214: A mangled body at the end of his road, with no chance of survival.

Deep within the Earth Core Furnace, the dark red light and shadow were still twisting and flickering, but the glorious heavenly might that once filled the heavens and earth, along with the aura of finality that froze one's Soul, had already dissipated. In its place was a deathly silence, like surviving a great calamity, and a shattered, ruined space that had been utterly ravaged.

A Seven-Colored streamer sliced through the heavy air, but its speed was far from its usual swiftness, even carrying a hint of staggering instability. Within the light, Medusa gritted her teeth, her exquisite face completely devoid of color. Fine beads of sweat constantly seeped from her forehead, yet they evaporated before they could fall due to the scorching environment surrounding her.

She carried the completely unconscious Li Ao on her back. Every time her figure flickered, the movement pulled at her internal injuries, causing a sweet metallic taste to surge in her throat, which she forcibly swallowed. Li Ao's body lay limply on her back, his breath so faint it was almost imperceptible, like a candle flame about to be extinguished. The weight of his body now felt heavier than a mountain, pressing not only on her physically but also on her heart.

"Hold on... Li Ao, hold on for this Queen!" she whispered softly, unsure if she was commanding the man on her back or admonishing herself.

She must find a safe place quickly!

The Earth Core Furnace was absolutely not a place to linger. The commotion from the heavenly punishment that had just descended, along with the fleeting but epoch-stirring aura of the nirvana star core at the very end, must have already acted like a beacon in the night, drawing countless prying gazes. She knew not how many powerful Soul senses were currently sweeping in from all directions, searching for anomalies in this area.

She forcibly mobilized her scarce Dou Qi, pushing her speed to the current limit she could achieve, rushing toward a relatively remote area she remembered from her arrival —a region with a complex structure of underground caverns. That location might temporarily block detection, granting them precious time to recover.

However, when it rains, it pours.

Just as she was about to rush out of the core area and step into the relatively stable rock passage—

"Rumble!"

A massive section of the domed rock wall ahead, already unstable due to the previous impact of the heavenly punishment energy, suddenly collapsed! Countless flaming boulders mixed with viscous magma slammed down like meteors of doom, instantly blocking the Dao forward and kicking up a turbulent wave of scorching, violent energy that swept toward them!

Medusa's pupils contracted. Her condition was extremely poor; normally, such an obstacle could be shattered with a wave of her hand, but now, it was a deadly threat. She forcibly twisted her direction, and her Seven-Colored Dou Qi transformed into a thin light barrier protecting her front, attempting to evade from the side.

"Bang!"

A flaming boulder several yards in diameter scraped past the edge of the light barrier. The violent impact still sent her blood and Qi churning, and the protective light barrier flickered violently, nearly dissolving. She gave a muffled groan, and her figure, carrying Li Ao, was uncontrollably sent flying backward, slamming heavily into a scorching rock wall behind her.

"Pfft—"

Unable to suppress it any longer, a mouthful of fresh blood spurted out, staining a tragic, vivid mark on the rock wall in front of her. She felt her vision darken, and her internal organs felt as if they had been violently displaced by intense pain.

And Li Ao on her back, suffering the shock of the impact, found his already collapsing physical condition worsened. He unconsciously let out a painful groan, and strands of fresh blood seeped out again from the cracks on the surface of his body. His life aura rapidly flickered like a candle in the wind, seeming ready to be extinguished completely the next second.

"Li Ao!" Medusa was greatly alarmed. Ignoring her own injuries, she quickly set him down and held him in her arms. Placing her fingers on his wrist pulse, what she sensed was a scene of deathly silence and chaotic ruins.

His Meridians were completely shattered, his Dou Qi exhausted, and his Soul Origin was dim and lusterless, like shattered porcelain. He was only hanging onto his last thread of vitality by relying on a weak stream of Chaos Qi from the "silent ruin" blade spirit and the efficacy of Medicinal Pills.

Truly a situation of certain death!

Medusa looked at the man in her arms, who was barely breathing and utterly pale, then sensed her own equally heavy injuries, along with the faint yet increasingly close powerful probing auras from outside. A despair she had never felt before instantly drowned her mind, like cold seawater.

She had traversed the Jia Ma Empire, ruled the Snake People tribe, and survived countless life-and-death killing formations, yet she had never felt so powerless or so terrified as she did now.

Could it be... that after exhausting everything and annihilating the heavenly punishment, she would ultimately fall here in the unknown depths underground, buried in this sea of magma and fire?

She was unwilling!

She held Li Ao tightly, her fingertips turning white from the force. Deep within her seductive eyes, madness and struggle flickered. There must still be a way... there must!

Just then, an extremely dangerous, even suicidal, thought flashed through her mind—that place!

That was a strange place she had accidentally discovered while searching for the Earth Core Furnace earlier. The space there was extremely unstable, permeated by a gray energy completely different from the core fire—an energy filled with decay and decline, as if it connected to some unknown desperate land or death domain. At the time, she only sensed it from afar, felt her heart pound, and immediately retreated.

That place might be a forbidden area that even the pursuing powerhouses would be unwilling to easily enter.

Going there might be the only way to survive, but it might also be... a quicker death.

Medusa lowered her head, looking at Li Ao in her arms whose flame of life was about to be extinguished. She then looked up at the perilous path ahead blocked by falling rocks, and the increasingly clear foreign auras in her perception. A look of fierce determination flashed across her charming yet pale face.

She gently wiped the blood from Li Ao's lips, her voice low and firm, carrying the solemnity of burning her bridges:

"Bastard... If you survive this, what you owe this Queen, you won't be able to repay in this lifetime!"

Before her voice faded, she fiercely picked up Li Ao. The last remnants of her Seven-Colored Dou Qi flared around her. She rushed not forward, nor backward, but recklessly plunged into an inconspicuous rock wall fissure diagonally below, which emitted faint gray Qi flow fluctuations!

The moment her figure vanished, the unstable space around the rock wall fissure briefly twisted, then returned to its original state, as if nothing had happened.

A moment later, several figures radiating powerful auras arrived sequentially. They surveyed the ruins, sensing the lingering terrifying aura, their expressions filled with shock and uncertainty.

"Strange, I clearly sensed a faint trace of life Qi here just now..."

"Search! After that heavenly punishment, a rare treasure must have emerged, or... someone carrying a great treasure survived!"

"Hmph, to survive under such heavenly might, they must surely be at the end of their rope!"

However, no matter how they searched, they could no longer find any trace of the two who had plunged into the gray fissure. The entrance to that desperate land, filled with the aura of decline and decay, was like a silent giant maw that had swallowed all hope and... despair.