Live Sacrifice

Chapter 55

Shi An's words were like thunder from the ground, and Mu Hang was shocked into blankness.

The Shi An in front of me had a naïve posture and an innocent face, and she didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with what she had just said.

With little warning, images that had previously been deliberately forgotten came to life.

Touch, temperature.

Sound, color, light, shadow.

All of it jumps out at you extremely vividly.

The fingertips seemed to still have the soft and delicate touch of the other side of the waistline, like a fire that burned straight from the nerve endings to the bones, blazing.

Mu Hang was in a state of confusion.

He subconsciously took a step back, his voice low and slightly trembling, with a triple mute, "You ......"

"You don't believe me?"

Shi An blinked, and jumped out of her seat.

He frowned, as if offended by Mu Hang's mistrust, and reached for Mu Hang's hand without being asked, then naturally snuggled himself in, saying with all seriousness, "Then you touch-"

Before he could finish his words, the man in front of him jerked his hand out as if he'd been burned.

Mu Hang retreats a few steps.

"...... don't need it." He gritted his teeth, his voice hoarse.

Mu Hang had never been in such a sorry state since he could remember.

Shi An was a little confused as to why the shiny human in front of her was acting so strangely.

He thought for a moment and asked:

"Sleeping together tonight?"

The man in front of him stood a few steps away, as if he had deliberately pulled away from a certain distance, his eyebrows were high and deep, his eyes were hidden in the shadows, his complexion could not be seen clearly, his lips were pursed tightly, and all of his emotions seemed to have been hidden under the deep sea of ice, not being able to see the slightest hint of clues.

After a long silence, he let out a flat "hmmm".

Nothing happened overnight.

The next day, at 6 a.m., Mu Hang opened his eyes right on time.

His eyes were clear, not half asleep.

--Though he fulfilled his promise, he couldn't let what happened last time happen again.

He has also often worked intensely for several days on assignments, and a sleepless night is not difficult for him.

Mu Hang sat up silently.

He paused, twisting his head toward the teenager beside him in the dim morning light from the window.

Shi An curls up under the covers, wrapping herself up tightly, half of her face buried in the fluffy pillow, her dense, dark eyelashes hanging down, casting a small shadow.

He was shrouded in a hazy, undefined light that appeared quiet and serene.

The young man slumbered without a care in the world, not half as defensive as the person beside him.

The chaotic morning light was filled with a certain touch of wanting silence.

Almost uncontrollably, Mu Hang leaned over.

His fingertips dangled in front of the teenager's cheeks, stopping hard just a fraction of an inch short of contact.

The man pursed his lips tightly, the line of his lips tightened into an unapproachable cold, hard straight line, his eyes slightly deepened, a dark color as deep as the sea rolled over in the bottom of his eyes.

After a long time, he slowly took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

But it was at that moment that the sleeping teenager stirred a little uneasily, grunted in his throat, and brushed his cheek against the fingertips the man was about to draw away.

In a flash of lightning, the small patch of skin briefly touched and separated.

Like a spark falling into a wildfire in the wilderness, it exploded into a searing flame that could consume everything, crackling and burning away sanity.

By the time Mu Hang realized it, his own fingertips had fallen.

This time, too, it wasn't an accident at the tip of the unintentional, but rather a contact dominated by a fully conscious state.

There is no barrier between the fingertips and the skin.

The teenager's cheeks were slightly cool and soft.

The touch that had been explored and fantasized in my mind was now real and clearly burned into my fingers.

Indescribable chaotic impulses festered in the heart.

The color of Mu Hang's eyes was unpredictable, his pale blue pupils were as deep as an abyss, and it was hard to tell whether they were clear or dark.

His fingertips slid noiselessly, the belly of his thumb pressing against the teenager's lower lip, applying a slight pressure, crimson emerging from beneath the rubbed lips, fingertips resting against the white, hard rows of teeth.

Like a clam shell.

With a little prying, you can touch the soft flesh inside.

Warm, soft and moist.

Shi An frowned slightly in discomfort, her eyelashes fluttering slightly as a muffled grunt escaped her throat.

Mu Hang was the one who steeped in surprise, who withdrew his hand as if in a dream and jerked back to pull away.

His brow furrowed, his expression cold and hard with resistance as he forced himself to look away.

Only the frequency of the heart's drumming was spreading some kind of bad signal.

*

When Shi An opens her eyes, Mu Hang has left and a new cell phone has been placed on her pillow.

He examined the remnants of the dragon's molt in his body, and was shocked and delighted to find that he was still a little bit short of the last bit, and he would be able to fully absorb all the magic power in it - although it was still far from what he had been before he fell asleep, it was already too much better than when he had just woken up.

Immediately afterward, Shi An received a call from Zhao She.

"Hello? Shi An where are you?" Zhao She on the other end of the line sounded a bit anxious.

Shi An was stunned, "What's wrong?"

Zhao She's voice mixed in the wind and snow, sounding a bit blurry: "We just received a notice from above that this year's Academic Exchange Conference has temporarily decided to start earlier."

Shi An: "In advance?"

Jo She: "Yes, so hurry up if you want to attend! The bus will be leaving soon!"

After hanging up, Shi An pinched her cell phone in deep thought.

Five days later would be the time when the auction would be held, and if one wanted to snatch their treasures back, it had to be during this time, and it was clear that the humans knew this very well, and their traps must have been set up during this time.

With such a tight schedule, it's logical that he shouldn't be attending this academic exchange of any kind.

But ...... it always feels like something is not quite right somewhere.

Shi An thought about it and sent a message to Mu Hang, then straightened his things and contacted the driver.

He arrived at the Avon Academy just in time to catch the last wave of cars heading to the playing field.

In the car, Shi An wrapped herself up tightly, ear muffs, gloves, scarf, and fire gems tucked into the inside of her shirt, but she was still shivering from the cold.

Zhao She looked at the lofty snowy mountains in front of her and sighed, "I really didn't expect ah, we just left from here not long ago, and actually came back so soon ...... Although this place and that abyssal rift site are not together, it still feels amazing ah."

Shi An sniffled and muffled, "I don't like it here ......"

Zhao She: "...... I see you were quite active when you signed up."

He wasn't going to come if it wasn't for the fact that he had his own lost treasure!

Shi An sighed and changed the subject.

He opened his mouth to ask:

"Speaking of which, what's this academic exchange all about, anyway?"

So Zhao She informed Shi An in detail of what he had now learned.

It turned out that this year's Academic Exchange followed a pattern similar to the Ableist Academy's practical test.

The venue was set to be the Avon Snowfield.

In previous years, the Avon Snowfield had gone into closure at this time of year, but this year a canyon near the southern end had been opened especially for this academic exchange, a canyon which, while still part of the Avon Snowfield, was far less extreme in temperature than within the snowfield, and was relatively closed off, making it a natural venue to hold the event.

Shi An listened, slightly stunned.

Avon Snowfield?

Then wouldn't this be pretty close to the cave you used to be in?

Though the phone was destroyed, the picture he had taken earlier inside the study was still saved in the cloud, and Shi An pulled up the image and searched for a map of the Avon snowfields - and sure enough, it was the same.

However, there seemed to be something about the two maps that was subtly different.

Shi An made a careful comparison.

Both maps indicated the location of the Abyssal Rift site, but, in the map on the photograph, the very end of the Abyssal Rift site, the location of the cavern where he had been moved by the Abyssal Rift to the continent, had, in the vicinity of the bend, a marked fissure that led to--

A tiny canyon in the southern part of the Avon Snowfield.

Shi An frowned.

He tugged on the sleeve of Zhao She beside him and pointed out the same location on the official map to Zhao She, "Are we going here this time?"

Zhao She looked over and nodded, "Yeah."

*

Soon, the Avon Academy sent people to send all the participants to the canyon outside the Avon Snowfield.

Shi An lowered her head and followed Zhao She forward while thinking seriously.

The time and location of this academic exchange meeting is really strange, but isn t ...... Administration the trap laid out over there on the auction house side? And even the news has been released, so it's reasonable to say that it shouldn't be changed temporarily.

He pulled out his cell phone and the screen lit up.

At that point, Shi An realized that the cell phone's signal grid had been cleared.

It seems like ...... can't contact the outside world.

He froze, the puzzled look in his eyes deepening.

After the rules were all announced, the cadets from each academy entered the canyon in batches.

The thick snow underfoot made a creaking sound under the tread, the canyon was dead silent, and the extremely low temperature turned the sky into a kind of light gray that had been frozen.

Shi An and Zhao She and Wei Bocheng group.

The other two chatted obliviously about something, one after the other, heading deeper into the canyon.

At this time, Zhao She turned his head to look at Shi An, who had been silent since a moment ago, and asked with some suspicion, "What's wrong? You look preoccupied since just now?"

Shi An shakes her head, "Nothing ......"

It was at this moment that he violently felt a strange wave of magic power coming from within the canyon.

Shi An snapped her head up and looked in the direction from which the fluctuation had come.

A few clear figures slowly emerged from the white snow in the distance.

The faces of the men were unfamiliar, but the winter clothes Shi An was wearing were very familiar - he had personally stripped off three sets of the same clothes and wrapped them around his freezing self.

It's ...... the group of mercenaries.

Zhao She obviously realized something was wrong as well, he frowned and took an attack stance, blocking Shi An towards his back without a trace, "What are you doing?"

The opposite number did not answer.

One of them had gloomy eyes, and his sight fell on the three students in front of him as he slowly asked:

"That's them?"

The other man cringed and said, "Yeah."

"The number of living sacrifices to summon the dragon is sufficient, and as for these-"

The man grunted coldly, a sinister look sweeping across his eyes:

"The top has put the word down that they caused us such serious losses last time, so we can't let them die so painfully this time."

He beckoned and commanded:

"Take away."