After being universally criticized online, I went viral on military-themed variety shows.

Chapter 538 It's about to crumble, can you guess if he meant well or wanted to silence me?

Duanmu Sen's stop blocked the gray-robed man behind him, and Jiang Hanying and Li Chengxiao, who were further behind, naturally had no choice but to stop as well.

Jiang Hanying tiptoed forward to look, and after realizing whose problem it was, she asked, "Old man, why have you stopped walking? Are you out of energy?"

For the first time in his life, Duanmu Sen was called an old man: "..."

He's in the prime of his life, okay!

Anger momentarily overcame fear, and he immediately mustered all his strength and took a step forward.

However, he didn't dare to look at Yuan Qingzhuo's exposed skin again, and even carefully avoided looking at it with his hand.

I'm afraid I'll see that terrifying scene again.

We continued walking cautiously and laboriously for about half an hour, actually only about two hundred meters, until the narrow space finally opened up.

Besides the slightly heavy footsteps and breathing of a few people, there was another sound.

"Thump, thump thump..."

The sound was irregular, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, and sometimes loud, but it was not to be ignored.

"Is that a heartbeat?"

“Hmm,” Li Chengxiao listened to the voice that rang in his ears for the second time, “but it doesn’t sound as steady as it did last time.”

Jiang Hanying thought for a moment, "Could it be because the body was forced to conceive and was in an unstable state?"

"perhaps."

Duanmu Sen also heard the thumping sound. He was so excited that his heart was about to jump out of his throat. He couldn't wait to stretch his neck and look ahead.

However, he overlooked Yuan Qingzhuo, who was walking in front of him.

Before he could even see the stone body, he noticed that the other person's neck and even ears were covered in dense red cracks, just like his favorite ice-crack porcelain vase.

But such cracks on a porcelain vase are a masterpiece, while on a human body they become horrifying!
Does he have it himself?
Duanmu Sen mustered his courage, looked down at his hands, then touched his face and neck before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, I'm alright.

After checking himself, he looked ahead again and found that Yuan Qingzhuo had stopped and was no longer walking forward.

He mustered his courage and took two more steps forward. Seeing that the man seemed completely unaware of the changes in him, he hesitated for a moment before deciding to speak up and remind him, "Your body..."

Yuan Qingzhuo glanced down at the cracks on his hand and clicked his tongue lightly, "Don't worry about it."

Anyway, this body won't be useful for long.

Duanmu Sen: "..."

He had to admire that mental fortitude!

But he quickly forgot about the other person's health. Just as Yuan Qingzhuo turned to the side, he finally saw the goal he had been struggling to reach.

"Stone body! This must be a stone body."

Jiang Hanying reached out and pushed the gray-robed man who was standing there blankly to the side, then quickly took a few steps and looked over as well.

Li Chengxiao walked to Jiang Hanying's side, first glancing at Yuan Qingzhuo standing opposite him, his gaze lingering on his face before he looked down at the stone fetus.

The last time he entered this place, the stone embryo he saw only had the shape of an infant, with facial features that were outlined but not yet clear.

Looking at it now, the contours of the facial features are very clear, and it even seems to have an expression!

Is it feeling uncomfortable?

Jiang Hanying leaned closer to take a look. "Are you shy?"

Li Chengxiao: "..."

Do stone fetuses feel shy?
Are you serious?

Time passed quietly.

Looking at the still motionless stone embryo in front of him, Duanmu Sen's initial excitement turned into anxiety. Then, looking at Yuan Qingzhuo, who was staring intently at the stone embryo without blinking, he asked, "Wasn't it said that the time was almost up?"

Yuan Qingzhuo had no intention of responding to him at the moment; her brows furrowed slightly, revealing an unexpected level of irritation.

Jiang Hanying looked up at the two of them upon hearing the sound.

I decided to confront that old man Duanmu Sen first, mainly because he's used to being high and mighty, and he can't help but jump up and down if I say anything to him.

As for the other one, I've already criticized him quite a few times, and his response is really weak!
"What's the rush? Didn't you say you were just curious when you came out? Now that you've seen the stone embryo, shouldn't you be satisfied? Do you care when it comes out? Or are you planning to contradict yourself?"

As expected, before she could even finish speaking, the old man was already breathing heavily with anger.

But she never learns from her mistakes. When she couldn't win an argument with her, she went to lecture her cheap master: "Chengxiao, control your girlfriend. She's so sharp-tongued. Aren't you afraid of offending people with that kind of temper?"

Li Chengxiao lowered his eyes, completely ignoring his furious expression, and simply replied, "I can't control it."

These three words were even more damaging than several of Jiang Hanying's previous remarks.

Duanmu Sen pointed a trembling finger at the two men, took a few deep breaths, and then gritted his teeth and said, "So what if I have ulterior motives? Don't you have them too? Then why did you chase me all this way here? Wasn't it all for this stone fetus! Everyone looks out for themselves!"

Chengxiao, you should know that I was forced to step down from the front lines back then because of injury. When my old injury flared up, the pain kept me up all night. The doctor said that even with surgery, there was less than a 50% chance of survival. If it weren't for Mr. Yuan, I probably would have succumbed to the pain and died, or died on the operating table. I just wanted to be more comfortable and live a little longer. What's wrong with that?

After hearing his explanation, Jiang Hanying looked enlightened. "So your cooperation with that Yuan guy was just to survive?"

"That's right, nobody wants to die."

"Just to survive? Then why did you come here when you're doing just fine?"

As Jiang Hanying spoke, she glanced at the nearly broken object next to him and said, "Unless someone surnamed Yuan tells you that coming here can not only heal old injuries, but also prolong life and even reverse aging, making it possible to live another hundred or eighty years, then it's not worth risking your life to come here."

Duanmu Sen's face tightened without him even realizing it.

Li Chengxiao knew him well, and seeing his reaction, he knew that what Jiang Hanying had just said was most likely true.

“There is no such thing as a free lunch.”

Jiang Hanying immediately nodded vigorously in agreement, "Look at the state of that guy surnamed Yuan now. He can't even protect himself, how could he have time to care about you? Aren't you afraid that he tricked you into coming here to silence you?"

Duanmu Sen suddenly turned his head to look at Yuan Qingzhuo.

He has known and worked with Yuan Qingzhuo for over twenty years, but he still dares not say that he understands him.

This person is too mysterious, so mysterious that even though he has already reached his current position, he has never thought of investigating everything about him, or rather, he dared not.

He felt that if he really did that, everything he had now would vanish, including his own life!
It was precisely because he felt he still had value to Yuan Qingzhuo, coupled with his obsession with restoring his health and even prolonging his life, that he abandoned his important work and came to Queshan without hesitation, and then climbed up here.

When he saw that Yuan Qingzhuo did not refute him at all, and that the cracks on his skin were becoming more and more obvious, his heart sank.

Could it be that that brat Jiang Hanying was right?
Yuan Qingzhuo was barely able to protect himself, yet he still wanted to drag him down with him on his deathbed?
Although he was still unwilling to believe the possibility, his subconscious had already prompted him to quietly back away.

Seeing his retreating action, Jiang Hanying lost the will to continue arguing. She had said enough; now she should just put aside her suspicions and anxieties.

He turned to look at Yuan Qingzhuo, "Are you wondering why this stone embryo hasn't hatched yet?"

Meeting Yuan Qingzhuo's gaze as he suddenly looked up, Jiang Hanying pretended to think seriously for a moment, "Is it possible that someone doesn't want to risk their life for you anymore? Those people you threw on the road to induce the birth of stone embryos should have already left Que Mountain. It seems that it's not a success if even one person is missing."

Yuan Qingzhuo stared straight at Jiang Hanying's face, then suddenly smiled.

The smile was fine before, but now, on this face, it looks somewhat bloody and horrifying.

"What, you've switched from killing to saving people?"

Jiang Hanying snorted lightly: "As long as you suffer, that's fine."

Yuan Qingzhuo looked down at the body that might shatter at any moment, then at the stone embryo in front of him that had not shown any signs of breaking out due to interference with the gestation process. He decided to go all out and reached out to touch the stone embryo's brow, preparing to force a fusion.

As for the fact that doing so would cause the stone embryo to break out of its shell before it is fully developed, that is still better than the body it resides in shattering and being captured by the rules.

Seeing this, Jiang Hanying narrowed her eyes and made a gesture to stop him.

A slender, fair hand suddenly reached out.