"No!" Chen Tong forced himself to stay conscious, and just as he was about to speak, his body suddenly shattered, dissolving into countless specks of light.
"Chen Tong! Chen Tong!" Bing Lin cried out anxiously. She tried to catch the motes of light, but her hands passed through them like air.
"Waaah! What happened to you? Come back!" Her normally emotionless, icy eyes now brimmed with tears. Her face remained impassive, yet she was heartbroken, a dull ache stabbing through her again and again.
"Why are you crying?" Chen Tong, who had just dissolved into motes of light, now appeared behind Bing Lin. But he looked to be in terrible shape too. His face was pale, his vitality seemed withered, and he knelt on one knee, apparently enduring tremendous pain.
"Chen Tong!" Bing Lin's sorrow turned to joy. She hurried over to support him.
"Just now... What happened to you?"
Seeing the lingering tears in her eyes, tinged with red, Chen Tong felt an inexplicable pang of heartache. He shook his head. "I'm fine. My Dao Body ran into a little trouble, that's all. That's why it happened. Sorry for the trouble."
"What...?" Bing Lin couldn't quite follow. "That wasn't your real body just now?"
"What are you thinking?" Chen Tong said with a wry smile. "When my Dao Body took you away, my real body was still fighting Tathagata and the Jade Emperor. Otherwise, do you think we'd have gotten away?"
"So that's what happened!" Bing Lin seemed to understand. She'd assumed the Chen Tong who returned with them was his real body. She hadn't realized it was his Dao Body.
"How are you now?" Now that she understood, Bing Lin continued to show her concern. After all, Chen Tong didn't look well at all.
"I'm fine!" Chen Tong