The setting sun resembled blood, staining the Qingzhou battlefield into an Asura purgatory. The dark red afterglow spilled over shattered weapons and corpses, and congealed scabs formed bizarre patterns on the ground, rustling as the evening wind whipped up the grit. Broken long spears stood slanted in the scorched earth, their tassels long since soaked through with blood like withered red plum blossoms. Embedded in a shattered shield was half a palm belonging to a lackey of the Nether Palace, the fingernails casting a greenish-black sheen as if still recounting the terror of death. Maggots crawling from rotting flesh wriggled upon broken blades, and the air was filled with a sickening, sweetish stench mixed with putrid odors. Even the crows wheeling overhead emitted hoarse cries, as though mourning this fierce and tragic battle.
Shen Mingyue knelt beside a massive boulder, her skirt already soaked through with dust and bloodstains like a crumpled, shabby painting. Her trembling fingertips brushed across Gu Jinghong's pale cheeks, the pads of her fingers lightly wiping away the undried tear tracks at the corner of his eyes, her heart filled with heartache and self-reproach. "If not to protect me..." Her throat choked, her voice shattering into incoherent syllables. Tears dropped onto his icy face, instantly frozen into frost by the bitter wind. His eyelashes trembled in the high fever, and the wound on his chest, crudely bandaged with medicinal herbs, oozed a dark purple liq…
Chapter 131