After an unknown amount of time, Hua Yan finally regained consciousness. She had fallen from a height, and her entire body ached faintly.
It hurts! If I had known, I wouldn’t have come in!
Surrounded by rubble and dust, she waved her sleeve to clear the debris, slightly moved her limbs, and stood up. She opened her eyes wide to look around, but it was still pitch black everywhere.
“Great Hero Lu, Great Hero Lu!”
She called out twice but received no response.
Hua Yan’s heart skipped a beat, and she called out louder. The surroundings seemed very empty, and her voice echoed back, making it seem even more desolate.
… Could he be buried under the rocks?
Hua Yan suddenly realized that when the cave had collapsed, she had fallen without much debris hitting her. Apart from the pain from the fall, she didn’t even have a scratch.
Wait, did Great Hero Lu shield her?
Is he okay?
Feeling increasingly anxious, Hua Yan squatted down, groping around and calling out more urgently, “Great Hero Lu, are you here… you…”
After a while, a muffled “hmm” sounded, followed by the noise of stones rolling and falling, as if Lu Chengsha was slowly sitting up.
Hua Yan finally relaxed.
She realized from the sound that Lu Chengsha wasn’t far away, just right next to her, but it was too dark to see.
Lu Chengsha blew, and a firestarter ignited.
By the light of the flame, Hua Yan could see that they seemed to be in an underground palace. The ground was orderly, like it was made of large stones, and there were some long-unused candle lamps on the walls.
Oh my... Hua Yan covered her face, feeling a bit excited.
Resisting the urge to explore, she reached out to touch the candle lamps on the wall. The candles seemed usable, so she lit them one by one, and the surroundings gradually brightened.
It was indeed a long-neglected and dilapidated underground palace. Moss had accumulated thickly on the ground, there were even some puddles in places, and the air was filled with a musty smell. The place where they had fallen was also sealed off by stones above, giving it a gloomy atmosphere.
But it felt familiar. It was said that their Zhengyi Sect used to love building such underground palaces, but they had become rarer in recent years.
Hua Yan, born late, had only heard of them but never seen one.
Seeing is believing!
She was almost excited enough to rub her hands together, but she managed to restrain herself.
Lu Chengsha stood up, surveyed the surroundings for a while, and then said, “Let’s go.”
His expression was calm, as if no matter what the situation was, it wouldn’t affect him.
Hua Yan nodded and followed behind Lu Chengsha, feeling more at ease now.
The underground palace was damp and cold, with occasional water droplets falling. As they walked further, they could see some stalactites hanging from the ceiling, seemingly integrated into the palace’s design.
They hadn’t walked far when a stone wall blocked their path.
Lu Chengsha tried to push it, but naturally, it didn’t budge. Hua Yan began to search nearby for any mechanisms. While searching, she occasionally caught a faint scent of blood but found no corpses or bloodstains around.
With suspicion, Hua Yan meticulously explored the ground, tapping lightly with her knuckles—it was common for the Zhengyi Sect to create hidden passages this way.
Sure enough, when she tapped a particular spot, the sound subtly changed; it was hollow underneath.
“Great Hero Lu! It’s hollow here, we can go down!”
Using a sword to lift the stone slab, they uncovered a passageway below, along with a stronger, stale, and musty smell. Dust swirled out from the entrance, carrying an unpleasant odor. Hua Yan waved her sleeve in disdain.
Lu Chengsha stepped in first, saying, “I’ll go down first.”
Hua Yan waited at the entrance for a while until she heard him say, “You can come down, but…”
Her heart tightened immediately.
Lu Chengsha continued, “…there are skeletons below.”
Oh…
Skeletons, huh?
Hua Yan hesitated, thinking perhaps the remains were particularly gruesome, though she had seen her fair share of such sights. She quickly descended as well, noticing that indeed, there were many bones piled on the ground on both sides, now just skeletal remains from long ago.
Lu Chengsha said, “If you’re scared, hold on to me.”
Hua Yan: “…”
But she wasn’t scared at all!
Their sect even had elders who loved decorating with skeletons, both inside and outside their rooms. One elder had even built a small mountain of skulls in the courtyard, adorned with jewels and treasures, proudly admiring it daily. For her birthday, he once gifted her a long zither made from leg bones and a vertical flute crafted from rib bones.
Thinking to herself, Hua Yan still grabbed Lu Chengsha’s hand.
As they continued, the number of skeletons increased. Hua Yan noticed some writing on the walls. She had taken a candle from the wall and used it to illuminate the text.
The writing on the walls was shocking, some of it chiseled, some written in blood, and some scratched out with fingernails.
— Save me! I don’t want to die!
— I can survive! If they all die, I can live!
— This place is too terrifying… let me out…
— They’ve all gone mad!
The handwriting became more twisted and frantic, eventually looking completely deranged.
She saw it, and naturally, so did Lu Chengsha.
He gently pulled her away, gripping her hand tightly and said, “Don’t look.”
Hua Yan: “…Huh?”
She was quite engrossed in it, why was she being pulled away?
Maybe there were clues or interesting stories in there?
Lu Chengsha told her again, “Don’t be afraid.”
…But she wasn’t afraid at all!
Did she look scared?
Hua Yan thought about it and realized she was indeed trembling a bit—mostly from excitement. She didn’t know how to explain it, so she just tightened her grip on Lu Chengsha’s hand.
Lu Chengsha immediately responded.
Hua Yan winced and said, “…Great Hero Lu, you’re gripping too tight, it hurts a little.”
Lu Chengsha froze for a moment, then loosened his grip slightly.
That scent of blood lingered around their noses, never dissipating, almost making Hua Yan feel uneasy.
At the end of the passage, they found a spacious circular stone chamber, similarly scattered with many skeletons. At the other end of the chamber was another passage, and in the center stood a giant humanoid stone statue.
The statue wore long robes and had long hair, with its arms crossed and eyes closed, making it difficult to discern its gender. Strangely, the statue was surrounded by countless silk-like threads, one end inserted into the statue and the other scattered on the ground, as if to draw the life force from the people around and channel it into the statue.
The entire platform of the statue also resembled an altar.
Hua Yan was stunned—this looked exactly like the human sacrifices of their Tiancan Sect.
Hua Yan had only heard about it and never seen it before. The ritual had been abolished many years ago. The Tiancan Sect, being a sect, naturally had some deceitful and fraudulent occult rituals. Human sacrifice was the most notorious among them, so evil it was appalling.
It was famous because it was said to bring the dead back to life.
To make it convincing, they even concocted a legend. It told of a very powerful and incredibly smart leader of their sect who deeply loved a holy maiden. She was deceived and eloped with someone, eventually dying. In his pain and remorse, the leader decided to revive the holy maiden. He preserved her body in a stone statue, placed it at the heart of a human sacrifice array, and harnessed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, sacrificing the lives of a hundred people to nourish it for ten years—the more people who died within the array, the better.
After ten years, he opened the stone statue, and the holy maiden’s appearance was as flawless as before. She eventually woke up, and they became husband and wife.
Hua Yan had once asked her mother, “Why wait ten years?”
Her mother had patted her head and said, “Because if it happened immediately, the lie would be exposed instantly!”
Hua Yan was dumbfounded: “It’s fake?”
Her mother said, “Of course! Do you really think someone can be brought back to life?”
However, Hua Yan didn’t expect that someone actually did this!
Seeing the evil scene before her, she felt a pang of guilt. After Xie Yingxian took over, he abolished all those messy rituals. They weren’t this evil anymore…
Lu Chengsha seemed to sense her tension.
“Are you very scared?”
“…No!”
She was telling the truth, but her excessive guilt made it sound insincere.
Lu Chengsha stopped walking, turned to look at Hua Yan, and his face plainly said, “I don’t believe you.”
Hua Yan: “…”
What! She really wasn’t scared or too afraid to look!
But…for some reason, she felt a bit embarrassed to say anything more.
Hua Yan never thought she would be considered a delicate little flower. In their sect, they didn’t even avoid her when killing people!
Since childhood, Hua Yan had seen all sorts of strange and grotesque corpses. To explain the effects of poisons to her, her mother would even find bodies that had succumbed to various toxins. Faces swollen, bodies bloated, parts decomposed—she had seen it all so often that it didn’t bother her. She could eat her meals while looking at them without being affected. Although her father taught her that randomly killing people was wrong, seeing such things didn’t shock her.
Her mother praised her for her exceptional courage and warned her never to become one of those timid, fearful girls.
Hua Yan opened her mouth, but the words that came out were, “…Alright, I’m scared!”
…She hoped her mother wouldn’t leap out of her coffin in anger.
Hearing this, Lu Chengsha took out a dark blue hairband from his sleeve.
Huh, you have a spare!
Before Hua Yan could finish her thought, Lu Chengsha came closer and used the hairband to blindfold her, speaking gently, “Just follow me.”
“Okay.” She responded obediently.
The hairband still carried a hint of Lu Chengsha’s scent.
Lu Chengsha said, “I’m here.”
Hua Yan nodded, “Mm.”
For a moment, Hua Yan understood why Shui Se always acted so delicate and fragile even though she was quite strong in a fight. Being protected felt really nice.
***
“What’s in there?” she asked.
Lu Chengsha replied, “We’ll find out once we open it.”
Hearing the sound of Lu Chengsha drawing his sword, Hua Yan guessed he was planning to cut the statue in half and quickly stopped him, “Wait! Let’s not destroy it yet! There might be mechanisms!”
The human sacrifice array was incredibly evil; who knew what other dangers it held.
Lu Chengsha sheathed his sword again.
He pulled her along, and they walked a bit more. Without her sight, her other senses became sharper, and the smell of blood returned.
After a short walk, Lu Chengsha stopped. Hua Yan guessed they had reached the end again.
She peeked a little from under the hairband.
Sure enough!
The other passage across the circular stone chamber led nowhere. After circling around, they were back in the chamber with the stone statue.
Lu Chengsha asked her to wait a moment, and soon after, he had cleared all the skeletons out of the chamber.
Hua Yan sat waiting, feeling increasingly embarrassed.
She peeked again from under the hairband and saw Lu Chengsha inspecting the stone chamber inch by inch with a candle, including that eerie stone statue. The dim light from the candle cast a glow on Lu Chengsha’s profile and the faint traces of blood on his forehead.
Blood—!
Hua Yan was startled.
“You’re injured?”
She yanked off the hairband and walked over. She had been wondering where the smell of blood was coming from since she hadn’t been injured.
Lu Chengsha was taken aback and said, “It’s nothing.”
“Let me see!” Hua Yan reached out to touch him.
Lu Chengsha sidestepped slightly and repeated, “It’s nothing.”
In the poor light of the underground palace, combined with Lu Chengsha’s black clothing, she hadn’t noticed his injury.
“No way, Great Hero Lu, let me see!”
Lu Chengsha still insisted, “No need.”
Hua Yan couldn’t believe how stubborn he was and stamped her foot in frustration. “It must be serious! Let me see it! I have medicine!”
Lu Chengsha replied, “It’s not serious. It’ll be fine soon.”
“You’re bleeding!” Hua Yan couldn’t help but exclaim, “Why are you lying to me!”
Lu Chengsha was left speechless by her accusation but still wouldn’t let her see the wound.
He was inexplicably stubborn about this, and Hua Yan found it impossible to reason with him. She decided to take matters into her own hands and grabbed at his clothing. Lu Chengsha tried to block her but was afraid of hurting her, making him hesitant.
The underground palace was slippery, and the lighting was poor. Anxious and frustrated, Hua Yan slipped and fell forward.
Lu Chengsha, holding the candle, was caught off guard by her fall and toppled backward.
The next moment, Hua Yan found herself straddling Lu Chengsha.
Lu Chengsha propped himself up on his elbows, leaning back, almost touching the ground. Hua Yan swiftly took the candle from his hand, set it aside, and then pushed him down to examine his wound.
He looked dazed, completely taken aback, offering no resistance.
Hua Yan first leaned in to inspect his forehead, then lowered her head to sniff the blood on him. She yanked open his outer robe and, sure enough, found a patch of crimson on his shoulder, already soaking through his inner clothes.
Why didn’t he make a sound! Even Xie Yingxian would at least hiss in pain.
She worried that she might have pulled on Lu Chengsha’s wound when she had grabbed his hand earlier.
Feeling a bit guilty, Hua Yan guessed that his injury probably came from the fall. She started to peel back Lu Chengsha’s inner clothes, exposing his warm chest and shoulder. In the candlelight, she could see fresh bruises on his waist and abdomen, making her heart tighten. She traced his ribs with her fingers, checking if any were broken, which might explain why Lu Chengsha hadn’t been his usual straightforward self since regaining consciousness.
She felt a twinge of pity for him. Just as she was lost in thought, her hand was grabbed.
Lu Chengsha seemed to regain clarity then, his voice hoarse, “Get off.”
Hua Yan was determined not to comply, knowing that if she got off now, she wouldn’t get another chance. She insisted, “Don’t move! Let me check and apply some medicine first!”
Lu Chengsha’s voice was extremely raspy, “No need for medicine… get off.”
He seemed to try to push her away, gripping her hand.
Hua Yan, not as strong as him and worried about hurting him further, decided to lie down flat on top of him, stubbornly refusing to get off. She pouted, “I’m not getting off! Don’t move!”
In the flickering candlelight, she saw Lu Chengsha raise his chin with great restraint and let out a long breath.