1705 Trapped

　　Time passed silently.

　　Chu Liuyue gripped a transparent zither score tightly in her hand.

　　The dazzling light above almost blinded her.

　　From when she started until now, she had barely stopped and kept reading them one by one.

　　The force in her body was also rapidly depleting during this process, but every time the force ran out, more power would surge out of the transparent page in her dantian and pour into her limbs and bones.

　　This was all the strength she had accumulated over the years!

　　With the support of this force, Chu Liuyue could last until now.

　　And when this power flowed through her body, it often surged like a river, constantly washing through her flesh, bones, and tendons. Subtly, her body became stronger with each tempering! In other words, her overall strength had actually been increasing.

　　However, this process was too painful and torturous. Every time her energy ran out, she felt like a dying fish struggling desperately.

　　After receiving the support of the new force, this pain would slowly ease. However, this wouldn’t last long because this force would still be quickly consumed.

　　Thereafter, a new cycle began again—time and time again.

　　Chu Liuyue couldn’t even remember how many times she had experienced such an extreme process, and it was all still going on with no intention of stopping.

　　Not to mention, the murderous zither music kept lingering in her ears!

　　This was extremely torturous for anyone. Those who weren’t firm enough might have been defeated long ago.

　　Chu Liuyue could only rely on her last bit of willpower to grit her teeth and persevere.

　　On the surface, she didn’t seem to be any different from before. She was still fine from top to bottom, and there were stars of blood at the corner of her mouth. But in reality, her body had already been turned upside down!

　　In her mind, she was also experiencing a terrifying storm!

　　The sound of the zither kept echoing in her ears. It was as if corpses could be seen everywhere, and blood energy was visible!

　　The blood in Chu Liuyue’s body seemed to boil! Her body began to tremble slightly, and the score fell from her hand.

　　Shing!

　　The zither suddenly stopped sounding!

　　Ah Jing looked at her and asked calmly, “Do you want to rest for a while?”

　　She has really reached her limit.

　　Chu Liuyue said slowly and firmly, “No… No need…”

　　Her voice was very faint, but there was determination in it. Then, she picked up the score that had fallen to the ground.

　　Although her hands were shaking, she gripped them so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

　　Ah Jing gently pressed his hand on the strings and smiled. “Actually, you don’t have to force yourself like this. It’s not a big deal to rest for a while. Besides, you’re already reading very quickly.”

　　She had made great progress and performed even better than he had expected.

　　“Or maybe I can help you adjust the flow of time? That way, you can relax a lot.”

　　Now that time was flowing too quickly, the pressure on her was multiplied. If she slowed down, her situation would be much better.

　　“…Thank you, Senior Ah Jing. You… you don’t have to worry about me…” Chu Liuyue shook her head again and rejected his suggestion. Now, she only hoped to fuse these music scores as quickly as possible and go out to meet Rong Xiu and the others to prevent them from worrying too much.

　　Although the process was torturous, she could still take it.

　　“How… stubborn…” Ah Jing stared at her for a while and smiled helplessly. Putting everything else aside, just this temperament alone was extremely rare. Such a person will do their best in everything. How could they not succeed?

　　His fingertips moved, and the sound of the zither rose again!

　　In an instant, the bloody scene appeared in Chu Liuyue’s mind again!

　　Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind: These images seem… not to be illusory!

　　…

　　In the dark and lonely space, Rong Xiu stood quietly. His eyes were closed, shading those mesmerizing eyes.

　　Then, the golden flame in his palm quickly spread toward his body! In a short while, he was completely enveloped by the flames!

　　That peerlessly noble face shone like jade against the brilliant fire.

　　A totem gradually appeared between his eyebrows—pure, noble, and unattainable!

　　At the same time, the figure in the huge mirror—which had no edge—in front of him was already enveloped by black flames!

　　Powerful, domineering, and awe-inspiring!

　　A totem gradually appeared between his eyebrows, but that totem was completely different from the totem between Rong Xiu’s eyebrows outside the mirror! However, the totem only flashed for a moment before it was enveloped by the surrounding black flames!

　　Then, Rong Xiu reached out to touch the mirror—

　　…

　　Nan Yiyi felt her body falling. She could hear nothing but the wind howling in her ears.

　　After an unknown period of time, she finally fell to the ground!

　　Thump!

　　A low sound was heard.

　　The ground was hard, and she almost fractured her bones when she fell.

　　“Si—” She gasped in pain.

　　But before she could finish drawing her breath, a crimson corner of her shirt caught her eye.

　　She was suddenly shocked and looked up quickly.

　　Not far in front of her, a section of white bone was lying quietly on the ground. It was slender and smooth, stained with black and red blood. It looked like a human forearm bone, but the real reason for Nan Yiyi’s shock wasn’t this, but—

　　On the white bone stood a translucent figure—it was a man who looked to be in his 40s! He was thin and had an ordinary face. It was the kind of existence that wouldn’t be remembered after a glance.

　　But when his gaze swept over, Nan Yiyi suddenly felt a chill run down her spine! An indescribable cold fear abruptly rose from the bottom of her heart!

　　With just one look, she was certain that this man was definitely not to be trifled with!

　　“You—you’re the person who just spoke to me!?” Nan Yiyi said nervously.

　　The middle-aged man didn’t answer the meaningless question. He only looked her up and down before saying indifferently, “Name.”

　　Nan Yiyi was stunned for a moment before she realized that he was asking her name. Seeing that the other party had no intention of attacking her, she replied hesitantly, “Nan… Nan Yiyi…”

　　“The Nan family?” The man looked enlightened. “No wonder you have such a treasure on you.”

　　Upon hearing that the other party knew her background, Nan Yiyi immediately heaved a sigh of relief. In that case, he probably has some scruples and won’t attack casually, right?

　　“Don’t worry. Since I promised to take you out, I won’t go back on my word.”