Chapter 1645: Chapter 1645

Li Yifei personally killed the comrade who was inseparable from him just a few days ago, because he was truly angry. Even if they were starving, he shouldn’t have done that! He was also weak and helpless, so he lunged forward and took a long time to strangle that demon to death.

After lying on the ground for a while, Li Yifei regained some strength, got up, and prepared to check on the injured comrade, only to find the other man already staring blankly upward, mouth open, chest no longer rising and falling. Follow current novels on 𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝓷𝓮𝓽

He was dead. Already severely ill and unconscious, his throat had been bitten open. Without immediate medical treatment, he was doomed, but that was death from illness; now, he had been killed by a comrade in such a cruel manner.

Li Yifei found it hard to accept, biting his teeth, crying for a while. Lying between the two bodies of his comrades for a long time, Li Yifei struggled to accept this human choice. Indeed, killing was wrong, yet not killing was equally unbearable for him. He thought for a long time but still could not understand why it had come to this.

This was early in his special forces career, right at the start of his missions, encountering such an ordeal, which greatly affected Li Yifei’s future. This incident was never shared with anyone, and of that mission, only Li Yifei returned. Yet the mental torture left Li Yifei unable to calm himself for a long time.

Escaping the encirclement, no one knew how much danger Li Yifei faced or how he reached safety.

As for the two fallen comrades, Li Yifei only mentioned that they sacrificed themselves. They were posthumously awarded the title of martyrs, and their families received compensation. This secret remained buried in Li Yifei’s heart, never to be revealed. The cave where the three hid became the tomb for the two comrades. When Li Yifei left, he completely sealed the entrance, preserved forever.

This is a painful memory that has affected Li Yifei over the recent years, though he neither speaks of it nor confronts it.

Today, with Xu Shanshan speaking these words, Li Yifei fully understood and knew her intentions, but Li Yifei would never do that, for it would make him another demon.

Moreover, even if it were a dead-end, and there truly was no way out, Li Yifei would sacrifice himself to let Xu Shanshan continue living.

It is a terrifying thought, too much of a test of humanity. Li Yifei would not be brainwashed by those motivational stories or believe in nonsense. So, he must also prevent Xu Shanshan from maintaining such thoughts, for it is a seed of the devil.

After a lingering kiss, Xu Shanshan’s eyes were moist as she looked at Li Yifei, her body softening, gently leaning in his arms, seemingly all strength gone. Li Yifei reached out to wipe Xu Shanshan’s mouth.

Their eyes met, filled with deep love. At this moment, words were unnecessary, for he knows her heart, and she knows his heart.

Holding Xu Shanshan, resting her head on his arm, they both fell asleep. Xu Shanshan was tired, resting on his arm, lips slightly pressed, a hint of sorrow between her eyebrows.

Li Yifei slept for less than an hour before waking up, gently standing, taking off his tattered shirt to make a pillow for Xu Shanshan. Bare-chested, he looked around, seeing the bright sun outside. The low-latitude region had plenty of sunlight and high temperatures. He glanced at the altar, where the rainwater Xu Shanshan had painstakingly collected was being evaporated by the scorching sun. The rainforest was hot and suffocatingly humid.

Trapped by a nameless formation, Li Yifei needed to break through it, to conquer it, and not let his woman fall into despair.

Xu Shanshan enjoyed a deep sleep, lasting a full five hours. The sun rose from the east, then moved to directly above them, then slightly westward. This was the hottest time of the day. As Xu Shanshan opened her eyes, she saw Li Yifei standing not far away, eyes closed.

Xu Shanshan tidied the clothes she had used as a pillow, not disturbing Li Yifei, just quietly watching him.

After several days of trekking through the rainforest, a circle of beard had formed below Li Yifei’s chin, about a centimeter long, dark and coarse. At this moment, he didn’t look disheveled but rather quite sexy, with an indescribable allure.

One stood with closed eyes, the other sat watching, lost in thought. They maintained this state for a long time before Li Yifei finally opened his eyes. Seeing Xu Shanshan awake, he smiled, walked over, squatted in front of her, and said, "Did you sleep well?"

Xu Shanshan nodded repeatedly and said, "I slept too much."

After pulling Xu Shanshan up, Li Yifei was about to speak when he saw her suddenly turn and run toward the altar, taking off the clothes draped over it. Xu Shanshan exclaimed, "How did this happen?"

"What happened?" Li Yifei also walked over and saw that the stone basin in the center of the altar was completely dry, with no water left at all. The water Xu Shanshan had worked so hard to collect last night had all evaporated.

Xu Shanshan’s face showed a pitiable expression. She was somewhat upset, already worried about this matter. She had intentionally torn a piece of her clothing to cover it, but in the end...

Now, both of them had no water, completely out of supplies.

Having gotten used to regular meals, missing even one meal of the day makes you feel hungry. Since yesterday, it’s been over twenty hours without food. Hunger can still be endured, but the thirst upon waking makes Xu Shanshan even more uncomfortable.

Li Yifei wrapped his arms around Xu Shanshan’s shoulders and pulled her into his embrace, softly comforting her, "Don’t be upset. Maybe it’ll rain soon, look, clouds are gathering in the distance."

"Mm." Xu Shanshan nodded gently.

Without water, the number of days they could hold on for would be halved, and Xu Shanshan struggled to hide her frustration.

After comforting Xu Shanshan for a while, Li Yifei continued to explore. This time, he chose a new location. Earlier, while Xu Shanshan was asleep, Li Yifei thought of a rather clumsy idea.

In the past, he was more or less able to sense some aura from formations; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to decipher them. But this time, perhaps blocked by these massive rocks, or for other reasons, Li Yifei couldn’t sense any aura from the formation. Without sensing it, there was no way to proceed, let alone break the formation.

So after searching a few times, he decided to change locations bit by bit, revealing the imposing air, hoping to capture even the slightest anomaly.

During the few hours Xu Shanshan slept, Li Yifei had already felt around the formation within a one-meter radius. Next, he was going to scan the next square meter.

This method was clumsy, but maybe it would work.

After Xu Shanshan understood, she too wanted to help. Li Yifei didn’t refuse. The two of them started back to back, exploring outward from the first square meter, informing each other upon any findings.

Time passed quickly but was also exhausting. Both of them were heavily exhausting their physical strength. After spending an entire night, they had explored more than twenty square meters around them, not knowing how thick the stones under their feet were.

But at least those areas had been explored. Li Yifei and Xu Shanshan took a brief rest. Neither would go to sleep, so they decided to continue exploring.

If they calculated the time, the two had been trapped inside for forty hours by now. It was unknown if the python had left the plane, for they couldn’t reach the door and had no way to know the situation outside.

This was an enclosed space. Another day passed during which it rained heavily; it was a violent downpour. They drank plenty of water this time, even after being full, they kept drinking, to store more water in case it didn’t rain the next day.

Whether urine or rainwater fell to the ground, it would rapidly dry up without a trace. But on the stone slabs, they were completely intact without any visible seams, at least not visibly discernible seams.

Both of them roughly remembered the time, knowing how long they’d been trapped. It had been only two days, not too long. Given their situation, they could hold on for about ten days. However, if they still hadn’t found a way out by then, their emotions might start to change.

Another full day, they doubled the search area, yet still had seven or eight times the area left. At this pace, they might complete the exploration just as they reached their limit, but that depended on both maintaining this efficiency, and whether they could do so in the subsequent days remained a question mark.

Li Yifei had hardly rested; cumulatively, he hadn’t slept more than two or three hours in these days. The rest of the time was spent in meticulous searching. Xu Shanshan slept more, so she now walked over, grabbing Li Yifei’s hand, insisting that he rest for a while, even if only to nap for half an hour or an hour.

Li Yifei gave a peck on Xu Shanshan’s slightly chapped lips, saying, "Not for now, I’m not tired yet. I’ll sleep when I’m genuinely exhausted."

Xu Shanshan’s lips moved slightly, but she did not force it; she turned back silently and resumed her search.

Two days... three days... four days, the search area expanded, but still, nothing was found.

Five days... six days... seven days, these days the two had only two things to do: sleep and search. Sleep times were getting longer because it had been way too long without eating. Even relying on the True Qi obtained from cultivation, they were becoming weaker.

Thankfully, the formation allowed them to cultivate True Qi, slowly recovering; otherwise, whether they could even stand would be questionable.

Another heavy rain came that day. They drank a lot of water, with seven strips of cloth lying on the ground, very small and thin, torn from their clothes. Li Yifei was naked by now, having torn all his clothes into strips to mark, separating explored areas from unexplored ones, for they were beginning to lose track.

It was fortunate that they were together; if Li Yifei were alone, he might go mad after so many days. Such an isolated environment was sufficient to drive a modern person to insanity.