“I don’t mind.”
Huo Feng gritted his teeth and stared at the woman before him who had spoken so confidently about “staying here,” forcing the words through clenched teeth.
At this point, forget refusing her—even standing steadily had become a luxury.
But just as he finished speaking and was about to force himself to stand and arrange accommodations for them, something suddenly happened!
A wave of chill far more violent than before exploded from his heart, surging wildly through his blood vessels and spreading to every inch of his body.
Huo Feng’s vision suddenly went black, and the little bit of color that had returned to his face instantly vanished.
“Pfft—!”
A mouthful of black blood sprayed directly from his mouth, splattering across the pristine hem of Su Man’s dress, creating a horrifying sight.
“Commander!”
Zhang Li was scared out of his wits and immediately caught Huo Feng as he fell backward.
Huo Feng’s body was burning like a red-hot iron, scorching to the touch, yet his teeth were chattering uncontrollably, producing a constant clicking sound.
His sharp, wolf-like eyes had already lost their focus. His pupils rapidly contracted and dilated as though he were experiencing some terrifying hallucination.
“What’s happening? Didn’t he just recover?”
“Quick! Get Old Wang, the medic! Hurry!”
The entire training field instantly descended into chaos. The atmosphere, which had been frozen by the earlier spectacle, was suddenly shrouded in the shadow of death.
Su Man stood where she was, her brows slightly furrowed.
She lowered her gaze to the black blood staining the hem of her dress, and a trace of annoyance flashed across her eyes.
“Damn it. Little Jin secretly ate some of my ‘Gu King remnants’ these past few days. Its venom has mutated.”
She had originally thought that a single Heart-Clearing Pill would be enough to suppress the poison. She had not expected the snake’s venom to have become mixed with the formidable power of Gu poison.
“Mommy, is Daddy going to die?”
Huo Xiaoman sat on Dahua’s back, biting her finger. For the first time, a hint of fear appeared in her large eyes.
Huo Xiaoxie pursed his lips. The golden krait in his hand twisted restlessly, clearly sensing the uncontrolled aura as well.
“Shut up.”
Su Man scolded her softly, but her own footsteps involuntarily quickened.
At that moment, Old Wang, the military medic, came running over with his medical kit. Panting heavily, he pried open Huo Feng’s eyelids and checked them before feeling his pulse.
The next second, Old Wang’s face turned pale, and his hands trembled like a sieve.
“No… No, this won’t do! His heart rate is approaching two hundred. The poison has already reached his heart!”
“Ordinary antidotes won’t work at all. His blood vessels are spasming. This… this is practically a poison that kills on contact!”
Old Wang looked around desperately at the circle of special forces soldiers with reddened eyes, his voice trembling with tears.
“Prepare… prepare his final arrangements.”
Those words struck everyone like a bolt of lightning, leaving them completely stunned.
Zhang Li dropped to his knees with a thud, grabbed Huo Feng’s hand, and burst into tears.
“Commander! You can’t die! What are we supposed to do without you?!”
The hardened soldiers around them all had red-rimmed eyes, and some had already begun wiping away their tears.
Despair spread through the air.
“Get out of my way.”
A cold female voice suddenly cut through the chaotic cries.
Su Man pushed aside the people blocking her path and walked directly to the stretcher.
Without even looking at the medic, she reached out and pressed her fingers against Huo Feng’s neck.
Burning hot.
His pulse was as chaotic as a pounding drum.
This wasn’t merely snake venom.
It was clearly the Love Gu being activated by the poison, now turning against its host.
Five years ago, on that reckless night, she had planted the mother Gu’s offspring inside Huo Feng to save his life.
Normally, the Gu remained dormant. Not only was it harmless, it could even strengthen his body.
But once stimulated by powerful toxins, the Gu would go berserk.
If it was not calmed in time, Huo Feng would die from ruptured blood vessels.
“Who… who are you? Don’t touch him! He can’t withstand any more disturbance right now!”
When Old Wang saw Su Man about to move Huo Feng, he hurriedly reached out to stop her.
Su Man flicked her wrist.
At some point, a silver needle had appeared between her fingers.
With lightning speed, she drove it into Old Wang’s numbing acupoint.
Half of Old Wang’s body immediately went numb, and he collapsed to the ground. His eyes widened, but he could no longer speak.
“Carry him into the infirmary.”
Su Man swept her gaze around the room, her eyes cold as the wind blowing through an ice cellar.
“If you don’t want him to die, do exactly as I say.”
“Everyone, retreat one hundred meters. No one is allowed inside until I come out.”
Zhang Li froze for a moment.
Looking into Su Man’s unwavering eyes, he felt as though he had grasped the last lifeline.
“Listen to Sister-in-law! Hurry! Carry him inside!”
“Anyone who dares peek, I’ll shoot them myself!”
After a chaotic scramble, Huo Feng was carried into the infirmary and placed on its only hospital bed.
The heavy iron door slammed shut, cutting off the commotion outside.
Inside the dim room, only Su Man and the unconscious Huo Feng remained.
The air carried a faint smell of disinfectant, mixed with the strong masculine scent radiating from the man and the faint smell of blood.
Su Man took a deep breath, removed the bamboo basket from her back, and released a completely transparent Gu worm.
“Go.”
The Gu worm crawled into Huo Feng’s wound, attempting to draw out the poisoned blood.
However, the next second, it was violently repelled.
Its body instantly turned black and stiffened before dying.
“As expected.”
Su Man looked at Huo Feng’s face twisted in agony, her heart filled with complicated emotions.
Was this fate?
Five years ago, she had saved his life once, sacrificing her innocence and her position as the Miao Holy Maiden in the process.
Five years later, did she really have to save him again?
This time, ordinary methods were useless.
She had to use the most primitive and direct method—to use herself as the conduit, transferring her energy to stabilize his soul.
It was a forbidden technique of the Miao Holy Maiden, and also the most powerful method of breaking the Love Gu.
“Huo Feng, you must have saved the entire galaxy in your past life to make me, Su Man, owe you this much in this life.”
She muttered a curse under her breath before reaching out and undoing the buttons of Huo Feng’s training uniform, which was already soaked through with sweat, revealing his strong, muscular chest.
His bronze skin was covered with bluish-purple veins, forming a sinister web across his body.
Su Man bit her fingertip and placed a drop of blood containing the aura of her natal Gu onto Huo Feng’s forehead.
Then she lowered herself.
She looked at the face so close to hers.
Even twisted by pain, his resolute and handsome features remained unmistakable.
Memories of that night five years ago surged through her mind like a tide.
The madness among the reeds that night, his scorching body temperature, his heavy breathing…
Su Man’s cheeks involuntarily grew hot.
“This is to save his life. It’s for that ten-thousand-yuan child support payment.”
She found an excuse for herself.
Then she closed her eyes and slowly pressed her red lips against Huo Feng’s cold, purple lips.
Boom!
The instant their lips touched, a shudder like an electric current swept through both of their bodies.
Huo Feng, who had been unconscious, seemed to sense something. A deep groan escaped from his throat.
Suppressing the strange sensation in her heart, Su Man pried open his lips and slowly transferred a breath infused with spiritual energy and the Gu’s guiding force into his mouth.
That breath was like a key.
It instantly awakened the dormant offspring of the Gu inside Huo Feng’s body.
At that moment, Su Man felt a powerful suction coming from Huo Feng’s mouth.
He was like a traveler who had been dying of thirst in the desert for seven days and had finally found the only spring.
His tongue instinctively entwined with hers, carrying an overwhelming and aggressive force that refused to be resisted.
“Mmm…”
Caught off guard, Su Man nearly collapsed against him.
She tried to push him away, only to discover that her body had completely lost its strength.
Her natal Gu and the Gu inside Huo Feng’s body had formed an intense resonance.
The sensation of their souls merging was far more overwhelming than mere physical contact.
Time seemed to stand still at that moment.
Outside the infirmary, more than a hundred special forces soldiers paced anxiously.
Inside, a silent, intimate, yet heart-stopping treatment was taking place.
As time passed, the bluish-purple discoloration covering Huo Feng’s body began to fade at a visible rate.
His terrifying fever gradually subsided as well.
Su Man’s complexion, however, grew increasingly pale.
This method of treatment consumed her vital essence and energy.
Finally, when the last trace of poison had been suppressed,
Su Man suddenly lifted her head and gasped for breath.
A faint, intimate thread of saliva still lingered at the corner of her lips.
She felt as though she had just run a marathon, her entire body drenched in sweat.
“Bastard…”
She looked at the man on the bed, whose breathing had finally stabilized, and angrily wiped her mouth.
Just as she was about to use the edge of the bed to pull herself up,
a scorching hand suddenly clamped around her wrist like an iron vise.
The force was astonishing, as though it might crush the bones in her wrist.
Su Man’s heart jumped.
She abruptly turned her head.
And found herself looking directly into a pair of newly opened eyes.
The cloudiness and agony that had filled those eyes before were gone.
In their place was an unfathomable darkness, along with an undisguised desire so intense that it made her heart tremble.
Huo Feng was awake.
But he did not seem to be completely conscious yet.
His gaze remained firmly locked on Su Man’s slightly pale yet still alluring face, moving from her eyes down to her swollen, moist lips.
That familiar scent.
That unforgettable sensation.
It was exactly the same as the hallucinations that had tormented him in his dreams night after night for the past five years.
Huo Feng’s voice was hoarse to the extreme, trembling with disbelief as the words rolled up from deep within his throat.
“It’s you?”
“The woman from five years ago… was you?”