Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 233 The Mysterious Old Woman Appears in the Snow Valley

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

The warm spring water enveloped the two of them.

Qingli lay on her back in the pool, still shaken, with the back of her head resting on Chu Ning's bloodstained hand.

Her unfocused and terrified pupils finally focused, reflecting Chu Ning's face, which was so close to hers, pale as paper, covered in cold sweat and pain, yet filled with urgency and worry.

Eyes facing each other.

There is no memory to support it.

There was no prior knowledge.

Only the bewilderment of surviving a disaster and the instinctive feeling towards the unfamiliar face before me.

The instant Chu Ning's palm touched the back of Qing Li's head—

Om-! ! !
An indescribable tremor, originating from the deepest part of their soul cores, erupted like a dormant volcano being simultaneously detonated.

The soul rift between Chu Ning's brows, which had been painstakingly mended by milky-white marrow light, suddenly lit up.

Milky white light and hideous black cracks intertwined and fought wildly.

A massive and chaotic flow of information—fear, despair, a blood-stained figure, a collapsing cave, a pillar of light piercing the heavens and earth, a boulder crashing down on him… Countless fragments of Qing Li’s dying memories, like a flood bursting its banks, instantly rushed into Chu Ning’s chaotic and shattered soul sea.

"Ah—!" Chu Ning let out a muffled groan of extreme pain, his body trembling violently, the light between his brows flashing wildly, and the newly formed soul pattern twisting as if scorched by raging fire.

His hand supporting Qingli suddenly lost its strength, and he staggered backward, falling heavily onto the cold stone ground.

Almost at the same time.

Qingli's sea of ​​consciousness was like a lake surface tossed with a giant rock.

The milky white light emanating from Chu Ning's soul core, the pain that was riddled with cracks, and the resolute figure that rushed forward without regard for anything... all transformed into a chaotic torrent of fragments, violently impacting her nascent and fragile consciousness.

In particular, the touch and warmth of the bloodstained hand that cushioned the back of her head felt like a key, instantly unlocking a corner deep within her soul core that had been forcibly sealed by the power of order.

"Ugh!" Qingli also let out a painful groan, clutching her head with both hands.

Countless chaotic images flashed wildly before his eyes—his bloodstained hand pressed against the ice at the bottom of the coffin well…

His gentle smile before he vanished in the sea of ​​souls… and… and the blood-stained corner of his lips when he whispered, “I remember you”…

The intense headache felt like being pierced by millions of steel needles at once.

Fragments of old and new memories, the blank space after the order was set, the fear of impending death, and the intense pain brought by the strong resonance deep in her soul core at this moment, instantly tore her nascent consciousness apart completely.

"No...no...it hurts so much...my head...it hurts so much..." Qingli curled up in the hot spring pool in pain, her body convulsing violently from the intense pain and confusion. The hot spring water was churning and swirling, and her pale face was covered with tears of pain and fear.

"Sister! Sister, what's wrong?!" Little Jiu'er was terrified, looking helplessly at the two people in such agony.

Chu Ning fell to the ground, feeling as if all his bones were shattered. The excruciating pain from the splitting point between his eyebrows and the churning memories of Qing Li's near-death experience in his sea of ​​consciousness made his vision blur and he almost fainted again.

But he forced himself to lift his head and look at Qingli, who was curled up in pain in the pool. Her empty eyes were now filled with indescribable heartache and an almost instinctive urge to get closer and comfort her.

“Qing…Li…” He reached out with difficulty, wanting to touch her again, but he was afraid of aggravating her pain.

at this time--

"enough."

An old, hoarse voice, yet strangely penetrating, rang out at the doorway.

The old woman's hunched figure had appeared silently at the door of the stone house without anyone noticing.

Her deep, dark gold eyes calmly swept over Chu Ning, who was struggling in pain on the ground, and then landed on Qing Li, who was on the verge of collapse in the pool due to the impact of chaotic memories.

She slowly walked in and went to the edge of the hot spring pool.

Withered fingers pointed at Qingli, who was writhing in agony in the pool.

An extremely subtle yet incredibly refined dark golden light, like the most precise needle, instantly pierced Qing Li's brow.

It's like boiling water being poured into ice.

Qingli's violently convulsing body suddenly stiffened, and then, as if all her strength had been drained, she slumped softly into the warm spring water, ceasing her painful struggle.

His furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and his rapid breathing gradually became steady and long.

But the corners of her tightly closed eyes still bore traces of undried tears.

The old woman then turned to Chu Ning on the ground.

Also, hover in mid-air.

A gentle yet powerfully soothing beam of dark gold light entered his violently flickering brow.

The torrent of memories churning in Chu Ning's mind and the excruciating pain of her soul being torn apart were as if forcibly smoothed and suppressed by an invisible hand.

His violently trembling body gradually calmed down, and the milky white light between his brows stabilized again. Although the cracks were still grotesque, the excruciating pain that tore at his soul was temporarily relieved.

He was panting heavily, his tattered clothes soaked with cold sweat, and he looked at the old woman with tired and blank eyes.

Xiao Jiu'er breathed a sigh of relief and ran over to help Chu Ning up.

"Don't touch him," the old woman said calmly.

She walked to the edge of the hot spring pool, squatted down, and stared at Qing Li, who had fainted in the pool, with her dark golden eyes. Then she looked at Chu Ning, who was exhausted on the ground. Her wrinkled face was expressionless, but in her ancient well-like eyes, there was a deep understanding that seemed to have seen through the vicissitudes of time.

“Soul wounds share the same origin, and so do inner demons.” She murmured to herself, her voice sounding somewhat ethereal in the misty steam. “Forcibly awakening them will only deepen the rift and intensify the pain.”

She slowly stood up, her gaze sweeping over the Soul-Guiding Stone emanating a faint warmth from Chu Ning's chest, and then over the temporarily suppressed chaos between Qing Li's brows.

“Your wounds are not in your bones or muscles, nor in the rupture of your souls.” The old woman’s voice carried an all-knowing power, “They are in your inner demons, in… that ‘past’ that you yourselves forcibly severed, yet etched into the deepest part of your soul core.”

She paused, and deep within her dark golden eyes, an extremely complex emotion seemed to surge, ultimately turning into an almost inaudible sigh.

"This hot spring water can nourish the body and soothe the soul, but it cannot dispel the 'calamity' in your souls."

"I want to truly survive... I want to 'remember'..."

The old woman's gaze fell on Chu Ning, yet seemed to penetrate him, seeing into something deeper.

"What you need to face is not each other."

"But...it is yourselves."

After saying that, she fell silent, her hunched figure slowly turning around, and she walked unsteadily toward the door.

The moment she stepped across the threshold, she paused slightly, without turning back, uttering only a light, airy sentence, like a final proverb, that fell upon the silent stone house:
"Rest quietly. Time... is running out."

The wooden door of the stone house closed gently, blocking out the sunlight and the old woman's figure.

The only sounds inside were the gurgling of the hot spring water, Xiao Jiu'er's worried gaze, and two figures, one unconscious and the other semi-conscious, still tormented by the same nightmare and the same "inner demon" deep within their souls. The Soul-Guiding Stone throbbed weakly and stubbornly in Chu Ning's chest, connecting him to the sleeping soul in the pool.

Their journey home seems to have only just reached the first stop, and ahead of them lies a deeper, darker night of the soul that they must traverse alone.

Inside the stone house, time seemed to stand still, as if frozen by the steam from the hot spring.

Only the gurgling of the spring water and the soft sounds of Xiao Jiu'er gently changing the towels testify to the passage of time.

Chu Ning leaned against the cold stone wall, sitting on the ground not far from the hot spring pool.

The brief peace brought by the old woman's faint golden beam of light had vanished. At the soul core between her brows, the tug-of-war between the milky white light and the ferocious black cracks had resumed, with each faint pulsation accompanied by excruciating pain that tore at the soul.

His face was as pale as paper, cold sweat soaked his forehead, and his tightly pursed lips suppressed painful groans.

The body is like a piece of porcelain that has been broken and then barely pieced back together; every slight movement brings a protest from the entire skeleton.

But his consciousness was firmly fixed on the sleeping figure in the center of the pool.

Qingli floated quietly in the milky white spring water, only her pale face and neck were visible.

The warm spring water enveloped her, and the rising mist blurred her outline, making her look as fragile as easily broken glass.

The tear stains and wrinkles of pain that lingered between his brows had been smoothed out, leaving only an almost transparent tranquility.

The Soul-Guiding Stone pressed tightly against Chu Ning's chest; its faint yet clear pulsation, like the pulse connecting their lifelines, stubbornly reminded him of her presence.

The old woman's words were like cold wedges, driven into his chaotic mind: "The wound lies in the inner demons... in the forcibly severed past... face yourself..."

Inner demons? The past? Oneself?
Chu Ning's empty eyes were filled with immense confusion and helplessness.

In the wasteland of memories, only the direction pointed by the Soul-Guiding Stone is clear—it points to her.

What is the past? What has it severed? His mind is blank.

How to face it? How to get it back? He was at a loss.

All he could do was endure the excruciating pain of his soul core and the weakness of his body, and painstakingly, again and again, sink his consciousness into the depths of that shattered soul core to "feel" the milky white marrow light that had reshaped his life.

It is pure, warm, and full of vitality, yet it is also like a lock, locking away something deeper.

He tried to touch the locked "key," but only received a more violent tremor and tearing sensation in his soul core, as if he were groping for a door covered with spikes in the dark.

Pain and frustration washed over him like icy tides, one after another. He looked at Qingli sleeping in the pool, at the suppressed tranquility between her brows, and a nameless panic surged within him.

He feared that if she woke up, she would once again fall into that soul-wrenching pain. He feared even more... that she would fall into a permanent sleep, and even that faint heartbeat would disappear.

Time crawled slowly in silent torment.

As the sun dipped westward, the light inside the stone house gradually dimmed.

Xiao Jiu lit a small oil lamp that emitted the fragrance of pine resin, its dim yellow light swaying in the rising steam.

Just as the light and shadow were dimming—

hum!
The Soul-Guiding Stone, which had been pressed against Chu Ning's heart and calmly conveyed Qing Li's life force, suddenly erupted without warning with an unprecedented, intense, and almost scorching throbbing.

It felt like my heart was being squeezed tightly.

Chu Ning trembled violently and abruptly looked up at the hot spring pool.

In the pool, Qingli, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly began to tremble violently without warning. It wasn't the spasm caused by pain that she had experienced before; it was more like an intense resonance originating from the depths of her soul.

Beneath tightly closed eyelids, the eyeballs were darting about wildly.

His pale lips opened and closed silently, as if calling out something.

An invisible, chaotic, and powerful surge of soul energy, like an out-of-control tide, suddenly erupted from her body.

The hot spring water churned violently instantly, sending milky white spray flying high into the air.

The air inside the stone house suddenly became thick and oppressive.

"Sister!" Little Jiu'er cried out in fright and backed away.

Chu Ning's heart leaped into his throat. He wanted to rush over, but his body was paralyzed by the intense pain and weakness, and he could only watch helplessly.

Qingli's body arched upwards suddenly amidst the churning water, and her tightly closed eyes snapped open.

However, those eyes no longer held the fear, confusion, or pain they had shown before.

Instead, there is a dark gold color that is extremely cold and indifferent to the point of being unsettling.

Like an eternal, unyielding ice, or like a deity overlooking all living beings.

An ancient, majestic aura, carrying an undeniable aura of destruction, suddenly filled the entire stone house.

The air seemed to freeze, and the flame of the oil lamp was almost extinguished.

"An ant's body... how could it bear my bloodline until now?" A completely unfamiliar, cold, and majestic voice, echoing endlessly, came from Qing Li's mouth.

Her gaze slowly swept across the stone house, finally landing on Chu Ning, who was struggling to get up. A faint, indifferent look, as if she were looking at dust, flashed in her dark golden pupils, followed by an even deeper coldness.

"And... this faint trace of human soul energy? Does it even deserve to be tainted by our race's essence?"

This is not Qing Li!
Chu Ning's blood seemed to freeze instantly.

A terrifying pressure, originating from his life instincts and directed at an absolutely superior being, pressed down on his soul like an invisible mountain.

It almost suffocated him; the fragile soul core between his brows flickered wildly under this pressure, and deathly energy permeated the edges of the cracks.

“Fox… Ancestor…” A broken syllable, filled with extreme shock and fear, was squeezed out from Chu Ning’s clenched teeth.

The legend Dong'er mentioned—the remnant soul of the Fox Ancestor—didn't completely dissipate and has been lurking deep within Qing Li's bloodline?!

At this moment, in the instant when Qingli's divine soul was extremely weakened due to the chaos and the impact of her inner demons, it... awakened?!
"Now that you've awakened, this body is mine to use." 'Qing Li's' cold gaze fell on her arm, which was soaking in the spring water, and a hint of dissatisfaction flashed in her dark golden pupils. "Too weak. However... with the nourishment of this Soul Source Essence Light, it's barely usable." Her gaze then turned to the milky white light shimmering between Chu Ning's brows, and a trace of greed, like a cold venomous snake, flashed and disappeared.

He slowly raised his hand, that slender, pale hand that belonged to Qing Li, now surrounded by a faint, dark golden light that slightly distorted the space, and pointed it at Chu Ning.

"Your soul essence contains the origin of marrow light... Offer it to me, and I will grant you... a swift death."

The cold words were like a death sentence.

An invisible, terrifying force that froze the soul instantly locked onto Chu Ning.

He felt like a flying insect pinned in amber, his very thoughts frozen.

He could only watch helplessly as the hand, wreathed in destructive power, slowly reached out towards him.

The scent of death has never been so clear.

(End of this chapter)