she lost her grip again, and the current drove her and Lu Yuwen crashing together, then swept them both even farther away!

Over a hundred meters in an instant!

Su Man felt as though her entire body were on fire.

As the torrent carried them through the submerged forest, countless branches raked across her body like a thousand blades slicing skin. And the right hand she’d been clutching the rope with felt as though it were splitting open.

She threw her left arm out in a wild sweep, searching for anything to hold onto — and finally, when she struck a lamppost, she caught it with a reverse grip!

But by now they were nearly at the edge of the empty slot. The surging floodwater poured over the edge like a waterfall. Her body was a mass of pain; her right hand clutched something that felt not like rope anymore, but like a blade, grinding into her palm piece by piece.

Su Man clenched her teeth. Tears ran down her face. The pain had driven her to weeping.

She used the last of her strength to pull Lu Yuwen toward her — trying to drag him to the lamppost side — calling his name over and over: “Lu Yuwen!… Lu Yuwen!…”

Lu Yuwen pried open his eyes, weakly, and looked at her without speaking.

Amid the surging water, waves crashing over his face and flooding his nose and mouth, his complexion had gone ashen — deathly pale, as though he might slip away at any moment.

Su Man screamed at him: “Lu Yuwen! Wake up! Once the water drops a little more we’ll be safe!”

The water was indeed dropping fast — but at this moment Su Man was not holding up one person. She was holding up two.

Zhang Ke’s body drifted not far away, rising and falling in the waves. Every surge of water brought another pull of gravity — each one another form of punishment on Su Man’s right hand.

Lu Yuwen said in a hoarse voice: “Just let go…”

Su Man bit down hard, shaking her head over and over, her eyes red.

Lu Yuwen looked at her and — inexplicably — managed a faint smile. He spoke again: “Su Man — take… take off my glasses. The glasses are actually an item. That’s how I was able to see the labyrinth’s arrows were wrong in the first place. Now… I’m giving them to you… From now on… you’ll be very clever too. You’ll never have to… envy anyone else again…”

“No! No!” Su Man wailed. “Lu Yuwen, are you even a man?! Stop saying things like that! We are both going to make it out alive!!!”

A floating log came drifting with the current and struck Lu Yuwen square in the shoulder — his body plunged beneath the surface.

“Lu Yuwen!!!” Su Man screamed, and threw herself headfirst into the water.

……