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"Shi Lan?"

When Shi Lan entered, Wu Lingkong's expression brightened with excitement. She struggled to sit up, but the moment she propped herself up, her arms gave way and she fell back onto the bed.

"How did you get so badly hurt?"

Shi Lan crossed the room in a single stride, took Wu Lingkong by the wrist, and helped her sit up. She sent a thread of true qi into Wu Lingkong's body and began examining her injuries.

As the true qi coursed through her, Shi Lan's brow furrowed tighter. Wu Lingkong's injuries were severe; her true qi was depleted, and her blood and vital energy were nearly exhausted.

"Still being alive means I'm lucky."

Wu Lingkong shook her head, slipped her wrist free, then turned and wrapped her arms around Shi Lan. She rubbed her cheek against Shi Lan's neck and sighed.

"I knew it. Good fortune always smiled on you. You'd definitely make it back safely."

Shi Lan fell silent. In her memory, Wu Lingkong had always been brimming with energy. She had never seen her so frail.

"Let me see your wound."

Shi Lan noticed the bandages wrapped beneath Wu Lingkong's collar. She helped her recline, then undid her top and carefully unwound the layers of gauze.

A terrifying wound, nearly an inch deep, ran from beneath Wu Lingkong's neck across her chest and down to her lower abdomen. It had nearly torn open her dantian.

The bleeding had stopped, but the wound was nowhere near healed.

"I got this while we were surrounding a Celestial Dipper Realm blue-scaled python."

Cold sweat beaded across Wu Lingkong's forehead. She spoke with some difficulty.

"Just before it died, the blue-scaled python used one of its innate abilities... Its scales all sprang backward, killing and wounding many of my sisters.