Ye Chen gently cradled Little Python, his expression grave as he murmured under his breath:
"I can still hold on."
"I can still think."
"I can still fight."
"If that's the case, then it's not time to give up yet."
"Right now, I have to stay calm, and then keep going—"
Yet before Ye Chen could finish this attempt at encouraging himself, a pair of childish voices suddenly called out from behind him.
"Big Brother!"
"Big Brother Ye Chen!"
Ye Chen's expression changed. He turned toward the voices and discovered that the ones calling to him were the Daige Siblings, whom he had accidentally injured earlier.
At that moment, the two children stood atop the rubble, staring at Ye Chen from afar. Their filthy little faces were filled with incredulous shock.
Clearly, the siblings had never imagined that the terrifying demon from before would transform in the blink of an eye into the Ye Chen they had been searching for all this time.
Faced with the children's shocked gazes, seeing their battered bodies and the old man lying beside them on the verge of death, Ye Chen once again vividly saw his own earlier violence replay before his eyes, and his heart immediately filled with unbearable anguish.
He knew that blaming himself was useless.
He also knew that any interaction with the Daig Family now held no meaning.
Even so, he could not simply stand by and ignore them.
After all, it was Ye Chen's own hands that had caused the tragedy before him this time.
Not to mention that he could not even remember when he had last spoken with the Daig Family.
For that very reason, even though he knew full well that none of this meant anything, Ye Chen could not remain unmoved.
At the very least,