Chapter 671
First Intimate Contact
Chapter 671 First Intimate Contact (Part 2)
"No, it's nothing, I just got scratched." Facing Gao De's focused gaze, Liu Ying still tried to appear calm.
A faint smile was forced onto her already pale face.
She instinctively pulled her injured left arm back.
Because of her physical condition, Liu Ying has become accustomed to hiding her pain, bearing it alone, and not letting others worry about her.
"It's just a minor injury, it won't make a difference."
Before she could finish speaking, her brows furrowed involuntarily.
A sharp, piercing pain shot through the wound, as if countless tiny needles were pricking it.
Even more frightening is that fine black lines are rapidly appearing on the originally light pink skin around the wound, spreading like a spider web towards the elbow.
“It contains putrefactive substances.” Gao De frowned, his tone grave.
The withered soul servants are essentially ancient rotting corpses, whose bodies have been buried in the desolate withered soul realm for tens of thousands of years, and have long since developed extremely stubborn putrefactive poison.
This toxin is not usually fatal, not even considered a supernatural toxin, and is nothing to a mage.
But times have changed.
Now, Liu Ying's source of magic power has been completely cut off by the magic-free plane, making her no different from an ordinary mortal. She is completely unable to resist this kind of targeted corrosive poison that erodes the body.
"We can't let the putrefaction spread," Gao De said decisively.
However, no sooner had he finished speaking than an unexpected scene unfolded.
A faint golden light, like a star, suddenly flashed in the blood seeping from the wound on Liu Ying's wrist.
Although the golden light was faint, it carried an undeniable purifying power.
Wherever it passed, the black, putrid poison receded and melted away at a visible speed, like ice and snow encountering the blazing sun.
In the blink of an eye, the putrefaction disappeared.
Even though the putrefaction was temporarily dispelled, the danger of the wound did not diminish at all.
The withered soul servant's claw gripped deeply and fiercely, landing precisely near the radial artery on the inside of Liu Ying's wrist.
The blood vessels there are superficial, and the blood flow is rapid.
In addition, she was slender, with clearly visible pale blue veins and wrist bones beneath her skin, and blood was gushing from a deep wound that exposed bone.
Crimson blood dripped onto the pristine white ash floor, blooming into dazzling flowers.
Right now, there isn't even a decent piece of cloth, let alone bandages or hemostatic drugs.
If the blood loss continues like this, even without the putrefactive poison, it will be enough to leave Liu Ying, who is unable to mobilize her magic power, in an extremely weak state, or even cause her to die.
The bleeding must be stopped as soon as possible.
The situation is urgent.
Gaode didn't have time to think much, and at this moment, he couldn't care less about the "sense of boundaries" that Liu Ying had deliberately maintained.
He instinctively leaned forward, stretched out his right hand, and grabbed Liu Ying's injured wrist, precisely choking the bleeding vein above it.
This time, Liu Ying couldn't avoid it.
At this point, she was focusing most of her attention on her wounds.
When she realized what was happening, she found that Gaode had firmly grasped her slender wrist in his palm.
It was a completely unfamiliar sensation.
Her pupils dilated instinctively, and her mouth opened slightly, as if she wanted to say something.
However, she no longer needed to speak.
At the very moment of skin contact.
hiss!
Gao De gasped sharply.
He felt as if he were holding not a girl's slender wrist, but a red-hot iron.
Burning sensation.
This is the most intuitive feeling.
It's not just a regular burn; it's a kind of scalding that penetrates directly from the surface of the skin to the depths of the bone marrow.
It felt as if someone had inserted a red-hot iron needle into his palm, and it traveled upwards along the veins in his arm.
Looking down, one could see a fine layer of golden fluorescence flowing across Liu Ying's wrist.
The source of the burning was this layer of golden fluorescence.
The skin on the palm of his hand, which was gripping Liu Ying's wrist, had quickly turned red and blistered.
But at the same time, his body was also adapting quickly.
[You are currently being eroded by pure, divine, radiant energy. Your body is undergoing extreme adjustments in response to its survival instincts. Your tolerance to radiant energy is gradually increasing, your resistance to radiant damage is increasing by 0.5%, and the rate at which divine energy erodes your life is decreasing by 0.3%.]
Gao De looked at Liu Ying in astonishment.
Liu Ying had finally realized what was happening, her blue eyes filled with panic as she struggled to pull her wrist back. "Let go!"
"Don't move!" However, Gao De shouted in a low voice, his tone firm and unwavering, interrupting Liu Ying's movements.
He endured the burning pain in his palm, quickly raised his other hand, and without hesitation brought his index finger to his lips, biting down hard.
The skin on my fingertip cracked, and bright red blood immediately gushed out.
Unlike ordinary blood, his blood droplets shimmered with a very faint light.
After evolving into the [Primary Healing Body], his blood was no longer ordinary, containing special life energy.
It can not only effectively inhibit infection, but also greatly improve the healing speed of other people's wounds.
In the current situation, it can definitely be used as a hemostatic ointment.
Liu Ying didn't care about Gao De's strange action. Her ingrained habit made her subconsciously want to struggle and pull her wrist back.
However, Gao De firmly held her wrist, and she couldn't pull her hand away no matter what she did—without being able to use her magic, there was a stark difference between her strength and Gao De's.
After struggling for a few moments, Liu Ying finally gave up and stared blankly at Gao De's hand holding her wrist.
Even when she was "exiled" to the desolate and barren Soul Realm, her eyes, which had never shown any particular emotional fluctuation, began to reveal some indescribable emotions.
"Don't move." Gao De was completely oblivious to the other person's expression and emotional changes. As soon as blood started flowing from his fingertip, he immediately pressed it onto her deep, bone-revealing wound.
The crimson blood mingled with the fresh blood on Liu Ying's wrist, and the faint light instantly spread out, intertwining with the weak golden light emanating from Liu Ying's body to form a warm halo that enveloped the entire wound.
Zizizi!
The burning continued, and in just a short while, the originally tough skin on Gaode's palm was turning black at a visible speed under the burning golden light, and a faint smell of burning permeated the air.
Gaode, however, was completely unaware.
One reason is that he has the [Pain-Bearing Body], which gives him an extraordinary ability to withstand pain. In addition, he also has the [Primary Healing Body], so recovering from this injury is not a difficult task.
Another point is that Gaode Maps can clearly sense the rapid jumps in the "adaptive" mode:
[You are currently being eroded by pure, divine, radiant energy. Your body is undergoing extreme adjustments in response to its survival instincts. Your tolerance to radiant energy is gradually increasing, your resistance to radiant damage is increasing by 9.4%, and the rate at which divine energy erodes your life is decreasing by 9.7%.]
He's having a great time.
"In this situation, if the bleeding cannot be stopped in time, the consequences could be disastrous."
As Gao De felt his body adapting rapidly, he subconsciously explained to Liu Ying, his tone carrying a hint of reassurance.
Then, a miraculous scene unfolded.
The bleeding at Liu Ying's wound slowed instantly, and the blood that had been gushing out gradually congealed. At the edge of the wound, which was deep enough to expose bone, granulation tissue began to wriggle and grow at a visible speed.
Her pale, stiff skin was slowly regaining its color.
Gao De lowered his head, admiring the powerful effects of his "Tang Monk's Blood" while curiously observing the fine golden light that Liu Ying was shrouding on her skin.
He was so focused that he didn't notice the dramatic change in the emotions of the person holding the slender wrist in his palm.
He couldn't see Liu Ying's eyes.
They failed to see those blue eyes, which had always been veiled with a faint sense of aloofness and wariness, suddenly crumble at that moment.
For the first time, emotions that belonged to a girl of this age, emotions that Liu Ying had never experienced before, appeared in her eyes.
The girl stared intently and "curiously" at Gaode, at the hand that was holding her wrist.
It was pure, bewildered curiosity.
Like a puppy being petted on the head for the first time by its owner, its skin is wet.
"What's going on?" After hesitating for a moment, Gao De finally couldn't help but ask.
"It is light."
"Light?"
"Light will flow from my body, scorching and harming everyone who comes into contact with it, including myself." Liu Ying's gaze fell on their clasped wrists, her long eyelashes fluttering gently like butterfly wings.
“My father said it was both a blessing and a curse.”
"It gave me a magical talent that no one could imagine, but it also made it impossible for me to have any contact with others, not even the simplest touch."
“When I was little, my light was very dim, but even so, just because of the slight emotional fluctuations when I cried, which caused my wet nurse to lose her left hand forever.”
“Since then, no one has had any contact with me.”
"Later, the light became stronger and stronger, and I could no longer bear it. From then on, my father asked me to stay in my room and focus on my practice."
"I can only survive if my mage level increases faster than the rate at which light grows."
"Hiss!" Gao De gasped, then looked up at Liu Ying's face.
This was the first time he had ever heard of such a constitution.
Behind those seemingly glamorous "talents" and "nobility" lies such a heavy price.
At that moment, he finally understood.
The safe distance that Liu Ying had always deliberately maintained in any situation was not a matter of "boundaries" or being pretentious, but rather because her physical condition was extremely special, and she was trying to avoid hurting others.
"Even in the current desolate and barren Soul Realm, a plane without magic, the light is only suppressed, not disappeared, and continues to flow out continuously."
After a pause, Liu Ying said softly, "If this were a mage-level world, your hand would have turned to ashes by now."
Gao De felt a chill run down his spine.
Yes, if this magic-free plane hadn't suppressed light elemental energy to the extreme, his unguarded grip just now would probably have instantly been burned to ashes by the pure holy radiance energy.
Even the most advanced adaptive technologies require time and a process to develop.
Just like how people can gradually develop heat tolerance when they are in a hot environment for a long time.
However, if you throw them directly into a boiling boiler, they will die instantly, with no possibility of adaptation or evolution whatsoever.
The burning sensation was slowly subsiding, but Liu Ying's wound was healing faster and faster.
Gao De breathed a sigh of relief and slowly released his fingers from the wound, but still did not let go of her wrist.
I was afraid that if I let go, the wound would bleed again.
At this moment, the skin on his palm had peeled off, turning black, revealing tender new flesh underneath.
This is the power of the [Primary Healing Body].
It wasn't just the new radiance resistance that was increasing; under this burning effect, his body's ability to recover from injuries also began to pulsate and slowly improve.
This made Gaode even more reluctant to let go.
"This is the first time someone has had such close contact with me," the girl said, staring blankly at Gao De's palm.
Her voice was soft and delicate, like a feather brushing the surface of water, revealing no emotion whatsoever.
Intimate contact?
Gao De paused for a moment, then subconsciously looked down at his hand that was holding her wrist.
The touch from my fingertips was delicate and slightly cool, but it wasn't exactly intimate.
It even caused a strong burning pain because of that fine layer of golden light.
Such contact, from any perspective, cannot be described as "intimate".
If it were anyone else, Gaode would suspect that the other party was trying to stage an accident.
However, what came out of the girl's mouth was perfectly normal.
For a girl who has never had even the simplest skin-to-skin contact with anyone since she can remember, how can such a touch not be considered intimate?
As a young woman from the most ancient dynasty on the continent, possessing the magical talent that others could only dream of, she had never experienced a simple hug, a gentle touch, or even the hand-holding of a loved one.
That's not even the worst part.
The most pitiful thing is that Liu Ying has to race against her own talent.
A slight misstep could lead to one's own talent devouring their life.
The powerful mage talent came at such a heavy price.
At least in Gaode's view, this is by no means something to be happy about.
Thinking this, he looked at Liu Ying's lowered head and, as if possessed, reached out his other hand.
His movements were very gentle, lightly landing on the top of her head.
He had no complicated thoughts in his mind; he simply subconsciously regarded Liu Ying, who was speaking with her head down, as a girl who needed comforting.
Liu Ying's long, golden hair, as radiant as sunlight, felt even better to the touch than she had imagined.
It is soft, smooth, and strangely warm, like the winter sun.
Even the finest silks cannot compare.
His fingertips nestled in the soft strands of hair, the warm touch causing Gao De's palm to move back and forth involuntarily.
A few breaths later, he suddenly came to his senses and pulled his hand back as if he had been electrocuted.
What am I doing?!
Liu Ying is not the kind of girl who needs comforting.
She was a princess of the dynasty, a pearl of the golden bird flower, and her level of magic was far superior to his.
Although we've never fought, judging by the opponent's physique, they could probably easily crush me in a fight.
And here I am, stroking her head?!
However, the moment he withdrew his hand, Liu Ying, who had been keeping her head down, slowly raised her head.
Those blue eyes stared straight at Gao De's withdrawn hand, filled with a hint of doubt and confusion.
Gao De suddenly realized that Liu Ying not only did not resist his "patting her head" at all, but might even be looking forward to it.
It's like a puppy longing to be petted on the head by its "owner".
(End of this chapter)