Lin Xia looked at their miserable state and raised his voice at just the right moment, calling out with genuine concern:
"Senior Brother Xie Yue! Senior Sister Hu Liena! Senior Brother Yan! Stop! Don't run anymore! The elder has lifted your punishment! If you keep going, you'll wreck your bodies! Come over and have something to eat and drink!"
His voice rang clearly in all three of their ears.
Like cold water dripping into a sizzling pan, their exhausted bodies jolted in unison, and their feet instinctively faltered!
The food and water laid out on the platform gleamed temptingly. Through their blurred vision, they looked like a spring and a feast suddenly appearing in the desert!
Hu Liena turned her head slightly. A faint glimmer of disbelief lit her unfocused pink eyes as she looked toward Lin Xia. Her lips parted a little, as if she wanted to say something.
Xie Yue bit down hard on his tongue. The sharp pain cleared his head for a moment. With great effort, he raised his head, his keen gaze piercing through the sweat as he stared at Lin Xia, then glanced over the supplies.
His expression was impossibly complicated—with the humiliation of being pitied, the stir of hope at the brink of despair, but deepest of all, the pride of the Golden Generation's leader, which would not tolerate being trampled!
The Pope's order hadn't changed, and no elder had come to announce it in person. How could he believe the word of a junior brother who had only just joined the Core Circle and had, to some extent, caused them to be punished?
Wouldn't that make them seem even more useless and pitiful?
"Hmph!"
A muffled groan, choked with pain and shame, forced its way out of Yan's throat. His bloodshot eyes