Su Bai's intervention silently accomplished all of this without stirring any phenomenon between heaven and earth. Even the Earth Immortals in the little immortal city at the foot of the mountain noticed nothing.
The body amid the rubble suddenly trembled, and an extremely hoarse sound came from his throat.
With difficulty, exceedingly slowly... he raised his head.
A face smeared with filthy blood and mud was exposed beneath the faint mountain light, pale as paper, telling of the misery he had suffered before.
Within his eyes were pain, confusion, bone-deep hatred, and the immense shock of being forcibly dragged back from the brink of death...
All manner of extreme emotions surged and collided wildly within them.
Those eyes stared fixedly, carrying a trace of disbelief and extreme vigilance, at the white-robed figure standing beside the stone stele.
That person looked utterly unremarkable, utterly ordinary.
Was he... the one who saved me?
Why?
What did he want?
What value did this sack of broken bones of mine still have for anyone to exploit?
The Ascender's mind was a mass of Chaos. Only those burning eyes remained, fixed stubbornly upon Su Bai.
Su Bai looked at him, his gaze as calm as ever, and spoke faintly.
"Can you still move?"
The Ascender's throat worked. He wanted to speak, but only hoarse, rasping breaths escaped him.
He tried to move his fingers, and piercing agony immediately shot through him. Every part of his body felt as though it had fallen apart.
Yet he gritted his teeth fiercely. Blood seeped from his gums, while the flame of unwillingness in his eyes burned even brighter.
He exhausted every last shred of strength in his body and suddenly pressed his forehead against a sharp stone on the ground. Ignoring the pain, he used that tiny point