Hope for Full Innate Spiritual Power! Abandon Cai'er?

Long Xuanye's vision lit up with a new light screen.

[New choice detected, please Host select]

[Choice 1: Accept the girl's ring and leave alone using Instantaneous Movement Steps. Reward: Mysterious Tier Secret Skill Startled Swan Shadow Sweep]

[Choice 2: Save the girl before you and repel the wolf pack. Reward: Innate Inner Spiritual Power +1, Internal Spiritual Power Awakening]

Long Xuanye's breathing momentarily ceased.

The last bit of Innate Inner Spiritual Power!

It also meant the terrifying strength of these Demonic Beasts!

He froze. A few seconds ago, Long Xuanye's first instinct was to save her, but now...

He felt like running away.

He couldn't sacrifice himself, could he?

But still...

Long Xuanye remained standing in front of the girl, his feet rooted to the spot.

He knew Choice 2 meant certain death.

But he didn't want to leave.

Long Xuanye thought he would immediately choose to accept the ring and leave.

But his movements became stiff.

He looked at the little beggar in front of him, who was desperately trying to push him away, her eyes filled with anxiety.

He didn't recognize her as Saint Cai'er, a character he quite liked in his past life.

He just felt like he had encountered another him.

Another unlucky soul, abandoned by his family and struggling alone in desperate circumstances.

Why?

Long Xingyu's cold face flashed through his mind.

The humiliation and rage of being abandoned and hunted down had always been suppressed in his heart, with nowhere to vent.

Long Xuanye was angry.

He was unhappy with Long Xingyu, and even more unhappy with the family who abandoned this little girl here!

His own miserable situation was unavoidable.

But now, he had a choice.

I've been rained on, so I don't want others to get wet.

The past half-month of surviving alone in the forest had already filled his heart with endless rage and killing intent.

He couldn't go beat up Long Xingyu right now.

But these beasts before him, this little girl who was also abandoned by her family...

He wanted to save her!

Not to mention the reward...

One hundred points of Innate Inner Spiritual Power!

Once awakened, how terrifying would that potential be!

He knew better than anyone what kind of catastrophe this world would face in the future. Long Haochen would contract the God of Heavenly Punishment, Haoyue. What if his butterfly wings caused some unforeseen change, leading Haoyue to truly bring about destruction...

Without absolute strength, he would die sooner or later!

But...

"Hoo."

He exhaled, and Long Xuanye's expression regained its composure, tinged with a hint of indifference.

He looked at the little beggar in his arms, as if looking at a dead person.

Reason, like a cold rope, pulled back his boiling blood.

There were dozens of Demonic Wolves, and several of them were third-tier!

His External Spirit Power was barely close to a third-tier Knight, and his Inner Spiritual Power hadn't awakened yet. What could he use to fight?

This wasn't bravery; it was suicide.

If a person courts death.

They will certainly die.

Long Xuanye slowly raised his hand.

His hand, with its distinct knuckles, stained with dust and dark red blood, reached for the ancient ring offered by Saint Cai'er.

He was going to take it.

Then, survive.

Long Xuanye's eyes gradually firmed.

He hadn't gotten revenge on that bastard Long Xingyu yet. He'd finally arrived in another world, where his power could be consolidated.

I can't die yet!

In the distance, within the shadows of the dense forest canopy, a white-robed figure stood silently.

A hint of approval flickered in Lin Guanyi's eyes.

This young man's combat movements and willpower were exactly like a born knight.

But a knight's virtue should not be foolish self-sacrifice.

In a situation where death was certain, knowing to abandon the superfluous and preserve the living force was a form of correctness, a... cruel correctness.

Sacrifice was the simplest thing; it was merely dying.

What wasn't simple was how to make that sacrifice meaningful.

This young man had potential, a kind heart, and most importantly, a powerful mind that could quickly calm down at the brink of life and death.

He was a good prospect.

However, just as Long Xuanye's finger was about to touch the ring.

The light in Saint Cai'er's eyes extinguished.

The faint glimmer of hope and warmth that had just been lit sank completely into the boundless Darkness at this moment.

So, she was still going to be abandoned.

She knew this was the most rational choice, and she had even hoped for it.

It was like Mom and Dad used to say.

Cai'er, there's no other way.

This is your responsibility...

But why... did her heart ache so much?

A thousand times, ten thousand times more painful than being torn apart by the claws of a Demonic Beast.

Warm liquid uncontrollably slid from her hollow, gray eyes.

But in the next second, the expected sensation of the ring being taken did not come.

Instead, that warm hand gently pushed the "Forget-Me-Not" ring back to the base of her finger with its fingertips.

Saint Cai'er froze.

She raised her small face, streaked with tears and dust, and looked at him in confusion.

Long Xuanye met her gaze.

"A ring isn't something you can just accept."

"It's something you give when you propose."

As his words fell, Long Xuanye slowly straightened his body, shielding the small Saint Cai'er behind him. He held the blood-stained short knife horizontally across his chest.

His gaze calmly fell upon the dozens of pairs of green, glowing eyes.

No one knew the storm that had raged in Long Xuanye's mind in that brief moment.

He admitted that he had initially intended to accept the ring and leave.

What a joke.

That was the last bit of Innate Inner Spiritual Power, plus that mysterious "Awakening" ritual, the System's second option, the difficulty was absolutely sky-high.

Choosing it meant death.

But... a sliver of doubt flashed through his mind.

Why?

Why would the seemingly simplest option, "escape," reward him with a Mysterious Tier Secret Skill?

Remember, the last time the System rewarded him with a secret skill was after he fought for his life against that second-tier Shadow Leopard!

And that secret skill didn't have the annotation: Mysterious Tier, high probability of first-grade quality.

Pies don't fall from the sky.

This System certainly wouldn't do charity.

Therefore, this "path to escape" with its generous rewards inherently meant immense risk!

It indicated that accepting this ring and leaving here would also bring him enormous trouble.

The source of the trouble could only be the unfathomable background of the girl behind him.

A girl abandoned by her family, yet secretly watched over and protected by a powerful figure...

A name flashed through Long Xuanye's mind like lightning.

Saint Cai'er!

Reincarnation Saintess, Saint Cai'er!

If she really is that Saint Cai'er, then the white-robed figure observing in the shadows wouldn't truly stand by and watch me die!

In that case, this so-called "death defying odds" before me is completely fake!

As long as I choose to stay, choose to protect her, that white-robed figure absolutely cannot just watch me get torn to shreds by the wolf pack!

This +1 Innate Inner Spiritual Power and the awakening reward are practically being given away for free!

Of course, this is just a gamble.

If I bet right, I'll ascend to the heavens in one step.

If I bet wrong...

What if she isn't Saint Cai'er? What if that white-robed figure was just passing by and has already left?

Then I'll be gnawed by this pack of Demonic Wolves until not even bone fragments remain.

Long Xuanye's eyes grew increasingly frenzied as his thoughts surged.