Lu Ziyin felt his head ringing, a sense of not knowing what year or month it was.
Liu Jiang Fusheng’s body was imbued with the chilling, rigid, and cold aura of the six shades, his wrists, legs, and waist bound by dark purple eel-like misty snakes. Lu Ziyin and Cheng Hong were also similarly restrained. The only ones present who received special treatment, able to move freely, were Li Sheng and the two children.
She cast a light glance, her girlish dress of delicate lotus blooms, embroidered with tender buds, then transformed into the ashes of black flames, only to be reborn into an elegant, flowing, black silken robe of noble iris. The ethereal hem of her garment fluttered gently in the evening breeze.
Li Sheng’s pupils contracted for a moment. The person who entered his vision had completely transformed into something else.
The maiden whose smile was as beautiful as a flower had become the woman before him, whose mere gaze made his heart pound like a drum. She was like the deep, unfathomable sea, plunging ten thousand miles down, where sea and moon coexisted. She was near peaks, near dangers, and mysterious. Her appearance transcended the worldly definition of beauty, with submerged scales and leaping fish, veiled in rippling misty waves.
“Hua Mi…” the youth murmured her name softly, then asked her with a pale face, “Is your name Hua Mi?”
He was like a newly hatched young beast, wholeheartedly trusting one person, only to discover in the end that everything he had trusted was a lie. He was like a pure, innocent flower deceived by a scumbag, even his angry questioning voice sounded so literary and self-pitying.
Utterly unaware that she had just trampled on a youth’s purest, most ardent love, Gu Junshi did not even offer any valuable response to Li Sheng’s words. She was cold, dismissive, and casual. With a sweep of her arm, she pulled Cheng Hong, whose hands were bound, in front of her.
She pressed down upon him, Cheng Hong tilted his head back slightly, their gazes met, one indifferent, the other calm, looking at each other.
“Master Cheng Hong, may I borrow a bit of your blood?”
Though it was a polite question, she did not intend to hear his refusal.
Because in the next moment, without any warning, she grabbed his hand.
Cheng Hong, unable to move, could only be manipulated by her actions.
“Gu Junshi, after all these years, you haven’t changed one bit,” Cheng Hong said calmly.
Gu Junshi offered no comment on his assessment: “Neither have you.”
She treated Cheng Hong as if she had met a long-lost friend, her tone gentle and indifferent. Even though her eyes were placid, as if surveying ordinary objects around her.
She did not even blink when she cut open his wrist.
“Gu Junshi, stop! What are you doing?!” Lu Ziyin’s breath hitched, his voice rising in a shrill pitch as it was squeezed out of his throat.
Liu Jiang Fusheng knew a bit more than Lu Ziyin. His eyes were like dense, gloomy clouds: “You intend to forcibly break the formation?”
A stream of energy then enveloped the blood from Cheng Hong’s wrist, transforming into a mist of blood. She quietly took his hand to clasp it, and then quickly drew blood imprints in the air.
Cheng Hong’s blood contained Buddha-power, capable of purifying evil karma and karmic miasma. Ordinary ghosts and spirits dared not touch it. Using his blood to break the ‘Myriad Return Sutra Wheel Lotus Seal,’ drawn with golden patterns, was perfectly suitable.
Cheng Hong was now closer to Gu Junshi than ever before. He was unaccustomed to feeling a strange, warm body in such proximity. His senses were sharp, so every breath she took, every flicker of her eyes, every trace of her breath, cooler than snow, made his entire body tremble.
Especially since this person was Gu Junshi. When she was wild, she was like a hegemon ruling a mountain, her body exuding the aura of hunting and invasion. And he was now undoubtedly like a lamb that could not muster much resistance, falling into her hands.
She used her aura to contaminate him, influence him, and devour him with a perverse and flippant demeanor. His usual clear-headed rationality regarding people and matters grew muddled, and even the fair skin beneath his robes, white as lotus, gradually grew hot.
But he did not let anyone see his true feelings, merely struggling slightly, or perhaps symbolically.
However, since Gu Junshi was playing the hegemon, she had no intention of acknowledging his “unwillingness.” Upon seeing this door blocking their path, she began to plan. She would use the blood of the Buddha’s son to tear away that golden-patterned Buddha seal, using his own spear to attack his shield.
Clearly, her plan was not flawed. When that black and gold intertwined curse seal was successfully drawn, it broke through immense difficulties, shattering the layered barriers invisible to the human eye. Like thin, transparent glass, it pierced through layer after layer, shattering into pieces, and drawing near.
The golden patterns, initially flowing clearly, then faded to white and dissipated into grey air. The stone door finally creaked open slowly before them, revealing its hidden true face.
Darkness was shattered by a dense, piercing light. On one side lay the dim embankment, and on the other, the mysterious, luminous realm within the door.
The tightly shut door had now opened, and Gu Junshi naturally had no intention of continuing to hold Cheng Hong hostage as a blood-letting tool. However, when her gaze inadvertently fell upon his arm, his plain white, lotus-like sleeve sliding down to his elbow, revealing the conspicuous and round Buddha beads on his wrist, her eyes paused for a moment.
Were these the Buddha beads she had given him?
So, he had kept them close to his pulse, cherishing them. She had thought he had changed his ritual implements.
Seeing Gu Junshi staring intently at his wrist, Cheng Hong was initially confused. When he saw what she was looking at, his calm expression suddenly became somewhat… flustered. He wanted to withdraw his hand, but he was still under her restraint. Thus, he turned his face away, deciding to pretend nothing had happened.
Gu Junshi concentrated the power between her fingertips, using her冥力 to smooth the long, thin wound on his wrist and stop the bleeding. At first glance, it seemed as if the violent blood-letting incident had never occurred.
But Cheng Hong’s slightly pale lips were a clear testament to what she had done.
However, if this act of bleeding first and then healing were done to someone else, it might be considered a sign of lingering conscience. But coming from the cold-blooded and heartless Gu Junshi… many who understood her temperament exchanged glances.
How did it seem that these two… had a deep connection?
She drew blood, so be it, but why did she then show concern at the end?
Lu Ziyin watched from the side. The perennial playboy, who was usually adept at analyzing romantic relationships, felt a rush of breath at this scene, like a kitten scratching his heart, a tingling, aching sensation.
He mused to himself, when did she and Master Cheng Hong become so intimate?
That inexplicably harmonious and blush-inducing atmosphere just now, coupled with the cold-blooded act of bleeding followed by the contradictory gesture of thoughtful hemostasis and healing, was this… was this because she found ascetic monks to have a unique charm, for example, the thrill of making the holy fall, the plot of forbidden love?
Could such a ruthless person as her also be unable to escape the common trope?
Seeing Gu Junshi’s inadvertent gesture of wiping away his pain, Cheng Hong’s heartstrings trembled slightly. He was not afraid of her rough and brutal methods, but he could not adapt to her sudden gentle actions.
He asked, “Gu Junshi, what do you intend to do with the Demon-Breaking Arrow?”
His tone, influenced by a certain confused emotion, sounded somewhat urgent and heavy, thus resembling a harsh interrogation.
Gu Junshi looked up, meeting his clear eyes that knew nothing of love or compassion. He seemed unable to withstand her overly serious and earnest gaze, slightly averting his face.
But she pursued him even as he avoided her. Eventually, she resorted to force, holding his jaw and forcing him to look directly into her eyes. She asked, half-mockingly, half-curiously, “Why? In every life, you like to chase after me. It seems I haven’t done anything truly wicked.”
At least… not yet.
But he seemed to regard her with suspicion, wariness, and scrutiny, always carrying some prejudice, as if he knew her deeply and was aware of her thoughts and plans.
Yet, in reality, he should not know her so well. After all, their time together was very short, and she had never revealed or expressed any unusual or profound thoughts to him.
So, where did he begin to suspect her and treat her with such caution?
She gazed deeply into his eyes, trying to see through them to the true thoughts in his heart.
Cheng Hong knew that some of his overly candid actions had exposed some traces that made Gu Junshi suspicious, but… it didn’t matter. If she wanted to see, he would let her see clearly.
On the other side, Liu Jiang Fusheng saw Gu Junshi and Cheng Hong standing together so brazenly, their eyes meeting with such absorption, their mutual atmosphere excluding all others, causing his eyes to be coated with a demonic scarlet hue, sinister and cold.
He was very curious about what Gu Junshi meant by “every life.”
He thought that only he and Gu Junshi had so many lifetimes of love and hate entanglements. Could it be… that she and Cheng Hong also had some unknown entanglements in previous lives?
That’s right, he died by her hand in every life, but she… she was still alive.
At this thought… Li Sheng could no longer sit still. He was not restrained by Gu Junshi. Initially, he had been moved by her favor towards him, but seeing the situation between her and Cheng Hong now, he rushed forward with anguish.
His eyes were fractured and reddened, his gentle face pale. He rasped, “Hua Mi, you came to get the Demon-Breaking Arrow not to save these people trapped in the blood gourd, but you have another purpose. Have you been using me and deceiving me all along?”
Li Sheng hadn’t thought too much before, but once the false beauty was torn apart, the cruel truth beneath naturally became clear. After she saved him, she hadn’t intended to take him along. It was he who stubbornly followed. Later, when she learned he had saved Hui Ming Shitai and others, her attitude towards him changed. She even actively claimed his life-saving grace, and later, she allowed Hui Ming Shitai to misunderstand, tacitly accepting him as her husband. All these actions indicated that she had never cared about him; she only wanted to use him to gain Hui Ming Shitai’s trust, and thus obtain the Demon-Breaking Arrow.
Gu Junshi, hearing his heart-wrenching questions, “released” Cheng Hong and turned to him: “Of course not. I want to save them, but I also want the Demon-Breaking Arrow.”
Li Sheng hadn’t expected this to be her intention. He said, “But, but the Demon-Breaking Arrow is an important artifact that Compassion City and Hui Ming Shitai have guarded for generations. If you take it like this, then, what kind of consequences will arise?”
“Consequences…” Gu Junshi casually pondered the so-called consequences, and said, “Probably that Fengdu will be unrestrained, and completely become a true city of ghosts and demons.”
What has Compassion City always based its existence upon? Why could it remain stable in Fengdu, a place rife with ghostly energy? The main reason was the threat of the “Demon-Breaking Arrow,” which kept them in line.
But once the “Demon-Breaking Arrow” was gone, what would those Fengdu ghost kings, who were already hostile or covetous towards the cultivation sects, do?
One could guess without thinking.
Li Sheng seemed shocked by the “consequences” she mentioned. His gaze, which always showed shy evasion when focused on her, was for the first time serious and stern: “I won’t let you do this!”
Gu Junshi looked at him with a faint expression: “You have helped me, and telling you this is merely returning a favor. But you shouldn’t push your luck further.”
Li Sheng took a deep breath, his young face filled with melancholy, but his eyes were bright as stars: “Hua Mi, I have failed the trust that Hui Ming Shitai and the others placed in me. I used a life-saving grace to beg, leading to these consequences. If I stand by and watch you take the Demon-Breaking Arrow like this, I cannot do it!”
His arm had healed long ago when he first saw Hui Ming Shitai and the others, but his sword, ‘Flower Spirit,’ had been destroyed by Gu Junshi, so he could not use sword techniques.
“If you can’t do it, what can you do?” Gu Junshi simply smiled casually and pulled Cheng Hong to enter the inner door.
He rushed forward, but Gu Junshi merely waved her hand, and he fell to the ground like a kite whose string had snapped.
She took another step forward, he got up and rushed forward again.
Gu Junshi frowned. This time, she didn’t even need to act herself; he couldn’t get close to her.
“Hey, you can’t stop her. Isn’t it better to be alive?” Lu Ziyin couldn’t help but say.
Master Cheng Hong, who had been as formidable as an ox moments ago, had become a hostage to the captors. What could he, a person with only righteousness and no ability, do?
But clearly, he had underestimated Li Sheng’s burst of power.
He kept falling, yet refused to die, like a tenacious cockroach.
Li Sheng grabbed her foot: “Hua, Hua Mi…”
Gu Junshi released Cheng Hong and crouched down. No wonder some TV shows or novels liked protagonists who were as stubborn as weeds.
Because they were indeed unique?
She stared down at him with a blank expression.
At this moment, a beam of light shot over. Beside them, Cheng Hong saw a hundred and eight beads floating in mid-air, seven lotus lanterns combined with the five elements of the five bridges, striking towards her.
Li Sheng rushed forward and hugged her, receiving the impact.
And Gu Junshi, who was about to dodge: “…”
She looked at him with a complex expression.
If he hadn’t blocked her, she might not have even been scratched. But since the other party was already so miserable, her heart, however hard, couldn’t directly express it.
“Demon-Breaking Arrow, can you not take it?”
Gu Junshi looked at him, her expression tinged with pity: “No.”
Li Sheng initially thought he hadn’t heard clearly, but finally confirmed… He said, “Why?”