Eyelashes tipped with frost, lips a pale cyan-white, yet at the stump of his neck…
Not a single drop of blood, only frantically writhing golden threads and heart-devouring lotus vines!
“This is the real Xiao Jin.”
The skeleton man kissed the ice coffin: “The complete Xiao Jin that you killed with your own hands three hundred years ago.”
Lin Miaomiao suddenly let out a shriek that didn’t sound human.
Tearing open her collar, the golden lotus on her chest turned completely pitch-black, violently shooting out dozens of lotus vines that pierced toward the skeleton man:
“You’re lying! Senior Brother Xiao clearly taught me swordsmanship in the Seven Stars Pavilion!”
Casually slicing the lotus vines in two, the man said: “That was a clone catalyzed by the golden lotus bones.”
“Just like the ‘Lin Miaomiao’ catalyzed by that half-piece of the golden lotus inside your body—you’re both puppets that were fabricated.”
Xie Lin suddenly exploded into action!
Heart-devouring lotus vines grew wildly from his palm, instantly constricting around the skeleton man’s neck: “Proof.”
“Proof?”
Permitting the vines to crush the bones of his cervical spine, the head rolled onto the ground while still speaking:
“Just look at the root system of the heart-devouring lotus in your left eye, and see if it’s connected to the golden threads coming from the top of your skull. Those are Xiao Jin’s natal golden threads; before he died, he used his entire cultivation base to transform you from a puppet of ‘That Being’ into a living person…”
Xie Lin’s temples throbbed violently.
Indeed, every time he activated the heart-devouring lotus, a needle-like pain would strike from the top of his head.
He had always thought it was the backlash of a forbidden technique!
The skeleton head suddenly rolled to his feet, its teeth clicking open and closed to spit out a final sentence: “If you want to know the truth, go to the City Lord’s Mansion dungeon. There is something Xiao Jin left you…”
The voice cut off abruptly.
The black lotus on Lin Miaomiao’s chest suddenly burst open, blasting the skeleton head into fine powder.
Kneeling on the ground and gasping heavily, the golden lotus relighted with a faint glow:
“Brother… run… I’m losing control…”
Picking up the Frost Flower Sword, the golden hairs wrapped around the hilt suddenly lifted, pointing toward an ice wall deep within the tomb chamber.
Without the slightest hesitation, he swung his sword to cleave it apart—
Behind the ice wall lay a downward staircase, the faint sound of clanking chains drifting from the end.
Lunging forward, Lin Miaomiao grabbed the hem of his robe: “Don’t go… it’s a trap…”
Her pupils shifted erratically between clarity and a bloody red: “The City Lord is… the very first host of the heart-devouring lotus…”
Prying her fingers apart, Xie Lin said: “Stay here and suppress the black lotus.”
Weeping frantically, Lin Miaomiao cried out: “I’ll die!”
“Anyone without a symbiotic pact who gets close to the dungeon will…”
The Frost Flower Sword suddenly emitted a clear, resonant hum.
Lowering his head, Xie Lin found that the blood he had dropped onto the sword guard was being absorbed by the golden threads, while minute runes emerged along the blade body.
It was Xiao Jin’s handwriting!
【Walk forward, don’t look back】
The familiar handwriting struck his chest like a dull, heavy blow.
Tearing off the golden hair from his wrist to tie it around the sword tassel, Xie Lin strode down the steps without a backward glance.
………………
The staircase was far longer than he had anticipated.
The further down he went, the denser the golden threads on the walls became, eventually weaving into a net-like structure that encased the entire passageway.
As Xie Lin brushed against those golden threads, a faint stinging sensation pierced his fingertips—
It was Xiao Jin’s spiritual power!
At the end lay a bronze door, embossed with scenes of the heart-devouring lotus devouring the golden lotus.
Just as he reached out to push the door, the Frost Flower Sword flew up on its own, its tip gently flicking against the door seam.
With a soft click, the door opened.
Instead of the anticipated stench of rot, what rushed over him was a crisp, biting cedar fragrance—
The scent belonging to Xiao Jin!
His sword-gripping hand trembling slightly, the instant he stepped inside, the bronze door behind him slammed shut with a deafening crash.
A person was kneeling in the center of the dungeon.
Silver chains pierced through his scapulae, his neck held steady by an iron collar, his long hair hanging loose to obscure his face.
Yet Xie Lin had no need to see his face clearly.
The pale golden palace-guarding sand on that person’s left wrist still bore the teeth marks he had bitten into it just last night!
“Xiao… Jin?”
The chains rattled softly as the figure slowly raised his head.
Struck by lightning, Xie Lin froze.
This face was indeed Xiao Jin’s, but his right eye was embedded with a crimson lotus seed, while his left eye socket was completely hollow!
Even more terrifyingly, a bowl-sized hole gaped open in his exposed chest, along the edges of which golden threads and heart-devouring lotus vines were locked in a vicious mutual slaughter.
“It’s the thirty-seventh time.”
Xiao Jin’s voice was hoarse beyond recognition: “And you still walk through this door.”
Stepping forward in a rush, Xie Lin used his sword tip to snap the chains: “What thirty-seventh time?”
“The number of times you’ve rescued me out.”
Collapsing weakly into his arms, Xiao Jin felt the golden threads inside the gaping hole in his chest suddenly spring to life, frantically wrapping around Xie Lin’s wrists.
“Every time at this exact hour… every time using the Frost Flower Sword… every time…”
His blood-stained fingertips brushed against Xie Lin’s left eye: “I get tricked into coming to the City Lord’s Mansion.”
Sudden realization dawning upon him, Xie Lin violently ripped open Xiao Jin’s collar.
Gone!
The golden lotus marking that should have been there had vanished without a trace, replaced by the wriggling tracks of heart-devouring lotus roots beneath the skin!
“You’re not Xiao Jin.”
Pressing his sword against the other’s throat, Xie Lin demanded: “Where is his body?”
“I am Xiao Jin.”
The man suddenly burst out laughing, black blood seeping from the heart-devouring lotus seed in his right eye: “The complete Xiao Jin, killed with your own hands three hundred years ago.”
The golden threads inside his chest cavity suddenly surged violently, stabbing straight into Xie Lin’s left eye.
Excruciating agony darkened Xie Lin’s vision.
The roots of the heart-devouring lotus grew frantically within his eye socket, their root systems plunging straight along the blood vessels toward his brain.
Amidst the chaos, he heard the crisp clatter of the Frost Flower Sword dropping to the ground, the pained panting of Xiao Jin (if it truly was him), and furthermore…
The deafening crash of the bronze door being violently smashed open!
“Found you at last.”
A familiar, icy-clear voice made Xie Lin’s entire body violently jerk.
Barely managing to force open his uncorrupted right eye, he beheld another Xiao Jin standing there, sword in hand.
A phantom of a golden lotus bloomed upon this Xiao Jin’s chest, his entire body wrapped in spiritual power sharing the exact same origin as the Frost Flower Sword!
“Counterfeit.”
Cutting the fake’s neck with sword light as brilliant as a rainbow, the later-arriving Xiao Jin declared: “Something that should’ve died completely three hundred years ago.”
The fake Xiao Jin’s head rolled to Xie Lin’s feet, still wearing a bizarre smile: “Kill me once… he hates you for ten years… how are you going to…”
Before he could finish, golden-lotus sword qi had ground him into powder.
The real Xiao Jin squatted down, his fingertips lightly touching Xie Lin’s left eye invaded by the heart-devouring lotus: “Does it hurt?”
This simple question acted like a key unlocking a floodgate.
Exploding into action, Xie Lin threw a punch straight into Xiao Jin’s face: “You motherfu—”
When his second punch was intercepted by a wrist catch, he used his head to butt him instead.
Just how many of you”
Allowing himself to be beaten without a fight, Xiao Jin only spoke up softly once Xie Lin finally paused from sheer exhaustion: “I am the form taken by the very last piece of the golden lotus bone.”
Pulling down his collar, he exposed the golden threads connected directly to Xie Lin’s left eye.
“Every time you encounter an ‘Xiao Jin’, it represents another piece of the golden lotus bone being reclaimed by ‘That Being’.”
A sharp, stabbing pain flared in Xie Lin’s left eye.
The root system of the heart-devouring lotus was absorbing those golden threads while transmitting a sequence of unfamiliar memories.
High above the dome of the City Lord’s Mansion, the golden-armored figure drove twelve golden nails into Xiao Jin’s spiritual body one by one;
With every nail driven inward, a portion of his physical body transformed into golden lotus bones that scattered across the mortal world;
And when the final nail was plunged into the crown of his skull, the roaring final words of Xiao Jin’s remnant soul were: “Don’t let Xie Lin see this!”
“Understand now?”