134: Chapter 134 The wind stopped for 0.8 seconds, and I got struck by lightning.

Su Shuang, in Chen Fan's arms, trembled slightly again, and the metallic sweetness in his throat immediately rushed to the tip of his tongue.

Bronze shards from the shattered Third Gate were still falling; one grazed the tip of his ear, as scorching as a red-hot iron plate—but what was this bit of pain?

He looked down, staring at the faint golden glow at the corner of Su Shuang's eye. That light was brighter than any moment in his memory, so bright that the Star-patterned Jade Pendant against his chest began to burn.

"Plip-plop."

Something hit the back of his neck.

Chen Fan looked up abruptly, only to see a few wisps of greyish-white mist floating in mid-air—memories were dissipating.

The image of the medicine bottle his mother held before she passed away had just been pulled from his mind; the condensation on the glass and the frayed label on the bottle all became a wind he couldn't grasp.

He gripped Su Shuang's wrist tightly. Her pulse was as weak as a gossamer thread, but it was this tiny throb that made his Adam's apple bob: "I might not remember the temperature of the medicine Mom gave me, or the curses the foreman hurled when he withheld my wages, but I remember that when Su Shuang wore her moon-white qipao, the silk flower in her hair was a freshly picked jasmine."

"17%," Black Crow's voice said, sounding like a rusty nail driven into his eardrum. "After three more burns, you won't even be able to say the name 'Su Shuang' clearly."

Chen Fan wiped his face. Nosebleed mixed with sweat dripped onto the frog button of Su Shuang's qipao, blooming like a dark red flower bud.

He bent down and placed her on a stone platform. The qingqiu jade slid from her hair, landing right on top of the Star-patterned Jade Pendant—both pieces of jade suddenly heated up simultaneously, like two balls of living fire. "Watch over her," he said to Yunque, pressing his finger against the blind girl's hand.

Yunque's fingertips were still stained with the medicinal powder she used to bandage him, smelling of wormwood. "The next bolt of lightning—three seconds after the critical hit, the wind will die for three breaths first." Her voice was softer than usual, as if afraid of shattering something.

Chen Fan nodded, and the blue flame fire seed in his dantian suddenly surged upward by three inches.

The bronze patterns of the Fourth Gate glinted coldly under the moonlight. Before he could clearly see the words 'Pure Heart' on the lintel, a crisp sound of glass rubbing together suddenly rang out in the air.

The Light Erosion Judge stood in the center of the gate, the scales on his glass armor reflecting seven bladed lights, like a shattered rainbow stabbing into the ground. "Those with deep obsessions shall have both form and spirit incinerated." His voice was devoid of warmth as a mirror condensed from air floated in his palm. The mirror actually reflected Chen Fan's system interface—the notifications for [Equipment Critical Hit ×4.3] and [Skill Critical Hit ×5.1] were still flashing, but at the very bottom of the interface, half of a Star Map was resonating with the jade pendant on his chest, emitting a ghostly blue light.

Chen Fan's pupils constricted.

He had used this system for three months, fighting from the Bronze Dungeon to Gold, yet this was the first time he saw a Star Map hidden within the interface. "Something even I don't understand!" he roared. He wasn't shouting at the Light Erosion Judge, but at the memories racing through his head—was the other half of this Star Map hidden within those burned fragments?

The Light Erosion Judge's palm wind was already pressing down on him.

Chen Fan rolled to the side, and the energy from Heart Returning Blast was injected into the ground through his fingertips. Three Glass Puppets that had been hidden in the shadows exploded into fragments with a 'crack'.

But it wasn't over. He could feel the system interface jumping frantically, as if something was about to break through the screen. "Shut the hell up!" He gritted his teeth and activated a critical hit. The veins in his muscles bulged into a deep purple-blue, and the notification sound for [Chain Critical Hit Mode] almost pierced his eardrums.

"You can actually predict Heaven's Punishment?" The Light Erosion Judge took half a step back, a fine crack appearing on the scales of his glass armor.

Chen Fan wiped away a nosebleed, his gums stained with blood as he smiled. "It's not a prediction." He stared at the thunderclouds gradually gathering in the sky. The 'wind dies for three breaths' that Yunque mentioned was approaching—the wind truly stopped, not even his clothes moved.

He lunged forward abruptly. A bolt of Purple Lightning struck down, barely grazing the back of his neck, and the resulting crater shook the stone platform.

Su Shuang's hand hung down from the edge of the platform. Chen Fan grabbed her fingertips as he rolled; they were cold, but that coldness was like a needle, making the blood throughout his body burn.

The bronze patterns on the Fifth Gate suddenly turned blood-red. "Burn one oath, exchange for one rank." The shadow of Xiao Lin emerged within the gate; it was from the day the construction site collapsed, that kid still laughing while pinned by rebar: "Brother Fan, run! Don't worry about me." Chen Fan's fists cracked as the blue flame fire seed rampaged through his meridians.

He pulled out the Entry Token from his robe—it was issued by the system upon clearing the Gold Instance. It was now vibrating in resonance with the jade pendant and the qingqiu jade, turning his palm red with heat. "I refuse to burn any oath," he growled, pressing the Entry Token against his chest. Critical hit energy surged through the veins under his skin toward his limbs. "If we leave, we leave together!"

The lightning tribulation came half a breath earlier than Yunque had predicted.

Chen Fan leaped up while holding Su Shuang. The recoil from Heart Returning Blast propelled him into the air as the Purple Lightning struck the gate right beneath his feet.

The center of the gate exploded with a boom. Shards of bronze fell like a rainstorm, and one stabbed into his left shoulder, yet he laughed aloud—Su Shuang's finger moved in his palm. Though it was as light as a butterfly's wing, he felt it.

"You have broken through five gates," Bai Qi's voice came from before the Sixth Gate.

Chen Fan looked up. Only half of the Star-dial Staff in the old man's hand remained, with star-dust still falling from the break.

A crack appeared in the heavens, and a red star was slowly descending, its red light dyeing the entire Floating Giant City the color of blood.

Yunque suddenly knelt on the ground, bloody tears welling from her blind eyes. "That is... the final tombstone of the Yun Clan." Her fingers dug deep into the stone cracks, her knuckles turning white. "Every falling star is a Racial Fire Seed crushed by the system."

Chen Fan looked down at Su Shuang in his arms.

Her lips moved again, and this time he heard clearly—"Don't... trust... the light." Those four words were like blocks of ice, crashing into his boiling blood.

He suddenly remembered Bai Qi saying "Heaven's Punishment is a screening," remembered the "obsessions" the Light Erosion Judge wanted to clear, remembered the half Star Map in the system interface... It turned out the "Light" they spoke of was never salvation; it was a sieve.

He gently placed Su Shuang into Yunque's arms.

The blind girl's hands were shaking, yet she still firmly supported the back of Su Shuang's neck. "I will protect her."

Chen Fan turned around and faced the falling star.

The wind began to blow again, whipping his blood-stained clothes into a hunt.

He touched the jade pendant at his chest; the temperature there was already scalding, but he knew what was even hotter was in his dantian—it was the core of the critical hit system, the Fox Clan Fire Seed within Su Shuang's remaining blood, and those memories that refused to dissipate even after being burned.

"This punch," he whispered toward the falling star, his fist slowly tightening at his side, "is not for ascending to heaven."

In the red light of the red star, he saw his shadow stretched very, very long, like a spear poised to pierce the heavens.

And the Star-patterned Jade Pendant at his chest, following the seepage of Su Shuang's blood, began to glow with a light even brighter than the red star.