273: Chapter 273 Living Towards Death

Darkness was not pure nothingness. Agonizing pain, like maggots attached to bone, roared and spread through every inch of bone and every nerve. The cold brought on by blood loss intertwined with the searing pain of the wounds, dragging Ling Ye's consciousness to the edge of unconsciousness and wakefulness, rising and falling repeatedly. By his ears were Old Shi's trembling calls, laced with a crying tone, and rapid gasps. Not far away, the giant monster was in its death throes, emitting an unsettling, low, viscous gurgling sound that seemed to come from the abyss as its polluted energy escaped uncontrollably.

It was unknown how much time had passed; perhaps only a moment, perhaps as long as an eternity. A wisp of weak, ice-cold liquid, carrying the faint, bitter scent of herbs, flowed slowly along cracked lips and into Ling Ye's searing throat. It was a "still-pool moss" residue mixed with the last bit of fresh water, a "medicinal broth" that was better than nothing. The cold touch and the faint soothing energy were like a drop of cold water falling into a boiling pot of oil—though insignificant, they forced Ling Ye's consciousness, which was on the verge of falling apart, to coalesce and wake for an instant.

He struggled to open his heavy eyelids. His vision was blurred; he could only see Old Shi's face, covered in grime, bloodstains, and deep worry and fear, shaking in the dim light.

"Ling... Ling Ye! You're awake! How do you feel?" Old Shi's voice was hoarse, carrying the nasal tone of someone who had been crying. Its trembling hand pressed gently against the area on Ling Ye's chest that had been struck by the monster's sonic waves—now a bloody, clearly collapsed mess—but it dared not apply force.

Ling Ye wanted to speak, but only a "he-he" wheezing sound came from his throat; the agonizing pain made his vision go black in waves. He tried to mobilize the "Star Visualization", attempting to guide even a wisp of warmth to repair his body, which was on the verge of collapse. But inside, his body was like completely churned mud; the warm current was as thin as a gossamer thread, almost impossible to condense, and every attempt brought even more tearing pain.

Serious injury. Sternum likely shattered, internal organs concussed and bleeding, multiple muscle tears, excessive blood loss. If not for the Physique and recovery ability far exceeding ordinary people brought by the "Star Visualization", as well as the faint, rhythmic pulse of the "Ancient Ring" mark maintaining his life's Foundation, he would likely be a corpse by now.

"Don't... don't move!" Old Shi frantically held him down, hurriedly tearing off a relatively clean strip of cloth from its own body (though it was already filthy), mixing it with the last bit of "still-pool moss" medicinal mud, and attempting to bandage the most terrifying wound on Ling Ye's chest. Its movements were clumsy and desperate. "Blood... the blood won't stop... the bone... the bone might..."

Its voice carried a crying tone once again. In the wilderness, this kind of injury was almost equivalent to a death sentence. Even if he were lucky enough not to die, he had basically lost his ability to move; in this dangerous Rift Canyon, it was no different from waiting for death.

Ling Ye's gaze struggled to look past Old Shi's trembling shoulder toward the distance. That massive, nightmarish "Abyssal Remains" predator had completely stopped struggling by now, its huge body sprawled on the ground like a small hill. The dark purple carapace had lost its luster, and mucus and purple-black foul blood pooled into a stinking puddle beneath it. Those two dim green compound eyes had completely faded, leaving only empty, heart-palpitating darkness. But the rich, uncontrolled polluted energy emitted by its corpse still lingered in the hollow like poison fog, making the air feel viscous and oppressive.

The short blade was still deeply embedded in the middle of its torso, in that pierced area suspected to be the "polluted core". The hilt reflected a cold light in the dim environment.

Silence once again shrouded this bloody hollow. Only the two's heavy, painful gasps and the eternal, low humming from deep within the distant canyon remained.

"What... what do we do?" Old Shi's voice carried a desperate confusion. It looked at the severely injured, dying Ling Ye, then at the monster corpse emitting dangerous polluted energy, and finally at the surrounding enclosed, dead-end rocks. "We can't get out... you can't move... and I... I can't hold on for much longer... the pollution... I can barely suppress it anymore..."

Yes, they couldn't get out. Ling Ye couldn't move, and Old Shi was also extremely weak. Carrying such a severely injured person, it was impossible to return the way they came, let alone climb the steep canyon walls. Staying here meant either being eroded by the monster's gradually dissipating pollution or slowly dying from hunger, thirst, and pain. And the pollution within Old Shi seemed to have become even more unstable due to the previous stimulation and resonance, potentially erupting again at any moment.

However, deep within Ling Ye's pupils, which were blurred and unfocused from the intense pain and blood loss, that cluster of never-extinguished, cold flames flickered extremely faintly in this desperate silence.

He remembered that before he fell unconscious, during the brief resonance between the three parties, an invisible "connection" had flashed between the "Metal Point" inside Old Shi, his own "key mark", and the monster's "polluted core", pointing to a very distant place in the northeast.

He remembered the "gate" flowing with starlight from his parents' memory fragments, and that branded phrase— "'abyssal eye' is not the source, but the wound of the 'gate'. As long as the 'Star Gate' does not extinguish, the pollution will not end."

He remembered what Old Shi had said before pointing to the northeast— "Something huge, cold, 'summoning' or... 'emitting' the same fluctuations! Very strong! Extremely strong! But... also very dangerous! Full of... repulsion and... destruction!"

The northeast direction. Far away. The "Star Gate" or a key node. the key to his parents' plan. The root of the world's crisis. It was also... the only direction he could see right now that might solve everything and bring a true "path to survival".

Ling Ye's lips moved extremely slightly, emitting a broken wheezing sound so faint it was almost inaudible.

Old Shi immediately leaned its ear closer.

"North... east..." Ling Ye used his last bit of strength to squeeze these two words through his teeth. His gaze was locked onto Old Shi, his eyes filled with unquestionable, almost insane determination. "Go... find... that... 'thing'..."

Old Shi's body shuddered violently, looking at Ling Ye in disbelief: "You... you're crazy?! You're injured like this! We can't possibly make it there! And that place... it's so dangerous! Full of repulsion and destruction!"

"Staying... means... death..." Every word Ling Ye spoke carried blood foam, yet was resolute. "Going... might... mean... living... the key... Star Gate... Purification... a chance..."

He couldn't say more, but the meaning was clear. Staying here meant certain death. Betting everything and heading toward that sensed location in the northeast—which was full of danger but could also be the "Star Gate" or a key node—might still offer a glimmer of faint hope.

This was a gamble. Using two scarred, dying Souls to bet on a distant, unknown direction full of repulsion and destruction, where a "path to survival" might not even exist.

Old Shi looked at Ling Ye's eyes, which still burned with an unyielding flame even in the midst of intense pain and dying, looked at the shocking wound on his chest, felt the increasingly difficult-to-suppress restlessness of the pollution within its own body, and the suffocating desperation all around...

It fell silent. A long, deathly silence.

Inside the hollow, there was only the unsettling sizzling sound of dissipating polluted energy and the two's increasingly weak breathing.

Finally, Old Shi slowly, extremely heavily, closed its eyes. A turbid tear slid from the corner of its eye, mixing with the bloodstains on its face.

"...Fine." Its voice was dry and hoarse, yet carried a kind of resigned, burn-the-bridges determination.

Since it was death either way, it was better to die on the path of pursuing hope, even if that hope was as faint as a candle in the wind, and as illusory as flowers in a mirror or the moon in the water.

Having made the decision, the last shred of "mobility" remaining, squeezed out by the desperate situation, began to well up in both of them.

Old Shi first forced itself to endure the nausea and fear, as well as the restlessness of the pollution within its body triggered by the source corpse, and carefully approached the monster's carcass. It used a sharpened wooden stick to laboriously pry open the relatively fragile carapace on the side of the monster's head, digging out a small piece of flesh the size of a walnut, dark purple in color, continuously emitting weak polluted energy, yet seemingly containing some kind of "essence", viscous and like semi-solidified gelatin. This was something within the "Abyssal Remains" predator where polluted energy was relatively condensed, which might briefly "stimulate" or "supplement" its own pollution and keep it from collapsing immediately. Although dangerous, it had no other choice right now.

It carefully wrapped this "poison". Then, it returned to Ling Ye's side and began to treat the most urgent injuries.

No medicine, no equipment. They could only use the most primitive and brutal methods. Old Shi roasted the fruit knife over a fire (using the last bit of fuel), gritted its teeth, and with trembling hands, used the tip of the knife to forcibly realign the most obvious bone fragment that was piercing out of the wound on Ling Ye's chest and push it back into place! The intense pain made Ling Ye almost faint again, his body twitching violently, but he bit down hard on a wooden stick, not letting out a scream. Fresh blood gushed out again, which Old Shi tightly pressed and bandaged with the scorched, relatively clean cloth strips and the last bit of "still-pool moss" medicinal mud.

Next, Old Shi used the toughest vines it could find, combined with cloth strips torn from its own tattered clothes, to create an extremely crude "stretcher" or "drag" that could barely stabilize Ling Ye's upper body, especially his chest. It carefully moved Ling Ye onto the "drag", securing him firmly with vines to prevent secondary injury during movement.

Then, Old Shi drank the last bit of water and swallowed that dangerous monster "essence" flesh. A cold, violent, and highly corrosive energy instantly exploded within its body, bringing intense pain, but also forcing its weak body to summon a strange, fleeting power, temporarily suppressing the instability of the pollution and its extreme physical exhaustion.

It strapped the few remaining supplies (the water bottle was empty, only a little dried meat and plant tubers left, along with those few "energy interference bombs") onto its body. Then, it bent down, gritted its teeth, and with that strange power it had just gained—which was like burning its own life to obtain—dragged the crude drag with Ling Ye tied to it.

The drag scraped against the rugged, gravel-filled ground, making a dull sound. Every bump made Ling Ye feel bone-piercing, heart-wrenching pain, his vision blackening in waves. But he bit down hard on the wooden stick, not letting himself pass out.

Old Shi hunched its back, like an old ox carrying a heavy load, step by step, dragging the heavy drag toward the other end of the hollow, toward a dark fissure passage that looked relatively flat and might lead to the northeast, moving forward with great difficulty.