Front Line of the Beast Tide, Part 12

Su Qing slowly opened her eyes.

In front of her was the Healer’s reliable figure.

The Healer leaned down, her shoulder resting against Su Qing, her fingers on her body, seemingly observing her condition.

This scene was too familiar to Su Qing.

When she first arrived in the cultivation world, the first thing she saw upon regaining consciousness was exactly this.

This sense of déjà vu made her pause for a moment, until the Healer gently greeted her, only then did she barely snap back to reality.

“You’re awake? How do you feel?”

Su Qing slowly sat up, only then realizing she was back in the black underground world.

But it wasn’t particularly black here anymore; it was bright all around, as if she were inside a melted candle.

For a moment, she even thought she had transmigrated into another world.

She looked down and found that the heart-fire in her chest was burning fiercely.

She herself was as bright as a light bulb, and her body felt warm inside.

The viscous, icy coldness from forcefully devouring the black mist had completely disappeared.

Her light alone was nothing, but the thousands of people in the camp were all very bright, as if they had been recharged, no longer listless, and without that faint sense of death they had before.

Seeing her awake, many people simultaneously looked in her direction.

Hundreds of light figures cast their combined glow, making the area in front of her blindingly white.

Su Qing couldn’t describe what kind of body language it was—fear, fanaticism, anxiety, hope, dread? The meanings were too complex for her to discern.

“I’m fine.” Su Qing looked at the Healer and suddenly asked softly, “Are you alright?”

The Healer was a little surprised; it was rare for a patient to ask the physician how they were.

She curved her eyes, “Thanks to you, I’ve never been better.”

Su Qing was about to continue speaking when she saw Rainbow approaching with light steps. “Awake?”

She wasn’t alone; someone named Zhu Qing followed behind her.

His name wasn’t important; what was important was that his brightness was comparable to Su Qing’s, and Su Qing was even brighter than him by one layer.

The Healer, seeing someone had come, did not leave, but stood aside, silently watching.

“When you came here, you were at early Foundation Establishment cultivation.” Rainbow pointed at Zhu Qing and said bluntly, “But now your spirit is one layer stronger than Zhu Qing’s, who is at late Foundation Establishment.”

Zhu Qing touched his head, with a hint of embarrassment.

Su Qing knew that she had absorbed all of Blood Thorns’ demonic energy and most of her spirit.

While she was unconscious, she might have unconsciously absorbed even more demonic energy, converting it into heart-fire.

Her internal capacity was limited; she couldn’t retain the excess, so it all erupted, transferred to the others in another way.

Of course, there was also a possibility that her spirit actually came from another world, and perhaps it was inherently stronger.

In any case, based on the above reasons, her internal heart-fire, or vitality, or spirit, had become stronger.

In a sense, she served the function of the rootless fire, taking over its job.

But whether this was a good thing or a bad thing, Su Qing couldn’t say.

Treasures could be cherished, but they could also incite covetousness.

She calmly met Rainbow’s gaze, but in her heart, it felt like swallowing a hard chunk of ice, cold and grating.

But she woke up normally and wasn’t absorbed into the rootless fire.

Did that also mean it wasn’t so bad?

Rainbow met her gaze, her face calm, but in reality, the heart-fire in her chest was rapidly beating, echoing her owner’s excited mood, “I told you long ago you were a genius, and indeed it is so.”

Su Qing was silent for a while, then honestly said, “Honestly, this is the first time I’ve heard that.”

Genius or not, there were simply too many geniuses around her: Tian Ning, Moon, Zhu Xu, Senior Sister Ling Yunxiao. Not to mention, the Body School alone produced many geniuses. Furthermore, there were true geniuses like Wei Yue, Senior Sister Qin Zhen, and others.

She didn’t feel she was any different. What she did was merely due to the jade-like object’s contribution. In other words, the legacy left by Little Goose was simply too precious.

To put it bluntly, from her own conditions, she had always felt that effort and luck outweighed talent.

“No matter, you will hear this a lot in the future,” Rainbow reiterated, “But actually, this world doesn’t really welcome geniuses, because resources are limited. One more genius taking a share means fewer resources for those below. There’s also a more interesting saying: geniuses are self-sustaining resource providers. Whether it’s their one-in-a-million bone structure or their stunning talent, in the great world, there’s always a way to either subtly transform things or devour them completely, isn’t there?”

Su Qing looked at her, “Are you threatening me?”

“On the contrary.” Rainbow pointed at the cluster of rootless fire. “Haven’t you noticed it’s much bigger today?”

She had naturally noticed this, but Su Qing thought it was because she had given it her overflowing heart-fire, making it so bright. Now, hearing Rainbow’s meaning, it seemed not.

“You slept for seventeen days.” Rainbow’s voice was devoid of emotion. “Two hundred and fifteen people tried to devour you while you were unconscious. I killed one hundred and ninety-eight of them, and the excess heart-fire was transferred to the rootless fire. There were seventeen others—”

She paused. Su Qing understood her meaning. “I ate them? One a day?”

No wonder those people looked at her with such strange eyes.

She had become Hannibal on remote login.

“Not really,” Rainbow said. “It wasn’t that regular. But you did eat them, and digested them.”

Su Qing considered herself a kind person, but if someone tried to harm her, she wouldn’t let them off easily.

However, waking up to find out she had eaten people, and without any feeling or memory of it, she truly couldn’t describe how she felt. In short, her emotions were complex.

She had long thought that if heart-fire could be transmitted to each other, it could certainly be absorbed by each other.

Presumably, before this camp established a strong order, everyone probably ate each other first, and after there weren’t many left, they would slowly be eaten by the Myriad Beast Forest.

Thinking this way, in such a desperate situation, with her, a delicious piece of meat, appearing, it was not surprising that cultivators who had been living in fear day and night, walking on the edge of a knife, constantly eroded by demonic energy, and one step away from madness, couldn’t control their desire to consume her.

Her vitality was too abundant, almost becoming vitality itself.

Su Qing also understood Rainbow’s meaning from her words, “So, you mean you’re on my side?”

“Of course.”

Rainbow smiled faintly, her glow brightening a few degrees. “I am also a smart person.”

Rather than letting others gain Twenty-Six’s abilities, she preferred to trust Twenty-Six’s character.

She had eyes. With Twenty-Six’s ability, she could have perfectly protected herself during the fight with the demonic cultivators, without needing to expose herself and directly confront them.

If it weren’t for the heart-fire she later shared, their team might not have ended with only half their people lost; total annihilation was possible.

Therefore, when a small faction within the camp began discussing consuming Twenty-Six, her immediate action was to stop it with killing, absolutely not allowing this sentiment to spread and cause a riot.

No one could guarantee that Twenty-Six’s abilities would transfer to everyone after being consumed, nor did anyone possess Twenty-Six’s temperament.

Moreover, although the situation was tense, she, Ji Xinghong, was ultimately from a righteous sect like the Fusion Faction.

She had a noble character, was courageous and resourceful, hated evil, and disdained such vulgar practices.

“But my success this time might just be a fluke,” Su Qing said. “It didn’t have much impact on the overall situation either.”

“Is that so? That’s because you don’t know yet: a part of that forest was lit up by you. With the tree you hid in as the center, seventeen days have passed, and the demonic energy has still not been able to erode it.” Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “I’ve staked all my chips on you. Even if you don’t have confidence in yourself, you should have some in me.”

That being said, Su Qing still hadn’t clearly thought about what to do.

Fortunately, Rainbow and the others didn’t immediately push her to make a decision. She could still squeeze out a little time to think thoroughly.

At night, she sat alone in front of the rootless fire, watching the increasingly vibrant silvery-white flames, lowering her eyelashes, contemplating her own matters.

After this round of absorption, the capacity of her internal heart-fire had greatly increased.

And as Rainbow said, she only needed to absorb.

The excess heart-fire could illuminate the forest or be distributed to everyone, further enhancing the strength of their faction.

Increasing the faction’s strength also benefited her, but it also increased the possibility of her being devoured.

Because during the impact of demonic energy, she could either suffer backlash or be ambushed by people from the camp.

Although Rainbow was protecting her, she never dared to speculate about the dark side of human nature.

Whether she would wake up the next time she fell unconscious was unknown.

The Healer came to her side at this moment.

She sat down, saying nothing, just quietly staring into space with Su Qing. Two clusters of flames gathered, flickering silently.

Before, she had always felt that the Healer was very familiar, especially today, because when Su Qing was first picked up by Xiu Fu and woke up, Xiu Fu’s comforting gestures and demeanor were exactly the same as the Healer’s this time.

But now that things had come to this, even if Su Qing was 60-70% sure, she didn’t dare to easily acknowledge her.

Originally, Xiu Fu alone had a sensitive identity; now, she was added to that.

After a long while, Su Qing slowly spoke, “I feel…”

The Healer seemed to have finally waited for it, turning her face and saying, “Hmm?”

She paused, “A little heavy.”

During this coma, because it was so cold, Su Qing’s thoughts actually drifted to a snowy plain, imagining the figure of a small child searching for spirit herbs. That was her imagined childhood of Liu Xiaofeng.

Their time together was very short; they didn’t have a very deep friendship. But Liu Xiaofeng’s words remained in Su Qing’s heart. She had told Su Qing, “Bearing the fate of others is truly too heavy.”

It was not until today that Su Qing vaguely experienced a bit of that feeling.

Su Qing didn’t want to deceive herself, and there was no need to deceive herself.

To be honest, in her heart, with the jade-like object’s blessing, slowly enduring, letting things take their natural course, and playing it safe was more cost-effective. There was no need to expose herself proactively.

However… she didn’t forget that on her first night here, the camp unconditionally accepted her.

Just like the day she found herself in a cultivation world with no relatives, a lovely and kind girl said nothing, picked her up, and cared for her for a long time.

Before she made a choice, there were always others who chose her first.

Allowing her to naturally choose, to lean towards the “human” side.

But not everyone had her good fortune.

“I understand,” the Healer said softly. “I have countless times had the thought of wanting to escape with the heart-fire. Dying in the demonic energy might be more fulfilling than dying at the hands of companions.”

The heart-fire, gained from the successive sacrifices of predecessors, had instead become an inducement for mutual strife.

Before Rainbow’s arrival, when the camp order had not been firmly established, she couldn’t remember how many times she had almost lost her life because of it.

She didn’t say any comforting words, not even those righteous ones, but Su Qing still received some comfort.

The Healer said, “It’s a pity, there’s nothing here. I used to have a well-kept little hut. Although there was nothing in it either, at least there was a sun-dried quilt where you could rest.”

Her hand fell on Su Qing’s hand. “I’m also very scared, but being scared is nothing.

I’ll stay with you. When two people do something, it feels much safer.”

She was very brave, so she was the first to acknowledge Su Qing.

Su Qing couldn’t help but chuckle.

Indeed, she had been hesitating and looking back and forth, but she had forgotten that the power of choice had been in Xiu Fu’s hands from the beginning.