It felt as though countless shards of ice were converging upon him, and countless shards of ice were being released from within him. In that white void, Tang San endured the terrifying agony alone.
A sensation of cold that should never have appeared still manifested—it was not a true change in temperature, but the chill brought by killing intent. The purest essence of slaughter invaded his body with frightening speed, and with every incursion, his entire frame trembled.
When that cold began to gradually numb his heart, consciousness also started to recede along with his awareness. At that moment, Tang San finally confirmed the legend of the Slaughter City. Yes—this was a Domain, a Domain condensed entirely from killing intent. And of course, this Domain was far, far more powerful than his current Blue Silver Domain. While standing within it, he was like a rootless duckweed.
He did not know how much time had passed. When Tang San finally regained consciousness from the pain, he felt as though he had just awoken from a dream.
His body lay among a bed of Blue Silver Grass, and the grass was channeling faint traces of warmth and nourishment into him. All the pain had vanished; there was only a pleasant sensation throughout his whole body, the familiar fluctuations of Soul Power, and the renewed awareness of his Soul Skills permeating his being.
He tried to sit up, but found his left hand oddly heavy. Turning his head to look, he saw that clutched in his left hand was the Clear Sky Hammer.
The moment his eyes fell upon the Clear Sky Hammer, he knew beyond any doubt that he could not have been dreaming. Right there on the hammer, at the very tip of its head, a new white pattern had appeared.
The pattern looked exactly like the blood-red lines that formed on the ground of the Slaughter Arena when the Road to Hell activated—only this one was far smaller, and it was white.
When Tang San attempted to sense the white pattern, in that instant, a surging wave of white light silently radi outward. The light poured from the Clear Sky Hammer, but almost immediately it faded into colorlessness. And Tang San's perception of the surrounding world transformed at once. Even the Blue Silver Grass closest to him shuddered within that invisible current.
The Slaughter God Domain—was this truly the Slaughter God Domain? Tang San knew he should have been glad, but having just left a place like the Slaughter City, happiness was the furthest thing from his mind. Two years of hellish tempering had taken a tremendous toll on his entire psyche.
He had tried, all along, to fight against it. But the Tang San of now was not only pale-faced—his brow carried an unmistakable aura of ferocity that he could no longer conceal.
Just then, an invisible surge of killing intent suddenly rushed toward him, as though something unseen had slammed heavily into the Slaughter God Domain he had released.
Tang San's body jolted. He swiftly turned and looked in that direction.
Several dozen meters away, a slender, graceful figure stood there. At some point she had dressed herself completely, the fabric draping over that perfect form. And her eyes were fixed squarely on him, shimmering with emotions too complex to name.
She woke up before me? That was Tang San's first thought. A layer of cold sweat involuntarily crawled up his spine. He understood perfectly well what it meant that Hu Liena had awakened before him. It meant she had had ample time to kill him.
That woman is cunning after all, Tang San thought with some vexation. Her Soul Power surpassed his, and on that final stretch of the road, he had been the one carrying her through. Her expenditure would naturally have been far less than his. If she had wanted him dead, he probably would never have woken up at all.
Hu Liena walked toward him step by step, a faint smile gracing her lovely face.
"Did you sense it? We share the same innate Domain." Her voice, as heavenly as a melody, drifted around Tang San's ears.
Tang San said nothing. He simply watched her in silence.
To his surprise, he discovered that Hu Liena, now restored to the use of her Soul Skills, possessed eyes that had become astonishingly clear—without the slightest trace of seductive allure.
If before she had been a rose brimming with temptation, then now she looked like a fresh, pure lily.
"I entrusted my life to your hands once, and you entrusted yours to mine once. Does that make us even?" Hu Liena finally came to a halt before Tang San. She stopped only when there was a single meter between them. Gazing at him, her expression turned infinitely tender.
Tang San still did not speak. He continued watching her in silence. He did not know what this woman was thinking, but for reasons he could not explain, he sensed that she posed absolutely no threat to him.
A trace of sorrow surfaced on Hu Liena's exquisitely beautiful face. As she looked at Tang San, a hint of helplessness crept into her captivating eyes. "Why was I born into Spirit Hall, while you were born into the Clear Sky Sect?"
She raised both hands and naturally settled them on Tang San's shoulders, drawing even closer to him. Those sorrowful eyes of hers carried an even stronger allure than before, and her entire body leaned forward into his embrace.