"Xiaoyu!"
The sudden attack came without warning. Watching Nie Xiaoyu slowly fall after being pierced clean through by a streak of black light, Ling Mu's mind exploded with a buzz. With an enraged roar, he hurriedly caught the collapsing girl.
Blood gushed wildly from the wound in the girl's abdomen. No matter how Ling Mu tried to block it with his hands, he could not slow the blood—and Nie Xiaoyu's life—rapidly draining away.
The instant she was struck, Nie Xiaoyu had already begun circulating the Sacred Origin Art. Yet her cultivation was far too weak; the life force she converted could not mend such grave injuries in time. She clearly felt her consciousness gradually blurring as endless drowsiness swept over her. But she knew that if she fell asleep now, she might never wake again.
"Pills, pills..."
Ling Mu frantically pulled out every kind of Healing Pill from the storage system, crazily trying to stuff them into Nie Xiaoyu's mouth. But blood kept spilling from her lips, and she could no longer swallow any pills at all. Seeing the girl in his arms grow paler and paler, Ling Mu desperately forced himself to calm down. He knew every decision he made concerned Nie Xiaoyu's life and death. Right now, he had to race against time.
"Xiaoyu, gather all your strength and protect your heart meridian. I'll take you into the city right now and find Doctor Hua to treat your injuries."
Without wasting a moment after saying that, Ling Mu picked up the increasingly frail girl. With his Core Formation Realm strength unleashed in full, he sped toward Qinglan City in the distance.
Rewinding to a little earlier, within Qinglan City's labyrinthine underground tunnels, the Blood Fiend Camp's leader still sat within the shadows. Yet the killing intent radiating from