The Palaces of the Twelve Sacred Beasts

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Gu Ting Yu stopped his footsteps.

A pair of eyes in despair flashed across his mind just now.

Such dark and deep eyes stared at him in silence.

"Ting Yu, what's wrong?" A gentle voice reached his ears, Gu Ting Yu returned from his thoughts to see Qing Que's worried face.

"Nothing." Gu Ting Yu shook his head, "Let's keep on going."

They had already walked for a few miles, after leaving the barrier between the two palaces.

This world was made of countless connected active volcanoes.

The ground and the four seasons of this world were covered by the scorching sun, sweat dripped off their faces constantly, so they didn't even have the strength to wipe them off. This place was just too hot, on top of that the terrain was extremely frustrating to handle.

Walking on bare land, without a shred of greenery in sight, each of them had their own concerns and thoughts.

The one walking in front was Zhuo Ying, ever since Gu Ting Yu was kidnapped, he had become quieter. Right now, all of his energy was on guarding Gu Ting Yu, he didn't dare let his guard down even for a second.

Qing Que was walking on the left side of Gu Ting Yu, he would occasionally look at their surroundings and he was always the first to find water, he would then scoop a handful of warm water and give them to Gu Ting Yu.

While Nian Xing was on Gu Ting Yu's right side, holding onto his arm and kept blabbering, Nian Xing talked about everything while pretending to be cute, but everyone knew that it was just his way of diverting his concentration, because as a merman with a high water affinity, he must be the most afraid of the heat here.

Under his strong tone, the only thing that he wanted to express was but one sentence, I'm fine, see, I even have the strength to talk so much, so you don't have to worry about me, Xiao Yu.

At the horizon, dark clouds as black as ink gathered, forming a thick line, they gave off an ominous vibe.

They were heading towards those dark clouds, the volcanos at their sides intermittently spilled out hot pieces of rocks, if those thing hit them, they were quite sure that their corpses would be in shreds, flowing lava could be clearly seen inside the chasms.

The sounds from the volcanoes were like a giant's breathing, making their hearts shiver, it was as if a pair of eyes were following the four of them everywhere.

If this land were to awaken completely, they would certainly melt into the lava.

The dark clouds floated closer and closer, as if suddenly stepping under the night sky, a heavy atmosphere came crashing towards them, even the noisy Nian Xing didn't dare to speak.

Gu Ting Yu took a deep breath, then stopped advancing.

"Ting Yu?" Qing Que asked carefully, "Do you feel unwell?"

Noticing the commotion, Zhuo Ying turned his head around, looking at Gu Ting Yu with the same kind of worry as Qing Que.

Gu Ting Yu shook his head, feeling uncertainty grew in his heart, he knew that unknown danger awaits them, the cruel reality had things that he didn't want to face. He wanted to hug them all, the only thing he wanted to do was hug them all tightly.

And that was exactly what he did.

Qing Que's eyes widened as Gu Ting Yu extended his arms, bringing Qing Que into a light embrace. Tiredness from days of travelling dissipated in an instant, that person's smell, the familiar odor was the best medicine in this world.

After that, Gu Ting Yu took turn hugging Zhuo Ying and Nian Xing as well, showing kindness in his eyes with no reservations, there were things that they understood even more clearly in their hearts.

"I want all of you to be safe and sound."

Hearing Gu Ting Yu said that, Qing Que smiled while feeling touched, while Nian Xing's eyes were a little wet.

Zhuo Ying instead was more direct, he said lightly, "Don't worry, after we go through this, I will have plenty of strength left to do it with you from day to night."

Gu Ting Yu bite his lips and blushed hard.

When the sun finally retreated, slowly sinking down into the volcanoes, they reached the end of the fiery landscape.

Thick clouds clashed over their heads, among the clouds were sparks of lightning, they were like slim fluorescing snakes moving around in the darkness.

The landscape that seemed to be formed solely from volcanos stopped abruptly, in front of them was a huge canyon, in the canyon were boiling lava, the fire radiated brightly into the black smoke, color of red and black weaved together into a blanket.

The only thing that connected the two worlds were a huge steel suspension bridge. Gu Ting Yu had never seen such a huge bridge in his life before, countless steel chains stretched out, the rusted bridge seemed old and creepy.

The suspension bridge extended all the way to the dark clouds afar, covering up the direction of the bridge entirely.

"Across the bridge is where…… the main palace is."

The last palaces were guarded by the strongest of all the twelve sacred beasts, the Evil Source would be sleeping in the deepest part of the palace, while the three sacred beasts gather at his side.

Nian Xing nervously licked his lips, "So are we going there right now?"

"It can only be now." Zhuo Ying frowned, he also wanted to wait for Qian Lu and the others to meet up with them, but…… Everything would be too late if they waited any longer, their only chance of winning was timing, the timing when the Evil Source had not yet awakened completely.

Zhuo Ying tried to suppress the doubt in his heart, facing the strongest three, could they actually win?

Gong (explosion sound)!!!!!!!

All of a sudden, the sky and ground shook violently, the volcanos afar erupted one after another, rocks flew through the sky and lava slowly spilled out of the volcanos, the erupting volcanoes made sounds like that of a in close proximity.

Gu Ting Yu stood still in a daze, as he was disoriented by the loud noises.

…… Tong Ying had caught up to them……

The red figure dashed through the smoke, bringing a swirl of hot air along with him, Tong Ying was in front of the four people in an instant.

After Tong Ying stood still, a pair of resenting eyes stared at Gu Ting Yu.

So this is who Ye Yin Ju fancied, Tong Ying thought.

Seeing Qing Que, Zhuo Ying, and Nian Xing all in their fighting positions, Tong Ying snorted,

"You guys should be grateful to Ye Yin Ju, owing to him, I won't kill you just yet."

"How is Ye Yin Ju now?" Gu Ting Yu still couldn't let those sad dim eyes go.

Tong Ying said coldly while looking straight into Gu Ting Yu's eyes, "He's going to die soon, because of you."

"……"

Tong Ying deliberately talked about Ye Yin Ju, just to see Gu Ting Yu's reactions, what kind of expression would he make, shock? Touched? Or maybe sadness……

Suddenly, Zhuo Ying pulled Gu Ting Yu back behind him, shouting loudly, "Stop saying nonsense."

Zhuo Ying arched his brow and laughed, while his voice was still as cold as ever, "Whether you believe me is up to you."

Gu Ting Yu's body was trembling, Qing Que walked up and held his hand, then said in a light voice, "Don't believe him, it might be another scam." After saying that, he stared at Tong Ying angrily, the thing Gu Ting Yu feared the most was someone sacrificing themselves for his sake, especially when Ye Yin Ju didn't even have any reason to die for him.

Tong Ying shook his head tauntingly as he saw all of their reactions, he said each word clearly and slowly,

"This is so not worth it, I told him that already, but he didn't believe in me."

From start to end, Gu Ting Yu was speechless and had his head lowered, he pursed his lips in silence.

Just for a moment, Gu Ting Yu felt like he saw Ye Yin Ju jumping down into eternal darkness with his back facing him, falling into an abyss of despair and loneliness.

"Xiao Yu, are you okay?" Nian Xing could see that Gu Ting Yu's complexion was extremely bad.

"Go back." Gu Ting Yu said in a low voice but decisively, "Let's go back."

Zhuo Ying felt his heart tightened, he looked at the suspension bridge afar, more and more dark clouds gathering, his face darkened, " Are you sure?"

Gu Ting Yu looked at Zhuo Ying, just looking at him quietly, not having extra words.

Zhuo Ying didn't budge, but after a while he averted his eyes.

"Let's go."

After saying that, Zhuo Ying was the first to turn back around.

"Xiao……" Qing Que blocked Nian Xing who was trying to say something, he whispered at Nian Xing's ear, "He wouldn't be our Ting Yu we know and love, if he didn't choose to go back."

Tong Ying frowned, not even trying to hide his disbelieve of the situation. What was wrong with these people? The Evil Source had not yet awakened completely, this was their best chance, other than now they stood no chance at all. Especially since they were already here, they should had known that the more they waited, the more chaotic things might get.

Just when Tong Ying was going to follow them, he heard a scream.

Gu Ting Yu stared at the empty suspension bridge in a trance, just now he saw a man standing on the suspension bridge.

Watery blue long hair danced in the wind, but what terrified him was his eyes, the eyes that was like the dead sea, a pair of eyes that had no focus at all.

The moment their eyes met, a sense of fear grew from the bottom of his heart.

Gu Ting Yu shivered, trying to control his emotions and focused on the bridge, he noticed that the person was gone without a trace, as if nobody was ever on that bridge.

Hearing Gu Ting Yu's scream, everyone stopped, however, they only saw his pale face staring at the suspension bridge, while absolutely nothing was on the bridge.

Nian Xing held Gu Ting Yu's palm, the cold touch of Gu Ting Yu's fingers made him worry, "What are you looking at?"

"……" Gu Ting Yu shook his head, pulling Nian Xing, he walked forward in a quick pace, as if he was trying to hide something.

Only Tong Ying looked at the suspension bridge suspiciously, he knew full well what that familiar feeling of fear meant.

"Oh shoot!" He suddenly remembered Ye Yin Ju's curse, Tong Ying grinded his teeth, "Mian is on to him…… that would be a whole lot of trouble." At the same time, another question came up in his head.

A thousand years ago, Mian who was used as a killing machine was very strong, but he would never fight alone, what exactly was happening in the depths of the palace for Mian to appear like this now?

————————

Inside the main palace.

Jue was sitting beside a rock table, in front of him was empty land, the Yuan Ming flowers had all wilted.

"You haven't eaten anything in ages, are you hungry?"

There was no answer, Jue's voice echoed the huge hall in loneliness.

Jue seemed to be accustomed to talking to himself, darkness shrouded the whole palace, heavy rotting odor spread the hall.

These were signs of the Evil Source waking up.

In a daze Jue remembered the first time he laid eyes on Huan Sheng, those clear green eyes looked at him without any wary. It had been over a thousand years when Huan Sheng hatched from the cocoon, but when he thought about it now, it was as if it happened yesterday.

Jue tilted his head, leaning onto a huge white cocoon, the fine and dense silk had already covered the sleeping Huan Sheng completely.

"Don't be scared." Jue closed his eyes, "I will keep you company."