Xia Lun's Other Side

A cold wind blew out of the darkness. Xia Lun stood in it, the chill prickling his skin like needles, as though it meant to seep through his pores and into his bones.

The Blood Wax candles burned dimly. Refugees stood in their wavering shadows, their expressions hard to read, but Xia Lun could clearly feel their indifference.

Their eyes seemed dead. Numb gazes shot from the surrounding shadows toward the girl convulsing like an animal in the road, and toward Renee, who was stroking her forehead.

There was no pity in those gazes, no curiosity, and no sorrow. Only numbness, wariness, and the faint despair and detachment of people who had accepted a miserable fate.

Crimson candlelight flickered, stretching dim shadows across the ground. Darkness swallowed people's expressions like a rising tide, while the bloodlike glow illuminated Renee and the girl, who looked almost like a ritual sacrifice.

The wavering candles, shifting shadows, spattered bloody foam, convulsing girl, watching crowd, and Renee bent over her seemed to form a classical oil painting, stark in light and shadow and somber in color.

Renee's sudden action stirred something in Xia Lun.

Without hesitation, he activated Heightened Focus.

The wavering candlelight seemed to freeze. The cold wind fell still, and people's expressions stopped changing.

Xia Lun rapidly began to think.

Renee clearly intended to heal the girl, but doing so would increase the risk of exposing her identity.

That risk was not great, though. Guiweite and the Cultists had both performed similar healing magic, proving that Renee was not the only one in this world with such an ability. It might even be common.

Besides, even if Renee's identity was exposed, the worst outcome would be a fight with the Cultists.

The Cultists had lost many people at Dusk Snow Prison. If