“Temporarily disabled.”
Xie Lin wiped the corner of his mouth nonchalantly, but his gaze remained locked on the golden lotus at Xiao Jin’s heart. “But it was worth it.”
Xiao Jin touched his chest, stunned, feeling a clear heartbeat for the first time in three hundred years.
Those fragmented memories rushed back like a tide.
The forbidden grounds of the Nether Palace, the bathing pool in the Spirit Beast Garden, and the trembling fingers of the person before him as they pressed a lotus seed into his eye socket…
“So that’s how it is.”
He suddenly knelt on one knee, his palm pressing against Xie Lin’s Dantian. “The Heart-Eating Lotus requires a sacrifice to recognize a master. What you sacrificed was…”
Xie Lin swatted his hand away. “Just three hundred years of cultivation.”
“Compared to that”
His words were cut short.
Xiao Jin suddenly swept him up horizontally, the golden threads all over his body surging to form a lotus-shaped barrier.
“Watch out!”
Almost simultaneously, a black shadow erupted from underground—it was Xie Wujiu’s remnant soul, which should have been turned to ashes!
The wisp of black mist lunged straight for Lin Miaomiao’s face, but the moment it touched the lotus mark on her neck, it let out a shrill scream: “How can you have… in your body…”
The young girl’s pupils suddenly turned pure black, sharp bone spurs growing from her ten fingers as she tore the black mist to shreds. “Get out of my body!”
Xie Lin stiffened his spine in Xiao Jin’s arms. “A second personality?!”
The book-spirit’s voice sounded weakly: “No, it’s a side effect of the lotus seed’s manifestation.”
“When you shredded your memories to seal them into the lotus seed back then, you also…”
Before it could finish, Lin Miaomiao had already flashed above everyone’s heads like a ghost.
She tilted her head to examine the master and disciple clinging to each other, her pitch-black nails lightly tracing her chin: “Brother is so biased~ clearly I am your most perfect creation…”
Xiao Jin’s golden lotus barrier suddenly emitted sounds of cracking under the immense strain.
Xie Lin struggled to stand up, but a remaining trace of lotus fire in his heart forced a muffled groan from him.
“Don’t move.”
Xiao Jin pressed him tighter into his chest, his breath sweeping across his bleeding earlobe as he lowered his head.
“This disciple… will never miss again this time.”
With the final word, the seven golden threads suddenly twisted into one, transforming into a golden spear that pierced toward Lin Miaomiao’s heart!
But the instant the spear tip touched her skin, it was gripped by two pairs of hands.
One pair belonged to the corrupted Lin Miaomiao, and the other…
Was actually a golden lotus vine suddenly sprouting from Xie Lin’s left eye!
“Stop!”
Xie Lin’s left eye was bleeding profusely, yet his voice was resolute. “She has the primary parent stock of the Heart-Eating Lotus in her body!”
Xiao Jin’s pupils shrank.
The deepest secret of the Nether Palace three hundred years ago was finally revealed.
What Xie Lin had shredded back then wasn’t just ordinary lotus seeds, but the primary parent stock he had cultivated using half of his own heart!
“So that’s why you kept her by your side…”
Xiao Jin’s golden spear slowly dissipated. “But now she…”
Xie Lin broke free from his embrace and stood swaying. “I know.”
His blood-stained fingers reached toward the delirious Lin Miaomiao. “Miaomiao, do you remember the promise by the bathing pool?”
The girl’s pitch-black nails hovered an inch from his throat, her head-tilting gesture both innocent and cruel: “Brother wants to… comb my hair?”
Xie Lin’s hand finally brushed over the top of her head: “Yes, after combing your hair… I’ll take you to eat osmanthus cakes.”
The pitch-black pupils trembled violently.
When Xie Lin whispered the words “No osmanthus,” Lin Miaomiao suddenly let out a shrill scream, and the golden light erupting from the lotus mark on her neck completely swallowed them both!
When the light faded, the young girl had collapsed into Xie Lin’s arms, and Xie Lin’s left eye had completely lost its luster.
“Master!”
Xiao Jin caught the staggering Xie Lin, but his touch met a handful of warm blood—
Tiny golden threads were swimming within that blood, continuously drilling into the lotus mark on his own chest.
The book-spirit’s voice sounded at this moment, but with unprecedented gravity: “The second stage of the symbiotic contract… has begun.”
Before Xie Lin plunged into darkness, he used his last bit of strength to grab Xiao Jin’s collar: “Go to the Xuan Tian Sect… forbidden grounds…”
Before he could finish, a thunderous explosion suddenly erupted from the direction of the Nether Palace.
In the rolling black smoke, a giant bronze gate rose from the ground, with thick, viscous blood plasma seeping from its seams.
“The Gate of the Ghost Realm?!”
Xiao Jin suddenly lifted his head. “Xie Wujiu actually opened it…”
Xie Lin in his arms had completely lost consciousness, and the lotus mark on Lin Miaomiao’s neck was resonating eerily with the bronze gate.
The phantom avatar of the book-spirit stared at the giant gate and slowly spat out the second half of the sentence:
“The true source of the Heart-Eating Lotus.”
Xie Lin’s consciousness floated in the darkness.
He seemed to have returned to the forbidden grounds of the Nether Palace three hundred years ago. The teenage version of himself was kneeling by a blood pool, his fingertips clutching a golden lotus seed.
Across the blood pool, the shackled teenage Xiao Jin lifted his head, his hollow left eye socket facing him.
“Swallow it.”
The teenage Xie Lin’s voice was icy and trembling: “This is the only way to deceive Xie Wujiu.”
The imagery of the memory twisted abruptly, replaced by bone-chilling, excruciating pain.
In reality, Xie Lin opened his eyes sharply, discovering he was lying on a cold jade bed in the Xuan Tian Sect’s medicine hut.
A burning, searing pain came from his left eye; reaching out to touch it, he felt a thick layer of medicinal cloth.
“Master is awake?”
Xiao Jin’s voice came from his side.
Xie Lin turned his head and saw his disciple kneeling on one knee by the bed, holding a bowl of medicine glowing with golden light.
The golden lotus mark on his chest was glowing faintly in the dim room, casting his silhouette as sharp as if carved by a knife.
“How long was I out?”
Xie Lin pushed himself up, but was immediately forced to let out a muffled groan by the tearing pain in his internal organs.
“Three days.”
Xiao Jin pressed down on his shoulder: “The Valley Master of the Medicine King Valley said your spiritual meridians are completely destroyed; you cannot use spiritual power for three months.”
Xie Lin gave a cold laugh and suddenly grabbed Xiao Jin’s wrist.
The instant his fingertips touched the pulse, his pupils shrank: “Why is the golden lotus at your heart withering?”
Xiao Jin silently withdrew his hand, the edge of the medicine bowl cracking under his grip: “After the Gate of the Ghost Realm opened, the Heart-Eating Lotus began resonating with something.”
He lifted his collar, revealing that the golden lotus mark on his heart was indeed much dimmer than it had been three days ago, with its edges even beginning to turn black.
“This disciple suspects…”
“It’s the primary parent stock calling out.”
Xie Lin interrupted him, his gaze turning toward Lin Miaomiao, who was sleeping in the corner.
The black lotus mark on the girl’s neck was wriggling eerily at this moment, as if a living creature were about to break through the skin.
“The primary parent stock I cultivated with half a heart back then was sealed inside her soul.”
Thunder exploded outside the window.
Xiao Jin flashed to the window instantly, seeing the sky in the direction of the Nether Palace soaked in blood.
That giant bronze gate was now wide open, with countless vines composed of flesh and blood hanging from inside, dragging any living thing within a hundred miles into the gate.
Most horrifyingly, the runes appearing on the surface of the vines were exactly the same as the black lotus on Lin Miaomiao’s neck!
“There’s no time to wait for three months.”
Xie Lin tore off the medicinal cloth from his eye, revealing the gore-covered left eye socket.
He bit his fingertip and drew a blood formation on the bed: “Xiao Jin, prepare the ‘Blood Contract’.”
Xiao Jin turned around abruptly: “Your body currently cannot withstand…”
“That’s why we’ll use your body.”
Xie Lin’s blood-stained finger suddenly pointed at the golden lotus on his chest: “Since the Heart-Eating Lotus has already recognized a master, it can temporarily serve as a spiritual meridian hub.”
“I need you to take me into the Ghost Realm.”