85: Chapter 85 Deep Regret

The next moment.

Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft...!!!

The dense, heart-trembling sound of piercing, like the whispers of the Grim Reaper, rang out from behind Lin Yin's back.

The Silver Moon Arrow Rain, covering an area of over a hundred meters, struck Lin Yin's frail back with devastating force!

Her moon-white sacred robe was instantly soaked and torn by blood and shredded flesh.

Her delicate body trembled violently, like a leaf in the autumn wind, and the original arrow wound on her lower abdomen was pierced and widened again by new arrows...

The arrow rain ceased.

Lin Yin still maintained the posture of hugging Lin Tian, but the strength in her arms was rapidly fading.

She lowered her head with great difficulty, bit by bit, looking at Lin Tian, who was covered in tears and blood in her arms. Her blood-stained lips moved slightly, as if she wanted to give him a reassuring smile, but only more blood foam bubbled out.

Intermittently, in a voice that was almost inaudible yet still clear and stubborn, she said to him:

"Brother... Brother Tian... Unless I... die... otherwise... no one can... harm you..."

Every word was like a red-hot knife, stabbing fiercely into Lin Tian's heart, then twisting crazily.

"No! Lin Yin!!!" Lin Tian let out a beast-like howl, the immense pain and self-reproach almost tearing him apart.

"It's all my fault! It's all my greed! I insisted on continuing the challenge! I'm the one who harmed you! It's me!!!"

He jerked his head up, using his last bit of strength to let out a desperate roar toward the empty sky: "I give..."

"Shhh!"

The final soft sound interrupted the word "up" that he hadn't managed to finish.

An exceptionally condensed moonbeam arrow, shot from the direction of the "Mirror Lin Yin," like a precise kiss from the Grim Reaper, pierced through the chests of the tightly embracing Lin Tian and Lin Yin simultaneously.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Lin Tian clearly felt the terrifying sensation of cold metal tearing through muscle, piercing bone, and mincing organs.

Following immediately after was a crushing, overwhelming pain that surpassed the sum of all previous injuries!

His life drained away rapidly from the massive wound in his chest, like a floodgate opening.

The cold, dark, and suffocating shadow of death, like the thickest ink, instantly swallowed him completely.

His vision quickly blurred and darkened, his hearing faded away, leaving only the final, reluctant, and weak beat of his heart, and... the emptiness and pain of his soul being ripped away.

"Is this... the feeling of death..." In his final consciousness, there was boundless darkness, and indelible remorse and heartbreak.

"Lin Yin... I'm sorry... It's me... I'm sorry for failing you..."

He didn't know how long he had been floating in the endless cold and darkness; it felt as long as a century.

"Mmm..."

With a suppressed groan, Lin Tian suddenly opened his eyes.

The blinding natural light of the day made him subconsciously squint.

The sensation beneath him was soft and elastic, carrying a warm body temperature and a familiar, faint fragrance of moonlight springs and cold flowers and plants—only now, it lacked the stench of blood and was filled with a sense of peace.

Turning his somewhat stiff neck, his vision gradually focused.

What came into view was Lin Yin's stunningly beautiful face, filled with anxiety and worry, her eyes red, and undried tears still hanging on her eyelashes.

She was looking down at him, her clear eyes unblinking, as if afraid that if she blinked, he would disappear.

And he himself... was resting on Lin Yin's round, slender, and elastic thighs.

Lin Tian could feel the thigh muscles slightly tensed from nervousness, and could also feel the warmth and smoothness of the skin beneath through the thin fabric.

"Brother Tian! You're awake! You're finally awake!" Seeing Lin Tian open his eyes, Lin Yin's face instantly erupted with immense joy, and tears gushed out again, but this time, they were tears of happiness.

She cautiously, even with a hint of trembling, reached out her hand, as if wanting to touch his face to confirm it was real, yet afraid of hurting him; in the end, she just hovered it in mid-air, her voice choked with sobs, "It's so good... we've both... come back..."

Lin Tian blinked blankly, memories returning like a tide: the mirror, the bitter battle, the arrows, the piercing, the intense pain, the death... and the final, endless darkness and remorse.

He sat up abruptly and looked down at his chest; his clothes were intact, and there were no wounds at all.

He hurriedly looked at Lin Yin again; her moon-white sacred robe was as clean as new, and the lower abdomen, the back... those terrifying wounds seemed as if they had never existed.

Right... the secret realm challenge; death was not real.

They had been "kicked" out and had returned to Lord Su Wan's Moonlight Grove.

"Have we... really returned?" Lin Tian muttered, his voice somewhat hoarse.

He looked up and scanned his surroundings; not far away, Lord Su Wan was standing with all the elves, watching this side with a complex expression.

Further away, Lin Feng was silently reorganizing the Heavy Armored Spearmen, who had also "revived" but were clearly carrying exhaustion and a sense of daze.

Everyone was alive, but their faces still bore the shadows and lingering fear brought by "death" in the secret realm.

"Mm, we're back, Brother Tian." Lin Yin replied softly, looking at his bewildered state, her eyes filled with heartache.

Hesitating for a moment, she still reached out and gently grasped Lin Tian's slightly trembling hand resting on his knee, using the warmth of her palm to dispel the coldness from his fingertips bit by bit, as if confirming each other's real existence.

"It's okay now, it's all over."

The warmth and real sensation from her palm finally allowed Lin Tian to fully wake up.

He gripped Lin Yin's slightly cool hand tightly in return, as if clutching a straw for survival, and as if he wanted to lock her firmly by his side.

The relief of surviving a disaster, mixed with endless gratitude, lingering fear, and that unspeakable, deep affection for Lin Yin's self-sacrificing protection, collided violently in his chest.

Looking at Lin Yin's face so close at hand, looking at the undisguised concern and lingering tears in her eyes, a thousand words were stuck in his throat.

In the end, it only turned into a long sigh, filled with endless complex emotions, and a barely audible sentence: "Thank you, Lin Yin. And... I'm sorry."

Lin Yin shook her head gently, not speaking, just holding his hand a little tighter.

Sunlight filtered through the treetops, dappling onto the two of them, quiet and warm, as if that tragic and desperate "death" just now was merely an overly realistic nightmare.

However, something had already quietly changed between that life and death, branded into the bottom of his heart, never to be erased again.

Lying on Lin Yin's soft and elastic thighs, with the reassuring, faint fragrance on her body lingering at the tip of his nose, Lin Tian's heart was still somewhat disordered.

In his mind, he uncontrollably flashed back repeatedly to the incredibly real, intense pain and cold suffocation brought by that final heart-piercing arrow, as well as the image of Lin Yin's back being pierced through by the Silver Moon Arrow Rain, dripping with blood, yet still stubbornly shielding him in her arms.

Every time he recalled it, his heart would twitch violently, and his fingertips would turn cold.

Subconsciously, he moved, still wanting to sit up, as if this could help him escape that shadow of death that followed him like a shadow.