Chapter 293
Chapter 293
I lightly flicked the Golden Copper Coin in my hand.
It rang with a crisp chime.
Almost instantly, the entire space answered with countless echoes — from the Copper Coin pieces stacked into the Golden Dragon to the Copper Coin pieces wrapped around the heart…
My eyes welled with tears before I even realized it.
At that moment, there was probably no one in the world who could truly understand how I felt.
What I held wasn’t merely a Golden Copper Coin. Long, long ago, when Liu Junyan had first begun to suspect the identity of the Copper-Coin Figure, he had already placed his greatest vulnerability into my hands with his own.
I knew he loved me, but I had never imagined his feelings for me ran this deep.
Clutching the Golden Copper Coin tightly, I walked toward the ceaselessly beating heart. I circled it from front to back, searching every inch with painstaking care.
The Black Cat followed close at my heels, its little head tilted up. It looked at the heart, then at me, letting out the occasional anxious meow.
Clearly, it didn’t understand what I was searching for, and it was beginning to grow agitated.
The densely packed Copper Coin pieces were strung together with Red Thread. They appeared utterly chaotic, but there was an underlying order to them.
It was a Formation!
And if it was a Formation, then it had to have a Formation Eye.
Just as I had found the Formation Eye in the Three-Eyed Toad Formation and successfully broken free, I now had to find the Formation Eye of Liu Junyan’s Desire Formation and destroy it!
It was the only way to break the Golden Dragon Formation and save Liu Junyan!
I circled the heart twice. When I came around to face Liu Junyan’s body again, I finally spotted the flaw.
The Golden Copper Coin pieces binding the heart were stacked and wound around it in three layers. Yet on the side directly aligned with Liu Junyan’s heart, one was missing!
Without hesitation, I fitted the Golden Copper Coin in my hand into the empty space.
The instant I released it, the Golden Copper Coin erupted with golden light.
Layer after layer, the golden light spread outward. Before long, the entire heart was enveloped in its glow.
The Golden Copper-Coin Formation began to contract, tightening relentlessly around the beating heart.
At the same time, the fleshy chamber surrounding us also began to shrink and close in.
The Black Cat leaped into my arms and meowed urgently, warning me of the danger.
I held it tightly against me and stroked its head again and again, trying to soothe it.
But as much as I was comforting it, I was also comforting myself.
I believed I had found the Formation Eye, but nothing was ever absolutely certain.
If I failed, I would still have no regrets as long as I could be with Liu Junyan in the end.
Besides, I didn’t believe I would fail!
The Golden Copper-Coin Formation contracted to its limit. The heart was squeezed so tightly that it could no longer beat, while the fleshy chamber wrapped around me from all sides…
Bang!
Something exploded.
The tremendous impact sent me staggering, my ears ringing without end. After what felt like an eternity, the sounds of fierce battle suddenly reached me.
My eyes flew open, and the first thing I saw was a sea of brilliant gold.
But this was no longer the golden gleam of a Golden Copper Coin. It was the radiance of Buddha.
The Black Cat wriggled free of my embrace and leaped down.
Directly ahead of where it landed sat Liu Junyan, cross-legged.
I had really broken the Golden Dragon Formation!
The enormous heart was gone.
So were the restraints of Copper Coin.
We were inside the massive Buddha Head, with Liu Junyan seated cross-legged at its very center.
Beyond the Buddha Head, I could hear the clash of battle. Every so often, Hui Moqiong’s voice rang out as he directed his forces: “Kill them! Kill them all! Leave no one alive!”
Our people had finally fought their way into the Xiaoyingkou Ancient Battlefield.
I strode over to Liu Junyan and braced one knee against the inner wall of the Buddha Head. Reaching out, I tried to touch him and call his name — to wake him up.
But I was also somewhat afraid.
I didn’t know what Liu Junyan had lost in this Body Possession, or how great the loss had been.
The Black Cat was no different.
It kept rubbing its head against me and restlessly brushing against my leg, as though urging me onward yet also afraid.
The Black Cat is spiritual; its behavior only further confirmed my suspicion – something had quietly changed.
The sounds of killing outside gradually grew softer.
The chanting that had been lingering above the Xiaoyingkou Ancient Battlefield had also disappeared.
I knew we were running out of time.
The Xiaoyingkou Ancient Battlefield had been breached; everything the Great Lama had painstakingly built over the years would soon be destroyed.
Including this Buddha Head.
As time passed, this place would only become more dangerous.
I had to wake Liu Junyan up as quickly as possible.
No matter what had changed in him, he was still Liu Junyan, the man I loved deeply. I had to get him out of here.
I opened my mouth; the name ‘Ah Yan’ was on the tip of my tongue, but I didn’t dare to call it out.
His face was too pale; the scriptures flowing across his skin had faded somewhat, but they were still there.
Those scriptures proclaimed his identity; at that moment, he looked exactly like Chan Master Dahui.
Those scriptures seemed to tell me that he belonged to the Buddhist Order, to all living beings.
I closed my eyes, and in my mind suddenly reappeared that scene in Mount Song Gorge, where Ah Wu had held Chan Master Dahui, kissed him, and passed him a breath.
Suddenly, I realized something.
Before, I had been wondering what kind of power Ah Wu’s kiss, that breath passed over, was for Chan Master Dahui.
Was it something that could prolong his life?
No, at this moment I realized I was wrong, utterly wrong.
Ah Wu is the Fire Witch Goddess; that breath must carry boundless power, perhaps even contain some sort of Witchcraft.
But to Chan Master Dahui, what was Ah Wu?
Ah Wu was the secular world, the mortal realm.
Ah Wu’s kiss, that breath, was meant to drag Chan Master Dahui into the secular world, pull him back to the mortal realm!
It was the power to lock the desires he had cast aside back into his life.
That was why, after that kiss and that breath were given, the form of the Copper-Coin Figure once again merged with Chan Master Dahui.
Thinking of this, I opened my eyes, cupped Liu Junyan’s ashen cheeks with both hands, leaned my head in, gently kissed his utterly bloodless lips, and passed a breath into his mouth.
I didn’t close my eyes, didn’t immediately let go.
I held that posture for a long, long time.
The Black Cat crouched beside my leg, raising its little head, its dark green cat eyes watching us unblinkingly.
The sounds of killing outside were still there, but very faint.
The Buddha Head began to tremble slightly.
And I kept holding Liu Junyan’s face, kissing him, watching him.
To defeat the Great Lama, to take the Ancient Battlefield at Xiaoyingkou, he had offered up all his desires, forcing his physical body to retreat into the Buddhist Order.
Then I would pull his desires back!
I would pull them back to the secular world!
I would pull them back to the mortal realm!
Liu Junyan, come back to me!
Return to my life!
I didn’t know how much time had passed; the sounds of killing outside had completely vanished, the trembling of the Buddha Head grew stronger, and I heard people outside calling my name and Liu Junyan’s.
They were waiting for us to emerge!
They needed to confirm we were still alive!
At that moment, the world became utterly vivid and alive.
And Liu Junyan, within this vivid, secular world, under my gaze, finally, slowly opened his eyes…