(eight)

"you..."

Zhou Ziqiu was startled back to his senses by the kiss, and only then did he realize what Wen Su had just done. He immediately looked up at Wen Su, a strange feeling spreading in his heart—why did he kiss him?

However, Wen Su had already stood up. In the darkness, his flushed cheeks and ear tips were not visible. He cursed himself for his heart racing even from a simple kiss on the forehead, then cleared his throat: "Well... I have a discovery to tell you."

Zhou Ziqiu took Wen Su's kiss as a way of comforting a child, quickly composed himself, stood up, and followed Wen Su to the coffin.

Wen Su pointed to Zhou Gushan's neck inside the coffin and said, "Do you see it?"

The flashlights above their heads could clearly illuminate the marks on Zhou Gushan's neck. The large red patch was neither a hickey nor a strangulation mark; it looked more like the mark left by some kind of skin disease.

Wen Su reached out and slightly lifted Zhou Gushan's collar, revealing a swollen and ruptured wound inside, which was enough to make one's scalp tingle and feel pain all over.

Zhou Ziqiu's pupils widened again.

"This is..."

Wen Su nodded. "This is probably the backlash against your brother."

Zhou Ziqiu remained silent for a long time before letting out a long sigh, suppressing the tears in his eyes, walking to the other end of the coffin, and closing the lid.

"Let's go."

When he spoke again, Zhou Ziqiu's voice was hoarse.

Wen Su noticed Zhou Ziqiu's unusual behavior. His eyes flickered, but he didn't say anything.

Another rumbling sound came from not far away. The two left the room and went to the place where the sound came from, only to find that it was the room where the Eighteen Underworld Soldiers had been. It was the door that Zhou Ziqiu had opened by releasing Yin energy that had opened Zhou Gushan's tomb chamber.

Behind the door was complete darkness, and they couldn't see what was in front of them, but both of them knew what was there.

At the end of the long corridor was another door. Zhou Ziqiu reached out and pushed the door open, but his eyes suddenly turned fierce. He raised his hand and held his sword to block the attack coming at him. However, the attack was too heavy. Zhou Ziqiu was sent flying and crashed into the wall behind him. With a loud "bang", Zhou Ziqiu groaned and black blood flowed from his nostrils.

"Zhou Ziqiu!"

Wen Su couldn't spare the time to save Zhou Ziqiu, because the evil creature that was attacking Zhou Ziqiu was already attacking him. He raised his hand to block the attack of the Netherworld Child with his dagger, but was also knocked back a few steps by the Netherworld Child. He raised his foot to kick, but his ankle was grabbed instead. His eyes were fierce, and he punched the Netherworld Child's head with his left hook, which turned the head around. The wound on his shoulder also reopened.

The child in pain released his grip and stepped back, and Wen Su quickly helped Zhou Ziqiu up.

Zhou Ziqiu staggered, his body already nearing its limit and now this injury had left him on the verge of losing consciousness. Black blood was even flowing from his eyes, a truly gruesome sight. His voice was unusually rough as he said, "Quick...!"

hurry up!

As he moved, the Netherworld Child pounced again. Wen Su was about to raise his hand to defend himself, but his body suddenly became sluggish due to the runes on his body. In a hurry, he could only push Zhou Ziqiu away. Before he could even raise his dagger, the Netherworld Child pierced through the wound on his shoulder again.

Wen Su gritted his teeth and suppressed the cry of pain. His face, hidden in the black ash, was flushed red with pain, but he still trembled as he reached out and quickly drew a karmic fire talisman on the face of the child.

As the talisman fire burned, the Netherworld Child shrieked and retreated, its body releasing a night-like yin energy. It then pounced on Zhou Ziqiu, intending to replenish the yin energy burned away by the karmic fire from Zhou Ziqiu's body.

Before Zhou Ziqiu could recover his senses, he vaguely saw a ball of fire rushing towards him. Instinctively, he raised his sword to block the ghostly claws of the Underworld Child, but the ghostly child's power was so strong that Zhou Ziqiu could not block it with one hand. He could only try his best to block the ghostly claws that were about to tear at his neck with both hands.

The two sides were locked in a stalemate, and the sharp claws on the ghost claws sparked as they scraped against the longsword.

Wen Su swallowed the blood that welled up in his mouth, quickly got up, drew a Heavenly Thunder Talisman, and struck the Underworld Child.

But to Zhou Ziqiu and Wen Su's surprise, before the Heavenly Thunder Talisman struck the Nether Child, the long sword in Zhou Ziqiu's hand shattered first, and the broken black fragments were reflected in Zhou Ziqiu's dark pupils.

"Zhou Ziqiu!!"

Wen Su roared and chopped off Ming Tong's hand, but he couldn't stop Ming Tong's other hand from grabbing Zhou Ziqiu's neck.

"Well--"

Even after the child of the underworld grabbed his throat, Zhou Ziqiu still hadn't realized that his long sword had shattered.

This long sword was formed from his yin energy, like a symbol of his power. Does the fact that this sword broke mean that his power has finally collapsed?

Zhou Ziqiu didn't know, nor could he figure it out, because his yin energy was being continuously drained away by this underworld child, causing his vision to go black and black blood to spill from his mouth.

Wen Su's eyes suddenly hardened, and he quickly tapped himself seven times. A dazzling golden light burst forth from his body, but all of that golden light flowed into the child's body as he plunged his dagger into the child's head.

The intense clash between Yin and Yang energies caused the Netherworld Child to release its grip in pain. Even though it had absorbed a large amount of Yin energy from Zhou Ziqiu, it couldn't withstand the influx of so much Yang energy. Its body began to explode in parts, and golden light shone from its body, illuminating the small alleyway.

This also allowed Wen Su to see Zhou Ziqiu lying unconscious on the ground.

Zhou Ziqiu felt light and airy all over. The tearing and pain that had been bothering him for the past few days had disappeared, and warmth filled his whole body. It was as if he had returned to his mother's side. However, someone kept talking to him, but he couldn't hear what they were saying. He just felt that it was noisy. He frowned and recognized a few words - "Come back."

Go back? Go back to where?

"Come back."

"You and I are one."

"Zhou Ziqiu!!"

Having forcibly used the Yang Soul Technique to infuse his entire body's Yang energy into the dagger and injure the Nether Child, Wen Su felt an unbearable metallic taste in his throat and bright red blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. However, this did not outweigh his shock at seeing Zhou Ziqiu lying on the ground. He struggled to crawl to Zhou Ziqiu's side, picked him up, and checked his breathing, only to find that Zhou Ziqiu had already stopped breathing.

"Zhou Ziqiu, uh—"

Wen Su called out anxiously, but suddenly a pale hand gripped his throat. He looked up and saw the face that haunted his dreams—

We meet again.

Zhou Ziqiu in a ghostly state.

Zhou Ziqiu always thought that Wen Su had never seen his ghost form, but that was not the case. Wen Su had seen it, at the Wen family's old house, and after seeing it just once, Wen Su's heart started pounding wildly.

He has this side to him?

What else is there that I don't know about?

Will the unknown aspects of life also surprise me like this?

Wen Su thought to himself, but his biggest thought was, "He's so beautiful, can I hug him?"

Zhou Ziqiu's physical body is not his original one. The current body is influenced by his soul and is five parts similar to his soul, but it is still not as outstanding as his original body.

Wen Su looked up at the ghostly Zhou Ziqiu, grinned, and smiled silently.

To outsiders, it might just be a pretty face, but to Wen Su, it was breathtaking beauty. Zhou Ziqiu, having lost his reason, had no expression on his face, which made his eyebrows and eyes even more cold and beautiful, like a snow lotus on a snowy mountain peak that cannot be touched. The ghost patterns on his pale face, which showed his current extreme power, did not ruin the beauty. When viewed together with those pure black pupils, Wen Su found it even more captivating.

What ruined the aesthetic was the wound dripping blood on the slender neck.

The clean cuts nearly severed his neck, and the dripping blood that stained his white clothes was not enough; it flowed down his neck and body, disappearing into the air.

But is this really a drawback?

Wen Su didn't think so; on the contrary, he was even more tempted.

"Zhou, Zhou Ziqiu."

Wen Su stared at Zhou Ziqiu. He didn't want to call him Zhou Qinghe. Zhou Qinghe was what Xie Xingzhou called him. Only Zhou Ziqiu was the person he had actually met.

"Zhou Ziqiu".

Wen Su called out again and saw a slight softening on Zhou Ziqiu's face, and the pressure on his hands loosened a little.

Who's calling me?

Zhou Ziqiu couldn't hear clearly. He vaguely heard someone calling him, but the voices around him were too loud. The voice kept urging him to come over. He didn't want to go, but the voice sounded really familiar. He should go and see what was going on, he thought.

Wen Su was overjoyed, thinking that Zhou Ziqiu had regained his senses, but Zhou Ziqiu suddenly threw him several meters away, causing him to crash into a solid object in the center of the room behind the door. His internal organs felt as if they had been crushed and reassembled, and Wen Su fell to the ground, coughing up a mouthful of blood.

The flashlight above my head shattered instantly, and everything went completely dark.

But then, green flames began to flicker around Wen Su. They were will-o'-the-wisps, dancing and illuminating the room. The gold and silver jewels filling the room made the eerie flames even brighter.

A dark shadow loomed over Wen Su's head.

He looked up and met Zhou Ziqiu's gaze from above.

No, this is not Zhou Ziqiu.

This is Zhou Qinghe.

With a face identical to Zhou Ziqiu's ghostly appearance, and a deep, bone-revealing knife wound on his neck, the cut was clean and bloodless. His hair was tied up, he wore a jade crown on his head, and dressed in black mourning clothes. However, his expression was unlike that of Zhou Ziqiu and Zhou Qinghe. At this moment, he was smiling sinisterly, exuding a ghostly aura.

This is not Zhou Qinghe.

This is him completely turned vicious!

Wen Su's eyes flashed with a fierce light. He quickly formed a hand seal and struck at Zhou Qinghe. Zhou Qinghe turned his head to dodge and was about to attack Wen Su. Wen Su rolled on the spot to avoid the attack. The attack was so powerful that the entire tomb chamber shook.

Is this a vengeful ghost that has been around for a thousand years, or one that died in accordance with the times and fate?

But more importantly, he is Zhou Ziqiu.

Wen Su cursed under his breath. How was he supposed to hit him? He had no history of domestic violence. 18:58:36