Time flew like an arrow, the sun and moon passing like a shuttle through a loom. After an unknowable span of time, the sounds in the mountain clearing gradually weakened until they vanished entirely, leaving only the faintest threads of panting trembling in the air.
Around the enormous, stain-covered wooden bed in the clearing, several pungent odors mingled into a peculiar scent that hung in the air.
Xingxiu lay limp on the wooden bed, hot breaths spilling from her lips with each weak gasp. The strange sensations coursing through her body had left her mind utterly blank.
Xingxiu stared at the sky with hollow, lifeless eyes. Her beautiful eyes were painfully dry, her tears long since exhausted, leaving only two faint tracks on her pale, slightly flushed cheeks. Had her state of mind taken visible form, it would have been a desolate wasteland, utterly dark and filled with despair.
A profound weakness spread from deep within Xingxiu's body, leaving her limp and powerless. Even the Dou Qi within her had become sluggish, stripped of its former edge.
Xingxiu knew where this weakness came from. It was precisely what she felt when the power of her Dou Di Bloodline was destroyed. The last time her bloodline had been crippled, she had felt exactly like this. She would never forget that sensation for as long as she lived, but she had never imagined that she would experience such unparalleled weakness a second time.
Xingxiu felt as though fate had played an enormous joke on her. Back when she had become a worthless cripple in her clan, every day had been filled with despair, as though she were trapped in an abyss at every moment.
Only after she activated the Earthen Jar left by her ancestor, restoring her bloodline and talent, had light