57: Chapter 57 Temperature Rule #1

Shen Xiao looked at her, at that face stained by an interweaving of tears and madness, and for a fleeting moment, he was lost in thought.

This woman seemed to have been broken by him, yet at the same time... she seemed to have found her true self.

The awkward and eerie silence between them was broken by the "gurgle, gurgle" of hot bubbles in the pool water.

Their bodies, having just endured a life-and-death battle and a dramatic reversal, finally began to protest in delayed realization.

The medicinal power of the nine-turn heart-protecting pill within Shen Xiao was fiercely scouring away the Blood Poison, like two armies engaged in street fighting within his riddled Meridians.

Although he had temporarily saved his life, every second felt like countless small knives scraping at his internal organs.

His chest heaved violently, each breath carrying a metallic tang, his lungs burning with pain.

Xia Lengbai was no better off. Having forcibly channeled her Ice Spiritual Power to protect Shen Xiao's Meridians, and then enduring the impact of the soul sound bell, her spiritual energy was now exhausted. Her brain throbbed with pain, as if someone were scraping her brains with a spoon.

She was still wet, and as the glacial wind blew, her teeth chattered, making her look just like an ice lolly fresh out of the freezer.

In the air, the steam rising from their bodies gradually dissipated—one emitting black smoke, the other white—a pair of black-and-white demons, quite a sight to behold.

Finally, Shen Xiao wobbled to his feet, his movements as sluggish as an eighty-year-old man.

He rummaged through his robes for a long time before pulling out a crumpled, blank sound-transmission talisman. The talisman paper had been soaked through with blood, making it feel somewhat sticky.

With a flick of his finger, he injected a wisp of aura, so faint it was almost invisible, into the talisman, then tossed it to Xia Lengbai as if throwing away trash.

"Take it."

Xia Lengbai's body moved faster than her brain; she subconsciously caught the talisman, which emitted a faint scent of blood.

It felt ice-cold to the touch and somewhat clammy, with a terrible texture.

"What is this?" she asked, her voice raspy.

"Last words," Shen Xiao said, leaning against the ice wall, speaking slowly. "You are my symbiotic partner now. We are two grasshoppers on the same string; neither of us can run."

He glanced at Xia Lengbai with a cold, evaluative gaze. "You know that guy Lin Yun better than I do; he is someone who repays every grievance. Just because he hasn't killed us yet doesn't mean he doesn't want to. This talisman contains a wisp of my life-force aura. If he really strikes to kill, this thing can block the first blow for us, buying us about... three breaths of time."

Xia Lengbai's fingers tightened abruptly, almost crushing the fragile talisman. Three breaths—what could that accomplish? Was it enough for her to blink three times?

"I want you to hold it," Shen Xiao said, his voice dropping extremely low, as if afraid of disturbing something. "Later, if I can't hold on and pass out, use it to reverse-lock the position of that puppet, Bailian. Her soul sound bell is the key to the Heavenly Dao Contract and can track Soul coordinates. As long as we can snatch it, Lin Yun will no longer be able to use this trick to ambush us."

Xia Lengbai clutched the thin talisman, feeling as if it weighed a thousand catties. She stared at Shen Xiao's face, which was so pale it was almost transparent. It was devoid of color from blood loss, with only his lips retaining a hint of sickly crimson.

She suddenly spoke, asking an unrelated question: "The heart-poison pill and essence blood you mentioned earlier... they were all fake. Is this Restriction binding between us real?"

Hearing this, Shen Xiao slowly lifted his eyelids. His pitch-black eyes shone like two wisps of ghost fire in the dim ice cave. He tugged at the corner of his mouth, revealing a weak yet deeply mocking smile.

"Whether it's true or false, can't you tell by feeling it now?" he said unhurriedly. "I didn't use some low-level Restriction, but the 'Telepathic Symbiosis Technique'. The spiritual energy fluctuations between you and me have now been woven into a net—you are in me, and I am in you."

"If you lose your mind and try to forcibly break free, my spiritual energy will be instantly drained, and I will die on the spot. And as for you..." He deliberately drew out his voice, appreciating the shifting expression on Xia Lengbai's face. "Under the backlash, your Divine Soul will be torn apart, your Meridians destroyed, and you will become a cripple worse than a beggar on the roadside. Congratulations, Young Miss Xia, you have successfully transformed yourself from the Child of Destiny's fiancée into the exclusive 'pendant' of this cannon-fodder villain."

After saying this, he slowly closed his eyes, leaned against the ice wall, and began to cross his legs to regulate his breathing, looking as if he had let down his guard against everything around him.

Xia Lengbai looked at him expressionlessly. She looked at his unguarded neck, at the wound on his chest that was still slightly oozing blood, and at his punchable face.

A strange, twisted pleasure grew savagely from the depths of her heart, wrapping around her heart like vines. This man had finally, completely, bound her to his side. This feeling... wasn't bad.

Half a cup of tea's time felt as long as a century to Shen Xiao. Just as he managed to suppress the rampaging Burning Heaven Pill Fire and Blood Poison within him by a fraction...

"Whoosh!" A Sword Qi as thin as a hair, almost blending into the air, shot out silently from the depths of the glacial rift! It skimmed across the cold surface of the icy pool, drawing an almost invisible white line, aiming precisely at the center of Shen Xiao's brow!

This sneak attack was insidious, vicious, and fast to the extreme!

Shen Xiao opened his eyes abruptly! His body still couldn't move, but his combat instincts had reacted before his thoughts. He jerked his neck to the right, his head slamming hard against the ice wall behind him with a dull "thud."

"Swish!" The Sword Qi flew past, barely grazing the tip of his nose, carving a deep, long bloodstain on his left cheek that burned with pain. Fresh blood trickled down from the wound, dripping onto his white lapels like a red plum blossom blooming in the snow.

He immediately judged that the style of this Sword Qi was not the broad and open golden Demonic Qi of Lin Yun. This Sword Qi was colder, more insidious, and carried a rigidity of being controlled. It was Bailian! She was using the soul sound bell to remotely guide some kind of tracking sword formation!

Shen Xiao's heart sank instantly. "Lin Yun really hasn't gone far." He said in a low voice to Xia Lengbai beside him, his voice filled with a chill. "He left Bailian nearby like a radar, locking down the spiritual energy fluctuations in this area. We are now fish in his net."

He turned his head, his pitch-black eyes staring fixedly at Xia Lengbai, the new wound on his face making his expression look exceptionally ferocious. "You have two choices now."

"One, take advantage of the fact that I'm half-dead, pack me up, and send me to Lin Yun. Perhaps if he's happy, he might find a way to remove the Symbiosis Technique for you, letting you return to your post and continue being his noble fiancée."

"Two," he grinned, revealing teeth stained red with blood, "do as I say, and we will survive together."

Xia Lengbai didn't hesitate for even a second. As if she had been waiting for these words, she directly tossed the blood-smeared sound-transmission talisman into the air. No hand seals, no incantations. She simply raised her hand, forcing out a wisp of extremely cold Ice Spiritual Power from her fingertip, and precisely tapped it onto the talisman.

"Boom!" The sound-transmission talisman wasn't ignited; it was detonated by her Ice Spiritual Power! The wisp of life-force aura that Shen Xiao had injected into it was instantly blasted into three fist-sized, flickering balls of light. These three balls of light seemed to have a life of their own, drifting away in three completely different directions.

She was gambling! Gambling on the arrogance of Lin Yun and Bailian! They would naturally assume that this was Shen Xiao acting out of desperation, using a Clone or fake targets to create a diversion. And the more they were in such a moment, the more they would trust their initial judgment, thereby ignoring the simple truth that the most dangerous place is often the safest.

Sure enough, within ten breaths, a faint sound of copper bell vibrations came from above the glacial rift, the direction of the sound... was in the far west. Bailian had been lured away by those three balls of light!

Shen Xiao looked at the side profile of the woman beside him, at the desperate madness and calmness on her face, and for the first time, a trace of genuine approval flashed in his eyes. "Your acting skills have improved rapidly."

However, just as Shen Xiao was preparing to seize this precious window of opportunity, struggling to stand up and continue fleeing, a piercing numbness suddenly surged from his left leg! He looked down and saw that from his left knee down, he had lost all sensation, and the skin had turned an unnatural blue-gray color. The speed at which the Blood Poison was eroding his Meridians was faster than he had imagined! The Meridians in his left leg were already half-destroyed! If he dragged it out any longer, this leg would be completely ruined!

Shen Xiao took a deep breath, the last trace of hesitation in his eyes replaced by ruthlessness. He pulled a dagger from his robes. The dagger had been scavenged from the corpse of some unfortunate Soul in the Thousand Stone Caves; it was rusted, the blade was curled, and it looked duller than a brick. Yet, Shen Xiao did not hesitate in the slightest. He gripped the dagger, aimed at a spot three inches above his left knee, and with all his remaining strength, slashed down hard!

"Puchi!" With a teeth-grinding, dull sound, a wound deep enough to reveal the bone was instantly torn open! Black, poisonous blood sprayed out, carrying a foul stench. The excruciating pain made his vision go black, and he nearly fainted on the spot. But he gritted his teeth, channeling the last wisp of Burning Heaven Pill Fire in his Dantian, covering the wound with it.

"Sizzle!" The smell of scorched flesh permeated the air. He actually intended to use this most primitive and brutal method to forcibly block the spread of the poisonous blood and, incidentally, cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding!

After doing all this, Shen Xiao's face was as white as a sheet of paper, and his whole body was soaked in cold sweat. He raised his head and looked at Xia Lengbai, who was frozen in shock by this bloody scene. His voice was terrifyingly calm. "Carry me." "I need at least half an hour to recover the most basic mobility." He looked into her eyes, enunciating every word. "You are my legs now. Don't let me down."