After Tang Chen drank the bowl of medicine, his face puckered even worse than Tang San's had. Hu Liena happened to enter the hall and saw him clutching the empty bowl, unwilling to let go. She laughed. "Senior, you dared to brave Slaughter City, but you're afraid of bitter medicine?"
"What I'm afraid of is you lot secretly adding Yellow Springs Dew again." Tang Chen returned the bowl to the physician. Most of the old poison in his body had been cleared, but the rest still required careful recovery. He had also kept watch over the seal on the Asura Demon Sword himself; no one intended to trade his life for unsealing it.
On the day they departed, Bo Saixi saw them off at Sea God Island's docks, her complexion already better than it had been a few days earlier. She straightened Tang Chen's cloak and reminded him to take his medicine on time. Tang Chen said he would remember, then turned around and handed his medicine pouch to Hu Liena for safekeeping. Tang San and Xiao Wu both caught him doing it, and they all laughed.
The ruins of Slaughter City lay buried beneath the wasteland. The old entrance had long since collapsed. Following the route she had taken years ago, Hu Liena found a fissure in a side wall and descended first, holding a torch. Both she and Tang San had once escaped this place alive. At the sight of the familiar red stone walls, neither hurried to speak. Xiao Wu followed close behind, while Tang Chen brought up the rear, holding the Sword-Sealing Edict.
When they reached the old hall, dark red mist suddenly seeped from the floor. Hu Liena lashed out with Fox Tail, forcing the mist back a short distance, and spotted fine black markings