Qi Qingyun wasted no time, taking Xiao Feng with her as she flew at full speed...
At that moment, everyone present saw the shattered City Defense Mystic Array, and a feverish excitement rose in their hearts. Once even a single corner of the City Defense Mystic Array was broken, the entire formation's defensive power would weaken by at least ninety percent!
Hope of survival appeared before them once more. Every one of them ran desperately toward different parts of the City Defense Array, trying to escape this deadly calamity. What delighted them even more was that Ximen Qing had actually run out of the City Defense Array to pursue Qi Qingyun!
He was no longer slaughtering them. Could it be that he intended to spare them? The excitement of everyone who had survived the disaster was beyond measure. They had finally lived!
But... was that really so?
In the distance, Qi Qingyun held Xiao Feng in her arms, driving her mystic force at full speed without pausing for even a moment...
Looking at Qi Qingyun before him, Xiao Feng felt no joy at having survived. His heart held only grief and self-reproach for his own helplessness...
On the surface, Qi Qingyun's aura was steady. Her eyes stared straight ahead, her expression calm, with only her delicate brows slightly furrowed...
But... Xiao Feng was a healer... Just now, he had discovered a severe rupture in Qi Qingyun's life aura.
The Mystic Skill Qi Qingyun had used just now had shattered the City Defense Array with a single sword strike, even though so many people working together had failed to break it.
Even if everyone's earlier combined attacks had laid the groundwork... their several joint attacks had only managed to create cracks... This only showed how powerful Qi Qingyun's sword strike had been. It was absolutely not a Mystic Skill someone in the God Monarch Realm should have been able to use!
His expression darkened. He wanted to tell Qi Qingyun to let him go and leave on her own, but when the words reached his lips, he did not speak them.
He knew that even if he said it, Qing Yun would never agree. It might even distract her...
At this moment, all he could do was remain silently quiet...
Bright Mystic Force circulated through Xiao Feng's body as he treated Qi Qingyun's injuries.
Suddenly, Xiao Feng sensed Qi Qingyun's mystic force beginning to spiral out of control...
Drip... drip...
The instant her mystic force went out of control, her white robes turned into blood-red robes. Blood continuously seeped through the fabric, staining Xiao Feng's body.
Xiao Feng, whose body overflowed with Bright Mystic Force, purified the bloodstains, but... the white robes he had just cleansed were instantly dyed red again!
"!!!" Xiao Feng's pupils went completely unfocused... After Qi Qingyun's mystic force lost control, she fell straight from the sky. Once she managed to land steadily, she could no longer suppress the injuries within her body. Blood flowed endlessly from her blood-soaked robes like a rushing stream...
Blood began to seep from Qi Qingyun's facial features as well...
The backlash from forcibly using the Heaven Severing Sword should have appeared long ago, but Qi Qingyun had kept it ruthlessly suppressed. Now that suppression had vanished, and the blood in her body was no longer under her control.
Yet Qi Qingyun seemed utterly indifferent to her injuries. She pushed away Xiao Feng's hand as he treated her, took out a pendant, and handed it to him. "Xiao Feng, don't worry about me. I'm done for. I can't even mobilize my mystic force now..."
"Xiao Feng! Promise me one thing... You must! You absolutely must! Stay alive! Okay?"
Xiao Feng took the pendant Qi Qingyun handed him but did not answer. Bright Mystic Force surged at full power as he picked Qi Qingyun up, endured the agonizing pain in his body, rose into the air, and flew beyond Flowing Wind City.
"Xiao Feng, you're taking me..." Qi Qingyun had barely begun speaking when drops of crystalline tears fell onto her face. She looked up and saw Xiao Feng with his head raised, yet... tears were uncontrollably streaming from the corners of his eyes...
The words Qi Qingyun wanted to say caught in her throat, and she said nothing more...
"Qing Yun... what is your greatest wish?" Xiao Feng asked hoarsely.
"You... living." Qi Qingyun had not expected Xiao Feng to ask that. She answered instinctively.
"What about after we survive?" Qi Qingyun's thoughts unconsciously began to ponder the question along with Xiao Feng's words.
After a long while, she spoke absentmindedly, "To hold your hand and grow old with you..."
But she knew that perhaps she would never have that chance...
The image of Qing Yun saying, "In this life, I will marry no one but you. These words will never change until death," rippled through Xiao Feng's heart and soul once more.
Xiao Feng lowered his head. His eyes were red as he spoke with a trembling voice, "Qing Yun, I... I'm useless. I can't share even a little of your burden... If not for me, perhaps you would have already gone to the pure land and would not have suffered such an undeserved disaster... If I were strong enough, none of this would have happened..."
"No... that's not it..." Qi Qingyun repeatedly denied it, but before she could finish, Xiao Feng's next words interrupted her...
"Qing Yun... at this moment... I am willing... to use my whole life as the matchmaker, and my next life as the gift."
"To take you as my wife..."
"With heaven and earth as witness, this heart will never waver."
"Qing Yun... are you... willing to marry someone as useless as me?"
Qi Qingyun froze for an instant, then revealed her first smile since disaster had struck. "I... I am willing."
Ruptured meridians and shattered blood vessels, agonizing pain—none of it had made her shed a tear. Yet now, tears welled up in her eyes...
Seeing Qi Qingyun smile, Xiao Feng also curved his lips into a faint smile. "Then it's settled... Our marriage contract now exists between heaven and earth. It's too late for you to regret it now... We are husband and wife acknowledged by heaven and earth."
"Wife..."
"H-Husband..."
Xiao Feng leaned close to Qi Qingyun's ear and whispered, "Now that we are husband and wife... as husband and wife, we should live and die together... Don't say things that would make your husband sad anymore."
"Mm..." Qi Qingyun responded softly, her voice nearly inaudible.
The cold wind howled past Xiao Feng's ears. He stared ahead, and the tenderness in his eyes gradually faded.
Qing Yun... no matter what, you have to live!
As he flew, Xiao Feng's thoughts never stopped for a moment. He kept considering whether there was any other way to deal with Ximen Qing. With his God Tribulation Realm cultivation, if Ximen Qing wanted to, there was no way he could outrun him.
To break through conventional understanding, he needed an unforeseen variable...
And the only variable he currently possessed was one... His Divine Sense brushed over the x-shaped mark on his left hand, a mark he had once thought was some kind of cheat ability, yet had never found any use for.
It was only when he had saved Bing Hanxue not long ago that this mark had suddenly displayed a function similar to storage space... Along with that voice... a voice belonging to someone he did not know, speaking to him.
Countless thoughts ran through Xiao Feng's mind. If I put Qi Qingyun into that space, then if I die... can she live?
Without grasping the rules, everything he did would feel constrained...
But there was no response.
Just as Xiao Feng began to feel somewhat disappointed...
"Stall..."
A short, concise voice appeared in Xiao Feng's Soul Sea. The tone was so familiar... His expression shook, and he unconsciously spoke aloud, "How do I stall?"
"Husband?" Seeing Xiao Feng suddenly look strange, Qi Qingyun asked worriedly what was wrong.
"It's nothing, wife... I..."
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... You're already calling each other husband and wife. Looks like you've decided that, in a little while, you'll become a loving couple in the Yellow Springs, envied by all."
Before Xiao Feng could finish speaking, an extremely discordant voice interrupted him. It was... Ximen Qing, who had caught up to them!
At this time, it was midnight...
(11 PM–1 AM)... "I feel awful. I've had terrible luck these past few weeks. First I went flying while running the 50-meter dash, then I caught a cold. My runny nose had stopped yesterday, but now my throat is itchy again. It's probably a respiratory infection.
I've noticed something ridiculous: whenever something goes wrong with your throat, once your throat gets better, you'll definitely start getting a runny nose next.
I slept for nearly 20 hours today. My eyes hurt and my head is spinning. It feels like COVID.
Everyone, keep warm. I feel awful.
If I'm feeling better today, there should be another update."
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