The Palaces of the Twelve Sacred Beasts

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlation

"Why is he still unconscious?"

Although Gu Ting Yu's body temperature was steadily returning to normal, he was in a deep sleep, not waking up even after a long time.

"You better not be tricking us." Zhuo Yin's patience had ran out, and he yanked the chain; the black leopard fell to the ground. The chain was small but had thorns covering its surface, and they were piercing deeply into the black leopard's neck. Zhuo Yin's roughness pulled those wounds open, revealing the flesh inside.

"… This antidote can only slow down the poison…" The black leopard climbed back up slowly, ignoring his bleeding wounds, "To save him, you will have to obtain Fu Wang's crystallization."

The atmosphere became weird all of a sudden.

"Ye Yin Ju, you did this on purpose, didn't you?"

Fu Wang (i) was a kind of geminiflora. It typically reached the height of two meters when matured, and its appearance was extremely abnormal—two bare stems sprout out from the ground directly, with two enormous flowers, each at the top of the stem.

One of the two flowers faced the north, while the other faced the opposite side. The two flowers looked exactly the same—reddish purple petals, and the blossoms looked like a baby's deformed, blood-covered face, where shut eyes and lips could be identified.

Fu Wang's crystallization would come out from the blossom facing the north, with the prerequisite of having a huge amount of blood supplied to the blossom on the opposite side. The one supplying blood must do it of his own accord, if the person struggles, it would alert Fu Wang and no crystallization would be formed from the blossom on the other side.

Scores of people became zombies after being drained of blood by Fu Wang. In other words, if they wanted to save Gu Ting Yu, one of them would have to be sacrificed.

Zhuo Yin held onto the leash, walking in front with the black leopard, while Qing Que carried Gu Ting Yu on his back, following close behind. Nian Xing was at the back; none of them spoke on the way, all of them were in deep thought.

Of course they knew that this was Ye Yin Ju's plan—no matter who gave up their blood, it would still deal a big blow to their fighting strength.

They were afraid of death… but they were more afraid that they could no longer stay by Gu Ting Yu's side.

The black leopard grinned slightly, seeing their silence.

Fu Wang was located in the center of the rainforest, the trees along the way were extremely dense, the branches intersected with each other and on the branches were vines that form a complicated network. Odd creatures were passing between the leaves, colorful but poisonous spiders and fluorescent insects stared at Gu Ting Yu and the others quietly. Thick layers of leaves and branches blocked the sky, forming a green sea above their heads.

Suddenly, the trail of woods ended, as if they were cut off by an unknown power, and only a single plant stood there on an empty field; nothing grew in a ten-meter radius of Fu Wang.

They finally found it.

Qing Que carefully placed Gu Ting Yu under a huge tree, then stared silently at him.

He really wanted time to stop, he wanted time to stop at the moment when Gu Ting Yu smiled. Even if Gu Ting Yu didn't love him, even if Gu Ting Yu's eyes were on someone else, Qing Que was willing to quietly protect him by his side.

Qing Que would imagine their future life together, waking Gu Ting Yu up in the morning, making him food, but…

Will there even be a future?

At long last, Qing Que stood up, his vision turned towards Zhuo Yin and Nian Xing.

Everything… rests on you guys now.

Nian Xing's face darkened, "If anything happens to you… once Xiao Yu wakes up, he would blame himself."

"My life is his."

Looking at Qing Que's back, walking towards Fu Wang, Zhuo Yin and Nian Xing felt complicated…

An unexplainable emotion welled up in their hearts; they understood Qing Que's feelings. At the same time, they still hadn't noticed that they were slowly accepting others who love Gu Ting Yu as much as themselves.

Qing Que walked into the field, moving his finger towards the blossom facing the north. The baby-faced reddish-purple blossom opened its lips, slowing sucking Qing Que's finger.

Time seemed to have slowed down, every second seemed very long; Qing Que's face became paler and paler, while Fu Wang seemed to have obtained nourishment, slowly straightening its stem.

Qing Que's body shivered uncontrollably, while the blossom on the other side didn't have any sign of crystallizing.

"Nian Xing…" Seeing Qing Que kneeling with one leg on the ground, Zhuo Yin gave the chain that bound the black leopard to Nian Xing, "I'm going to help Qing Que, be careful with him."

"Whatever," Nian Xing sighed. "I know you want Gu Ting Yu to wake up and be grateful to you, there's no way I'm going to let you get that opportunity."

Qing Que's vision started to blur, he could clearly feel the blood in him being drained away quickly. The thing eating his life force was a monster with an unlimited appetite.

Suddenly, someone tapped his shoulder. Qing Que lifted his head up, seeing Nian Xing's worried face.

"It's my turn now," Nian Xing said in a low voice.

Nian Xing carefully pulled Qing Que's finger out, then swiftly but subtly put his own finger into the Fu Wang blossom's mouth. The huge plant shook slightly, then opened its mouth again and started to consume Nian Xing's blood.

The black leopard beside them was in a frenzy—why did it turn out like this?

This was the complete opposite of what he thought would happen. After observing them for the past few days, he found that Qing Que and the others were very possessive of the human, and they didn't work together much, so he had wanted to use their lust to break their relationship; why did things turn out like this instead…?

The blossom facing south darkened in color, the face of the infant turned from light purple to deep purple, but at the same time Nian Xing was already exhausted, lying on the ground…

Zhuo Yin told himself to calm down. According to his usual logic, he would wait quietly for Nian Xing and Qing Que to die, then had Gu Ting Yu all to himself.

It's the fisherman's gain (ii), no more annoying bickering, no one to interrupt him making love with Gu Ting Yu.

But the thing that frustrated Zhuo Yin the most was that he could no longer control his own actions… he tied the chain tightly onto a tree, then quickly went to Qing Que and Nian Xing's side.

"I guess you… you seaweed… do have conscience…"

"Useless fool."

Qing Que moved to the blossom on the other side which was currently completely black in color, the lips moved slightly and the whole plant shook; at that moment, a transparent, crystal-like substance came out of the black, shiny lips.

The crystallization was as pure as snow flakes, the moment it dropped down, Qing Que covered it in his hand, cherishing it.

Zhuo Yin pulled his finger away; the three of them rushed to Gu Ting Yu's side, Fu Wang's crystallization would melt very quickly, so they had to feed it to Gu Ting Yu as soon as possible.

"Umm…"Gu Ting Yu's familiar voice reached their ears. Seeing Gu Ting Yu's eyelids moving slightly, warmth filled all of their hearts, no matter if it was Qing Que, Zhuo Yin or Nian Xing.

—It was a warmth which made them want to cry.

Gu Ting Yu opened his eyes. Just when everyone heaved a sigh of relief, a loud roar echoed from their side. The soil under their feet shook; Fu Wang which was a few steps away moved violently, the two blossoms opened their bloody mouths and roared.

Zhuo Yin pulled Gu Ting Yu up, "Quickly, go!!"

Fu Wang was a hermaphroditic organism; whenever its crystallization formed at one end, the other would catch and eat the crystallization.

Fu Wang was hypnotized by the smell of blood until now, so it didn't react to them taking the crystallization away, but once Fu Wang seemed to have noticed, it would engulf everything in a ten-meter radius.

Gu Ting Yu left Fu Wang's attack zone slowly while leaning on Zhuo Yin; just when they were about to escape, Gu Ting Yu saw a glimpse of a black shadow.

A black leopard was chained to a tree. Even though he struggled desperately, he wasn't able to free himself from the chains. Fu Wang moved the two huge blossoms furiously, almost reaching the injured black leopard. The black leopard roared, pulling his injured body up… When their eyes met, all Gu Ting Yu saw was a pair of eyes filled with despair.

T/N

(i) Fu Wang is an imaginary being, the word "Fu" means something that have a strong odor, while "Wang" means king, so I'm guessing the author wanted to say that the creature had a strong smell, though this was not mentioned in the passage specifically.

(ii) A fisherman's gain, this is a Chinese idiom, the story goes like this—a mussel was enjoying the sunlight, a bird saw it and wanted to eat it, so the bird flew down and the mussel clamped down on the bird's beak. The bird said, "If it doesn't rain today nor tomorrow, you're dead." The mussel then said, "If I don't let go today, nor tomorrow, you'll starve to death." So they bickered, then a fisherman came along, caught the bird and the mussel.

It was an idiom a government official made to a lord in ancient China, since the lord was planning on fighting with a small vassal state much like theirs, but there were actually other really strong ones waiting out there to attack them, when they were weakened. But he had to use this idiom instead, because he was afraid of offending the lord.