Before Xia Wan "gave birth," Cheng Shi promptly cast Healing Art on her.
Since Xia Wan was carrying multiple children, the Healing Art was extraordinarily effective, instantly restoring her to full health.
But that also meant the Newborns she gave birth to would be exceptionally healthy.
The group ran wildly outward. They had not gone far when the lifeforms gestating inside Xia Wan impatiently descended into the world.
Life created through Genesis Grass Seed would not wait for any delivery doctor. When they were halfway there, the swellings on Xia Wan's body burst one after another, blasting out several bizarre vines that were half flesh and half plant.
The good news was that these vines were not strong fighters. Song Yawen dealt with them all by himself.
The bad news was that although Xia Wan was fine, Nangong was about to die.
Her eyes were half closed, her whole body burning with fever. She was clearly hovering on the line between life and death. The wounds between her ribs and on her lower abdomen still carried the stench of Decay as they continued to rot, and she was visibly breathing out more than she breathed in.
"At this rate, Nangong will die."
They had just gone through life and death together, after all, and more than half a day of the trial remained. No one in the team wanted to lose a member here, no matter what.
They had survived the Dread Demon army's attack. Dying here would be far too wasteful.
Chen Chong stopped, threw Cao Sansui off his back, and said to Cheng Shi:
"Nangong's body can't withstand Birth's healing anymore. If you can't do anything else, heal the Mage and have the Mage use a time trick to keep her alive."
Cao Sansui wanted to as well, but he was a Mage, not a Priest or a Singer. He did not have that many supporting tricks.
Seeing the sorrow on everyone's faces, Cheng Shi sighed and took a small red bottle from his personal safe.
"What's that?" Song Yawen came over at once. He seemed to smell death inside the bottle.
"An A-rank potion, 'Contempt of the Dead,' produced from devout followers of death.
"His emissary believed that some people were unworthy of enjoying death, so he extracted this contempt and brewed it into a potion to punish Oathbreakers who had committed grave sins.
"It prevented them from approaching death again and kept them from hearing his teachings."
As he explained, Cheng Shi poured the potion over Nangong.
"As long as it mixes with your own blood, you won't die even if you suffer severe injuries. It has no healing effect, though. It merely keeps you alive."
"Gah? There's something like that?"
Song Yawen reached out quickly, trying to catch a drop for study. Cheng Shi's hand was faster. He slapped Song Yawen's hand away and laughingly scolded him:
"Losing even one drop will make it stop working. Do you want her to die?"
Song Yawen's expression turned awkward. His face flushed as he said, "I... I've never seen it before. Nangong, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to."
Nangong's face was deathly pale, and she had no strength to deal with him. She merely watched as the liquid poured over her body quickly merged into her blood, and then...
She felt nothing at all.
"Does this... work?"
Cheng Shi cast her a sidelong glance. "It works, and it's expensive. Remember to compensate me once you've recovered."
Nangong gritted her teeth and nodded firmly. "All right!"
Xia Wan had just given birth to her "children," and blood was flowing from various parts of her body as well. But as a follower of Birth, she had greater resistance to "reproduction," so Cheng Shi did not use the potion and simply cast another Healing Art on her.
They were lucky. She had not gotten pregnant.
Seeing Cheng Shi save two more lives with ease, Chen Chong asked solemnly:
"Cheng Shi, how many points do you actually have?"
"I..."
"Other than 1,501."
"..." Cheng Shi looked around and saw doubt in everyone's eyes. Realizing they did not believe him, he still forced a smile and said, "It really is 1,501."
Chen Chong did not believe a word of it. He said heavily:
"Do you take me for an idiot? The Healing Chain you used in that situation just now had to be the effect of at least an S-rank talent. And with those two bottles of 'Contempt of the Dead'... you...
"...couldn't possibly have fewer than 2,000 points."
The initial score for Path to Godhood was 1,000 points. At settlement, anyone below 1,000 points would die immediately. Above 1,200 points, one could roll a B-rank talent or item; above 1,600, an A-rank one; and only above 2,000 could one roll an S-rank talent.
"Ah, yes, yes, whatever you say. Do you want to keep guessing my score here, or are you coming with me?"
Cheng Shi picked Nangong up and led the way forward.
The others exchanged glances, helplessness flashing through their eyes, then hurried after him.
What could they do if the big shot refused to tell them the truth? Naturally, they would do whatever he said!
Song Yawen had been born unable to keep his mouth shut. His questions continued without pause along the way.
"Brother Cheng, what's your talent? Tell me."
"Brother Cheng, how many points do you really have?"
"Brother Cheng, do you have any more of that little red potion? Can I trade you something for some...?"
"Brother Cheng..."
Cheng Shi finally could not take it anymore and asked in return:
"...Aren't Assassins supposed to be taciturn?"
Song Yawen grinned. "This is called contrast. It's popular nowadays."
"..."
Fortunately, no other units from the Bone Legion pursued them during the next hour.
Cheng Shi's group walked across the exposed plains for half a day before finally spotting a dense forest.
Song Yawen, who had been noisy the entire way, volunteered to scout ahead. He discovered that it was a homeland abandoned by the Wood Elves. Apart from several abandoned tree houses, there was no living thing inside.
Cheng Shi and Chen Chong finally breathed a sigh of relief and quickly led the wounded into the woods.
Cao Sansui's condition stabilized first. He had overdrawn too much mental power, leaving him weak and powerless. He could not precisely control a single muscle in his body and could only speak indistinctly to the others about what he knew of the Wood Elves.
"The Wood Elves are followers of prosperity and an eternally neutral race. They revere nature and never live together with other races. Since they chose this place as a residence, it must be relatively safe."
Hearing this, Song Yawen asked curiously:
"If it's safe, why was it abandoned?"
"I said relatively safe. Before the war, this place was certainly safe. But after the Bone Legion launched its war against the Isle of Hope, there was no safe place left on the Isle of Hope."
For the sake of caution, Chen Chong was standing guard outside the tree house. He turned back with some confusion and asked:
"I've always heard people say that the Bone Legion launched a war against the Isle of Hope, but what was the reason for the war?"
Cao Sansui shook his head with difficulty:
"The people in the Mage Channel guessed it was a war of faith, but the people in the Faith Channel guessed that subterranean creatures were fighting over something. Time only watches the present, and we have very little information. Perhaps the followers of Memory would know more by looking back into the past."
Cheng Shi had been listening with great interest, but when he heard the divine name of Memory, his smile visibly froze for an instant.
"I checked the time. Six hours of the trial have passed, and we still have eighteen hours to endure. But I need ten hours to recover..."
Cao Sansui's meaning was obvious. Although they had survived, the ten hours ahead without the Mage's combat power would be extremely difficult.
No one knew what else they might encounter, and no one thought that merely because they had been lucky enough to survive the Dread Demon army's hell-level ambush, there would be no more danger in the trial.
That might be possible in an ordinary trial, but in a Special Trial, it was absolutely impossible.
Cheng Shi recalled the trial's name, his brow furrowing slightly.
"Song of Blood and Fire... We've already seen the blood. What about the fire?"
Tsk, their team just happened to be staying in a forest. If a fire came sweeping over...
A fire that burned through eight hundred li of camps?
It should not be such a coincidence, right?
Forget it. There was no point thinking so much. They would deal with soldiers with generals and water with earth.
Cheng Shi scratched his head, took a bottle of cola from his safe, and gulped it down.
"???"
Song Yawen was dumbfounded when he saw this.
"Brother Cheng, every inch of a storage space is precious. You use yours to store that?"
Cheng Shi pointed at Chen Chong and laughed. "Chen Chong stores alcohol. What's wrong with me storing a few bottles of cola? If people lost cola, what would be left to make them feel cola?"
Chen Chong did not turn around, but his vigorous nodding showed how deeply he agreed.
Song Yawen actually had drinking water in his own safe, but that was life-saving water meant for extreme conditions. It certainly could not compare to cola, which delighted the taste buds. Seeing Cheng Shi drink so happily, he unconsciously swallowed.
"Brother Cheng... do you have any more cola?"
Seeing his expression, Cheng Shi took out five more bottles without a word.
"??? Brother Cheng, don't tell me your storage space is full of cola?"
Cheng Shi raised his brows but said nothing.
Song Yawen was delighted. At least he was not wasting his own storage space. He quickly picked a bottle and did not forget to distribute the rest to the others.
As it turned out, drinking some cola after a battle really did feel great.
Everyone enjoyed themselves twice over.
Even Nangong, who could not move at all, drank a few mouthfuls with Cheng Shi's help.
"The forest is still too conspicuous a target. Let's rest for another two or three hours, then move farther away."
After finishing his drink, Chen Chong carried his sword out the door.
Keeping watch was his responsibility because he was a follower of Order.
Xia Wan and Song Yawen obediently sat inside the room, looking after the wounded and resting with their eyes closed.
But the moment Song Yawen closed his eyes, a wave of drowsiness swept over him.
The drowsiness came so gently and comfortably that, for a moment, he had no desire to resist it at all.
"Clang."
Song Yawen, who had been sitting on the floor, fell over. The injured people in the room also slowly closed their eyes and sank into dreams.
Just as everyone fell asleep, Cheng Shi suddenly opened his eyes, a sly glint flashing through them.
"Tsk. You'll drink any beverage you're given? You haven't been beaten enough yet, have you?"
As he laughed, his gaze drifted toward Nangong beside him.
Before you continue