Looking at Yun You lying on the operating table, Akas’ expression froze for a mont, and he instinctively turned to glance at the gaping passageway.
A suffocating stench of blood so thick it made one retch surged in along with the reek of gunpowder, mixed with a pungent corrosive tang and the foul odor of molten tal.
And the world beyond the passage had long since changed beyond recognition.
Outside, tattered black robes lay scattered over the glassy ground like filthy burial shrouds; bricks and gravel had been lted, then rapidly cooled, forming a transparent expanse underfoot.
Mangled limbs and charred bones were tangled together, carpeting every corner within sight, foul blood almost pooling into little streams that ran along the pitted, uneven floor.
The surrounding walls were gouged with enormous claw marks and scorched where energy had burned them; the entire structure of the underground cavity had been completely destroyed in the battle just now.
Akas’ heart clenched slightly. He had thought about it: Yun You and Chen Zaikun were both High Tier Apprentice Death Gods, so the commotion from their fight was bound to be huge.
But...
When he saw this carnage with his own eyes, he still found it unbelievable.
So this was the Hell Yun You had been facing earlier?
And what shocked him even more was that within this wasteland, the heavy iron door leading to the laboratory, and this small operating room behind his own door, had miraculously survived intact.
It was obvious this wasn’t luck, but the result of Yun You risking her life to protect them in the midst of battle.
"All just for a promise...?"
Akas turned his head back again, looking at the frail body on the operating table whose breath was barely there; his throat felt as if sothing had clogged it.
Vaguely, his mories seed to drift back more than thirty years...
The sa smoke and dust, the sa broken walls; the young Lamia was tightly shielded under Jin’s body, yet the violent shockwave of the explosion had still burned her small body beyond recognition. Jin, eyes bloodshot, had carried his daughter, barely clinging to life, to him...
And although Lamia hadn’t been a Death God back then, her physique was still fairly good. The reason she was hurt so badly was likewise because, at the mont the bombardnt hit, she had shielded a few civilian children frozen in terror beside her, using her tiny body to block the most lethal wave of impact...
Was history really about to repeat itself?
"No... it can’t..."
Akas murmured, suddenly struggling up from the floor. He no longer cared about the exhaustion in his body, staggering over to Yun You’s side and grabbing a still-intact portable vital-signs scanner from nearby.
The cold touch of tal helped him steady himself a little. He took a deep breath, forcing down the roiling emotions, compelling himself to reenter the doctor’s mindset as he quickly scanned Yun You’s injuries.
The data on the screen began to spike and jitter wildly...
Multiple comminuted fractures, penetrating abdominal trauma, severe internal bleeding, extensive muscle tears, overloaded nerve endings, vital signs weak...
But her Soul Energy had not dispersed, and her heart was still stubbornly beating!
"Hah..."
Akas stared fixedly at the screen. Only after a long mont did he finally exhale a long breath.
Not fatal wounds!
Though the injuries were horrific to the extre—if it were an ordinary person, they’d have died ten tis over—Yun You was, after all, a High Tier Death God; her physical constitution far surpassed that of normal people. As bad as the injuries were, as long as he could stop the bleeding in ti and she received proper recuperation, she would definitely survive.
Relief surged through him like a warm current, instantly dispersing the dread gripping Akas’ heart.
"She can be saved, she’s still savable!"
He imdiately turned, rummaging through the ravaged operating room for instrunts that were still usable.
Sutures, synthetic Blood Packs... and ergency Life Recovery Potions.
Just as Akas began operating on Yun You, the long-silent Chen Zaikun slowly shifted his gaze toward the still-unconscious Lamia on the adjacent operating table.
Strangely enough, he had clearly never seen this girl before, yet whenever his Perception brushed over Lamia’s body, Chen Zaikun always felt a breath of indescribable familiarity.
It was a presence that ca from bloodline.
"Could it be..."
Suddenly, as if he’d thought of sothing, Chen Zaikun’s pupils constricted. He stared fixedly at Lamia’s pale yet exquisitely shaped profile.
"Bloodline... the old man’s bloodline!"
Chen Zaikun muttered under his breath, his voice hoarse with disbelief.
"So that’s it. This is the last secret he hid? He actually had a daughter?"
The next instant, the answer to another question surfaced as well.
"The Saint’s Remains."
Chen Zaikun’s lips slowly curved, forming a sowhat complicated, bitter smile.
It was now obvious that the legendary treasure said to be enough to upend the entire world order—the "Saint’s Remains"—must be hidden within Lamia.
An uncontrollable urge surged up inside him. As long as he reached out his hand, as long as he seized this unconscious girl, that long-dread-of power would fall into his grasp.
Yun You was already unconscious, and Akas had no combat ability to speak of. If he wanted to take the Saint’s Remains, he wouldn’t have to pay any price at all; it was practically his for the taking.
Three days ago, he had even fought Yun You tooth and nail for that single finger bone.
To beco a God...
There weren’t many Apprentice Death Gods who could resist such temptation.
Akas, beside the operating table, seed to sense sothing. He jerked his head up, looking toward Chen Zaikun with wary, fearful eyes.
He knew who Chen Zaikun was. He’d seen what Chen Zaikun had done, knew the ambition of this second disciple of Jin.
And likewise, he saw that fleeting glint of ghostly light flicker through Chen Zaikun’s eyes.
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