Even though Xiya had checked every living person and every corpse at the scene over and over, she had found no trace of Ye Chen whatsoever, nor heard a single word of news about him.
The Bloodsmith Hunter was not here.
He had never returned at all.
Thus, Xiya stood dumbly amid the bustling crowd, having found nothing, her face blank with bewilderment.
"Why... isn't Ye Chen here?"
"Oko clearly made it back safely."
"But why... didn't he come back with her?"
The moment this question surfaced in Xiya's mind, a cruel answer immediately came in reply.
Every hunter brought back by the Holy Light was either a survivor still clinging to life or a dead person with an intact corpse.
Plainly, only those hunters whose bodies had been obliterated were absent from these ranks.
At this thought, Xiya's expression froze, her limbs went weak, and she collapsed onto the ground with a thud.
"This..."
"This kind of thing... can't have happened..."
"Ye Chen is so powerful, so calm."
"Whether in the past or now, no matter how perilous the situation, he has always been able to work miracles and overcome it..."
"How could he possibly have ended up like that now...?"
"There must be some mistake... There must be something I overlooked..."
Xiya's brows drew tightly together, her teeth and lips trembling as she rubbed her brow hard. Faced with this unbearable reality, she felt dizzy and disoriented, her mind buzzing without end.
"Xiya?"
All of a sudden, a familiar voice reached the Healing Light Hunter's ears.
Xiya looked up and found two figures standing beside her. They were Amanluo and Li Weidun, two seniors who had once shared life-and-death bonds with both her and Ye Chen.
At the sudden appearance of these two familiar people, an indescribable emotion