After being jilted by the saintess at the beginning, why is she crying?

He tried to move, but found that he couldn't lift a single finger; his whole body was stiff as if he were nailed to an anvil.

He desperately tried to focus his mind on sensing his dantian, but his heart sank. His meridians were like a riverbed that had dried up for thousands of years, full of ravines and barren, and he couldn't even mobilize a trace of spiritual energy.

There was dead silence all around.

Even the already scarce spiritual energy in the air was no longer perceptible. The Land of Desolation seemed to have truly become a wasteland of life.

Qin Lan, whom he held in his arms, was as cold as jade in winter, her breath so faint as to be almost imperceptible, her life hanging in the balance.

Her stunningly beautiful face was completely bloodless, her eyelashes tightly closed, like a cold and fragile porcelain statue.

"Damn it... this time we really messed up..."

Lin Fengmian cursed bitterly in his heart, a sense of despair he had never felt before welling up inside him.

However, even in this unbearable pain, he could not hold on any longer, his consciousness sank, and he fainted again.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he woke up again—the intense pain overwhelmed him once more, making it difficult for him to even breathe.

He gritted his teeth, trying to muster even the slightest bit of strength, but could only fall into darkness once more amidst boundless pain.

This cycle repeated itself, as if he were trapped in a cycle of life and death:

Waking up, excruciating pain, falling into a coma, waking up again, falling into a coma again… Each awakening brought greater weakness than the last, and each coma deeper than the last. Time flowed by in this hellish cycle, blurry and endless.

It was during this process that they were on the verge of collapse.

Suddenly, a faint yet distinct throbbing sensation came from deep within his dantian.

That golden elixir of the Great Dao, which embodies the interplay of Yin and Yang, actually accelerated its circulation on its own without his active activation!

The black and white fish swam slowly on the surface of the golden elixir, faster and faster, as if lighting a faint lamp in the darkness.

Immediately afterwards, a wisp of breath, finer than a strand of hair yet incredibly pure, quietly emerged from the point where he and Qin Lan were pressed tightly together in his arms!

That aura was a fusion of Lin Fengmian's pure Yang essence, which was extremely Yang and strong, and Qin Lan's body's rich, pure Yin essence, which had never been tainted by anyone.

Two completely opposite yet naturally attracted forces gently touched where the two were pressed together, like the first encounter of ice and fire, and then merged to create a wisp of spiritual energy containing the vitality of creation.

The spiritual energy, though pitifully weak, was like a drop of sweet rain falling on parched earth, slowly but steadily beginning to repair his already damaged and nearly collapsed body.

"This feeling... is it her primordial yin essence?"

In the brief moments of unconsciousness, Lin Fengmian finally caught a glimmer of consciousness. His instinct for survival, like a wildfire, spread rapidly.

"So pure and concentrated... this woman is indeed a virgin!"

He was jolted, followed by an overwhelming sense of elation at seeing a glimmer of hope in a desperate situation.

Now that he saw a possibility of survival, how could he possibly give up?

He desperately tried to stabilize his last remaining consciousness, attempting to accelerate the circulation of his golden core.

"Inhale! Inhale as much as you can! Your survival depends on this!"

Relying on the Yin-Yang fusion power spontaneously generated by the Great Dao Golden Core in his dantian, he was like a drowning man grabbing onto a piece of driftwood, managing to cling to his life.

That wisp of life slowly circulated within the two of them, endlessly, like a small stream flowing through a dried-up riverbed, each flow bringing a barely perceptible healing.

This process repeated itself until the two people's bodies and minds were completely intertwined and deeply merged between life and death, as if their souls were intertwined in that faint spiritual light.

Three days later.

"Cough cough cough—!"

Lin Fengmian coughed violently several times, spitting out mouthfuls of blood mixed with dark clots.

He struggled, using his trembling hands, which were almost uncontrollable, to support himself little by little.

His whole body was still in excruciating pain, and his bones were groaning, but at least a trace of spiritual energy had re-condensed within him—although it was only as thin as a hair and so weak that it could dissipate at any moment, it was the spark of life, an inextinguishable hope.

He was panting heavily as he looked around.

The scene was one of utter devastation, a truly shocking sight.

The center of Bai Ruolan's self-destruction is now a terrifying, charred crater, tens of feet deep and nearly a hundred feet in circumference.

The soil at the bottom of the pit was burned into glass-like crystals by the high temperature, gleaming with an eerie dark red luster. There was no vegetation growing around, and not even a single intact stone could be found.

That destructive power was comparable to a full-force attack from a Nascent Soul cultivator! It was absolutely terrifying.

"Fortunately... the spiritual vein's fluctuations are still there, though weak, but it hasn't been completely destroyed."

Lin Fengmian breathed a sigh of relief, catching a faint pulse deep underground from his remaining senses.

It seems that Bai Ruolan's final choice precisely controlled the scope of the self-destruction, preserving the last hope for this desolate land.

In the end, that woman did not completely go mad.

He turned his head with difficulty and looked at Qin Lan, who was still unconscious in his arms.

She was severely injured, her face as pale as paper, and her breath was intermittent, like a thread that might break at any moment.

Lin Fengmian used the meager spiritual power he had painstakingly gathered to barely cast a basic healing spell.

Tiny specks of pale green light spilled from his fingertips, disappearing into her body like fireflies.

Much later.

Qin Lan's long eyelashes trembled slightly, and then she slowly opened her eyes.

Her eyes were first empty and confused, as if she had just struggled to crawl out of a deep dream, and then she recognized the face so close to hers.

After recognizing him, she instinctively tried to speak, but couldn't utter a single sound.

She wanted to move, but her body wouldn't obey her commands; only her slightly trembling eyes revealed her anxiety and worry.

At this moment, the two truly felt the same pain.

Two critically injured and dying people were trapped on the edge of this desolate, massive crater from the explosion. The outside spiritual energy was almost nonexistent.

Although the Tai Chi diagram in his dantian was wondrous, it lacked spiritual energy support, and the speed at which healed his injuries was so slow it was almost despairing.

At this rate, they'll probably die here together from a relapse of their serious injuries before they've even recovered halfway.

Lin Fengmian's gaze involuntarily fell on Qin Lan's pale yet still stunningly beautiful face.

Then, it slowly moves downwards.

He sensed the rich, pure, and still-lingering primordial yin energy within her. A bold yet inevitable thought, like lightning piercing through the fog, instantly illuminated his mind.

"Her primordial yin energy is still intact, and her spiritual power is profound... If we use the method of cultivating together to guide the interaction of yin and yang, it might accelerate the operation of the Tai Chi diagram and help her recover from her injuries more quickly..."