Obsessed with Life and Death

Darkness.

In the depths of darkness, the Boy's consciousness gradually Awakened.

"Where?"

"What is this place?"

"Where am I?"

No one answered him. The darkness was filled with silence.

"Who am I?"

"Why... am I trapped here?"

"What am I supposed to do?"

The Boy grew restless. He felt as though he had forgotten something immensely important.

He tried desperately to remember, but gained nothing.

He began to struggle, trying to break free from this prison of darkness.

Then, a faint, illusory light appeared before his eyes.

The tiny light stood out sharply in the darkness.

As the light flickered, some of the Boy's memories suddenly returned.

He seemed to have returned to the tavern. There, as a member of the Temple Knights, he celebrated after a victory and listened to the Old Captain's teachings.

The light in the darkness was like the dim candlelight in the tavern.

The Boy felt warm, and in his grogginess, he was about to fall completely asleep.

Just then, he suddenly heard a beast's roar.

With that roar, the light abruptly became solid, and the Boy discovered in disappointment that he had not returned to the tavern. He was in a scorching mine shaft.

Endless pain crashed over him like waves.

Zhen Jin felt like a tiny skiff, liable to be shattered by violent wind and towering waves at any moment.

Beyond the pain, there was unbearable heat and intense dizziness.

Zhen Jin was no stranger to any of this.

The Fire Poison is acting up again!

A brown bear's claw was still embedded in his waist and abdomen, making it difficult for him to rise. The Boy exerted all his strength just to lift his head slightly.

Then he saw the bear's corpse, as well as a familiar figure bent over and busily working beside it.

It was Zi Di. She was collecting Bear Blood from the corpse.

From time to time, she wiped the corners of her eyes, her face full of anxiety.

Zhen Jin immediately relaxed. When he had heard the beast's roar in the darkness, he had thought another beast was attacking. Seeing Zi Di safe and sound, his strength gave out. Unable to keep his head raised any longer, he let it fall back onto the ground with a thud.

Startled by the sound, Zi Di saw that Zhen Jin had Awakened again and cried out in delight, "My lord?! Sir Zhen Jin, you're awake!"

She immediately rushed to Zhen Jin's side.

At close range, Zhen Jin noticed the Girl's red, swollen eyes and the obvious tear streaks on her cheeks.

Zhen Jin wanted to speak, but no words came out.

His throat and tongue were swollen as well, making speech difficult. He could only give a bitter smile.

At that moment, the Boy realized that if another beast attacked, he was in no condition to protect his Fiancee at all.

Zi Di said, "My lord, the Fire Poison has flared up again, and the previous medicine is no longer working. I'm preparing a new medicine. I will succeed! Believe me, my lord. You mustn't give up!"

"I will save you!"

Zi Di was comforting Zhen Jin, but it was more like she was deceiving herself, trying to bolster her own confidence.

Zhen Jin nodded, but even that tiny movement made him lose consciousness again.

After an unknown amount of time passed in the darkness, he heard another beast's roar and Awakened once more.

Finding no sign of any beast attack, Zhen Jin understood. Was that only an auditory hallucination? Then how long was I unconscious this time?

He looked around and found Zi Di right beside him.

But this time, the Girl was not collecting Bear Blood. Instead, she had cut open Zhen Jin's arm and was drawing his blood.

The glass bottle was already more than half full of blood.

At that moment, the Boy's blood was dark red and scorching hot.

Seeing that he had Awakened again, Zi Di immediately said, "My lord, I'm treating you! I'm drawing out your poisoned blood to dilute the Fire Poison in your body."

The Boy remained silent.

Strangely, this time he felt no pain at all.

That was definitely not a good thing.

Feeling pain was a normal human sensation, a complete warning mechanism that reminded the body to protect itself in time.

Zhen Jin knew that his condition was now terrible. Not only had the Fire Poison flared up again, but he had also suffered severe injuries in his battle with the brown bear. The absence of pain meant that all the nerves in his body had already been destroyed!

Only his mind still suffered from intense dizziness.

The Boy did not dare move even slightly.

He had learned from experience that once his movements became a little too large, the dizziness would knock him down and make him lose consciousness again.

Zhen Jin could only stare at the cave ceiling.

Whether it was his wounds or the blood being drawn from him, he felt nothing. He had lost his hearing as well.

At that moment, the Boy felt a strange sense of peace and stillness.

Then that calm faded from his heart, replaced by fear that spread like mist.

Yes, fear.

He was afraid!

He knew death was approaching. This was fear of death.

In truth, he had faced death when fighting the brown bear as well. But at the time, he had never had the leisure to savor it closely.

The feeling of death slowly approaching was not pleasant at all!

The Boy felt his life slipping away, silently, without making a sound.

From the depths of his heart, the Boy wanted to hold on to his fading life. But life was like water cupped in his hands. No matter how hard he tried, it would flow through the gaps between his fingers until not a drop remained.

He realized he was nothing but a lamb awaiting slaughter, able only to wait quietly for Death's scythe to reap his life.

Zhen Jin had once thought himself brave enough, but at this moment, he felt his fear and his weakness.

The fear was so real, so intense, that Zhen Jin fully understood—no matter how much hardship and training he had endured, he could not face it with complete calm.

For he had realized one thing—this fear was the most fundamental fear of every living being, the instinct to survive at the core of all survival instincts.

Fear, like mist, had already enveloped his entire heart.

At the same time, helplessness, despair, panic, anger, and other emotions sprang from that fear.

Zhen Jin began to pray.

"O great deity, supreme Great Emperor..."

He was a Temple Knight. The deity he believed in was the current Saint Brilliance Great Emperor of humanity.

Humanity's government and religion were united. The Saint Brilliance Great Emperor was humanity's leader, with cultivation beyond the Legendary-level. He was a god walking among mortals!

Zhen Jin then continued by confessing to the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor.

He tried to confess his past wrongs, only to discover awkwardly that, having lost his memories, he could not remember what wrongs he had committed.

So he could only beg the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor for mercy, begging him to protect Zi Di after his death and allow her to escape this exceedingly dangerous island safely.

Yet the Boy's prayer to the deity he had served all his life received no response whatsoever.

Not even the slightest response.

"Every Temple Knight is watched over by the Saint Brilliance Great Emperor. Could this island sever the connection between believers and their god?"

With that doubt in his heart, Zhen Jin sank into darkness once more.

Just like before, accompanied by a beast's roar that shook heaven and earth, Zhen Jin Awakened again.

The moment he woke this time, Zhen Jin furrowed his brows tightly.

He could feel intense pain again!

Unlike before, this time it felt as though needles pierced his entire body. Every inch of skin, every inch of muscle, every inch of bone, inside and out, seemed to have endured countless tortures and become riddled with holes.

On top of that, the scorching sensation from the Fire Poison's flare-up had grown even more intense.

The Boy felt as though he had been placed in a bonfire and was burning fiercely!

"It worked, it worked!" Zi Di's shout rang beside his ears. The Girl was incomparably excited at that moment.

Zhen Jin shifted his gaze, and the sight of what she was doing made his heart jolt.

The Girl was neither collecting Bear Blood nor drawing his blood. She was actually pouring blood onto Zhen Jin's wounds.

It had to be Bear Blood!

Zhen Jin had originally been covered in wounds, especially the terrifying injury to his waist and abdomen.

But now, the brown bear's claw that had pierced through Zhen Jin's abdomen had vanished without a trace.

Zi Di seemed to have poured many medicines onto the wound, mixing them into a thick mass like the garish, muddled paint blended by an incompetent painter.

An unceasing stream of Bear Blood poured into that thick "paint" and was quickly absorbed.

Zhen Jin's body was like soil parched to the extreme. No matter how much Bear Blood Zi Di poured in, it absorbed every drop with incredible speed.

What kind of treatment is this? Can it really work? Seeing himself like this, Zhen Jin could not help but feel a chill rise in his heart.

The more Bear Blood he absorbed, the more intense the pain became.

But at the same time, his heart felt increasingly powerful.

It pounded faster and faster.

The Boy even had the illusion that if his heart beat any faster, it might leap out of his battered body!

Before that worry could last long, Zhen Jin lost consciousness once again.

The pain had intensified severalfold and become utterly unbearable, far beyond the limits of what a normal human body could endure.