Heart Protection

Chapter 20

Yan Hui suddenly learned such a huge secret. For a moment, she couldn't believe it.

When she finally managed to process this information, an unavoidable question rushed into her mind. Yan Hui quivered and slapped away Tian Yao's hand that was still resting on her chest.

"Don't tell me.......you are going to take back the heart protection scale?" Yan Hui started to retreat backwards. "If you take it, I'm going to die, right?"

She was scared of dying. She hadn't freely lived her life to the fullest yet.

Tian Yao slowly took back his hand and looked at Yan Hui: "Without the heart protection scale, you will live at most ten days."

Yan Hui's eyes revealed her terror. She took another two steps back.

Seeing Yan Hui horrified expressions, Tian Yao's mouth slightly curved without him noticing, but this smile quickly disappeared: "Regarding you, the heart protection scale is just one scale. There's no harm in giving it to you. However......"

Hearing that word 'however', Yan Hui's expression had no way of recovering: "You want to use this to threaten me, to make me accompany your search to find the rest of your body that has been scattered and sealed away? Who knows how many parts Zhenren Su Ying dismembered your body into......this search will take who knows how many months and years......"

"There are only three places left to search." Tian Yao said, "That year, Su Yin used the Wu Xing, the Five Phases, to seal me: Wood to imprison my soul, Water to trap my bones, Fire to burn my tendons, Earth to bury my horns, Metal to bind my heart. Ten years ago, the large tree that had my soul burned, so my soul escaped. It drifted around this vast world. Fortunately, it discovered the aura of my bones, so it stopped in this village and entered the body of a young child on his deathbed. During those ten years, I looked for a way to get back my bones everyday. However, I never got what I wanted. I needed what had been sealed away, my blood. Only my dragon blood could break the seal."

Yan Hui understood. According to Zhenren Su Ying's plan, this seal ought to have been unbreakable. Because Tian Yao had been dismembered, how could he crawl out and break the seal?

If it wasn't for his heart protection scale entering her body, growing alongside her and changing her constitution, even if Tian Yao's soul escaped and entered a body, he shouldn't be able to break the other seals.

After all.......there was no blood.

Yan Hui considered it for awhile: "But how I see it, you retrieved your bones. After getting then back for a short time, you also recovered your dragon aura. Then, your blood will slowly, slowly turn into dragon blood. You can do it all yourself. I believe in you."

"What you said might be possible. In that case, it will be a long time before that is finished." Tian Yao's gaze fell upon the two white flowers. They hadn't talked for a long time, yet the flowers were already starting to wilt. "But I don't have time."

Tian Yao lightly touched a petal. His expression looked reflective: "When I broke the seal on my bones, there was no way Su Ying wouldn't notice. Without my complete body, I'm no match for Su Ying. If I'm discovered by her, I will only be slaughtered by her again."

Yan Hui swallowed.

That word was really aptly used. Zhenren Su Ying really would slaughter him until there wasn't even a body part left......

But helping him search for the rest of his body was the same as helping a demon. And it was a demon who was going against Zhenren Su Ying......

Yan Hui shook her head: "I can't help you with this."

Tian Yao looked up at her and quietly waited for her to continue.

Yan Hui scratched her head: "Don't blame me for not saving those at the brink of death. Just look at our circumstances. I truly don't have a way to save you."

"First, although I was expelled from Chen Xing Mountain, I am still a xian cultivator. Later on, I still have to rely on hunts for killing demons to earn money to live. Helping you would mean turning my back on the meaning of cultivating under the Dao. From then on, I'll be like the demons, chased by xian cultivators trying to kill me. Thinking further out, if I help you regain your body, even if you bestow me the heart protection scale as a reward, I would still become someone who has betrayed the cultivation world. I could no longer enter the Central Plains, and as someone who was cultivating, I wouldn't be able to enter the demon countries. No matter how you look at it, It's a difficult situation."

"Second, Zhenren Su Ying's actions against you were indeed excessive. As a cultivator, even I felt frightened and uneasy by what happened. However, nowadays in this world........the situation between demons and xian are like fire and water. Zhenren Su Ying is the master of a large sect. You also appear to be a powerful greater demon. There is no cultivator who won't be scared of you. They will want to eliminate you, and it turns out Zhenren Su Ying did take care of you......Therefore, even if what Zhenren Su Ying did to you was cruel and vicious, how I see it, even if how she did it leaked out, there would still be a group of self-righteous cultivators who will applaud and praise Zhenren Su Ying.

Tian Yao was silent.

"There's also a third point." Yan Hui pointed at her own heart. "Although it's thanks to you that I have lived to this day, I have to be stabbed every time a seal is to be broken. No sane person would agree to bear with it. I think parting ways now is for the best. Of course, I know you won't just let me go. So, come at me." Yan Hui twirled her fingers in a beckoning motion. "We'll fight a round. That way when you lose, you won't feel so upset when I leave."

Tian Yao looked at Yan Hui for a good time. He didn't move an inch, just saying: "Your words are more adorable when you're drunk."

"Thanks, sometimes I also wish I can always be fearless like when I'm drunk, but the chances when I can be drunk are too few. People always have to be somewhat clear-headed." Yan Hui saw Tian Yao really wasn't going to move and stepped out of her stance. She looked at the red dot on her wrist and curled her lip. She planned to leave: "My weak and cowardly self doesn't dare to face your affairs. I swore a blood oath, so consider the daily intense pain I will feel as punishment. For now on, let's no longer stay together. I still have other matters to investigate."

"If I said......" Tian Yao spoke up behind Yan Hui's back. Although his voice was the same as before, neither urgent nor slow, it was colder than before. "If I die, the heart protection scale no longer works. Would you stay?"

Yan Hui's footsteps paused. She considered it for a short moment and slightly cocked her head: "Can you seriously control whether you live or die right now?"

"From what you were saying, Zhenren Su Ying sealed you away, not to kill you, but to keep you alive to ensure the dragon scale armor's magic wouldn't die. As of now, your soul has escaped and you retrieved your bones, but you shouldn't have the privilege to 'die'.......right?"

Following Yan Hui's words, the corner of Tian Yao's mouth grew tighter and tighter. The light in his eyes also became chillier.

It was true. Su Ying wouldn't permit him to die. That's why for all these years, every time there was a full moon, he had to endure the pain of his soul ripping apart. He was stuck living a life worse than death. Beaten down to the point where he didn't even have the privilege to end his own life.

He could only hopelessly wait alone in the dark, enduring endless humiliation, remorse, and this inhuman pain.

Gasping for breath and waiting for who knows how long until dawn arrived.

He hadn't given up on his qualifications. He could only cut off all means of retreat and press on until he found the rest of his body. Then.......

Kill Su Ying.

All these years, this hate had been fueling him, yet also ripping him apart.

Because this hate was so powerful, it was practically the only reason he hadn't become a "walking dead".  And at the same time, there was no way for him to vent this powerful hate, apart from suppressing it down. This was because he hadn't the smallest sliver of hope for recovering his entire body.

 For ten years, he lived between hope and despair. He lived in utter chaos.

But now, Yan Hui appeared.

Bringing the heart protection scale. Bringing a body with "dragon blood". She fell from the skies into his world.

One could imagine how large of a shock Yan Hui's arrival brought. She was the driftwood he clutched in his hand, his one last hope. He clung onto her, yet she said.......she wanted to go.

If she wanted to leave, then she should have never appeared in front of him. But now that she has.......

"You don't have the privilege to die right?"

Yan Hui asked again. She closely examined Tian Yao's expression and saw through it. She nodded her head in certainty: "Since it's like that, then I'm leaving. Take care of yourself."

Tian Yao looked at Yan Hui's back and slowly stood up. He dusted off his clothes: "A few months ago, I left the village. I came across a rumor from the jianhu: Su Ying had found her love's reincarnation."

Yan Hui knew she shouldn't listen to Tian Yao's nonsense, but she couldn't resist listening closely.

Yan Hui remembered that she saw that cold-faced xian at the meeting in Chen Xing Mountain a few months ago. There was indeed a mortal scholar by Su Ying's side; she kept a close eye on him. Her indifferent expression would only soften when the scholar spoke.

It was said although reincarnation was unfathomable, it was known the previous reincarnation's karma was erased. In any case, it was true that Zhenren Su Ying loved that mortal.

"She searched for so many years and finally found him in the end. This time, it can be assumed she won't let the mortal die so easily again." Tian Yao's expression was frigid. "If I'm not wrong, now she's also searching everywhere for the lost heart protection scale."

Yan Hui's footsteps stopped again. She didn't need Tian Yao to continue. She instantly understood his meaning. Thus, Yan Hui turned wide-eyes and stared at Tian Yao, asking in disbelief: "You're actually going to sell me out?!"

"What talk about selling you out?" Tian Yao got closer to Yan Hui. "We are bound together. If I'm going to sell, then I'm just selling myself out."

In any case, it wasn't like his situation could get any worse.

Tian Yao curled the corner of his mouth: "Dragging you along to share my fate isn't that bad."

Yan Hui's teeth clenched in anger. Her fingers tightened into a fist, then relaxed, then tightened, then relaxed. After a long time, Yan Hui spat out: "I'm not helping you! You can go complain to your former lover about me! After that, we can both drag each other down!"

Done speaking, Yan Hui fluidly tossed a branch into the air. She casted a sigil in her hand, then, treating the branch as a sword, she rode it and flew off into the horizon.

Tian Yao stepped forward a few steps and tracked the direction Yan Hui was going in. His eyes  moved slightly.

He knew this girl was impulsive. She didn't think like ordinary people, so he had anticipated this outcome would occur. He wasn't anxious. He just looked at the traces Yan Hui had left behind and slowly followed.

Although the Tracking Curse he had planted on Yan Hui was minor, it wasn't easy to dispel......

Getting rid of him wasn't easy.