Chapter 44: Blood Sacrifice is not found, Heart Prison has no door
Deep within the Lotus Tower, in a secret room that had been turned into a makeshift altar, the air was as stagnant as a tomb.
On the cold stone platform, several "sacrifices" emitting an ominous aura were scattered around - the inky black and bitingly cold [Millennium Ice Soul]; the eerie white and deathly-ringed [Drowning Person's Finger Bones]; the colorful and bloody [Golden Silk Rainbow Grass]; the scarlet and murderous [Hundred-Year Blood Jade Gallbladder]... Each one was stained with blood and killing, and each one represented a cruel journey to hell.
Di Feisheng stood alone before the stone platform, his dark robes stained with congealed blood and frost, emitting a strong smell of blood and cold. He had just returned from the far north, and his left arm was still stiff and numb, covered in a thin layer of ice that had not yet melted. His face bore frostbite and fresh knife scars, his lips tinged purple from internal injuries and the cold.
His gaze fell upon the sacrifices, but without any joy of success or excitement of achieving his goal, his bottomless eyes held only a deadly emptiness and a burning madness that threatened to consume him.
These...are not enough.
Jiao Liqiao and Shan Gudao remained as hidden as rats in a gutter, revealing no clues. Even less news of Li Lianhua had been heard from, as if she had completely vanished from the face of the earth.
He reached out, his fingertips touching the bone-chilling Millennium Ice Soul. The chill instantly coursed through his meridians, triggering the unhealed wounds within him and bringing a sharp, stabbing pain. Yet he seemed oblivious to it, simply gripping the Ice Soul tightly, his knuckles turning white from the strain.
He nearly froze to death in the Soul Condensation Abyss, losing an arm to obtain this Ice Soul...
This finger bone was obtained after he single-handedly slaughtered the easily defended and difficult-to-attack Black Water Dock, becoming infected with several types of water poison...
He had to go through a hurricane in the desert to remove the poison and bring back this rainbow grass after narrowly escaping death...
This blood jade gall...
Every sacrifice was soaked in his blood, his pain, and his madness.
But what’s the use of these?!
He didn't want these dead things! He wanted that person's whereabouts! That person's safety!
"Li Lianhua..." He growled in a low voice, his voice hoarse and broken, like the wail of a trapped animal, "Where on earth are you..."
A violent desire for destruction suddenly surged in his heart! He raised his hand abruptly, wanting to sweep down and smash all the sacrifices before him, which had cost him so much.
But when his hand reached mid-air, it stopped abruptly.
Cannot destroy...
It was ruined, even the last bit of hope of forcing Jiao Liqiao out and finding clues was gone.
If it’s ruined, everything that person has paid for…will really be meaningless.
He slowly lowered his hand, his body trembling imperceptibly, not from the cold or pain, but from a deeper, unexpressable despair and fear.
He remembered the Medicine Demon's trembling words, "I have the will to die," his frosted white hair, and the empty meridians that no longer contained any trace of internal energy...
If...if he really is gone...
This thought was like the most vicious ice spike, piercing his already broken heart and bringing him a suffocating pain.
"No..." He shook his head violently, bloodshot eyes, and denied the idea almost paranoidly, "No... You are so afraid of death... How could it be..."
But another voice in my heart screamed frantically: He would even sacrifice his life for you! What else would he not dare to do?!
The two thoughts were tearing at each other wildly in his mind, almost driving him crazy!
He slammed his fist down on the cold stone platform! The solid stone platform instantly cracked! The recoil force further injured him. His throat felt sweet, and another mouthful of blood surged up, which he swallowed hard.
He gasped, his eyes sweeping over the sacrifices again. His eyes were no longer empty, but burning with an almost crazy, reckless determination.
If it's not enough... then keep looking! Find enough! Enough to make Jiao Liqiao and Shan Gudao unable to sit still any longer! Enough to overturn the entire martial arts world! Enough... to buy back a glimmer of hope!
He turned around, grabbed the knife beside him, and walked towards the outside of the secret room with stumbling but extremely determined steps.
Injured? No problem.
Pain? I can't feel it.
Life and death? I had already put them aside.
He was like a walking corpse driven by obsession, constantly searching, constantly killing, and constantly collecting... using more blood, more sacrifices, to fill the heart that had completely collapsed due to loss, leaving only endless panic and madness.
The door of the secret room slowly closed behind him, swallowing the pile of sacrifices that exuded the breath of death back into the darkness.
And Shura's bloody journey will continue until... he finds that person, or... he is completely destroyed.
On the coast of the East China Sea, there is an unknown small fishing village. The salty and humid sea breeze, carrying the fishy smell of fish, blows day after day over the low thatched huts and the beach where fishing nets are drying.
In the most dilapidated hut at the east end of the village lived a white-haired man from another place.
No one knew his name or where he came from. A few months ago, the old fisherman, Uncle Chen, found him among the rocks while going out to sea to collect his nets early in the morning. He was soaking wet, his clothes tattered, his white hair tangled against his pale face. He was unconscious, his breath so weak it was almost imperceptible. Uncle Chen, with a kind heart, carried him home and asked the village's only barefoot doctor to see him. The doctor felt his pulse for a long time, then shook his head and said it was strange, as if he had countless hidden injuries and was running out of energy. His survival was a miracle, and as for when he would wake up, it all depended on fate.
Uncle Chen and his silly son Ah Fu took good care of him. Ah Fu was born with a mental retardation and had the mental capacity of a five or six-year-old, but he was particularly fond of this quiet, white-haired uncle. He would stay by his bedside every day, mumbling something that no one could understand.
A miracle happened half a month later. The man woke up.
But when he opened his eyes, those once clear and intelligent eyes were now completely blank, like a newborn baby, bewildered and helpless. He couldn't remember who he was, where he came from, and couldn't even speak. He just stared blankly at everything around him.
He was so weak that he needed help even to get out of bed and walk. The doctor came to see him and shook his head again, saying that he was probably seriously injured, especially in the head. He was lucky to be alive, and now in this state... his mental state would be difficult to recover. At best, he could be as healthy as a three or five-year-old.
Uncle Chen sighed, but he didn't give up. Ah Fu was very happy, because he finally had a "little brother", a playmate who needed more care than him.
So, there was a white-haired "fool" in the small fishing village.
He was a slow learner, his speech slurred, and he only knew the simplest words. "Uncle Chen," "Ah Fu," "hungry," "pain"... Most of the time, he would just sit quietly under the eaves, lost in thought, gazing out at the distant sea. Occasionally, a faint trace of confusion and sadness, a feeling even he couldn't comprehend, would flicker across his hollow eyes.
His fingers would sometimes unconsciously draw traces on the ground, leaving behind vaguely complex and sharp lines, like the starting position of some sword move, or like mysterious runes, but the next moment, he would stop in a daze, tilting his head, as if he didn't understand what he had done.
Ah Fu loved this white-haired "little brother" very much. He would share the brown rice cakes that he was reluctant to eat with him, would take him to the beach to pick up shells, and would clumsily help him comb his snow-white hair. Although he was stupid, he could sense that this "little brother" had an aura that made him feel at ease and wanted to be close to him.
The white-haired man is also the most dependent on Ah Fu. Only Ah Fu's clumsy teasing can make him smile for a very short but pure and heartbreaking moment.
The villagers were curious at first, but eventually grew accustomed to it. Occasionally, mischievous children would throw stones at him, calling him "white-haired fool." He didn't get angry, but simply looked at them blankly. Sometimes, when the stones hurt, he would curl up like a frightened animal, tears welling up in his eyes, but he wouldn't cry out loud. Whenever this happened, Ah Fu would rush over, shouting and waving his fists, to chase the children away. Then, he would come back, clumsily pat his back, and give him the most beautiful shell he had found.
He ate very little and was always weak and afraid of the cold. Whenever the sea breeze blew, Uncle Chen would quickly put on his tattered, thick clothes. He would sometimes curl up unconsciously at night, whimpering softly, like a small animal, as if in great pain. But when he woke the next day, he would be left with only a blank, confused state.
The days passed one by one, as dull as the repetitive tides at the seaside.
He forgot the thrilling world of Jianghu, the unforgettable love and hate, and the fact that he had once been the brilliant Li Xiangyi, the insightful and open-minded Li Lianhua. He was like a pearl cast on the beach by the waves, covered in dust, devoid of all brilliance, quietly staying in this unknown corner.
Meanwhile, in the distant Central Plains, a bloody storm, sparked by him, was spreading madly. The man obsessed with him was treading through a sea of blood and corpses, collecting bloody offerings one by one, nearly turning the entire martial arts world upside down.
The small fishing village in the East China Sea remained shrouded in a false illusion of tranquility. Until one day, several unfamiliar, gangster-like figures appeared at the village entrance, shattering this fragile peace.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
