After Escaping From Death, He Went Even Crazier By Criticizing Black Lotus Chapter 34
byChapter 34: Eating Fish
If he was the Black Lotus, then they were destined to draw a clear line…
Su Huan’s eyes widened, overwhelmed by shame and embarrassment.
He immediately struggled to get up, but was caught off guard when their eyes met. He was startled to realize that the pair of eyes, which he remembered as perpetually dark and deep, now resembled a sky full of inverted stars. Even with countless stars present, they seemed to see only him.
Su Huan’s movements involuntarily slowed.
A thought surfaced in his mind: So this is what the Black Lotus looks like when he falls in love with someone.
Besides the gurgling water, he couldn’t hear any other noise.
Suddenly, he heard the frantic pounding of his own heart.
“Huan’er?”
The single sound stirred up a thousand waves. Su Huan snapped awake and quickly pushed Xiao Jianming away. He used too much force and accidentally tumbled backward, splashing into the shallow water and sending countless droplets flying.
It was only then that Su Huan realized the fish he had been holding had long since escaped and vanished.
Su Chao pushed through the bushes and arrived at the creek bank, his expression still etched with worry. Ning Zhou, who followed behind him, looked at the two soaking wet figures with a knowing expression, letting out an ambiguous “tsk tsk” sound: “No wonder you two disappeared for so long. Turns out you were having a wild session here…”
“A’Zhou!” Su Chao lightly scolded him, preventing him from uttering more explicit words. He seemed to believe Ning Zhou’s implication, blushing deeply as he turned his head away, his voice becoming increasingly hesitant and soft: “You, you two as well. The secret realm is so dangerous, yet you, you are still fooling around like this…”
Before he finished speaking, he was too embarrassed and quickly dragged Ning Zhou away.
Su Huan wanted to explain, but the posture he and the Black Lotus had just been in was far too intimate. Given the acute senses of cultivators, Su Chao and the others must have seen everything clearly. Trying to explain now would only look like a cover-up.
When he climbed out of the water, Su Huan saw Xiao Jianming still standing in the same spot, unmoving. His expression was dazed, as if he had lost his soul, or had been stimulated by something, making him oblivious to everything around him.
Su Huan felt confused and couldn’t help but reach out and wave his hand in front of Xiao Jianming’s eyes, only for his wrist to be suddenly seized.
Xiao Jianming instinctively grabbed the flash of white before him. After realizing what he had done, he quickly let go as if shocked by electricity, and closed his eyes.
The sight of Su Huan, soaking wet and pressed against him, was exactly the same as a dream he once had.
A dream that taught the young man what desire was.
He had only had that dream once and had long forgotten its content.
But the moment he accidentally touched that warm, lean waist, everything instantly came rushing back.
The seductive, beautiful scenes from the dream surged forth, tempting him to lose control and repeat the actions from the dream.
But he couldn’t do that.
Xiao Jianming scooped up cold water and harshly splashed it onto his face, thoroughly suppressing the turbulent violence and restlessness in his heart.
If he truly acted on those impulses, Brother Buhuan would surely turn against him.
When he touched the young man’s soft abdomen just now, he remembered not only the seductive scenes from the dream, but also…
The sword he had personally plunged into him.
Thinking of this, a trace of bitterness spread through his heart, transforming into boundless remorse.
It was this sliver of emotion that allowed him to control himself and avoid getting lost in the abyss of delusion.
Su Huan was bewildered by Xiao Jianming’s actions. A thought flashed through his mind, and he subconsciously looked down.
After seeing it clearly, his eyes immediately widened.
That area really was protruding!
Xiao Jianming noticed his gaze. Before he could look down, he saw Su Huan quickly turn his back, the white jade-like tips of his ears completely red.
Realizing the situation, Xiao Jianming also felt a bit embarrassed. He used spiritual power, slightly annoyed, to make the physical reaction subside, and said in a muffled voice, “Let’s go back.”
After speaking, he impatiently stepped onto the bank, but Su Huan called out to him.
Su Huan stammered, asking softly, “Um… are you good at catching fish?”
He looked at the stream, which had returned to its calm, gentle flow, feeling a bit deflated. The fish had all been scared away into the water weeds.
If he had known this task was so difficult, he wouldn’t have volunteered.
Xiao Jianming paused, brought his sword fingers together, and moved his fingertips a few times. Several ice shards materialized out of thin air and simultaneously pierced the dense water weeds growing along the bank.
More than ten silvery spiritual fish, worth thousands of spirit stones on the market, were brought out this way, their struggling tails flicking a stream of water droplets.
Su Huan, who had spent half the day only catching one fish that then escaped, couldn’t help but let out an exclamation of awe.
This admiration, however, unknowingly transformed into a sharp blade, fiercely stabbing Xiao Jianming’s heart.
If Su Huan’s Golden Core hadn’t been shattered, he could easily perform such a small trick himself.
The thought of the fatal blow he had dealt back then made Xiao Jianming feel grateful that the divine beast had been there.
If not for that, he would have unknowingly killed his own moonlight with his own hands.
When Su Huan and Xiao Jianming returned, carrying two large ice containers, Su Chao couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise at the number of spiritual fish inside: “That many!”
Ning Zhou also leaned over to look: “Why catch so many? Planning to set up a stall and sell them in the secret realm?”
Xiao Jianming retorted, “I didn’t control my spiritual power well; it was just a slip-up.”
Ning Zhou raised an eyebrow. The wounds on the spiritual fish were all instant kills. Was that really a lack of control?
It wasn’t until he saw Su Huan happily eating the roasted spiritual fish, finishing one and immediately reaching for another, that he finally understood.
What slip-up? It was clearly intentional, catching extra because he knew a certain someone loved eating fish.
Su Huan ate until he was full and contentedly sat on the ground. He felt so comfortable that he couldn’t help but want to sleep. He turned his head and saw the other three sitting cross-legged, circulating their spiritual energy.
The aura around them was rapidly climbing, each one more vigorous than the last.
He was stunned, thinking, no wonder cultivators always cook spiritual food whenever they enter a secret realm. Eating one meal can increase spiritual power this much.
Unfortunately, only spiritual beasts naturally raised in the secret realm had this effect, and eating them freshly caught yielded the best results. Furthermore, secret realms, apart from fixed opening times, mostly hid within the chaotic flow, meaning cultivators couldn’t stay inside for long. Otherwise, he would be extremely happy to live here permanently.
Su Chao and Ning Zhou had already set up defensive arrays around them. Su Huan, having nothing to do, idly studied the array patterns on the ground. Suddenly, he realized he seemed to understand all of them.
Not only did he instantly grasp their mysteries, but he could even discern the array’s core and visualize other arrays that could be layered on top for double the effect!
He was astonished; his cheat ability could actually become even stronger!
He also recalled seeing Nangong Yi and Yue Jiusi earlier, and wondered if the “Meng Qinghui” who granted him the cheat ability might also appear in reality.
Recalling that illusion, Su Huan couldn’t help but sigh. The name Heart Tribulation Illusion Dream was truly fitting. His biggest knot was that after his parents died, no one was there to pull him up. Unexpectedly, transmigrating here had inadvertently helped him resolve it.
It was just that… Su Huan glanced at the Black Lotus beside him, feeling quite disgruntled.
He had looks, he had wealth, he had looks for a conscience… except for his face, everything else about him was dark.
Sigh.
Thinking this, Su Huan involuntarily touched the area of his Dantian, where there was a slight protrusion.
He spread his hands and lay back, gazing up at the starry sky.
If it were anyone else, he would definitely try to become close friends with them, but if it was the Black Lotus, they were destined to draw a clear line.
Although the Black Lotus’s attitude towards him was now vastly different from before, he was soberly aware that he was not Ji Buhuan. If he didn’t pull away in time, he would inevitably suffer a major setback sooner or later.
Right, he also needed to find a way to remove the contract seal in his soul…
He wondered if his cheat ability could break it…
Before he could take any action, Su Huan felt a wave of drowsiness and drifted off to sleep.
Beside him, Xiao Jianming intermittently felt the joyful and relaxed emotions transmitted from the other end of the contract seal. His furrowed brow gradually smoothed out.
The next day, after Su Chao had fully absorbed the spiritual food, he stretched comfortably.
Seeing that Su Huan hadn’t woken up yet, he instructed the two who were already awake to guard the area and check if the surrounding arrays were intact.
However, the young man still hadn’t woken up by noon.
Su Chao worried that something was wrong. He reached out to check and discovered that the area where the Golden Core should have been circulating in the Dantian was shattered and empty.
Without a circulating Golden Core, the spiritual power provided by the spiritual fish could neither be refined nor expelled. It simply accumulated in the Dantian, becoming a pool of “sludge.”
He didn’t know how it happened, but when he tried to guide this spiritual energy out, the spiritual power he sent in vanished as if a clay ox had entered the sea.
He stumbled backward, reaching out to pick up the quietly sleeping young man, but his hands were trembling so much that he couldn’t even stand steady himself.
Ning Zhou saw his distress and asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you so panicked?”
Su Chao’s voice trembled: “Huan’er, Huan’er’s Golden Core is gone, and I can’t seem to guide the excess spiritual energy out of his body. What should I do, A’Zhou?”
Ning Zhou frowned immediately, feeling a surge of annoyance. He grabbed Xiao Jianming’s collar and roared, “He doesn’t have a Golden Core, and you still dared to let him eat so many spiritual fish?!”
“Don’t you know that people without a Golden Core can’t eat too much spiritual food!”
Xiao Jianming froze completely.
After a long moment, he said blankly, “…I didn’t know.”
Then he asked hoarsely, “Without a Golden Core… what will happen?”
No one answered him.
But he saw a fierce malice surging toward him from Su Chao.
Ning Zhou glanced at him and said, “You should be thankful his Dantian is intact, allowing it to hold this spiritual energy.”
“Otherwise, his body would have exploded and killed him.”
Hearing those last four words, the blood in Xiao Jianming’s body felt like it had solidified.
Ning Zhou rubbed his chin in thought: “Normally, once a cultivator forms a Golden Core, they are bound to it. Losing the core means death or being half-crippled. But this kid can still run and jump around like nothing happened… This might be why we can’t guide the spiritual energy out of his body.”
“Tell me, what did you and he go through? And why did he lose his Golden Core and end up like this?”
Xiao Jianming closed his eyes, saying hoarsely, “His Golden Core was shattered because of me…”
Those few words had already stabbed his heart until it bled profusely, making the pain too intense for him to say anything more.
“What did you say!” Su Chao suddenly looked at him, the malice on his body instantly skyrocketing, surging forth like a collapsing mountain and a devastating sea.
Ning Zhou also frowned, scoffing, “Is this how you take care of your Dao Companion?”
“Chongjiang True Lord actually allowed you two to form a contract?”
Su Chao was ready to kill him right then, but hearing that last sentence, a flash of inspiration struck him: “Master, yes, Master must have a way to save Huan’er! We must return to Xuanji Sect immediately!”