Chapter 6 - The Empress Collapses
Noon the next day.
The bedroom door opened, and Lin Fan walked out from the bedroom, yawning.
This was the first time he had slept until noon in a long while, ever since his cultivation had reached the level of an Immortal Emperor.
The facts proved that as the spiritual energy in his body dissipated and the spirit of heaven and earth became scarce, his own bodily functions also seemed to be gradually becoming more like a mortal's.
If that was the case, he wondered how she was doing…?
Lin Fan turned his head to look at the sofa, only to see that the quilt and pillow he had placed on it last night were untouched.
Longyue still had her eyes tightly shut, sitting motionless on the sofa in a meditative posture.
Oh?
She actually didn’t eat or drink, maintaining a meditative posture from last night all the way until noon!
Should he say, as expected of the Empress of the Immortal Realm? To have such willpower…
It seemed he had underestimated this woman a little…
Lin Fan cast a look of admiration at Longyue, then, without disturbing her, walked straight into the bathroom to wash up.
As he was wiping his face with a towel, he suddenly heard a “Thud” from the living room, as if something had fallen to the ground.
Lin Fan put down the towel in his hands and poked his head out of the bathroom curiously.
He saw that Longyue, who was originally sitting on the sofa, had fallen face-first from the end of the sofa onto the floor. Her body even seemed to be stiff...
“Hey, hey, hey, are you alright?”
Lin Fan hurriedly came to Longyue’s side and squatted down with concern.
“Ngh, uh…”
Longyue had two dark circles under her eyes, her lips were dry and cracked, and her face was so weak that she could barely open her eyes. She could only let out a faint moan.
“It seems you’re not alright…”
Lin Fan carefully helped Longyue back onto the sofa to lie down, then poured a glass of water and fed it to her lips.
Longyue cupped the glass with both hands and greedily drank all the water in big gulps.
“Drink slowly, drink slowly.”
“Honestly, I told you not to push yourself.”
Lin Fan didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He placed the empty glass on the table and turned towards the kitchen.
“You wait here, I will get you something to eat.”
He had anticipated that Longyue would suddenly collapse; it was only a matter of time.
She hadn't eaten a single bit of food or drunk any water, had done two and a half hours of high-intensity work cleaning the room, stayed up all night without sleep, and had previously exhausted her spiritual energy by forcefully activating an immortal art. Her body was already in a weak state, deficient in spiritual energy. It would have been difficult not to collapse.
To be honest, the fact that she had lasted until now was a bit beyond his expectations.
Longyue lay weakly on the sofa, staring blankly at the ceiling, a look on her face as if life were meaningless.
Her celestial immortal spiritual embryo could absorb the spirit of heaven and earth to nourish her immortal body, thereby reaching a state where she didn't need to eat or drink, purifying her own being. As long as there was even a little bit of the spirit of heaven and earth, she wouldn't need to eat or drink.
She didn't believe there wasn't a single trace of spiritual energy between heaven and earth here, so she tried to use a spirit-gathering breathing method to absorb it.
However, she meditated for an entire night and tried dozens of different spirit-gathering breathing methods, but she didn't feel a single trace of spiritual energy!
Unable to absorb the spirit of heaven and earth, her own celestial immortal spiritual embryo had naturally become ineffective in this world.
Just now, her head had grown heavy, and her body, refusing to obey her commands, had fallen to the floor.
Longyue struggled to get up from the sofa and tried to move her feet, but in the next second, her entire body lost its balance and fell forward.
Lin Fan, who was in the kitchen, saw this and, disregarding what he was doing, dashed forward in a single bound, steadily catching her in his arms as she fell.
“Empress, what’s wrong with you? Why did you get up again?”
“My legs… my legs have no feeling…”
Longyue collapsed into Lin Fan’s arms, looking at him with eyes brimming with tears. She felt an unprecedented fear in her heart, and her voice carried a hint of a sob.
In the past, when she meditated, it would be for at least a day, or at most for several decades. She had never encountered a situation like this where her legs lost all feeling.
Lin Fan: “…”
Looking at Longyue’s pitiful and somewhat frightened appearance, Lin Fan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
It makes sense when you think about it. Staying cross-legged and motionless for over ten hours, it would probably be difficult not to lose feeling…
Perhaps if she had sat for a little longer, both her legs would have needed to be amputated. For them to just lose feeling is quite fortunate.
“It’s normal for them to have no feeling. You sat for so long, the blood circulation in your legs and feet was poor, so they would naturally lose feeling temporarily. It will be fine after a little rest.”
Lin Fan picked Longyue up and sat her on the sofa, then poured another glass of water from the table for her.
“Here, drink some more water.”
Longyue cupped the glass and, with a gulping sound, drank all the water again.
Lin Fan took the empty glass from her hands and asked:
“Do you want to drink more?”
Longyue didn't respond. Only the sound of faint, steady breathing could be heard.
Lin Fan looked down and saw that Longyue had, at some point, already fallen into a deep sleep, leaning against his shoulder.
The Empress has finally given in and fallen asleep. I just don't know if she fainted from hunger or if she couldn't resist the sleepiness and passed out…
If she had listened to him earlier and eaten and rested properly, she wouldn't have tormented herself into such a weak state.
Lin Fan gave a helpless smile, picked her up, and walked back to the bedroom. He gently placed her on the bed and covered her with the quilt.
Time flew by. The view outside the window was gradually enveloped by the night. In the pitch-black bedroom, there was only the faint light from the computer screen.
“Mmm-hmm…”
On the bed, Longyue dazedly opened her eyes and slowly sat up, her head of fine, jet-black hair disheveled and scattered in front of her.
For the first time in a long while, she had a dream, a very terrifying dream!
In the dream, she and the Demon Sovereign had fallen into another world. The terrifying thing was, in that world, there wasn't a single trace of the spirit of heaven and earth!
As an Immortal Empress, she was instantly reduced to a mere mortal and was even on the verge of starving to death!
It was too terrifying!
“Yo, you’re awake, Empress~”
As Longyue sat on the bed in a daze, Lin Fan, who was sitting at the computer desk nearby, took the initiative to blink and greet her with a smile.
Longyue turned her head to look at Lin Fan, her expression dazed and confused. She then glanced around the room, and her face gradually turned into a mournful expression of someone resigned to their fate.
Ah, so none of it was a dream…
This really is an absolutely terrible world...
“What’s wrong? You look like you’re about to cry. Did you not sleep well?” Lin Fan asked with concern.
“It’s nothing. This Empress is just a little despairing of this world…”
Longyue said self-deprecatingly, with a look on her face as if life were meaningless.
Lin Fan was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, then couldn't help but burst out laughing.
“Hahaha! I never thought, I never thought that I would actually hear such words from the mouth of the Empress.”
Longyue shot Lin Fan an annoyed glance. The intense hunger in her abdomen left her without even the strength to bicker with him.
At this point, she also understood that it was impossible to survive in this world without eating.
If she wanted to go back, she had to at least ensure she stayed alive first.
“So hungry…”
Longyue rubbed her flat little tummy and looked pitifully at Lin Fan beside her.
With her weak and pale, peerless face, coupled with a faint and feeble, delicate voice, she seemed at this moment to be exquisitely pitiful and moving, evoking affection.
Lin Fan was stunned for a moment, then gave a helpless smile and got up once again to walk to the kitchen.
“Honestly, wouldn't it have been better if you were this frank from the start…”