Crown Prince of the Empire, I quit!

Chapter 1217: Cessing Territory and Seeking Help

The faint ember of dark gold deep within his spine burned ever so faintly in the candlelight, as steady as a flickering candle in the wind. The swirling dark gold vortex on his chest glowed inward and deep, like lava flowing at the bottom of the abyss, emitting a cold, violent, yet strangely balanced aura of destruction. Life was as weak as a thread, yet it stubbornly clung on.

Sun Miao's withered figure was like a ghost, busy under the candlelight.

His forehead was covered in fine beads of cold sweat, his cloudy old eyes fixed on the steadily swirling dark gold vortex on Liu Yueli's chest. His claw-like fingers twisted the golden needles that pierced the area surrounding the brand on her shoulder, each movement cautious, like walking a tightrope over a bottomless abyss. An extremely faint wave, yet carrying a mixture of piercing cold and scorching sulfur, slowly flowed into Liu Yueli's body as the needles twisted, guiding the violent power of the sacred tree to slowly flow through the fragile balance.

"Your Majesty..." Sun Miao's voice was dry and hoarse, filled with the exhaustion of surviving a disaster and a hint of incredible awe. "The power of the sacred tree in Lord Liu's body... has been temporarily... stabilized. General Chang... used his life as a guide and the plague as fuel to forcibly... balance the rampaging destructive force. However... this balance is like dancing on the edge of a knife. Even the slightest error..."

"How long can you hold out?" Qin Ming's icy voice interrupted him. He sat upright on the Panlong Chair, his dark uniform resembling solidified black jade in the candlelight. His visor had long since been removed, and his handsome face, as beautiful as a sculpture of ice or stone, was expressionless. Only his bottomless eyes, like two abysses swallowing all light, reflected the candlelight and the two bodies on the stretcher—one completely frozen, the other struggling on the brink of life and death.

The muscles on Sun Miao's withered face twitched. His cloudy old eyes swept across Chang Baishan's charred skeleton, then looked at the inward dark golden vortex on Liu Yueli's chest. His voice trembled with despair: "If there is no external interference, we may... perhaps we can survive tonight. But... but the power of the sacred tree has backfired deeply, and the plague has taken root in the bone marrow... This is... drinking poison to quench thirst! Master Liu... she... she will eventually..."

"Enough." Qin Ming's icy voice was like a thud of iron, leaving no room for doubt. His deep eyes slowly shifted, sweeping across the dark red flames of the death barrier outside the tent, across the distant highlands where the envoys from the three kingdoms had retreated, and finally, resting on Liu Yueli's face, pale as paper, a thin layer of frost covering it in the dim light.

"Hold her." Qin Ming's voice was firm. "No matter the cost. I... want her alive."

"Yes..." Sun Miao lowered his withered head deeply, and his voice was weak and heavy.

The tent fell into dead silence again. The only sounds were the crackling of the candlelight, the faint scraping of Liu Yueli's throat, and the sizzling sound of the flames devouring the corpse outside the tent.

at this time!

"Uh……"

A faint, snapping moan, like a gossamer thread, emanated from Liu Yueli's charred lips! Her eyelids trembled violently! As if using up her last bit of strength, she struggled to open her eyes a crack!

Turbid! Dense! The depths of the pupils were filled with bloodshot and a gray, dead aura! But... they were indeed... open!

Her eyes were unfocused, as if covered by a thick layer of gray. She swept across the swaying light and shadow on the tent ceiling, and across Sun Miao's withered and astonished face, and finally... extremely slowly, like a rusty mechanism... turned in the direction of Qin Ming!

The moment those distracted eyes met Qin Ming's eyes that were bottomless and as cold as the abyss!

The pupils...suddenly shrank!

An indescribable mixture of extreme pain, icy silence, and a faint, almost imperceptible light of conscious will lingering deep in volcanic rock... flickered extremely briefly and violently in the depths of her gray eyes!

Like a dying beast, at the end of the abyss, it opened its eyes for the last time!

"Your Majesty..." Her cracked lips opened and closed silently, and two syllables, so broken that they were almost unrecognizable, squeezed out of her throat! Each syllable was accompanied by the excruciating pain of torn vocal cords! Her body spasmed violently! The dark golden vortex on her chest trembled violently! The dark red gelatinous substance oozing from the edge instantly increased!

"Master Liu! Don't move!" Sun Miao was horrified! His claw-like fingers twisted the golden needle violently! He forcibly suppressed the fluctuations of that moment!

Liu Yueli's body slammed back onto the stretcher! The faint glimmer of consciousness vanished like a candle flame blown out by a strong wind! Her eyelids slid shut weakly! The grinding sound in her throat grew fainter! Only the faint rise and fall of her chest proved that the remaining vitality had not yet been completely extinguished.

But the moment her eyelids closed!

Qin Ming's gaze froze beneath his veil! Deep within his piercing eyes, the frozen pond stirred up a surging wave! He saw it clearly! In the depths of those gray eyes, a flicker of clarity flashed in that instant! What was reflected... wasn't him! Not Sun Miao! Not any scene within the tent!

Rather... a roiling, gray-green poisonous miasma, as thick as corpse fluid! Deep within the miasma, a towering wooden platform! On it, a figure dressed in a dark green dragon robe stood with his hands behind his back! A pair of narrow, serpent-like, cold eyes pierced through the endless void and the miasma... and locked onto her with a fierce gaze!

Hua Yunhong!

He was watching her! At the most vulnerable moment, when the power of the sacred tree within her body was being forcibly balanced and she held onto a sliver of life! His gaze... was like a maggot on her tarsal bone! Like a curse that claimed her life! It penetrated space! It locked onto her!

A chilling chill, like a venomous snake coiling around the neck, instantly gripped Qin Ming's soul! He suddenly looked up! The gaze beneath his mask was like a tangible blade, piercing through the thick curtains and fiercely stabbing southeast—deep within the Black Wind Mouth Canyon!

There! Poisonous smoke billows! Like a giant beast crawling!

Hua Yunhong...was watching indeed!

"Ying Qi!" Qin Ming's cold voice was like cold iron falling to the ground!

"Here!" Ying Qi appeared in the shadows inside the tent like a ghost.

"Towards the canyon... all beacons! Keep them on for twelve hours! Keep an eye on that poisonous smoke!" Qin Ming's voice was filled with soul-freezing murderous intent. "Not even a bird... is allowed to fly out!"

"Here!" Ying Qi's figure flashed and disappeared without a trace.

Qin Ming slowly stood up, his dark uniform fluttering in the candlelight. His deep eyes swept over Liu Yueli's pale, lifeless face on the stretcher, then Chang Baishan's cold, broken body, before finally darting to the battlefield outside the tent, ablaze with dark red flames, resembling the entrance to hell.

The ruins of the Bone Burial Cliff looked like the skeleton of a giant beast under the dim moonlight. The rugged rocks were twisted into hideous animal shapes, whimpering in the night wind.

The charred remains of the rotten heart willow mother tree emanated a pungent stench of sulfur and corpses. Solidified dark gold slurry, like dried poisonous blood, clotted onto the piles of bones. Deep in the canyon, the perpetual gray-white poisonous miasma surged and roiled like a living thing, shrouding this land of death in a suffocating silence.