Chapter 16: Human-Shaped Stove and Frozen Memories
Human-shaped stove and frozen memories
Time seemed frozen on the Road of Bones. Jiang Xuelan, holding the unconscious Li Jiuyou, stood rigidly before the arch of bones, like a sculpture in a strange pose. The skin on his neck, pressed against Li Jiuyou's scorching forehead, and the sensitive and fragile pain nerves burned by the lava, intertwined into an indescribable torture. Even more terrifying, the Heart-Slaying Contract was like a forcibly activated living circuit. Every faint pulse and every ripple of the demonic core within Li Jiuyou's body, every restless heat current, was transmitted with uncanny clarity, washing over his sea of consciousness and causing his temples to throb.
**Stupid monster! It's ok that the monster core is restless, but why is your head so heavy!**
He almost used up all his life's concentration to maintain the "cold and majestic" (actually socially dead and rigid) expression on his face. His eyes were like knives (actually filled with grief and anger), staring at the leading bone guard - and the bone knife that was still held high, rusty but emitting a deadly chill.
Man Gu didn't dare to breathe, and A Che was so nervous that he almost crushed the broom handle. His black armor and green eyes didn't blink at all, as if he was watching a silent play that decided life and death.
Finally, the blue soul fire that had been throbbing violently in the eye sockets of the tallest white bone guard slowly subsided. It didn't put down the bone knife, but its hollow jaw opened and closed, once again making a hoarse sound like bones rubbing against each other:
"Zhen Clan... the king's blood... confirmed... however... the king's soul is dormant... the guide... must bear its weight... with blood... to pave the way..."
It slowly turned sideways, clearing the way to the bone archway, but the bone knife pointed at the thicker and colder gray fog swirling inside the archway.
"What...what do you mean?" A Che was confused.
"Bear its weight? Open the way with blood?" Man Gu scratched his head, looking confused.
Xuanjia's green eyes narrowed slightly, and the lines on his tortoise shell seemed to light up. "Oh no! So, although I recognize the blood of the Demon King, the King himself is unconscious, like a heavy piece of luggage. If I want to enter the gate of this Ten Thousand Demon Tomb, I need a 'guide' to carry me in, and I have to use blood containing the aura of the King's blood... to activate the path inside? Tsk, the rules of this lousy place are more complicated than the lines on my tortoise shell!"
A guide? Carrying him? Paving the way with blood?
Jiang Xuelan lowered his head, looking at the pale, unconscious face in his arms, the forehead burning and heavy. So, this socially morbid princess-carrying position still needs to continue?! And he needs to go inside and bleed her?!
A wave of grief and indignation rushed straight to his head! Qing Leng Xianjun just wanted to throw away this hot potato... no, the hot potato!
But the situation was stronger than the person. The shouts and violent demonic energy coming from the passage behind him became clearer and clearer. The pursuers were approaching! This damn place called Dry Bone Road didn't even have a decent shelter!
"Let's go!" Jiang Xuelan squeezed out a word from between his teeth, holding Li Jiuyou in his arms, and took heavy and stiff steps, leading the way into the bone archway. Every step felt like walking on the edge of a knife - a double torture of physical and psychological torture.
As soon as they stepped into the thick fog behind the archway, the biting cold instantly intensified several times! It was as if countless icy needles were piercing their bones. A Che and Man Gu shivered with cold, their teeth chattering. Xuan Jia shrank his neck: "Wow, this yin energy is really strong! It's worthy of being the place where the old monster is buried!"
This extreme coldness also stimulated the unconscious Li Jiuyou. The demon core in his body, already agitated by the rejection of death energy, instantly erupted with an even stronger resistance to heat, like a charcoal fire doused in ice water! This heat flow penetrated the Heart-Slaying Contract and poured into Jiang Xuelan's body without reservation!
"Ugh!" Jiang Xuelan groaned, feeling a domineering and scorching force suddenly rushing into his limbs and bones, colliding with the icy immortal power he had cultivated from the "Xuanbing Jue"!
Ice and fire, two extreme attributes, tore and clashed frantically within his body! His meridians felt as if they were being cut by countless knives, and excruciating pain swept through his body! The arm holding Li Jiuyou trembled violently, almost throwing him out.
**No! We must hold steady!**
Jiang Xuelan bit his lower lip tightly, tasting blood. He fought back the agonizing pain surging through his body and the damned feeling of connection, frantically practicing the Mysterious Ice Art, attempting to suppress and channel the external, scorching demonic energy. His body, now a battlefield of ice and fire, his skin alternately flushing unnaturally, then forming tiny ice crystals. He felt as if he were tormented by the duality of fire and ice.
Miraculously, as he fully activated the Mysterious Ice Art, the searing pain from the lava burns was temporarily masked by the intense pain of the ice and fire colliding within his body... In a sense, was the agitation of Li Jiuyou's demonic core acting as a painkiller for his burns? Although this method of pain relief was comparable to torture.
Even more remarkable was the moment the icy immortal energy of the Mysterious Ice Art and the searing demonic energy of Li Jiuyou's demonic core violently collided and ripped apart Jiang Xuelan's body, a faint yet exceptionally pure icy blue aura, seemingly awakened and stirred from the deepest depths of his being by this fierce confrontation. This aura, ancient and pure, carried a sense of annihilation that froze all things, instantly causing the raging heat of the demonic core to freeze for a moment!
"Huh?!" Xuan Jia, who had been lying near the collar of Jiang Xuelan's torn robe (trying to get some warmth), suddenly widened his mung bean eyes and stared in disbelief at the flash of ice-blue lines on Jiang Xuelan's neck, "Xuan...Xuan Bing Spirit Body?! This...how is this possible?! This legendary extremely yin physique, shouldn't it have been..." He swallowed the rest of the words, his mung bean eyes filled with shock and deep confusion.
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