Danger

After the Titan Giant Ape left.

Ye Liuyun's face was as dark as the bottom of a pot. He had once been nearly killed by lightning tribulation and knew that if he kept cultivating, he would undoubtedly die.

Just then, he had sensed what was happening in the Star Dou Great Forest and learned that Xiao Wu had taken human form and was about to enter the human world.

To take advantage of the protagonist group's peaceful early years, he had no choice but to hastily take human form, find Xiao Wu, and head straight to Nuoding School with her.

He had always kept the plot from deviating too far, ensuring everything remained under his control.

When they entered the Star Dou Great Forest, he had also expected the Titan Giant Ape to come after sensing Xiao Wu's aura.

But he had never expected that brainless ape to strike viciously from the very start.

It had completely exceeded his expectations.

That blow just now had made him feel death drawing near and nearly forced out his life-saving trump card.

At the same time, he understood something: even if he knew many things, those events could still unfold differently because of his presence.

The so-called butterfly effect.

The dust gradually dispersed.

All that remained in the forest was a devastated mess of ruins and the lingering stench of blood in the air.

Tang San struggled out of the dirt. Looking in the direction where the Titan Giant Ape had vanished and seeing Xiao Wu in its hand, he let out a heart-wrenching roar.

"No! Xiao Wu!"

Tang San dropped to his knees and cried out in anguish.

He suddenly turned his head, his eyes bloodshot as he stared fixedly at the completely unhurt Ye Liuyun.

"Ye Liuyun! Why didn't you save her?"

"You clearly had those vines! You clearly could have pulled her back! She's your cousin!"

Ye Liuyun stood where he was and dusted off his sleeves.

Save her?

She was going home to visit her family. What was he supposed to do, go join the fun?

But there was no way he could reveal that Xiao Wu was a Spirit Beast.

Ye Liuyun said calmly.

"I was powerless to help."

Tang San cursed, spittle flying everywhere.

"You cold-blooded monster! If you won't save her, I will!"

Tang San struggled to his feet.

The earlier impact, combined with the injuries he had suffered while fighting Meng Yiran,

had already made it difficult for him to move.

He said viciously.

"Oscar, sausage!"

Oscar had been terrified. He carefully handed over a sausage while trying to persuade him.

"Tang San! Don't go! You'll die!"

But Tang San did not even turn back. His figure quickly vanished into the dense forest.

Only a dead silence remained.

Everyone stood around the edge of the crater, looking down at Zhao Wuji's mangled, bloody body at the bottom as despair slowly spread.

"Teacher Zhao... I don't think he's breathing anymore..."

Ma Hongjun said tremblingly.

"What do we do? What are we supposed to do...?"

Ning Rongrong's face had gone deathly pale, and she was completely at a loss.

Ye Liuyun walked to the edge of the pit and looked down at the burly man, who had nearly been reduced to pulp.

"Why? Zhao Wuji, you know I'm not good with people."

Ye Liuyun sighed softly.

At the bottom of the crater, Zhao Wuji's finger twitched faintly.

He laboriously opened one eye, caked shut with blood. His voice was so weak it was nearly inaudible.

"Call... call me Teacher... brat..."

Ye Liuyun fell silent for two seconds.

Then he jumped into the pit and crouched beside Zhao Wuji.

He pressed his right hand against Zhao Wuji's chest.

His talent, Endless Surging, could transform his own Soul Power into life force.

An emerald glow illuminated the deep crater.

Ye Liuyun clenched his teeth. Cold sweat instantly poured down his forehead like rain, dripping onto Zhao Wuji's blood-covered face.

He had underestimated Zhao Wuji's injuries, and he had also underestimated the difference in their ranks.

A level thirty-four Soul Elder against a level seventy-six Spirit Saint.

There was a full forty-two-level chasm between them!

Zhao Wuji's massive body, strengthened by his Martial Soul Avatar, was now like a dry, cracked wasteland.

The life force Ye Liuyun sent in was madly devoured the instant it entered by Zhao Wuji's shattered internal organs.

The Soul Power within his body poured away like water released from a dam.

He stopped holding back and squeezed out every last trace of Soul Power from his dantian without reservation, turning it into an endless torrent of vitality that he forcibly poured into Zhao Wuji's body.

Crack, crack, crack...

The grating sound of bones scraping against one another rang out.

Zhao Wuji's collapsed breastbone actually began to rise again at a visible rate beneath the emerald light.

His shattered organs fused back together beneath the nourishment of that vitality, and a hint of color finally returned to his pale face.

But the price was that Ye Liuyun's aura weakened at an astonishing speed.

The color drained from his lips. The muscles in his arms spasmed violently from excessive depletion, and he looked as if he had just been pulled from water, drenched from head to toe in cold sweat.

The sensation of being drained dry made his vision darken in waves, while his ears buzzed incessantly.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Until the very last drop of Soul Power had been drained, until Ye Liuyun could no longer feel his fingertips.

"Huff..."

Zhao Wuji's breath, previously as faint as a thread, finally became heavy and steady.

Ye Liuyun's hand fell away, and his entire body collapsed backward like a kite with its string cut. He landed hard on the crater floor, covered in broken stones and blood.

He gasped for breath, his chest heaving violently. His Soul Power was exhausted, but he had finally preserved Zhao Wuji's life.

"He's alive! Teacher Zhao doesn't seem to be dead yet!"

Oscar's delighted shout broke the silence.

Looking at Zhao Wuji's faint but steady breathing, everyone saw that although he remained unconscious, he seemed to be out of mortal danger.

They all felt the weak relief of having survived a disaster.

"That's great."

Dai Mubai dropped onto the ground, the tension in his nerves instantly loosening.

Ma Hongjun wiped away his cold sweat, finally feeling that there was hope of surviving.

Even Ning Rongrong found it difficult to vent the resentment in her heart.

Hmph, at least he still has a conscience.

However.

Just as everyone thought the crisis was over and prepared to breathe a sigh of relief,

Ye Liuyun, who had been slumped on the ground and unwilling to move even a finger, suddenly snapped open his half-lidded eyes.

Under everyone's astonished gazes, he shot up from the bottom of the crater like a dying cheetah making one final burst!

There was no Soul Power fluctuation at all. It was purely an explosion of muscle strength, powerful enough to crush the rocks beneath his feet.

He charged toward Ning Rongrong!

Ning Rongrong had been standing at the edge of the crater in a daze when she suddenly saw Ye Liuyun lunging at her with a savage expression, one hand reaching for her face.

Her pampered young lady's temper, combined with the resentment she had been holding onto, made her instinctively recoil in disgust and resistance.

"What are you doing? Have you gone insane?"

Ning Rongrong screamed and instinctively tried to retreat.

"Trying to take advantage of this chance? Get the hell—"

Before she could utter the final word.

Pfft!

The sickening sound of a sharp blade piercing flesh rang out without warning.

Warm liquid splashed across Ning Rongrong's face in an instant.

It was a black afterimage, so fast that even a Soul Grandmaster's dynamic vision could not catch it.

It moved without sound, yet carried terrifying force capable of piercing gold and stone as it shot straight for Ning Rongrong's brow!

Without anything to stop it, that beautiful head would burst like a watermelon in the next second.

But a hand blocked it.

It was Ye Liuyun's right hand.

That pitch-black, foul-smelling sharp spear pierced straight through his palm without resistance, tearing apart flesh, grinding through bone, and bursting from the back of his hand amid blood and shredded meat!

Its momentum did not lessen!

The force of that strike was too great. Even after piercing his palm, it still carried enough destructive inertia to stab straight toward Ning Rongrong's eye!

"Stop!"

Ye Liuyun's eyes were bloodshot as a beastlike growl tore from his throat.

The muscles in his right arm instantly tightened to their limit. Every muscle fiber twisted together like steel cables, while veins bulged beneath his skin like furious Azure Dragons!

The black spike released a shrill screech amid violent friction, inch by inch drawing closer to Ning Rongrong's pupils, which had widened from fear.

Ning Rongrong's mind went completely blank.

She could even clearly see her own terrified face reflected on the black spike, smell its nauseating stench, and feel the sharp pain caused by its tip cutting through the air.

If it moved even a fraction farther, she would be dead!

Screech!!!

The black spike finally stopped.

It halted less than a millimeter from Ning Rongrong's eyeball.

Its sharp tip had even severed one of her long eyelashes.

That broken eyelash drifted slowly down and landed on the blood-soaked back of Ye Liuyun's hand.

Drip.

Drip.

Blood ran down the black spike and fell onto Ning Rongrong's white skirt, blooming into enchanting red plum blossoms.

Time seemed to freeze in that instant.

Ye Liuyun maintained that blocking posture, his entire right arm trembling violently from the excessive strain.

His right palm had been completely pierced through, exposing stark white bone in a horrifying sight.

The pain made his brows knit tightly, and with his Soul Power depleted, he could only gasp heavily.