Author: 哔哔 (Bi Bi) / Jin Gang Quan

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 38

They found a cave along the road and tied the horses at the entrance. When Feng Tianzong carried Huo Fenghua inside, Gu Guangji stood at the mouth of the cave looking around and said, “I haven’t eaten a thing since I got up this morning. You two go in first. I’ll go find something to eat.”

After speaking, he gave a light hop and landed in a big tree nearby.

Feng Tianzong carried Huo Fenghua deeper into the cave and gently set him down. Then he felt how damp and chilly it was inside and wanted to gather some firewood to start a fire.

Huo Fenghua’s hands were bound. He could only tilt his head up at him and shout, “Don’t go. I need to take my clothes off.”

His whole body was burning. The cloth stuck to his skin like torture. Sweat had soaked all his hair and plastered it to his face, making him look pitiful.

Feng Tianzong had no choice but to crouch down and start undoing his clothes. As he loosened Huo Fenghua’s collar, he said, “Don’t move around.”

Huo Fenghua’s eyes were watery. He asked, “Are you scared I’ll suck your inner energy? Are none of you going to dare touch me anymore?”

Feng Tianzong said, “No. There’ll be a solution.”

Once his bindings were removed and his clothes loosened, Huo Fenghua could move his hands again. He tugged at his clothing himself, though he had no strength. He pulled off his top, revealing pale skin still marked with traces of last night’s intimacy, and unsatisfied, kept trying to strip his pants too.

Feng Tianzong watched him. “That’s enough.”

Huo Fenghua said, “No. Take them off, take them off. It’s stifling down there. It hurts.”

So Feng Tianzong helped him remove his trousers as well. Huo Fenghua lay there completely naked on the ground, arms spread and let out a long breath.

He stared blankly at the cave ceiling.

Feng Tianzong sat down beside him and asked, “How long are you going to lie there?”

Huo Fenghua glanced at him. “Until I die.”

Just then, footsteps sounded outside. Before Gu Guangji even reached the entrance, he was already shouting, “I caught you a rabbit!”

Feng Tianzong grabbed the clothes Huo Fenghua had taken off and covered him with them.

Gu Guangji moved fast. When he ducked into the cave, he happened to see Feng Tianzong covering Huo Fenghua and said, “What’re you covering him for? When he was little, I even bathed him. There isn’t anything on him I haven’t seen.”

Huo Fenghua lifted his head. “When did you ever bathe me when I was little?”

Gu Guangji had a rabbit in his left hand. With his right, he tapped his own head, thinking hard. “Got it wrong. Not you, it’s your Senior Brother. I bathed him.”

Hearing that, Feng Tianzong lifted his head and shot him a cold piercing glare.

Gu Guangji didn’t notice at all. He looked at the dim light inside the cave and said, “Why aren’t you making a fire?” He handed the rabbit to Feng Tianzong, then ran back out to gather firewood.

When Gu Guangji returned, he started a fire in the cave, skinned and bled the rabbit, and set it over the flames to roast.

Huo Fenghua thought the fire was too hot, so he retreated to a corner of the cave and lay on a large stone slab, rolling back and forth restlessly.

Feng Tianzong sat beside Gu Guangji, glancing over at Huo Fenghua from time to time.

As he roasted the rabbit, Gu Guangji asked Feng Tianzong, “Why’d you go and provoke that old demon Zixi for no reason?” Then he sighed with emotion. “This time, Zixi’s martial arts are ruined. Once I spread the news, his enemies will come knocking, and they’ll make him wish he were dead.”

Feng Tianzong replied, “We came to find you, Senior.”

Gu Guangji looked at him. “Find me?”

Feng Tianzong asked, “Did Zeyang come to see you?”

Gu Guangji said, “Oh, you’re here for Su Zeyang? Yeah, he came. I told the little disciple. He came to see me, we exchanged a few words, and he left right away.”

Feng Tianzong asked, “Did he come to ask you about the Feng family curse?”

Gu Guangji stared at the rabbit, sizzling as fat dripped out. “You heard about it too?”

Feng Tianzong said, “Only a little.”

So Gu Guangji said, “He asked me if that was a curse formation, and how to break it.”

Huo Fenghua, hearing this, quieted down. He pressed his face to the stone slab and listened.

Feng Tianzong asked, “What did you tell him, Senior?”

Gu Guangji picked up a stick and drew a circle in the dirt, marking several points. From a distance, Huo Fenghua felt he was drawing the formation they’d seen in the cave.

When he finished, Gu Guangji tapped the center with the stick. “This is the diagram my eldest disciple drew for me. If that formation is arranged strictly according to these positions, then it’s a vicious curse formation meant to make someone’s bloodline die out.”

Huo Fenghua, still sprawled on the slab with one hand propping his cheek, said, “But Senior Brother already dug out the wooden box in the center.”

Gu Guangji chuckled. “There is a way to break it, but it’s definitely not as simple as smashing the setup. Otherwise the formation wouldn’t be worth much. I haven’t seen it myself, but according to Zeyang, he dug up a wooden box in the center. Inside were three people’s birth data. Two were the Feng brothers. That means the remaining one is the true core of the formation.”

Feng Tianzong’s expression turned solemn. “Explain.”

Gu Guangji scratched his chin. “That’s how the method works. The center of the formation was dotted with that person’s blood. That means it has to be someone close to you. They used his blood to lay the formation, then sent him to your side to complete it. Only then is the curse formation whole.”

At that, Huo Fenghua’s lashes trembled almost imperceptibly.

Feng Tianzong’s face didn’t change. “So how do you break it?”

Gu Guangji said, “There’s a very simple method.” He stabbed the stick hard into the circle’s center. “Kill that person.”

Huo Fenghua and Feng Tianzong asked in unison, “Anything else?”

Gu Guangji looked at them, puzzled. “Your reactions are exactly the same as Zeyang’s. Right now, that’s the simplest way, and the person’s easy to find. Why are you asking ‘anything else’ without even thinking? There is another method, but it’s a lot more trouble. You kill the one who set the formation and use his blood to sacrifice it and break the curse. But I don’t think that’ll be easy.” As he spoke, he stroked his beard thoughtfully.

Huo Fenghua asked, “Why wouldn’t it be easy? You don’t even know who set the formation.”

Gu Guangji said, “If he can lay a formation like this, he’s obviously not ordinary. This kind of vicious ancient formation has basically been lost. That one book in the Xianyuan Sect about ancient formations is a lone copy. Aside from me, no one’s likely seen it. So how did he even know these curse formations existed? If I ever get the chance, I’d actually like to talk with him and exchange notes.”

Huo Fenghua said, “What ‘not easy’? You’re clearly just interested in him and don’t want anyone killing him, right?”

Gu Guangji smiled. “How could that be? If someone lays a formation this vicious, they’ll suffer backlash. Even if you don’t kill him, he probably won’t live many years.”

Feng Tianzong asked in a low voice, “So Zeyang left after that? When did he come to see you?”

Gu Guangji tipped his head back and thought. “About twenty days ago.”

Feng Tianzong did the math. “From here back to Yujing is a little over ten days.”

Huo Fenghua asked, “You think Senior Brother went back to Yujing?”

Feng Tianzong said, “If he wants to trace the source of that curse formation, he’ll go back. Someone with deep hatred for my Feng family would either be in Xichou or in Yujing.”

Huo Fenghua thought about it. “If he went back to Yujing, you should’ve heard something.”

Feng Tianzong sighed softly. “Maybe soon.”

By now Gu Guangji’s rabbit was roasted through. He snapped off a glossy, dripping rabbit leg and waved at Huo Fenghua. “Come on, lucky you, good disciple.”

Huo Fenghua lay there lazily. “I don’t have the strength.”

Gu Guangji handed the rabbit leg to Feng Tianzong and pointed toward Huo Fenghua.

Feng Tianzong, lost in thought, didn’t react at first. “What?”

Gu Guangji glared like he wanted to beat sense into him. “Go feed him. Can’t you see he can’t get up? Isn’t he your wife or what?”

Hearing this, Feng Tianzong took it, got up, and sat beside Huo Fenghua. “You want me to feed you?”

Huo Fenghua nodded.

Feng Tianzong tore off a strip of rabbit meat with his fingers and held it to Huo Fenghua’s mouth.

Huo Fenghua bit down on the meat, and also caught Feng Tianzong’s fingers in his mouth, lightly licking them before turning his head away to chew and swallow the meat slowly.

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