Blood Mirror Reveals Everyone's Desires, Dong'er and Yuhao Entangle Once More

The end of the stone corridor was not a hall. Yet the closer he came to it, the more clearly he sensed that aura. It was not a dead thing—it was an inverted Holy Hall.

The dome of the Holy Hall was embedded underground, shattered white statues hanging upside down. Patterns of holy light were entwined by blood-red array lines, as if someone had forcibly dragged a place of judgment into an evil formation.

Ye Guyi looked grave. "This is the Radiant Old Altar."

Huo Yuhao looked at her. "You've seen it before?"

"The Radiant Old Altar was originally meant to purify the lingering thoughts of evil soul masters." Ye Guyi tightened her grip around her sword hilt. "It shouldn't be beneath this evil altar."

Ma Xiaotao sneered. "Looks like it wasn't just the old things in the Star Dou Great Forest that were exploited."

Ye Guyi did not refute her. She entered the inverted Holy Hall, her holy sword lighting up. But the instant the holy light touched the ground, the blood-red array lines surged back, transforming into countless tiny chains that wrapped around the blade.

Ye Guyi's wrist jerked.

Huo Yuhao immediately said, "Don't force it."

"I know," Ye Guyi replied coldly.

But her sword had been bound.

The brighter the holy light became, the more excited the blood lines grew. This old altar had actually been altered into a trap specifically designed to backlash against holy power. Ice-blue patterns unfolded across the Soul Tool Fragment in Huo Yuhao's palm, and he saw a tampered strand of causality hidden behind the blood lines—someone had made the Radiant Old Altar believe that anyone with desire deserved purification.

No matter what that desire was.

The next instant, a blood-red mirror lit up at the center of the Holy Hall. Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong'er, Ma Xiaotao, and Ye Guyi appeared within it. Even Wang Qiu'er's phantom, far away elsewhere, appeared faintly.

Intimacy, entanglement, desire, guilt—everything was stretched into twisted images by the Blood Mirror.

—The kiss in the abandoned post station deep in the wilderness that could not be fully pushed away; Dong'er's painful closeness when she accompanied him in the soul tool laboratory; the instant Ma Xiaotao crashed into his arms, her aura burning so hot it nearly lost control; the indescribable panic in his heart when that golden figure far away was stirred by the altar; and the intimate moments he had shared with Dong'er again and again, each under different states of mind.

—These were all the desires within Huo Yuhao's heart.

The Blood Mirror seemed determined to prove that Huo Yuhao had long been corrupted by desire.

Ye Guyi was somewhat at a loss, and Ma Xiaotao had also been startled by the sudden images. Still, she teasingly told Dong'er, "You probably shouldn't look at this."

Yet Dong'er did not turn away. She feared seeing her intimacy with Huo Yuhao, seeing Qiu'er, and seeing those truths crush her heart. She also feared that all those desires were real—that they would humiliate Huo Yuhao and humiliate herself as well.

The fire in Ma Xiaotao's eyes darkened. "This thing is really something."

Huo Yuhao's first reaction was to look away.

He had always believed that if he shouldered responsibility firmly enough, suppressed every loss of control, and disguised every trace of affection and concern as tactics, protection, or guilt, then things would not continue worsening. But the Blood Mirror exposed everything he had hidden: his first and earliest love for Dong'er, the pull he should not admit but felt ever more clearly toward Qiu'er, and the deep guilt he carried over all of it.

Huo Yuhao clenched the Soul Tool Fragment until his knuckles turned white. He did not want to face it. Because facing it meant admitting that he did not love only Dong'er as single-mindedly as he had imagined. Ye Guyi looked at him, her voice tight. "Huo Yuhao, are you still not going to sever these things?"

"Sever what?"

"All desires."

Huo Yuhao remained silent for a long time.

Within the Blood Mirror, Wang Qiu'er's phantom was drawn very close by the blood-red light. She was still proud and direct, like that kiss in the abandoned post station—clearly inexperienced, yet unwilling to yield in the slightest. Huo Yuhao's throat tightened, and he suddenly let out a quiet sigh.

"How do I sever them? If I shatter this Blood Mirror, will these desires disappear?"

Everyone fell silent. The Blood Mirror suddenly shone brightly, and Ye Guyi's hand around her sword trembled.

Huo Yuhao continued, "What the Blood Mirror shows is real. There is indeed Qiu'er in my heart."

A sharp pain tore through Wang Dong'er's chest. The phantom of Qiu'er in the Blood Mirror seemed startled by those words as well, her golden eyes faintly lighting up. Huo Yuhao looked at the Blood Mirror, his voice low, but he no longer avoided it.

"Dong'er was the one who first walked this far with me. From when she was still Wang Dong, we cultivated together, slept in the same dormitory, grew step by step in Shrek, and climbed higher little by little. She knew me at my most miserable, and she saw me at my worst. I love her. Regardless of fate or appearance, I will always love her."

Dong'er's eyes reddened. Huo Yuhao paused, then looked again at the golden phantom in the mirror.

"But Qiu'er... when I learned the truth of why she came into this world, the sorrow and guilt in my heart were real."

As those words fell, the golden phantom in the Blood Mirror seemed to stir as though brushed by a breeze.

"Qiu'er is straightforward, proud, and wild, like the spear in her hand that never bends around anything. She came for me, yet she has never been willing to become anyone's substitute. When she looks at me, it feels as though she wants to force out all the things in my heart that I dare not acknowledge. I saved her, and she saved me. I do like her, but I carry responsibilities. I cannot face those feelings."

Wang Dong'er's fingers slowly clenched. Huo Yuhao closed his eyes, and his voice turned hoarser. "That is why I suffer."

"I know it is unfair to Dong'er, but feelings are not orders on a battlefield. They truly are not something I can control. I have to admit that I want to be close to them. I can soften, I can be selfish, and I can fall for someone when I should not."

He opened his eyes. "But these are not evil thoughts."

"I will never go astray, hurt others, or hurt others because of these desires."

The Soul Tool Fragment spun in his palm. Ultimate Ice froze along the blood lines.

"I like them. I want to protect them, and I want to have them. This may make me pay a price, but I will protect both of them completely. I will not let either of them sacrifice for me or fall into danger because of me."

The Holy Hall was so quiet that only the faint sounds of freezing blood lines remained. His words were not dignified, but they were true.

Yet the Blood Mirror seemed to have finally found an even crueler opportunity. It suddenly turned toward Wang Dong'er.

Wang Dong'er's pupils suddenly contracted.

What appeared in the mirror was not her arguing with Huo Yuhao, but every night when she had resolved to separate from him. She would clearly tell herself that she no longer wanted to care about him, yet instinctively look up whenever she heard footsteps in the corridor. She would clearly shut the door mercilessly each time, yet hope that he would remain outside and knock once more. She would clearly say she was tired, while again and again recalling the warmth of his embrace and the low, hoarse voice he used when comforting her.

The deeper images were dyed ambiguous and scorching by the Blood Mirror.

She saw herself pulled back into Huo Yuhao's arms, saw herself gradually lose control beneath his forceful kisses. She wanted to push him away, yet wanted even more for him to keep her. She wanted him to be gentle, but she also wanted him to stop retreating all the time, to stop doing nothing but apologizing—to kiss apart all her forced strength and drive every last bit of her avoidance back into his embrace.

Those thoughts were not explicit enough for others to name, yet they were enough to make her feel utterly stripped bare. The Blood Mirror even revealed the moment she least wished to acknowledge.

—She had even thought that if Huo Yuhao truly could not let go of Wang Qiu'er, if that pull truly could not be severed by anyone, then perhaps... as long as the most important place in his heart still belonged to her, she could endure it.

But the next moment, the Wang Dong'er in the mirror lifted her head, her gaze proud to the point of sharpness.

No.

She did not want "perhaps."

Her greatest desire had never been to yield.

It was to possess Huo Yuhao completely!

Wang Dong'er's face went pale to the extreme, but the corners of her eyes were intensely red. She had not been humiliated into weakness. Rather, she had been forced to see the most miserable and most honest part of herself. She hated that she had ever considered taking a step back, and she hated that even though she hurt so badly she could barely breathe, she still wanted this person.

Huo Yuhao saw everything within the Blood Mirror as well. He did not know how to describe what he felt. His fists clenched, his chest aching and heavy, and he did not know how to face Dong'er. He merely stood there quietly as a tear slipped from the corner of his eye.

So Dong'er had not truly wanted to leave him. She was simply too proud, too pained, and too afraid that if she lowered her head first, she would not be able to preserve even the last fragment of her pride.

Ma Xiaotao stood with folded arms beside a half-broken stone pillar, her red clothes made even more vivid by the Blood Mirror. She looked at Huo Yuhao, the corner of her lips lifting slightly. "Little junior brother, this trip was really not in vain."

Huo Yuhao was still immersed in Dong'er's "desires," his heart heavy. He had no mind to pay attention to Ma Xiaotao's teasing.

As though provoked by those words, the Blood Mirror abruptly shifted and shone upon Ma Xiaotao.

Within the mirror, she stood amid a sea of dark red flames. The Evil Fire Phoenix spread its wings behind her, flames burning through layer after layer of blood-red chains, and burning through the shadow of her past self who had been tortured by Evil Fire until she had nearly lost control.

Her desire was to grow stronger.

She wanted her Phoenix martial soul to become purer. She wanted to trample Evil Fire completely beneath her feet. She wanted one day to stand openly among the strongest without relying on anyone to suppress it for her. Yet at the end of the sea of fire, an ice-blue shadow emerged.

It was faint, nearly impossible to see amid the flames, but it was truly there in the deepest place, flickering with ice-blue radiance.

That shadow did not embrace her or speak. It only stood in the most blazing part of the fire sea, freezing the final wisp of her out-of-control Evil Fire into a transparent ice crystal. When Ma Xiaotao saw it, the smile in her eyes finally faltered.

The Blood Mirror caught that fleeting pause and dyed the firelight ambiguous.

The Ma Xiaotao in the mirror walked toward that ice-blue figure, her red robes billowing under the waves of flame. She raised a hand, her fingertips nearly touching the other person's brow, but stopped at the final inch. It was not that she did not want to touch him. This simply was not her foremost pursuit. She wanted to defeat Evil Fire herself first, then reach out with a clear mind.

Wang Dong'er looked at Ma Xiaotao, her gaze finally turning somewhat complicated. Ye Guyi also fell silent for a moment, but Ma Xiaotao smiled even more freely, as though having her hidden card exposed did not embarrass her at all. "This mirror really has some ability. Even what I buried this deeply, it can see perfectly clearly."

She raised a hand, and Evil Fire curled into an extremely thin red thread at her fingertips. "But if it wants to see me lose control, it's not qualified."

How could the Blood Mirror be so easily shattered? As though unwilling to accept this, it suddenly turned its surface toward Ye Guyi.

Ye Guyi froze where she stood. She saw herself standing amid holy light, her sword lowered. She was meant to judge evil, yet when Huo Yuhao lay unconscious and injured, she reached out and wiped the blood from his brow. She also saw herself lower her head—not as a judge looking at a sinner, but as a woman looking at a man. In the mirror, her fingertips hovered by Huo Yuhao's lips, refusing to withdraw. That distance was dangerously close, close enough that even the holy light seemed ambiguous.

Ye Guyi's face turned white in an instant, veins standing out on the back of her hand. "Fake."

Her voice was cold. Ma Xiaotao chuckled softly. "Haha, my little angel, if you truly thought it was fake, why would you be angry?"

"Our little Yuhao is really popular. Even Ye Guyi, who looks like she has no worldly desires, has him in her heart~"

Ye Guyi's blade suddenly lit up. Wang Dong'er stared at Ye Guyi in the mirror, and something became very clear in her heart: this was not something Ye Guyi had already done, but the extent to which she might someday fall for him.

That realization tightened her chest.

There had never been any shortage of women who would draw close to Huo Yuhao. Qiu'er was straightforward and wild, Ma Xiaotao passionate and uninhibited, Orange gentle and mysterious, and someone like Ye Guyi—so cold she was nearly holy—would be even harder to ignore once she fell in love.

The Blood Mirror seized on that thought. The blood lines around them suddenly tightened, dragging all of their shadows toward Huo Yuhao.

Wang Dong'er instinctively reached out and gripped Huo Yuhao's wrist. Ma Xiaotao also raised a hand and pressed it against his shoulder. Ye Guyi had intended to retreat, but her holy sword was tangled in blood lines, forcing her forward half a step instead. Three completely different auras pressed close to Huo Yuhao in an instant, and his breathing faltered.

The Blood Mirror flared brightly. This was exactly the moment it had been waiting for. But the next instant, Huo Yuhao seized Wang Dong'er's wrist with his other hand, used Ultimate Ice to suppress the Evil Fire rising from Ma Xiaotao's palm, and used Spirit Detection to cut through the first blood line around Ye Guyi's sword hilt.

He neither avoided them nor allowed desire to lead him.

"Do you see?" Huo Yuhao's voice was low. "That is the difference."

The Blood Mirror shook violently. Those words were like a heavy hammer striking Ye Guyi's hardest belief. She had always believed that holiness should remain distant from desire. The heavier one's desires, the easier it was to fall. Yet Huo Yuhao stood before the Blood Mirror and admitted everything openly. He did not disguise desire as righteousness, nor did he let desire consume his bottom line.

The Blood Mirror abruptly cracked, because it could not devour someone so complicated—someone who acknowledged his desires, yet could still hold to his heart and protect everyone.

Huo Yuhao said quietly, "Ye Guyi, cut the third blood line on the sword hilt."

Ye Guyi snapped back to herself and struck with her sword. Holy light descended, cutting the third blood line apart and freeing the holy sword. At the same time, Huo Yuhao used Spirit Deflection to shift away the causality misjudged by the old altar, Wang Dong'er purified the upper layer, and Ma Xiaotao burned through the outer shell of the blood formation.

The inverted Holy Hall shook violently. The Radiant Old Altar recovered a moment of clarity, and a white crystal fragment fell from the altar's core. Ye Guyi reached out and caught it. A strand of pink-gold residual light reflected within the fragment.

Huo Yuhao's expression tightened. It was that flash of light that had vanished from the depths of the altar again.

When Ye Guyi handed him the crystal fragment, her fingertips brushed his hand. Very lightly.

Huo Yuhao put away the white crystal fragment. Deep within the Holy Hall, the core of the third-layer altar finally revealed itself. Suspended there was a half-finished Polluted Return-Flow Core.

On the core's outer shell were the remnants of three names.

Dong.

Qiu.

Wu.

Everyone stared at those three traces, their faces carrying both surprise and the urgency of nearly uncovering the truth. Just as Huo Yuhao was about to step forward, the half-finished core suddenly trembled. The trace of the character "Dong" shone blindingly bright. Wang Dong'er gave a muffled groan, and the phantom of the Goddess of Light Butterfly behind her uncontrollably unfurled. A faint ring of dragon-scale patterns appeared along the edges of its wings.

Ma Xiaotao held the outer perimeter, the last hint of amusement gone from her expression. "This thing showed desires just now, and now it's targeting Dong'er again. It's clearly waiting for you to lose emotional control."

Huo Yuhao raised a hand, and Ultimate Ice spread into a ring of ice-blue sealing lines across the ground. He did not continue probing forcefully. The desire mirror had already proven that the third-layer altar's greatest danger was not a killing move, but its ability to twist real feelings into the eyes of the formation.

"Seal it first."

Wang Dong'er looked up at him.

Huo Yuhao's voice was steady. "We can't keep going tonight. I need to fully examine this crystal fragment and the sample records first. Then we'll enter the core. Dong'er cannot be harmed."

Ye Guyi glanced at him, as though she had finally approved of this judgment. She used holy light to suppress the old Holy Hall altar, Ma Xiaotao used Evil Fire to seal the outer blood patterns, and Huo Yuhao used the spiritual power of his Spirit Eyes to temporarily press the three traces—"Dong, Qiu, Wu"—into the core's outer shell.

The instant the seal descended, Wang Dong'er weakened as though she were about to faint. Huo Yuhao hurried forward and caught her firmly in his arms. "Dong'er."

Dong'er only lightly pressed a hand to his chest and gripped his wrist. Weakly, she said, "Leave."

Huo Yuhao paused. Wang Dong'er lifted her eyes, the corners red, carrying a trace of unease and vulnerability. "Yuhao, let's leave. This place... feels awful. I don't want that mirror watching me anymore."

"Alright, let's go," Huo Yuhao said with utmost gentleness. Everyone temporarily withdrew and set up a resting camp not far from the Holy Hall.

The temporary camp was not far from the Holy Hall. Ma Xiaotao and Ye Guyi remained behind to guard the formation, while He Caitou, Bei Bei, and Xu Sanshi waited at the perimeter. Huo Yuhao carried Wang Dong'er back to rest in a side tent.

Rain began falling again outside, pattering densely against the tent roof like heartbeats that could not be suppressed. Only one soul tool lamp was lit within the tent.

Wang Dong'er lay on her side on the bed, her body not yet fully recovered. Huo Yuhao stood beneath the tent lamp, while she faced away from him. Neither spoke for a long time. Huo Yuhao saw the hand dangling beside the bed, its fingertips trembling faintly.

He had wanted to comfort her, to say that the Blood Mirror was only an evil formation, to say that not every image could be trusted. But he knew those were not what Dong'er wanted to hear now. Because what had been exposed was not a lie, but the heart she had always hidden and always waited for him to understand.

Huo Yuhao stepped closer.

Wang Dong'er did not turn around. "Don't come closer," she said coldly.

Huo Yuhao paused for a moment, then still sat beside her.

"Dong'er." His voice was low. "I saw all of that..."

Wang Dong'er suddenly began to sob. "So what? Now you know how pathetic I am. You know that I say I'm leaving you, while deep down I'm still waiting for you to comfort me, chase after me, hold me, even... Are you satisfied now?"

It felt as though Huo Yuhao's heart had been viciously clenched. "No, Dong'er."

He raised a hand, gently wiping the tears from the corner of her eye with his thumb. "I only regret that I understood so late."

Wang Dong'er tried to turn her face away, but his other hand caught her waist and pulled her back into his arms. Her palm pressed against his chest with no small amount of force, as if she truly wished to push him away. Yet Huo Yuhao held her tightly without wavering this time. Unable to push him away, Dong'er cried out in grievance. "Stop bullying me. That altar just now... it felt like it wanted to swallow me up. I don't even know how much longer I can stay by your side..."

Huo Yuhao lowered his head and looked at her. "You won't leave, Dong'er. I won't let you leave me."

Wang Dong'er stopped pushing him and finally held him tightly in return. Huo Yuhao gently wiped her tears dry and kissed the corner of her eye.

"I'm alright now, Yuhao. Go guard the main tent."

"I'm staying here."

The moment those words fell, the tent seemed to fall suddenly silent. Huo Yuhao did not give her another chance to retreat. He turned and pressed her beneath him, lowering his head to kiss her fiercely. Wang Dong'er gave a muffled sound, her fingers clutching tightly at his lapels.

She merely turned her face aside, her trembling voice carrying a stubbornness that bordered on embarrassed anger. "Huo Yuhao, you're still bullying me."

"If you don't want this, push me away."

He deliberately stopped half an inch from her, his scorching breath brushing her slightly swollen lips, as if forcing her to make a choice.

That half inch was her final way out.

"You!" Wang Dong'er bit her lower lip, tears still at the corners of her eyes. Her voice was so low it was almost inaudible, yet it carried a trembling fierceness. "If you really leave now... then I truly won't want you anymore."

Huo Yuhao stopped caring about anything else. With a raised hand, he pressed the soul tool lamp dark with a snap.

The rain outside poured down like a waterfall, covering every sound that belonged only to the two of them.

Huo Yuhao finally gripped her waist and pressed her completely into his embrace. Wang Dong'er's light soul power trembled at the edge of losing control, like butterfly wings igniting a warm glow against ice. He kissed her deeply and heavily, as though he wanted to break apart every bit of her stubborn defiance. Wang Dong'er was forced back until she had nowhere left to retreat. Trembling, she whispered in a tone of almost forced bravado that she could never reconcile with him, yet the next instant she raised her face on her own and let his kisses fall.

Again and again, she made Huo Yuhao look at her—at the tears in her eyes, at her red, swollen lips, at how she trembled beneath him while still clinging to him desperately.

And Huo Yuhao truly looked only at her, his gaze fierce and focused, as if he wished to carve every one of her reactions into his bones.

After a long while, the soft, uneven breathing within the tent gradually settled. Wang Dong'er leaned against his chest, her hair slightly disheveled by sweat and damp rain air, carrying a fragile beauty in that messiness. Her fingers still held tightly to his hand. Huo Yuhao lowered his head and kissed her forehead.

Wang Dong'er kept her eyes closed. After a long pause, she said softly, "There was one thing that mirror did not get wrong."

"What was it?"

"Desire is not evil." Her eyelashes trembled lightly. "But if you ever deliberately use it to hurt me, I will completely ignore you."

Huo Yuhao held her tighter, almost as if he wanted to knead her into his flesh and bones. "I won't," he said gently.

Wang Dong'er said nothing more.

Outside the tent, the "suspected Divine Seal Reaction" deep within the third-layer altar suddenly flickered faintly for an instant. It was neither the activation of an evil formation nor the renewed operation of a Sun Moon sampling device. It was more like some remnant of divinity from on high, sensing the truest, most impossible-to-fake pull between the Goddess of Light Butterfly and the Spirit Eyes.

At the same time, Wang Qiu'er abruptly opened her eyes.

No one had sent her a message, nor had the altar forcibly dragged her away. Rather, the destiny sense of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion deep in her brow had suddenly heard a truer voice beneath that "Divine Seal Reaction."

Dong.

Qiu.

And the name that had yet to fully take shape.

Wang Qiu'er tightened her grip on the Golden Dragon Spear, her golden eyes gradually lighting up in the night. "So we're finally going to face all of this."