Chapter 417 - 221: The Entrance to Darkness

Chapter 417: Chapter 221: The Entrance to Darkness

"Invincibility?"

"Freedom?"

The closer he got to the entrance, the more stray thoughts flooded Zheng Xiu’s mind. Greed, conflict, lust, hatred, desire—a torrent of frenzied emotions flickered in his eyes.

With every thought that arose, Zheng Xiu found himself irresistibly taking another step forward.

And with every step, a new stray thought sprouted in his mind.

Finally, Zheng Xiu stood before the "mirror surface." His ears were filled with an unintelligible, chittering gibberish—pure noise. Yet this noise was also like the sweet, decadent whispers of a beautiful woman, causing an intoxicated expression to spread across his face.

"MEOW!"

’I can’t go any further!’

Zheng Xiu gritted his teeth and clapped his hands over his ears, trying to deafen himself, but it did nothing to block the cacophonous whispers. With no other choice, Zheng Xiu knew he couldn’t stay any longer. He immediately canceled his [Divine Travel] state, dissolving into a wisp of green smoke before the "entrance."

「When he came back to his senses.」

The water in Zheng Xiu’s bath had long since gone cold. He gasped for air, his chest heaving.

"Haaaah,"

A sigh sounded from above. Zheng Xiu looked up, dazed, only to see a sight that made him want to laugh.

Feng Bei was dressed in black, her arms crossed over her chest, a cold smile on her face. Perched on her head was Little Feng Miao, its own paws crossed in the exact same way. The girl and the cat, in this bizarre, stacked formation, stood by the bathtub, watching him in silence.

"I..."

Zheng Xiu was about to explain when he suddenly remembered he was stark naked. He instinctively clamped his legs together and covered himself.

"Save it. Get up before you catch a cold." Feng Bei cut him off, grabbing a thick towel for him to use. When she saw his modest gesture, she rolled her eyes and a smirk played on her lips. "What’s there to cover? It’s not like I haven’t used it before."

Zheng Xiu froze. For a moment, Feng Bei’s tone and expression made him feel as if he were seeing Xie Luohe standing there instead.

「After he was dressed.」

He had the servants take the bathtub away.

Little Feng Miao leaped from Feng Bei’s head and slipped out the window.

"So, where’d you go?"

Feng Bei sat barefoot on the edge of the bed. The perfect, pale arch of her foot was slightly curled as she crossed her legs, striking the pose of a queen demanding answers.

"GULP!"

Zheng Xiu swallowed hard, tearing his eyes away from Feng Bei’s slender feet with great difficulty. He was suddenly reminded of their ten years in the valley and the joys of their marriage bed. Right now, however, there was no joy to be had; one wrong move and she might beat him half to death. He could only obediently recount what he had seen and heard beneath the Imperial Palace.

Feng Bei listened to the entire story without a single flicker of shock or surprise on her face. However, when he mentioned being "nearly sucked away by the Darkness," her fists clenched so tightly it seemed she was physically restraining herself from slugging him a few times. "Aren’t you worried about the danger to yourself?"

Zheng Xiu explained with a smile, "Don’t worry. You know that even if my Incarnation is killed, I don’t truly die."

"But that’s the Darkness!"

Feng Bei grabbed Zheng Xiu, threw him onto the bed, and, wrapping him up in the quilt, proceeded to punch and kick the bundled-up man.

BOOM!

The bed frame collapsed!

The two of them tumbled into a heap.

The commotion under the blankets went on for half the night, the sounds carrying outside.

Perched on the roof, Qing Shisan heard the bed frame splinter and collapse. He sighed in admiration. "As expected of the master."

「Inside the room.」

Having calmed down, Feng Bei stared blankly at her hands, unsure how she had just lost control like that.

Zheng Xiu and Feng Bei sat on the wrecked bed frame. Although she had given him a beating, she hadn’t used lethal force; it was more like a lover’s ’pouting.’ He grimaced while stretching his arms and legs. An ordinary person, however, probably wouldn’t survive this kind of ’pouting’—they’d likely be beaten to death.

He’d even had to use [Unbreakable], and her blows had still rained down on him with a CLANG, CLANG, CLANG. Feng Bei’s palms striking him felt like someone banging on a steel plate.

"In any case, there’s a fixed ’entrance’ to the Darkness beneath the Imperial Palace."

Zheng Xiu, ever skilled at Reading the Room, saw that Feng Bei’s anger had subsided and decided it was time to get back to business. "In the World in the Painting, I experienced Gongsun Mo’s memories firsthand. But his painting only depicted events up to the moment his brush left the canvas. He was powerless to paint what happened after. It’s very likely he was taken away in that exact instant."

"What I didn’t expect was to find an ’entrance’ had been left there. This must be why Zhu has never dared to approach the Imperial City."

"What I can’t figure out now is whether this ’entrance’ came into being by accident or if its existence was part of Zhu’s plan."

From the looks of it, even if Zhu hasn’t achieved true Immortality, he possesses a lifespan far beyond that of a normal person. He has a virtually endless amount of time to lay his plans. This kind of fathomless, history-spanning scheme made Zheng Xiu deeply wary. He was more inclined to believe this wasn’t an accident, but rather a move Zhu had made in preparation for the next hundred years.

Take the events in the World in the Painting, for example. Two hundred years ago, Zhu selected Cheng Xiao, Lou Mengkong, and Xie Luohe. And Xie Luohe’s death led to Gongsun Mo being trapped, causing him to voluntarily become the "Human Pillar" for the next century.

Every time Zheng Xiu thought about this interlocking, century-spanning plot, he was filled with a chilling sense of dread.

"Besides, I saw a pool of dead bodies there. If I’m not mistaken, to maintain the ’entrance,’ it must be constantly... fed... with Human Souls." Zheng Xiu paused, carefully choosing the word "fed" to describe the feeling the place gave him.

"The Human Soul has four parts; with enough ’Direction,’ one can shatter the barrier between the Darkness and the Common World. But once a stable Passage is formed, I think you only need to feed it a little now and then to keep it open. Clearly, this ’entrance’ was left behind on purpose."