"I won't give up, Junior Sister Hong, and you mustn't either!"
Hong Shengyi's concession only fueled Jin Biao's fighting spirit.
Veins bulged on his forehead, and his eyeballs were filled with tiny bloodshot capillaries.
He would not admit defeat.
"Senior Brother Jin, you..."
The rest of Hong Shengyi's words, "Why bother?" couldn't be spoken.
She saw Jin Biao's resolute expression and suddenly recalled some past moments of theirs.
She and Jin Biao had the same master, practiced the same cultivation techniques, and their entry times were also very close. Apart from their life-bound magic treasures being different, their cultivation paths were almost identical.
However, Jin Biao had always been one step ahead of her in cultivation.
He learned the introductory mental cultivation method an hour earlier than her.
He completed the process of drawing Qi into his body two hours before she did.
Not to mention subsequent Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and so on. In short, Jin Biao always had the upper hand in cultivation matters, even though their aptitudes were similar and their daily cultivation times were nearly the same.
Previously, Hong Shengyi could never understand this.
But now, in this desperate situation, seeing Jin Biao's completely different reaction from hers, she finally realized that the gap between her and Jin Biao had always existed.
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then suddenly opened them, beginning to struggle again with something she previously thought was useless.
"Junior Sister Hong, don't be afraid. I will definitely find a way to get you out."
Seeing Hong Shengyi remain silent, Jin Biao looked up at her and said softly to comfort her.
He was the one who called Hong Shengyi out, so he had to bear any consequences along with her.
Hong Shengyi shook her head; she didn't blame Jin Biao.
The two stopped speaking and continued to struggle against their restraints.
The empty cave fell silent once more.
...
"Long Haotian, Long Haotian."
Half-asleep, half-awake, Long Haotian faintly heard someone calling his name.
The voice was so familiar that his soul began to tremble.
Whose voice was it?
Long Haotian wanted to open his eyes to see if the person's appearance matched his imagination, but his eyelids felt as if they were weighed down by thousands of pounds of lead. After struggling for a long time, he couldn't open them.
"Hmm? Why hasn't he woken up yet?"
The familiar voice sounded again.
There was confusion, and also disappointment, in its tone.
Was it disappointment in him?
For some reason, a surge of power suddenly erupted within Long Haotian, finally allowing him to lift his eyelids.
The blinding light made his eyes sting like fire, yet he couldn't bring himself to close them.
Because he saw someone he hadn't expected.
And the person he had been longing for day and night.
Was it a dream?
"He's awake, he's awake! Senior Brother Long is awake!"
A cheer filled with joy rang out from the other side. Long Haotian instinctively shifted his gaze and saw Qu Xiaoxiao's tear-streaked face.
It wasn't a dream.
Immense joy washed over him like a tide.
Long Haotian immediately closed his eyes.
He was afraid that if he didn't close them soon, people would notice the surging emotions in his eyes.
What would he say after opening his eyes?
Long time no see?
Or, so it was you.
Just as Long Haotian was hesitating about how to speak, Xu Yi had already gotten up and walked over to Chen Tao and Wang Yi'an.
It had taken Xu Yi three days to finally refine the upgraded version of the Clear Fire Pill.
Although she didn't believe her Clear Fire Pill would have any problems, she waited until Long Haotian had taken it without any issues before giving the medicine to the other two.
By the time Long Haotian opened his eyes and intended to speak, the figure he wanted to see had long since disappeared.
Long Haotian's eyes dimmed for a moment, then he deliberately feigned calmness.
"Qu... Junior Sister..."
After speaking, Long Haotian was surprised by his own hoarse voice.
His throat felt as if it were stuffed with rough sand, dry and painful.
"Senior Brother Long, are you feeling better? Right, you absolutely must not mobilize your spiritual power now. There is still residual poison in your body."
Qu Xiaoxiao knelt beside Long Haotian, looking at him expectantly, and whispered the warning.
"Water..."
"Oh, water, water! Wait a moment!"
Qu Xiaoxiao quickly picked up the water flask she had thrown aside and brought it to Long Haotian's lips.
Because Qu Xiaoxiao was clumsy at feeding someone water for the first time, a lot of it spilled onto Long Haotian's clothes.
However, at this moment, no one was paying attention to such details.
After drinking an entire pot of water, Long Haotian finally felt his muddled brain clear up, and his throat was no longer burning with dryness.
He refused Qu Xiaoxiao's help, supporting himself with his arms, and managed to sit up. The first thing he saw was the figure with its back to him.
It really wasn't a dream.
Qu Xiaoxiao noticed Long Haotian's gaze and looked gratefully at Xu Yi. "Senior Brother Long, we owe this entirely to Senior Sister Xu. Otherwise, the four of us senior and junior siblings would probably be meeting on the road to the underworld right now."
Long Haotian nodded.
Although Qu Xiaoxiao hadn't recounted the details, he had already guessed the general situation.
Back then, he, Chen Tao, and Wang Yi'an had forcefully taken a blow from that female cultivator, and all three were injured to varying degrees.
Before they could even get up from the deep pit, they found their bodies starting to feel unwell.
Fiery waves of heat surged through their bodies, causing them immense pain and blurring their consciousness.
It was at that moment that Long Haotian took out his short dagger and made a deep wound in himself that exposed bone.
Stimulated by the pain, he regained his senses and his first action was to find an antidote pill to take.
However, the efficacy of that pill was not enough to detoxify him.
He saw that Wang Yi'an and the other were starting to bleed from their noses and trying to remove their clothes.
For safety's sake, he directly knocked the two unconscious, then mustered his remaining strength to wait for Qu Xiaoxiao to bring reinforcements.
But in the end, he couldn't hold on before help arrived.
Thinking of this, Long Haotian glanced at Ji Buwang, who was not far away.
So, the hallucination he saw before he fainted was not a hallucination after all.
Xu Yi and Lu Zaiye had also come to this place for tempering and encountered Qu Xiaoxiao along the way, who then brought them here to save them.
But why was Lu Zaiye the first person he saw back then?
It made him think his mind was malfunctioning.
Long Haotian suddenly remembered something and asked in a deep voice, "Where are Senior Brother Jin and Junior Sister Hong? Why don't I see them?"
Long Haotian's words caused the excited expression on Qu Xiaoxiao's face to immediately retract.
Qu Xiaoxiao lowered her head. "I didn't see Senior Brother Jin or Junior Sister Hong. My transmission tokens to them also received no response. They are missing."
"Missing?"
Long Haotian's face instantly turned grim.
Going missing in this place meant danger.
Especially since neither Jin Biao nor Hong Shengyi were people who took their training lightly; they must have encountered an accident.
Long Haotian instinctively wanted to mobilize his spiritual power to search for them, but his mind immediately recalled what Qu Xiaoxiao had just said.
She had told him not to mobilize his spiritual power, as it would cause a backlash.
Long Haotian then remembered that he was still poisoned and the residual toxins had not been cleared.
His complexion suddenly turned ashen.
Upon their reunion, his condition was even worse than the last time.