Was she about to lose?
Severe pain spread from her abdomen to every limb and organ. Her five viscera and six bowels seemed to have shifted positions.
The true essence that had been circulating orderly through her meridians was now like a runaway wild horse, madly charging about, bringing waves of tearing agony.
Chen Xingcai curled up on the cold arena floor, consciousness wavering between blur and clarity.
Hong Longxiang's punch had indeed inflicted serious injury. Had he not held back slightly at the last moment, had he not held back from immediately following up, the next punch could have directly ended this battle—or even endangered her life.
She even understood why Hong Longxiang hadn't immediately followed up.
What he desired was not defeating a "Holy Maiden of the Immortal Spirit Sacred Land" in the arena. What he desired was defeating that person who possessed the "Hong Family Supreme Blood"—that "sister" who had once symbolized a talent and resources he could never reach.
He wanted to prove that without relying on that so-called supreme bloodline, Hong Longxiang could still transcend everything through his own power!
But... she was unwilling.
She simply refused to use that power.
Not out of pettiness, nor for the sake of so-called fairness.
Rather, because she genuinely, deeply loathed this bloodline flowing through her veins. This power was connected to the Hong family's cold, calculating, manipulation-filled past. It was connected to those memories she didn't want to look back on.
Though the knot in her heart regarding her father Chen Chang'an had been untied the moment the Hong family was destroyed and he took her in. The love and warmth her father gave her far exceeded that cold family a thousand times over. But this bloodline itself... she couldn't accept it.
"So painful..." Her injuries kept sending sharp pangs that made her consciousness drift. "This bratty brother... hits so hard... I can never bring myself to like him anyway..."
Due to her disordered true essence, the seal she had placed on the vast Supreme Blood within her naturally weakened.
A warm, vast, life-filled yet supremely majestic power, like spring water thawing, began to slowly flow through her dried, aching meridians, spontaneously repairing her injuries.
That power was intimately close to her, carrying a kind of childlike attachment and reliance, carefully nourishing her damaged body without showing any rejection or harm despite her long-term sealing and loathing.
Why?
A trace of bewilderment rose in Chen Xingcai's heart. Why was this power she loathed so gentle toward her?
Just then, that slowly flowing Supreme Blood, as if carrying some spiritual awareness, gently touched the depths of her consciousness.
Some memory fragments sealed by long years—scattered and blurry—like a calm lake disturbed by a thrown stone, rippling in circles, quietly surfaced—
...A valley in the twilight, orchids gently parting. A man approached nervously, as if afraid of startling some venomous snake or beast.
But what he saw was a small bamboo boat and an infant lying peacefully asleep in swaddling clothes. The baby had a round head, black hair, and a small mouth that occasionally smacked.
...His fingertips carefully touched the swaddling clothes. Instantly, the entire flower sea moved without wind. Purple Jade Ice Lotuses and other spirit flowers glowing with eerie blue light unfurled their petals unusually, gently lifting the baby girl before him.
The infant woke, opening round, bright eyes. Seeing him, she didn't cry—instead, she giggled, revealing tiny teeth like broken jade.
...He picked her up. "Light, too light, and very cold." True essence flowed into her tiny body. He deeply furrowed his brow—"Beneath the seemingly healthy skin, her blood vessels are as dry as a riverbed in drought. This tiny infant has no blood in her body at all, yet she can still survive!"
...From his fingertip, a golden-red blood bead condensed, containing unimaginable energy. "Now you have my bloodline too..." he murmured. Using blood as ink, he drew ancient, mysterious blood contract patterns in the air.
Each stroke pulled heavenly and earthly qi into swirling vortices. The baby girl began to cry, the sound waves shaking all the surrounding spirit flowers into withering.
...When the final blood pattern merged into her chest, the Big Dipper in the night sky suddenly blazed bright. Brilliant starlight poured into her crown like a silver waterfall.
...At dawn, he examined her again. "Guided by that drop of my lifeblood, what flows in her blood vessels has condensed into starlight." Holding her—her body temperature restored, no longer cold—he chuckled softly: "That's right. From now on, your name will be Chen Xingcai."
...
The warm current of memory washed away her body's agony and the coldness in her heart.
Chen Xingcai curled on the ground. Tears slid unbidden from the corners of her eyes, mingling with the blood at her lips.
The Supreme Blood she had always loathed, rejected, and seen as the Hong family's brand...
It turned out...
Its source, its essence, had never been that cold, calculating Hong family.
Its source was that man in the twilight valley who had carefully picked her up.
It was that precious drop of his lifeblood.
It was that night's brilliant Big Dipper starlight.
It was the father who gave her a name, who gave her new life—Chen Chang'an.
It had never been a brand of shame.
It was the deepest love and protection her father had given her.
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