Xie Lin’s pupils shrank to pinpricks.
This had long since surpassed the scope of passing breath.
Xiao Jin was kissing him!
Underwater, the light was warped. He saw Xiao Jin’s half-closed eyes churning with dark currents, even more dangerous than the red of the heart-devouring lotus.
Oxygen deprivation caused his reason to scatter. Driven by a ghost-like impulse, Xie Lin licked the other’s upper palate, immediately feeling the arm around his waist tighten sharply.
“Gulp” A string of bubbles escaped from their entangling lips and teeth.
A roar suddenly traveled from the bottom of the lake, and the lotus patterns on the giant bronze doors lit up one by one.
The two of them were dragged deeper by a suction force, long hair and robes entangling in the fierce current.
Xie Lin’s back slammed heavily against the giant door. Xiao Jin shielded him in front, his knee aggressively wedged between Xie Lin’s thighs.
“There’s a mechanism on the door.”
Panting, Xiao Jin pulled his lips away, his soaked white robes clinging tightly to the contours of his muscles, water droplets rolling down his Adam’s apple.
He pressed a single hand into the groove at the center of the door: “It requires… blood sacrifice.”
Only then did Xie Lin notice.
The shape of the groove was identical to the heart-devouring lotus on his own chest.
He yanked open his collar, but was suddenly pinned by the wrist by Xiao Jin.
“It might trigger a memory flashback.” Xiao Jin’s voice was hoarse:
“Are you sure?”
Xie Lin curled his lips into a cold sneer: “Does Chief Xiao only remember to care about me now?”
His fingertips pressed fiercely into the wound on his chest. The moment fresh blood surged out, the entire bronze door emitted a blindingly intense light.
Amidst blinding pain, Xie Lin saw countless fragmented scenes.
A battlefield under a blood-moon. He was wearing unfamiliar black armor, holding a long halberd that pierced through the chest of a cultivator.
That person raised his head it was shockingly Xiao Jin’s face!
“This time… it’s my turn to seal you…”
Smiling with a mouth full of blood, Xiao Jin guided heavenly lightning with his sword incantation.
The scene changed drastically, and he was once again shackled to the altar by iron chains, seven demon-sealing nails plunged into his chest.
Xiao Jin stood at the boundary of light and shadow, holding a half-withered heart-devouring lotus in his hands.
“Remember, when the flower blooms…”
The memory abruptly cut off. Xie Lin collapsed onto the solid ground, gasping heavily for air.
Behind the bronze door turned out to be a dry stone chamber, its four walls carved with ancient runes, two bronze lamps suspended in the center.
One burned with a ghostly blue flame, while the other had only lamp oil left.
“This is a soul lamp.”
Xiao Jin wrung the water from the hem of his robes: “Your lamp is still lit.”
Xie Lin stared at that blue fire: “Then the other one…”
Xiao Jin lightly touched the extinguished lamp: “Mine.”
“It went out three hundred years ago.”
The stone chamber suddenly shook, and lake water poured madly through the cracks in the door.
Xiao Jin quickly swept his gaze around the surroundings, then suddenly ripped open Xie Lin’s belt!
“What are you doing?!” Xie Lin anxiously held down his pants.
“Borrowing your heart’s blood for a use.”
Xiao Jin pinned him onto the stone platform, dipped his fingertips in the lamp oil from the soul lamp, and directly sliced open the scabbed wound on Xie Lin’s chest.
The moment the fresh blood dripped into the lamp, the blue flame surged violently, turning into a fire phoenix that rushed out of the door!
The lake water evaporated instantly, revealing dense piles of white skeletons at the bottom of the lake.
Every single corpse had a heart-devouring lotus blooming from its chest!
In so much pain that his body arched, Xie Lin was pressed back down by Xiao Jin: “It’s not over yet.”
The lamp oil mixed with blood smeared across his collarbone, tracing all the way down the lines of his abdominal muscles.
With rapid breathing, Xie Lin watched as Xiao Jin knelt on one knee between his thighs, blood-stained fingers tracing the final rune across his lower abdomen.
“This is an ancient demon-sealing contract.”
Xiao Jin suddenly bit his own wrist, dripping his blood onto Xie Lin’s Dantian: “We need to dual cultivate to activate it.”
Xie Lin’s scalp went numb: “…Are you serious?”
His answer was a sudden attachment…
Xiao Jin ripped open his own soaked collar, grabbing Xie Lin’s hand and pressing it against his heart: “Feel the flow of the spiritual veins.”
The heartbeat beneath his palm was heavy and fast.
Xie Lin instinctively circulated his demonic energy, astonished to find that their spiritual powers were automatically intertwining.
Xiao Jin’s spiritual power was like melting glacial water, seeping bit by bit into his meridians, and wherever it passed, the agitation of the heart-devouring lotus miraculously calmed down.
“Ah…”
He tilted his head back in unbearable endurance, his throat bitten by Xiao Jin.
His robes had somehow scattered open for the most part…
His whole body tense, Xie Lin dug his fingernails into the other’s back, leaving bloody trails: “Xiao Jin! You…”
“Relax.”
Xiao Jin kissed the sensitive spot behind his ear.
Xie Lin’s body was as taut as a bowstring, every single muscle in a state of high tension.
His fingers tightly grasped the other’s back, his fingernails sinking deeply into the other’s skin.
An electric current coursed up his spine to his crown, causing Xie Lin to cry out in shock.
The heart-devouring lotus imprint flickered frantically, all his spiritual power uncontrollably plunging downward.
“Found it.”
Xiao Jin withdrew his fingers, spiritual light glowing at his fingertips.
“Your spiritual core is right here.”
Xie Lin wished he could die of shame and anger: “You mother fu Ah!”
“Slowly… ugh!”
Xie Lin’s protest was swallowed back by a kiss.
The runes on the stone walls lit up one by one, reflecting the two of them.
Amidst the tossing and turning, Xie Lin saw Xiao Jin’s red-stained brows and eyes, making his usually sharp profile even more heart-disordering.
“Look at me.”
Xiao Jin suddenly pinched his chin: “Remember who is…ing you.”
Such explicit words made Xie Lin tremble all over, the red light of the heart-devouring lotus flaring wildly.
Just as he was on the verge of eruption, Xiao Jin suddenly bit his fingertip, painting a blood rune over his chest.
White light flashed across Xie Lin’s eyes: “You… lied to me…”
Struggling, he wanted to push the other away, but was controlled even more ruthlessly.
Golden brilliance flourished in Xiao Jin’s eyes, and silver patterns opposite to the heart-devouring lotus emerged at his Dantian.
The two forces collided fiercely, shaking the entire stone chamber so hard that dust rained down in sheets.
“This isn’t plunder.”
Panting, Xiao Jin pulled him even tighter: “It’s symbiosis.”
The instant the spiritual power cycle completed, the extinguished soul lamp relit!
Silver-blue twin flames intertwined into a Taiji diagram, and the top of the stone chamber cracked open with a boom, revealing the hidden starry dome—
Among the Twenty-Eight Mansions, the Wolf and Army Breaker stars shone with dazzling brilliance.
In the afterglow, Xie Lin dazedly saw an illusion:
He and Xiao Jin stood upon a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, behind them the collapsed immortal sects and burning demon palaces.
Xiao Jin’s blood-stained hands cradled his face and said something…
The illusion was abruptly shattered by the sound of a broken door!
“They’re really here!”
Three Xuan Tian Sect elders rushed in with swords drawn, only to freeze when they saw the scene inside the room: “You… what kind of indecency is this!”
Only then did Xie Lin realize the two of them were still maintaining that posture, a complete mess between their thighs.
Flustered, he grabbed the scattered robes to cover his modesty, but his wrist was pinned down by Xiao Jin.
“Don’t look.”
Xiao Jin blocked him with his body, forming hand seals with a single hand.
The soul lamp’s flame turned into a barrier, forcing the elders back: “Let’s go.”
The bronze door slammed shut heavily behind them, and Xie Lin was dragged as he rushed into another tunnel.
From behind came the angry roar of the elders: “Xiao Jin! Do you know what colluding with demonic cultivators entails?!”