Xiao Jin sighed: “The three sentences of elopement time are up.”
He suddenly pushed Xie Lin toward Lin Miaomiao: “Twenty miles southeast, in the sugar shop cellar.”
Xie Lin’s Heart-Eating Lotus vine roots coiled around Lin Miaomiao, pulling her backward!
But he saw Xiao Jin backhand and pull out the life-bound sword that had been pierced into his own shoulder.
Amidst the spraying blood, the long sword engraved with the character “Wind” suddenly turned, its tip pointing straight at the throat of the Law Enforcement Elder!
“Two points of correction.”
Xiao Jin’s voice rang throughout the valley: “First, I am not Xiao Jin.”
He tore off his facial skin, revealing the true face wearing a Noh mask underneath.
It was exactly the man in red from the pharmacy!
“Second.”
The Noh-masked man suddenly detonated the black lotus inside his body, and the violent spiritual power blew away all the flying swords.
“You have all been deceived for three hundred”
The Law Enforcement Elder’s sword light severed the head!
The Noh mask rolled to Xie Lin’s feet, finally transmitting a laughing sentence: “The sugar shop cellar… has a surprise…”
The so-called sugar shop was actually a coffin shop.
The instant Xie Lin kicked open the dark door to the cellar, twenty ice coffins simultaneously reflected his distorted silhouette.
In every coffin lay an “Xiao Jin”—
Some were missing a left leg, others a right arm, and the most horrifying was the coffin in the center: inside was clearly a pile of shattered bones stitched together into a human shape with golden threads!
“Xiao Jin-brand jigsaw puzzle.”
Lin Miaomiao used the black lotus to probe the nearest coffin: “Every severed limb here carries the reaction of the symbiotic contract.”
She suddenly pointed to a corner: “Brother, look at this!”
In the smallest ice coffin curled a teenage version of Xiao Jin, his arms clutching a book tightly: Guide to Weight Loss for Spirit Beasts.
Just as Xie Lin touched the coffin lid, the boy suddenly opened his eyes: “You are 307 days late.”
The Heart-Eating Lotus jumped wildly in Xie Lin’s left eye—
This was not an illusion; this was the “teenage memory bank” that Xiao Jin had cut away!
“Long story short.”
Teenage Xiao Jin knocked on the coffin board: “I was cut into nineteen pieces. The left leg your father took is the most important, because…”
He suddenly lifted his hem, revealing a brand on the inside of his thigh—
Forbidden Art of the Nether Palace: Cultivation Method for the Parent Stock of the Heart-Eating Lotus.
Xie Lin’s temples throbbed violently.
In the original owner’s memories, this was clearly a secret manual that Palace Master Xie never parted with!
“The old thing used my leg as a living library.”
Teenage Xiao Jin curled his lips: “But your man is even more ruthless—”
He tapped his finger on Xie Lin’s brow, transmitting a scene:
—The real Xiao Jin (complete version) was soaking in a bath in the forbidden area of Xuan Tian Sect. On his back, visible intermittently through the steam, seven golden threads connected to different directions.
—Three of the broken threads suddenly began to reorganize, gradually piecing together into the shape of Xie Lin’s face…
“He is using himself as bait.”
Teenage Xiao Jin suddenly coughed up bloody foam: “The more the nineteen ‘me’s are recycled, the closer the main body becomes…”
The cellar suddenly shook violently!
Lin Miaomiao’s black lotus instantly formed a protective shield: “Brother! The coffins are melting!”
The ice coffins were truly turning into blood, and teenage Xiao Jin’s body was becoming transparent at a speed visible to the naked eye.
He grabbed Xie Lin’s wrist anxiously: “Go save that idiot! He is currently being hunted by four different groups—”
Before he finished speaking, a golden sword tip suddenly protruded from his chest.
Xie Lin’s Frost Flower Sword instinctively left its sheath, but it slashed at nothing—
Teenage Xiao Jin had been killed by some kind of curse that transcended space!
“Xuan Tian Sect… Sword of Inquiring Hearts…”
Before he completely dissipated, he desperately pointed toward the northwest: “Xiao Jin’s main body is… cough… in the Spirit Beast Garden…”
The instant he completely turned into golden powder, the Heart-Eating Lotus in Xie Lin’s left eye suddenly grew three inches long, and everything in his field of vision was covered in a blood-red hue—
The symbiotic contract was forcibly synchronizing the five senses of Xiao Jin’s main body!
Severe pain, suffocation, and a torrential…
Scent of sweet osmanthus.
The bathing pool in the Spirit Beast Garden of Xuan Tian Sect was comparable to a small lake.
Through the symbiotic contract, Xie Lin “saw” Xiao Jin sinking to the bottom of the pool, his neck entwined by golden chains, blood continuously overflowing from his seven orifices.
Even more terrifying, three groups of people were standing by the pool—
The Left Envoy of the Nether Palace was peeling the skin from his back;
The Law Enforcement Hall of Xuan Tian Sect was extracting the golden threads from his spine;
And most bizarrely, a black-robed person wearing a bronze mask was thrusting the root system of the Heart-Eating Lotus into his temple!
“Three hundred years.”
The black-robed person’s voice sounded like sandpaper rubbing together: “Finally waiting for a container where the Golden Lotus Bone and the Heart-Eating Lotus are perfectly integrated.”
Xie Lin’s field of vision was suddenly drowned in blood-red.
Not a metaphor.
Xiao Jin’s eyes were bleeding!
Through his blurry vision, he saw the black-robed person remove the mask, and underneath it was clearly…
“Palace Master Xie?!”
Lin Miaomiao’s scream pulled Xie Lin back to reality.
The black lotus on her chest had already spread to her chin: “No! I’ve seen Palace Master Xie; this person doesn’t have the Heart-Eating Lotus…”
A third person’s voice suddenly rang out in the cellar: “Because that is my father’s twin brother.”
The real Xiao Jin (soggy version) stepped out from the void, his hair tips still dripping with water from the bathing pool.
He had a puncture wound in his chest, yet he was smiling as he carried a bag of roasted chestnuts.
“Let me introduce you. Xie Wujiu, the true first-generation Palace Master of the Nether Palace, the creator of the Heart-Eating Lotus.”
Xie Lin’s sword went straight to his throat: “How the hell did you escape?”
Xiao Jin bit open a chestnut shell: “Simple.”
“What the Left Envoy peeled away was the skin of the man in red from the pharmacy; what the Law Enforcement Hall extracted was a replacement puppet raised in the Spirit Beast Garden. As for what Xie Wujiu pierced…”
He suddenly grabbed Xie Lin’s hand and pressed it against his own heart: “It’s the Heart-Eating Lotus you planted.”
The heartbeat under his palm was strong and powerful, yet carried a strange dual rhythm.
Xie Lin suddenly realized: “You transplanted the lotus parent stock into your own body?!”
Xiao Jin ate the chestnut using his hand: “Two-way parasitism, you know. But now there’s a small problem”
He suddenly coughed up a mouthful of black blood: “I think… I’ve lost my main body…”
Only then did Xie Lin notice that Xiao Jin’s shadow was much fainter than a normal person’s, and there was no sound of a heartbeat.
This was Soul-Departure Syndrome!
“Is the one in the Spirit Beast Garden your main body?”
Xie Lin’s Heart-Eating Lotus vine grew wildly: “The black-robed person is currently…”
“Relax.”
Xiao Jin suddenly stuffed an ultra-sweet chestnut into his mouth: “Every piece of flesh I cut off has independent consciousness.”
He drew circles on Xie Lin’s chest with his fingertips: “For example, the one talking to you now is actually…”
The Guide to Weight Loss for Spirit Beasts in the corner of the cellar suddenly flew up, the pages flipping noisily, and Xiao Jin’s face appeared on every page: “Your life-bound magical artifact.”
Xie Lin nearly crushed his sword hilt: “My… what?!”
“A token of love you gave me three hundred years ago.”
Xiao Jin gently tapped his cheek with the book page: ” How to Tame a Temperamental Spirit Beast, abbreviated as The Xie Lin Rearing Manual.”
Lin Miaomiao suddenly snorted with laughter, then covered her mouth under Xie Lin’s murderous gaze.
“The point!”
The Xiao Jins on the book pages said in unison: “Xie Wujiu wants to use my main body to refine a divine artifact, and the only one who can stop him is…”
All the faces suddenly turned toward Xie Lin: “That half lotus seed in your left eye.”
Xie Lin’s left eye suddenly felt a sharp pain. His vision pierced through a thousand miles, clearly seeing the current state of the Spirit Beast Garden.
The black-robed person had already refined Xiao Jin’s main body into a semi-transparent state, and at the center of his chest, something was throbbing the very thing that originated from the same source as Xie Lin’s left eye…
Half a Heart-Eating Lotus.