161 – Why
A strong smell of blood spread.
Qi Qiqi, whose head is resting on Shui Yun’er’s lap, is seriously injured. She has fallen into a coma.
The left chest was pierced. The blood flowing out — nearly spraying out — of the wound like spring water gradually dyed her clothes, and an eye-catching, bright red pool of blood formed on the ground.
Xue Qilin feels like her heart has been hollowed out, her consciousness stretched taut to the breaking point.
How could this be? Xue Qilin almost collapsed. If it wasn’t for the fact that the hand she is gripping still is warm and has a pulse, she might… she might have choked to death.
“Young, Young Teacher, the bleeding won’t stop!”
Shui Yun’er has a panicked look in her eyes, her face is scrunched up into a ball, her hands covering the wound are stained red with blood. Her voice awakened Xue Qilin.
“Get out of the way — let me do it!”
Xue Qilin sat down on her knees across from Shui Yun’er and pushed Shui Yun’er’s hands aside. She pressed her hands hard against the wound on Qi Qiqi’s left chest and released warm green light.
The wound healed slowly at a rate visible to the naked eye.
However, Xue Qilin still couldn’t feel relieved. Qi Qiqi’s face is still pale and distorted from pain.
She isn’t a white wizard expert at treatments. She can only extract spiritual qi from the surroundings, convert it along with her own true qi into wood spiritual qi, inject it in large quantities into Qi Qiqi, and stimulate the vitality of the other party, in order to accelerate her metabolism and promote rapid healing.
“There’s too much blood… the temperature is low, what should I do…”
There is a taste of blood in her mouth.
Xue Qilin bit her lower lip unconsciously. She has a way to heal Qi Qiqi’s wound, but she has no way to replenish the blood she lost.
Qi Qiqi seems to be much lighter. She lost too much blood.
The blood that stained Xue Qilin and Shui Yun’er, that stained Qi Qiqi’s clothes, and that fell on the ground — if all of the blood was collected, it would probably be enough to fill several wine jugs.
“Qilin…”
Qi Qiqi moaned and shouted Xue Qilin’s name. Her voice is very quiet, but unexpectedly clear.
“I’m here! I’m here!”
Great — it might be a misconception that Qi Qiqi silently mouthed this word. She showed a relived look, and the painful expression on her face eased slightly.
Why is it great? What is great? Just because I’m by your side? You think I can save you? But…
“But I didn’t protect you at all!”
Xue Qilin finds it difficult to breathe. She discovered that she really feels like crying.
The wound has healed completely. However, the girl’s breath of life is still feeble, her breathing is very weak, almost nonexistent, and even the circulation of true qi in her body has nearly ceased.
Now she can only rely on herself.
Can she persevere?
Who knows.
Xue Qilin drooped her shoulders weakly, and her bright yellow eyes shook unnaturally and look vacantly into space.
“Young Teacher, why… isn’t the wound healed! Big Sister Qi will be saved, won’t she? Hey — Young Teacher!”
Shui Yun’er’s voice was shaky.
Xue Qilin didn’t respond. She just stared blankly at the ground.
Her vision gradually blurred. After a long moment of silence, the lass looked up. Shui Yun’er’s teary eyes reflected her unsightly face.
Blood and tears mixed together and smearing Xue Qilin’s face, making it unbearable to look at.
“I don’t know… I… really don’t know…”
Xue Qilin just shook her head.
“Why… why did I –”
Left her there?
Why did I leave her side?
I said that I’ll protect her, but did I fulfill my promise?
I haven’t! Not at all! Am I going to follow the same old disastrous path again?! Am I going to experience that suffocating feeling again?!
If… if Little Seven is really… really going to leave me, can I bear it?
— No.
She can lose Luo Qing, but not Qi Qiqi.
Because she is the meaning of the lass’s existence!
A warm current rushed into her throat. Unable to suppress it, Xue Qilin spat it out.
“Young Teacher! What happened to you?”
Shui Yun’er exclaimed in panic.
Xue Qilin spat out blood.
Is it because she forcibly increased her speed to an unbearable limit in order to hurry here? Or is she unable to bear the blow of Qi Qiqi’s heavy injury?
Probably both.
The taste of blood remained in her throat.
The intense taste made her snap out of it.
It’s her fault…
— it’s all her fault!
Some intense emotions went out of control deep inside her, and the color of her eyes instantly deepened and became gold.
“Why…?”
While swaying like an animated corpse, Xue Qilin got up and drew a dark sword beside her. Apparently having felt something, the lines engraved on Empyrean Universe emitted ominous light.
“Xihe, why!”
Xihe, who stayed not far away, awakened. She raised her head in astonishment, and then shook her head weakly.
Do you not know, or do you have nothing to say? A gloomy roar escaped Xue Qilin’s rosy lips.
“… kill you”
“Young Teacher –”
Shui Yun’er evidently wanted to stop Xue Qilin, but she didn’t manage to catch up with the latter.
“– I’m going to kill you!”
Xue Qilin kicked off the ground abruptly. As if a stream of light wrapped by blue-white electric arcs, she rapidly approached Xihe.
“Die!”
A ferocious figure has filled the sluggish purple eyes.
Then —
A deep whistling sounded.
Slow in her reaction, Xihe almost didn’t make it. In the nick of time, she used her tails to block Empyrean Universe, which fell down loudly.
The sword and tails clashed with great impact.
A loud blare shook the air and a shock wave swept countless sand and pebbles.
“Xihe!”
Xue Qilin’s face twisted, and she gritted her teeth.
“Uh –!”
Xihe groaned, and the ground she stood on cracked instantly.
As if tense bowstrings, the silver-white tails made disturbing sounds. It appears that they will snap at any time.
“Calm down, it wasn’t me…”
“Calm down! You told me to calm down?”
Xue Qilin roared, and then let go of Empyrean Universe abruptly. Caught off guard by this action, Xihe couldn’t react for a moment.
The lass took advantage of this gap and bumped into the other party.
“– ah!”
Xihe was knocked away.
Xue Qilin struck her with so much force, that Xihe was actually flung across Mirror Moon Lake and fell into the woods. When she reached the ground, she rolled for a considerable distance and broke several trees, and then finally hit a large boulder.
Xihe coughed up the sand that entered her mouth and stood up while moaning. However —
“Thunder Flame Dragon No. 7!”
Before Xihe could stand up straight, a flame dragon, while burning the air, roared and arrived in front of her.
“Damn it!”
Xihe, who didn’t intend to face it, quickly jumped aside. The flame ploughed the ground, passed her, burned the trees in its wake, and rushed into the distance like a runaway wild horse.
But the attack wasn’t over yet.
Dazzling blue-white light stung the eyes.
A terrifying flash of light ripped the air apart and struck towards Xihe.
It is a lightning spear that resembles a bolt of lightning during summer and contains enough power to smash everything. Despite this, Xihe still didn’t dodge.
She pushed her tails into the void.
With just this simple action, the lightning spear disappeared as if it hit an invisible barrier.
“Sure enough, the tails are the culprit!”
A sneer suddenly came from behind.
Before the voice sounded, Xihe already turned around. She noticed that Xue Qilin has arrived behind her at some point.
Xue Qilin rushed to in front of Xihe and swung the large mechanical sword that has already returned to her hand. As Empyrean Universe approached Xihe, it transformed into a halberd.
“I’ll tear you to shreds!”
“… curses! Idiot, listen to me!”
The halberd fell violently and slammed into Xihe’s tails.
The two people started a fierce battle. Each blow is accompanied by a loud blare and a sharp wind pressure that can leave scratches on trees. The sword and tails are crisscrossing in the dark and tracing countless white trajectories.
The fighting of the two people affected everything around them — stones were crushed, trees were cut in half. As they constantly switched positions and light and shadow flashed, they ravaged the woods like a “moving natural disaster”.
Taking advantage of a minute flaw in Xue Qilin’s attacks, Xihe opened a little distance between them. Then, she twisted her tails into one and slammed them abruptly at Xue Qilin’s right wrist.
Crack! The sound of bones fracturing rouse.
Xue Qilin let go of Empyrean Universe due to pain. The large mechanical sword fell with a bang on the ground.
Next, Xihe followed up with a palm strike barreling towards Xue Qilin’s chest. However —
“Explode!”
An explosion suddenly took place between the two.
At the moment Xihe waved her sleeve to clear away the dust cloud blurring her vision, a small, fair hand came out of the dust cloud and gripped her slender neck.
With her right arm hanging weakly and her left hand strangling Xihe, Xue Qilin knocked into a large boulder.
“Ugh, uh–!”
The impact caused the boulder to crack and depress, forcing out all the air in Xihe’s lungs.
Her lips trembling from pain, Xihe wrapped her hands and tails around Xue Qilin and tried to pull her away. But as the lass tightened her grip, Xihe suddenly lost most of her strength.
With the blood flow restricted, Xihe has difficulty resisting the opponent. Her feet are off the ground and tears began to emerge from her eyes. She could only whip Xue Qilin’s petite body with her tails.
Wounds gradually piled up on her body, yet the lass didn’t let go. She looked up at Xihe.
“Why? Because she’s human, so you hurt her? Answer me, Xihe! What is your goal? What are you thinking?”
She screamed at the top of her lungs.
As Xue Qilin questioned the girl in front of her, ominous light flowed in her eyes.
Martial demons are discriminated against and suffer miserably? Martial demons and martial practitioners have irreconcilable differences? Because humans are the aggressors, so they deserve to die? Xue Qilin doesn’t care. She doesn’t care why the other party hurt Qi Qiqi, nor will she forgive her.
Killing intent surging, Xue Qilin continued to add more strength, and her fingers sunk into the other party’s skin. The bones in Xihe’s neck creaked, as if about to snap.
“She clearly hasn’t… hasn’t harmed you!”
The purple eyes showed sadness.
“It… it… wasn’t me…”
Xihe shook her head slowly and stammered out this sentence with great difficulty.
“Don’t talk nonsense! If not you, then who!”
The barrier of the Ward talisman can withstand multiple Earth Realm attacks, and can even resist a Heaven Realm all-out strike. Throughout Mirror Moon Lake, in addition to Xihe, who else can easily break the barrier?
“Tell me! Wh –”
Xue Qilin suddenly stopped talking.
No, there is another person, another person that can easily break the “Ward talisman”.
It is —
