111: Chapter 111 I won't sign my fate, I'll only sign her name.

The straw mat in the secret room creaked under Chen Fan's weight.

He knelt beside Su Shuang, his palm pressed against the back of her neck—the temperature was colder than snowmelt, seeping through his fingers into his very bones.

The bronze coin in his bosom was burning hot; the three words "rejector" seared red marks into his palm, yet he didn't dare move a muscle, fearing that even a slight force would crush the person in his arms.

"Shuanger?" he called her, his voice trembling.

Su Shuang's eyelashes were wet, looking like two dew-drenched butterfly wings in the firelight, yet they remained closed.

The metallic patterns on her wrist were fading from grayish-blue to dark purple, like a venomous snake crawling toward her heart.

The core pressed against her heart had long since lost its warmth; touching it now felt like a frozen wild yam.

The critical hit system's voice suddenly rang in his ear, softer than ever before, as if afraid of startling someone: [The final leap.] Chen Fan's Adam's apple bobbed. The system continued, [I can channel critical hit energy to protect her core and endure through tonight. The price...]

"What's the price?"

he interrupted, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the tips of Su Shuang's hair.

That was where she always liked to pin her silver hairpin, but now the pin was gone, and stray hairs stained with blood clung to the crook of his thumb.

[Forgetting "why she is important".] The system's electronic voice actually held a hint of bitterness. [You will remember her name, remember to protect her, but the specifics—that she is a fox demon, that she took a blade for you, that she said she'd wait for you to return... they will all dissipate.]

Chen Fan's hand froze.

The dirt clods under the straw mat made his knees ache, but he felt the pain couldn't compare to the ache in his chest.

The first time Su Shuang brewed tea for him, the teacup was carved with laurel; the night she was backlashed by the Edict Worm, she clutched his hem and said, "Don't be afraid, I'm here"; and three days ago, she stood on tiptoe to tie a scarf for him, saying, "Winter is coming"... These images surged in his mind like paper money scattered by the wind.

"Brother?" The Blood Pact Child's voice came from the entrance of the secret room, carrying a sob. "Iron Penance and the others have broken the lock on the front yard. Little Candle is stalling for time, but..."

Chen Fan looked down at Su Shuang.

Her lips were whiter than paper, and her breathing was as light as snow landing on a blade of grass.

He suddenly remembered when he first met her; she was leaning behind the Teahouse counter, smiling as she asked, "What would the guest like to drink?

The tea here can dissolve a thousand sorrows."

Back then, he thought she was just a tea-brewing proprietress; how could he have known she hid a belly full of hatred and a body of bones about to shatter.

"Do it," he said, his voice as hoarse as sandpaper rubbing against a stone slab.

The system's blue light surged from his fingertips, burrowing into Su Shuang's chest like a living thing.

Chen Fan watched the light sink into her skin, watched her eyelashes tremble violently as she spat out a mouthful of black blood—foul-smelling black blood that splattered onto his front.

Her breathing gradually stabilized, like a spring stream thawing; once, twice, she finally had the breath of life.

But Chen Fan's head began to ache.

The memory of Su Shuang being a fox demon scattered like a kite with a severed string; the image of the blade plunging into her left shoulder when she blocked it for him suddenly became a blurred red; even the tear mole at the corner of her eye when she said "I'll wait for you to return" faded away.

All that remained was a hazy thought: I must protect her, I must protect her even if it costs my life.

"Bang!"

The sound of the secret room's stone door being smashed open made his eardrums ache.

Iron Penance stood at the door, the mechanical claw on his single arm still dripping with blood—it was Little Candle's blood, Chen Fan recognized that dark red.

The command pattern on his breastplate had cracked, revealing the bleeding flesh beneath, but the blue light in his single eye grew even brighter, like red-hot iron.

"Chen Fan." Iron Penance's voice was mixed with electronic static. "You killed my Enforcers, destroyed my Command Array, and now you even dare to violate the shadow pact..." He raised his single arm, pointing the mechanical claw at Chen Fan. "Come back to the Starlight Tower with me, sign a Life-and-Death Pact, and become a true Enforcer.

I will guarantee she doesn't die."

Chen Fan pulled Su Shuang a bit closer into his arms.

He couldn't remember why she was important, but this warmth in his arms was more precious than life. "I don't remember anything," he said, his voice carrying a fierce edge. "But I remember that I must protect her."

He held up the bronze coin.

The fire seed's blue flame flared up, reflecting a ghostly blue on the four walls of the secret room.

Iron Penance's single eye constricted suddenly—that was the fire of "rejector" that he hated most, which had burned through three Command Sentry Towers and shattered twelve contract locks.

"Lawbreaker!"

The shadow pact's voice suddenly exploded overhead.

Chen Fan looked up to see a mass of black mist wrapped in silver chains, coiling toward the hand holding the bronze coin.

The chains were covered in Command Scripts; every time they touched him, his skin felt as if salt were being rubbed into it.

He gritted his teeth to dodge, but the shadow pact was a spirit raised by the system; how could he escape?

"Rip—"

The Blood Pact Child's figure suddenly lunged forward.

The contract paper at her neck was torn in two, and the Anti-Contract Rune lit up on her chest like a piece of red-hot coal.

The shadow pact's silver chains snapped back with a sizzle, and a shriek came from the black mist.

The Blood Pact Child stumbled into Chen Fan's arms, her forehead resting against his shoulder: "I... I don't want to forget either..." Her voice grew fainter and fainter, finally leaving only a sigh, like a piece of paper blown away by the wind.

Chen Fan's eyes turned red.

He grabbed the bronze coin and stabbed it into the ground; the fire seed's blue flame surged through the cracks in the floor tiles, tracing crooked patterns on the Teahouse's foundation—they were the remnants of the Fox Clan Sealing Array he had seen before in Su Shuang's old books.

"Shuanger!" he shouted, regardless of whether she could hear. "Hold on!"

Su Shuang stirred in her coma.

The dark purple patterns on her wrist suddenly glowed golden-red; it was the Fox Demon Bloodline surging.

The runes on the foundation lit up accordingly, golden-red and ghostly blue intertwining to support a translucent barrier above the Teahouse.

Iron Penance's mechanical claw smashed against the barrier, sending sparks flying, but the blue light in his single eye dimmed.

"This..." he murmured, his single arm trembling violently. "This isn't a system rule... This is..."

"It's humanity!" Chen Fan roared. "You turn people into iron lumps and burn their names into ash—you call this salvation?"

The barrier began to crack.

Chen Fan pulled out the carving knife from his bosom, its tip pressed against the fire seed's core.

Iron Penance rushed over, his mechanical claw slashing Chen Fan's back, blood droplets splattering onto Su Shuang's face.

Gritting his teeth, he carved two words into the core: Su Shuang.

"I won't sign away my life, only her name," he said, blood mixed with spit spraying onto the core.

The blue flame suddenly soared into the sky.

The shadow pact's black mist sizzled as it burned, retreating toward the horizon with a wail.

Iron Penance stood in the firelight, his single arm hanging limp, his mechanical claw falling to the ground with a clang.

He slowly removed his breastplate, revealing an old scar on his chest—it was left when Brother Dao blocked a furnace fragment for him years ago; he had long forgotten the pain, but now it felt as if it had just been sliced open, the agony making him curl up.

"I... was wrong..." he roared, his voice carrying a sob.

In the distance, atop the Starlight Tower, a red light swept across the sky like a sword splitting the night.

Chen Fan heard Little Candle shouting "The Siege Battle has begun," but he couldn't be bothered.

He held Su Shuang, watching her eyelashes tremble, watching her fingertips move to gently hook his pinky.

In the secret room, the fire seed core's blue flame flickered weakly.

Su Shuang suddenly opened her eyes in her coma, a flash of golden-red in her gaze—exactly like the light when the Fox Demon Bloodline awakens.