Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The wind was blowing in through the hole in the dome.

It had a pungent, metallic smell. It was covered in a choking ash.

Su Chang'an gently laid Chen Xuan down on a relatively flat floor tile. He did this very slowly.

Her right arm was mostly useless; the charred burn marks from her shoulder to her elbow were still oozing blood, and a layer of grayish-white dead skin had formed on the edges of the torn flesh.

Fortunately, he can still move his left hand.

She moved Chen Xuan's head onto her lap.

Five fox tails gathered around him, two cushioning his waist where it was soaked with cold sweat, and three covering his body completely.

Chen Xuan's body temperature was plummeting.

It wasn't a normal chill; it was the kind of icy cold that spread from the dantian (lower abdomen) to every part of the body after one's meridians were severed and one's spiritual energy was drained.

Su Chang'an placed his left hand on his lower back and pressed his palm down sharply.

Two vertebrae of the spine were broken.

She touched the broken end. Jagged bone fragments were embedded in the surrounding flesh, and her fingers were covered with a thick layer of blood as soon as she touched it.

Chen Xuan's body twitched uncontrollably.

Su Chang'an did not stop.

She inserted her fingers directly into the flesh on both sides of the fracture, gripping the dislocated bone tightly.

Purely handmade, hardcore bone setting.

The last sparks of Phoenix True Fire were used to seal his vital points; not a single drop could be extracted. The Heavenly Fox's essence was emptied by the backlash, losing two and a half percent, barely enough to keep his soul from dissipating.

Now, we can only shape them by hand.

"Bear with it."

Su Chang'an pressed his left thumb against the lower edge of the first broken bone, while his index and middle fingers gripped the upper edge tightly.

Push hard and forcefully back!

"Click—"

The chilling sound of bones being forcibly joined sent a tingling sensation through her entire arm, starting from her fingertips.

Chen Xuan's back suddenly arched like a fully drawn bow.

A large mouthful of foamy black blood spurted from his mouth, his whole body convulsed violently, and the back of his head slammed heavily against Su Chang'an's knee.

Without hesitation, Su Chang'an used his knee to firmly press down on his head, pinning him to the spot.

"Don't move."

Her voice was completely hoarse, and the words seemed to be spitting out with shards of glass in her mouth.

The first piece of bone got stuck.

The moment it returned to its original position, the bone fragments pushed outwards, directly piercing a tiny meridian nearby. Blood gushed out; that meridian was already reduced to a thin membrane and was on the verge of collapse.

Next is the second section.

This section is even more deadly; it's a shattered bone fracture that was brutally crushed by the Quasi-Emperor's Law.

Su Chang'an took a deep breath and used his left hand to piece together the bone fragments little by little, as if piecing together shards of porcelain.

There is no magic pill to make glue.

She could only extract the last bit of the Heavenly Fox's essence, turning it into an extremely thin membrane, which she pasted onto the outer layer of the broken bones, barely managing to keep them from shifting.

Chen Xuan clenched his teeth so tightly that the grinding sound of his teeth grinding together was exceptionally clear in the ruins.

But he didn't utter a single word.

Su Chang'an pushed in the last piece of broken bone.

Chen Xuan's body bounced against her leg, then finally slumped back down, powerless.

His only remaining hand, his left hand, had somehow managed to grip Su Chang'an's clothes tightly.

His knuckles were turning blue, and although he wasn't gripping the hand tightly, he just wouldn't let go.

Su Chang'an glanced down at the hand but didn't try to pry it open.

The bones were barely pieced back together, but the meridians were completely a mess.

The area on his back that was crushed by the Quasi-Emperor's Law completely lost its spiritual power, even when it flowed out from his dantian.

It can't be repaired.

Given her current weakened state, she can't repair it.

Su Chang'an withdrew his hand, his palm covered in clumps of dark red blood and mud.

She wiped it haphazardly on her trouser leg, but didn't get it clean.

Chen Xuan's breathing finally calmed down, and the rapid heaving of his chest became a weak, long breath. The blood crust on the eyelashes of his half-open left eye cracked, and a little new blood seeped out.

Su Chang'an pulled his head closer to his chest, avoiding the sharp, jagged bricks.

The ruins were deathly silent.

There was no starlight outside the hole in the dome; dark clouds loomed overhead, and a cold wind blew down like a bone-scraping knife.

Su Chang'an had a high fever in his right shoulder. The exposed wound burned with pain when the cold wind blew on it.

She gritted her teeth and endured it.

Deep within his consciousness, the system panel popped up, the text dazzlingly bright:

[Destined Death Tribulation Progress: 93%]

Su Chang'an stared coldly at the line of numbers.

When they broke down the door, it was 92%. They just had a three-way battle with Chen Daolin, and it increased by one point.

This system's algorithm is utterly absurd. Does it increase the payout by getting beaten up, or by being trapped in a dead end?

She had no idea whether, when the progress bar reached 100%, she would be the one to explode with gold coins, Chen Xuan would die, or everyone else would be dragged down with him.

Su Chang'an turned off the panel.

Chen Xuan gently scratched the hem of her clothes with his fingers.

She lowered her head.

His left eye, which was bloodshot, opened a crack and stared straight at her.

"Where is the progress bar...?"

His voice was so soft it was like a leaky bellows, and the words were squeezed out from between his teeth.

Su Chang'an was stunned for half a second.

That bastard, he even knows the progress of the Death Tribulation.

Ninety-three.

There's no need to hide it. That old fox already peeked at my hand when our minds were connected, so there's no point in hiding it now.

Chen Xuan managed a weak twitch at the corner of his mouth, as if he wanted to laugh, but the movement pulled at his chapped lips, and his expression crumbled halfway through.

"Seven percent remains."

Su Chang'an remained silent with a cold expression.

"That's enough." Chen Xuan slowly loosened the hem of his clothes with his left hand, moved over little by little, and gently touched Su Chang'an's left little finger, which was resting on his chest, with his index finger.

"Your five tails, plus half my life, can be traded for the last 7 points."

He was discussing this life-or-death matter with her.

"You didn't lose out on this deal."

Su Chang'an's throat tightened instantly.

She wanted to unleash a torrent of abuse. She wanted to curse him for pretending to be a master strategist even with his spine completely broken; she wanted to curse him for using half his life to speak so arrogantly when his meridians were all destroyed.

She opened her mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

It felt like my throat was blocked by a wad of tattered cotton.

She bent her left index finger, took the initiative, and hooked it tightly around Chen Xuan's index finger.

"Shut up, go AFK and heal."

His voice was very low, with a barely perceptible tremor at the end.

Chen Xuan didn't shut up. His pitiful strength was negligible, but he still stubbornly clung to her.

"You're scared."

Su Chang'an's tail tip suddenly bristled with a tuft of fur.

"What's there to be afraid of?"

"You're just scared." Chen Xuan lay on her lap, his face ashen, but his eyes shone with an astonishing light. "From the moment you banged on the door until now, you haven't sworn at me more than three times."

He forced a bloody smile.

"Normally, you would have cursed at me at least five times."

Su Chang'an's fingers tightened suddenly.

This lunatic, even as he was dying, was still counting the number of times she cursed at him.

Just then, a dense sound of rolling rubble came from outside the ruins.

The three tails on Su Chang'an's back instantly stood up as if facing a formidable enemy, while the remaining two tightly wrapped Chen Xuan in their arms. The Heavenly Fox's essence shone with a dangerous red light at the tips of its tails.

The footsteps were mixed, at least seven or eight people.

Su Chang'an raised his left hand, a cluster of Phoenix True Fire at his fingertips ready to explode at any moment.

"It's me!"

Suppressed breathing came through the gap in the stone wall.

Chen Mu.

Su Chang'an's raised tail slowed down slightly.

Chen Mu led six wounded disciples from a collateral branch into the ruins. The moment he saw Chen Xuan's horrific state, he froze three zhang away.

The ground was covered in black blood, the spine was broken and deformed, and there were ten fingers with their nails pulled out.

Chen Mu's Adam's apple bobbed with difficulty.

"Young Master Xuan..."

"Stop talking nonsense and report the positions," Su Chang'an interrupted coldly.

Chen Mu snapped back to reality and quickly reported in a low voice: "The clan's protective formation is fully activated. The map is locked for 300 miles outside the Guiyuan Hall. The spiritual veins in the city have been forcibly diverted and poured into the formation. Even those at the Knocking Gate Realm can feel the ground shaking."

Su Chang'an tapped his fingertip on the broken brick: "Where are the guards positioned?"

"The master's elite forces have been mobilized in full force. There are at least forty of them, all of whom are at the level of a prefecture-level official. Every main street is being searched, and the flying boat dock has been sealed off. Chen Daolin has given a strict order that not even a fly is allowed to escape."

Where is Chen Fan?

"He's still unconscious in the airship's cabin. I left two people to keep watch around the perimeter, preventing the main family from getting close."

Su Chang'an nodded.

Forty high-level monsters guarded the corpse, sealing off the entire 300-mile map, and the array's energy was fully charged.

A standard hellish dungeon.

On her side, she had five tails and was half-dead; Chen Xuan was crippled with broken bones and was constantly losing health.

They can't escape, and they can't win.

Su Chang'an rested the back of his head against the cold stone pillar.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the cold air, which smelled of blood.

When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with ruthlessness.

"Spiritual Vein".

Chen Mu was taken aback: "What?"

"You just said that all the spiritual veins have been poured into the great formation." Su Chang'an placed his left hand on the ground, feeling the tremors from the ground beneath his fingertips.

Beneath the shattered bricks, spiritual energy was surging wildly. The flow rate was more than three times faster than usual, all converging towards the main array eye.

But one thing is wrong.

Su Chang'an's fingertip turned eastward—to the location of the abyss directly below Guiyuan Hall.

The flow rate of that spiritual vein's main root was not a steady acceleration, but rather a series of spasms!

It's like there's a bulldozer churning things up wildly underneath.

Li Changgeng. That madman who jumped into the abyss.

Su Chang'an paused for three seconds as he pressed his fingers on the ground.

Each time the main root of the spiritual vein twitches, the sealing runes in the direction of the abyss will flicker faintly.

"Someone is exploiting a bug in the large formation."

Su Chang'an's voice was so low that only Chen Mu and Chen Xuan could hear it: "Li Changgeng's quasi-emperor law clashed head-on with the seal below, disrupting the foundation of the great formation."

Chen Mu's eyes lit up: "Can we use it?"

Su Chang'an didn't answer immediately. His brain was racing.

There are too many variables.

How long can Li Changgeng hold out? Is the ancient celestial fox that has been locked up for three thousand years dead or alive? At what second will the flaw in the great formation appear?

Every unknown is a dead end that could wipe them out completely.

Since his transmigration, Su Chang'an has become accustomed to quantifying everything: favorability ratings, combat power, mission rewards, down to the decimal point.

But now, her ledgers are in disarray.

There was one debt she just couldn't balance.

The Heavenly Fox's Origin Unblocks Meridians, the Phoenix's True Fire Saves Her Life, and the Quasi-Emperor's Perception Avoids Danger... These are all "sunk costs" she has invested.

What about what was recovered?

My favorability rating is full, my cultivation level has increased, and I've received the system rewards.

Logically speaking, it should have been a huge profit.

But she felt that something very important was missing from the accounts.

When did it start to become impossible to count? Was it when he called her name in the illusion? Was it when he stood in front of the Nine Nether Hound with his broken sword? Or was it even earlier, in that dark and sunless cave, when she wrapped her tail around that little cub?

Su Chang'an abruptly cut off his thoughts.

Now is not the time to be thinking about such nonsense.

"Chen Mu".

"exist!"

"Go to the airship's cabin and bring over all the medicine boxes from the Medicine King's Palace. Take as many as you can." Su Chang'an's eyes turned cold. "Go through the blind spots at the edge of the ruins. If you run into anyone from the main family, say you're on orders to search for corpses."

Chen Mu nodded, turned to leave, but then suddenly stopped.

"There's another situation. In the third alley south of Guiyuan Hall, I saw the remnants of the Wang family goddess's forces."

Su Chang'an's tail tip twitched dangerously: "She's not quite dead?"

"She's half-crippled. She's hiding in a collapsed house with three remaining members of the Wang family." Chen Mu swallowed hard. "She's been keeping a close eye on the direction of Guiyuan Hall."

Su Chang'an tapped his knee with his fingertip.

The goddess of the Wang family, the woman who was crippled by Chen Xuan's sword formation, actually followed the Chen family to their ancestral land like a hyena.

She didn't come here to die; she was waiting.

Wait for the formation to break through its defenses, and wait for an opportunity to seize the opportunity and launch a counterattack.

"Ignore her for now, let her be a stepping stone." Su Chang'an sneered. "Go and get the medicine."

Chen Mu led his men to retreat quickly, their footsteps disappearing into the wind.

The ruins fell silent once more.

Su Chang'an's right shoulder was completely numb and he had no feeling at all.

Chen Xuan leaned against her legs, his breathing very shallow.

Su Chang'an casually activated the last of the Heavenly Fox's essence, channeling a faint warmth from his palms into his lower back.

This doesn't even qualify as treatment; it only warms him up a little.

His body temperature was still dropping. From thirty-seven degrees, it was approaching thirty-five degrees.

Su Chang'an clenched his left hand, holding the person in his arms even tighter. The crimson fox tail perfectly blocked the cold wind leaking through the hole.

She stared intently at the crack beneath her feet.

Deep within the crack, the main root of the spiritual vein twitched more and more rapidly.

Li Changgeng was still frantically trying to break the lock down below.

Su Chang'an felt Chen Xuan's pulse—112 beats per minute, fast and weak.

His index finger remained stubbornly hooked around her hand.

"Your bill..."

Chen Xuan's extremely hoarse voice suddenly rang out.

Su Chang'an lowered his head. He hadn't slept at all.

"Has it been settled evenly?"

Su Chang'an's fingers stiffened slightly: "What account?"

"That account book of yours... that you've been keeping track of since day one." Chen Xuan's lips curled into a very faint smile. "Did you miss a page?"

The wind howled over the ruins.

Su Chang'an did not answer, because even she herself had not figured out the answer.

Chen Xuan hooked her index finger and gently pulled it towards his palm.

"No rush."

He lay in a pool of blood and dust, his spine broken, his life hanging by a thread.

"Once you survive tonight, I'll help you... make up for it, stroke by stroke."

Su Chang'an's five tails suddenly tightened, tightly protecting him on his warmest inner side.

She neither said it was good nor bad.

He simply placed his hand, which had been on his pulse, back on the ground.

Beneath the shattered bricks, the main root of the spiritual vein erupted in an extremely violent spasm.

The flashing frequency of the abyss runes jumped from once every thirty breaths to once every twenty-six breaths.

A sharp, cold glint flashed in Su Chang'an's eyes.

The countdown is starting to accelerate.