Pitch-black blood slid from the corner of his mouth and dripped onto the bluestone floor with a faint hiss.
The instant the blood touched the stone, it corroded several tiny pits into its surface.
Bracing himself against the stone chair's armrests, Zhou Xuan slowly straightened.
The turmoil in his chest continued. Deep within his dantian, the black-gold Dao Fruit was like a beast driven mad by hunger, desperately lunging toward the Black Iron Case in the corner of the stone chamber.
The Slaughter Law fragment sealed inside the case held far too great an attraction for the Dao Fruit.
Crack.
A faint sound came from outside the stone door.
Then two figures rushed in almost simultaneously.
Old Ancestor Cangwu had already drawn his Dark-Gold Long Sword. His face full of vigilance, he scanned the stone chamber, thinking an enemy had launched a sneak attack.
Ji Chen rushed straight to Zhou Xuan and reached out to support him.
"Fellow Daoist Zhou! Your mouth..."
Ji Chen's words caught in his throat halfway through.
He had spotted the tiny pits the black blood had corroded into the floor.
Old Ancestor Cangwu also stopped searching the surroundings and fixed his gaze on Zhou Xuan's face.
Both their expressions changed at once.
"Don't make such a fuss."
Zhou Xuan raised a hand, wiped the remaining black blood from his mouth, and casually rubbed it off on the hem of his robe.
The gesture was as careless as wiping away a drop of tea that had accidentally splashed onto his face.
"You're injured?" Old Ancestor Cangwu demanded in a low voice, his knuckles whitening around his sword. "Who did this?"
"No one."
Zhou Xuan leaned back in the stone chair, slowly relaxing the hand pressed against his chest.
The Dao Fruit's agitation was gradually subsiding.
He