Heart Protection

HEART PROTECTION: CHAPTER 13

It seemed like there was no end to the darkness. Yan Hui felt along the wall. If it wasn't for the sound of Tian Yao's footsteps leading the way, she feared she would've been lost by now.

"Have you been here before?" Yan Hui was baffled. "It seems like you're familiar with this place."

A long time passed before Tian Yao, who was ahead, answered: "I've dreamed about it."

Dreaming of it......also counted as being there?

Yan Hui didn't voice her question because she heard the repressed emotions in Tian Yao's voice. It brought to mind the last time they went to the cave entrance. His forehead was covered in cold sweat, and his complexion was deathly pale. Yan Hui inwardly mulled over this.

This place had a sealed object. Yan Hui once heard a lecture given by a senior shifu. A seal was a type of imprisonment technique. The average person couldn't touch or take the sealed object. The sealed object also couldn't escape from it. Based off of its instrinsic nature, a seal itself was a type of barrier.

And this place had another type of barrier. Everyone knew that a barrier was used as a defense, but the barrier here was strange. It made Tian Yao feel pain.

She and the snake demon obviously didn't feel anything when coming here. It was clear that the barrier was for a specific something, or, it could be said, set up by a certain someone. Right now, it was clearly obvious the barrier was most likely defending against Tian Yao.

The object was hidden away in a remote place and protected by several barriers. The person who hid it here was protecting it on a comparable level to protecting against tomb raiders......

Using the hand she had against the cliff wall, Yan Hui lightly knocked on the stone: "The spell here is very powerful. The person who casted it could be considered one of the top xian cultivators."

Tian Yao didn't reply.

Yan Hui spoke again: "Oh Great Demon, when we were at the cave entrance, you said twenty years ago you passed through a tribulation of the heart. The person who made you go through it, could it be......" Yan Hui drew her words out. She probed out of curiosity and desire for gossip. "Su Ying, Master of the Guang Han Sect?"

The sound of footsteps in front of her suddenly stopped.

Yan Hui also stopped. They stood there for quite awhile. Ahead of her, a few words lightly floated back: "It was. What about it?"

After standing there for quite awhile, she got confirmation. Yan Hui was actually shocked.

Oh shit! It was really true! The gossip in Chen Xing Mountain unexpectedly wasn't just rumors concocted and thrown together by disciples!

Yan Hui's heart was like it had been lit aflame by the love of listening to stories. She followed her desires and stepped closer to Tian Yao. She repeatedly asked: "It really is her? You two really had a secret period of predestined love that no one knew about?"

"It has nothing to do with you." Tian Yao dismissed her and continued walking forward.

At this point, how could Yan Hui let Tian Yao off so easily? She followed him closely with small and quick steps, almost like a tail. She pestered: "Tell me. In any case, just walking is boring. It's just us two in here, and no one else can hear a thing. I swear I won't sell your secret out......Oh, tell me."

It's true she was curious about Tian Yao, but now this really caught her interest. The situation was actually related to Zhenren Su Ying. Zhenren Su Ying was known in the cultivation world as the number one female Zhenren. She was the Holy Mahayan, the same as her grandmaster, Zhenren Qing Guang.

The story of this kind of woman and a millennium dragon demon......

This would sell for a lot of money......

Yan Hui lightly coughed. She squashed the secular thoughts filling her mind and said: "I assume during the long time you've spent in the mountain village, you didn't have a single soul to talk to. Keeping it all in had to be choking you. Based on the consideration that you saved me yesterday, you can let it all out on me and talk about what happened twenty years ago."

Tian Yao stopped walking. Yan Hui bumped into his back. For a long time, Tian Yao didn't make a sound.

In the middle of the pitch-black darkness, Yan Hui suddenly felt like she saw a flash of red light streak by. When she thought of tracking it down, there wasn't a trace left.

Tian Yao continued forward. His voice was somewhat deep: "It really isn't a good story."

Yan Hui nodded and opened her mouth without thinking: "Of course. Just by looking at how you are right now, I know the story between you two doesn't end well."

"......"

"That's not right. The ending between you two wasn't good. However, that doesn't mean the story isn't good."

"You really want to hear it?"

"Ya!"

The pitch-black cave was silent for a moment. While Tian Yao walked leisurely, he started to talk: "Twenty years ago, I fell in love with a person. For her, I was willing to give up everything I, as a demon, had: longevity, cultivation, responsibilities......Unfortunately, what I was willing to offer her, she didn't want."

Although it was Yan Hui who wanted Tian Yao to talk about his life, when he started talking, she was unexpectedly startled. She only wanted to bully and tease him. She didn't expect him to talk because she knew that there were some experiences that were too hard to talk about.

A xian-demon relationship. Just by those words, people already knew how hard it was for others to accept. Not to mention, one was a powerless demon, the other was at the top of the cultivation sphere.

Anyone could've guessed. What happened to this dragon demon wasn't a happy experience.

"She decided to personally take what she wanted from me. So on a night when the moon was full......"

Not knowing why, Yan Hui's mind suddenly conjured up an enormous moon. It was so close it looked like it was falling down.

The summit of a snow-covered mountain......

Endless snow blanketing the mountain in white.

Basically with no control, the scene in Yan Hui's mind was like she was moving in it. She felt immersed in it.

 She could feel a bone-chilling wind, and her back was pierced with the snow's chill.

"She held a long jian."

A graceful woman had her back to the enormous moon. A long jian gleamed with a cold light in her hand......

"She killed me."

The words fell. Yan Hui only felt her heart wretch. Then before she could have a bigger reaction, she felt like she had suddenly been enveloped by murderous intent. In a split second, Tian Yao spoke: "Just like this." Three words dropped.

Yan Hui only felt something cold in her chest.

Under the circumstances where her guard was completely down and she was unsuspecting, he plunged a long jian through her chest and pierced her heart.

"Squish" The long jian was drawn out.

Blood squirted out and sprayed on the ground.

Yan Hui unbelieving touched her chest. She felt something soft and sticky. Then the pain slowly started to spread. It went from barely noticeable to an intense pain. Then it entered her bones. Her legs lost their strength, and she knelt onto the ground.

Yan Hui stupidly knelt there for a long time before reacting.

Damn, she'd been stabbed......

The smell of blood immediately filled the cave. Yan Hui firmly pressed against her heart, but she was unable to stop the pouring blood. She could even hear the blood pitter-pattering onto the ground.

"Bas......Bastard......" Yan Hui cursed from behind gritted teeth.

Tian Yao's voice was flat: "I told you this wasn't a good story."

So, it was her fault for wanting to listen!?

"You didn't say......it was over. Now you finished.......and want to kill......" Yan Hui drew a breath and continued to reprove him. "What is wrong with you?!"

"I don't want your life."

Yan Hui thought what Tian Yao said was so funny her sides would split from laughter.

They agreed they would go to the cave together, yet he brought along such a vicious jian. It was clear he planned this out long ago. The situation had come to a head. He stabbed her and penetrated her heart, yet he still had the nerve to earnestly say, "I don't want your life"?

Then when a bastard stabs someone's heart, does he want money or the body?

Who is he kidding?!

Yan Hui didn't have the strength to speak. She could only silently rage at him in her mind. Suddenly she heard a clank. It was the jian hacking away at the rock.

Yan Hui tensed up. She was wondering if the dragon demon was going to sharpen his jian to stab her again when she heard the grating sound of the jian's edge grinding on stone.

Tian Yao carved for a long time. Yan Hui thought he was making that ear-splitting sound on purpose to torture her. However she gradually realized this grating sound had a rhythem.

He had to be carving something similar to a spell.

Yan Hui clenched her teeth and put all her effort into determining Tian Yao's position by sound. Although she didn't know what he was going to do, a spell that was being carved for that long had to be something big.

Based on the thought that someone who stabs her couldn't be a good person, Yan Hui felt she had to think of some way to stop him------

It wasn't because it was a cultivator's duty. It was because she had been injured. She had to foil his plans!

However, it seemed like Tian Yao was better adjusted towards the darkness than Yan Hui. That's why he was able to stab her in the chest with unparalleled accuracy. Yan Hui hatefully thought, if only if she had some magic, she wouldn't have lost all bearings. If only she had a bit of magic......

Yan Hui unknowingly explored her inner state. She suddenly discovered her long-empty dantian was unexpectedly warm.

Yan Hui blanked. She tried hard to circulate her inner breath and move her inner forces. She only felt her cultivation slowly work its way through her meridians.

She's lost her power for so many days now, yet it unexpectedly started to come back at this moment!

Yan Hui blinked hard several times.......Just as she expected, she could already see her hands, nails, and even the uneven ground were dyed red by her blood.

She steadied her emotions and remained calm. The hand pressing against her heart secretly started to draw from her inner breath. The wound started to slowly clot over. With the bleeding stopped, she wouldn't die now.

The unruly magic finally came back!

Yan Hui felt relieved. It was like a great weight was lifted from her mind. She took a deep breath. When she raised her gaze, it locked onto Tian Yao who was still etching a spell into the stone wall.

Yan Hui grinned. Little demon, I'm going to mop the floor with you......

She braced herself against the wall and stood up. At this moment, the ear-splitting sound stopped.

Yan Hui saw Tian Yao cut his palm on the jian's edge and drip the blood into the pool of blood from her heart. The two bloods mixed and suddenly flashed!

Red light emitted from the jian. Yan Hui stared at it. Tian Yao didn't hold back any power and firmly struck the jian against the stone wall: "Array Break!"

When those two words were said, the bloody light from the jian grew even brighter. Acting like water, the red light flowed from the jian into the spell he carved on the wall.

Yan Hui couldn't hesitate. She pooled power into her legs and then suddenly leapt toward Tian Yao. It was like he had eyes on his back. He didn't even turn his head yet was able to sidestep her. However, he didn't realize Yan Hui's aim wasn't him. It was the jian in his hand!

When Tian Yao dodged, Yan Hui simultaneously pulled out a rock from the cliff wall. With a "clang", she struck the rock against the blade, which still had bloody light flowing from it. The long jian actually broke......

The broken tip remaining in the wall immediately lost its light. The lit up spell instantly dimmed.

Tian Yao's pupils, which were illuminated by the light, shrank.

Yan Hui stood firmly. She covered her wound and laughed while heavily panting: "Did no one tell you that if you betray someone, you'll have to pay the price? Today you stabbed me, so I definitely won't let you off."

The red light on the cave wall started to flicker. Along with the light's flickering, the entire mountain started to tremble.

It was like an earthquake. Rocks tumbled down from the cliff wall and slammed onto the ground.

Tian Yao stared at Yan Hui. His eyes were dark and cold: "I should have killed you then."

The cave and air around them seemed to shake. Yan Hui welcomed Tian Yao's murderous look. She had a sinister yet joyful laugh: "What a pity. You already missed your opportunity. Now that you want to kill me, I'll have to try and do the same to you." Yan Hui bared a tooth in laughter. "That's called manners."