166: Chapter 166 Her Eyes Smiled, and I Was Devastated

The instant Chen Fan's soles touched the solid ground of reality, an icy chill shot up the back of his neck.

Su Shuang's weight suddenly felt abnormally light, like a withered leaf about to be swept away by the wind.

He hurriedly looked down, seeing her ashen lips—the trace of vibrant color from the Void Realm was fading to a deathly gray at a visible rate.

His fingertips brushed against her pulse; the beating sensation was as faint as a silk thread, and the warmth in his palm was draining away, like ice melting under the sun.

"System! System!" His throat tightened, his forehead pressed against the top of her head, his voice laced with restrained trembling.

[Warning: star sigil Resonance Source is on the verge of breaking.]

[Detecting residual high-purity non-human enhancement... Attempt fusion?]

The bloody text flashing across his retina made his pupils contract.

Jing Zitong's whisper just before the Void Realm dissipated suddenly exploded in his ears: "Her eyes are awake, but her heart is about to go out."

Chen Fan looked up sharply. In the distance toward Mirror Lake, lead-gray storm clouds were churning, and the phantom image of a blood moon was slowly emerging from behind the clouds.

The moonlight falling on the lake looked like a basin of boiling blood had been overturned.

"Su Shuang! Su Shuang!" He gently patted her cheek. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she barely managed to lift her eyelids; the fox tattoo at the corner of her eye was so faint it was almost invisible.

"Cold..." Her voice was weak. Her fingertips unconsciously clutched his lapel, "Chen Fan, I think... I'm going to sleep..."

"Sleep my foot!" Chen Fan gritted his back molars until they ached, pulling her tighter into his embrace.

He could feel her body temperature drilling into his own through their points of contact, like some desperate energy transfer was taking place.

The lake surface suddenly burst open with a muffled sound.

The Dark Water Emissary emerged from the lake center, splitting the water, his translucent figure wrapped in mist, holding a bronze sacrificial token that emitted a faint glow.

He didn't even spare Chen Fan a glance, merely tossing the sacrificial token into the air—the token instantly transformed into thousands of water talismans that rained down onto the lake surface.

"Dong! Dong! Dong!"

The sound of a hundred bone bells vibrating rose from the lake bottom.

Chen Fan watched the figures wrapped in water weeds float up from the black waves, his scalp tingling—they were Priests. Living Priests would not have milky-white eyeballs, chains piercing through their ribs, or the faint blue glow of bone spurs beneath their rotting flesh.

"Thousand Soul Chain - Sealing Shore," the Dark Water Emissary's voice sounded like two pieces of ice colliding. "Su Shuang's bloodline has recovered; the Mirror Lake barrier must be reforged with a hundred souls."

Before the words faded, the lake surface churned with black tides, and countless specters bound by chains drilled up from underwater, coiling toward the shore like a mass of snakes.

The sound of the chains scraping the ground was painfully sharp to the ears. The nearest chain had already wrapped around Chen Fan's ankle; its iron teeth bit into his flesh, and blood droplets flowed backward along the chain toward the lake center.

"Let go!" Chen Fan swung the hammer of the thunder god down at the chain, but the moment the hammer face touched the iron teeth, he sucked in a sharp breath—his mental power was drained like a saturated sponge, and the blue flame of the fire seed within him could only last for three breaths.

The battle in the Void Realm had exhausted all his trump cards; currently, he wasn't even as strong as an ordinary Bronze-tier player.

"Let me... clear the path for you again..."

Su Shuang's breath brushed past his earlobe.

Chen Fan looked down, meeting her fading pupils.

She raised her fingertips, and a faint blue Fox Fire ignited from her finger pad. That light was too weak, as fragile as a candle wick about to be extinguished by the wind.

But when the Fox Fire spread into a veil-like mist of light, the movements of all the Priests suddenly stalled—their cloudy eyeballs were veiled with a haze, the hands holding the bone bells dropped, and the chains loosened slightly.

Chen Fan's critical hit system suddenly emitted a buzzing sound.

[Bloodline Devour - Triggered! Absorbing "Fox Demon Charm - Beginner Level", Critical Hit Rate temporarily increased by 5% (Current +5%)]

[Critical Multiplier Determined: 3x]

The hammer of the thunder god grew hot in his palm, and crimson-gold patterns surfaced on its body.

Chen Fan seized the gap where the chains broke, knelt on one knee, and shielded Su Shuang behind him, his muscles taut as bowstrings.

When the chains coiled toward him again, countless faint golden trajectories suddenly appeared in his vision—it was Critical Hit Foresight analyzing the chains' movement paths.

"Go to hell!" He roared, swinging the hammer toward the densest cluster of trajectories.

This strike brought forth triple afterimages. Amidst the piercing shriek of the hammer wind tearing through the air, the crisp sounds of shattering chains merged into one continuous noise.

The struck Priests were flung backward like kites whose strings had been cut, smashing into the reeds and splashing up large sheets of water.

"Cough..." Su Shuang groaned, a trickle of black blood seeping from the corner of her mouth.

Her fox tattoo had vanished completely, and her skin was so pale it was nearly transparent. "Not enough... need more..."

"Enough my ass!" Chen Fan grabbed her hand before she could lift it. The heat from his palm made her flinch. "I dragged you through hell, not so you could jump in yourself!"

He stared at her slowly closing eyes, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Hold on, I'll pull you back right now."

The second wave of Priests had already stepped onto the shore.

Chen Fan deliberately stumbled back two steps. The chains scraped across his back, cutting bloody gashes into his clothes.

He could feel Su Shuang's charm power spreading again—this time weaker, like mist about to be scattered by the wind.

But it was enough.

[Bloodline Devour +5% (Cumulative +10%)]

Chen Fan suddenly exploded forward, swinging the hammer of the thunder god in a wide arc toward the nearest Priest.

Where the hammer landed, the bone bell shattered, the chain broke, and water splashed up ten feet high.

He used the recoil to flip in mid-air, the second hammer striking left, the third smashing right; the seven-fold blockade disintegrated under the flurry of critical hits.

When he landed, he was already standing at the edge of the altar in the lake center.

"Don't look at the lake center... she is no longer herself..."

A hoarse whisper slithered up from beneath his feet.

Chen Fan looked down and saw a translucent shadow at the bottom of the lake—it was the remnant soul of the Echo Sacrifice, trapped by countless chains, its face twisted like crumpled paper.

Just as he was about to speak, the lake surface suddenly boiled.

Water Flawless rose from the lake bottom.

Her left half was human in appearance, her features bearing a three-tenths resemblance to Su Shuang, but her right half had transformed into turbid flowing water, from which fragments of bone and decayed leaves constantly drifted out.

She stood on a water lily, her gaze as cold as ice frozen for a thousand years. "Su Shuang, you have finally Awakened it."

Before her words finished, several giant mouths split open on the lake surface.

Chen Fan's pupils contracted sharply—hundreds, perhaps thousands of Light Erosion fish darted out from them, black-backed and white-bellied, their sharp teeth gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

They did not attack his throat but lunged directly for the wounds on his body—the gashes cut by the chains were now oozing pale golden "Awakened Blood."

"Be careful!" Chen Fan clutched Su Shuang tightly and dove into the shallow water. The school of fish grazed past the back of his neck, leaving deep tooth marks in the mud.

He could feel Su Shuang's body temperature draining away frantically; she was almost turning into an ice sculpture.

[Bloodline Devour Cumulative +15%]

[Detecting "moon marrow crystal" resonance signal—located in the Ninth Palace at the lake bottom.]

The system prompt vanished just as Water Flawless's voice pierced his ears, wrapped in icy coldness: "Tonight at midnight, the Lake Sacrifice begins. If she does not die, the hundred villages of Mirror Lake will pay with a hundred lives."

The water flow of her right half suddenly surged, rolling fragments of bone toward Chen Fan. "Now, you choose."

Chen Fan knelt in the shallow water, Su Shuang's head drooping in the hollow of his shoulder.

He looked at the churning black waves in the lake center, looked at Water Flawless's icy eyes, and suddenly laughed.

He wiped the water from his face and gently traced Su Shuang's pale lips with his fingertip. "I choose—everyone lives."

A faint rustling sound came from the reeds.

Chen Fan turned his head, seeing only the reed leaves swaying in the wind.

A curled-up figure was hidden deep within, its blind eyes tightly shut, yet it seemed to 'see' something, its fingertips trembling slightly.