Overdraw the future and become a peerless martial god

Chapter 91 Can't Delay

He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze falling on her. He was momentarily stunned by her simple white dress and dark hair.

He didn't speak, but just looked at her quietly. His eyes were as clear as the rising moon in the night, without any impurities, yet they inexplicably aroused an urge to get closer.

Xie Mingli felt a slight unease under his gaze, but she forced herself to remain calm and lowered her eyes to whisper:
"If it weren't for you, my brother... might never have come back. I really don't want to think about the Wang family's methods. If it had been just one day later..."

Before she could finish speaking, her voice trembled slightly, as if she had finally breathed a sigh of relief from that long, sharp blade.

Chu Ning then spoke, his voice low and gentle, yet carrying his usual calm and firm resolve, like night rain falling on bamboo, striking straight into the heart:
"He will wake up."

A short sentence, yet it seems to calm the storm and bring peace to the world.

Xie Mingli looked up at him. Under the lamplight, her features were delicate and graceful, and her lips trembled slightly. In her eyes, there was gratitude, relief, and an undisguised flutter of excitement.

"You...you're always like this, so calm, like you never have a heartbeat."

Xie Mingli looked at him, a soft light appearing in her eyes, her lips slightly upturned, yet carrying a hint of defiant provocation, "Tonight, I want to test whether your heartbeat will also become disordered."

Chu Ning paused, his gaze falling on her face, seemingly struck by her sudden words. He coughed lightly and replied softly:

"If things get chaotic... what do you plan to do?"

Upon hearing his words "if things get chaotic," Xie Mingli's smile deepened, her eyes curving gently, like spring water shimmering with light.

"Then..."

She pretended to think seriously for a moment, but her tone became even gentler, "You're punished by having to brew a pot of tea and sit with me all night. You're not allowed to leave."

Chu Ning chuckled softly:
"This punishment... is far too lenient."

"Oh?"

Xie Mingli raised her eyebrows, her eyes shining like stars, "So you think... it's not enough?"

Chu Ning looked at her, his eyes slightly lowered, and suddenly said:

"If you stay with me... I'd be willing to be punished for the rest of my life."

Before the words were even finished, the air seemed to freeze for a moment.

Xie Mingli was taken aback, her eyes flashing as if someone had quietly touched her heartstrings.

She didn't reply, but simply turned her face away, hiding the tips of her ears that were quietly turning red:

"...You've actually got some guts when it comes to talking today."

She walked to the bamboo table by the pavilion, took out a warming pot and teacups, her movements were delicate and slow, as if every move contained her thoughts.

As Xie Mingli poured the tea, her fingertips trembled slightly, whether from the rising steam from the teapot or from the barely concealed flutter in her heart.

As she handed over the tea, she whispered a reminder:

"It's hot, be careful."

Chu Ning reached out and took it, his back of his fingers inadvertently brushing against her fingertips, as delicate as a dragonfly skimming the water, yet like a spark igniting in an instant, quietly breaking the silence of the room.

Xie Mingli lowered her eyes and took half a step back, her ears flushed slightly, her voice as soft as a murmur:
"...The night is deep."

"Ah."

Chu Ning looked down at his tea, a slight ripple rising in the cup. He suddenly smiled, his voice slow and gentle, "This night is much quieter than the daytime."

Outside the window, bamboo shadows swayed gently, and the moonlight, like water, slanted into the room, casting the shadows of the two people on the ground, seemingly close yet distant.

He looked at Xie Mingli. Her expression was no longer cold and stern, but rather showed a rare softness and shyness. Her lowered eyes resembled a half-bloomed camellia outside the window, reserved yet extremely moving.

"Mingli," Chu Ning called her softly, his voice as light as the wind blowing across a lake.

Xie Mingli raised her eyes, her gaze seemingly surging with emotion, yet she feigned composure, lightly biting her lip: "Hmm?"

Chu Ning seemed to want to say something more, and his fingertips twitched slightly, as if he wanted to reach out and grasp the tenderness that had been in front of him but which he dared not touch.

Just as this emotion was about to reach its peak.

"Boom, boom."

A soft sound shattered the stillness of the night.

"Miss."

Qin Henian's slightly hoarse voice came from outside the door, lowered just right without being impolite, "The Marquis sent word that you should return to your own courtyard to rest early tonight. He has some instructions to give you early tomorrow morning."

The atmosphere inside the room was like a stone thrown into a pond, creating ripples that quickly subsided before returning to calm.

Xie Mingli paused, as if slightly awakened by the lightning, took a small breath, and softly replied:

"understood."

The footsteps outside the door gradually faded into the distance.

"Looks like I'll have to remember this time." Chu Ning chuckled, his tone laced with a hint of teasing, yet also like a suggestion, "Next time, later."

"Then you'll have to... come back earlier."

Xie Mingli, who had been maintaining a composed demeanor, finally broke down upon hearing this sentence, unable to hold back a soft laugh, her voice clear and crisp like a bell.

She turned and walked toward the door, but suddenly stopped before pushing it open.

She seemed to suddenly remember something, took out a plain white brocade pouch from her sleeve, gently untied it, revealing more than a dozen ice crystal pills, crystal clear and faintly exuding a cold aura.

"I see your qi and blood are still a bit unstable." Her tone was still light, but with concern. "These pills might be helpful to you."

She handed him the pill, touched it with her fingertips and withdrew it immediately, giving Chu Ning no chance to react, before walking out of the room.

The moment the door opened, moonlight poured in like water, enveloping her silhouette in a pale golden glow, a sense of reluctance tinged with a cool elegance.

She didn't turn around, but only whispered:
"Good night."

Chu Ning stood there, watching her figure disappear into the moonlight under the eaves, the coolness of the pill still lingering on his fingers. He responded softly:
"……Good night."

As night deepened, all the lights in the Wuhou Mansion went out, and the surroundings were so quiet that one could almost hear the dewdrops falling.

Chu Ning stepped out of the main courtyard and strolled slowly back to his own villa along the corridor. Moonlight slanted across the bluestone ground, casting his long, serene shadow. The wind rustled through the bamboo grove, its sound like a whispered lament.

Pushing open the door, the interior furnishings remained unchanged, familiar bamboo shadows swayed gently, and dappled light and shadows were cast onto the window paper.

The room was empty, so quiet that only his own heartbeat could be heard.

He gently placed the Ice Crystal Pill on the table, took off his outer robe, walked to the window, and raised his hand to brush aside the corner of the curtain.

He thought of his sister who had been missing for a long time, of the rematch at Qingyun Arena in three days, and of the impending "Primordial Tribulation," as if resting was a "sin" for him.

It was an inescapable calamity, the price of which was predetermined the moment he used the Primordial Divine Token to pre-draw the Primordial Body Refining Method. He had to complete the "Primordial Tribulation" within thirty days.

He wasn't afraid of death, but he couldn't die yet.

His hand involuntarily reached down to his neck and gently grasped the fox head pendant.

The pendant felt cool to the touch, small yet seemingly carrying the weight of the past. Qingli's smile was still vivid in her mind, that serene yet slightly mischievous look, like the shimmering light on a lake in the wind—clear, yet fleeting.

"I promised you I would bring you back," Chu Ning said in a low voice, almost inaudible.

Thinking of this, his chest suddenly tightened.

"cough."

A mouthful of thick, fresh blood gushed from his throat.

Scarlet blood spilled onto the ground, dripping softly.

The excruciating pain surged through my chest like a raging torrent, as if hundreds of iron hooks were tearing out of my lungs.

Chu Ning grunted and knelt on one knee, his rusty knife stuck diagonally into the ground to support his swaying body.

He could sense that the blood curse seal sealed beneath the lightning patterns was now being stimulated and was frantically devouring his spiritual veins and sea of ​​consciousness.

"Squeak, squeak..."

The blood curse transformed into blood snakes, writhing and gnawing at every inch of his meridians.

His knuckles trembled from the intense pain, his palms braced against the ground, and blood dripped down his arm, staining the brick wall with mottled patterns.

He clenched his teeth tightly, refusing to let out a single cry of pain.

"What's going on... I was clearly being suppressed." He gasped for breath, veins bulging on his forehead.

Li Jing'an once warned: "Before Wang Lin died, he planted a blood curse in your body. This curse has seeped into your internal organs and specifically devours the power of thunder and evil. If you let it grow, one day you will become a monster that only knows how to kill and cannot discern human nature."

Chu Ning didn't take it seriously at the time.

But today, during the arena battle, the eerie feeling of his lightning energy being swallowed up by the invisible finally forced him to take it seriously.

He sat cross-legged on the couch, closed his eyes, and forcefully regulated his breathing to suppress the power of the blood curse within his body.

The power of thunderous energy flowed slowly from his dantian, resonating with the thunderous patterns within his body.

Fine lightning bolts, like threads, coiled around his heart, attempting to seal off the ever-growing evil energy.

However, the blood curse seemed to possess a spirit, resisting the lightning seal. With each bit of suppression, the backlash became increasingly fierce.

“It seems… we must get rid of it completely.” A flash of lightning appeared in Chu Ning’s eyes. “Otherwise, I will be devoured by this thing sooner or later.”

He let out a low shout, and the thunderous energy within his body surged, transforming into azure-purple lightning that flowed down his chest and into the center of the blood curse.

"boom!"

A thunderclap exploded inside my body.

The bloodstains shrank slightly as they were split, and a deep, ancient incantation seemed to echo in the sea of ​​consciousness, as if the soul of a dead person was still gritting its teeth and whispering a curse.

Cold sweat rolled down Chu Ning's forehead, but he refused to stop. He gritted his teeth and pushed his lightning energy to its limit, bombarding the bloodstains repeatedly.

It took a full half hour for the bloodstains to subside slightly, like a poisonous insect retreating deeper into the flesh, temporarily ceasing its rampage.

Chu Ning opened her eyes, a chill still lingering in them.

He stared as the lightning in his palm dimmed, a metallic taste rising in his throat:
"Qingli, if I become a monster, won't your remnant soul within this pendant despise me?"

The blood curse not only erodes Lei Sha, but more strangely, it also affects his mind and character.

On the ring, he had several times felt a “killing impulse” rising in his heart. That impulse was like a familiar yet unfamiliar face, slowly awakening from the bottom of his heart.

As the bloodstains writhed, he felt a surge of pleasure from the killing.

In that instant, what he craved was not the breath of thunder, but the scalding blood from someone else's throat.

"We can't delay any longer."

“Forcibly suppressing it is not a long-term solution.”

He sat cross-legged again, slowly exhaling a breath of stale air, forcing himself to calm down.

The pendant around his neck suddenly became hot, its icy blue light swirling, reflecting the fleeting fox shadow in his pupils.

That was the keepsake that Qingli personally hung around his neck before her death, and it was also the vessel in which she poured all of her frost essence.

Frost Lightning was the most compatible part of his symbiotic contract with Qing Li, but now it was sealed in the pendant and he dared not use it.

It's not that I can't, but I don't dare.

"This is the last trace she left in the world."

(End of this chapter)