Chapter 144

Huang Dao Zi was slowly lifted up by Zong Zi Xiao who grabbed him by his neck across the air. To those with less profound cultivation, the spiritual pressure he released instantly was like a mountain descending overhead, terrifying as it was.

"Your ... Holiness ..." Huang Dao Zi's legs kicked helplessly in mid-air. His face became ochre in color and his eyes glared like bells, as if they were about to spurt out of his face.

"You, deserve, to die-----" Zong Zi Xiao's expression became even more gruesome. His eyes contained an extremely cold killing intent. His hair was flying without any wind. A cloud of black miasma danced around his body like accompanying ghosts, shaped like a demon from hell.

Huang Dao Zi’s eyes had begun to turn white. He used his last strength to point behind Zong Zi Xiao: "Emperor..."

Zong Zi Xiao knew it was a fraud, but he still instinctively turned back, and indeed there was no one behind him.

The spiritual pressure slackened slightly and Huang Dao Zi dropped to the ground. His entire body was shaking all over, his mouth wide open and desperately gasping for air.

Zong Zi Xiao also regained a glimmer of clarity from his momentary outburst of anger. He stared at Huang Dao Zi, who was cowering on the ground, and a chill climbed up his spine and rushed straight into his heavenly spirit. An inexplicable fear exploded in his mind like a trail of fire, and a cloud of black miasma condensed in his hands, "Who ordered you to come, and what are your intentions?"

"Your Holiness, I dare not."

Zong Zi Xiao said sorrowfully, "You are not worthy of my sword. Do you want to get a taste of being gnawed on by ten thousand ghosts?"

Huang Dao Zi said in a trembling voice with an ashen face, "Your Holiness, no one instructed me, nor do I dare to have any ill intentions towards Your Holiness or the Emperor, but if I don't say anything and Your Holiness goes to force the Ran family's father and son to answer, the answer you get will still be the same."

"... speak clearly."

"Please listen to my explanation." Huang Dao Zi took a deep breath, "In an extinct ancient book, there was once a record of a truly supreme immortal core. This ancient book is rarely known to anyone. I have traveled extensively, made a living through fortune-telling, read all kinds of wild magazines and heard all kinds of strange stories, and I have learned about it unintentionally. The Ran family is skilled in the art of core, and has studied many ancient texts on alchemy, so they must also know about it."

"The so-called supreme immortal core is the human core?" Zong Zi Xiao gritted his teeth and said, "There are still a few old guys in the immortal cultivation world whose cultivation level is higher than that of the emperor, and you dare to talk about an emperor's core?"

"Your Holiness, this core has little to do with cultivation level." Huang Dao Zi said with an expression of meeting death, "This core is called the 'Absolute Human Emperor', and it can be refined by taking the golden core of a person with an imperial destiny."

"Imperial destiny ..."

"That’s right. A person with imperial destiny must be a reincarnation of a celestial being. The golden core is born with divine power. This core can transform ordinary people. With Your Holiness's cultivation, if you consume this core, you will cultivate the Great Dao."

Zong Zi Xiao clenched his fists, only to feel his hair standing on one end*.

He did not want to know this.

He shouldn't know.

"Since it is from a wild magazine, how credible is it?" Zong Zi Xiao said in a hoarse voice, "Based on this thing alone, you dare to spout nonsense."

"This core is not unreal. Because of the golden core of the Human Emperor, there were many uprisings, plots for power and usurpation in history. Only those who consumed this core became Human Emperors themselves, so naturally they had to bury the secret, that’s why this ancient book became extinct." Huang Dao Zi said hurriedly, "If Your Holiness does not believe me, you can ask Old Master Ran. This secret must have been passed down from generation to generation in the Ran family inevitably."

Zong Zi Xiao’s body stiffened and did not speak for a long time.

"In fact… If Your Holiness cultivated the Great Dao, the Emperor could be sheltered forever. Otherwise, the Zong Clan would decline sooner or later." Huang Dao Zi gave Zong Zi Xiao a cautious glance and whispered, "Taking the core, will not take his life."

"How many people know this secret?" Zong Zi Xiao said, "Who else have you told?"

"I have not told anyone else." Huang Dao Zi could see that Zong Zi Xiao wanted to silence him, so he said hurriedly, "Please don't kill me, Your Holiness still needs me."

"What do I need you for?"

"This golden core with the imperial destiny is powerful and needs to be practiced after it is taken out, I ..."

"Who told you I want to take out the core?" Zong Zi Xiao looked at Huang Dao Zi as if looking at a dead thing.

---

Zong Zi Heng stood on the watchtower of the Wuji Palace, looking at the vast blue dome of heaven and a bright moon hanging alone, dotted with tiny bits of starlight, which were not as bright as the sparkling fireworks on New Year's Eve. He was in the deep palace, but he could still hear the sounds of festivities coming from Daming City below him. The human realm at the moment was full of joy and reunion.

But he recalled he was standing here when Zong Zi Xiao returned that day, watching the darkness step into Wuji Palace, and bringing the deepest darkness into his life.

There was a sound of footsteps behind him.

Zong Zi Heng turned around.

A pale, handsome face emerged like a ghost. Zong Zi Xiao stepped out of the darkness, or rather, the darkness retreated behind him; he was the Lord of Darkness, and the darkness knelt and bowed to him.

The two looked at each other, as if they wanted to cut open each other's chests with their gazes and see what was going on in that fiery red beating heart.

Zong Zi Heng guessed from the stony expression that he already knew the secret.

Zong Zi Xiao marched over to his big brother’s side, gathered his cloak for him and said softly, "Aren't you afraid of the cold? Why are you standing up here?"

"I want to see the New Year*."

"Good, let's see the New Year."

Zong Zi Heng gazed at Zong Zi Xiao: "What did you find out?"

"The essence of a foreign beast that no one has seen in centuries." Zong Zi Xiao hugged his big brother, rested his head on his shoulder and entrusted the weight of his body to him, as if his big brother was his only support.

Zong Zi Heng stood rigidly and bear this weight. He knew that Zong Zi Xiao was lying, and he had expected this. Only that heartless beast, Zong Ming He, who thought he had everything under control, would let him know that his golden core was about to be lost.

He wanted to ask Zong Zi Xiao if he was going to take his core too, but he couldn't, he didn't dare. He was afraid of getting an answer he couldn't bear. He could only go along with the lie: "Then can you get it?"

"I will order someone to search for it, maybe I can find it." Zong Zi Xiao said in a muffled voice, "Why are you suddenly concerned about me refining the core?"

"I am concerned whether you have made things difficult for the Ran family's father and son."

"They still have to refine my core. They can't die for now." The back of Zong Zi Heng's head did not have eyes, thus he could not see that Zong Zi Xiao's eyes were covered with cobwebs of blood vessels, and his gaze was gloomy and obscure.

"Taking the core, will not take his life." 

Huang Dao Zi’s words echoed in Zong Zi Xiao's mind as he hugged his big brother. This man who got him obsessed, drove him mad, and made him love and hate, was as if he could feel the core which was full of vitality inside the other man's belly through the layers of thick winter clothes.

It is true that taking the core can keep a person alive, but a cultivator who loses his golden core will be worse off than dead.

What was he thinking?

He did not eat human cores. He despised all demonic cultivators who stole cores. He did not want to have anything to do with Lu Zhao Feng. Most importantly, that was Zong Zi Heng, his big brother, and he ... couldn't lay a hand on him.

However, a faint voice was torturing his soul: Why didn't you kill Huang Dao Zi?

Zong Zi Xiao gasped, and his iron arms tightened suddenly, as if he was itching to embed the person in his embrace into his body.

Zong Zi Heng grunted, "You're hurting me." He seemed to feel the struggle in Zong Zi Xiao's heart, and his heart went cold. Once again, he experienced that numbing fear in his scalp as Zong Ming He stared at him with greedy, malevolent eyes. He was no longer a human being, but merely a vessel raised to carry the golden core.

The person he hated most in his life was Zong Ming He. His own father, who had destroyed his mother, who had destroyed him, and who had destroyed his beloved younger brother. All the grudges and sorrows arose because of him.

If Zong Zi Xiao also wanted his core, if Zong Zi Xiao also became Zong Ming He, then he would rather die than let him have his way!

Zong Zi Xiao let go of him, but in the next instant, he picked the man up again in a horizontal embrace and walked towards the house.

"You ..."

"I'll stay up with big brother for the New Year." Zong Zi Xiao kissed him on the forehead. His voice was low and dark, "We don’t need to sleep if we’re staying up for New Year. I’m going to fuck you up.”

Zong Zi Heng’s heart was filled with sorrow. He gritted his teeth and said, "You said you will have limits, and last night we had just..."

"Just what?" Zong Zi Xiao gave a faint laugh, and lowered his head to nibble on his ear again, "I only released twice last night and you couldn't stand it. Today is New Year's Day, you have to let me have my fun." He pinned the man to the couch.

"Zong Zi Xiao!" At this moment, this was the thing he wanted to do the least!

Zong Zi Xiao held both of his big brother's wrists in one hand and pressed them above his head, leaning down to look at him.

They looked deeply into each other's eyes, as if they had glimpsed the dark currents underneath the seemingly unmoving eyes of the other.

Zong Zi Xiao suddenly loosened his grip and he lay on top of his big brother, holding him tightly, but did not move any further, nor did he speak, as if he was asleep.

Zong Zi Heng widened his eyes as he stared at the bed curtain. He suppressed his breathing for fear of waking the person beside his pillow. The perversity of Zong Zi Xiao's actions made him even more convinced that this man really had his heart set on his golden core.

The two of them intertwined their necks and embraced for a long time before Zong Zi Xiao suddenly whispered in his ear, "Big brother, have you ever thought about ... the future?"

"..."

"If I hadn't come back, what would you have done? Now that I have returned, what will you do?"

Zong Zi Heng was silent for a long time and said, "I don't know."

"I thought about it."

Zong Zi Heng was waiting for him to say what he thought about the "future", but after waiting for a long time there was no sound. Perhaps, he did not intend to say it.

That's right, Zong Zi Xiao wasn't planning to say anything, and he would never say it. Because in his imaginary "future", there would always be his big brother. The only one he was sure of and the only one he had to have. He was so hopelessly in love with his enemy who had caused his mother’s death and ruined his life. He even wanted to be with him for the rest of his life. He would keep this desperately low secret in his stomach, take it to his grave and take it to hell, but he would never say it outloud.

As long as he didn't say it outloud, he could numb himself; he was out for revenge. They would just continue entangling like trapped animals, tormenting each other. Both of them carried too much evil, and neither of them had the right to be freed.

None of them shall be free.

That night, the two did nothing. They embraced each other with lots of things in their minds and stayed up until New Year obediently, welcoming the new year together, just like when they were little, and had spent the earthly winter and summer together one after the other.

 

SQC’s notes: I can't believe you're all looking forward to big brother's death

Well ... there's still some more plot, but definitely soon ...

----
PS: I’m part of the majority. I want big bro to RIP ASAP, he seriously doesn’t deserve all these shits 

hair standing on one end*[汗毛倒竖]--- ① in a towering rage. ② Describes being very scared and nervous.

see the New Year*[守岁]---- stay up all night on lunar New Year's Eve. It’s like how we’re counting down to New Year by staying awake until 12am, or after 12am.

 

Edited on 1 May 21 (Emzie)

 

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