257: Chapter 257 Awakening and Questioning

The campfire crackled, casting swaying, distorted shadows on the cave walls. Ling Ye maintained the posture of "Star Visualization," but his consciousness was caught in a state between half-dreaming and half-waking, intertwined with extreme clarity and exhaustion. He guided the faint warm current, using one part to repair his own body, while the other part, with extreme caution, like the thinnest of tentacles, reached toward the cold, weak body beside him.

He could feel the faint, nearly extinguished fire of life within the "Neighbor," as well as that stubborn, cold, and viscous foul energy entrenched in its right hand, constantly spreading up its arm. As soon as his "Star warm current" touched that foul energy, he felt a needle-like stinging pain and a strong sense of repulsion; the warm current was rapidly consumed and polluted. He dared not go deeper and could only linger on the periphery, like trying to melt a tiny hole at the edge of an ice sheet; the effect was negligible, and it instead accelerated the consumption of his already dwindling spirit and stamina.

Just then, the "Neighbor"'s body suddenly convulsed violently!

Ling Ye woke instantly, pulling back from the "Visualization," all his senses focusing there in an instant. He saw the "Neighbor"'s throat emit a "ho-ho" rattling sound, as if blocked by something; the muscles on its gray, defeated face twitched, its tightly closed eyelids fluttered wildly, and its cracked lips trembled, seemingly struggling to open, yet unable to produce a clear sound.

Ling Ye immediately reached out to steady the "Neighbor"'s trembling shoulders, preventing it from rolling unconsciously into the campfire. At the same time, he quickly checked the "Neighbor"'s breathing and pulse. Its breathing had become more rapid and chaotic, and its pulse was frighteningly fast, yet even weaker in strength.

"Don't move! Save your strength!" Ling Ye whispered, his voice hoarse from exhaustion and tension.

The "Neighbor" seemed to hear his words, its convulsions calming slightly, but then, using its last ounce of strength, it snapped its tightly closed eyes open!

They were still the same turbid, bloodshot eyes, but now, they were filled with intense pain, extreme weakness, and a kind of near-manic clarity and urgency that Ling Ye had never seen before! Its gaze, devoid of focus, stared fixedly and hollowly at the cave ceiling, lips moving as broken syllables squeezed out from between its teeth:

"...No... must not... let it... out... must... seal it..."

The voice was as faint as a gossamer thread, yet carried an unquestionable fear and determination originating from the depths of its Soul.

"It"? Did it refer to that "thing" in the cave? Or those polluted Ores? Or... something even more terrifying?

Ling Ye's heart tightened as he lowered his voice to press, "What is 'it'? The thing in the cave? Or those stones?"

The "Neighbor"'s eyeballs moved with difficulty, and finally, its unfocused gaze fixed on Ling Ye's face. In those turbid eyes, a rush of extremely complex emotions surfaced: a trace of trance upon seeing an acquaintance, a faint sense of relief at surviving a disaster, but more than that, bottomless fear, unspeakable pain, and a near-desperate plea.

"You... you dragged... me out..." its voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible, every word sounding like blood foam squeezed from its lungs, "...Why... why did you... come back... to find me..."

Not gratitude, but... interrogation? Carrying a self-destructive sorrow, as if it believed itself to be a harbinger of disaster.

Ling Ye met its desperate and complex gaze without flinching, saying in a deep voice, "You left a message pointing to that cave. I thought you needed help. And, we are... allies." He paused, still saying the word, even though it sounded so pale at this moment.

"Allies..." the "Neighbor" repeated the word in a low voice, its mouth twisting into a curve more unsightly than crying, full of bitterness and self-mockery, "...It was me... who implicated you... that cave... those stones... are the root of disaster... I... I should have died inside... and buried... everything..."

Its words were intermittent, but the meaning became gradually clear: it knew the danger, knew those Ores were the "root of disaster," knew "it" was in the cave, and furthermore, it seemed to have originally intended to use itself as the price to seal everything within that cave!

"You dug it open?" Ling Ye suddenly realized something and asked urgently, "You dug those stones and disturbed the thing underneath? What on earth is it?!"

Upon hearing this question, the "Neighbor"'s body shook violently, the fear in its eyes reaching its peak! It struggled to lift that polluted arm to point at Ling Ye, but dropped it powerlessly, only able to shout hoarsely with its last ounce of strength:

"Run... run fast... leave this place... as far as possible... don't mind me... I am... a source of pollution... it will... follow... the trail... and come..."

Before it could finish, it suddenly spat out a small mouthful of dark red, fishy-smelling blood foam! It splattered onto Ling Ye's arm and lapel, warm and viscous. Immediately, its eyes widened, pupils rapidly dilating, and its whole body, like a marionette with cut strings, completely lost consciousness, even its faint breathing nearly stopping!

"Hey! Wake up!" Ling Ye was horrified and immediately reached out to check its breath and carotid artery. The breath was faint to the extreme, and the pulse was chaotic, appearing and disappearing!

Terrible! Emotional agitation combined with the recurrence of old injuries (or internal organ damage), plus that strange pollution erosion, its condition had deteriorated rapidly, and it was on the verge of death!

Ling Ye's heart sank to the bottom. Did he save it only to watch it die in front of him? And, to be burdened with the accusation of being a "source of pollution" and a terrifying warning?

"Follow the trail and come"... what did that mean? Did it refer to the "thing" in that cave? Or did the pollution itself have tracking properties?

There was no time to think! The urgent priority was to save it!

Ling Ye forced himself to calm down. He had no means to treat this strange pollution and internal injuries. The medicine was gone, and there wasn't much clean water left. But he could not watch the "Neighbor" die.

He remembered the restorative effect of the warm current on his own body when he practiced the "Star Body-Refining Technique." Just now, when he tried to guide the warm current to contact the pollution, although he felt stinging pain and repulsion, it seemed... not entirely ineffective? At least, the warm current was not instantly devoured.

Take a gamble!

Ling Ye did not hesitate any longer and immediately re-entered "Star Visualization." This time, he was no longer cautious, but operated the Cultivation Technique with all his might, frantically squeezing out all the faint warm current he could mobilize within his body!

Then, he extended his hands; one hand pressed on the position of the "Neighbor"'s chest Danzhong point (he vaguely remembered this was where the human body's Qi converged), and the other hand hovered gently above the "Neighbor"'s polluted right wrist, avoiding contact with the polluted skin, instead hovering above it, concentrating his vast and pure will at his fingertips, guiding the limited warm current to turn into two thin streams; one flowed into the "Neighbor"'s heart meridian to forcibly maintain its weak vitality; the other, like the most precise scalpel, cautiously attempted to block and delay the spread of that gray-black pollution energy up the arm!

"Ugh..."

The moment Ling Ye exerted his full effort, the "Neighbor"'s body shook violently, a painful whimper emitting from its throat. And at the right wrist, hovered over by Ling Ye, the speed at which the gray-green patches and black veins were spreading seemed to have truly experienced a tiny, minuscule stagnation!

But at the same time, Ling Ye also felt a more intense, cold, and malicious impact, following his connection of will, fiercely backlashing! It made his brain feel as if it had been stabbed by an ice pick, causing extreme pain, and a trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth!

The cost was huge! But he had to persist!

One person and one "Neighbor," in the dim cave, centered around a thread of weak vitality and strange pollution, unfolded a silent and perilous contest. Ling Ye was like someone hanging two people on the edge of a cliff with a thin thread; beneath their feet was a bottomless abyss, and above their heads was an unknown threat.

The sky outside the cave gradually turned from grayish-white to a gloomy leaden gray. The cold wind blew through the cave entrance, causing the flames to sway violently, as if they could be extinguished at any moment.

And on the unconscious "Neighbor"'s face, amidst that extreme pain, it seemed... a trace of an extremely faint, imperceptible... relief-like bewilderment flashed across?