Book 2: The Golden Lock of the Eight Gates

Chapter 2: Blood Puti

Finally, Tianling-er fell asleep in the wee hours after she grew tired from her wandering mind.

Zhong Shan opened his eyes then and turned around to look at her, shaking his head with a smile.

After looking at her tenderly, Zhong Shan continued with his breathing exercise to heal his injuries.

Zhong Shan’s healing power was shocking. The next day, not only did the side effects of the Demonic Body Toning Method had completely disappeared, even his wounds had almost healed.

When the sun came out, Zhong Shan started to practice his machete forms.

Soon enough, the noise roused Tianling-er from her slumber.

Tianling-er woke up, rubbed her eyes, and looked at where the noise was coming from. She went blank for a while, then she uncontrollably blushed again after she remembered what had happened last night.

Zhong Shan sensed that Tianling-er was awake and stopped practicing right away.

“Are you up? Hungry?” Zhong Shan asked.

Zhong Shan was acting normal. Tianling-er widened her eyes and carefully stared at him for a while.

“What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” Zhong Shan played dumb and started to wipe his face.

“No, nothing.” Tianling-er immediately said.

Finally confirming that Zhong Shan didn’t know anything about last night, Tianling-er felt a great sense of relief.

“Then come eat something. I’ll explore around and see where this valley leads to.” Zhong Shan said.

“You, you are leaving?” Tianling-er fixed her eyes on Zhong Shan with a pathetic look,

Zhong Shan couldn’t help grinning after seeing Tianling-er’s expression. “Yeah, sure, otherwise aren’t we going to stay here forever?”

“I don’t want to stay here by myself. All my internal wounds are healed but I can’t walk with the wound on my leg. You help me go with you.” Tianling-er pleadingly looked at Zhong Shan.

Zhong Shan smiled.

“Alright, get up then.” Zhong Shan said.

“En.” Tianling-er quickly nodded.

Zhong Shan helped Tianling-er get up and used the other hand to put the blanket and machete into his storage bracelet.

Zhong Shan squatted down and to the surprise of Tianling-er, he put her onto his back.

“Ah~ ~ ~ ~  ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~”

Amid Tianling-er’s scream, both of her feet had left the ground. She had never been carried by anybody before. Weren’t they pressing against each other now?

“Zhong Shan, put me down, put me down…………….” Tianling-er called out with a red face.

“Pa~ ~ ~ ~ ~”

“Don’t move.”

Tianling-er could sensed a clear and crisp sound coming from her bottom, yet she didn’t feel any pain. She felt an electric current, coming from Zhong Shan’s palm, rush into her body. Subconsciously, Tianling-er stiffened up and stopped moving.

Tianling-er went blank and, without realizing it, she held around Zhong Shan’s neck. She was dumbfounded for quite a while before she came to her senses again.

What had happened?

Tianling-er found herself completely pressed against Zhong Shan’s back with both of her arms circled around Zhong Shan’s neck and her face was right next to Zhong Shan’s neck.

Tianling-er didn’t move again. She could feel a numbness on her bottom which felt like the shape of Zhong Shan’s palm. Her legs were spread open around Zhong Shan’s waist. Zhong Shan’s big hands, though separated by her clothes, felt like two pieces of searing iron clasping onto her thighs as if they could burn two holes through her clothes. Tianling-er felt like she was being cooked by Zhong Shan’s palms; her face was so red as if it was about to emit smoke.

Tianling-er bounced around on top of Zhong Shan’s back with his each step. Tianling-er didn’t dare to speak and didn’t know what to say. She had never experienced a situation like this. What had happened? Why was she feeling like this? Is this still me?

Yet, Zhong Shan smelled pretty good, Tianling-er thought.

Her face turned even redder when she realized what she was thinking. A shallow smile had crept up on her face without her even noticing it. Maybe, maybe it was for the better.

Zhong Shan had regretted the instant he slapped her. However, luckily, Tianling-er didn’t make any fuss about it. As long as she didn’t make a fuss, it would be fine.

Yet, why did Tianling-er suddenly stop talking? If it wasn’t for the fact that he could feel her breathes on his neck, he would have stopped and checked on her.

“Ling-er.” After walking for awhile, Zhong Shan thought about what had happened so far and finally spoke first.

“En, en?” Tianling-er was first still lost in her own thoughts, then she realized Zhong Shan was calling her and answered, baffled.

Zhong Shan took a deep breath and said, “I promised you on the peak that if we could survive this time, I’ll take you to see da s.h.i.+xiong.”

Zhong Shan’s words reminded Tianling-er of da s.h.i.+xiong. However, without knowing why, she wasn’t as anxious as before to see him now. Tianling-er couldn’t figure it out herself. If it was her in the past, she would be extremely happy, yet now she was only slightly happy about it?

Tianling-er frowned, looked at Zhong Shan, and there was a warm feeling inside her. She was silent for awhile, finally she nodded and said, “Thank you, Zhong Shan.”

“Hehe, what’s there to thank me for? If you didn’t use the red silk to grab me, I would’ve probably fallen to my death just like Zhong Di now.” Zhong Shan shook his head and laughed.

“No, you won’t. Even without me, you would have been alright.” Tianling-er immediately responded positively. In her eyes, Zhong Shan seemed capable of anything.

“Maybe.” Zhong Shan shook his head with a smile. The way he saved both of them was a quick wit in a precarious moment, extremely risky with many lucky coincidences. It there was no red silk, how could they pulled down the boulder? But, Zhong Shan didn’t refute it. Maybe she was right!

Zhong Shan slowly walked towards the other end of the valley with Tianling-er on his back. He took it slow not because he was in no rush, rather he was being careful in an unknown environment.

They were surrounded by steep cliffs, wide at the bottom and narrow on top. Climb up? The rocks were very smooth; it would be extremely difficult to climb up.

He could only search to see whether there was any path leading out of the valley.

The valley was large, yet the entire width was within Zhong Shan’s sight. He walked straight till there was no longer a path. A tall mountain blocked their way out.

Yet, at the end of the path, there was a two meter high cave.

A cave?

There was faint red glow emanating out of the cave and a large amount of scalding steam gus.h.i.+ng out of it. They were hit by wave after wave of heat.

The red glow was faint but there were thirteen red dots inside the cave. Each of the dots was about the size of a strawberry. They were spread around, emitting a red light slightly brighter than its surroundings.

“Zhong Shan, what are those things in there?” Tianling-er became excited the moment she saw the scene inside the cave.

“Don’t talk.” Zhong Shan’s brows crossed.

“Oh.” Tianling-er was interrupted by Zhong Shan.

Holding his breath, Zhong Shan started to listen carefully to see whether there was any sound inside the cave. He couldn’t hear anything from inside the cave, only the beat of Tianling-er’s heart.

He gently picked up a rock on the ground and threw it into the cave.

“Pa,” the rock made a crispy sound inside. Zhong Shan continued to listen.

Tianling-er watching all of this intently. At first, she was attracted by the things inside the cave, but now her attention had s.h.i.+fted to Zhong Shan’s behavior. She looked at Zhong Shan with curiosity.

“There’s no sound.”  She whispered besides his ear.

Zhong Shan shook his head and laughed after hearing Tianling-er. He then remembered that Tianling-er was at the ninth level of Xiantian and had much sharper hearing than him.

“I have worried too much!” Zhong Shan laughed and continued to walk towards the cave with Tianling-er on his back.

Once they were inside the cave and had gotten used to the darkness, they found the source of the red glow. The faint red glow was coming from deep inside the cave, the same location as the heat wave. Zhong Shan suddenly thought of a  possibility, could this cave lead to a volcanic crater?

Then, Zhong Shan turned to examine those thirteen red dots spread around.

“Blood Puti?” Tianling-er suddenly exclaimed in amazement.