The tunnel grew increasingly narrow, eventually forcing them to squeeze through sideways.
With Xiao Jin walking ahead, Xie Lin’s gaze drifted instinctively toward the other’s back, soaked entirely through with blood.
“Your wound…”
“It’s nothing.”
Frowning, Xie Lin abruptly yanked him to a halt. “Stop.”
As Xiao Jin turned back, Xie Lin ripped open the collar of his robes.
A bone-deep wound marred his right shoulder, its edges rimmed with an eerie, unsettling shade of purple.
“Poison?!”
Xie Lin’s pupils shrank to pinpricks. “When…”
“Xie Qingyu’s needles.” Xiao Jin spoke with casual indifference, “I blocked one just now.”
A surge of hot anger flared in Xie Lin’s chest. “Why didn’t you say so sooner?!”
Gazing back quietly, Xiao Jin asked, “Would it have changed anything if I did?”
Xie Lin choked.
True enough, trapped underground as they were, finding an antidote was out of the question.
Yet staring at that gruesome wound made his chest feel as though a heavy stone were pressing down upon it.
“Turn around,” he commanded in a cold voice.
Raising an eyebrow, Xiao Jin cooperated and turned around anyway.
Gathering demonic qi in his palm, Xie Lin pressed it gently against the injury.
“What are you doing?” Xiao Jin’s muscles tightened instantly.
“The Heart-Shattering Lotus can devour all things,” Xie Lin gritted his teeth, “including toxins.”
It was a gamble—
He had never attempted to actively manipulate the Heart-Shattering Lotus before. But at this moment, a single thought consumed him: he couldn’t just stand by and watch Xiao Jin die.
As the demonic qi seeped into the wound, Xie Lin felt as though he had thrust his bare hand straight into a boiling wok of oil.
A muffled groan escaped Xiao Jin as his back arched, beads of sweat rolling down the line of his spine.
“Hold on.”
Voice trembling, Xie Lin found the pain so intense that black spots danced across his vision—
The Heart-Linked Pact amplified Xiao Jin’s agony, feeding it back to him doubled.
Gradually, the toxin was drawn out bit by bit, and the wound began to recover its natural color.
Just as the very last trace of poison was eradicated, a sudden, unexpected shift occurred—
The Heart-Shattering Lotus imprint erupted with black brilliance, frantically devouring Xiao Jin’s spiritual energy!
“Xie Lin!”
Clamping a hand tightly around his wrist, Xiao Jin barked, “Stop!”
Xie Lin tried to pull his hand back, only to realize he had lost all control over it!
Acting like a starving beast, the Heart-Shattering Lotus clamped its jaws onto its prey and refused to let go.
Xiao Jin’s complexion paled at a pace visible to the naked eye.
“Damn it…”
Panic flushing his eyes red, Xie Lin suddenly lowered his head and bit down hard into his own wrist!
As fresh blood welled up, he forcefully pressed Xiao Jin’s hand directly against the wound. “Suck it back in!”
Shock washed over Xiao Jin’s face as he stared at him. “Are you out of your mind?!”
“Hurry up!” Xie Lin barked harshly, “My blood carries your spiritual energy!”
Darkness flickering in his gaze, Xiao Jin finally lowered his head to take the bleeding wound into his mouth.
The warm, moist contact made Xie Lin shudder all over, sending a bizarre, tingling numbness shooting straight up his arm and down his spine.
As the spiritual energy flowed back into him, the Heart-Shattering Lotus gradually quieted down.
When Xiao Jin lifted his head, crimson blood still stained his lips, looking eerily bewitching in the dim, murky light.
Their breaths intertwined, yet neither moved an inch.
With his adam’s apple bobbing, Xie Lin broke eye contact first. “…Let’s go.”
Instead of letting go, Xiao Jin pulled him even closer. “Why did you save me?”
With stubborn bravado, Xie Lin muttered, “I was afraid your death would drag me down with you.”
A low chuckle escaped Xiao Jin as he suddenly raised a hand to caress his cheek.
As those fingertips brushed lightly across the corner of his lips, Xie Lin’s heart thudded like a runaway drum.
Just as this ambiguous atmosphere hovered on the verge of spinning entirely out of control, a soft, giggling “chuckle” echoed suddenly from deep within the tunnel—
“How touching~”
It was Xie Qingyu’s voice!
Sapping away the distance instantly, the two whipped their heads toward the source of the sound with sharp vigilance.
Leaning against the wall at the far end of the tunnel, Xie Qingyu gently twirled his folding fan, though his complexion looked drastically paler than before while the red glow in his eyes burned with even greater intensity.
“Our Young Master is so ruthless~”
Tilting his head to regard Xie Lin, he teased, “You’d rather return your spiritual energy to your sworn enemy than save your own older brother?”
Sneering, Xie Lin retorted, “Who’s your older brother?”
Sighing, Xie Qingyu replied, “We stem from the very same source…”
Abruptly ripping open the front of his robes, he exposed the rotting lotus blooming across his chest.
“Look, it’s calling out to you.”
Xie Lin’s imprint flared with a sudden, searing pain, as though answering a resonance.
Suppressing the discomfort, Xie Lin pointed the Frost Flower Sword straight at Xie Qingyu. “Stop trying to play god and scare people!”
Unfazed and standing his ground, Xie Qingyu took a step forward instead, pressing his own chest right against the tip of the sword. “Kill me, and the mother lotus will awaken~”
Abruptly shoving Xie Lin behind his back, Xiao Jin stated, “He’s buying time.”
Sure enough, black slime began oozing from the surrounding walls as the vines stirred into motion.
Laughing wildly, Xie Qingyu taunted, “Too late! The mother lotus has already—”
Before the words fully faded, Xiao Jin thrust his sword forward in a flash!
Dashing sideways to evade, Xie Qingyu watched in shock as the sword tip abruptly changed trajectory mid-strike, slashing clean through an inconspicuous red vine dangling directly overhead.
“Aaaah!!”
With a piercing shriek, Xie Qingyu’s body began to melt away!
“That was his true body.”
Coldly, Xiao Jin ordered, “Let’s move!”
Charging deeper into the tunnel, Xie Lin heard Xie Qingyu’s hysterical roar echoing behind them: “Xie Lin! Do you honestly think Xiao Jin cares about you? He’s merely—”
A thunderous explosion caused the tunnel to collapse, completely burying the curse-like final syllable.
Running for an indefinite period, a glimmer of light finally appeared ahead.
Rushing out of the tunnel, the two were struck dumb by the sight before them—
A massive subterranean lake shimmered with countless floating lotus lamps, illuminating the entire expanse.
At the center of the lake lay a small island holding a pristine white jade altar.
“This is…” Xie Lin’s breath hitched.
Grave solemnity etched across his features, Xiao Jin declared, “The birthplace of the Heart-Shattering Lotus.”
Abruptly, something inside Xie Lin’s robes grew searing hot—
It was the jade pendant he had looted from Xie Wuchend!
Pulling it out, he discovered it was resonating directly with the altar.
“Let’s go take a look.” The moment Xie Lin took a step forward, the ground beneath his feet suddenly vanished!
“Xie Lin!”
Reaching out to grab him, Xiao Jin was yanked along by an invisible force, plunging into the lake together!
Freezing lake water swallowed them overhead. Struggling to surface, Xie Lin felt his body growing heavier and heavier.
Worse still, the Heart-Shattering Lotus imprint burst with blinding red light underwater, drawing countless dark silhouettes swimming up toward him from the depths of the lake!
A pale, skeletal hand clamped abruptly around his ankle, dragging him down into the abyss.
Struggling frantically, Xie Lin froze the moment he caught sight of the face on that shadow—
It was his own face!
At the critical moment, Xiao Jin broke through the water, severed the hand with a single stroke of his sword, and pulled Xie Lin securely into his embrace.
Their lips brushed together, and Xiao Jin breathed a mouthful of air into his lungs.
Wider eyes blinking through the rippling water, Xie Lin caught sight of a fire burning in Xiao Jin’s eyes a fierce, unprecedented intensity.
As oxygen depleted rapidly, a powerful vortex swept both of them down toward the lakebed.
Clinging tightly to Xiao Jin, Xie Lin caught a faint glimpse of a colossal bronze gate engraved completely with lotus patterns standing upright at the bottom of the lake just before he lost consciousness…
Gasping awake amidst a suffocating haze, Xie Lin felt a warm, soft touch pressed against his lips.
Xiao Jin’s face hovered mere inches away, his eyelashes brushing across Xie Lin’s cheek as he delivered air carrying the crisp, clean scent of mountain snow.
Instinctively grasping the other’s lapels, his fingers sank deep into the soaked fabric—
[System Notification: Insufficient oxygen, Heart-Demon value rises to 88%]
His chaotic thoughts snapped instantly to clarity.
Violently shoving Xiao Jin away, Xie Lin collided straight against the other’s chest in the buoyancy of the water.
The Heart-Shattering Lotus imprint flared with sudden heat, its crimson glare piercing through layers of fabric to illuminate the bottomless, gloomy dark of the waters.
“Don’t move.”
Pinning the back of his head securely, Xiao Jin pressed his lips to his once more.
This time, the breath he delivered brooked no resistance; his tongue pried open Xie Lin’s tightly clenched teeth, pushing the very last reserve of oxygen straight down his throat.
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