"I am willing to exchange my life for yours. I cannot die yet, I haven't repaid your life!"
The long sword was still firmly lodged in her body. She struggled and twisted, but only met with more intense pain.
Yet, this pain served a purpose, keeping her somewhat lucid, preventing her from passing out and dying unnoticed in this amusement park.
She raised her head with difficulty, looking ahead. The last enemy hadn't come to kill her.
It wasn't that the enemy didn't want to kill her, but that he was no longer present.
In the distance, a claw machine now housed a plush toy dressed as a cultivator.
All three enemies had been assimilated by the amusement park's meme.
There were no more enemies, no one to kill her, but this was the most agonizing part.
A single sword stroke would end her life, the pain only temporary.
But lying on the ground, watching her own blood drain, witnessing her life ebb away, the fear and loneliness would drive one mad.
Qi Manyao did not go mad, nor did she wish to die. Trembling, she took out a pill from her storage bag and swallowed it.
However, her dantian was already shattered. No matter how potent the medicine, it could not circulate through her body via her cultivation to heal her wounds. The medicinal power carried by her blood would only flow out onto the ground, absorbed by the earth.
Qi Manyao was very poor; she didn't have many good pills.
She was merely an ordinary disciple of the Kui Lian Sect. Even with the spirit stones and pills distributed by the sect monthly, the quantity was far from abundant.
She had once been a Sky Punisher, but due to repeated mission failures, she had never successfully claimed any rewards. Instead, she was calculated against and had to pay significant compensation.
The spirit stones and pills she had painstakingly saved were all forcefully taken from her by the people of that tribe in the Water Immortal Secret Realm, through moral blackmail.
This further depleted her already meager savings, leaving her utterly destitute.
As Wan Liuchuan would say, even a bandit would weep as they left you some spirit stones.
Later, when the Thunder Emperor Hall was newly established, she served as the captain of a one-person patrol team. Fang Xiaoyu did not treat her unfairly because of this; instead, she was issued spirit stones and pills commensurate with her captain’s position.
However, compared to a normal Nascent Soul cultivator, these amounts were still vastly insufficient.
Qi Manyao had always lived a life of extreme poverty.
Her storage bag was largely empty, containing only a few thousand spirit stones, some ordinary pills,
and a special pill bottle.
She could only rely on the meager supply of pills she had saved to sustain her life.
But the medicinal power of those pills was like a drop in the bucket compared to her grave injuries.
There was indeed another way for her to survive: consuming the Heaven's Dao Myriad Life Pill.
This pill was the foremost divine medicine of the current era, capable of healing all injuries. With Qi Manyao's cultivation, taking this single pill would guarantee a hundred percent recovery, and perhaps even allow her to break through to the Spirit Soul realm.
Yet, Qi Manyao did not entertain the thought of touching that pill.
If she were to miraculously survive, she would definitely take this pill to find Wan Lei and save him.
If she died, she would leave a dying wish, instructing Sui Xiaohang, or someone else, to come here, retrieve the pill, and continue the mission to save Wan Lei.
This was the only hope left for Wan Lei to survive.
Even if she died,
she would never dare to touch it!
Qi Manyao's injuries worsened. Excessive blood loss caused her strength to gradually dissipate, her consciousness becoming hazy.
Unconsciously, memories flashed through her mind like a slideshow.
In the beginning, she was an orphan, found by a steward in Nanfu City. The steward, seeing her pitiable state, sent her to Xinxing Academy for foster care.
She didn't know where she came from or who her parents were, as if her childhood memories were non-existent.
But she knew she couldn't have sprung from a stone. She could only assume her parents had passed away, for who would abandon their own child?
Later, she grew up at Xinxing Academy, attending school. Her excellent education fostered a strong sense of justice within her.
However, having been too sheltered, she was rather naive since childhood and had little exposure to the outside world.
The leader of the Nanfu City branch of the Sky Punishers found her and invited her to join, to eradicate evil and promote good. She agreed without hesitation.
Her first mission was to kill Wan Lei, a notorious wastrel of Nanfu City. She had only heard of Wan Lei's wicked deeds, knowing him to be utterly depraved and wicked, but she had never seen him.
After all, she had never left the academy, and Wan Lei had never entered it.
That day, she saw him within the academy and quietly trailed him, intending to strike him down that night.
But to her surprise, this Wan Lei seemed not as wicked as rumored; he even saved people.
Between saving and killing, she chose to save without hesitation.
Lacking experience, she immediately exposed her identity.
From then on, she frequently interacted with this young man named Wan Lei, discovering him to be brave, intelligent, rational, and possessing a strong sense of justice.
Perhaps it was during their several times fighting side-by-side, or when he rescued her on the Duanmu family's territory, or when they shared adversity in True Person Taodian's cave dwelling,
she found herself falling in love with him.
Initially, perhaps due to shyness, or perhaps out of annoyance, she buried this feeling deep within her heart.
But just as the gaze of someone wanting to stab another cannot be hidden, so too can the heart of someone in love not be concealed.
She would unconsciously worry about him, feel anxious for him, wanting to help and protect him.
He noticed all these subtle signs.
He wasn't foolish.
Until the appearance of the girl in yellow, shattering all her illusions.
That day, her master asked if she was willing to trade her life for his, and she said yes.
But she could only keep that promise in her heart.
At first, she felt jealous and envious, but gradually, she found herself getting along better with Fang Xiaoyu.
The princess from that prominent family wasn't so bad after all.
She silently offered her blessings in her heart.
Everyone said Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu were a match made in heaven, while she could only be mocked like a clown.
Daydreaming foolishly, inserting herself into their relationship.
She didn't care about gossip; she only wished for their happiness.
Gradually, Qi Manyao could no longer distinguish whether she loved Wan Lei, or the happiness that Wan Lei and Fang Xiaoyu shared.
But none of that mattered anymore.
When she learned they were close to death, she came without hesitation.
"I said I would exchange my life for yours. I failed this time, but I am not resigned. I will definitely achieve it!"
Qi Manyao lay on the ground, her eyes growing brighter.