The injuries were nearly negligible to Lu Chengsha, but at the moment, they were exceedingly tormenting.
He couldn’t get up, nor could he push Hua Yan off. He had deliberately avoided touching Hua Yan, but he hadn’t expected her to pounce on him directly. Caught off guard, Lu Chengsha, who had rarely experienced panic in his life, found himself in a rare state of fluster.
Her sitting position was also inappropriate. Lu Chengsha wanted to get up, but as soon as his knees moved slightly upward, they would touch her body, so he could only keep his legs stiff.
The girl seemed completely unaware of how bad this posture was. Her face was illuminated by the half-bright, half-dim candlelight, with red lips, white teeth, and beautifully painted eyebrows, making her look stunningly beautiful. She looked anxious as she pulled open Lu Chengsha’s robe.
Her long hair fell from the side of her cheek, the ends brushing lightly against Lu Chengsha’s chest, causing a slight tickle accompanied by a faint, refreshing fragrance.
As she leaned in, her repeatedly soaked and dried dress appeared even thinner than paper, and through the slightly loose collar, he could see the girl’s slender, fair neck extending down to her delicate collarbones…
Lu Chengsha closed his eyes, not daring to look further. Sweat formed on his forehead, mixing with the slight sting of his wounds, while his heartbeat pounded like a drum.
His body was heating up, even his breath felt scorching.
Yet, the underground palace was clearly very cool.
Something indeed felt wrong.
Perhaps he was really poisoned.
He tried to suppress this strange sensation with his inner strength, but the next moment, he felt a light touch on his chest. Lu Chengsha abruptly opened his eyes, only to see the girl still unknowingly touching him.
Her slender fingertips felt like they carried thunder and lightning, each touch exploding in his heart, making him feel chaotic and extremely uncomfortable.
Finally unable to bear it, Lu Chengsha grabbed her hand.
He felt this situation was very dangerous, though he couldn’t pinpoint exactly why. Instinctively, he felt they should quickly distance themselves, maintain a normal distance that wouldn’t make him feel so peculiar—
Before Lu Chengsha’s consciousness fully returned, he felt the girl lying on top of him like a clinging pest, her long hair winding down to his chest, her soft fragrance overwhelming him in an instant.
His mind buzzed as if it exploded.
In a moment, his body heat doubled, indeed resembling deep poisoning. He couldn’t even hear what she was saying clearly, only feeling that he was enduring, struggling to endure… But what exactly he was enduring, Lu Chengsha himself didn’t know.
He only knew that he had never encountered such a situation before, one that was both unfamiliar and terrifying.
“Alright, just like that. Don’t move, I’ll apply the medicine!” The girl on him didn’t notice anything wrong, still chattering away.
She took out a medicine bottle, dipped her fingers in the medicine, and started applying it to his body in broad strokes.
Lu Chengsha grabbed her wrist again.
Hua Yan’s tone was somewhat speechless, “Great Hero Lu, don’t be so awkward! It’s just applying medicine… Why do you act like it’s costing you your life?”
It did feel like it was costing him his life.
After all, even when gravely injured and on the brink of death, Lu Chengsha had never experienced such embarrassment and difficulty.
He felt that if he didn’t control himself, he might do something terrible to the girl in front of him—Lu Chengsha froze for a moment. Could it be that he actually wanted to kill her?
Pressing on his wound, Lu Chengsha became somewhat clearer and said hoarsely, “My poison hasn’t been neutralized yet. Stay away from me.”
This time, it was Hua Yan’s turn to be stunned.
“Are you sure? How unreliable is that disciple from the Cixin Valley!” Hua Yan exclaimed loudly, rummaging through her pocket to produce a universal antidote. It was extremely potent but could counteract most common poisons. “Try this first.”
Lu Chengsha took it without hesitation and swallowed it.
However, Hua Yan still showed no intention of moving away.
“Great Hero Lu, why are you sweating so much? Is it very painful?” Hua Yan’s voice sounded a bit concerned. “Do you feel any better? I’ll continue applying the medicine…”
Lu Chengsha finally couldn’t bear it any longer.
He suddenly sat up. Hua Yan was startled and slid back, her body almost touching the wall of the stone chamber, her hands supporting herself on the ground.
Lu Chengsha bent his legs and leaned forward.
Suddenly, the distance between them became very close.
The candlelight behind Lu Chengsha flickered slightly. Against the light, his forehead was smeared with blood and sweat, his eyes dark and inscrutable. Through the robe that Hua Yan had torn open, one could see Lu Chengsha’s bare, muscular chest heaving rapidly. Blood dripped from the wound on his shoulder, trailing down his powerful waist and abdomen before disappearing into his waistband. He looked both alluring and dangerous.
Hua Yan hadn’t yet figured out the situation but finally sensed something was wrong.
Lu Chengsha reached out his hand.
She blinked.
Lu Chengsha’s hand hovered beside her ear for a moment, somewhat stiffly, and then pressed against the wall.
Their eyes met briefly.
Even Hua Yan felt this moment was inexplicably long, imbued with a strange air, as if even the cold and eerie underground palace was filled with a scorching heat.
In the next instant, Lu Chengsha lowered his eyes slightly and said, “You’d better not come near me right now.” His voice was cold and hoarse.
Hua Yan was taken aback. “Huh?”
After saying that, he stood up and walked to the other side of the stone chamber, as far away from Hua Yan as possible.
Hua Yan snapped back to reality. “But your wound…”
“Give me the medicine,” Lu Chengsha said.
Hua Yan replied with an “Oh,” and tossed the medicine bottle to him.
Lu Chengsha quickly applied the medicine to himself. If it weren’t for the fear of Hua Yan causing more trouble, he wouldn’t even have bothered. He then properly dressed himself, pulling his collar neatly, and sat cross-legged on the ground, closing his eyes in a meditative pose for healing.
After being warned, Hua Yan didn’t dare to approach him rashly. Instead, she held up a candle and looked around.
However, she couldn’t help but feel uneasy, glancing towards Lu Chengsha from time to time.
Is Great Hero Lu really alright?
What kind of poison is this… She couldn’t remember any poison that made people unable to be near others. It couldn’t be a gu poison, could it? But she hadn’t detected any gu poison’s scent on Lu Chengsha…
One or two hours passed, and Hua Yan started to feel sleepy.
She leaned against the stone wall and took a nap. When she woke up, Lu Chengsha was already awake. Just as she was about to greet him, she noticed that when Lu Chengsha saw her from a distance, he took a step back.
Hua Yan: “…??? Is it that serious?”
She felt a bit hurt.
Lu Chengsha nodded and then changed the topic, saying, “I’ve checked, there’s no way out above.”
Hua Yan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly felt a sense of crisis.
She was already starting to feel a bit hungry.
Lu Chengsha continued, “Stay here and don’t move. I’ll go up and look again.” With that, he left the stone chamber.
Once again, she was left alone.
Hua Yan sat down and realized that the candle had long since burned out. Lu Chengsha had brought some candles down from above, placing them beside her, along with the remaining dried food, almost all of which was left for her.
She felt a bit happy but also a bit annoyed.
In the end, she put away the dried food, not wanting to eat it just yet.
Feeling bored, Hua Yan decided to study the sacrificial statue. The legend was old, and she didn’t remember it very clearly.
The statue must have been exquisitely carved originally, but over the years, it had become worn and even somewhat damaged.
Dust covered the surrounding altar. Hua Yan gently wiped it with her hand and could still see some inscriptions, which seemed to be the Zhengyi Sect’s incantations. Hua Yan had learned a bit of this, so she brought the candle closer to carefully read it.
Aside from the priestly texts, there were a few lines inscribed at the end.
“—I will kill all who harm you.”
“—My love is deep, and I wish to see you awake and return someday.”
The last line was carved especially deeply, and coupled with the eerie sacrificial statue, it sent chills down her spine.
Could it be that the legends of their sect are actually true?
Hua Yan blinked, feeling a bit puzzled.
Suddenly, she saw a bright red bead roll down from the sacrificial altar. The bead was as crimson as blood, resembling a drop of blood tear. Immediately, Hua Yan felt as if she were being controlled, irresistibly stepping forward to grasp the bead.
In an instant, she heard someone behind her shout, “Danger!”
What happened next was astonishing!
Cracks began to appear on the sacrificial statue, gradually extending and widening until the entire statue was covered in fissures. Then, a flood of fresh blood burst out from within the statue, spurting out like a spring and soaking the surrounding ground.
In the next moment, with a loud “bang,” the stone fragments fell apart.
Inside the statue was a blood-red humanoid monster, devoid of skin and facial features, composed only of flesh and bone. Blood continually flowed from its body, and it let out an indescribable scream as it lunged at Hua Yan.
Hua Yan broke out in a cold sweat.
Stumbling, she managed to dodge aside. Someone beside her had already drawn their sword and stepped forward. Lu Chengsha sliced the creature in half at the waist, causing it to emit an even more horrifying scream. Yet, even split in two, it continued to attack them.
Lu Chengsha’s sword was astonishingly fast, but the creature seemed frenzied, attacking them relentlessly and proving impossible to cut down or kill.
After several slashes, it had fragmented into eight pieces.
Forced to raise his sword defensively, Lu Chengsha said in a low voice, “You get out first.”
Hua Yan decisively ran out, only to find the ground outside was like a quagmire. Each step she took felt like sinking into it. The skeletons outside the stone chamber seemed to sense something and began to tremble.
They quivered and assembled into human forms, lunging at Hua Yan.
Hua Yan drew her Chunhua Sword, slashing at them as she went, feeling a slight relief. Luckily, she had been practicing her swordsmanship diligently recently!
Great Hero Lu was indeed far-sighted!
However, the sheer number of skeletons was overwhelming. As she continued to slash, her wrist started to feel numb, and sweat kept rolling down her forehead. Lu Chengsha seemed to sense something was wrong and came out of the stone chamber, cutting down a swath of skeletons with a raised hand.
Hua Yan, delighted, asked, “Did you deal with the one inside?”
Then she saw the fragmented blood creature also rushing out. Lu Chengsha had nearly sliced it into ribbons, appearing as strands of red light, creating cuts wherever it passed.
“Stand behind me,” Lu Chengsha ordered.
Only then did Hua Yan notice the numerous cuts on his body, yet he remained calm.
“Go up,” he instructed.
Hua Yan immediately understood—they needed to return to the upper level of the underground palace.
Fighting back-to-back, they moved toward the entrance to the upper level. Hua Yan tried to push the stone slab above, but it didn’t budge, as if it had been welded shut.
With her back against Lu Chengsha, even in the face of death, she felt a bit like laughing. “Great Hero Lu, does this count as fighting side by side? It’s a shame it’s both the first and the last time.”
Lu Chengsha, slightly out of breath but still composed, replied, “Let’s make it count.”
They had been trapped in this underground palace for more than a day. With no exit, food, or water, they would eventually die here. Despite Hua Yan’s optimism, encountering these mysterious monsters now made their situation seem truly dire.
Lu Chengsha said, “You won’t die.”
Hua Yan replied, “It’s okay, no need to comfort me.”
Without looking back, Lu Chengsha reiterated, “You won’t die.” His movements were swift as the wind, cutting down the skeletons before they could even rise. He also blocked all the blood shadows charging at Hua Yan, seemingly tireless.
“I will die before I let you die,” he said, his tone cold and firm, though his words were spoken with a calmness that made them seem insignificant.
Holding her Chunhua Sword, Hua Yan suddenly felt a surge of indescribable emotions.
Though she didn’t want to die—there were so many novels she hadn’t read, so many delicious foods she hadn’t tasted, so many places she hadn’t visited, and so many stories of the martial world she hadn’t experienced…
But at this moment, she suddenly felt that even if she died here with Lu Chengsha, it wouldn’t matter.
She didn’t know how long had passed when the blood shadows began to slow down, gradually condensing into a humanoid form once more.
Blood still dripped from it, drop by drop.
“I hate so much…” Its voice was hoarse and grating. “Why, why… let me die… let me die…”
The sound made Hua Yan’s mind buzz. Could this really be the resurrected being from their sect’s human sacrifice ritual? No, could it really be revived? Wasn’t it supposed to be a myth? She should have known; with such an evil ritual, how could it revive something normal… Hua Yan’s thoughts were chaotic until she suddenly remembered the red bead she had picked up earlier.
She recalled it.
The blood shadow lunged at Lu Chengsha again. Despite being repeatedly slashed, even Lu Chengsha’s face had several cuts, yet he seemed oblivious.
Hua Yan crushed the bead suddenly.
Her vision blurred, and her consciousness began to fade. In an instant, she lost consciousness.
When she woke up, she was back in the stone chamber, with Lu Chengsha just waking up as well.
There were no piles of skeletons, no blood shadow monsters. The collapsed statue revealed only an ordinary skeleton inside. Everything seemed normal.
Hua Yan let out a long breath, relieved.
Luckily, she remembered.
The Tiancan Sect had too many sinister tricks. She had forgotten that years ago, when they hid treasures, they set up illusions to prevent theft, much like the mist of “Jingmeng” they had encountered before, but more advanced and realistic.
The key to breaking the formation often appears at the beginning, but after experiencing the illusion, one usually forgets about it entirely.
If they had truly died in the illusion, they might never have woken up.
The feeling of narrowly escaping death was wonderful. Hua Yan turned to Lu Chengsha with a big smile, only to see him slowly turn his face away, avoiding her gaze.
Hua Yan: “…”
What’s wrong! Is his poison still not cured?
How frustrating!
Feeling dejected, Hua Yan got up and examined the inside of the statue. She found a thin booklet and casually stuffed it into her clothes. Then, she pushed the statue aside and looked down, discovering a passageway below!
“Great Hero Lu, come quickly! There’s a path here!”
Unlike the corridor they had come from, this path sloped slightly upward.
Almost as soon as they entered, they heard a violent shaking behind them, followed by the deafening sound of a collapse. Hua Yan quickly grabbed Lu Chengsha, urging him to run faster. As they sprinted, the underground palace behind them began to collapse.
The passageway was pitch black, their breath the only sound in their ears, and they ran for their lives.
At first, Hua Yan was pulling Lu Chengsha, but soon it was Lu Chengsha pulling Hua Yan.
The ground shook, stones falling behind them as if they would be crushed to death if they were a moment slower. They ran for an unknown distance until they finally saw the dark sky ahead.
When they finally emerged from underground and stopped to catch their breath, they looked back to see the entire passageway and underground palace sealed tight with countless stones, never to see the light of day again.
Hua Yan, hands on her knees, gasped for air. Under the starry sky, she truly felt the relief of surviving a disaster.
It was great. She and Great Hero Lu were both still alive.