"What is this?" The lady asked with suspicion, looking at the ash-like clump in Yu Jin's hand.
"It's good stuff. If you don't pinch it now, you'll die!" Yu Jin reminded her. In her current state, the lady was constantly Burning away her own life.
"My King, what is this?" Lanssangx asked, also curious, looking at the ash in Yu Jin's hand.
"Dead skin from my body." Yu Jin spoke of the origin of the Yu Huo in his hand as if the lady wasn't even there.
Such blatant differential treatment left the lady feeling a surge of indignation.
"Uh…" Lanssangx looked at the large clump of ash in Yu Jin's hand and suddenly wondered how long it had been since he last bathed.
However, considering that saying it aloud might earn her a beating from Yu Jin, Lanssangx swallowed her doubt.
"Dead skin?" The lady took the large clump of Yu Huo from Yu Jin's hand and, half-believing, gently squeezed it.
"Crack!" The Yu Huo in her hand seemed to truly be made of loose ash. With just a slight squeeze from the lady, the Yu Huo scattered.
As the ash, sparkling with points of fire, diffused, it purposefully drifted into the lady's body, undergoing some change within her.
"Ah—" Flames, from the inside out, ignited in the lady's soul. Unnaturally, molten lava, transformed from an unknown substance, flowed across the hem of her dress and her body.
Her soul was constantly disintegrating, and her nasal passages and throat were filled with stinging pain and intense heat.
"Cough, cough—" Large plumes of ash spewed from the lady's mouth. Under the scorching of the flames, her flesh and blood began to turn into dust and smoke.
"I can't die… I can't die yet…" The lady, her consciousness nearly blurred, lay sprawled on the ground. Her slender fingers dug deep into the sand, as if that could alleviate her pain.
"It really doesn't work, does it?" Yu Jin shook his head, looking at the lady's pained expression. The power of fire was not something ordinary people could bear.
"Then let's forget it!" Yu Jin extended his palm, and specks of smoke with embers drifted out from the lady's body. They floated and eventually passed through the gaps in his armor, returning to Yu Jin's body.
Yu Jin looked at the dazed lady on the ground, crouched down, and a faint yellow light wave swept across.
The ripples of a great tree appeared on the ground; wherever the light wave passed, tender grass sprouted from ash, and new shoots emerged from charred wood.
And the scorched, carbonized flesh on the lady's body began to peel off, with new granulation tissue filling the empty wounds.
"Mmm…" The lady opened her eyes and took a deep breath. The cool, refreshing air entered her fiery body, ultimately turning into a scorching hot current.
The flames that had previously made the lady uncomfortable now felt so warm.
There was no DMG without comparison; compared to the fire within Yu Jin, the witch's flames truly seemed insignificant.
Feeling the power gradually filling her body, the lady's body directly transformed into a swirling flame, rapidly pulling away from Yu Jin.
"You…" The flames dispersed, and the lady's figure reappeared. She pointed at Yu Jin, the firelight on her body surging continuously.
The lady was about to question him, but then suddenly found she couldn't say anything.
The pressure that immobilized the lady reappeared. Beads of sweat as large as beans dripped from her forehead, and the flames within the lady's body began to contract under this pressure, as if she had seen something terrifying.
If the pressure Yu Jin had exerted on her last time came from a tremor of the soul, this time it was purely immense power. The pressure of the Sky collapsing and the earth sinking made it impossible for her to breathe.
"The weak must obey the strong, isn't that your creed? Why do you look so unwilling?"
A Straight Sword, a Shield, and armor with melted edges—this was Yu Jin's strongest state.
"Want to fight?" The Sword gently rested on the lady's collar.
Although this Straight Sword was rusty, and although it looked as if it was about to Melt, the lady had no doubt about its ability to sever her head.
The lady shook her head with difficulty, her skin touching Yu Jin's Sword blade. It was a very warm feeling, nothing like a weapon, but the lady didn't notice these details at all.
The Straight Sword returned to its sheath, and his aura receded. The lady felt a complete release throughout her body.
"Hoo—hoo—" The lady greedily gasped for air. Just now, she had literally not dared to breathe.
"That's right, I don't like fighting. And you're just too weak; you can't even learn the second phase I taught you. Fighting you is boring."
Yu Jin reverted to his unreliable self. He raised one hand high, clutching the Yu Huo, and then firelight began to flicker continuously on his body.
Melting, dissipating, Melting, then dissipating again… Invisible pressure impacted the lady's body in wave after wave, each very short, but with a sufficiently high frequency.
This made Yu Jin look like a constantly flickering LED light. The lady watched the firelight flicker before her eyes and couldn't help but shed two lines of clear tears.
As for why? Of course, it was because she was being smoked!
Every time Yu Jin used the power of fire, large plumes of ash sprayed out from the gaps in his armor. These ashes were strong and powerful, drilling straight into the lady's eyeballs, smoking her terribly.
"Sizzle—" A burnt smell wafted over. Besides ash, some black smoke now emanated from Yu Jin's body.
"What are you doing?" Yu Jin reached behind him and pulled Lanssangx out.
And in the latter's hand, there was a completely burnt piece of meat.
"Ptooey! So tasteless!" Lanssangx took a bite of the "charcoal" in her hand as if no one else was there; it only made her mouth feel gritty.
"I thought meat grilled with the King's body temperature would have some special effect." Lanssangx smiled awkwardly at Yu Jin, seeming a bit embarrassed.
"Did it have any effect?" Yu Jin was immediately captivated by Lanssangx's idea. He snatched the piece of meat from Lanssangx's hand and examined it carefully.
Unfortunately, besides the constantly falling charcoal bits, Yu Jin found nothing. He could only blame the extremely high body temperature of his second phase; this meat, from who knows where, instantly turned into charcoal.
Perhaps Lanssangx, being an Ancient Dragon, was not sensitive to these things? Yu Jin thought for a moment, then his eyes flickered to the lady rubbing her eyes nearby.
The lady suddenly felt her hairs stand on end. She looked up and met Yu Jin's gaze.
"You… what do you want to do?" The lady couldn't help but step back, looking at Yu Jin holding a lump of pitch-black material.
"Treat you to something delicious." Yu Jin held the charcoal in his hand even higher. Some falling charcoal bits even blew onto the lady with the wind.
"Do you have some misunderstanding about 'delicious'?" The lady was on the verge of tears. The item in Yu Jin's hand, by no stretch of the imagination, could be associated with "delicious."
Moreover, the experience of pinching the fire was still vivid in her memory. This made the lady feel somewhat apprehensive about any item from Yu Jin, and it was even less likely she would eat this so-called "delicious" thing.
To some extent, the lady was actually right. Yu Jin's palate had been bland for who knows how many years. Whether edible or not, he had stuffed it all in; to him, it all tasted the same.
"Alright, since you won't eat it, I won't force you." The lady only felt her vision blur, and the "meat slice" in Yu Jin's hand disappeared.
"But what about you? I think you won't last long before you're Burned to death." Yu Jin changed the subject, addressing the lady's current situation.
The flames on her body grew more and more turbulent, and her aura became stronger and stronger. Correspondingly, her vitality grew weaker and weaker.
"I can go back to Snezhnaya and find the Tsaritsa." The lady replied without thinking. The Tsaritsa could extinguish the flames on her body.
"Why go through so much trouble." Yu Jin waved his hand, a hint of eagerness in his tone. He extended three fingers, and orange-yellow flames began to dance upon them.
Yu Jin approached the lady step by step, while the lady retreated step by step.
"No… don't come any closer!"
"Lanssangx, hold her down for me! Let her feel the despair of the Frenzied Flame!"
"Ah—"
The lady's scream echoed for the second time beside Cider Lake.
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