The rose was presented to him by its owner. Seeing him accept it, Luo Ren smiled.
The thorns had been carefully smoothed down, making it comfortable to hold without any pricking sensation.
Despite being surrounded by perilous man-eating flowers and toxic miasma, Su Sheng engraved this moment into his memory.
His gaze softened slightly, losing some of its usual rigidity. He pretended to accept the rose casually, but as Luo Ren turned away, he carefully wrapped it and tucked it into his pocket.
They entered the dragon’s lair and hunted one down using arrows coated with a special potion. Through a memory-probing spell, they learned that decades ago, there had been a rebellion against the White Dragon Bi Ya. In that uprising, the Black Dragon had imprisoned the White Dragon in the deepest part of Dragon Island and taken over as its ruler. However, the Black Dragon’s rule was unpopular, and many dragons remained defiant.
After absorbing these memories, Luo Ren looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure you want to get involved in this mess?”
Su Sheng also felt troubled, frowning as he replied, “I have no choice.”
Luo Ren shrugged. “Alright, if you insist.”
The two of them made their way deep into Dragon Island. From the dragon’s memories, they learned that the White Dragon was imprisoned beneath the island, accessible only by passing through its center, a single, unavoidable path.
They moved swiftly toward the island’s heart. As they neared their destination, the once-calm sky suddenly filled with swirling sand and dust.
Why was there a storm at the center of the island?!
Su Sheng halted, deep in thought.
The storm blocked the only path forward, making it impossible to avoid. Yet, as he watched the raging sandstorm, an uneasy feeling grew within him.
It felt like a warning.
After a moment of hesitation, Su Sheng cast a magical rope knot onto Luo Ren’s hand and said, “Try not to separate.”
Luo Ren smiled at him. “Of course.”
They pressed forward, only to be violently swept into a hurricane.
Inside the storm, Su Sheng’s unease intensified. He stayed as close to Luo Ren as possible, but it seemed as though the storm was deliberately trying to separate them. Before long, they were pulled apart.
Su Sheng conjured a magical barrier to shield against the storm, but it was useless, utterly ineffective. The storm’s intensity was unimaginable, making every step a struggle. It felt as though dark energy was fueling it, perhaps part of the Black Dragon’s plan from the moment they set foot on the island.
The deeper they went, the stronger the dark energy became. Eventually, ghostly monsters, condensed from the overwhelming malevolence, roamed the storm, attacking as they passed.
Su Sheng summoned his staff, dispersing several specters with each swing. Luo Ren did the same, but the distance between them grew, separated by the raging tempest. Su Sheng tried to catch a glimpse of Luo Ren but was too entangled to break free. Instead, he repeatedly cast protective spells toward Luo Ren’s direction, through the storm and past the swarming ghosts.
Su Sheng shouted to ask if Luo Ren was alright, but received no response. In the deafening roar of the storm, even voices seemed feeble and insignificant.
Yet, despite Su Sheng’s utmost caution, the relentless hurricane, capable of piercing through magic, tore at his clothes. Fine grains of sand scraped against his skin, leaving small wounds on his face, arms, and every exposed surface…
At that moment, faint, ethereal singing drifted into his ears, so beautiful that the pain in his body seemed to fade away. Su Sheng’s expression sharpened, and he cast a sound-blocking spell around himself and Luo Ren.
Battling the storm, Su Sheng slowly moved toward Luo Ren. But somehow, perhaps under the dual influence of the ghosts and the singing, he began to hallucinate.
Before his eyes appeared a carriage, Fei Meng, and the people pulling it. With a swing of his staff, he shattered the illusion, only to see a ghost right before him and Luo Ren rushing toward him, heedless of his own safety.
The ghost was too close, there was no time to swing his staff again. Luo Ren charged forward with his sword, completely ignoring the attacks of over a dozen surrounding ghosts.
Su Sheng saw blood gushing from Luo Ren’s body, soaking his clothes. He saw Luo Ren mouth the warning, “Don’t come over.” Suppressing his worry, he told himself this wasn’t the time to go to him.
But the next moment, a ghost pierced straight through Luo Ren’s chest. Luo Ren staggered, then slowly lowered his head.
Su Sheng’s heart felt as if it had been yanked upward, then slammed heavily to the ground. His body trembled uncontrollably, and terror surged from the soles of his feet, leaving his mind blank in an instant.
Luo Ren’s… chest… was pierced…
Would… he die?
The thought drifted through his dazed mind, but the scene before him soon erupted into panic, an indescribable, explosive panic.
“No!”
A ghost passed through his head. Excruciating pain struck, and his vision darkened. Yet he felt nothing, his tear-filled eyes fixed unwaveringly in that direction. Reason warned him not to go, but… he wanted to.
He had to go!
Ignoring the risk of being torn apart by the storm, for the first time, he cast aside everything and desperately sprinted toward the direction of the rope knot.
“Just a little more.” But in that moment, Su Sheng didn’t see the ghost behind him, shrouded in dark energy, turn and charge toward him.
All chaos ended when he saw Luo Ren’s panicked face. He watched Luo Ren run toward him, as if everything that had just happened were an illusion. At the same time, a ghost passed through his body unnoticed, and the dark energy silently seeped into Su Sheng.
Seeing Luo Ren still alive, Su Sheng’s running slowed. Exhaustion and sharp pain flooded his entire being. He desperately needed to rest, so he stopped.
The moment Luo Ren caught him, Su Sheng looked at Luo Ren’s disheveled yet vibrant face, smiled faintly, and closed his eyes contentedly.
“Thank goodness you’re alright.”
A soft whisper reached Luo Ren’s ears. Feeling the weight in his arms, Luo Ren froze completely for the first time.
In that moment of Luo Ren’s stunned silence, a pentagram magic circle suddenly lit up beneath their feet.
Luo Ren tightened his hold on Su Sheng, his expression darkening. If the butler were there, he would have witnessed the rarely seen anger of the Demon King.
In an instant, massive demon horns manifested. Luo Ren’s eyes flickered between gray and blue. With a clench of his fist, the storm that had left them helpless vanished abruptly. The annoying sand turned to dust, leaving not a trace behind. The mermaid singing from thousands of miles away stopped in terror, then exploded into bursts of blood mist.
Only Dragon Island remained largely unchanged, aside from the disappearance of the storm.
Su Sheng lay asleep in his embrace when a dragon flew in from the horizon, a black dragon with an exceptionally robust body and horns twice the size of those of other giant dragons.
“The hundred-year pact has not yet passed. You have crossed the line.”
The dragon spoke, flapping its wings as it slowly descended. It looked at the Demon King with a gaze that was both fearful and excited.
The Demon King’s expression remained unchanged, his tone calm as he stated:
“Bei Er, you harmed someone of mine.”
Bei Er glanced at the person in the Demon King’s arms, held so tightly that only a head of long black hair was visible.
Though Bei Er rarely left Dragon Island and paid little attention to the affairs of the continent, he knew that only the current Saint had black hair.
He snorted a heavy breath and said, “He was injured in the head by the Ghost’s Breath. Only by entering Bi Ya’s memories can he recover.”
“The memories of the White Dragon King?” The Demon King looked at Bei Er with a faint, ambiguous smile. Bei Er did not miss the fleeting flash of killing intent in the Demon King’s eyes.
His voice trembled slightly, “You… you must not forget the pact you made with Bi Ya centuries ago.”
The Demon King snorted but said nothing.
Only then did Bei Er dare to speak again, “As an apology, allow me to send you in.”
Watching Li Xier’s back as he walked step by step toward the magic circle, Bei Er’s vertical pupils flashed, his face barely able to contain the greed that surged within him, yet he forced it down.
No rush, no rush. Sooner or later, it would all be his.