Chapter 17: A Vow

The prison guard had just unlocked Ye Zhengliu’s shackles when Ye Zhengliu hurriedly shook off the chains wrapped around his body and rushed straight into the cell.

Soulkiller lay on the ground, brow furrowed tightly, life and death uncertain. Fresh blood pooled beneath him.

Ye Zhengliu carefully examined Soulkiller’s wounds one by one. The long slash across his chest, once scabbed over, had been torn open again; his back and arms bore numerous fresh cuts.

Besides that, a deep, fleshless cavity marred his thigh, from which blood flowed freely as if without end.

How in the world had Soulkiller returned? Was he dragged back? Carried by the guards?

She knew he had likely gone to that special arena. But since he had won the fight, did no one tend to his wounds on the way back?

Gritting her teeth, Ye Zhengliu rummaged through the straw pile and found bandages and medicine. She first tightly bound Soulkiller’s thigh to stop the bleeding. When the flow gradually ceased, she liberally applied wound ointment to the open, bloody cavity.

Only after treating the most critical leg injury did Ye Zhengliu have the strength to address the other wounds.

She dissolved the medicine in water, wet a clean cloth, and carefully wiped the bloodstains from Soulkiller’s body.

During this process, Ye Zhengliu noticed several blood-soaked strips of cloth hastily thrown aside. It appeared Soulkiller had used them to bind his wounds earlier.

But then, how had he managed to loosen those bindings later?

Ye Zhengliu guessed that Soulkiller might have thought the bleeding had temporarily stopped and felt safe to discard the cloth strips, then slipped into unconsciousness.

However, the bleeding had only paused momentarily; shortly after the bandages were undone, the wounds reopened. Had Ye Zhengliu not returned in time, Soulkiller might have bled out due to his lack of medical knowledge.

No wonder—based on what Ye Zhengliu had learned about Soulkiller over time, he detested the sensation of being wrapped up. Usually, as soon as the wound was covered, he would impatiently tear off the bandages.

In fact, if not for Ye Zhengliu’s care, this man probably wouldn’t bother wearing clothes at all.

One morning in the past, Ye Zhengliu had woken up to find her roommate completely nude.

She thought to herself, “I must be getting up the wrong way.”

Closing and reopening her eyes, the scene remained unchanged.

“Alright then, it’s not a hallucination.”

Ye Zhengliu helplessly asked her clueless roommate, “Are you into naturism, or do you just habitually sleep naked?”

Immediately, Ye Zhengliu saw the youth stroke his smooth honey-colored thigh with his sinewy swordsman’s hands—very suggestive indeed.

Soulkiller answered seriously, “The weather’s warming up. It’s time for wolves to shed their fur.”

Ye Zhengliu: “…”

Oh right, wolves do shed their fur in summer; otherwise, they’d overheat.

But this human has no fur to shed, so he just takes off his clothes?

Couldn’t you at least wear a short-sleeved shirt?

And do you think stripping naked counts as shedding fur?

No, brother, what you’re doing is molting!

Later, after much coaxing and endless persuasion, Ye Zhengliu finally got Soulkiller to reluctantly put on clothes.

To make him feel like he was actually shedding fur, she even trimmed his hair, thinning it out a bit.

Afterwards, Soulkiller expressed great satisfaction, while Ye Zhengliu could only respond with a sarcastic “haha.”

“Ha, hair doesn’t just thin because you want it to. Youth fails to appreciate the value of hair, only to weep over baldness in old age. The hair cut today is the tears that will flood your brain tomorrow.”

Ye Zhengliu made sure to reuse the trimmed hair scraps. As a skilled craftswoman, she fashioned a brush out of Soulkiller’s hair.

At last, they could clean the cell properly.

Their roommate agreement added a new chore duty: cleaning on alternate days—her one day, Soulkiller’s the next.

…

Memories surged like flowing water before Ye Zhengliu’s eyes, finally tracing back to the first time she saw Soulkiller.

Back then, she thought he was just a bulky humanoid keycard and only gave him minimal first aid, hoping his immune system would carry him through.

Now, he lay gravely wounded on the ground again, bleeding heavily and at the mercy of fate.

Since last time she didn’t use medicine on him and he recovered, this time with treatment, there was no reason for him not to wake up, right?

Ye Zhengliu finished bandaging all her roommate’s wounds.

Feeling the faint but steady pulse, her heart churned with anxious fear for his life and a silent, burning fury.

Even as fierce as Soulkiller was, he had been reduced to this state by the arena battle. If she stayed in the fighting pits, would her fate be any better than this youth’s?

The arena had no true winners, like a casino without lucky gamblers. Only the house always wins—the permanent victors are the spectators looking down from above, no matter how brutally the combatants fight.

The exhilaration of narrowly escaping death had completely faded. Sitting beside Soulkiller, thoughts of escape had never been clearer.

But what good was fleeing from Floating Life Island? Could she outrun the chaos of war, or escape this world where lives were worth no more than grass?

After a long while, she lifted her gaze, fixating on a single point.

Her eyes settled on the low, damp ceiling of the cell.

She should have been gazing at the endless sky, but now she was confined to this cramped space; her heart full of unrest, she was trapped in prison.

What could she do? What could anyone do?

Was it hopeless? No, she refused to accept defeat!

Ye Zhengliu’s right hand slowly clenched into a fist. In this narrow, suffocating cell, her fiercely beating heart composed a unique drumbeat—the first time since arriving in this world that she had truly hardened her resolve.

The most terrifying things in this world are the grievances of the honest, the wrath of the gentle, the crimson eyes of cowards wielding cold blades, and the calm determination of the usually composed when they solemnly vow something to themselves.

Because they mean it.

“When I get out, anyone who tries to control my life, I’ll tear their bones apart; anyone who kills my friends, I’ll nail their head to the city walls. I will no longer obey chaotic rules. Wherever there is disorder, I will sweep it away; wherever there is injustice, I will purge it. The world is rotten with demons, but I will ignite a great fire to cleanse every temple and street, purifying the four seas and all under heaven.”

Since I have come to this world, then this world is mine.

Ye Zhengliu would no longer be a mere passerby.

She would become its master.

There were too many things in this world she could not accept. But that was all right. Ye Zhengliu would change things step by step.

In the end, she would personally transform this world, not be trapped by it.