The Villainess Cannot Escape — Five Beast Husbands Chase Her Madly-Chapter 68: Su An’an’s Blindness

A hidden cave in the Corrupted Nest.

The glossy pink casing of the terminal had been corroded by purple slime, leaving charred pits that billowed with acrid smoke.

Su An’an kept raising her hand to rub her eyes, but all she could see was a darkness as thick as ink.

She staggered and braced herself against the cave wall, her fingernails digging deep into the damp moss. The taste of rust filled her throat.

She’d bitten her tongue from gasping for air.

"No... It can’t be..."

She murmured to herself, whipping her head around, trying to catch even the faintest glimmer of light.

Even the sound of her hair brushing past her ears made her whole body tremble.

A sharp pain suddenly flared in the depths of her mind.

It was like countless silver needles stabbing into her brain.

She collapsed to her knees, clutching her head so tightly her knuckles turned white.

A toxic shadow, like a living thing, slithered wantonly along her nerves, its cold tendrils wrapping around her limbs.

When her right foot stepped forward against her will,

She let out a desperate whimper. "Stop... Stop..."

A foul, decaying mist filled her nostrils.

Su An’an felt as if some force was pulling her from her own body.

She struggled to keep her knees on the ground, her nails scraping harshly against the rock, but her consciousness was fading.

Suddenly, a bone-chilling cold shot up her spine to the nape of her neck.

A cold hand, reeking of rust, clamped down on it without warning.

The blood in Su An’an’s veins instantly froze. A tearing scream ripped from her throat. "Don’t touch me!"

"It’s me."

Night Abyss’s hoarse voice was mixed with ragged breaths. His right arm wrapped around her struggling waist like an iron clamp.

Blood was steadily seeping from the wound where his left arm had been severed.

But he paid it no mind, burying his face in Su An’an’s hair. His Adam’s apple bobbed gently behind her ear.

"Don’t be afraid. I’m here."

Night Abyss’s blood-streaked black hair brushed against the tip of her nose.

Su An’an suddenly caught a faint, familiar scent of Mandala, but it was instantly overwhelmed by the stench of decay.

"How can you prove you’re Night Abyss?"

She retreated, trembling, until the small of her back hit the jagged rock wall.

In the darkness, Night Abyss’s serpentine pupils glowed with a faint crimson light, like two clusters of undying phosphorus fire.

He suddenly laughed, a bitter, self-mocking sound.

His canine teeth pierced his wrist, and a bead of blood splattered onto her pale lips. "My blood, my flesh... they were always meant to be your sacrifice."

The moment the scent of Mandala exploded forth,

The Snake Fang Tentacles in Su An’an’s mind trembled violently.

’It really is Night Abyss!’

Like a child who had found her guardian, she threw herself into his arms, wailing, only to feel an empty left sleeve.

"Your arm?"

She reached out to find it, but Night Abyss caught her trembling fingertips with his teeth.

As his canines grazed her skin, his warm breath fanned across her wrist.

"Saves me the trouble of using a knife. Tearing flesh with my fangs is more satisfying."

He released Su An’an’s hand.

He turned his head to grip a blood-soaked strip of cloth in his teeth, using his right hand to wrap the wound tightly.

Cold sweat from his temple dripped onto the back of her hand, shockingly hot.

"This is my fault..."

Su An’an’s scalding tears soaked the front of his shirt as her nails dug deep into the old scars on his back.

Night Abyss knelt on one knee and cradled her face, his tongue flicking away a teardrop from her eyelashes.

His serpentine pupils reflected the cave’s dim light.

"Don’t cry just yet. Tell me, what’s wrong with your eyes?"

"A shadow has taken over my mind. It’s controlling me."

Su An’an’s limbs suddenly began to convulse violently.

Night Abyss immediately pulled her into his arms, using his good hand to hold down her spasming knees, his chin resting on the top of her head.

"Don’t be afraid. From now on, I will be your eyes, your ears, your limbs."

"Even if we have to crawl, I will get you out of here."

Su An’an subconsciously reached out and touched his chest.

The moment her fingertips brushed against the crisscrossing ridges beneath the fabric, she flinched as if burned.

The layers upon layers of scars, each one caked with dried blood, traced a shocking pattern under her fingers.

Before her fingertips could even count them all,

Night Abyss had already grasped her wrist, pressing it against his fiercely heaving chest. "Don’t count. There are twenty-seven in total. They’re all old wounds."

"I’m dragging you down."

A lump formed in her throat. "This place is crawling with Mutant Beasts. You’re all alone, with no supplies, no backup... and you’re stuck with a burden like me, blind and crippled."

Before the words were even out, she quickly turned her head away, afraid her tears would wet his shirt again.

Night Abyss suddenly chuckled. "Do you know how the underground black markets treat a half-blood Snake Descendant?"

His gaze pierced the darkness, as if looking back into the distant past,

To a damp, cold iron cage in a black market.

The young snake-beast’s black tail was pierced by an iron hook and hoisted up, while onlookers cheered as a pack of wolves tore at him.

When he had bitten through the last wolf’s throat, the slave master had poured salt water over him with a vicious grin.

"A mongrel like you deserves to have your tendons pulled and your bones broken!"

"They scaled me seven times."

Night Abyss calmly tightened his hold on the trembling Su An’an, letting her tears soak his collarbone.

"But because of that..."

He suddenly guided her hand to the back of his neck, where a Reversed Scale was vibrating at a high frequency.

"I can sense the heartbeat of every living thing within a hundred meters."

Su An’an was sobbing too hard to speak clearly. "Don’t talk about it in that tone, as if you deserved all that pain!"

She fumbled to press her hand against his cold cheek, her fingertips brushing over a raised scar.

"You didn’t survive just to suffer."

"Suffering makes me stronger!"

A fanatical light shone in Night Abyss’s dark red, vertical pupils. The scent of Mandala on his breath grew stronger.

"Otherwise, how could I be worthy of being your Beast Husband?"

Night Abyss’s palm cradled the back of her head, gently pressing her against the cave wall.

The pads of his fingers unconsciously rubbed away the bits of gravel caught in her hair.

A sliver of moonlight spilled through a crack in the rock, casting a silver edge on their overlapping shadows.

His kiss was domineering, impossible to resist, yet he was careful to avoid the injured corners of her eyes.

"Besides... this time, I have you by my side."

Night Abyss’s whisper brushed against her earlobe.

Su An’an felt ripples spread through her mind.

The anxiety and fear receded like the tide, leaving only a sense of profound peace and a fluttering heart.

In her mind, the Snake Fang Tentacles erupted with a brilliant light.

Like a lighthouse in the darkness, it transmitted an important piece of information to Su An’an.

"There’s a Rebel Army outpost to the northeast."

Su An’an excitedly grabbed Night Abyss’s arm.

’If I can just find the Rebel Army outpost, maybe I can find an antidote, maybe I can break free from the threat of this shadow in my mind.’

"Good."

Night Abyss patted her hair in approval.

He then tore a strip from his combat suit and, with one hand, wrapped it around Su An’an’s waist with the swift efficiency of someone tying up their Prey.

But as he tightened the knot, he deliberately left a two-finger gap.

"Hold on tight."

He scooped her up by the backs of her knees, swung her onto his back, and took off at a run toward the northeast.

Su An’an lay on Night Abyss’s broad back.

The shadow in the depths of her mind was spreading frantically along her nerves.

Every throb brought a heart-piercing agony.

She bit down hard on her lower lip, the taste of blood spreading in her mouth.

’I can’t let Night Abyss find out, no matter what. He’s already carrying too much.’

’I don’t want to be the last straw that breaks him.’

’Three days!’

’I have to find the antidote within three days.’

’Otherwise, the warmth of Night Abyss’s back will be the last comfort I feel before our final farewell.’