It was unclear how much time had passed. When Yan Mingqiu hazily fluttered his eyes open, he found himself looking straight at the person he had been longing for day and night.
Hanzhou was cradling him in one arm while channeling a water-element ice technique with his free hand.
Chilling ripples continuously poured into Yan Mingqiu’s body, easing the blazing, scorching sensation tearing through his internal organs and allowing him to regain a shred of consciousness.
Parched and bone-dry, Yan Mingqiu parted his cracked lips and forced out a raspy, strained whisper: “Water…” His voice was entirely ragged.
Failing to catch the word clearly, Hanzhou lowered his gaze to look at him. “What?”
Through his half-opened eyes, Yan Mingqiu could only make out a pair of moist, slightly parted lips moving right before him, prompting him to lunge forward and kiss them directly.
Hanzhou’s entire body jerked violently, freezing dead in his tracks. ‘Mingqiu kissed me?! He kissed me?! That means he likes me back!’
He felt as though he were about to be knocked unconscious by this sudden, overwhelming wave of bliss. He had always assumed his feelings were unrequited, never dreaming that Mingqiu reciprocated his affection and couldn’t even wait to kiss him the moment they reunited.
Granted, the kiss was a bit too fierce it felt less like a gentle peck and more like devouring his lips. Still, given that the two of them had been separated for four years and were both young and hot-blooded, this level of intensity was entirely understandable.
An undercurrent of wild emotion surged through Hanzhou’s heart, though he didn’t let it distract him from his task, continuously channeling a steady stream of chilling energy into Yan Mingqiu.
Half an hour later, Yan Mingqiu finally snapped into full awareness. He found himself cocooned in an icy embrace, their faces pressed closely together, with Hanzhou’s cold lips lingering right against his collarbone.
Turning his head, Yan Mingqiu locked eyes directly with Hanzhou’s sharp, handsome face, causing his heart to leap into a frantic, hammering rhythm.
In that fleeting instant, the surrounding air seemed to freeze solid. With them standing at such close quarters, Yan Mingqiu could distinctly catch the subtle scent of dragon-saliva incense radiating from Hanzhou.
Hanzhou had grown taller, and his shoulders had broadened considerably. Lying like this in Hanzhou’s arms gave him an unexpectedly snug, protected feeling.
Raising a hand, Yan Mingqiu wanted to reach out and touch the face of the man he had yearned for constantly, just to confirm whether this was real or merely a dream.
Yet, right before his fingertips could graze Hanzhou’s cheek, Hanzhou snapped awake.
Blinking his eyes wide open, Hanzhou stared in sheer, ecstatic disbelief at the conscious Yan Mingqiu, shouting excitedly, “Mingqiu, you’re awake! You’re finally awake.”
Yan Mingqiu’s memories were still frozen at the agonizing moment Lin Yang poisoned him; he had zero recollection of anything that transpired afterward. It felt as though he had drifted through a fever dream where he spent eternity searching for water to drink.
Now, though the burning sensation inside his chest had subsided, he could no longer feel a single trace of spiritual energy circulating through his limbs, as every ounce of it had been completely incinerated by the Blazing Heart-Burning Poison.
“How did you find me?” Yan Mingqiu asked.
Propping himself up, Hanzhou pressed a hand against Yan Mingqiu’s forehead. “Your fever’s broken—you’ve finally broken your fever. The moment I heard you were participating in this Grand Tournament, I started searching everywhere for you. I traded with someone from the Spirit Talisman Sect for a tracking talisman, but the secret realm was so massive that it took me a full day to track you down. You terrified me out of my wits yesterday what on earth happened?”
Recalling the harrowing agony Yan Mingqiu had endured the previous day, Hanzhou felt the corners of his eyes grow hot and red.
With a bitter, self-deprecating smile, Yan Mingqiu shook his head. “N—nothing much. I just accidentally brushed against some demonic beast’s blood and got poisoned.”
“What should we do, then? Is the poison still uncleared? What if it flares up again? Where’s your identity talisman? Come on, let’s crush our talismans together right now and get pulled out of here so we can find Immortal Yunshang to cure you.” Panic lacing his voice, Hanzhou began frantically patting down Yan Mingqiu’s robes in search of the talisman.
In the past, he would never have dared to touch Yan Mingqiu so boldly, but moments ago he had firmly convinced himself that their feelings were mutual, erasing any lingering boundaries between them.
“I lost my identity talisman.”
“Lost it?” Hanzhou’s voice spiked with anxiety. “How could you lose it?”
Shaking his head faintly, Yan Mingqiu replied, “I probably dropped it during the fight with the demonic beast. I don’t remember clearly.”
A shadow crossed Hanzhou’s face as he forced himself to steady his nerves. “It’s fine, no use crying over lost items. There are only three days left in this secret realm; we just need to tough it out until the end. If the poison flares up again, I’ll channel chilling energy into you just like I did last night, and you’ll pull through. But my spiritual energy is currently exhausted do you have any Spirit-Restoring Pills on you?”
“I do.” Yan Mingqiu produced a medicinal vial and handed it over.
Shaking two pills into his palm, Hanzhou swallowed one and offered the remaining pill to Yan Mingqiu.
Waving a hand, Yan Mingqiu declined. “No need. I have a feeling the poison targets spiritual energy; perhaps without any spiritual energy inside me, it won’t trigger.”
As Lin Yang had stated, the Blazing Heart-Burning Poison caused spiritual energy to flare like wild fire; stripping away that energy entirely might effectively eliminate the poison’s activation vector, preventing future flare-ups.
“Alright,” Hanzhou agreed with a nod, his expression heavy with worry.
Even if they refrained from taking Spirit-Restoring Pills, spiritual energy naturally regenerated over time though unassisted recovery was a slow process.
Given Yan Mingqiu’s current baseline at the early Foundation Establishment stage, a full recovery of his spiritual energy would require roughly half a day.
Events unfolded precisely as Yan Mingqiu had anticipated: as his spiritual energy slowly began to reconstitute itself, the searing heat intensified proportionally. Gritting his teeth in grim silence, Yan Mingqiu fought to suppress external cries, yet the agonizing torment tearing through his internal organs grew exponentially worse, making each breath an exhausting struggle.
Hanzhou, whose eyes had remained fixed on him the entire time, instantly caught the shift. Without hesitation, he scooped Yan Mingqiu back into his arms and began channeling chilling energy once more.
Gently pushing against Hanzhou’s wrist, Yan Mingqiu whispered, “Stop… I can still endure this pain.”
A sob caught in Hanzhou’s throat. “Mingqiu, you don’t have to endure it. I’m right here; you’re going to be fine.” With that, he surged a heavier wave of spiritual energy forward.
Right at that exact moment, a cluster of figures abruptly burst into the cave. Snapping his head up to inspect the intruders, Hanzhou froze in absolute, unadulterated horror.