Chapter 35#

The continuously bleeding wound was being sucked incessantly, first with intense pain, then surprisingly with a hint of itchiness. Hua Jinian was still immersed in a deep, satisfying sleep, the expression on his face as soft as a contented infant. After a while, Hua Qianjue heard him seem to vaguely complain, turning his head away and no longer sucking, his soft lips leaving his wrist. He actually felt a bit disappointed in his heart.

Hua Qianjue laughed at himself, seeing that his wound was not bleeding much anymore, leaving a blurry patch of pale, everted flesh. So he reached out and untied the ribbon binding his hair, wrapping it layer by layer around the wound and tightening it. His long hair, freed from restraint, scattered down, shining with a cold light in the dark night, adding a few points of imposing manner and evil charm. The man could not find a trace of sleepiness at this time, just staring at him thoughtfully like this.

The torch burned with orange-red light, scattering a layer of warm color lightly in the stone hall, also illuminating Hua Jinian’s somewhat pale face. Because he had just drunk blood not long ago, his lips were red as if coated with a layer of demonic light. This gave Hua Qianjue a sinful satisfaction—that person wanted to be a good person, so he couldn’t let him be one. That person didn’t want to eat people and drink blood, so he insisted on pouring him a few bowls of fishy blood. The things he had done, even if he had never had that ridiculous regret, he just couldn’t tolerate the young man’s fear and resistance to this.

He was somewhat excited, even impatient to watch the young man step by step towards these abysses, hunger, slaughter, and even some unspeakable admiration. He spread a giant net, waiting for Hua Jinian to drink all the sins with him.

Wanted to teach him well, also wanted to teach him bad.

Wanted to reward him, also wanted to punish him.

Wanted to achieve him, also wanted to destroy him.

Hua Qianjue laughed silently in the darkness, completely unaware that at this moment his whole mind was occupied by the young man. He used an extremely twisted but strong emotion to care, used a way of caring to hurt, used a way of hurting to express his extremely twisted but strong emotion. This indescribable taste made Hua Qianjue’s breathing somewhat rapid, just like the pleasure of bloodlust.

“Father?” Unknown when, Hua Jinian woke up from his dream, saw the man’s face half-hidden in the shadows smiling slightly, and asked in confusion. He almost joyfully discovered that his throat was no longer dry, although there was a trace of suspicious bloody smell.

Hua Qianjue was still smiling with unclear meaning. The moment he saw the young man open his eyes, he had a cruel impulse to overwhelm him. He understood that he was not suitable to return to the darkness. Darkness could stimulate all his hidden souls, impulsive, furious, cruel, bloody, lustful…

Souls that had been silent for a long time in the darkness.

He could already smell the stirring of that thing longing to awaken—

Hua Jinian was completely unaware, reaching out to pull this familiar yet strange man. When their fingers intertwined tightly, he found the man’s palm was hot as fire, subconsciously wanted to pull away, but was held even tighter.

“Father?”

“Let’s go.” Hua Qianjue said to him with a smile, the fire in his eyes gradually being soothed, as if nothing had ever happened. The man took down the torch from the wall. Those quiet carvings left on the wall, along with the solidified memories, were once again submerged in the darkness. Hua Jinian originally thought he would have to undergo another long migration, but luckily, the next journey only took a small half day.

In front was a huge iron door. The iron chain binding the door handle had been torn apart by someone, the chain coiling weakly on the ground. A faint smile appeared on Hua Qianjue’s lips, and he said softly: “Push the door open and have a look, remember not to touch anything inside.”

Hua Jinian wiped the cold sweat from his palms, tried to push the door, but the iron door didn’t move at all. He was a bit embarrassed for a moment, so he took a breath and slammed his shoulder hard against the iron door. The heavy door finally creaked open a crack, then like a floodgate that couldn’t be closed, opened wider and wider with inertia, finally hitting the stone wall heavily with a few loud bangs. Everything in front of him made Hua Jinian hold his breath in an instant.

Inside that huge secret room, the floor was different from the previous smooth stone slabs, but was paved with huge gold bricks. The gold brick floor was also covered with a thick layer of semi-transparent medium. Hua Jinian held his breath and looked carefully for a while before distinguishing that it was top-quality white crystal. Embedded in the crystal were two huge vermilion jade dragons, carved with relief techniques, scales and whiskers showing clearly. The two jade dragons sometimes dived into the depths of the crystal, sometimes poked a dragon claw out on the surface. At first glance, it was simply like a pool of clear water accumulated on gold sand, two living giant dragons swimming in the waves, baring fangs and brandishing claws—

“This…” Hua Jinian exclaimed, taking a step forward. The prosperous scene in the secret room came into view in an almost shocking way. Apart from the ground that was perfect to the point of unreality, the walls were also carved with dragons and painted with phoenixes, lacquered with gold and dotted with jade, entwined with huge pure gold flower cups connected by gold vines. Most of the space in the room was given to a huge flower platform, with a purple jade flower heart, lined with lotus petals carved from top-quality crystal in five layers of pale purple, pale red, pale pink, pale yellow, and light green from inside to outside. Layer upon layer of crystal clear semi-transparent colors seemed to melt into the lighter and more elegant colors outside. From a distance, the thousand layers of lotus petals were as soft and beautiful as a girl’s gentlest fingers, wrapping the hundred-seed flower heart made of purple jade inside.

On the lotus platform stood a life-sized statue. It was made entirely of rare Heavenly Crystal Purple Jade, decorated with silver ornaments and various gems, with red light faintly flowing inside. From a distance, it vaguely looked like a jade statue of a long-haired man, his face covered with a layer of silver bird mask, looking mysterious and dazzling. Hua Jinian asked somewhat nervously: “Hey, can we go in and have a look?”

The man stared at the statue, seeming to be suppressing some almost weird familiarity. After hesitating for a while, he pretended to be fine and laughed loudly, striding in. Hua Jinian walked a few steps closer, only to find that the jade statue was somewhat familiar, only that two things like sheep horns grew abruptly on the male statue’s head. He was dressed in a ferocious battle robe, with a wide belt and beast head buckle, but the clothes under the battle armor were extremely flashy and perfect, embellished with countless silver ornaments, fine chains and pendants. One side of the sculpture wore a wide sleeve, the other side a tight cuff and hard wrist guard. The back hem split to both sides, floating slightly. Coupled with four slightly longer ribbons floating in mid-air behind him, every detail of the jade statue was seamless, giving this statue a terrible reality.

Hua Jinian looked carefully for a long time, suddenly whispering: “Father, look at that hand of the statue, it’s terrible, simply like real…” Hua Qianjue followed the young man’s words and looked over, seeing that the hand part of the statue was carved to look like wearing a leather glove, but it made people clearly feel every joint of the hand under the glove, the shape of the muscles, and even the undulation of the veins under the skin. It was simply like a living person imprisoned into a statue. While praising, Hua Jinian reached out to touch those hands. Hua Qianjue was looking at this statue somewhat entranced at this moment. If Hua Jinian paid attention at this moment, he would be surprised to find that because the lotus platform was embedded in the crystal layer under their feet, the height of the man beside him was exactly the same as this statue, and they also had long hair flying arrogantly behind them, just like the real object and reflection on the water surface, staring at each other quietly.

But he didn’t pay too much attention, so he missed the memory fragment he had once picked up. Hua Jinian’s hand soon touched the statue. The man only realized at this time and shouted loudly: “Jinian, don’t touch!” Unfortunately, it was too late. Such a simple touch triggered the mechanism.

From the pure gold flower cups used for decoration in the corner of the wall, dark purple poisonous mist suddenly sprayed out. Hua Qianjue cursed loudly, pulling the young man to rush out of the secret room. Unexpectedly, there was a rain of arrows outside, shooting continuously from the dense small holes that suddenly appeared on the stone wall. This made it impossible for them to leave the secret room. Hua Qianjue cursed non-stop. He looked around and saw a huge stone wheel slowly turning on the far wall outside the secret room.

Hua Qianjue quickly estimated the distance, cursing secretly again. Seeing the purple poisonous mist already spreading over, he covered the young man’s mouth and nose with his sleeve while taking out a three-inch long dagger from his bosom, throwing it with all his strength. It nailed firmly into the stone wall, jamming the wheel exactly. This mechanism could no longer turn. The stone wheel hit the dagger vigorously two or three times with inertia, then gradually stopped.

Hua Jinian only came back to his senses at this time. Just as he was about to say something, a huge stone door suddenly fell between the secret room and the underground palace, sealing off all their escape routes.

The two looked at each other in silence for a while, then actually smiled bitterly at the same time. The poisonous mist in the secret room had not completely dispersed, still hanging in mid-air. While smiling bitterly, Hua Qianjue unceremoniously pressed the young man’s head low, and lowered his own body to avoid inhaling the poisonous gas. After a long time, the poisonous mist dispersed through several finger-thick ventilation holes.

Hua Qianjue smiled lazily, looking at the statue from the corner of his eye, and suddenly asked: “We can’t get out, have you thought of anything?” Hua Jinian followed the man’s gaze. The statue under the silver mask looked somewhat weird, as if breathing hard to come alive. Of course, this could only be an illusion.

Hua Jinian hesitated for a while, took out three Floating Pagoda Tokens from his bosom. Purple, emerald, and yellow, the three Floating Pagoda Tokens were laid out in a line. He whispered: “Look at this…”

Hua Qianjue’s eyes seemed to light up, “You collected them all? Truly incredible…” While saying this, he laughed in a low voice: “This Floating Pagoda Token was handed down from who knows when. In the past, Floating Pagoda Fortress announced to the outside world that whichever sect had given Floating Pagoda Fortress a great favor, we would give them a Floating Pagoda Token. Whoever collected three could ask Floating Pagoda Fortress to do one thing for him… In these hundreds of years, counting back and forth, it seems only one was given to Jiaye Temple, one to Cold Moon Pavilion… The remaining one was never given out, always hidden inside Floating Pagoda Fortress, for fear that someone could collect them all.”

Hua Jinian felt for a moment that this behavior was somewhat despicable, but he couldn’t say it. Watching the man pick up all three Floating Pagoda Tokens, hold them in his hand, and walk towards the statue, Hua Jinian couldn’t help but be surprised: “What are you going to do? Didn’t you say that statue can’t be touched?”

The man’s face rarely had such a focused expression at this moment. He whispered: “I think, they should be placed here…” Hua Jinian was afraid that the mechanism would be triggered again, so he quickly stood up and walked a few steps to pull the man’s sleeve. Hua Qianjue, however, placed these three Floating Pagoda Tokens into the statue’s loosely gripped right hand with a look of certainty. Almost simultaneously, the red light flowing inside the statue suddenly surged, flowing crazily in the jade. The secret room shook. The gold flower cups entwined on the walls fell to the ground one after another. A piece of the crystal ground suddenly softened, turning into truly flowing crystal liquid. The gold brick ground underneath split to both sides, revealing a circular opening. Another wooden flower platform of the same size as the previous flower platform slowly rose from the ground, the mechanism making creaking sounds non-stop.

Hua Jinian smiled joyfully: “So this piece of ground is not paved with white crystal, but sealed with Heavenly Fragrance Crystal Essence mixed with white wax. The mechanism is set so cleverly, this wooden platform must be able to save us…” As he spoke, he took a few steps forward to carefully study the wooden flower platform, seeing that five palm-sized little ghosts were carved with fine workmanship beside the flower platform, wearing red clothes and with pigtails pointing to the sky.

Hua Qianjue suddenly said hoarsely behind him: “Five Ghosts Transport Platform.”

Hua Jinian was delighted, tentatively stroking the wooden platform with his fingers while asking the man behind him: “You know how to open this switch, right?” The man was silent for a long time. The red light of the statue became brighter and brighter, until finally it became a blood red dyed with black, burning weirdly inside the statue, illuminating half of Hua Qianjue’s cold and silent face.

Hua Jinian was about to turn back to ask, when he felt the man slowly walking over, standing very close to him. Then, he actually slowly pressed against his back, hot and ambiguous breath slowly hitting his cheek. Hua Jinian couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed. Just as he was about to turn sideways, the man’s hands also reached over, grabbing his hands not very politely, his body pressing closer from behind, his lips lightly touching his face as if nothing happened.

Hua Jinian’s face instantly burned up. Besides embarrassment, there was also slight distress and anger. This sudden move obviously offended the young man’s self-esteem, and this dignity could only be softened by sweet words, definitely not by any violent conquest. He couldn’t help but scold: “What are you doing, let go… aren’t we discussing how to get out?”

Hua Qianjue’s low laughter came softly from behind. That person actually licked his auricle vigorously in a sensational way. The man’s voice was low and husky, a voice full of lust and magnetism, transmitting into the brain along the ears, teasing all organs and nerves along the way, making Hua Jinian almost tremble to find that his mind began to buzz violently and go blank for a short time. That person laughed in a low voice: “I naturally know, but before I let you out like this, I should always ask for some reward. Don’t lie to me, Jinian, it’s not that you don’t want to give, it’s not that I don’t want it. Let’s count, how long has it been, three years? Five years? No, a full six years…”

The young man’s ears were buzzing from his licking, how could he hear clearly what he was saying. His body struggled violently, but he had known for a long time how terrible the man’s brute force was, or rather, how terrible that man’s skills in this aspect were. That person’s tongue drew a wet line on his cheek, then the other hand dragged up his chin with patience but refusing refusal. That person forced him to kiss deeply in a shameful and difficult posture from behind.