Chapter 914

Adam could no longer move. His eyelids felt impossibly heavy, and he couldn't lift them no matter how hard he tried. The flicker of life in him resembled a dying candle, its flame faltering in the wind. He lay quietly on the bed, as if time had covered him with dust. Though he desperately wanted to move, his body betrayed him, limp and unresponsive, like a brittle autumn leaf ready to be carried away on the breeze. The effects of the drug took hold quickly. In just a few minutes, his breathing had grown faint. The air in the room seemed to freeze, laden with a heavy silence. His breaths were shallow, akin to the soft rustle of wind threading through distant groves—elusive and fragmented. Each breath felt like his final, desperate struggle to cling to life, yet he was too powerless to halt its inevitable departure. His skin was pale and dry, as though time had drained all moisture from him. His fingers curled, and the joints at his fingertips stuck out, like marks left by time. The