"Pain!..."
Su Ziyu felt an excruciating pain all over his body. After resting for a while, he could barely manage to get up, only to fall back to the ground after trying to stand. It felt like several bones in his body had broken, and his internal organs were in turmoil, with a mouthful of blood foam that left his speech weak and feeble.
He was severely injured!
Su Ziyu was almost entirely covered in blood, with wounds of various sizes all over his body. Worse still, he found it increasingly difficult to breathe, and his consciousness began to blur.
"Lina?!"
"Ken?!"
Using what little strength he had, Su Ziyu called out the names of his companions, but only the sound of the wind answered him from the darkness, with no other response.
"Abandoned, huh?" Su Ziyu tugged at his bloodied lips, forming an unsightly smile.
The last bit of strength slowly faded away.
Su Ziyu lay on his back on the cold ground, listening to the constant howling of the wind beside his ears, muttering, "What a failure! Once again, I can only lie here waiting for death..."
Ken could easily abandon an entire village, so surely he could abandon him without a second thought.
Su Ziyu was not surprised at this outcome.
He just felt a bit cold.
"They say that between life and death lies great fear... Why do I feel it's just that way..." This time, Su Ziyu's mind didn't replay the past. He just began to miss Earth, his hometown, as his consciousness gradually grew hazy. He murmured, "I really want to eat zongzi..."
He wanted to eat zongzi, meatballs, braised ribs, sweet and sour fish, boiled meat slices, mapo tofu, and spicy hot pot...
Not far away lay the monster's corpse; it was likely completely dead by now.
Su Ziyu felt he was also nearing death.
His body had gradually become numb and lost all sensation, though occasionally it would twitch involuntarily. In a daze, he seemed to feel his fingers touch something sharp, and then a stream of data flashed through his consciousness.
"Divine power discovered! ... Absorbing! ..."
"Obtained 1 point of Divinity Value! ..."
Su Ziyu's consciousness seemed to regain some clarity. He noticed that the attribute page constructed by the data flow seemed to have gained an additional 1 point of Divinity Value, which appeared to be similar to the previously discovered Source Power Value, capable of enhancing the abilities displayed on his data page. Without hesitation, he assigned this single point of Divinity Value to the [Physical Enhancement] attribute slot.
Then, he lost consciousness.
Su Ziyu seemed to have a dream in which he fought the monster again. This time, however, he was battling a monster identical to the statue. He couldn't recall the entire battle process, just remembered that no matter what, the monster wouldn't die, and he himself seemed to survive despite any severe injuries. Ultimately, after a prolonged stalemate, he suddenly charged forward in a reckless bid to chop the monster to bits and swallowed it whole.
When he regained consciousness, it was still pitch black outside. Not much time should have passed, but Su Ziyu felt his body had significantly improved. Although pain still permeated his body, he now mustered the strength to stand.
—"Physical Enhancement LV6!"
As Su Ziyu's consciousness brushed against the data flow in his mind, he noticed that what used to be 'Physical Enhancement LV1' in his attributes had now increased to 'Physical Enhancement LV6'.
This improvement was considerable!
Unlike the previous enhancement of the White Crow Swordsmanship using Source Power Value, Su Ziyu's attributes had skyrocketed by five levels this time, and some changes appeared in his overall data display.
"Name: Su Ziyu."
"Race: Human [Divinity Creature]."
"Biological Level: Tier Two."
"Ability: White Crow Swordsmanship LV1, Time Acceleration LV2 (Spiritual Energy)."
"Attributes: Physical Enhancement LV6."
"Source Power Value: 0."
"Divinity Value: 0."
Su Ziyu didn't entirely understand what "Divinity Creature" meant, but it didn't prevent him from noticing that his body was rapidly recovering. After resting for a few minutes, he felt he finally had the ability to move, so he continued walking forward along the hillside. After walking for about an hour or so, as the sky began to brighten, he finally climbed up from a small slope.
Su Ziyu, having narrowly escaped death, sat heavily on the ground.
His throat felt parched, and his stomach was growling with hunger, but fortunately, there was always a surge of strength within him, supporting his actions, so he didn't collapse from hunger or loss of blood.
"Divinity must be a very powerful force!..."
Standing in the sunlight, Su Ziyu looked at his gradually healing and scabbing wounds, full of disbelief, "Unbelievable! ... These wounds have already started to heal! ... It seems I'll be fully recovered in at most a day or two!..."
From being on the brink of death to completely recovering in just two to three days.
This completely overturned Su Ziyu's previous understanding.
It's a pity that he didn't know how to obtain more Divinity Value, and those beings with Divinity Value seemed extraordinarily terrifying!
Eliminating the monster that Rote had turned into involved a bit of luck, and Ken's initial sneak attack was crucial. Initially, Rote could speak, almost like a living human. But after Ken pierced his heart, he became a full-fledged monster, not only ceasing to speak but losing all human semblance, his movements and attacks nearly beast-like.
Perhaps by then, Rote had already died. Initially, the monster might have been controlling a living person, but later, it probably just controlled a corpse.
Around noon.
Su Ziyu came across a river. It took him ten minutes to catch a fish, and although eating raw river fish tasted bloody, it at least filled his stomach. Not encountering any other human traces along the way, returning to the village was not an option for Su Ziyu, so he had no choice but to continue down the road.
The sand in the golden hourglass was running low.
He had at most one more day before being forcibly teleported to another place. Without a destination, there was no rush in his travel, and he conserved his strength as much as possible. Sleeping outside in the wilderness made him nervous, causing him to only rest with closed eyes, alert to his surroundings until dawn. On the second day, the road gradually filled with signs of human presence, so Su Ziyu picked up his pace slightly. Just as the remaining time was about to run out, he spotted a small town and then saw Lina and Ken's figures. They seemed to have been there for some time, as Su Ziyu noticed Lina was in a dispute with Ken.
"SU!" Lina's expression lit up with delight when she saw him, almost sprinting towards him, but she halted as she got close, a look of complex guilt on her face.
Ken looked utterly shocked.
He genuinely did not expect Su Ziyu to survive. Waiting outside the town was only to comfort his sister. To Ken, Su Ziyu was nothing more than a stranger from another place, and he had no intention of risking anything to find him again. He had already abandoned the people he had lived with in the village, so abandoning an outsider was no significant matter.
Su Ziyu regarded the two in front with calm eyes. Suddenly, he smiled openly at Lina, saying, "We're even now."
The last grain of golden sand fell.
Su Ziyu's figure suddenly vanished from where he stood, leaving behind two utterly astonished people, as if everything they had just witnessed was a mere illusion. Lina reached out in vain as though trying to grasp something, unsure whether what had just happened was mere illusion or if Su Ziyu had genuinely appeared.
She suddenly burst into tears, weeping uncontrollably!
.........