She had to try hard not to give up. What made her prevail was the fact that she wanted to be strong enough to fight side by side with Luan. Ingrid bit her bottom lip hard until it bled. She shouted, "I will... get over this! I will control this blood!!"

Her scream came out like a scream from a banshee and the blood around her spread for a second, but soon it was around her again, torturing her.

Luan, who was about to destroy the orb, seeing Ingrid's determined cry, restrengthened his will and supported her decision.

10 minutes passed. Ingrid was already speechless from screaming so much in pain, but at no time did she give up; her will was greater than Emperor Shen had expected.

This surprised even Luan, who often wanted to destroy the orb, but he did not, as it would go against Ingrid's will and all the effort and sacrifice she made to endure so long would then be in vain.

Ingrid's body started to convulse; Luan was nervous and used his Qi to help her body stabilize. Ingrid's lips were already turning blue, her eyes turned up, but before it got any worse, Luan managed to find the cause of the problem and was able to help: she had been running out of oxygen in her brain.

Luan joined his lips to hers and passed the Qi directly to her, and made the oxygen mixed with his Qi go right into Ingrid's brain and help her.

With a long, frightened breath, Ingrid breathed again and her purple lips turned to color once more. She was almost bleeding, in fact, she had a slight nose bleed.

Luan saw this, and cleaned it up. He saw that 18 minutes had passed since the trial had started, but he didn't know that Ingrid had to stay 20 minutes until the test was over, so he was determined this time to destroy the orb before anything more serious might happen.

"I... I can, because... I have Luan..." Ingrid murmured.

"Damn woman! How can you do this to me?" Luan muttered in conflict. He didn't expect Ingrid to say that just when he was about to destroy the orb.

In the volcano, Ingrid, who had lost consciousness and was about to give up, felt an energy that made her feel comfortable even in this hellish place. She opened her eyes wide and closed her hands in fists. Yes, there was very little left; there was no way she was going to give up now, right?

When it was only a few seconds before time ran out, Ingrid felt something different. She tried to move the blood and almost succeeded, but then the feeling vanished.

"Congratulations, you made it," Emperor Shen said with a surprised expression but soon returned his original indifferent one.

Ingrid didn't answer; she just lay on the floor, not caring about anything else, and took a few deep breaths, feeling alive again. She didn't expect it to be so torturous, She felt like she had been cooked alive. For a moment, she really would have been. If Luan hadn't helped her, maybe now she...

"Hey, you said there are two tests, right? Err, is the next test as difficult as this one, or is it even worse?" Ingrid was still lying on the bloody floor when she asked that question.

"Yes, it is twice the difficulty you have gone through just now," Emperor Shen replied.

"I see... I give up. I already understood my limit, and just now, I'm sure I almost died. I can't keep making Luan worry about me. It is a pity, but I will give up." Ingrid blew out a long sigh with regret, but then she smiled. At least, she believed she was not a complete coward; she at least managed to pass the first test and she herself was surprised by her determination.

"Little girl... No, Ingrid, you won. I didn't want to let you pass initially, but even if I did, I can't administer the test again. *Sigh* Luck is also important. It can be said that your luck made you win in the end. Anyway, I'm already dead, and I said that you had to pass two tests and technically you passed. Mm, right, I'm going to pass you on the other two parts of the technique as well..."

Emperor Shen's voice grew weak, and in Ingrid's mind, two other parts of the technique appeared. And then, everything went dark, and the next moment she opened her eyes, Ingrid saw Luan's perfect face with his red eyes looking back at her.

"I won. I did it, Luan..." Ingrid was still hoarse in her voice, and when she said that, it sounded a little strange, but she didn't care about that now. She was happy to have passed the test.

"Congratulations, you were very brave." Luan initially wanted to lecture her, because he thought she had taken too many chances, but seeing how happy she was, he didn't want to, or better to say, he couldn't do it. In the end, he smiled softly as he said just these words to her.

Ingrid, who was using Luan's lap as a pillow, sat down on her knees on the floor, and she stared at his charming face.

"I love you to death, Luan!" Ingrid said. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she kissed Luan, catching him off guard. She gave him a double surprise - he kind of surprise that a man who loves his woman would like to have.

Without Ingrid noticing, lost in her own delight, runes left the orb in her right hand and went towards the altar. The whole ground shook and a boulder fell from the sky. Until even the rocky mass that surrounded them developed huge web-like cracks. At the point, Luan and Ingrid stopped kissing and were focused on the altar that was shaking nonstop.

The slab that formed the table exploded and the lid snapped open.

A flash of crimson light that was brighter than blood came out of the counter.

The thing which emitted the light flew towards Ingrid, and when Luan went to attack it, the thing swerved and landed in Ingrid's hand, obediently.

"Wow!" Ingrid exclaimed in surprise.

_ _

{Edited by: Azurtha}

- Drop some power stone, please <3

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