300: Chapter 300 Emergency Treatment

The cold, non-living metallic touch passed through the tattered clothes and skin, delivering a faint but exceptionally clear lingering echo of Order and "inactivity"—a sharp contrast to the living, squirming, malicious flesh environment surrounding them.

This echo was like a faint, imperceptible breeze from an unknown, distant, and cold starry sky in a dark Hell, barely dispersing the suffocating stench of blood, rot, and spiritual pollution, carving out an extremely fragile, yet real, temporary, and relatively "clean" space on this small sunken "platform."

Ling Ye leaned his back against this metal plate embedded in the flesh, panting heavily, every breath pulling at the tearing pain in his chest, carrying the scent of blood.

But he could not care about himself.

His gaze, like the most precise scanner, fell first upon Old Shi beside him.

Old Shi leaned against the cold metal plate, head hanging low, its long gray hair soaked in dark red, viscous liquid, clinging to its bloodless cheeks.

Its breathing was rapid, shallow, and intermittent, with an ominous, rattling sound as if its throat were blocked with thick phlegm.

Most heart-wrenching was the energy layer on its right arm and shoulder-neck area—that layer which originally emitted a faint ice-blue glow, barely keeping the hideous black cracks at bay—

At this moment, the light was almost completely extinguished, leaving only a thin, extremely weak, murky purplish-black dim film of light that seemed ready to dissipate at any moment.

The surface of the light film was covered in dense, crisscrossing cracks like shattered porcelain; many cracks had extended deep into the interior of the light film, and were almost connecting with the tips of those black cracks—which were isolated, darker, deeper, and seemed to have viscous black liquid slowly flowing within them!

And the black cracks, which were originally firmly blocked by the isolation layer and limited to the arm and shoulder-neck, now seemed strongly stimulated and "resonated" with the surrounding dense, flesh-polluted environment.

They were infiltrating and spreading extremely slowly, but with a firm, even "active" posture, following the weakest gaps in the isolation layer, toward Old Shi's heart, neck, and even temples!

Strands and wisps, like the most venomous black-red vines possessing life, were attempting to bypass, penetrate, and even "digest" that crumbling isolation layer, launching a final, fatal erosion toward the core area of life!

The isolation layer was on the verge of total collapse!

Old Shi's life, like the last spider silk about to snap in a storm, could be completely severed at any moment, swallowed and assimilated by the pollution, or… die directly.

Ling Ye suppressed the severe pain in his body and his extreme mental exhaustion, a cold and resolute sharpness erupting in his eyes as if he were burning his own life.

He braced his left hand on the ground, using all his strength to push himself to a half-kneeling position.

He moved to Old Shi's side, carefully steadying its body, allowing its back to press more tightly against the metal plate behind, which radiated the lingering echo of cold Order.

He hoped that the lingering echo of this metal plate could slightly "suppress" and "soothe" the crazy flesh-polluted aura in the surrounding environment—which had a strong stimulating effect on the pollution in Old Shi's body—and win even a sliver of advantage for his treatment.

Then, he extended both hands—his right hand pressed gently above the dark red, severely eroded "interface" scar on Old Shi's right wrist, which was covered in cracks and had its light almost extinguished; his left hand pressed on Old Shi's heart, feeling its weak, rapid heartbeat that seemed ready to stop at any moment.

He closed his eyes, sinking all his focus into his body, deep into "the key" mark that was similarly dim but still beating stubbornly, emitting a warm, pure, pale golden light of Order.

The energy stored in "the key" mark had long since been mostly consumed during the previous Transmigration, collisions, and maintaining his own vitality.

Only the last, most core, most pure, and most deeply bound energy—about less than one percent of its peak—remained: the Origin Order energy.

This was his last and only source of power to rely on to save Old Shi.

Ling Ye did not hesitate, using all his will to forcibly pry open that mass of Origin Order energy deep within "the key" mark—the pale golden light that was like solidified, pure, high-level, definitive Order!

"Hum—!"

A clear but exceptionally heavy, even Soul-deep stinging and weakening sensation, as if "stripping away" his own core, instantly spread from deep within "the key" mark throughout Ling Ye's body, causing his already pale face to instantly become even more ashen, almost transparent.

But he gritted his teeth, enduring it, and carefully divided this extremely pure, condensed, yet small amount of pale golden, liquid-sunlight-like Origin Order energy into two parts.

The first part, accounting for about seventy percent, was guided and injected into his right palm pressed above the "interface" on Old Shi's right wrist.

He did not directly "pour" this energy into the crumbling isolation layer—doing so might cause the fragile isolation layer and the violent pollution beneath to instantly collapse completely or trigger uncontrollable, intense backlash from the pollution because they could not withstand such a "high-level" and "pure" energy shock.

What he needed to do was "repair," "reinforce," and "recast."

He "wove" and "shaped" this pure, pale golden Origin Order energy in his palm in the gentlest, most stable, and slowest way, transforming it into countless extremely fine, tough, flexible, pale golden energy threads possessing the definition of "Order," the attribute of "stability," and a hint of the unique "permission" and "connection" meaning of "the key."

Then, like the most skilled surgeon performing the most delicate microsurgery, he raised his mental perception to an unprecedented level of refinement.

He controlled these pale golden energy threads, with a speed and precision invisible to the naked eye or even ordinary perception, following the path of the countless cracks on the surface of the ice-blue isolation layer, piercing, embedding, filling, connecting, and sealing them one by one, strand by strand!

This was an extremely slow, mentally exhausting process requiring incredibly high control.

The "placement," "angle," and "tension" of every energy thread had to be precise to the finest point.

It had to perfectly seal the cracks and reinforce the structure of the isolation layer without overly stimulating the sensitive, violent pollution energy beneath.

At the same time, he had to ensure that the newly injected pale golden Order energy could perfectly and harmoniously "resonate" and "synergize" with the ice-blue energy originally in the isolation layer (derived from the core of The Shelter and Ling Ye's will), rather than conflicting or canceling each other out.

Sweat poured out from every pore of Ling Ye's body like a waterfall, instantly soaking his tattered clothes, mixing with the blood on his body and the viscous liquid around him, dripping onto the dark red fleshy "ground."

His body trembled uncontrollably due to extreme mental concentration and power consumption, as if he would completely collapse the next second.

His face was pale as paper, his lips bitten until they bled, and the veins on his forehead and neck bulged like earthworms, throbbing.

But the hands he pressed on Old Shi were as steady as a rock, motionless.

Through his closed eyelids, his gaze seemed to "see" the most subtle changes as every crack on the isolation layer was repaired and sealed by the pale golden threads bit by bit.

Time passed slowly in absolute focus and extreme pain.

When the last, deepest, and most dangerous crack—which was almost "bordering" the tip of a black crack—was carefully "nailed," filled, and "anchored" deep into Old Shi's relatively "calm," unpolluted skin tissue by an exceptionally condensed and tough pale golden energy thread as if it were a "rivet"—

"Hum…!"

An exceptionally faint but clear resonant sound of the energy structure restabilizing came from Old Shi's right wrist!

The isolation layer, which was originally dim, full of cracks, and almost completely dissipated, suddenly lit up with a brand-new composite energy film—a blend of pale gold and ice blue, perfectly fused and circulating, forming a new, more stable, and tougher film that even faintly radiated a hint of the majesty of "the key" Order!

Although the light film still could not be called "solid," its structural stability and resistance to pollution were at least several times higher than the previous pure, fragile ice-blue isolation layer!

Those black cracks that had originally tried to infiltrate and spread along the fissures were fiercely "driven back" and "suppressed" by this brand-new composite light film containing high-level Order power, and their colors seemed to dim and retract slightly due to this sudden, more powerful Order suppression!

Success! At least, the isolation layer was temporarily stabilized, pulling Old Shi back from the edge of immediate death!

The taut string in Ling Ye's heart loosened slightly.

But he dared not pause for even a second, immediately injecting all the remaining—about thirty percent—of the last pure Origin Order energy from "the key" mark into his left palm pressed on Old Shi's heart, without reservation.

This time, he did not perform delicate "weaving" or "repair."

Instead, he transformed this last bit of pure life and Order energy into an extremely gentle, nourishing, life-filled, yet non-aggressive or non-"definitive" stream of pure life warmth, carefully guiding and injecting it into Old Shi's heart—which was almost about to stop beating and was riddled with holes from pollution—as well as the most important life energy circulation meridians connected to the heart.

He needed to forcibly awaken, activate, and stabilize Old Shi's own fire of life, which had been almost completely suppressed by the pollution and was on the verge of extinguishing, to buy it more time to fight the pollution and wait for… a possible turning point.

The pure life warmth was injected, like a stream of small but exceptionally clear and sweet spring water poured into the bottom of a parched and cracked riverbed.

Old Shi's weak, rapid, and ominously noisy breathing visibly steadied and lengthened slightly.

Its pale-as-paper face also, with great difficulty, recovered a trace of almost imperceptible, extremely weak blood color.

Its tightly furrowed brows seemed to smooth out just a little bit.

Its vital signs, although still critically ill, at least temporarily retreated from the cliff edge of "possible death at any moment" to a slightly "safer" area of "extremely critical but still retaining a faint glimmer of life."

"Huff… huff…"

Ling Ye finally could not hold on any longer, his hands slipping weakly from Old Shi, his whole body collapsing completely onto the cold metal plate as if all his bones had been removed.

His chest heaved violently, black spots danced before his eyes, and a constant buzzing sound filled his ears, as if he would completely lose consciousness at any moment.

Inside his body, his power was completely exhausted.

"the key" mark was also dimmed to the extreme due to the excessive consumption of Origin energy, even emitting a Soul-deep, empty stinging sensation as if it were about to "shatter."

The severe pain from all over his body surged like a tide, almost drowning his consciousness.

But he gritted his teeth, using his last remaining bit of will to force himself to stay awake.

Still couldn't sleep.

Old Shi's crisis was only temporarily alleviated, not resolved.

They were still in this terrifying Hell of flesh.

And he had completely lost all strength, almost becoming a useless person.

Must… recover at least a little bit of strength as soon as possible.

Must… find a way to leave this place.

He struggled, casting his gaze toward the unknown metal plate beneath him, which radiated a faint lingering echo of Order and had saved his and Old Shi's lives.

Maybe… the metal plate itself could provide some… help?

This thought, like the last faint spark in the darkness, flashed stubbornly in his almost extinguished consciousness.

But he no longer had the strength even to move a finger.

Ling Ye slowly and with extreme difficulty closed his eyes, sinking his last consciousness into that boundless, dark, and weary abyss.

But before losing consciousness completely, he took one last look at Old Shi beside him, whose breathing was weak but at least steadier, and at "the key" mark on his own chest, which was dim but still beating stubbornly.