Chapter 265: [Rotten Bones and Resurrected Flesh] Fold It
It was clearly merely a tiny stretch of distance remaining to reach Liu Ruyi.
Yet across this stretch of path, Bai Cha sat completely flat on the floor, dragging herself forward bit by bit.
She felt as though her entire being was about to ascend straight to heaven right now.
For a single fleeting instant, she wanted to directly awaken the Dodder Vines inside Liu Ruyi’s body.
After all, she was already dead.
Yet she remained enveloped by these agony-inducing forces; awakening the Dodder Vines could combat these powers while simultaneously freeing her completely from this sea of suffering.
Yet it was merely a thought that flashed past in that single instant.
What kind of release would that count as?
If death served as release, then after death, why hadn’t these voices dissipated?
If a soul truly existed after death—much like Liu Ruyi right now—wouldn’t it prove far more agonizing instead?
Yet Bai Cha held no superior method to help her either.
She was merely an ordinary person herself, after all.
The sole action within her capability was breaking through the crowd time and time again, arriving at her side amidst extreme agony and physical frailty.
Then, she extended her hand, softly gripping the umbrella in her hand.
Liu Ruyi raised her head at long last.
She was indeed exceptionally pretty, yet at this moment, she was haggard to a point void of a single trace of blood, her eyes hollow and blank.
Bai Cha collapsed across her body.
The umbrella overhead tilted subtly, using its limited power paired with her own physical frame to shield Liu Ruyi from the pouring rain filling the sky.
She made strenuous efforts to squeeze out a bit of power to allocate a fraction to herself as well, because she was in extreme pain too.
Yet the vast majority of her power still had to sustain the Dodder Vines.
However, this place was actively suppressing her power.
“Liu Ruyi, either you get up yourself and push your umbrella open, or you hand your power over to me.”
Lying flat across her frame, Bai Cha possessed zero physical strength left to budge, her voice barely audible above a whisper, particularly amidst this heavy downpour.
Yet she believed Liu Ruyi could hear it.
Liu Ruyi moved subtly. Looking at Bai Cha collapsed across her, she parted her lips, only to sink back into dead silence immediately after.
Bai Cha’s hand remained resting on her umbrella.
Moving with considerable difficulty, she hauled the umbrella over.
Liu Ruyi offered no resistance.
Yet the umbrella couldn’t be popped open.
The bloody characters sprawled across its surface acted almost like sealing talismans.
In fact, even the seals depicted in those television dramas and novels might not match its power.
Bai Cha possessed zero physical strength to begin with, to say nothing of popping open this umbrella.
Looking at this completely broken umbrella, she rested her head against Liu Ruyi’s shoulder.
Her back and both legs had grown numb with pain under the pelting rain.
Yet the pain continued to pulse through regardless; no matter how numb she grew, she could sense the pain all the same.
Raising her hand, she stroked Liu Ruyi’s face.
In truth, she had originally intended to stroke her head, yet she truly held zero physical strength left, incapable of lifting her arm to that height.
Liu Ruyi’s eyelashes fluttered subtly as she turned her eyes onto her once more.
Bai Cha’s current state was messy and disheveled to a degree far more tragic than Liu Ruyi appeared.
The wounds across her legs and the blood flowing from them had already dyed the accumulated puddle on the ground in this area red.
Glass shards remained lodged in her arm and shoulder.
Her face was completely covered in bloody tracks as well.
Thoroughly filthy, only her eyes remained clear enough to discern.
“It hurts so much… have you been hurting like this all along?”
Bai Cha’s voice carried intermittent breaks, her eyelids wanting to close from time to time.
In truth, she lacked even the physical strength to keep her eyes open right now.
Liu Ruyi’s body trembled subtly.
“Why stay on the rooftop?”
Moving her hand with considerable difficulty, Bai Cha clasped her hand.
The fingers of both individuals were frigidly cold; neither could afford to feel disdain for the other.
“Push the umbrella open,” she repeated once more.
Her gaze falling onto that umbrella of hers, Liu Ruyi remained completely motionless, refraining from uttering a single sound.
Bai Cha knew full well that this couldn’t be accomplished with such ease.
Those wounds and pain were simply not things that could be confronted in a short span of time.
Even she herself was on the absolute brink of breaking down from the agony.
Bai Cha closed her eyes.
She set about forcefully summoning her power.
Because her umbrella was on the verge of failing to sustain itself as well.
Yet it failed—it felt as if a world separated her from her own power, or perhaps a world truly did separate them.
With the contact attempt failing once more, the Dodder Vines overhead broke down completely under the overwhelming burden, massive gaps popping open across the weave.
The rain beat down inside once again.
Taking a deep breath, Bai Cha sat up abruptly in a sudden surge, wrapping her arms around Liu Ruyi to shield her in her embrace.
“Liu Ruyi! Pick up your umbrella!” Bai Cha spoke in agony.
Raising her head with considerable difficulty, she looked toward the sky.
“Liu Ruyi, pick up your umbrella and stand up!”
If she refrained from standing up any longer, Bai Cha would truly run out of options as well.
She would be forced to take action.
Because the sole power she could deploy was the Dodder Vine resting inside Liu Ruyi’s body.
No… wait a second…
A subtle surge of heat flared in her palm out of nowhere.
Looking down at her palm, Bai Cha caught sight of a cluster of fine, black threads wriggling.
It was the Tai Sui.
How on earth did this thing get in here?
Extending a single black thread, it touched a drop of red rain falling from the sky; the rain was absorbed in an instant, turning directly into actual, genuine rainwater.
Bai Cha narrowed her eyes slightly.
The Tai Sui… what on earth is it?
She had previously assumed it was akin to desire, yet looking at it now, it seemed far from being that simple.
Could these malicious intent and spite be absorbed as well?
This thought could be set aside temporarily; the Tai Sui was testing Bai Cha’s stance as well.
Bai Cha raised her hand.
“Go.”
She granted it permission to feast today.
The black threads extended with instant glee. Almost in a single moment—supplied by the power of the infinite, endless heavy downpour—it expanded into a massive, black, thread-like umbrella.
The rain finally ceased pelting down onto her frame; Bai Cha went completely limp, collapsing across Liu Ruyi, truly incapable of budging a single inch.
Her consciousness turned somewhat blurred as well, the pain racking her body continuing without pause, failing to vanish simply because the rain stopped falling on her.
There was no way around it; wounds always required time to heal.
Even if she bore zero physical wounds on her body to begin with.
Raising her head, Liu Ruyi looked up at this black umbrella overhead.
Threads dangled down from above, landing atop the umbrella held in her hands.
She could sense that those malicious intents diminished significantly in a single instant.
Yet the umbrella remained incapable of popping open.
Because this was not an umbrella—it was her heart.
Extending her arms at long last, she returned Bai Cha’s embrace, pulling her gently off her body to let her lean against her chest.
“You may leave now.”
Liu Ruyi spoke in a soft voice.
Yet Bai Cha pressed down on her umbrella once more, even as her eyes failed to open and her consciousness remained muddled.
She emphasized a single phrase regardless: “Pop it open… give it a try…”
Liu Ruyi’s frame trembled, tears of blood falling from her eyes.
Squeezing her umbrella, her slender, pale fingers gripped the handle, locked in hesitation and indecision.
“I can’t open it,” she said in sorrow.
“Then you can hide the umbrella ribs away first,” Bai Cha bit her tongue to force herself conscious, though her speech turned slurred.
Extending her hand, she set it amidst the umbrella ribs.
“A folding umbrella… from here, fold it down…”
Liu Ruyi’s mind was deeply stirred.
Extending her hand, she finally attempted to push her umbrella upward.
Snap—
The umbrella failed to open all the same.
Yet as she pushed it upward, midway through the motion, the canopy folded outward, firmly concealing the umbrella ribs within, morphing into an odd, makeshift folding umbrella.
The world set about collapsing.
Bai Cha plummeted straight down from the tall building.
Opening her eyes almost instantaneously, she was sent back.
Yet the experience had proven far too intense; her heart was pounding violently still.
Before she could even take stock of her own condition, she noticed the person standing right before her eyes first.
