CHAPTER 166: CHAPTER 166: PAIN

The cold air touched her bare skin, but her body rejected it instantly, feeling like a furnace that refused to cool. Her hair clung to her damp forehead, sweat dripping down her back in burning rivulets.

Mr. Crow couldn’t glance back at her and turned his back toward Lana. "Are you alright?"

"I’m fine," she gasped, though she clearly wasn’t. ’I’m burning alive... I’m burning from the inside out...’

The heat was relentless. Like invisible flames licking her bones.

She curled up, hugging her stomach. Moments later, she sprawled out again, trying to expose as much skin as possible to the surrounding air.

Nothing helped.

Outside the door, Lucian leaned his forehead against the wall.

His jaw clenched painfully tight. Every soft sound from inside... the ragged breathing, the stifled sobs... stabbed into him like needles.

He wanted to smash the door open. He wanted to tear the herbs out of her system. He wanted to take the pain for her.

How can her tiny body endure this? How can this be considered training? Who created this monstrous method?

Inside, Lana bit down on her hand to keep herself silent.

Tears slid down her temples. The sensation was unbearable, like her blood was boiling and her organs were being roasted inside her body.

Minutes turned into hours.

Mr. Crow’s feathers bristled. "This is torture..."

Lucian startled every time Lana whimpered. His fists were bloody from clenching so tightly.

The heat continued for six endless hours.

And then... Finally... It began to fade.

Lana panted weakly, like someone who had almost drowned.

But her relief didn’t last.

A bone-deep cold surged through her veins, freezing her sweat instantly. Her teeth chattered so loudly that it echoed in the empty room.

’The second wave... Professor Axel warned me about...’

Her fingers trembled uncontrollably as she struggled to put her clothes back on. Each piece felt like lifting a heavy stone with numb, frozen hands.

When she finally managed, she pressed the bell. The door swung open immediately.

Lucian rushed inside and froze.

Her lips were blue. Her skin was pale. She clutched her arms, trembling like someone abandoned in a blizzard.

He snapped toward the assistants. "Bring a blanket!"

They rushed in with soft wool blankets and heating pads, but just as Lucian reached to drape one over her...

Lana shook her head violently and pointed at the list.

Lucian’s breath hitched.

The instructions glowed in his mind:

Do not warm her artificially. Do not change her temperature manually. Do not alleviate the elemental shock. Do not intervene.

He let the blanket fall from his hands, the fabric brushing the marble floor with a dull thud.

He took two steps back, fists trembling helplessly.

His voice cracked. "I can’t help you... even like this."

Seeing her shiver so violently seared through him like a knife dipped in ice.

The urge to destroy whoever invented this cultivation method pulsed in his veins.

’Why must she endure so much pain just to grow stronger? Why does power demand such cruelty? Why her? ’

And yet... He could only stand there.

Watching her suffer. Watching her teeth chatter. Watching her curl in on herself, fighting through an agony he couldn’t lessen.

Unable to do anything.

And hating that helplessness more than anything he had ever felt.

Lana had no idea how long the torture lasted. Time had dissolved into a blur of raw pain and ragged breaths.

She only knew one thing with absolute clarity... She needed relief. Any relief. Even a breath of warm air on her skin felt like hope.

The cold, however, refused to show mercy.

It lingered inside her for the next six excruciating hours, seeping into her bones like shards of winter. Her fingers felt frozen stiff, her teeth chattering so violently she feared they might crack.

Only when the cold finally retreated did she dare to exhale.

She waited for the next wave. And it arrived.

Without warning, a sensation like thousands of ants gnawing her from the inside surged through her veins.

Needles of phantom pain crawled beneath her skin. Her muscles twitched uncontrollably. Even her heartbeat felt like the tapping of insects on stone.

’I want to stab myself right in the chest to make it stop...’

The thought rose like a dark whisper from the bottom of her mind. Another one followed, even darker.

’Why don’t I kill every single person who wronged me? Every last one who made me suffer? Why don’t I make them feel what I feel? ’

Her breath hitched.

Then another venomous thought slithered in like a snake.

’Why doesn’t Lucian love me? Why does he act so gentle... so innocent... yet never choose me? Never looks at me the way I look at him? Why does he pretend to care but never... accept me? ’

Her nails dug into her palms while her teeth clenched. Panting slightly, Lana understood that something was wrong with her mental state.

She shut her eyes tight, as if physically fighting back an invading force.

She understood what was happening.

She knew every human had an evil seed buried somewhere deep inside. No one was pure. No one was an angel.

But only those who controlled their darkness remained good.

Right now, she stood at the exact crossroads between the two.

’These thoughts aren’t mine. They’re the backlash of the herbs... they want me to act on impulse and opening the leash I have put on my evil thoughts till now.’

She inhaled a sharp breath.

’Focus. Eliminate the noise. I can’t hold two emotions. I need only one. One clear, steady emotion... gratitude. Everything I have now is far more than what many others ever get. Even in my suffering, I’ve been given chances, people, opportunities... I can’t throw that away just because my body hurts.’

As she whispered these thoughts inwardly, the malicious whispers began to fade.

Slowly, one by one, they dissolved like shadows chased away by morning light.

And time... without her noticing, crawled past.

The sky outside the hall darkened into evening. The next day crept upon her without her realizing.

Her limbs trembled violently, and even her vision slipped, blurring every few seconds like a broken camera.