Reborn As A Doomsday Villainess-Chapter 231: The infection(4)

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Chapter 231: The infection(4)

Ruihuang didn’t respond right away. His thumb rubbed across the cool, glassy surface of the pill, faintly pulsing with light.

Half of Lingquan’s healing functions. That wasn’t just a gamble, it was a sacrifice.

He crouched beside Qingran again.

She was quieter now, but not still. Her fingers clenched and unclenched rhythmically, like she was caught in some endless struggle beneath her skin.

The black lines had slowed their crawl, but they hadn’t stopped.

Her body was overheating, her energy looping, resisting every attempt to stabilize.

If they waited too long, the damage might become permanent.

Ruihuang lifted her gently and tilted her head up.

"Qingran.." he murmured low against her ear, his voice a tether to the present. "You have to take this. Fight. Come back."

She didn’t respond, just trembled in his grip.

So he slipped the pill between her lips and tilted her jaw.

She swallowed with a small, choked sound.

Lingquan watched intently. His gloved hands curled into fists at his sides.

Nothing happened for several seconds.

Then—

A low pulse of light began to emanate from her chest, radiating outward like ripples in water.

Her skin, flushed with heat just moments before, began to cool. Her forehead lost its sheen of sweat.

Her shallow breathing deepened.

Her lashes fluttered.

Ruihuang felt her heartbeat begin to stabilize.

And slowly, her eyes opened.

Not wild. Not glassy. Not filled with hallucinations or grey.

They were clear.

She blinked at him in confusion. Her voice came out a rasp. "...who...?"

"You’re safe.." he said quietly. "Just rest.."

But his hand remained on her shoulder, and his gaze drifted lower to the dark marks across her collarbone.

They were still there.Still pulsing faintly.

Still creeping slowly.

Lingquan exhaled sharply, his shoulders sinking.

"She’s still infected.." Ruihuang said.

Lingquan nodded, lips pressed in a grim line. "It worked... partially. The pill didn’t clear the rot, but it stabilized her vitals and slowed the spread. Her system’s not fighting itself anymore."

"Then it bought us time." freēwēbnovel.com

"Barely.." Lingquan muttered. "Whatever’s inside her is still embedded too deep. We stopped the external symptoms, but we haven’t hit the source. That corruption, it’s in her foundation. It’s tangled with her body’s core protocol."

Ruihuang glanced at Qingran again. She had drifted back into unconsciousness, but this time it was real sleep.

It wasn’t fevered or induced, just one of exhaustion.

She looked better now

But they both knew it was a pause, not a cure.

"How was exposed to the Rift?" Ruihuang asked after a pause.

Lingquan found a place to seat down. "She wasn’t exposed to it, Qingran attracts trouble unfortunately, the creator of the rift placed a bounty on her head and set her occult followers after her, out of numbers one of them had injected that stuff into her. She suffered excruciating pain before you found her.."

Ruihuang didn’t say anything and leaned against the wall.

"Who was that Yizhou she was talking about.."

Lingquan sighed again, shaking his head. "Someone she likes, they unfortunately got separated and gave seen each other in months. For him to appear in her head, he must be really precious to her, I didn’t know she liked him that much and I can hear her thoughts.."

Ruihuang didn’t respond immediately.

He simply stood there, his arms folded, head tilted slightly back against the wall. His eyes drifted toward Qingran’s resting figure.

She looked peaceful now, her breath rising in slow, even waves. Her hair clung damply to her cheeks, the fever gone. But beneath her skin, the black corruption still lingered like a shadow with claws.

Waiting for the opportunity to devour her.

"She looked terrified.." he said after a beat. "Whatever she was seeing... it wasn’t just fever."

Lingquan hummed quietly, the sound low and thoughtful.

"She thought she was being taken again," Ruihuang continued. "Begged not to go. And she mentioned glass. Said his hand wouldn’t let go."

Lingquan’s gaze sharpened. "Glass?"

"Yeah."

The system being didn’t answer right away. He stared at the floor, fingers tapping soundlessly on his knee. "Could be memory overlap. The corruption... it doesn’t just rot the body. It distorts pathways, rewrites emotional memory. It might’ve pulled a trauma out of her and looped it on repeat."

"Then it’s psychological too?"

"It’s the Rift," Lingquan said softly. "It doesn’t follow logic. It’s chaos made sentient. Pain, fear, time and everything blends. If she was injected with that corruption, then it wasn’t just meant to hurt her. It was meant to unravel her."

Ruihuang’s jaw tensed.

Lingquan glanced up, reading his expression. "She’s lucky you were the one who found her."

"Wasn’t luck.." Ruihuang muttered. "I came because you called out to me.."

Lingquan didn’t pry. He knew better than to press on what wasn’t offered.

Instead, he leaned back slightly. "The bounty still exists, by the way. The Rift’s creator, she sees her as a threat. And if she’s not cured soon, others will come. More cultists. More tools. This thing in her isn’t just an attack, it’s a beacon now."

Ruihuang’s face darkened. "Then we need to move. We can’t stay here."

Lingquan nodded. "I’m already encrypting her presence with system barriers, but that’ll only hold for a while. The longer the infection lives inside her, the stronger its signal grows. But I Lingquan, won’t let them find her."

He stood and walked over to her again.

"She said his name like it was a prayer," Ruihuang said suddenly.

Lingquan paused.

"Are you jealous? If you want to chase her, you can it’s not like they are dating but I’ve already given him my vote.."

-_-

"I was a bit jealous but that doesn’t mean I’m going to chase her. I was only jealous because no woman has called for me in such a way before.."

He pinched his nose slightly, he didn’t want to admit she was beautiful and she didn’t want to hear that she belonged to another man.

"Can you lay down your life, for the one you love?"

This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶