However, he could not suppress the image that surfaced in his mind — Hu Liena pulling him back onto the narrow path without a shred of hesitation while he fought the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King. He still did not understand why she bore him no ill will, why she was even so genuinely sincere toward him.
But precisely because of that, he found himself unable to strike. Even if he did, he knew he might not be able to inflict any real damage on her.
Just then, Hu Lena suddenly raised her head and, in a sharp reverse motion, slammed her palm against her own chest.
Blood burst from her mouth with a wet spray, but the crimson glow in her eyes flickered back to a moment of clarity. "Tang Yin. I can't hold on anymore. If this continues, I'm afraid neither of us will ever walk out of this Path of Hell. I'm entrusting my life to you. I don't even understand why I trust you myself. But I know — you will get me out of here. While I'm still lucid, knock me unconscious."
Tang San had been locked in a fierce internal struggle, and seeing Hu Liena suddenly take such action, a wave of shame washed through him. This girl before him seemed nothing like what he had assumed her to be.
Hu Liena's body began to tremble violently. She let out a nearly desperate cry, "Hurry — do it. I can't hold on any longer."
There was no longer any room for hesitation. This was undoubtedly the best solution to the problem before him. Tang San stepped forward abruptly and delivered a sharp chop to the side of Hu Liena's neck. Her body went limp and slid into his arms.
Holding Hu Liena's delicate frame, watching the fox tail behind her gradually recede, Tang San's mind held not a single stray thought.
For the woman in his arms, he suddenly felt a measure of admiration. Admiration for her courage.
In this moment, Tang San could easily have hurled Hu Liena into the dark crimson abyss beside them. That would not only make the rest of the Path of Hell far easier, but also eliminate a formidable future enemy while she was still in the cradle.
Yet Tang San did nothing of the sort. He sighed, tightened his embrace around Hu Liena's body, and pressed her firmly against his chest. A surge of blue light rippled outward. Now that she was unconscious, there was no longer any need to conceal his abilities. Strand after strand of Blue Silver Grass, lustrous as sapphires, materialized silently and wound tightly around Hu Liena's body, binding her securely against his front.
To keep her from impeding his movement, he wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted her legs so they encircled his waist.
Without question, the two bodies were in extremely close contact at this point, and the scraps of fabric covering Hu Liena amounted to practically nothing. But Tang San's mind was as still as calm water.
He treated everything before him as a trial meant to forge his own character.
He could certainly have abandoned Hu Liena. But he knew that if he truly did so, it would be tantamount to surrendering to his inner demons. Setting aside whether he could even escape this place under their influence, even if he did, a crack would open in his heart for the rest of his life. The dream of reaching the pinnacle of a Soul Master would become forever impossible.
Therefore, he had to bring her out. Even if she became his greatest enemy in the future, he owed it to himself to face her in fair battle when that day came. This was the choice that no warrior, no Soul Master, no man worthy of the name could ever run from.
Just as Tang San finished securing Hu Liena against his chest with Blue Silver Grass arranged so as to minimally restrict his own movements, he suddenly understood what the final trial of the Path of Hell truly was.
It was still a powerful enemy — but not something external. It was himself. His own inner demons.
Under the crushing weight of the vast malevolent aura, the scorching demonic blood, and his own immense killing intent, what kind of unyielding willpower would be required to endure this place and walk out alive?
Even a supreme prodigy like Hu Liena had been unable to last to the end. This was the hardest trial on the Path of Hell.
At this thought, Tang San could not help but silently marvel at his own fortune.
He possessed multiple abilities capable of stabilizing his mind. chief among them the foundational Mysterious Heaven Skill and the Wisdom Skull Bone of Spiritual Concentration. And there was that mysterious blue domain as well.
Just as Hu Liena had guessed, his blue domain was in fact the innate domain of his Martial Soul. His Martial Soul, Blue Silver Grass, had undergone a second awakening and revealed its true form.
As the sole Blue Silver Emperor on the entire continent, its second awakening had bestowed upon Tang San the Emperor's majesty it possessed — the innate domain of the Blue Silver Emperor, the Blue Silver Domain.
Here, of course, the Blue Silver Domain could not display its full power. In fact, its own effects had been suppressed to an extremely low degree in this environment. But thanks to its ceaseless aura of vitality, it still granted Tang San a measure of assistance.
As for the scorching heat surrounding them, to Tang San it was nothing more than a joke.