Only then did Xie Lin notice that his arms were covered in golden patterns, while corresponding blood-red patterns were emerging on Xiao Jin’s body.
Their destiny grids were swapping!
“You tricked me…”
Xie Lin’s voice trembled: “This isn’t a symbiotic pact, it’s a destiny-swapping forbidden technique!”
Xiao Jin smiled, blood like golden threads spilling from the corners of his lips: “Swapping Army Breaker for Wolf… was always… going against the heavens…”
Lin Miaomiao suddenly let out a miserable wail!
The heart-devouring lotus in her left eye began to wither, replaced by the phantom of a golden lotus blooming on her chest.
Xie Qingyu’s remnant soul was being purified!
“No! This is impossible!”
Terrified, Li Hanxing backed away: “The golden lotus has recognized its master?! Then wouldn’t the Palace Master…”
Xie Lin had no time to ponder the subtext.
The body in his arms was growing cold. Instinctively lowering his head, he bit the tip of his tongue and fed his blood into Xiao Jin’s mouth.
“Don’t you dare die.”
He threatened viciously: “The truth you owe me hasn’t…”
The earth suddenly shook!
A beam of golden light cleaved down from the sky, striking Xie Lin precisely in the back.
Shielding Xiao Jin, he rolled several yards away, looking up to see a golden-armored phantom standing in the clouds.
It was precisely that entity from the memory corridor!
“Traitors must be executed.”
The golden-armored voice made one’s eardrums bleed: “This seat is taking back the Wolf star.”
Xiao Jin suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils completely turning golden.
Pushing Xie Lin away, he met the golden light head-on, the golden lotus on his chest detaching from his flesh and blood to fly toward the sky—
“Run!”
That was the last word he left for Xie Lin.
The instant the golden light swallowed Xiao Jin, a blinding crimson radiance burst from Xie Lin’s heart-devouring lotus.
Roaring, he hacked out sword qi, but only struck a wisp of dissipating golden mist.
The Frost Flower Sword clattered to the ground, a length of Xiao Jin’s hair tied to its sword tassel.
Kneeling in the ruins, Xie Lin suddenly noticed the golden patterns on his palm fading—
The symbiotic pact had broken!
“How touching.”
Clutching his severed arm, Li Hanxing approached: “Pity that the golden lotus bones have been taken back, and the Palace Master’s plan…”
Raising a hand, Xie Lin pinched his throat: “Spell it out.”
Li Hanxing smiled bizarrely: “Cough, cough… Don’t you understand yet?”
“Xiao Jin stole ‘That Being’s’ golden lotus bones to suppress the heart-devouring lotus, all to stop you from fully awakening!”
Xie Lin’s five fingers tightened: “Awakening to what?”
“Naturally to…”
Li Hanxing’s face suddenly distorted, golden threads drilling out from his seven apertures: “You, as the true body of the heart-devouring lotus—Ah!”
The golden threads suddenly spontaneously combusted, burning Li Hanxing into a charred corpse!
At the exact same moment, the heart-devouring lotus on Lin Miaomiao in the distance also completely withered away. The young girl collapsed to the ground, the golden lotus on her chest gradually fading away.
Picking up the Frost Flower Sword, the blade reflected his current appearance—
His left eye had completely turned the bloody red of the heart-devouring lotus.
Excruciating pain came from where the symbiotic pact had snapped, and more painful than that were the fragments of memory suddenly reviving in his mind:
The altar beneath the blood moon, himself locked in iron chains while Xiao Jin knelt opposite him, personally driving the golden lotus bones into his heart…
“With my immortal bones, suppress your demonic soul.”
The Xiao Jin in the illusion was full of tears.
“Once I find a way to purify the heart-devouring lotus… I’ll come back to accompany you in falling into hell.”
Xie Lin’s fingertips brushed against the edge of the Frost Flower Sword. Fresh blood flowed along the groove of the blade, coagulating into a bead of blood at the crossguard—
No reaction.
This was already the seventh attempt to awaken the sword spirit.
Ever since the night Xiao Jin was swallowed by the golden light, this famous sword that had once shattered the heart-devouring lotus vines had become a dead object.
“Don’t waste your energy.”
Lin Miaomiao’s voice came from behind.
Wrapped in a coarse cloth cloak, the girl crouched by the campfire, the golden lotus imprint on her chest faintly flickering in the firelight.
Her left eye still retained a hint of bloody color, but her pupils had regained clarity.
“Frost Flower has recognized its master.”
Stirring the firewood, she didn’t even dodge when a spark landed on her bare ankle: “Unless Senior Brother Xiao’s divine soul and physical body are completely destroyed, otherwise…”
Xie Lin abruptly pinched her chin: “How much do you remember?”
“I remember you’re my twin brother.”
Lin Miaomiao looked straight into his blood-stained left eye: “I remember our mother was locked in the Netherworld Palace dungeon, and I also remember…”
Her fingertip pointed to Xie Lin’s chest: “The person the heart-devouring lotus was originally supposed to parasitize was me.”
Night wind swirled the ashes upward.
Releasing his hand, the heart-devouring lotus churned restlessly inside his chest.
Whenever Lin Miaomiao drew near, this demonic lotus would become exceptionally active, like a starved wolf sniffing out flesh and blood.
“What about Xie Qingyu’s remnant soul?”
“Purified by the golden lotus.”
Untying her collar, Lin Miaomiao revealed a pale golden lotus imprint on her chest.
“But the purification wasn’t complete; I can still hear him laughing occasionally.”
Suddenly coughing violently, the blood she spat out was mixed with golden threads.
Frowning, Xie Lin picked up a thread, and the golden thread actually wrapped around his finger like a living creature!
“Don’t touch it!”
Slapping the golden thread away, Lin Miaomiao said: “This is the curse of ‘That Being’; touching too much will…”
Her voice cut off abruptly.
Following her terrified gaze upward, Xie Lin saw twelve miserable white bone lanterns rising in the direction of Evernight City in the distance.
Each lantern was crafted from a skull, ghostly blue hell-fire dancing within their eye sockets.
“Guiding soul lanterns.”
Shaking, Lin Miaomiao said: “They guide the way for ‘the living dead’…”
Snatching up the Frost Flower Sword, Xie Lin saw that the shape formed by the arrangement of those bone lanterns was unmistakably the Big Dipper!
Identical to the Seven Stars Demon-Locking Array deployed by Xuan Tian Sect on the night Xiao Jin vanished.
The Evernight City wall was more bizarre than rumors claimed.
The entire city wall was piled from ghastly white animal bones, with black-red meaty mush stuffing the seams.
Stabbing at it with his sword tip, Xie Lin watched that mass of meaty mush suddenly split open to reveal dense rows of teeth!
“The companion vines of the heart-devouring lotus.”
Tugging him back, Lin Miaomiao said: “They only bite living things…”
Before she could finish, the city wall suddenly shook.
Bone bricks undulated like waves, and countless meaty-mush vines reached out, only to pull back like they’d received an electric shock upon touching the Frost Flower Sword.
Xie Lin narrowed his eyes. What the vines feared wasn’t the sword, but the pale golden hairs wrapped around the sword hilt.
The final things Xiao Jin had left behind.
“Keep close.”
Wrapping the hairs around his wrist, he pushed open the unguarded city gate.
The overpowering stench of rot mixed with a hint of sandalwood wafted over.
Xie Lin’s pupils shrank.
This was the scent of the incense Xiao Jin customarily used!
The main street was terrifyingly quiet.
Buildings on both sides were constructed entirely from skeletons, and the lanterns hanging beneath the eaves were actually beating hearts.
The weirdest part was that there wasn’t a single living person in the entire city, only countless “things” in black robes wandering around.
At first glance, those “things” looked like people, but upon drawing closer, one would find nothing beneath the black robes.
When they drifted before Xie Lin, long hair would suddenly droop from their hoods, and within the hair, densely packed eyes would pop open.
“The ‘Shadow Merchants’ of Evernight City.”
Pressing tightly against his back, Lin Miaomiao said: “They trade items for memories, but whatever you do, don’t look into their…”
Too late.
A Shadow Merchant had already lifted its hair-curtain, thousands of pupils simultaneously mirroring Xie Lin’s face.
In an instant, countless memory fragments poured into his mind:
A five-year-old version of himself curled up in an ice coffin, with Xiao Jin standing outside the coffin wearing Xuan Tian Sect robes;
Deep within the Netherworld Palace dungeon, a young girl sharing his identical features had iron chains piercing her scapulae;
The final scene showed Xiao Jin kneeling at the feet of the golden-armored figure, the lower half of a golden lotus stem plunged into his chest…
“Get lost!”
With a single slash, Xie Lin cleaved the Shadow Merchant apart.
The instant the black robe burst open, the hair fluttering all over the sky let out shrieks resembling an infant’s crying.
Grabbing him, Lin Miaomiao dashed into a shop along the street.
“They’ll attract the Night Watchmen!”