47: Then I will offer myself as a sacrifice to you.

The survival bus's shattered headlights shook violently in the darkness.

As the intense light swept across the path ahead, Su Chen's pupils couldn't help but contract.

What met his eyes was not some sacred hall, but a tower.

A giant tower constructed from the twisted, withered, and rusted wreckage of countless "survival buses."

The car shells looked as if they had been melted by high heat and then forcibly fused together. Jagged steel beams pierced the sky, and in the gaps, one could even see bleached bones that hadn't yet weathered away.

Su Chen caught a nauseating scent—the smell of old engine oil mixed with the scorched stench of rotting flesh.

"What... is hanging up there?"

Su Chen's voice was dry as his fingertips subconsciously traced the cracked patterns on the steering wheel.

At the peak of this giant metal tower, three hundred blood-red strips were dancing wildly in the wind like prayer flags.

Each one shimmered with an eerie light, as if the eyelids of a living creature were constantly twitching.

"They are marriage contracts."

Zhao Wanting's translucent body curled into a ball as her finger trembled, pointing toward the top of the tower.

"The Divine Marriage Altar only recognizes 'Master-Subordinate Pairings.' Su Chen, those are Death Warrants."

"If the master and subordinate of this vehicle cannot complete a formal Marriage Bond within three days, we... and this bus, will all become part of that tower's base."

Su Chen gave a cold snort. "A forced deal? The apocalypse's manners are truly not elegant at all."

Though he complained, his heart felt as heavy as lead.

He could feel the small purple-gold bead that had just formed in his Dantian throbbing uneasily.

That instinctive repulsion toward the aura of evil made the hairs all over his body stand on end.

"My name... is there."

Lin Mengyao suddenly leaned past Su Chen, her eyes reflecting a clarity that bordered on despair.

She slammed the door open, braving the astral winds outside that were strong enough to strip skin, and stared fixedly at the blood-red marriage contract at the very front.

At the end of that paper, the three characters for "Lin Mengyao" were writhing like venomous snakes.

And right next to them were the two characters for "Su Chen."

"You want me to accept my fate? In your dreams!"

Lin Mengyao bit her lip so hard she nearly drew blood. Her right hand suddenly reached out the window, grasping at the air.

She actually managed to forcibly tear off a corner of the marriage contract's phantom that originally belonged to her.

However, in the next second, a sudden change occurred.

"Ugh!"

Lin Mengyao let out a muffled groan as pitch-black pus and blood instantly seeped from the fingertips that had touched the marriage contract.

That black blood seemed to have a life of its own, burrowing into her flesh through her fingernails as if it wanted to dye her entire being into the color of ink.

Su Chen grabbed her and pulled her back. To his touch, Lin Mengyao's body temperature was terrifyingly cold.

"Don't touch it. That thing is poisonous."

Su Chen's gaze was dark.

"It's not poison... it's a brand."

Lin Mengyao leaned against the seat, gasping for breath, her face as pale as paper.

"Those old fogies of the Lin Family buried the Marriage Bond into my bloodline long ago."

"As long as we are within a hundred miles of the altar, even if I don't agree, the system will default to me being your 'Furnace Feeder'."

She gave a self-deprecating laugh, her smile looking more painful than crying.

Su Chen didn't respond. His gaze quickly swept across the blood-red marriage contracts flying in the sky.

Every single one had names written on it, densely packed, but he alone couldn't find Qin Ya.

"Teacher's name isn't here."

Su Chen looked back at Qin Ya, who was huddled in the corner of the back seat.

Qin Ya was stunned for a moment.

She looked down at her hands, which were covered in scars from the previous incident. "Because I'm not a member of the Lin Family. In their eyes, I probably don't even have the qualification to be a 'subordinate' or a sacrifice for this altar."

Su Chen's heart skipped a beat.

In this cold logic of the apocalypse, did one even need a "noble" bloodline just to be harvested?

He took a deep breath, pretending to observe the material of the marriage contracts, while his right hand quietly pressed against the bronze base of the dashboard.

A wisp of pure internal true Qi extended from his fingertips.

In Su Chen's perception, those marriage contracts were no longer paper, but clusters of Contractual Locks woven from extreme resentment.

Every line exuded a chilling cold, like needles piercing into the marrow of his bones.

The Sacred Yang Source within him stirred slightly, and a sensation of heat rose from his palm.

He understood instantly that as long as he fully unleashed his Yang Fire, these so-called contracts would be incinerated in an instant.

But... what would be the price?

Once he made a move here, his "Sacred Yang Divine Body" would no longer be a secret.

Before this malicious Divine Marriage Altar, exposing all his cards was no different from walking naked among a pack of wolves.

More troublesome was that this reverse-burning required at least two completely trusted forces to act as catalysts to guide his Yang Fire.

Looking at the two women before him, each with her own thoughts, Su Chen smiled bitterly in his heart.

One had just been betrayed by her family and was full of violence, while the other had fallen into self-doubt because she was "rejected." Could he really expect them to be of "one heart and one mind" with him now?

"Su Chen, look..."

Qin Ya suddenly stood up and pulled a stack of yellowed lesson plans from her bag.

Those papers seemed out of place in the apocalypse, yet she had preserved them exceptionally well.

Right in front of Su Chen, her fingers moved rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, several simple paper kites took shape.

"Since this altar doesn't recognize me as a teacher, then I will lead the way for my students one last time."

Qin Ya smiled gently, with a resolve that Su Chen had never seen before.

She bit the tip of her tongue and sprayed a mouthful of essence blood onto the paper kites, then violently threw them out the window.

"Whoosh—!"

The paper kites actually ignited with a faint golden fire in mid-air. It was a form of mental obsession that erupted from Qin Ya's identity as a "teacher" under the pressure of the rules.

Several golden paper kites charged into the starlight, forcibly slamming open a vacuum zone around the bus.

The altar's powerful pull on the vehicle actually experienced a brief moment of loosening at that instant.

"Now's the time!"

Su Chen growled.

But Lin Mengyao was faster.

As if she had had enough of this feeling of helplessness from being treated like cargo, she suddenly lunged at Su Chen.

On her slender wrist, a golden vine tattoo was emitting a blinding light.

"Rip!"

Lin Mengyao personally tore the golden vine that connected the two of them. At the break, there was no blood, only Yang Energy so dense it was almost tangible pouring out.

"Su Chen, don't you want an Autonomous Furnace Core?"

Lin Mengyao leaned close to Su Chen's ear, her voice carrying a maddening raspiness.

"The Lin Family wants to sacrifice you to the ruins god, so I'll beat them to it and sacrifice myself to you!"

She tightly wrapped the broken end of the vine around Su Chen's pinky finger. Her entire being was like a ball of cold fire, intent on completely igniting Su Chen.

At that moment, a strange phenomenon erupted within the cabin.

A miniature altar phantom, completely controlled by Su Chen's aura, slowly emerged above the driver's seat.

Su Chen's pupils shrank.

He felt an unprecedentedly violent power pouring back from Lin Mengyao's body—it was a self-destructive gift.

Outside, the flames on the paper kites were dying out.

The blood-red marriage contracts at the top of the giant tower seemed to sense this "transgression" and turned in unison, pointing toward this bus numbered Class 1, Senior Grade 3.

Su Chen's breathing became rapid.

His gaze was fixed on the marriage contract fragments that had drifted onto the windshield due to the energy tremors.

In the final second before the paper kites were completely extinguished.

He suddenly reached out and grabbed the broken vine from Lin Mengyao.

Then, he pressed it heavily onto the blood-red fragment that bore both of their names...