Under the flickering firelight in the stone chamber, ripples appeared on the dark water surface.
The face that was not in the water turned a little, and suddenly it jumped up, with half of its body sticking out of the water.
Xiao Nanhui almost instinctively took a step forward and stood in front of Su Wei.
But the figure was just struggling in the water. The chains on his body were buckling into his joints, making rattling sounds due to the traction, which caused an unpleasant and harsh echo in the stone chamber.
An Lu turned his cold gaze and fell on her, followed by a hoarse and unpleasant laugh.
"Young Master Yao?" He paused, a sneer on his face. "Should I call you Young Master Yao or Village Master Pan?"
She heard the sarcasm in the tone and stared straight at the face, saying word by word: "Listen carefully, my surname is Xiao, and my name is Xiao Nanhui. If you want to seek revenge, don't look for the wrong person."
"So you're from the Xiao family. I didn't know they had such an androgynous spy. No wonder you're so devoted to them, it turns out you've hooked up with the emperor. You're a general during the day, but who knows what you become at night..."
His words were harsh and his intentions were very sinister. He was completely immersed in the water, like a poisonous snake lurking in a deep pool, spitting out venom as soon as he opened his mouth.
Xiao Nanhui had little experience with such vicious verbal battles and didn't know how to refute for a moment, but her palms were itching and she just wanted to go up and slap him a few times.
The next second, cool fingers gently rested on the back of her hand. She paused, glancing slightly sideways at the emperor, but the hand had already slipped away again.
This back and forth was hidden under his loose fur coat, and she could not see his movements, as if everything was just a trance of her own.
Then he spoke in a calm tone.
"You've made some progress compared to before, but it's a pity that you lost the secret seal before, and you failed again this time. The people behind you should be somewhat regretful."
An Lu stopped laughing and stared at the man on the stone bench. "You have never seen his abilities. One day, you will regret it..."
A man's chuckle was heard in the darkness.
"Have you seen what I'm capable of?"
An Lu's face suddenly turned pale as he recalled the nightmarish scene in the dream cave.
"What you are saying is..." He stumbled, his breathing became rapid, and he couldn't speak a complete sentence for a while.
"What is that?" The man's voice was as cold as the surrounding stones, and his tone was somewhat malicious, asking knowingly. "Is it possessed? A spirit descending? Or... a manifestation?"
"You are a monster! A monster..." An Lu's voice became hoarse and he kept repeating the words in his mouth.
"Monster?" The man calmly gazed down at the head in the black water. "Those who are obsessed with dragons have never seen one, but spend their days gazing at the dragon scale they've obtained, unable to stop. One day, they see a dragon and realize they're actually afraid of it. Isn't that foolish?"
The air was filled with the sound of pig iron hitting each other, which was the sound of the bound hands and feet shaking.
After a long time, the sound finally quieted down.
"I know you spared my life just to get information out of me." An Lu paused, then spoke again with a hint of pride. "It's a pity that this mouth is on my face. I can say whatever I want to say, and if I don't want to say anything, no one can pry a word out of me."
The man on the stone chair moved his arm and picked up something from the other side of the chair.
Click.
It was the sound of something hard being placed on the ground.
An Lu raised his head. He thought the other party would take out some horrible torture instrument, but he saw only a mirror in front of him.
A shiny, ordinary bronze mirror.
"It's a little dim here, but it's enough."
The mirror was facing the person immersed in the water. With the flickering firelight in the stone chamber, An Lu's sight gradually focused on the distorted face in the mirror.
“No, no, no…”
He touched his face randomly. It was clearly his own face, but it didn't look like that of a teenager at all. Instead, it looked like that of an old dwarf.
The shrunken and wrinkled skin was dull and lifeless, and the few strands of sparse, wet hair fell off due to his rough movements and tangled around his hands like rags.
He grabbed around with his hands like a madman, but suddenly stopped, then slowly stretched his fingers in front of his eyes.
The tips of those ten fingers had already begun to turn black, but that wasn't the scariest thing.
He moved his index finger, and a nail fell lightly into the water.
"No, no... What did you do to me?!" His voice broke because of its sharpness, and everything in front of him seemed to make him more defeated than the pain of being tortured to death.
The emperor finally stood up from his chair, opened his sleeves and revealed a vermilion bottle in his palm.
Xiao Nanhui saw the bottle at a glance and recognized it instantly.
When she was in Seqiu, she had seen it from a distance in Anlu's hand.
An Lu obviously recognized the thing that originally belonged to him, and his eyes were fixed on it, refusing to move away even an inch.
"There's not a drop left in this bottle, which shows you've taken quite a bit. Considering the situation, you're lucky to still be in your current state. You still have a young body, after all. I imagine that's why he chose you."
"What do you mean?" An Lu's lips trembled, and his words were a little unclear. "Do you think I will believe you just because of a few words..."
"When he gave you this thing, he only said it was a gift to you, but he didn't mention the curse it would bring. It grants you strength, but it will also consume your body. You've been taking it for months. If you stop, within half a month, your body will turn into a pile of rotten flesh in this water, and not even a bone will be left."
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