118: Chapter 118 The Net Is About to Close

"Stay alive."

When these three words were squeezed out of his throat, they carried a metallic, rusty tang.

Shen Xiao had no time to discern whether that taste came from the air or from the injuries in his lungs; it was highly likely the latter.

The Silver Pattern scurried beneath his skin like a group of startled snakes, drilling aimlessly in every direction.

Every inch of his Meridians was screaming; that fine, needle-pricking sensation spread from his chest to his limbs, causing his fingers to tremble slightly.

The impact upon landing was harsher than he had anticipated.

That damned place, the Chaos space, had squeezed him out in a way that was akin to forcibly "scraping" a person through a narrow slit.

The Silver Pattern protective barrier held for an instant at the last moment, but the cost of that instant was that at least seven of his Meridians were ruptured, and three were completely severed.

The good news was that he wasn't dead.

The bad news was that being alive wasn't much better than being dead.

Shen Xiao took a deep breath, letting that rusty, rotting scent fill his lungs.

Strangely, this smell did not make him feel disgusted.

Instead, there was an inexplicable... sense of familiarity.

It was as if he had smelled the exact same scent in some forgotten corner.

No, not "him."

It was the original owner.

In those plundered memory fragments, there seemed to be similar scenes hidden—some abandoned mine, some forsaken battlefield, some... corner that had been forgotten long, long ago.

But he had no time to dig through those memories now.

The Silver Pattern forcibly condensed a thin film on the surface of his body—thin enough to be almost transparent, yet it kept the invisible "Impurities" in the air at bay.

Those things would cause mental dissipation if inhaled for too long; he could feel that if left unchecked, his consciousness would begin to blur within half an hour.

It wasn't poison, yet it was more troublesome than poison.

"Hoo..."

He slowly exhaled a breath of turbid Qi, his gaze sweeping across his surroundings.

The black Gobi Desert was covered in gravel and sand; occasionally, pale rock strata pierced through the surface like bones buried in the soil.

In the distance, those skeletal mountain ranges cast twisted shadows under the dark red sky, crooked and distorted, like some colossal corpse abandoned in the wilderness.

The sky hung very low.

That dark red color was not the evening glow, nor was it the setting sun, but rather a color... like something that had been soaked in blood countless times and dried just as many.

It was stifling, oppressive, hanging heavily overhead, making it hard to breathe.

There was no wind.

The air was dead, like a stagnant pool of water that would not flow.

But Shen Xiao knew that this place was definitely not "safe."

The Chaos space spitting him out here in itself indicated that this Gobi Desert was either the periphery of some ruin or a buffer zone for an even more dangerous area.

The coordinate fragments left behind by the shattered light cluster were still flickering in his Sea of Consciousness, indistinctly pointing toward some deeper location.

Before he could sort out those coordinates, a very faint groan came from behind him.

Shen Xiao turned around.

Xia Lengbai stood a few steps away, head lowered, staring at her own left arm.

She did not look at him.

All her attention was focused on that dark red mark winding from her elbow to her wrist.

That mark was clearer than when it had appeared in the rift.

Under the dark red sky, the mark seemed alive; the dark red lines bulged slightly beneath her skin, as if an extra, minute blood vessel that didn't belong to her had appeared.

The mark itself caused no pain; Shen Xiao could tell this from her face—there was no tension from enduring pain, only... an even more unsettling, bewildered expression.

"How does it feel?"

Shen Xiao pushed himself up using his knees and walked to her side.

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against wood.

Xia Lengbai did not look up, but merely traced the mark lightly with her fingertips.

The red beneath her skin glowed slightly with her touch, like some kind of activated light strip.

"Nothing."

Her voice was flat,

"No pain, no itch, not even... heat."

"But that 'void' in my heart is resonating with it."

She finally looked up at Shen Xiao.

Her gaze was complex.

It was not fear, nor was it anger, but something... deeper.

It was like someone who had fumbled in the dark for too long and finally touched a door, yet wasn't sure if what lay behind it was an exit or another cage.

"It's like..."

She weighed her words,

"Someone left a key on me, but the keyhole isn't here."

Shen Xiao's Silver Pattern cautiously extended a wisp, moving toward that dark red mark.

Before it could touch it, it was repelled by a cold wave.

The fluctuation had no aggression, yet it carried a strong sense of "repulsion," as if saying: Don't touch, this isn't yours.

"It is 'recognizing a master'."

Shen Xiao withdrew his Silver Pattern, his gaze deepening,

"But it might not be 'you' that it's recognizing."

"It's more like it's marking the 'keyhole'."

Xia Lengbai chimed in, her tone carrying a hint of self-deprecation,

"The ruins didn't completely let us go; they left a 'probe' behind."

Shen Xiao was silent for a moment.

He took an inconspicuous jade bottle from his robes; the bottle was covered in fine cracks, as if it might shatter at any moment.

He pulled out the stopper and poured out two Medicinal Pills. The pills were dull in color and their aura was weak—it was clear they were "in short supply."

"Stabilize first."

He handed one to Xia Lengbai.

"The mark is currently harmless, but don't guide your spiritual power near it."

"We need to figure out where this place is first."

Xia Lengbai took the Medicinal Pill and, without asking more, swallowed it directly.

Shen Xiao also swallowed his share.

The Medicinal Pill entered his stomach and transformed into a warm stream of Qi, flowing slowly along his riddled Meridians, barely "patching" over the ruptured areas with a layer.

It treated the symptoms, not the root cause.

But at least it would allow him to hold on for a few more hours.

The Silver Pattern contracted fully within his body, retreating from the surface back into his Meridians, shifting to a minimal internal circulation defense.

This way, his perception of the outside world would drop significantly, but his consumption would also be reduced to the minimum.

He needed to use it sparingly.

Based on the coordinate fragments left by the shattered light cluster, as well as the guiding memories of the Tomb Guardian Seal from the rift, Shen Xiao tried to piece together a rough direction in his Sea of Consciousness.

The coordinates pointed to the northeast.

The distance... was unknown.

But the shattered light cluster had once said that there was a "relatively safe anchor point" there.

As for what "relatively safe" meant...

Shen Xiao did not want to dwell on it.

Just then...

In the distance, from the direction of the skeletal mountain ranges, came a low hum.

It wasn't the sound of wind.

The sound of wind was chaotic and disorderly, like something whimpering.

But this sound was rhythmic, dull, and carried a metallic tremor, like some massive mechanical structure in operation.

Hum—hum—hum—

The rhythm was constant, with an interval of about three breaths between each sound.

Shen Xiao's pupils constricted suddenly.

At that instant, the Silver Pattern shot out, extending frantically toward the direction from which the humming came.

He sensed it.

In the far distance, in some corner of the skeletal mountain ranges, something was slowly approaching.

The fluctuation was very weak, so weak that it would be almost imperceptible if not specifically probed.

But the moment the Silver Pattern touched that fluctuation, it fed back a feeling of "familiarity."

It wasn't the chaotic, polluted, and distorted energy of the "Echoes."

It was closer to... a Puppet.

It was closer to the fluctuation frequency of those mechanical creations in the ruins.

It was closer to "order" and "obedience."

Shen Xiao withdrew the Silver Pattern, his expression darkening.

"Something is approaching."

His voice was kept very low, as if afraid of alerting something.

Xia Lengbai's gaze also turned to the distant skeletal mountain ranges.

Then, she looked down at her left arm.

That dark red mark was flashing in time with the rhythm of the distant humming.

Hum, bright.

Hum, dark.

The frequency had quietly accelerated a fraction.

Shen Xiao's gaze fell on the mark, then lifted to meet Xia Lengbai's eyes.

Neither of them spoke.

The humming in the distance grew closer and closer.