The air inside the broken wooden shack seemed to be sucked dry in an instant.
The smile on Qiao Yu’s face froze in place.
Her pupils suddenly contracted as she stared at the deep black light in Rong Chen’s palm.
Even without a superpower, she could clearly sense the terrifying energy contained within that black light.
It was an aura of destruction capable of annihilating all matter!
As long as this man gently raised his hand, she would completely vanish from this world.
Inside her mind, the system’s Level Ten red alert was screaming frantically, nearly piercing her eardrums.
Run? There was no way she could escape.
In front of this obsessive Devil King who killed without batting an eye, turning around would only make her die faster.
Her heart pounded wildly against her ribs like a war drum.
Yet under the extreme pressure of life and death, Qiao Yu’s mind became frighteningly calm instead.
She forcibly suppressed the trembling in her legs.
Not only did she refuse to take even half a step back, she actually strode straight toward that deadly black light!
The smile on her face instantly widened several times, while her eyes remained so clear that they contained not the slightest trace of impurity.
“Oh, hubby, you’re awake!”
Qiao Yu’s voice was sweet and coquettish, carrying thirty percent surprise and seventy percent admiration.
She looked like a completely innocent, naive wife who was utterly oblivious to the energy representing death before her.
“I knew you couldn’t bear to leave me all alone.”
As she spoke, she unhesitatingly held out the steaming, battered iron pot in her hands.
She directly and precisely shoved it toward Rong Chen’s raised right hand!
Rong Chen had never expected this woman to dare charge straight into his superpower.
He was accustomed to seeing fear, despair, and people begging for mercy on their knees whenever they saw him.
Never had anyone dared to approach him with such a carefree smile while he was condensing a killing move.
Was this woman genuinely stupid, or was she pretending she could not see?
Because they were so close, he did not even have time to dodge.
The scorching edge of the battered iron pot landed firmly against his palm.
“Hiss!”
Without his superpower protecting him, his body was currently as weak as an ordinary person’s.
The scorching heat instantly burned his skin.
Driven by the instinctive human response to avoid danger, Rong Chen’s hand violently jerked, and he instinctively pulled it back.
The highly concentrated mental energy was violently disrupted by the unexpected interruption, instantly becoming unstable.
With a soft pop, the Black Hole Superpower that had yet to fully take shape was like a flame extinguished by a basin of cold water.
It twisted in the air for a moment before disappearing without a trace.
His killing move had been forcibly cut off.
The backlash from his superpower sent his blood and energy surging chaotically, making Rong Chen’s expression even darker than before.
The killing intent in his eyes was almost tangible as he stared fixedly at the woman before him.
Qiao Yu, however, acted as though nothing had happened and casually placed the battered iron pot on the dry grass beside him.
“Hubby, that black thing in your hand just now, were you doing a magic trick to make me happy?”
She blinked her large eyes, her tone filled with innocence and playful reproach.
“You’re already hurt like this, yet you’re still being naughty.”
As she spoke, she even worriedly took Rong Chen’s burned-red hand into hers.
Leaning closer, she pursed her lips and gently blew on it twice.
“It got burned, didn’t it? I told you not to move around so much.”
Rong Chen’s entire body stiffened.
The woman’s warm breath brushed against his palm, bringing with it a strange, unfamiliar ticklish sensation.
He abruptly pulled his hand back, his eyes guarded like those of a lone wolf.
Lowering his gaze, he finally saw what had burned him just now.
A battered iron pot with a chipped rim and rust covering its surface.
Inside was a tangled mass of yellow noodles, topped with a few pitiful pieces of dehydrated vegetables.
Most unbearable of all, the contents of the pot emitted an intensely pungent, sour and spicy aroma.
Rong Chen’s brows drew tightly together, and undisguised disgust flashed through his eyes.
As the youngest and most powerful high-ranking official the Empire had ever seen, he had once lived a life of absolute luxury and extreme cleanliness.
His daily meals had all been carefully prepared by the finest nutritionists and star-rated chefs.
His ingredients had to consist of the highest-grade mutant beast meat and uncontaminated organic vegetables.
This cheap, crudely manufactured junk food filled with artificial industrial flavoring was something he would not even have glanced at in the past. He would have simply ordered someone to throw it away.
Not to mention that the container holding the food was actually a battered iron pot salvaged from a garbage pile!
This woman actually wanted him to eat something fit for pigs?
Rong Chen stared coldly at Qiao Yu, his voice hoarse and filled with suspicion.
“What is this? Did you poison it?”
The moment Qiao Yu heard that, her eyes immediately reddened, and tears began to well up.
“Hubby, you actually suspect me?”
“I’m your wife who has shared hardships with you! I nearly got bitten to death by those monsters outside just now while trying to find something for you to eat!”
She sniffled, tears of grievance falling from her eyes.
“If you don’t want to eat it, then forget it. At worst, we can starve to death here together and become a pair of lovers who share the same fate.”
As she spoke, she reached out to pick up the battered pot.
“Don’t move.”
Rong Chen coldly stopped her.
His stomach cramped violently, as though a fire were burning inside it.
Every cell in his body was frantically crying out with an extreme thirst for energy.
He knew very well that in his current state of complete exhaustion, if he did not eat and replenish his strength soon, his organs would completely fail and he would die within half an hour.
Even if this was a pot of pig feed, he had to swallow it if he wanted to survive!
Rong Chen took a deep breath, forcing down the nausea rising within him.
He took the crude wooden chopsticks carved from a tree branch from Qiao Yu’s hand.
Picking up a small bundle of noodles, he put them into his mouth with the determination of someone prepared to die.
He had already prepared himself for his taste buds to be ravaged by those inferior industrial seasonings.
However…
The instant the noodles touched the tip of his tongue, Rong Chen’s pupils suddenly contracted!
There was none of the nauseatingly cheap flavor he had expected, nor was there any rancid, spoiled sourness.
The noodles were chewy and smooth, carrying the distinctive, soul-stirring tang of Laotan Pickled Cabbage Beef Noodles along with their rich, savory flavor.
His numb taste buds were instantly stimulated, and his saliva production accelerated wildly.
Even more unbelievable was what happened next.
As the noodle broth slid down his throat and into his shrunken stomach, an extremely gentle and pure life energy actually flowed rapidly through his blood and spread into every part of his body.
The energy was incredibly weak, yet so pure that it contained not the slightest impurity.
His mental sea, which had been on the verge of collapse after forcibly overextending his superpower and was suffering an unbearable, tearing pain, was unexpectedly soothed by this energy like parched earth receiving long-awaited rain.
Even his splitting headache had genuinely begun to ease!
How was this possible?
What kind of noodles were these? How could this water contain such pure energy?
Rong Chen suddenly raised his head, a shock impossible to conceal in his eyes as he stared deeply at Qiao Yu.
Qiao Yu felt a chill run down her spine under his gaze.
She thought the young master disliked instant noodles and was about to lose his temper.
She quickly forced a flattering fake smile onto her face.
“How is it, hubby? Are they delicious?”
Rong Chen did not answer.
He lowered his head, and the movements of his hands suddenly accelerated.
He began devouring the food!
Although he ate the noodles extremely quickly, the nobility and elegance ingrained in his bones had not completely disappeared.
There was no crude slurping or smacking, only highly efficient movements as he ate.
The continuous sound of “slurp, slurp” echoed through the silent, broken wooden shack.
Qiao Yu crouched beside him, propping her chin up with both hands.
The firelight illuminated her mud-covered face.
Her gaze was so gentle that it seemed capable of dripping with tenderness, as though she were looking at the most precious treasure in the entire world.
“Hubby, slow down, you’ll choke.”
“I poured all my love into making these noodles for you. If they’re not enough, there’s still broth left in the pot.”
Her voice was as gentle as though she were soothing a little baby.
However, at this very moment, Qiao Yu was mentally rolling her eyes and cursing furiously.
“Eat, eat, eat! I hope you stuff yourself to death, you damn obsessive freak!”
“I worked myself half to death gathering firewood and cooking noodles for you, and I haven’t even had a sip of water myself. I’m practically starving!”
“And you, you’re hogging all the food by yourself and eating it more enthusiastically than a pig!”
“What kind of world-destroying Devil King are you? Aren’t you completely tamed by two packets of Laotan Pickled Cabbage Beef Noodles?”
“With table manners like that, what a waste of that devastatingly handsome face!”
Qiao Yu cursed him thoroughly in her heart.
On the surface, however, she continued to maintain her deeply affectionate smile as a “virtuous wife.” She even thoughtfully found a piece of old cloth and placed it around the edge of the scorching iron pot, worried that he might burn his hand.
The system coldly displayed another notification in her mind.
【Ding! The Villain’s vital signs have escaped the absolute danger threshold and are slowly recovering.】
【The linked erasure crisis has been resolved.】
【Target’s current corruption value: 99.5%. Decreased by 0.4%.】
Qiao Yu sneered inwardly.
It only dropped by that much? Had this Devil King’s conscience been eaten by a dog? I saved your life!
In less than five minutes, the two packets of instant noodles had been completely devoured by Rong Chen.
In the end, he even lifted the chipped iron pot and raised his head, drinking every last drop of the rich, tangy broth infused with the spiritual spring water from the space.
A warm bead of sweat slid down his forehead, which had been as pale as paper.
He let out a long breath.
His previously bluish-gray, cracked lips had finally regained a trace of normal color.
After eating his fill, Rong Chen casually tossed the battered iron pot onto the pile of dry grass beside him.
It landed with a dull clang.
The nourishment from the spiritual spring water and food had restored a considerable amount of his bodily functions.
Although he still could not use his superpower freely, at least he was no longer in a state where he could stop breathing at any moment.
He leaned against the broken wooden wall and slightly turned his head.
Those deep, unfathomable eyes once again regained their dangerous, inscrutable expression, carrying a faintly amused look.
He ignored Qiao Yu’s seemingly gentle gaze.
Instead, he slowly pulled a relatively clean white silk handkerchief from the pocket of his damaged black windbreaker.
Holding the handkerchief between his slender fingers, he elegantly wiped the traces of noodle broth from the corners of his mouth.
His movements were so refined that it was almost impossible to believe that the person who had just been drinking soup straight from a battered iron pot was him.
Then, he suddenly leaned forward.
His tall, upright body carried a faint scent of blood along with an invisible, deadly pressure.
In an instant, he closed the distance between himself and Qiao Yu, who was crouching on the ground.
The distance between them shrank to less than ten centimeters.
Qiao Yu could even feel his warm breath gently brushing against her cheek.
She instinctively held her breath, her pupils widening slightly.
Seeing how nervous she was, a trace of malicious amusement flashed through Rong Chen’s eyes.
His crimson, thin lips slowly curled into a wicked smile.
His voice was deep and hoarse, carrying a teasing note that was almost lethal.
“Wife, since our relationship is so deep…”
He deliberately paused, his gaze boldly roaming over her from head to toe.
“Then, how did we sleep the night before?”