pjbooks Chapter 1015 You Knew Sooner Than Ever
Chapter 1015 You Knew Sooner Than Ever
Lin Qiye squatted down beside the simple bed, looking directly into those cloudy eyes.
This person's physical condition was extremely poor. His internal organs were failing to varying degrees, his meridians were extensively atrophied and broken, and his dantian was completely shattered, as if it had been blown open from the inside and then forcibly glued back together by external force. The remaining source energy in his body was extremely thin, so thin that it was almost impossible to maintain normal vital signs.
Strangely, even in this near-extinct state, his consciousness remained clear. It wasn't a fleeting moment of lucidity before death, but a continuous and stable state of awareness, as if something was supporting his will, preventing him from truly dying even as his body teetered on the brink of collapse.
"You are..." Lin Qiye began, his voice unusually deep in the narrow cave, "...the one who built this bone tower?"
The man—or rather, "he"—blinked his eyelids extremely slowly, as if confirming Lin Qiye's question. Then his lips moved again, this time emitting an extremely faint sound, hoarse like sandpaper rubbing: "No...it's...the Guardian..."
The watchman.
This word made Lin Qiye's pupils shrink slightly.
"What are you guarding?"
The man's lips twitched with extreme difficulty, as if trying to force a smile, but his withered face couldn't produce such a complex expression. In the end, his lips only twitched slightly: "Guardian...that drop of blood...awaits...the successor..."
Lin Qiye remained silent for a moment.
"The owner of that drop of blood, the Candle, has vanished. His remaining will and his inherited crystal have been completely annihilated. Now, the inheritor of that drop of blood—is me."
After hearing this, the man remained silent for a long time. His cloudy eyes showed no obvious emotional fluctuation—no surprise, no disappointment, no relief, only an extremely calm acceptance, as if he had long anticipated this outcome. His gaze slowly shifted to the cave ceiling covered with a thin membrane of bone, looking at the few crystal clusters that had dimmed to the point of being almost invisible. His voice was broken and intermittent: "Lord Candle...he...already...knew...this day would come..."
Lin Qiye remained silent and listened quietly.
"Before he was dragged into the void rift... he... saw... countless... futures... one of which... was that someone... would inherit... his bloodline... and come... here..."
The man's voice grew weaker and weaker, but his speech quickened slightly, as if he were using his last strength to say everything he had held back for most of his life: "He... told me... to wait here... for that person... to appear... and then... give him this..."
With his only remaining mobile right hand—the arm covered in fluorescent blue crystalline scales—he raised it extremely slowly, his fingers trembling as he pointed to the hay mat beneath him. His movements were incredibly labored; he gasped for breath with every inch he moved, his withered chest heaving like a bellows.
Lin Qiye reached out and touched the straw mat that the man was pointing to.
His movements were unhurried and his arm extended naturally and smoothly. His fingertips probed the slightly raised area at the edge of the grass mat—there was indeed something hidden there. He could sense an extremely weak fluctuation of source energy emanating from under the grass mat, like a core fragment sealed and wrapped in layers.
Just as his fingertips were about to touch the surface of the grass mat.
A sudden change occurred.
The "Watcher," lying on the bed with a breath so weak it seemed as if it might be extinguished at any moment, suddenly awoke like an ancient beast that had lain dormant for countless years in a fraction of a breath. Two dazzling, fluorescent blue lights burst forth from his cloudy, unfocused eyes. The light was no longer the cold light reflected from the crystal cluster, but a pure, condensed pulse of primal energy, imbued with intense killing intent.
His right arm, covered in fluorescent blue crystalline scales, transformed in the same instant from a withered, limp state into a horizontally slashing bone blade. The crystalline scales on the arm's surface exploded layer by layer, revealing the completely crystalline forearm bone beneath—the bone was no longer the white bone of humans, but a translucent, deep blue substance somewhere between jade and metal, its edges as sharp as a blade honed countless times.
The direction of the horizontal slash by the bone blade was not Lin Qiye's outstretched hand.
It was his throat.
This attack was incredibly fast, even faster than the full-force strike from the replica's burning core in the altar hall. In the confined cave space, there was no room to dodge, no point to parry; anyone facing such a sudden attack at this distance would only meet a fatal blow to the throat.
But just as the fluorescent blue bone blade was about to touch his throat, Lin Qiye's lips curled up slightly.
It wasn't a stiff expression of being frightened, nor a bitter smile of despair.
It's more of a "just as I expected" smile, a smile that says everything is under control.
His right hand—the one reaching out towards the grass mat, seemingly defenseless—suddenly flipped at the same instant the bone blade slashed out. His five fingers clenched abruptly from their extended position, a burst of dark golden light erupting from his fist, as he slammed it into the side of the fluorescent blue bone blade.
It wasn't a block, it wasn't a parry, it was a direct strike to the weakest part of the bone blade from the side.
clang--!!
A piercing clang of metal clashing against metal exploded in the narrow cave, causing the dried crystal clusters on the cave walls to fall in a shower, turning into grayish-white powder scattered all over the ground. The fluorescent blue bone blade was violently deflected by the punch, its trajectory gliding past Lin Qiye's neck and slicing into the cave wall behind him, leaving a deep gash several inches deep in the bone wall.
The person lying on the grass mat sprang up as if springy the moment the bone blade struck them. His twisted, deformed legs emitted a sickening cracking sound as they bounced – not healing, not recovery, but rather, the broken, crooked bones being forcibly straightened by some force. Puffs of blood mist erupted from the fractured areas, but he paid no heed. He pushed off the cave wall with his feet, shooting towards the cave entrance like an arrow.
He wanted to escape.
Lin Qiye's fist did not pause after deflecting the bone blade. He took a step to the side, his body becoming a moving mountain wall between the cave entrance and the man. He extended his left hand, his five fingers spread, and dark golden Origin Qi surged from his palm, transforming into a solid light curtain that sealed the cave entrance tightly.
The man's body slammed into the light barrier with a dull thud, and he was thrown back, landing heavily on the hay mat in the center of the cave. He rolled over, half-kneeling on the ground, his right hand supporting him. He raised his head, his fluorescent blue eyes fixed on Lin Qiye. The killing intent in his eyes had mostly disappeared, replaced by a more complex emotion—surprise, disbelief, and a hint of embarrassment at being seen through.
"You..." His voice was no longer hoarse and weak, but instead carried a metallic coldness, "You knew all along."