The Twenty Words that are Formed on the Paper...

On the way to Luo Yu’s room, the anxiety in Su Yang’s heart became more and more intense.

He sensed that the Apparition and the triple cold mental skills in his body would certainly get the most detailed judgement by Luo Yu here—did the ‘damage to lifespan’ warning from Di Ling mean damage to his health or a warning that…he would die?

Su Yang subconsciously still felt that this was only a fictional world, and there was still no fear of death in his heart, but he finally felt the terror at the thought of the possibility of being parted forever.

For a moment, he even had the idea of running away—maybe what he feared would not come true until he heard the final judgement?

But he still followed Luo Yu into the room and changed his clothes with the help of a disciple.

Luo Yu didn’t say much. He instructed Su Yang to sit down so he could check the younger man’s pulse.

After a moment, the doctor frowned. He withdrew his hand and asked in a deep voice, “There is an extremely cold energy in your body. Have you ever had a fortuitous meeting? On a snow mountain, ice field, or a cold lake?”

Su Yang didn’t cover his symptoms. “Jade Mirror Lake at the House of Jake. Shijie said it is called the Apparition of Frozen Lake.”

“Apparition of Frozen Lake…” Luo Yu echoed. He pondered for a moment and asked the next question, “Did she tell you that after taming this cold energy into the body, you can’t practice too many cold natural mental skills, otherwise, it will be harmful to your body?”

Su Yang flattened his lips. “...She told me.”

Luo Yu smiled angrily. “Then you forfeited your life the moment you continued practising more Pure Cold mental skills. Why did you practice Half-Withered Crimson?”

Su Yang avoided Luo Yu’s piercing gaze. He lowered his head and confessed, “At that time, I already mastered the Six Night Flower Burial and the Blooming of the Nine Glacials. According to Shijie, learning more cold natural skills would only hinder my life, nothing on…how serious it would actually be.”

He paused and added, “Besides, if I didn’t practice Half-Withered Crimson, I was afraid that…nothing could treat the Blood Gu inside of Gu Feidi.”

Of course, Luo Yu knew about the effect of the Half-Withered Crimson. Hearing this, he also knew that Su Yang was indeed without an alternative choice.

But he was still so angry that he ground his teeth and confronted the younger man. “What simple skill do you think Half-Withered Crimson is? It is a fragmented chapter of another set of mental skills. It was never completed, stolen and modified for emergency use. Otherwise, how would it be sealed? Even if you don’t have the Apparition in your body, practising Half-Withered Crimson would damage your meridians, not to mention your…”

Su Yang interrupted, “Will I die?”

Luo Yu answered, “You’re already on your way to death’s door, don’t you think?”

Su Yang didn’t know what to say, so he stayed silent.

In the end, Luo Yu broke the silence.

“If you want to forcibly draw out the Poisonous Gu, it’s true that only Half-Withered Crimson could complete that task.” He sighed. “After all, it originated from the E’Luo Gui Faction. It was created from parts of a mental skill that refine and control the Gu Bug.”

As he explained, he looked at Su Yang. “Fortunately, you carried the blood of my faction’s royal line, even just half...That’s how you could resist such cold internal energy for so long. If anyone else replaced you, they wouldn't last in the cold breeze of late autumn, let alone climbing a snowy mountain.”

Half of what the doctor said flew over Su Yang’s head.

He was stupefied for a moment and asked hesitantly, “...E’Luo Gui Faction’s blood…?”

Luo Yu studied Su Yang. His eyes landed on a soft, delicate eyebrow, and slowly traced it to the edge of the eye.

Such beautiful eyebrows and eyes, which already merged with the figure that had already begun to blur in his memory. After a while, he revealed, “Your mother’s name is E’Luo Jin, she’s my…my younger sister.”

Su Yang was thoroughly shocked.

“That means,” Luo Yu gave a faint smile. “I’m your uncle.”

Su Yang was thoroughly confused.

Uncle?

When did the Young Master of the Evil Sect have an uncle?

Luo Yu seemed unaware of Su Yang’s surprise. He got up and went to the table, picked up the flower hairpin and recalled, “Your birth mother would forever be that wilful and unruly little girl that I adored. That year, she secretly went out of the ice field in search of me. I took her to travel around the Jianghu with your father and Alliance Leader Gu. One time when we passed Xunshui City, she pestered me to buy this flower hairpin for her.”

As he spoke, he sighed, “In the blink of an eye, twenty years have passed…We haven’t met since she was taken by your father to the wasteland, and I had to live in seclusion in the snow mountain to avoid the E’Luo Gui Faction’s Royal Court.”

Su Yang had no comment to make.

He was still digesting the fact that he suddenly had an uncle. Moreover, the uncle seemed to have some roots with the faction’s royal family.

Didn’t that mean the Evil Sect’s Young Master was also related to the royal family?

...What kind of strange and complicated relationship was this?

Luo Yu twirled the flower hairpin in his hand and chuckled. “I never expected to see this hairpin again, but Jin-er and I were separated by time, distance, and now, death陰陽相隔 where one is separated by Yin and Yang. Or people are separated in death. Where the world of the living is a space, a space known as 陽間.. Her son has already grown so much.”

As he mentioned the son, he glanced at Su Yang, but there was no gentleness towards relatives in those eyes.

“To tell you the truth, I didn’t want to save you at first.” He confessed indifferently. “Su Huaizhu’s behaviour really made me angry. Based on Jin-er’s temperament, she must not have wanted to give birth to you.”

Then he sneered again and stated, “But since you came to me because of the E’Luo Gui Faction’s Blood Gu, I have a responsibility to help you…Only out of obligation, good or bad, you’re still my junior. It didn’t hurt to meet you under these circumstances.”

Su Yang was even more confused by Luo Yu’s mood swings. What was he supposed to say?

“Blood Gu is actually not dangerous to your body.” Luo Yu put down the flower hairpin and turned the topic back to Su Yang. “With Half-Withered Crimson’s suppression, it won’t cause you any issue for decades. It’s the Apparition that is killing you. I say you have a year or two before it completely consumes your vitality.”

Su Yang was stunned. “A year or two?”

Luo Yu hummed with a smile, “If you used your internal energy as carelessly as before. A few months…no, it’s possible for you to meet the Ruler of the Underworld閻王 goes by Yama-raja. It’s the Ruler of the Underworld, governing the eighteen layers of Hell. within a few days.”

Finally, Su Yang couldn’t contain his anxiety and suggested urgently, “Is there no way to delay it? What if I don’t practice martial arts or use my internal energy…No, what if I crippled my internal energy, won’t that be better?”

“Cripple your internal energy? If you want to do that, you can only do it if you completely destroy your meridians, and you’ll immediately be frozen to death by the Apparition.”

Luo Yu scolded seriously, “Opportunities and heavenly treasures are rare, but they are also very dangerous. When you tamed the Apparition, you must have experienced a test between life and death, but you may not be aware of it from being unconscious. I’m sure…there must have been someone who helped you through the difficulties again and again before you could survive and finally tame it.”

This was the first time Su Yang heard of this.

Recalling the event in the cave under the frozen lake, who was protecting him by his side? Who was it that pulled him back from death’s door repeatedly? It went without saying...

Gu Feidi always said that Su Yang saved him three times…But actually, the question was, how many times did Gu Feidi save him?

If there was a thread of fate in this world, he was sure that their fates had long been entangled with each other, where no one could tell where it began and where it ended.

It was just…the thread was too short.

Thinking of the ‘a year or two’ that came from Luo Yu’s mouth, he finally panicked.

“But…what should we do?” He freaked out. “Is it really only that short?”

“Do you and Gu Feidi return each other’s feelings?” Luo Yu asked.

Su Yang nodded.

“Have you two had sexual intercourse?” Luo Yu asked again.

Being suddenly hit by such a straight ball, Su Yang was at a loss for words, with an embarrassing blush climbing from his neck to cheeks.

He hesitated and replied, “...Not yet.”

Luo Yu breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good.”

Su Yang didn’t understand. “Good how?”

Luo Yu explained, “Although you can suppress the Blood Gu, it still lives in your body. It doesn’t matter usually, but…if you are involved with others, it will also become active and transmit its poison to the other’s body. It won’t be harmful once or twice, but too often would result in the collapse of the other person’s body. In the end, they would die an untimely death.”

Su Yang was silent.

A moment later, he said, “If that’s the case. I still want to…Please help me remove the Blood Gu.”

Luo Yu raised his eyebrows and uttered, “Oh?”

Su Yang’s ears were burning under Luo Yu’s clear gaze. But he clenched his teeth. “Since I…don’t have much time left, I don’t want to…leave without any regrets.”

Luo Yu murmured, “You need to use the Half-Withered Crimson to help you eliminate the Gu Bug, but you also know what it means for you to use the mental skill again.”

For a moment, Su Yang didn’t know what to do.

Luo Yu asked, “Do you want to accompany him for a year or two, or stay together for a month or two?”

This was a difficult choice to choose from, Su Yang couldn't make up his mind.

He knew that he and Gu Feidi were actually looking forward to having each other completely, but…he also wanted a more long-term relationship.

Now they couldn’t have both, it was either one or the other.

Studying Su Yang’s sad expression, Luo Yu said, “This is something both of you should decide. You should discuss it with him.”

“No,” Su Yang was very firm this time. “I-I don’t want him to know about my shortened lifespan caused by the Apparition and the Half-Withered Crimson.”

Whether it be the Apparition or the Half-Withered Crimson, both were related to saving Gu Feidi’s life. If the other knew that these two things were the real culprits that caused his approaching death, he didn’t know what kind of hit Gu Feidi would take—although he didn’t intend to trade his life for Gu Feidi from the start, the result was so heartbreaking that he didn’t want Gu Feidi to know.

Su Yang left things to chance, asking, “If there’s a way for him to not learn that I’ll die…”

Luo Yu exhaled heavily and advised, “You are bound to weaken gradually. As someone who is the closest to you, how would he not notice? Moreover, even if there is a way to conceal it from him, won’t he be in more pain when you leave?”

Su Yang bit his bottom lip and said in a muffled voice, “That’s better than getting cut by a blunt knife…”

“This is not urgent yet. You still have time to think it over.” Luo Yu said. “With the hot springs available here, it won’t be too cold in the winter. You can stay for a while.”

Su Yang nodded in response.

Suddenly, he remembered something. He turned to Luo Yu and asked, “That, doctor…”

Luo Yu replied, “What is it?”

Su Yang brought up, “Just now in the hot springs, Gu Feidi discovered that there were words covered by the tattoo on my back. I asked him what the words were but he didn’t tell me. I can tell from his expression that it wasn’t something good. Could you please…help me figure out what is on my back?”

Luo Yu narrowed his eyes slightly and whispered, “...Words?”

He pondered for a moment and nodded. “Come here, I’ll take a look.”

Su Yang turned his back to the doctor, took off his cotton robe to his waist and abdomen, and showed the tattoo on his back.

Luo Yu stared at the cluster of crimson epiphyllum for a moment and reached out to gently touch the pale skin.

He stroked slowly along the healed scars for a long time before removing his hand. However, his face was complicated—confusion, absurdity, heartache, rage, distress, mixed with a trace of disbelief.

Now Su Yang was sure that the words on his back weren’t positive. With a nervous mind, he hesitated and asked, “...What does it say? Could you please tell me?”

Luo Yu suddenly closed his eyes and opened them after a moment. Those eyes now viewed Su Yang in a completely different manner. The indifference turned into a very strange…a strange worry and regret.

He shared, “Among the shaman’s craft of the E’Luo Gui Faction, there was a curse that even the Great Shaman would rarely touch…It is called the ‘Blood Curse’.”

Then, he got up slowly and walked behind his desk. He sat down with the table’s corner as support.

He took out a piece of paper, flattened it, ground ink and picked up his brush. The tip of the brush hovered above the paper, the hand holding it was trembling slightly.

“To cast the Blood Curse, the blood of close relatives from the person to be cursed must be used. To complete the curse…” Luo Yu’s voice was slightly hoarse. “...It was important to sacrifice the life of that close relative.”

He lowered his gaze, writing out the words while continuing talking, “Even in the Faction, only…only shamans taught by the Great Shaman could cast this curse.”

After he finished, twenty words were formed on the paper.

The curse words of the Blood Curses on Su Yang’s back—

Ill-fated Relationship from Misfortune, An Oath for Divine Punishment. Su Yang’s Short-Condemned Life, Never Reached Coming of AgePast the age of twenty..