Su Wan'er's mind went blank for a moment.
She could clearly feel the large hand gripping her wrist: warm and dry, brimming with unquestionable strength.
Through the thin fabric of her clothes, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest and hear his steady, powerful heartbeat—thump, thump, thump—like a drum that could calm the soul.
Everything had happened too fast.
A second ago, she had been facing certain death, ready to be swallowed by that foul-smelling mass of muck. The next, she had fallen into an embrace she never could have expected.
Clang.
The stone she had regarded as her last hope slipped from her limp fingers, rolled across the ground twice, and rang out sharply.
At the same time, the black streak of liquid passed so close that it almost brushed her hair.
Sssss!
A grating, corrosive hiss rang out where she had just been standing. The hard stone floor melted instantly into a smoking crater, and a nauseating stench of burning filled the air.
Su Wan'er's pupils contracted. Cold sweat drenched her back.
If Lu Yuan hadn't pulled her away, her body would have been the thing melted through!
She hadn't even had time to thank him—or think—when the lazy voice beside her rang out again, tinged with irritation. He sounded like someone whose sweet dreams had just been interrupted.
"I said..." Lu Yuan let out a long yawn, even squeezing a reflexive tear from the corner of his eye. He nudged Su Wan'er slightly behind him, then stepped forward, completely blocking her and the jade bed behind her with his body. Only then did he lazily lift his eyelids and look at the monster, which seemed even more frenzied after its attack missed.
The Corrosive Soul Liquid twisted its body, its enormous, blood-red eye fixed