Everyone was sprinting, fleeing for their lives.
Li Su was no exception.
However, unlike the others, his eyes trembled slightly. Although they had agreed beforehand that Heavenly Lotus would create the illusion of leaving on its own before coming to find him, it was clear that he had felt no trace of its fluctuations at all.
Just as Li Su hesitated over whether to wait a little longer—after all, he was not far from the fractured exit—
"I kept you waiting!"
At that moment, Heavenly Lotus's voice rang directly within Li Su's heart. It sounded utterly exhausted. The next instant, a scorching heat flared across his back, and an image actually grew there.
It was none other than the vanished Heavenly Lotus. It had transformed into a picture, etched across Li Su's back like a tattoo.
"Senior, are you all right?" Li Su drew a breath. He did not resist; this had been part of their agreement. Heavenly Lotus would rely on him to enter slumber, hiding within his flesh and blood.
Naturally, this was mutually beneficial.
Li Su would aid its recovery through cultivation, while it would repay him with its true body.
Though he had anticipated from the start that Heavenly Lotus would suffer grievous damage from severing itself, its current state was no longer merely grievous—the sense of opportunity was nearly impossible to detect.
Even the Heavenly Lotus image on his back, tattoo-like in appearance, had once been incomparably mystical. Now it was nearly dimmed. Not only had it lost all luster, but most of the patterns along its roots and stem had torn apart. The cracks in the main stalk in particular were enormous, spanning nearly half its length.
"As expected. I thought it would be worse."
Heavenly Lotus was not surprised by this. It even