Liu Shiyao launched her attack swiftly, fiercely, and precisely. She immediately raised the long sword in her hand and lunged straight towards Ye Zhiqiu.
Song Yan pulled Ye Zhiqiu aside and dodged her attack. Liu Shiyao's sword deviated a bit and only scratched Song Yan's arm.
She turned around, placed her hand on the main gate, and tilted her head to look at Song Yan and Ye Zhiqiu hiding aside. "You can't escape."
"Who lives and who dies is still uncertain." Song Yan stood in front of Ye Zhiqiu, scoffing at Liu Shiyao's words.
Liu Shiyao didn't care. Anyway, she wouldn't die, and Song Yan posed no threat. This place was truly the battlefield between her and Ye Zhiqiu.
Here, only one of them could survive.
"Song Yan, I'll hold her off. You find an opportunity to leave here." Ye Zhiqiu grabbed Song Yan's arm and whispered this.
Song Yan was not happy to hear this. What did it mean that he should find an opportunity to run away? "If I wanted to run away, I wouldn't have come back to find you!"
"This is not the time to be a hero. You have to know that if you die here, you're really dead!" Ye Zhiqiu frowned tightly upon hearing Song Yan's words. Due to the urgent situation, the hand holding Song Yan's arm tightened a bit.
"But what about you?" Song Yan's voice softened a bit, and he said this very seriously. "Won't you die either?"
His words stunned Ye Zhiqiu. Indeed, just as Song Yan said, although his wounds seemed to have healed, there were still scars left.
He didn't know when his ability would disappear. Maybe after a certain death, he really wouldn't wake up again.
"Your affection for each other is truly touching, but I won't give you so much time to express your feelings anymore. As for you two..." Liu Shiyao laughed, raising her voice a bit. "Neither of you will be able to leave."
After saying that, she stabbed the sword in her hand towards them. Liu Shiyao had never learned martial arts after all. Her swordplay was shallow and had no form at all.
Every time she attacked, she only aimed at the vital parts. These moves were easy to block, but the problem was...
Song Yan watched as Liu Shiyao pulled out the sword from her chest. There was no trace of pain on her face. Instead, she looked at Song Yan and Ye Zhiqiu, and easily pulled out the long sword and threw it on the ground.
She wouldn't die, and these injuries posed no threat to her.
This was the most troublesome part.
No matter what they did, Liu Shiyao wouldn't die, which also meant that they simply had no chance to escape.
"Alright, just use all your moves." Liu Shiyao said this with a smile. The wound on her chest stopped bleeding.
She held the long sword horizontally in front of her, tapped her toes, and rushed towards them. Song Yan parried her attack with his long sword, but he could only buy time after all.
His physical strength was limited after all. Continuing this delaying battle would do them no good.
No matter how many times Ye Zhiqiu and Song Yan killed Liu Shiyao, she could still be resurrected on the spot. There was simply no way out like this.
They couldn't kill Liu Shiyao, and Liu Shiyao couldn't kill Ye Zhiqiu either.
This was a dead end.
After being killed countless times, Liu Shiyao felt a splitting headache, as if thousands of insects were gnawing at her brain. Her head was buzzing.
Even the things in front of her eyes gradually became blurred. She leaned the long sword against her side to keep herself from falling.
The figures of Ye Zhiqiu and Song Yan became blurred. Liu Shiyao rubbed her temples in an attempt to relieve the pain, but it was useless.
The pain in her head made her almost unable to stand. She needed a human heart now.
Only in this way could she stop the pain again and save her life.
Since her first death, Liu Shiyao had known that the price for her resurrection was a human heart. If there was no human heart, the parasite in her brain would gnaw at her brain marrow until it broke out of her body and she died.
She just didn't know if Luo Nan would regret it if he knew that this would be the result after saving her.
Everyone's resurrection came at a price, but Ye Zhiqiu was an exception. As long as they could find the reason for his resurrection, maybe she wouldn't have to eat human hearts to restrain the parasite again and again.
In this way, she might be able to find a way to force the parasite out. She had lived such a life for too long. It was time to end it.
But now...
What she needed most was a human heart.
Liu Shiyao steadied her mind and endured the pain in her head. She picked up the long sword beside her, glanced in the direction of Song Yan and Ye Zhiqiu. After only a moment of hesitation, she stabbed the tip of the sword towards Song Yan.
Liu Shiyao didn't know where Ye Zhiqiu came from, so she couldn't attack rashly. No matter how she thought about it, it would be safer to attack the ordinary Song Yan.
Song Yan had already exhausted too much physical strength in the battle with Liu Shiyao at that time and had no extra strength to dodge. He watched as the tip of the sword stabbed straight towards him, but he didn't even have the strength to dodge.
He could only watch as the blade came towards him but had no way to avoid the attack.
Liu Shiyao's head was buzzing at this time. The sword in her hand was aimed straight at Song Yan's chest. Just then, a figure suddenly flashed in front of him.
Liu Shiyao couldn't stop her hand and watched as the tip of the sword pierced Ye Zhiqiu's chest. Song Yan's eyes widened in shock, and his mind went blank. He didn't even have time to react.
Liu Shiyao was also shocked. She didn't expect that Ye Zhiqiu would finally block the sword for Song Yan. But now she had no choice. The pain in her head forced her to look for a heart.
No matter who the person in front of her was, as long as she could take out the heart to stop her pain, she would do whatever it took to get it!
Liu Shiyao could feel that her consciousness was no longer her own. She could only instinctively mess up Ye Zhiqiu's chest and dig out his heart with her bare hands.
Blood flowed all over the place. Song Yan wanted to step forward to stop her, but he didn't even have the strength to stand up. He could only watch as Ye Zhiqiu lay on the ground, looking in Song Yan's direction.
He felt as if time had slowed down all of a sudden. The only sound left was the sound of Liu Shiyao gnawing on the heart echoing in the quiet cold palace.
Song Yan watched with tears in his eyes. Everything in front of him became blurred. For some reason, he felt that Ye Zhiqiu might really never wake up this time.
A sense of powerlessness he had never felt before surrounded him. Song Yan had never hated his own uselessness as much as he did at this moment.
He couldn't even protect one person. How could he be worthy of the position of the director of the Investigation Department?
On the other side, Liu Shiyao put Ye Zhiqiu's heart into her mouth. The instinct to survive made her swallow the whole heart.
The taste of blood filled her mouth. No matter how long this feeling lasted, she could never get used to it. After eating the heart, she slumped down beside Ye Zhiqiu. The pain in her head seemed to stop for a moment.
She thought it would be the same as before, and the parasite in her head would stop for a while, but this time it was different.
The pain in her head only lasted for a moment and then continued again. Moreover, she could feel that there was an uncontrollable pain not only in her head but also all over her body.
This pain was like tearing her apart. Liu Shiyao looked down at her hand. The blood vessels on it became thick, and her skin all over her body felt tight.
"What is this!" Liu Shiyao watched as the blood vessels on her body became thick one by one, as if they were about to burst the next second. She stared with wide eyes, and there was a bad feeling in her heart.
She stood up and staggered forward, but the next second, she exploded and died.
With a scream from Liu Shiyao, the next second, there was only a pool of blood left in place. She fell to one side, and there was no trace of a human being on her body.
Liu Shiyao never thought that she would die like this, and in such a state.
She could no longer feel the pain just now. It seemed that a white light had lit up in front of her eyes, and she saw a familiar figure in that light.
That year, the peach blossoms were in full bloom, and she could still be with her beloved.
Although it was a few years late, she could finally get rid of the control and have a good rest.
Song Yan looked at Liu Shiyao's body. He had no time to care about anything else now. He forced himself to Ye Zhiqiu's side and took the breathless Ye Zhiqiu into his arms.
He felt very powerless now. He didn't know what to do, and he didn't know if Ye Zhiqiu would be resurrected.
He had no other choice but to hold him and wait.
Ye Zhiqiu's fingertips were very cold. Song Yan held his hand. He was a person who didn't believe in ghosts and gods, but now he had never been so eager for a miracle to happen.
He could only pray in his heart again and again. If there really was a god in this world, he hoped that Ye Zhiqiu could wake up again.
But no matter how long he prayed in his heart, there was no sign of Ye Zhiqiu's chest wound healing.
In the main hall on the other side, the guard bowed respectfully and said, "Reporting to the Empress Dowager, the Imperial Concubine is dead."
Shen Mingyue's hand that was trimming the flower branches paused, and she accidentally cut off a well - blooming flower. She didn't react for a long time. Her eyes were fixed on the fallen flower branch, and she waved her hand weakly. "I see. You may step back."
The guard bowed and then stepped back.
After there was no one around, Shen Mingyue couldn't hold on anymore and staggered a few steps. She sat on the chair, a tear slid down from the corner of her eye, and a pale smile appeared on her lips. "It's good... It's good... She can finally... leave this cage..."
Qing Jing walked into the hall, put his arm around Shen Mingyue, and gently patted her on the back, silently comforting her.
In the cold palace, Song Yan waited for a long time, but there was no sign of Ye Zhiqiu's resurrection. Just when he was about to give up, he found that Ye Zhiqiu's wound was healing bit by bit.
Only after he was sure did he breathe a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, Ye Zhiqiu wasn't dead.
Song Yan had never been so embarrassed, nor had he shed so many tears for Ye Zhiqiu like this.
But now that he was sure that Ye Zhiqiu's wound was healing, this place was no longer safe. He took Ye Zhiqiu and tried to find a way out of the palace.
After they walked out of the cold palace, a person suddenly jumped down from the eaves. That person glanced at the wide - open palace door and then slowly walked to Liu Shiyao's side.
Looking at the blood under her body, a disdainful smile appeared on the corner of his lips.
"Humph, another failure."
After saying that, he waved his sleeve and walked out.
Song Yan and Ye Zhiqiu, who managed to get out of the palace, shared a carriage. He didn't dare to divert his attention for a moment and stared at Ye Zhiqiu without blinking.
After the carriage reached outside the palace, Ye Zhiqiu woke up. As soon as he opened his eyes, he fell into a pair of concerned eyes.
"Song Yan..." Before Ye Zhiqiu could finish his words, Song Yan hugged him. Ye Zhiqiu was a bit at a loss for a moment when faced with the sudden hug.
"It's good that you're awake." Song Yan's voice was very low. The fear and helplessness before were completely gone now that he saw Ye Zhiqiu wake up with his own eyes.
The tense string in his mind suddenly relaxed, and he fell into a coma.