This Venerable One Doesn't Want to Owe You

>>blood n stuff

Zhaixin Liu did not get a chance to respond before his expression twisted and he clutched his head in pain, mouth open in a soundless scream. But even though he couldn't make any sounds, the agonized screams were practically audible in that horrifying expression and those bulging eyes.

Save me.

Save me——!!!!

His lips twisted into an inconceivable shape, bloody veins spreading quickly across his eyeballs. If not for those chains shackling him in place, he likely would have already vaulted up and violently ended his own life.

"I beg of you…...hurry…...and destroy me..."

It seemed that Zhaixin Liu's grasp on his consciousness was nearing its limit; he struggled in agony but to no avail as a black fog surged out from the smelting pool, crashing into and attacking the body trapped inside. The chains rattled sharply as sparks flew.

Seeing this rapid turn of events, Chu Wanning moved quickly, long sleeve sweeping as he shielded the disciples behind himself: "How can I save you?"

Zhaixin Liu moved slowly, but he could still control the molten metal in the pool. More rows of ancient Cangjie script formed in the air.

"I am about to lose my consciousness and attack you. It is not my intention to hurt you, but it is out of my control and there is no time to explain. The only thing I can do for you now is to apprise you of the techniques at my disposal, pray take care..."

The molten metal suddenly reformed.

"I am well-versed in three techniques. First, Sweetest Dream, a nightmare technique that puts those afflicted to sleep and grants that which they desire in a wondrous dream. As such, even those with strong spiritual powers, who could perceive it to be an illusion, would still willingly remain therein, never to wake.

Second, Temptation of the Heart, using that most coveted by a person as enticement, induces the afflicted to slaughter one another.

Third, Heart Pluck..."

But his spiritual energies became exhausted at that moment, and he could no longer control the molten metal to form more words.

And, just like that, the effects of the Heart Pluck technique were left to the unknown.

A mist of blood exploded from the struggling Zhaixin Liu. No longer able to control the molten metal, he dragged his finger through the spilled blood, a pair of bulging, spasming eyeballs fixed on Chu Wanning, refusing to yield.

"Shizun!" Xue Meng hurriedly grabbed him as he made to approach, "Don't go, it might be a trap!"

Zhaixin Liu, unable to speak, could only hold up that finger dipped in blood. Abruptly, tears welled up in his eyes.

Chu Wanning: "...You want me to go over?"

Zhaixin Liu nodded slowly.

"..."

"Shizun!"

Xue Meng tried to stop him once again, but Chu Wanning only shook his head at him before approaching the smelting pool by himself and extending a hand.

Zhaixin Liu seemed quite touched. He glanced deeply at Chu Wanning and struggled to wave his flesh-dangling arms, as if trying to bow. Then, enduring the searing agony, he grabbed Chu Wanning's hand and wrote shakily on his palm:

Draw your lots, break the nightmare...

Do not——lose sight...of your…...heart...

Once…... the nightmare is broken…...the trial——ends!!

He hadn't yet finished writing the last word when he suddenly crumpled bonelessly like a pile of mud and fell back into the boiling smelting pool, disappearing from view.

Simultaneously, an enormous wave of scarlet rose from the pool with a loud crash, the molten metal surging into the sky as nine pillars of flame each formed in the shape of a dragon roared up from the ground. Chu Wanning was forced to retreat, the fire reflecting in his eyes.

Suddenly, four tokens zoomed out from the fiery pillars of molten metal to hang in mid air.

Shi Mei, remembering Zhaixin Liu's words from earlier, said at once: "Are these the…...tokens for drawing lots that Zhaixin Liu mentioned?"

He stepped closer, but Chu Wanning stopped him: "Don't touch it. All of you get behind me."

Shi Mei: "Shizun..."

"I'm here, it'll be ok." Chu Wanning said, "Don't take any chances, let me go first."

He spoke mildly, even without much intonation, but Mo Ran's heart quivered. For some reason, the Chu Wanning before his eyes suddenly overlapped with that heartless person from his previous lifetime, the one who coldly watched his own disciple die.

If he could say something like this, then why did he stand by and do nothing in the past as his disciple died?

Mo Ran suddenly felt like he had never understood Chu Wanning.

He also muttered, despite himself: "Shizun..."

Chu Wanning paid them no mind as he lifted a hand and picked one of the tokens out of the air. The token was made of jade, light yellow in color. He looked it over front and back, quietly muttering "Hm?"

"What's wrong?" Xue Meng asked.

Chu Wanning said: "There's nothing on it."

"How could that be?" Xue Meng was puzzled, "Let me try."

They each picked one of the four tokens. Xue Meng and Shi Mei's jade tokens were the same as Chu Wanning's, with not a word written thereon. Mo Ran's eyes widened as he flipped his token over:

"Blass?"

The other three looked toward him at once. Xue Meng frowned: "What's a Blass?"

Mo Ran jabbed a finger at his token: "That's what it says."

Xue Meng shuffled over to take a look, and immediately started hollering angrily: "Pah! More like you just read the half that you could actually read!"

"...It's blood hourglass." Chu Wanning said abruptly.

He could read the majority of ancient Cangjie script, and wouldn't make things up if he wasn't sure. So if that's what he says is written on the token, then that's what's written on the token.

Mo Ran stared blankly: "What does blood hourglass mean?"

Chu Wanning shook his head: "I don't know."

As if in answer, a low rumbling sound came from the arsenal's towering roof, and a massive copper hourglass mottled with rust descended. Unlike other hourglasses, this one had a cross mounted on it, its purpose unknown.

Chu Wanning glanced at the hourglass, then looked down at the token in Mo Ran's hand.

Blood hourglass.

He suddenly understood what was meant by "draw your lots". Chu Wanning's expression shifted abruptly as he shouted in a stern voice: "Mo Ran, hurry and throw the token away!"

The order left no room for argument; even without knowing the reason, Mo Ran moved to obey, almost subconsciously.

He wouldn't have known without trying, but now that he was trying, Mo Ran found that the jade token was somehow stuck firmly to his hand, and he couldn't even fling it off.

Chu Wanning cursed under his breath and rushed forward to trade his own token for Mo Ran's. But at that moment, dozens of thorny vines suddenly burst forth from that rusty hourglass and headed straight for Mo Ran!

"Move!"

"Shizun!!!"

"Shizun!"

Blood splattered everywhere. At the last second, Chu Wanning had shoved Mo Ran aside, but the thorns pierced into Chu Wanning like so many arrows.

Mo Ran in his youthful body was no match for the force of Chu Wanning's push. But as he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, the sound of tearing flesh was horrifyingly clear, and Xue Meng and Shi Mei's twisted screams were loud and shrill.

No way.

How could this be…...

But this was Chu Wanning, the one who beat him and scolded him, who never looked at him kindly. The one who callously watched his own disciple die right in front of him. The one who coldly said "deficient by nature, beyond remedy". The one who...

Mo Ran looked up.

Amidst the chaos, he saw the blood soaking through that person's robes. Sharp, densely packed vines pierced from his back all the way through to the front, at the exact same place where he had been injured by the ghost mistress before. The old wound had not yet healed, and was now once again ripped into a bloody mess.

The one who…...the one who protected him with his own body in the coffin, who didn't make a sound even as the claws stabbed through him...

The one who, hiding under the bridge, secretly put up a barrier to shield everyone from the rain and the wind, but who dared not show his face.

The one who, after Shi Mei's death in the previous lifetime, went to the kitchen and clumsily made wontons so that he might eat something.

The one who has such a bad temper and not much of a way with words, who's afraid of the bitterness of medicine and coughs from spicy food, the one he knows the best.

The one he never remembered to look after, whom he hated with gritted teeth yet also felt was quite pitiful...

Chu Wanning.

Wanning...

"Shizun!!" Mo Ran screamed as he scrambled toward him, "Shizun!!!!"

"Your token..." Chu Wanning's hand shook as he lifted it. His face was pale, but his expression was steady as always, "Trade with me..."

The hand he extended toward Mo Ran held his own blank token. He raised it slowly, with difficulty, his entire arm trembled minutely with pain.

His eyes were bright and resolute beneath the layer of wetness.

"Hurry, give it to me!"

Mo Ran hadn't even gotten up; he half-crawled, half-dragged himself to Chu Wanning and stared helplessly at that horrifying wound.

"No…...Shizun..."

"Shizun!!"

Xue Meng and Shi Mei moved to come over as well. Chu Wanning's expression was one of exasperation as he erected a barrier with a brandish to keep them out, and then called harshly: "Tianwen!!!"

Tianwen appeared as called, slicing clean through the dozens of vines piercing through Chu Wanning!

But those vines were no ordinary entity. Chu Wanning could clearly feel them devouring his spiritual energy from where they were buried into his flesh. Having no other choice, he could only grit his teeth, grip the broken ends of those vines, and, steeling himself, rip them out!

A rush of blood spilled out instantly!

Chu Wanning tossed the vines aside and let out a breath, then quickly tapped his meridians, temporarily stopping the blood loss. Then he leveled a glare at Mo Ran, voice hoarse: "Give it to me."

"Shizun..."

"Trade tokens with me!" Chu Wanning said harshly.

By now, Mo Ran had also figured out what "blood hourglass" meant. The curse left by Gouchen millions of years ago was no different from how he had tormented Chu Wanning in the previous life.

Indeed, whether god, demon, human, or ghost, they all came up with more or less the same thing when trying to be as cruel as can be.

Blood hourglass.

Pour the blood of a person into the hourglass in place of sand or water to keep time.

The time interval ends when the person is bled dry.

At his coronation ceremony as Taxian-Jun in the last life, hadn't he used Chu Wanning as a blood hourglass, made him watch while he tread on the remaining sects as he ascended the throne, had him bled out drop by drop in front of him?

But in this life, in front of Gouchen's blood hourglass.

Chu Wanning was willing to trade him his own, safe, token, willing to go on the cross in his place, he…...

Mo Ran's heart beat out of rhythm in his chest.

He couldn't even think.

How could this be...

How could this be!!

The copper hourglass missed its first strike and failed to grab a person. It brandished its thorny vines, ramping up for a second attack.

Chu Wanning stared at him, eyes flickering with a light that trembled faintly.

His face was pale from the pain as he panted softly: "Mo Ran, li-...listen to me, hurry and trade me."

"..."

"Hurry..." Chu Wanning's face was pale as fresh snow lit by moonlight, "...Are you trying to make me block a second attack for you?!"

"Shizun..."

The vines shot out again.

In that instant, Mo Ran finally raised his token, and Chu Wanning reached for it without thinking.

But unexpectedly, right as their hands were about to touch, Mo Ran's eyes flashed as he pulled his hand back and instead turned to shield the unguarded Chu Wanning behind himself. The second wave of vines had reached them by then, and Mo Ran met them head on. His whole body was wrapped up and swallowed by the vines in an instant, and dragged to the copper hourglass.

"Mo Ran!!"

Dozens of vines coiled around and pinned him tightly to the cross. Mo Ran turned to look toward Chu Wanning. His lips moved.

Chu Wanning's eyes widened abruptly.

Mo Ran's voice was quiet, but he heard it clearly, there was no mistake.

He said: "Shizun, I'm really not…...beyond remedy..."

So, please, don't give up on me——

But he couldn't finish the rest of the sentence. Last life, he wanted to say it but didn't; this life, it was also already too late.

Whether Chu Wanning gave up on him or not wasn't really important to him anymore.

He just didn't want to owe this person, that's all.

He was really too dumb, and already couldn't figure out just what it was he felt toward Chu Wanning. He didn't want things to get even more muddled.

This life, Mo Ran thought to himself, the one he cared about, the one he liked, was Shi Mei and no other.

He didn't want to exchange tokens with Chu Wanning only because he didn't want to owe him a favor, only because he didn't want...

He didn't want to see Chu Wanning bleed out again.

His heart wasn't made of stone. Nothing made him happier than to have someone nice to him.

A little kindness, and his smile would be brilliant as the spring.

But if it's a lot, lot of kindness, then he'd willingly die without complaint.

Suddenly, out of the dense vines came a glistening sword.

The sword was undoubtedly a holy weapon; it was ancient, but carried an overwhelming aura of valor. A pair of rings flanked the hilt, and the pommel was etched with thorned patterns. The sword was slender, with an intricate effigy of a bull-headed dragon embedded therein, the blade coursing with an azure radiance that could slice clean through everything from the softest hair to the toughest metal.

Mo Ran only had enough time to see the "Gouchen" written on the sword, not even the "Exalted", before the sword of the God of Weaponry stabbed directly into his chest.

Blood gushed out, into the hourglass.

At the same time, a curtain of water suddenly poured down in the arsenal, separating Mo Ran and the others on two sides, the abrupt torrential deluge trapping everyone else on the other side.

Shi Mei yelled: "A-Ran!! A-Ran——!"

The rapid downpour blocked their line of sight; they couldn't clearly see how Mo Ran was holding up on the other side. Chu Wanning tried over and over to break through the water, but was pushed out again and again, until he was drenched all the way through, eyes dark on an anxious face, lips wholly without color.

Chu Wanning's voice was hoarse:

"Mo Ran——!"

It wasn't very loud, but shook terribly. He himself did not notice, but Shi Mei startled and turned to look at him, only to see the usually calm and composed Shizun soaked and disheveled, his long feathery eyelashes trembling as he failed to suppress his emotions and worry colored his features.

He summoned Tianwen, savagery written between his brows, like a bowstring stretched taut. Shi Mei held onto him with unease: "Shizun, stop it! There's no way to get through!"

Chu Wanning shook him off, eyes sharp as blades, and silently raised a barrier to try again. But the waterfall was infused with the ample spiritual energies of Jincheng lake; not only was he unable to break through, the water beat down on him like a thousand arrows, cutting and piercing.

Already weakened from his grave injuries earlier, this intense impact made it hard to remain standing. He clutched his chest and tried to endure, but was still forced down to one knee, face pale as the wounds on his back tore open and started seeping blood.

There was no way to tell if the wetness on Shi Mei's face was water or tears. He cried in distress: "Shizun! All this——for what..."

"What do you mean for what? If that was you or Xue Meng back there," Chu Wanning spat, "I would also..."

It really hurt too much; frowning, he couldn't finish the sentence.

Unexpectedly, a sword suddenly flashed from behind the waterfall, effortlessly parting the torrential downpour in half like cutting tofu.

The energy of that sword was extraordinary and immense. It slashed right toward exactly where Shi Mei stood, and was just about to hit him when Chu Wanning waved his sleeve and used the entire remainder of his spiritual energy to erect a protective barrier around Shi Mei; he coughed up a mouthful of blood from overexertion.

A deep and clear male voice rang out unhurriedly, reverberating inside the holy weapon arsenal:

"I am the God of Weaponry, Gouchen the Exalted. How dare ye crooks trespass on the forbidden territory of holy weapons!"