Heart Protection

HEART PROTECTION: CHAPTER 19

When Yan Hui woke up, she realized that she was lying on top of the burial mound.

For a moment, she thought she had been tricked by some mischievous demons into venturing into the graveyards, like when she was young. Yan Hui was covered in cold sweat from fear. She frantically backpedaled away from the grave site and flusteredly dusted off her clothes. When she looked over, Yan Hui saw the young man sitting in front of the gravestone.

It seemed like Tian Yao had also just woken up. He was sitting on the ground with one leg bent. His elbow was resting on his knee, and his fingers were massaging the place between his eyebrows.

Hearing movement, Tian Yao raised his head. He locked eyes with the somewhat panicked Yan Hui. They stared at each other for awhile before snapping back to reality------

Yesterday, they both got drunk off of the wine. Drunk out of their minds, they ran to the Old Lady Xiao's fresh grave to kowtow......

A lot of confused and chaotic images were rushing through Yan Hui's mind. She shook her head to get rid of those useless images. She only had to know that she hadn't fallen into the demon's clutches.

Yan Hui rubbed her temples: "Let's go. I need to go back to sober up."

Tian Yao stood up. Yan Hui thought he was returning with her to the small courtyard. She didn't think that when she took a few steps forward, there wouldn't be footsteps following behind. Yan Hui looked back. She saw Tian Yao picking two small, white flowers and then kneeling back down in front of the grave.

He silently stuck the two flowers in the grave. Then he looked at the gravestone he made the day before. For a long time, not a word was said.

A lonely youth, bleakly kneeling in front of a family member's grave. Although she knew that in that body resided a formidable soul, Yan Hui couldn't help feel the sorrow when looking at this scene.

This dragon demon wasn't a heartless monster.

Following that thought, Yan Hui started patting all over her clothes, but she didn't feel anything. Thus, she ripped off a piece of her own clothes. Then she picked up a stick from the ground and used her magic to burn one end into charcoal. Using the charcoal, she wrote "100,000" on the cloth to denote its value.

She eagerly handed it over to Tian Yao: "Here."

Tian Yao cocked his head. He looked at the cloth in her hand and then up at her face: "What is this?"

Yan Hui had a slight cold after spending the night in the graveyard. She sniffled: "Aren't we supposed to burn joss money? I made some for you. Burn it for your grandmother." Yan Hui magnanimously said: "Although your grandmother's actions toward me weren't scrupulous, I, in my heart, am a scrupulous person. In any case, I am her daughter-in-law. Consider this my gift to her."

Tian Yao looked at the crooked numbers on the rag. He couldn't help but be slightly speechless. His mouth twitched: "Will Yama, King of the Underworld, really accept that?"

Yan Hui's eyes didn't even blink when lying: "He will."

Tian Yao didn't take it.

Yan Hui grew angry while waiting: "I gave it to you, free of charge, yet you don't want it. Fine, then I won't give it to you."

When Yan Hui was about to take the rag back, Tian Yao reached out. His movements were faster than hers, so he plucked the rag away. His expression was the same as ever: "Light a fire."

Yan Hui twitched her mouth and turned her back on him: "Unreasonable." However, at the same time, she snapped her fingers, starting a fire. The cloth rag started to burn.

Tian Yao watched the blaze. He waited until the fire reached his fingertips before letting go, but he ignored the falling cloth that burned into ash in midair: "Come with me."

Tian Yao's voice fell upon Yan Hui's ears the same moment the ashes reached the earth.

Yan Hui heard those three words and was slightly startled: "To where?"

"To the place you promised you would accompany me to last night."

Thus, Yan Hui was startled again: "Yesterday, which place......did I promise.....you?"

The moment Yan Hui said that, a memory from last night suddenly flashed in front of her eyes. She had heroically lifted her wine jar up toward the sky and clanked it against Tian Yao's jar. Then she loudly yelled: "Alright! Put your mind at ease! From now on, your business is my business! Even if we have to roam the entire earth, I'll accompany you on your search to retrieve everything you've lost!"

Wait, wait, wait, wait.......

Yan Hui's oncoming headache made her pinch the space between her eyebrows. How drunk was she to suddenly spout such nonsense?

"......My true love peeled off my scales, gouged out my heart, chopped off my horns, pulled out my tendons, split my bones, imprisoned my soul, scattered my dismembered body, and placed a strong seal on me. She wanted me to remain a prisoner for eternity......"

Tian Yao's voice floated through her mind. Yan Hui looked at Tian Yao in a daze.

Tian Yao wasn't anxious. He just mildly looked at Yan Hui: "Did you remember?"

Yan Hui shook her head: "It's not clear......"

Tian Yao knelt in front of Old Lady Xiao's grave. His gaze was downwards toward the ground: "If you don't remember, I don't mind saying it again. Essentially, last night you cast a blood oath on yourself. You can't escape that no matter how hard you try."

Yan Hui was completely stunned.

What did she do?

Cast a blood oath on herself? The kind of curse where going against it meant suffering stabbing pain? Why did she do that?!

Yan Hui flipped her wrist over. There was indeed a bright red dot. Its color was rich and beautiful.

Fuck! She got drunk and dug herself into a pit. Last night, she really drank too much......

Yan Hui was still stunned by her own actions when Tian Yao continued: "Twenty years ago, Zhenren Su Ying from the Guang Han Sect dismembered me."

That sentence tore away Yan Hui's remorseful thoughts about her own actions. She stared wide-eyed at Tian Yao: "What? Zhenren Su Ying really did harm you? She was your true love? She dismembered you?"

In contrast to Yan Hui's worries, Tian Yao's gaze was calm: "When I said this last night, you weren't this astonished."

"Yesterday I was drunk. How could I understand anything?!" Yan Hui sat down cross-legged by Tian Yao's side: "Ok, tell me again with detail from start to finish. Why did Zhenren Su Ying kill you in such a manner?"

Tian Yao paused for a brief moment before continuing: "For my dragon scales." Tian Yao's tone was detached, as if he was telling another person's story. "There's a rumor that nothing can hurt a dragon's body, that armor created from dragon scales would protect its wearer from all injuries. Even time cannot harm the wearer of dragon scale armor."

"What does that mean?"

Tian Yao's black eyes fell upon Yan Hui's body. His deep gaze made her shrink back a bit: "It means mortals who wear dragon scale armor become immortal."

Yan Hui blankly stared. A split second later, she had a fuzzy understanding. For mortals, immortality was a deadly lure.

The body was precious. It didn't matter how strong one was. Living was dangerous.

"Twenty years ago, Su Ying fell in love with a mortal. However, the mortal was nearing the end of his life. Su Ying had heard of the effects of dragon scale armor and intended to obtain it. That same year, I had been cultivating for 1000 years. Ascending to the heavens was just a step away. Su Ying knew she couldn't take the scales by force, so she pretended to be a lost cultivator. She faked heavy injuries to gain my trust underhandedly, and then she asked for me to help her."

When Yan Hui heard this, she couldn't help interjecting in: "If she wasn't beautiful, would you have been so willing to help her?"

Tian Yao stared at her: "Still want to listen?"

".......Please continue."

"At that time, I didn't know her true aim. I saved her and fell in love with her. I gave up my chance to ascend. I was even willing to renounce my identity as a demon. I didn't listen to my friends' advice. I insisted on growing old with her." Tian Yao slightly hooked the corner of his mouth. His face was filled with ridicule: "However, when I arrived to Guang Han Sect the day before we were to be married as we had promised, I found out she had invited your Chen Xing Mountain's Zhenren Qing Guang. They cast a powerful spell array and trapped me."

"It was a full moon that night. Under the spell of the moon, on the summit of the Guang Han Sect, Su Ying stripped away all my scales."

Tian Yao spoke slowly with no emotions. All that could be heard was Yan Hui's teeth chattering in the cold.

Stripped away.......all his scales.

That must have been so painful......

"Su Ying was scared that if I died, the dragon scale armor would lose its power to protect its wearer from mortality. Thus, she didn't kill me. However, she was scared I would retaliate and disturb her life of bliss and peace. So she personally took a knife and gouged out my heart, chopped off my horns, pulled out my tendons, and split my bones. Finally, she imprisoned my soul and scattered my dismembered body throughout the world. She used the power of the wu xing to cast a seal so I could never be free."

Yan Hui felt that her body was like ice. It was true that the xian sects loathed the demons, but there were very few would use such a ruthless a method to kill one.

Yan Hui recalled she actually met Zhenren Su Ying at Chen Xing Mountain a few months ago. At that time, she only thought that Zhenren Su Ying was a cold-faced beauty. She didn't think that Zhenren Su Ying would have such a ruthless heart that would do anything to achieve her ends. Her merciless methods would make people's courage quail.

Yan Hui looked at Tian Yao. To still be alive after experiencing that, there was more to him than meets the eye......

Yan Hui's tone toward Tian Yao suddenly became timid: "Then, how are you......still alive?"

Tian Yao looked at Yan Hui: "Because of you."

Yan Hui was greatly alarmed: "It has nothing to do with me! Twenty years ago, I was just born!"

Tian Yao raised his fingers and lightly placed them against Yan Hui's chest. He touched the wound Yan Hui received a few days ago when he stabbed her. Seeing Tian Yao's actions, Yan Hui clutched her chest and retreated: "What are you doing?"

Tian Yao's black eyes blinked and stared at Yan Hui: "Because you have my heart protection scale."

It took a while before Yan Hui reacted: "What is that?"

Tian Yao smiled. His laughter was both mocking and sinister: "You also know that Su Ying couldn't protect the person she wanted to protect." There was a hint of delight from getting revenge in Tian Yao's tone: "The dragon scale armor she made had no use."

Yan Hui raised an eyebrow. She followed along Tian Yao's meaning: "So that's because of what you said, the heart protection scale......"

"I sent it flying."

"What?"

"When Su Ying pulled off my heart protection scale, I used all my cultivation on it to expel it from the seal's barrier." Tian Yao said, "They cast a spell to retrieve it, but they were unable to. Without the heart protection scale, the dragon scale armor is trash."

Yan Hui was briefly silent: "So.......twenty years ago, after all of that, no one got a good ending?"

Tian Yao pushed aside Yan Hui's hand that was covering her chest and touched her chest: "But it saved you."

Yan Hui stared at him.

"Once you examine your veins, you will know. Your heart was originally damaged. You wouldn't have lived long." At that moment, Yan Hui understood. When she was injured before, the pharmacy's doctor examined her. He said her constitution was strange. Her heart was defective, but her body was in excellent health. Back then, the doctor knew she was diligently cultivating and therefore had a plentiful amount of inner breath. He didn't think further. But now Tian Yao was telling her.......

"However, now you're quite healthy and active, and you can even cultivate. It isn't because you're naturally talented." Tian Yao's fingers tapped her chest twice. "It's because of my heart protection scale. It's protecting your life, changing your constitution."

Yan Hui's mouth gaped open. She didn't know what to say.

She......

Her body actually had a heart protection scale? And it's always been there?

So it turns out after all that, twenty years ago, the person who came out the victor.......was her, a kid who, from start to finish, had nothing to do with this.......

In a split second, Yan Hui understood why she had drunkenly yelled out last night: "From now on, your business is my business!" Yan Hui also understood why she said she would accompany him to retrieve the things he lost.

Because that guy used all of his cultivation to fling out that heart protection scale. Through a freak chance, it unexpectedly became something that saved her life!

The author has something to say:

Heart protection scale is not a heart! It's heart protection scale!!! [1]

I can finally loudly yell out the answer! This feels great!