If I, a death row inmate, am not to become a demon, am I to become a member of the Imperial Guard?

Darkness swallowed the last glimmer of light.

Zhou Yang's breathing was like a broken bellows, each breath carrying a burning pain. The woman on his back was light, yet as heavy as a mountain.

Li Xuanji's men were slowed down by the sudden fire. But that didn't mean they were safe. They had simply jumped from boiling water into an icy hole. Behind them lay the fury of the entire Zhenwu Guard, and ahead lay the unknown wilderness.

He had to find a place. A place where they could catch their breath.

My footsteps grew heavier. The mountain path was rugged; the night was both the best cover and the greatest enemy. The loose stones rolled beneath my feet, making a soft, rustling sound that, in the deathly silence of the forest, sounded like a death knell.

Finally, he smelled a damp, earthy odor.

Ahead, a dark opening appeared at the foot of the cliff. Like the mouth of a giant beast, it stood silently open. It was an abandoned mine.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhou Yang squeezed in sideways.

It was colder inside the cave than outside. The air was stagnant, filled with the smells of rotting wood and damp mud. He groped his way forward a dozen steps, making sure it was deep enough, before carefully putting Qin Shuang down.

Leaning against the cold rock wall, Qin Shuang let out a painful groan. Her face was as pale as paper, her lips were cracked, and although the wound on her chest had been simply bandaged, dark red blood was still seeping out.

Zhou Yang crouched down, using the faint light reflected from the cave entrance to examine his injuries. The wound was deep, almost tearing through his entire left chest. It was a standard military crossbow from the Zhenwu Guard, the arrowhead coated with poison—a sinister substance capable of paralyzing the meridians.

"You won't last much longer." Zhou Yang's voice was calm, as if he were stating something unrelated to himself. "The toxins in your body are eroding your heart. In two hours at most, you'll become a real corpse."

Qin Shuang looked at him, her eyes showing no fear, only a cold resolve. "Do it."

"Um?"

"Kill me," she said, emphasizing each word. "You can't carry a burden. Take my token and command arrow, and go to the contact point south of Anyang County. The people there will help you."

Zhou Yang didn't speak. He just quietly looked at her. This woman was always so rational, so rational that she seemed inhuman. She calculated everything clearly, even her own life and death were just a move on the chessboard.

"Kill you?" Zhou Yang suddenly laughed. "Lord Qin, you must have misunderstood something. I, Zhou Yang, am a businessman. I never do unprofitable deals. In your current state, killing you would only give me some inanimate objects. But what if I bring you back to life?"

He reached out and placed two fingers on the pulse point of her wrist.

A faint but pure warmth flowed through his fingertips.

That was the internal energy transformed from the "Innate Yang Technique". It was extremely strong and yang, making it the nemesis of such insidious and poisonous forces.

Qin Shuang's body trembled violently. She felt the warm current, like a gentle little snake, burrowing into her meridians, and the cold, numb sensation slowly subsided wherever it passed.

"you……"

"Shut up," Zhou Yang interrupted her. "Don't get distracted. Your meridians are a complete mess. I'm going to help you sort them out now. If anything goes wrong, even a miracle won't save you."

His palm pressed against her. Warm and dry. Through the thin fabric, he pressed directly onto the Xinshu acupoint on her back.

Qin Shuang's body stiffened for a moment.

She had never been so intimate with a man before. A surge of heat rose from the soles of her feet to her cheeks. She knew it wasn't the temperature of the cultivation technique. She bit her lower lip, her nails digging deep into the flesh of her palms, forcing herself to remain calm.

Zhou Yang's expression was focused. It was as if he wasn't touching a woman's back, but rather polishing a precious weapon. His inner strength surged forth in waves, precisely cleansing her damaged meridians.

The cave was quiet. The only sound was the dripping of water droplets from the cracks in the rock, drip, drip, drip.

Time passes little by little.

Qin Shuang felt the chill in her body gradually dissipate, replaced by a long-lost warmth. Her consciousness also gradually cleared. She could clearly feel the steady breathing of the man behind her and the reassuring warmth from his palm.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhou Yang withdrew his hand.

A fine layer of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his face was even paler than before.

"Alright." He stood up, walked to the cave entrance, and turned his back to her. "Seventy percent of the toxin has been expelled, and the wound has stabilized. The rest is up to your own fate."

Qin Shuang slowly sat up straight. She looked down at her chest; the bleeding had stopped. She tried to breathe, and although it was still difficult, her meridians were mostly cleared.

She survived.

She looked up at the figure standing in the darkness. A sliver of moonlight shone through a crack in the cave ceiling, illuminating his profile.

Then, she saw it.

Right at his temple. A silver thread.

In the darkness, that white spot was glaringly bright.

Qin Shuang's heart felt as if it had been gently stung. She knew Zhou Yang's methods, knew that his unpredictable abilities always came at a price. But this single white hair was more real and more direct than any explanation.

Burning life.

The word flashed through her mind instantly.

She reached out her hand, her fingertips pausing in mid-air before she withdrew it. After a long silence, she finally spoke, her voice slightly hoarse: "You... you've suffered a great loss?"

Zhou Yang didn't turn around, but simply gave a faint "hmm".

"The treatment fee will be put on the tab later." His tone was still so relaxed, as if he had just helped her pick up something that had fallen on the ground.

Qin Shuang fell silent. She pulled a red string from around her neck. A warm, smooth jade pendant, carved with intricate cloud patterns, was tied to the string; it looked quite old.

She stood up, walked behind Zhou Yang, and handed him the jade pendant.

"What's this? A deposit?" Zhou Yang glanced at it but didn't take it.

"A token of the Qin family." Qin Shuang's voice was calm. "Take this and go to the largest money exchange in the capital, 'Sihaitong.' You can withdraw a sum of money. Enough for you... to turn your hair black."

Zhou Yang finally turned around. He looked into Qin Shuang's eyes. Those cold eyes seemed to hold something else now.

He reached out and took the jade pendant. The pendant still carried her body heat.

"Alright. Consider it your advance service fee." He tucked the jade pendant into his pocket with a swift and decisive motion. "I'll take it."

There were no insincere refusals, no excessive thanks. This was the most comfortable way for them to get along.

Qin Shuang seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as well. She leaned back against the rock wall, her expression softening somewhat.

"Li Xuanji won't let this go," she said. "This operation has been strange from the very beginning."

"Oh?"

"The number of people dispatched by the Zhenwu Guard exceeds the scale required for capturing fugitives." Qin Shuang's gaze deepened. "They've practically brought in all the elite troops from the surrounding areas of Anyang County. This doesn't seem like they're targeting just two of us Jinyiwei; it's more like they're carrying out some top-secret mission."

Zhou Yang raised an eyebrow.

"They're still looking for something else," Qin Shuang said in a low voice, "something that's supposedly hidden in this area. A fragment of the dragon's spine."

boom!

Zhou Yang's pupils suddenly contracted.

He instinctively reached for his side. There, wrapped in animal hide, was another fragment he had taken from Fang Tian.

It turned out to be the case.

Li Xuanji laid a trap not only for himself and Qin Shuang, but also for this legendary fragment of a divine weapon.

He had previously thought that he had gotten into trouble with the Heavenly Principles Sect because he had killed Fang Tian. Now it seemed that he had been carrying a hot potato from the beginning and had been targeted by the Zhenwu Guard.

What kind of situation is this?

Zhou Yang's expression became somewhat serious for the first time.

What he thought was a dead end turned out to be just the prelude to an even bigger storm. He wasn't fleeing; he was being swept away by a massive current, being carried towards the center of some unknown vortex.

He looked out of the cave; the night was so thick it seemed impossible to see through.

The wind seems to have picked up.