novelraw Chapter 448: How Many Old Flames Does the Ancestor Have, Exactly?
Chapter 448: How Many Old Flames Does the Ancestor Have, Exactly?
People often say women are jealous, yet men’s jealousy is no less. At this moment Nangong Jie wished Nangong Yin would vanish forever. Perhaps his stare was too intense; Nangong Yin lowered her eyes, precisely found him, and curled her lips in a mocking, contemptuous smile. Nangong Jie started as if shocked by a current and ducked his head; when he dared look up again, her gaze had already moved on, as if that fleeting glance had been a goddess’s final, pitying favor to a mortal. While he fumed in shame, the bone mountain had become something else entirely.
Scarlet fluid slid down the opened seams of the mountain, the shapes ghastly and terrifying. As Yu Zhao watched, a wordless feeling of familiarity rose within her. It was as if she had seen this before. She stared fixedly at the bone mountain, trying to catch hold of what felt familiar, and as her gaze deepened, the mountain seemed to turn over in her eyes. She jerked with fright. Inverted, the bone mountain was a shattered heart. Those bone-white slabs exposed to the air looked like the heart’s surface, and the oozing scarlet liquid might as well have been the fresh blood running out of that heart. A chill swept up her spine and flooded her with dread. [Could this be…]
Before Yu Zhao could reach a conclusion, a new calamity burst forth. The bloodlike liquid drew in Ferocious Beasts that made Cultivators quake. Deprived of Spiritual Power, swathes of Cultivators were ambushed; in the blink of an eye their Nascent Souls were gouged out, leaving corpses with gaping, blood-rimmed holes in the belly. The rising screams and the stench of blood summoned even more beasts, and in a turn, the crowd became a hell on earth.
Ancestor Sui Bian was so shocked even his hair seemed ready to stand on end, and he blurted: “Yu Zhao, get behind me, now!” Speaking, he tucked her behind his round, rotund body, as if he could block out the world and hide her completely. Deeply moved, Yu Zhao did not refuse his kindness, but neither did she accept being dead weight; with the sliver of Spiritual Power she still controlled, she deployed every Array Disk she had around herself and the Ancestor. She did not know how long they would hold, but at least they would serve as a warning. Whether by luck or because the Ferocious Beasts shied from the Array Disks, none of them came for the pair.
As more and more Cultivators were hollowed of their Nascent Souls and died, more and more blood seeped into the soil and slowly soaked the earth. From above, the ground was blanketed in crimson; piercing red flooded every corner. At first Nangong Yin was unmoved, but as the carnage spiraled, even she grew restless. She began to suspect the Auspicious Beasts were not auspicious at all, that they had lured everyone here to spring a net and catch them all. Her eyes flickered with doubt, when a familiar howl rose from below. She glanced down and frowned. The brat from the Xi Men Clan who had insulted her more than once now stared in horror at the hole in his abdomen, eyes bulging round. Beside him, Nangong Jie, Bei Ming Yan, and Dong Fang Yue were all ashen, casting frantic looks around, helplessness and despair plain in their eyes.
A sharp clang rang out, and the three flinched. Fixing their gaze, they saw a longsword planted upright not an inch before Nangong Jie’s chest; the exposed blade quivered and sang a faint, musical note. Nangong Jie stared in disbelief, then recognition dawned. It was Nangong Yin’s sword. The clang just now had been the blade colliding with a Ferocious Beast. Nangong Yin had saved him. He could not make sense of it. He hated Nangong Yin. He had assumed she hated him too. If she eliminated him, no one would threaten her position as young clan head. Yet she had not. Why? He lifted his face to her. For the first time, the self-styled master of human hearts realized he had never understood Nangong Yin at all. That one sword had not only shielded Nangong Jie; it also protected Dong Fang Yue and Bei Ming Yan, and after that stroke, no beast came for the trio again.
Elsewhere, Tu Xiao was so miserable he was nearly in tears. Just now, he had used up the final save of his protective Magical Treasure. Which meant the next fatal strike would kill him for sure. He had come to the Land of Divine Remains and gained nothing; worse, he had thrown away a bracelet that masked his aura and consumed a life-saving Magical Treasure. Most infuriating of all, of the five of them together, only he had been attacked. Why was his luck so rotten. Overwhelmed, he punched the ground hard. With a boom, his entire arm almost sank into the soil. He stared, then looked at his equally stupefied companions, and at last understood the enormous good news. Their Spiritual Power had returned. Without a word, they shot for the clouds, unwilling to spend another heartbeat on the ground.
The other survivors, startled by their sudden ascent, checked themselves, discovered the same, and rushed skyward. In an instant, swathes of Cultivators rose for the heavens, leaving the earth strewn with corpses. Someone glanced down at the ground, shivered, and screamed that they had to leave. As they surged toward the fragment’s edge, the Auspicious Beasts that had been kneeling abruptly leapt. In that leap they seemed to cross space itself, appearing directly in front of the fleeing Cultivators, and their sharp horns pierced bodies like sword points. When a horn withdrew, a fist-sized Nascent Soul hung from it, swaying. Cold terror seized everyone. The fleeing steps halted as they retreated back into the mass, and only then did the Auspicious Beasts relent and return to their original places. Hearts sank as one. The Beasts had lured them here and would not let them leave. Were all the old tales lies?
Ancestor Sui Bian fretted like an ant on a hot wok, rubbing his hands together: “We are finished, finished; there is no going back now.” His expression shifted and shifted again, until he gritted his teeth, reached into his sleeve, and took out a Voice Transmission talisman. Speaking into it, he said: “Qun Fang, there is something I have always wanted to tell you, but I never had the courage. If I can see you again, I will say it to your face.”
[Huh?] Yu Zhao had not yet recovered from the slight corniness of that speech when Ancestor Sui Bian flicked the talisman back into his sleeve and drew out another. Into it he spoke: “Qiong Lan, I am a coward. There is something I have never dared tell you…”[!?] Then he produced a third talisman and said: “Xiu Yu, from the day we parted I have missed you constantly. There is something I have always wanted to tell you, but I feared you would refuse me…”
[!!!] Yu Zhao stared, speechless, and a line flashed through her mind like lightning: [Ancestor, just how many old flames do you have?]