A Stirring Heart

Past and present lives.

This was Jiang Jingnian's first time killing someone.

The feeling was strange—not fear, not panic.

It was like one or two stones had suddenly been thrown into a tranquil lake, ripples spreading across its surface and shattering the original calm of his heart.

"This feeling is really... not very good!"

Looking at the wreckage before him, Jiang Jingnian took two breaths. His voice trembled slightly, yet an inexplicable, strange smile curled at the corner of his lips.

Then he immediately came back to his senses and hurriedly slapped his face, suppressing that inexplicable stirring in his heart.

"So this is how it is when Martial Masters fight. If you expose a flaw, life and death can be decided in just one or two breaths."

Jiang Jingnian carefully savored the previous exchange.

He felt out the narrow gap between life and death.

Though he had cut a sorry figure while fleeing, covered head to toe in leaves and weeds, his clothes nearly shredded by branches,

the injury that had truly wounded him

was Huo Qi's saber technique, like a surging wave of fire.

The great saber in Huo Qi's hand had seemed to heat up rapidly, and even now it was still somewhat scorching hot.

He glanced at the withered tree behind him, more than half of which had been shattered, clicking his tongue in amazement. Then he touched his still-bleeding shoulder. By the feel of it, the bleeding had clearly lessened.

"The Taiji Vajra Art does not merely possess formidable defense. Even its recovery ability is extraordinary. As expected of the cultivation art I advanced after devouring a trace of Metal Nature."

"In many ancient texts, Metal Essence also carries a hint of immortality."

Jiang Jingnian marveled at the uniqueness of his cultivation art. Then he took out the wound medicine issued by the escort agency, sprinkled some over the wound on his shoulder, and tore off a strip of rag from his clothes to make a simple bandage and stop the bleeding.

Only after finishing all this did he begin searching the corpse. From one patch of wreckage, he turned up a bloodstained bundle. After feeling around inside, he found only two tins of food, several medicine bottles, and a money pouch.

Other than that, there was nothing else.

"No cultivation manuals or valuables. Well... who wandering the martial world would deliberately carry valuables on them?"

"The most valuable thing here is probably this great saber. Its material seems rather exceptional, but unfortunately, it isn't a special item."

"And there are patterns on the blade. Its characteristics are far too conspicuous. Taking it away to use or pawn would both carry risks, so it can be buried here with him."

Afterward, Jiang Jingnian sat where he was and rested briefly. With some regret, he tossed the great saber to the ground, then piled nearby dead branches and leaves over the wreckage.

He took out a box of matches. With a scrape, a spark flared up, casting flickering light and shadow over the surroundings.

Farther away, everything was pitch-black. Even the moonlight overhead was blocked by the dense trees, making it impossible to tell where in the forest they were.

As for the clamor of fighting from the other side of the dense woods, it too gradually faded away.

The firelight fell and ignited the piled dry leaves.

At first, only flames flickered within the heap of dead leaves. Then several more matches scraped alight and fell onto it. The fire on the leaves and branches gradually intensified, soon burning with a hiss.

When the flames had completely swallowed Huo Qi's remains and that great saber stained red with blood,

Jiang Jingnian's figure vanished into the night as well.

Inside a ruined temple.

A bonfire made from piled branches swayed, casting shifting light and shadow throughout the drafty temple.

Tao Yanchen sat on a somewhat worn prayer cushion, his eyes lowered, leaving only a sliver open. Faint blue flames were trying to surge out from beneath his eyelids.

This was precisely the sign of being parasitized by Bi Fang's Fire.

Those who were parasitized would gradually lose their reason and become weapons controlled by Demon Wraiths.

Yet at this moment, his upper body was bare, and obscure lotus talismans had been drawn across his chest and back with red blood. They emitted a faint glow, gradually suppressing the blue flames in his pupils.

Not far behind Tao Yanchen, Axu, still veiled, was cutting open a corpse to extract its heart and gallbladder.

Beside that corpse lay others who had likewise been killed for their hearts.

If anyone from the Tongda Escort Agency had been here, they would certainly have recognized one of the corpses as Escort Master Wei Yu. He had clearly escaped amid the chaos earlier, yet for some reason had fallen into Axu's hands again.

There were even soldiers from the Black Flood Dragon Army among them.

Seven corpses lay in this ruined temple. Every chest had been dug open, the organs inside completely hollowed out. Their hearts and gallbladders had been crushed into materials used to paint a certain ritual on the ground.

"Axu..."

Amid the stench of blood, Tao Yanchen opened one eye and spoke in a strained voice.

The blue fire in his right eye had been completely suppressed, allowing him to temporarily regain control of his body.

But the blue flame in his left eye still danced, ready to strip him of consciousness again at any moment.

Axu carried a fresh portion of heart's blood in a broken bowl. Her face impassive, she walked to Tao Yanchen's side and crouched gently, her delicate fingertips continuing to trace a special lotus pattern across his back.

Though her clothes were torn in many places and her back was injured, her voice remained cold. "To complete the Lotus Ritual that can suppress Bi Fang's Fire, I killed several of your subordinates. But there still isn't enough heart's blood. Three more people must be killed for their hearts."

Kill three people.

That was not difficult for Axu.

But they were now in the middle of nowhere.

Finding another three people to kill would not be something that could be accomplished in a short time.

And with the ritual incomplete, it could suppress Bifang Blood for only the time it took to burn one stick of incense at most.

Once that time passed, if the ritual was still not complete,

Bifang Blood would completely parasitize him, devouring Tao Yanchen's original consciousness and turning him into a walking corpse with no control over himself.

"...There is a secret medicine in the hidden pocket by my trouser leg. It can dispel evil and nourish vitality. Feed it to me."

Tao Yanchen's voice rose and fell, and he only managed to finish speaking in fits and starts.

Axu felt around his trouser leg. Though his pants were damaged, the small medicine case in the hidden pocket had not been lost. She quickly opened the case and took out a pill the size of a little finger.

"Shijian Pill? This pill burns one's internal organs. It may have some effect, but it cannot remove the parasite. At most, it can suppress it for another hour or so."

After carefully identifying the pill, she hesitated for several seconds before feeding it to Tao Yanchen.

At this point,

there was no other choice.

The pill was quite miraculous. It dissolved as soon as it entered his mouth, requiring neither water nor swallowing.

Then Tao Yanchen opened his left eye. The blue flame that was about to emerge instantly went out, retreating straight back into the depths of his pupil.

Though he still sat upon the prayer cushion, his upper body could now move normally.