Tormented Awakening

As soon as the blue blood appeared before Li Yuemei, the blood moon in the sky instantly aimed to corrupt the blue blood, triggering a strong reaction.

Only a tiny part of the blue blood was corrupted by the blood moon, taking on a strange color, combining the icy duality and lunar corruption. But as soon as this happened, the blood moon in the sky became increasingly terrifying.

It could now be seen even from outside the mountain range, and soon people from afar would notice the changes.

After Li Yuemei's body realized that the rest of the blue blood would not be corrupted, it only focused on the tiny part of the blood that had been corrupted by the blood moon's light.

And so, that tiny drop of blood was suddenly absorbed by the small red crescent moon on Li Yuemei's forehead.

The corrupted blue blood was being absorbed by her body, rapidly fortifying her physique, and it seemed to be ending soon, as the red moon in the sky seemed to be returning to its white color constantly.

But then…

A complication suddenly arose when Li Yuemei's body began to freeze due to the immense icy energy of the blue ice. Ice crystals began to form in her veins, preventing the blood from circulating properly, while a terrifying cold energy ran through her body.

'Cold, it hurts.'

'It's too cold.'

'My body is… freezing.'

Li Yuemei, who was only focused on succeeding in the second awakening, suddenly felt excruciating pain.

Li Yuemei began trying to control the corrupted lunar blood in her body to stop the powerful blue blood, but upon contact with the icy energy, it reacted worse, causing internal freezing and severely threatening Li Yuemei's life.

As the corrupted icy blood flowed through her physique, excruciating pain took hold of her body while a cold and piercing sensation, as if ice thorns were enveloping every part of her, spread.

The agony was extremely profound, starting from the innermost parts of her body. Relentless and terrible cold quickly froze her meridians, while terrifying spasms occurred in her body.

Every part of her body—blood, organs, and cells—was rapidly becoming prey to the icy energy. The once powerful and pulsating blood of the Corrupted Lunar Physique, now accompanied by ice crystals coursing through her veins, turned the blood into a thick fluid, practically stopping circulation while causing hallucinating pain in her limbs.

Li Yuemei, while suffering the impacts of the blood and terrifying pain, couldn't even articulate a moan of pain. Her lungs and vocal cords, limited by internal ice, prevented her body from vocalizing. Despite that, the expression of terror and agony on her face could fully express to everyone what she was feeling.

The pain and the coldness of the ice began to be so intense that not only her physique was affected; the cold was so intense that it began to affect the essence of her consciousness. Her heart was beating slower and slower, as if it would stop at any moment, tormenting her existence.

Helplessness fully reached her thoughts when Li Yuemei found herself completely powerless against that internal icy energy. Her body was trying in every way to save her life, but that ice seemed impenetrable, like a wall of pure ice, enveloping her being in a storm of despair.

Li Yuemei still tried to stay conscious, trying to decide for herself if it was worth giving up. The duality of succumbing to pain or trying to face the growing ice ran through the rest of her mind.

'Maybe… to die…'

'Would be better…'

Li Yuemei thought with her last conscious thoughts that maybe dying soon would be the better path.

Her consciousness seemed to be fading rapidly...

…

..

.

Amidst the darkness in the midst of her soul, around her, ice seemed to be corrupting the darkness bit by bit. A whisper was suddenly heard as the ice surrounding her seemed to weaken, echoing faintly in the space where the last shard of Li Yuemei's consciousness that hadn't been frozen existed.

'Li Yuemei!!'

…

'Have I already died?'

...

''Li Yuemei, I know you're still there, resist!!''

...

'Ah, I remember this voice.'

...

''Yuemei, WAKE UP! I know you can do it!!''

...

'It's him… Yes, he promised to protect me.'

...

While words echoed in the darkness, the small consciousness of Li Yuemei, almost lost at the end of the immense abyss of ice, found a way.

At least one anchoring point traversed the rest of her consciousness; perhaps her trust in his strength or maybe another reason made her kindle a faint hope in her mind.

"WAKE UP NOW!!" A voice even louder suddenly sounded.

Then the last sliver of determination came from her small consciousness.

The small consciousness in the darkness surrounded by ice suddenly felt her physique communicating with her soul and then spoke softly as her last hope.

'Blood... Destruction'

Nothing seemed to happen for a fraction of a second, but then…

An explosion suddenly came from within Li Yuemei's physique. The red crescent moon on her forehead shone like never before, and an immensely powerful blood energy radiated again as the moon in the sky ascended into the blood moon once more.

All the frozen, corrupted blood in her body began to self-destruct, causing an even greater pain than anything she had felt before. A war then suddenly started within Li Yuemei's body; the corrupted blood caused extreme burning that constantly clashed with the cold energy of the tiny but terrible drop of blue blood.

Li Yuemei's body began to slowly destroy itself, constantly spewing corrupted blood from her mouth, while bloody tears flowed from her red eyes.

Her consciousness had returned to her body when Blood Destruction was activated. The pain was too terrible, preventing her from being unconscious, and thus, the pain caused by the two energies complemented each other deeply.

While enduring as much as she could, digging her nails into her thighs, piercing them, and biting her lips, she felt that there were two external forces constantly helping her.

One was the cold energy of someone, but it didn't harm her; it was constantly trying to calm the internal icy energy, and an energy she was already quite familiar, the blood moon, with was trying to calm her corrupted blood.

The constant pain continued for an unknown amount of time but was gradually decreasing, enabling Li Yuemei to endure. After all, this pain was nothing compared to what she had experienced.

Then, some time later, the two energies found balance within her body. Blood Destruction was finally completed, while the icy energy was fully controlled and seemed to fall asleep in her body.

Then a final transformation began to happen in Li Yuemei's physique; her body floated high on the mountain while the red moon bathed her completely, sending a gigantic amount of corrupted lunar Qi.

Li Yuemei's cultivation, which was in the Lord realm, began to increase and soon reached the King realm. She healed most of her internal injuries, but large scars remained around her body.

The red crescent moon on her forehead underwent a change; soon, a slightly larger second moon appeared beneath the first, and before disappearing for an impossible-to-perceive amount of time, a small snowflake appeared in the middle of the red moon, only to vanish as if it had never existed.

Li Yuemei's body then floated back to the ground.

Her eyes opened slowly...

Her expression was not one of enthusiasm or joy, not even relief.

Just a face reveals the complexity of deep emotions.

After everything she went through, the end of the awakening was a relief for her body, but it didn't erase a period of pain that felt like an eternity; the unbridled cold and spontaneous burning, the memory of these pains, were eternally marked in Li Yuemei's body and mind.