Chapter 34#

Hua Jinian strode forward. This tunnel had no forks, so there was no risk of getting lost, but its length gave rise to a sense of despair, as if no matter how fast he ran, he would never reach the end. Hua Jinian panted lightly, his forehead covered in cold sweat, looking around helplessly. The pitch-black underground palace tunnel was oppressive, like a monster with its giant mouth wide open, ready to swallow everything at any moment. There was no sound, no light, no hope, no one.

Hua Jinian listened to his own lonely, hopeless footsteps and panting. He had struggled to hold on for a whole day, and finally, he was on the verge of collapse. He supported himself against the wall and slowly knelt on the ground. Behind him came the sound of light footsteps, one step after another, very steady.

“Abbot?” Hua Jinian asked.

No one answered.

“Father?” Hua Jinian panted, wanting to stand up, but suddenly found he couldn’t straighten his body: “Father, is that you?”

A warm, large hand was placed on his head, and the person responded in a low voice: “En.”

Hua Jinian felt a buzzing in his mind, turned around, and hugged him tightly. Hua Qianjue was stunned, tilting his head to carefully study the young man’s expression. After a long while, he asked: “You are afraid?”

Hua Jinian shook his head, forced a few laughs, pushed the man away, then thought for a moment and nodded again.

Hua Qianjue then laughed loudly, vigorously rubbing the young man’s soft forehead hair. After thinking for a moment, he complained in a low voice: “I had already trapped those two people in the underground palace. I was originally going to find the other three… When I came, I discovered that for some reason, they were fighting with that monk…”

Hua Jinian was stunned, looking up at the man in disbelief. Hua Qianjue continued, unaware: “I found the bodies of the four of them on the ground. That monk seemed to have had his right arm disabled before, barely managed to kill one of them, and was later killed by the other two. What’s hateful is that the monk secretly took a deadly poison before he died, causing the remaining two to die with him after eating only a few mouthfuls of poisoned flesh. This is just great… In this way, we have very little food left.”

— Donor Hua, run quickly, don’t look back.

Hua Jinian took a few steps back, his face pale. He seemed to remember something, took out the small bright yellow packet from his bosom, opened it with trembling hands, and found inside a Floating Pagoda Token made of yellow jade. He didn’t know what to say for a moment, so he shook his head and put it back in his bosom.

— Run quickly, don’t look back.

“I don’t eat people…” Hua Jinian leaned against the wall, seeming to try hard to distance himself from the man. “I don’t want to eat people, I don’t want to become like that, I’d rather starve to death… Yes, I’d rather starve to death than eat human flesh, I don’t want to become like that.”

Hua Qianjue flew into a rage: “What are you talking about!”

Hua Jinian lowered his head, choking with sobs.

— Donor Hua, don’t look back.

Hua Jinian began to cry loudly. He hadn’t cried like this since he was very young: “I want the Abbot to know that he saved me… he didn’t save the wrong person. I don’t want to be like this. I’m not a good person, but I don’t want to fall to that level either. Father, if you are really hungry, you can eat my flesh too. But I don’t want to be like them!”

Hua Qianjue stared at him with a face full of anger, then laughed in extreme anger: “Good! Very good! A wolf’s den actually raised a lamb!” He pulled at Hua Jinian’s sleeve, seeming to want to say something, but couldn’t find the right words for a moment, only repeating over and over: “You are very good! You are very good!…”

The hand holding the young man became more and more powerful. Suddenly, a trace of abnormal internal breath fluctuation caught the man’s attention. Hua Qianjue was stunned, and inputted several streams of true energy into the young man’s body to investigate. After a while, his face became even more unsightly, blood light faintly reflected in his deep eyes, looking furious. He shouted word by word: “Who is it? Who abolished your Flower Heart Art kung fu? Was it that bald donkey?”

Hua Jinian seemed to want to struggle free from his control, but couldn’t break free no matter what, so he turned his head away and replied sullenly: “After being captured by him that day, I woke up from the underground palace and found that my skill was not as good as before.”

Hua Qianjue said angrily: “Then why are you still feeling sad for him! It was he who threw you into this underground palace, it was he who abolished your several levels of kung fu!”

Hua Jinian sneered: “So what. I originally hated him too, but when I woke up here and found that I could be afraid, could be angry, could live like a real person, I suddenly understood that all along, the person who really wanted to abolish this martial art was not anyone else, but myself… The Abbot, he just helped me fulfill this wish.”

Hua Qianjue struck the surrounding stone wall fiercely with a palm, using so much force that blood seeped from his palm. He gritted his teeth and cursed: “I don’t understand you. Who was it that told me they wanted to practice peerless martial arts, who told me they wanted to be a master!”

As he spoke, he stared fiercely at Hua Jinian for a while, then actually turned around and walked away. Hua Jinian was stunned, and said softly behind him: “Hey, what I said just now was serious. If I can let you live longer… you can eat my flesh and drink my blood without worry.”

Hua Qianjue turned back in a rage, lecturing without hesitation: “Shut up! Do you know how much brainpower I spent for your little life! What I hate most is that you don’t even know how to cherish your own life!”

Hua Jinian retorted sarcastically: “Don’t lie to me. You are actually angry just because the son you brought up yourself suddenly became useless again, and you feel disappointed. Your eyes can’t tolerate the weak at all, you look down on them, so I have always only forced myself to become strong—”

Hua Qianjue walked back in a few steps, grabbed the young man by the collar and shouted: “Nonsense, do you think I don’t know your proud nature? If you became a weakling, the one who would be most sad is not others, but yourself! I don’t care about such trivial matters. Even if you become a child and wet the bed at night, it would save me more worry than in the past two years.”

Hua Jinian blushed slightly and scolded: “What nonsense are you talking about?” As he spoke, he was suddenly stunned and asked again: “You don’t care? Do you really not care whether I have promise or not? Didn’t you always say something like—it’s good to do this, it’s right to do this, this is like my ‘Hua Qianjue’s’ son? Making me, making me—”

The man laughed loudly: “Yes, I once had the idea of spurring you on no matter what, but now, everything is different. Do whatever you want, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want to do anything, it’s not like I can’t afford to raise you.”

Hua Jinian thought carefully for a while, then actually smiled: “Then you should be happy that I can live like a human again, shouldn’t you? Why are you suddenly so tolerant of me? As if I’m about to die.”

Hua Qianjue actually fell silent, stroking the back of his head, rubbing him into his shoulder, and asked in a low voice: “Jinian, do you have that medicine on you?”

Hua Jinian’s eyes became slightly sour, he buried his body in the man’s chest, and laughed in a low voice: “Didn’t you say my illness was cured long ago? That medicine, I remember, taken once a month, must finish a small bottle each time. Now it’s still more than half a month away from the next dose, so I didn’t bring it with me.”

The man sighed, patted his back, and laughed in a low voice: “Then what should be done? You are so picky about food, and forgot to bring medicine, and I am unwilling to let my son die just like this. By the way, Jinian, do you want to see the so-called treasure of Floating Pagoda Fortress?”

Hua Jinian was stunned, couldn’t help but struggle out of his arms, and asked with some excitement: “There is treasure in this underground palace?”

The man laughed loudly: “Yes, but they are things just for show, can only be looked at, not moved, otherwise they would have been taken and squandered long ago, how would it be the turn of…” He seemed to suddenly remember something, his tone rarely having a trace of obscurity: “How would it be the turn of twenty years ago… unable to hand over the things, suffering the siege of the world…”

Hua Jinian was stunned, looked up to examine the man’s face, but only saw the man’s tightly pursed thin lips, and a face so evil and charming it was soul-stirring. “Father.” Hua Jinian said softly, reaching out to take the man’s hand, but for the first time found that the person’s palm was a bit cold, not knowing what memory he had thought of.

Hua Qianjue suddenly fell silent. After a long time, he suddenly said abruptly: “Twenty years ago, when my mother was killed in front of me, thinking about it now… I should have been somewhat sad.”

It took Hua Jinian a long time to remember what he should say, but unexpectedly the man laughed loudly: “You should be much better at these sentimental things than me. Go, go, I’ll take you there to have a look.”

As he spoke, he picked up an extinguished torch from the corner and lit it, pulling Hua Jinian to stride forward, laughing: “It’s rare that there are no traps on this road, but you have to be careful when you get there.” How could Hua Jinian understand his unpredictable moods? He could only let himself be pulled forward. Hua Qianjue walked in this complex underground palace, leisurely like a monarch patrolling his own territory, sometimes turning right, sometimes going left. Not knowing if his memory was amazing, he actually didn’t hesitate at all.

It was just that the road ahead was much longer than when they came. Hua Jinian followed the man all the way down. Not knowing how long they walked, in this maze where direction and time were lost, he gradually began to get tired. The torches in the man’s hand burned out one by one, illuminating the road under their feet, but never thoroughly illuminating the end of this road.

Hunger came faster than imagined, and was more irresistible. While continuously advancing in the huge and interlaced underground palace, this hunger seemed to be intensifying and spreading, and what was even more unbearable was the suffocating thirst. Exhaustion and hunger and thirst were like intertwined climbing vines, making people more desperate and crazy in the gloomy underground palace. Hua Jinian gritted his teeth and tried to endure. When he saw the man’s calm expression, he suppressed this weak emotion even more masochistically. However, this sign that could have been smoothed over with a little rest only burned more and more vigorously during the uninterrupted walking. Finally, the young man began to be unable to control his somewhat tired and rapid panting. So tired, so hungry—so thirsty…

“Father.” He said softly, asking carefully: “Shall we rest for a while… okay?”

Hua Qianjue seemed not to hear what he was saying, still immersed in some terrible memory, indifferent to everything around him.

He continued to pull the young man forward, until Hua Jinian stumbled from his pull, then he suddenly came back to his senses, asking with a light smile: “Why aren’t you walking?”

Hua Jinian stood there blankly, not knowing how to explain. Hua Qianjue seemed to understand something, so he lowered his voice and asked: “Are you hungry, thirsty, or tired?” Hua Jinian wanted to nod, but recalling the inhuman scene that happened not long ago, he quickly said with a pale face: “I’m fine, I’m not hungry… I just want, want to rest for a while.”

Hua Qianjue laughed in a low voice: “There is a stone hall ahead. If you are tired, sleep there before leaving. I guarantee, you will definitely be able to get out alive.”

Hua Jinian didn’t notice the slight difference in the man’s wording, just smiled and nodded, barely following the man into the stone hall at the corner. It was an empty and simple hall, supported only by a few scattered stone pillars around, with a few stone tables and chairs scattered in the corners. Such a grand architectural style, contrasted with such simple furnishings, rendered a strange atmosphere of withering and sorrow, prosperity and decay melting together.

Hua Jinian was hungry and sleepy, and soon curled up on the stone chair and fell asleep, so soundly that he didn’t even dream. Hua Qianjue stood aside for a while, holding the torch, looking around, seeming to be remembering something, then inserted the torch into the torch stand on the stone wall. He gently stroked the patterned wall with his fingertips along the stone wall, then half-squatted down and found a line of shallow carvings in the corner of the stone wall.

There was a line of small characters written there, weak and childish strokes, seeming to be written by a child who was weak from hunger. The only thing with vitality was the extremely arrogant brushstrokes in every horizontal and vertical line, seeming ready to extend infinitely along the stone wall at any time, leaping out, a clamor and shout of flesh and blood. Hua Qianjue stroked the handwriting, tracing it word by word. What was written on it was: I want to live.

He was silent for a while, then slowly walked to the stone wall on the other side. There was also a line of carvings there, the handwriting was much deeper, the childishness gradually fading, but the arrogance between the words could not be changed. It seemed that the person who wrote it had grown into a teenager at this time. What was carved on it were repeated words, three consecutive “revenge”, the characters getting bigger and bigger, until the last character was the size of a bowl, the scratch a finger deep, shocking to the eye.

Hua Qianjue laughed coldly in a low voice, his face becoming indescribably murderous. Just as he was about to say something, he heard Hua Jinian turn over behind him, muttering a vague complaint: “I’m thirsty, so thirsty…” The man’s body suddenly stiffened, and a trace of softness forcibly appeared on his face originally full of evil spirit.

He tilted his head and thought for a while, then walked to the young man’s side and gently stroked Hua Jinian’s pale cheek. After thinking for a while, he rolled up his sleeve, brought his arm to his mouth, suddenly slowly bit his wrist. His white teeth slowly and calmly gnawed and tore, quickly breaking his own skin, then accurately found the thickest blood vessel, bit an opening, and then aimed the bloody wound at Hua Jinian’s lips.

The fishy but warm liquid gurgled into Hua Jinian’s mouth. The young man frowned, seeming dissatisfied with the taste, shaking his head and dodging for a while, but slowly, he felt in his deep sleep that this liquid relieved his thirst, making his throat, which was about to smoke, smooth enough to almost groan. So gradually, his lips began to move closer unconsciously, automatically sucking.

“Drink, you won’t be thirsty after drinking.” The man advised softly and unconsciously, gently stroking Hua Jinian’s forehead hair with one hand.