Chapter 282: The Abyss (Part 3)

Wu Qingsong steadily carried Nina onward.

At first, she vehemently protested, unwilling to accept the arrangement. But reality soon forced her to relent. Even being carried by Wu Qingsong, conserving every possible ounce of her energy, might not guarantee her survival. If she continued expending the dwindling reserves of her strength as before, her death in this desolate place would be inevitable.

“Have you already given up?” Wu Qingsong asked, his tone firm but not unkind. “If you haven’t, then stop resisting.”

The only change now was that with her cooperation, Wu Qingsong’s efforts became smoother and less laborious. The distances they managed to cover between rests grew significantly longer as a result.

“Do you think we’re just going in circles?” Nina asked after a long stretch of silence.

Wu Qingsong shook his head. “The rocks around us keep changing, and even the water tastes different from place to place. It’s just that the underground world is probably far more barren than the surface. That’s why we haven’t seen any signs of life yet. But we’ll find something eventually.”

There were, of course, dead ends—many of them. Each time they encountered one, they had no choice but to retrace their steps and seek out another path. The process was slow and disheartening, but Wu Qingsong pressed on without hesitation, his determination unwavering.

Wu Qingsong stuck to moving forward while keeping to the right—a habit he had picked up from playing maze games. Of course, he had never imagined that one day, he would actually have to navigate a labyrinth with his own two feet. And this maze? It was far larger than anything he had ever experienced in any game.

Nina had finally regained enough strength to chew the thin strips he cut from her belt. But soon, her belt too was completely consumed, and they were forced to turn to her boots for sustenance.

Although she no longer fainted, Wu Qingsong could feel her growing lighter, her body frailer with each passing hour. A creeping panic began to claw at him, though he tried his best to suppress it. As long as Nina was conscious, he kept finding ways to lift her spirits—telling her stories, distracting her from the bleakness of their situation.

Every tale he had once shared with Liuli and Ling poured out of him as they trudged forward. Sometimes, Nina would respond with a weak chuckle or a quiet comment. Other times, there was no response at all, leaving Wu Qingsong to gauge her state solely by whether she was still holding onto him from behind.

“You’re going to be okay,” he told her, over and over, as much to convince himself as to reassure her. 

But as the days blurred together, he began to doubt his own words.

He had completely lost track of time and distance. 

How long had they been wandering this endless underground expanse? A month? Two? Longer? How far had they walked? Two thousand miles? Three? Perhaps even farther?

Were they really in the underground world of the insectoids?

How could it be that, after all this time, they hadn’t encountered a single living thing?

Nina had finally fallen into another long bout of unconsciousness. The scraps of leather straps they had been eating might have contained trace amounts of protein, but after processing, they had likely lost most of their nutrients. Whatever sustenance she was getting from them wasn’t enough.

Wu Qingsong’s panic grew. For the first time, in the unending darkness, despair crept into his heart.

Watching someone you care for slowly weaken, watching them inch closer and closer to death—it was a torment unlike any other. It wasn’t the sharp, immediate agony of physical wounds or the burning anguish of soul-crushing despair, but a slow, suffocating ache that gnawed at his very being, chipping away at his resolve bit by bit.

He gently set Nina down, cradling her in his arms, trying to warm her with his own body heat. The helplessness that had been building inside him finally overwhelmed him, and tears rolled down his face.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed before she finally stirred.

“You’ve been crying,” she whispered weakly.

“No… It’s just water dripping from the rocks above,” Wu Qingsong said quickly, fumbling for an excuse. 

But Nina slowly raised her hand, trembling as she brushed her fingers lightly across his face.

“I regret it a little bit,” she murmured.

“What?”

“Watching Ram and the others stand in the temple with you, marrying you… I regretted it a little,” Nina murmured.

“Nina.”

“If I had accepted you back then, I would’ve been the one standing there, right?”

Wu Qingsong didn’t know how to respond. Her voice, so frail, sent a jolt of fear through him. Was this the final burst of energy before death?

“Nina, stop saying things like that. Let’s keep moving forward. We’ll get out of here, I promise.”

“You’ll make it out,” Nina said softly. “But me… I’m sorry, Wu. I’m too tired, too hungry. I just can’t go on anymore.”

“No.” Wu Qingsong shouted, his voice echoing through the cavern. “You have to hold on. You will hold on.”

“I’ve been holding on for too long,” she whispered, her voice fading to almost nothing. “Wu, before I die… could you kiss me? Just once?”

“No!” Wu Qingsong yelled again, his voice cracking. “I won’t kiss you now. When we get out of here, I’ll kiss you as much as you want—or even if you don’t want me to, I’ll still kiss you. But not now. Don’t you dare talk about dying! As long as I’m here, I won’t let you give up.”

He scooped Nina up once more, his arms tightening protectively around her fragile frame. Feeling her arms weakly wrap around his neck, she rested her head on his shoulder, curling up in his embrace.

He pressed on through the darkness, stumbling over rocks, driven only by sheer determination.

“You’re not allowed to sleep!” Wu Qingsong shouted in panic. “Do you hear me? Don’t sleep. Talk to me. Say something, anything.”

“Say what?” Nina said weakly, her voice barely audible.

“Say how you fell in love with me,” Wu Qingsong blurted, grasping at anything to keep her awake. “Tell me what you’ll do once we get out of here. Nina, there’s still so much we need to do. I promised to help you rebuild the Silvermoon Kingdom, and you promised to seriously consider marrying me. We have so much left to accomplish, you can’t give up here. I won’t let you give up here.”

“But…”

“No buts,” Wu Qingsong’s voice cracked with desperation. “You’re Princess Nina Lams of the Silvermoon Wolf Clan. You’re worth tens of thousands of Renals! How can you think of giving up in a place like this?”

Nina didn’t respond. Instead, she used what little strength she had left to cling to him tightly. But even as she held on, Wu Qingsong could feel her grip weakening, her hands trembling as they began to loosen.

“Nina!” he shouted again, louder this time, trying to push back the suffocating fear.

“…Mm?” she murmured faintly.

Tears welled up in Wu Qingsong’s eyes and streamed down his face, falling onto her cold body. As his despair threatened to consume him, his hand brushed against the rocky wall beside him.

It wasn’t cold anymore.

“Nina!” His voice was filled with both urgency and hope. “We’ve found it! We’ve found a way out!”

Warmth meant energy. Whatever lay ahead, it was undeniably different from the endless, lifeless terrain they had trudged through until now.

And that difference, for them, meant hope.

But Nina no longer responded.

Wu Qingsong frantically placed his hand on her chest, feeling for the faint, almost imperceptible rhythm of her heartbeat. With a surge of desperation, he forcefully activated her latent ability.

The faint glow of Silvermoon energy shimmered weakly around her body, and she finally stirred.

“We’ve found the way!” Wu Qingsong exclaimed, his voice trembling with a mix of relief and urgency. “Hang in there! We’re almost there! Just hold on a little longer!”

Though her eyes barely opened, Nina seemed to hear him. Her lips moved slightly as if she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.

Wu Qingsong hoisted her up again, her frail body light as a feather. He quickened his pace, every step driven by the faint warmth emanating from the path ahead.