Zhou Xuan's voice was hoarse, weighed down by the exhaustion of someone who had just crawled back from the brink of death, yet his tone was remarkably calm.
His grip hurt Lin Qingzhu, but she had no attention to spare for that. Her eyes were red, great tears rolling down her cheeks as she clung tightly to his arm in turn, terrified that he might disappear again.
"You finally woke up!" Lin Qingzhu's voice trembled, thick with lingering fear and hurt.
Zhou Xuan released her and pushed himself upright on the stone bed. His body felt lighter than ever, and the violent sense of conflict within him had vanished completely.
He lowered his head to look at his Right Arm.
The mangled wound that had once exposed bone had healed completely, without even leaving a scar. He raised his left hand and tore away the bandages soaked in black blood from his Right Arm.
The bandages broke apart and fell to the floor with a faint rustle.
A seamless black-and-gold mark stood clearly branded on his forearm.
The mark was no longer in its previous state of violent mutual rejection. Instead, its elements intertwined perfectly, exuding a strange, indescribable quality.
Half was the vast grandeur of Immortal Court Law; half was the absolute destruction of Nothingness.
Zhou Xuan flexed his wrist, and his bones gave a crisp series of cracks.
"How long was I unconscious?" Zhou Xuan looked up at Lin Qingzhu and asked casually.
"An hour." Lin Qingzhu hurriedly wiped away her tears and rattled off everything that had happened, like beans spilling from a sack.
She told him how his mutated Right Arm had devoured the spirit medicines, how Old Ancestor Xuanming had proposed cutting off his hand, and how Emperor Jiang Wu had examined his Sea of