I could feel the surrounding electrical current intensifying, and I couldn't afford to hesitate any longer.

Long Jia was only two or three meters away from me; if I could just lunge forward and knock her down, I could save her.

So, I pushed off the ground with both feet, preparing myself, intending to leap right through the electrical field separating us.

Long Jia’s skin was already blackened in several places from the current, smelling strongly of burnt flesh. Her lips parted slightly, as if she was trying to say something to me.

But in the end, she couldn't utter a word, only staring at me with wide eyes.

I told her we would talk after I saved her, then I planted my back foot, exerted power through my waist, and sprang forward from where I stood, diving towards Long Jia.

Mid-air, I felt my hands nearing her face, contorted in pain, but just then, a flash of blinding white light exploded before my eyes, followed by a sharp bang. I felt a stinging pain across the skin of my entire face and neck, then a massive force flung me backward.

Unable to withstand the impact, I tumbled onto the ground, falling backward onto my back.

Lying there, my head reeling, I rested for a moment, realizing a few strands of my hair had been singed. I knew a powerful current had repelled me.

When I was a child, I was visiting my grandmother’s house, helping her tend to the cattle. A cable on a utility pole had snapped in the wind and fallen into the rice paddy.

Not knowing any better, I urged the cattle forward. The moment the first cow stepped into the field, it let out a terrible bellow and began shaking violently.

Confused by what had happened, I rushed forward to grab the tether rope, and instantly, a surge of powerful electricity threw me back.

That cow was incinerated into charcoal, but my grandmother didn't blame me. She actually said that if I hadn't been lucky enough to be walking in front, I would have been the one turned to ash.

Because of that experience, the sensation was etched deep in my memory, and I never expected to encounter it again.

But this time, the one being electrocuted was not a beast, but a living person.

Knowing Long Jia was still in peril, I immediately scrambled up from the ground, preparing to charge again.

Just then, Long Jia’s trembling voice drifted from ahead. I couldn't fathom how she could still speak while enduring such immense agony.

She said, “Xiao Chuan, go quickly. Didn’t you say we would meet again? I look forward to that day.”

I watched as her entire skin, like scorched, crispy pork belly, began to turn yellow and crack, and blisters—the kind that appear from severe burns—sprouted across her body. A pungent odor of burning human flesh stung my nostrils.

Her face was unrecognizable, only a breath remained, yet her eyes were still so clear, so calm, just as they were the first time I saw her.

I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to weep; emotions long suppressed erupted like a volcano.

Tears streamed down my face as I slowly edged toward Long Jia, wanting to try one last time. But as I took a single step, a thick bolt of electricity struck my shoulder, forcing me to my knees by its sheer power.

At that moment, from the thicket of wisteria vines we had both forgotten, a strange, cackling laughter emerged, tinged with mockery.

I glanced back. The stone hand that had been pointing at us was no longer still; its five fingers had suddenly spread wide.

Suddenly, I heard a deafening boom, like rolling thunder, and not far ahead, Long Jia let out a piercing scream as she was instantly struck by countless thick bolts of lightning, instantly igniting into a pillar of flame.

The immense surge of current blasted me backward. All I could hear was the sharp, hissing sound of conduction as I crashed heavily against a pillar and instantly lost consciousness...

I don't know how long it was before I slowly regained awareness from that void.

When I came to, I found myself lying within a tangle of wisteria vines, the air thick with the intense smell of burning.

I hastily tried to stand, but a searing pain shot up from my right ankle, nearly making me cry out.

Wiping the cold sweat brought on by the pain, I looked down at my leg. I murmured an Amitabha, closed my eyes tight, and tilted my head back.

I saw that the spike where my ankle had struck the pillar and fallen had driven a wisteria branch, as thick as a thumb, straight through it. The skin was peeled back, and I could vaguely make out the bone. Blood was gushing out relentlessly.

I took several deep breaths looking up, then slowly sat back down.

I examined my leg closely, gasped audibly a few times, and then retrieved liquor, the Silver Fish Dagger, a lighter, and bandages from my pack.

I painstakingly pulled my leg into a cross-legged position, snapped off some dry twigs nearby, and used the lighter to ignite them. I poured some liquor onto the Silver Fish Dagger and heated it over the flames.

Once the blade was scalding hot, I took a swig of the strong liquor and sprayed it onto the dagger to cool it rapidly.

Having prepared this, I pressed down hard on my leg with my right hand, the knife held in my left, and hesitated.

I wasn't Guan Yu; I couldn't simply treat this as if nothing were wrong.

But if I left the branch lodged in my leg, the wound would inevitably become infected, and I would lose the limb. I had to pull it out.

With that thought, I took several deep breaths, clamped a twig between my teeth, and began slicing away the flesh around the entry wound where the branch protruded.

The agony was beyond human endurance.

As I cut, I bit down hard on the twig, breaking out in sweat the size of soybeans; the twig was almost snapping under my jaw.

Clearing the shredded flesh near the wound perimeter was necessary so that when I yanked the branch out, it wouldn't tear away skin, flesh, and bone along with it.

It took me a grueling half-hour. My clothes were soaked with sweat, and my hands were slick with my own spurting blood. Only then did I manage to clear a bloody hole suitable for extracting the branch.

By this point, the pain had dulled my senses somewhat, so I seized that moment, grabbed the exposed portion of the branch, and pulled with all my might.

Blood immediately sprayed from my leg, splashing across my face, but I had successfully yanked the branch free.

I trembled violently, gripping the branch in my teeth, enduring that wave of sharp pain.

After a long pause to recover, I poured the liquor onto the wound.

Another wave of excruciating, almost death-inducing pain flooded my body.

It took stopping and starting like this for two or three hours before I finally managed to staunch the bleeding, disinfect, and bandage the leg.

I dared not put on my shoe, so I lay in the wisteria vines barefoot for a while. Though not exactly comfortable, I managed to regain some strength.

I slowly managed to pull myself up from the ground, intending to check on Long Jia’s condition, when I heard another strange, rustling sound coming from the nearby wisteria thicket.