420: Black Witch Blood Curse

Su Han stared at the winding dark red patterns on Bi Yao's collarbone. The marks looked exactly like the runes on the stone wall, rising and falling slightly with her slow breathing.

He suddenly recalled the same mark on the neck of a Clone in his hallucination. His fingertips hovered beside her cheek, but he ultimately pulled them back.

"The wounds on your body..."

Su Han's gaze swept over Bi Yao's blood-stained cuffs, where the dried blood shimmered with an eerie black in the dim light. "What happened?"

Bi Yao looked down at her hands; fine stone debris was still embedded under her fingernails.

She moved her fingers, pulling back her cuff to reveal a section of her forearm. It was covered in crisscrossing scratch marks, yet there were no fresh wounds.

"It was like this when I first woke up."

She suddenly chuckled, the sound stirring a faint echo in the cave. "Do you think it could be the monster in the cave scratching an itch for me?"

Su Han did not smile.

He noticed that while Bi Yao spoke, her peripheral vision kept subconsciously glancing toward the depths of the pool.

The surface of that deep blue water appeared calm, yet occasionally it rippled, as if something were gently stirring beneath it.

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard the sound of stones rolling from overhead. Immediately afterward, the entire cave began to tremble.

Bi Yao grabbed his wrist violently. "Quick! Head toward that crevice—"

Before she could finish, the stone wall overhead cracked open with a boom, and dark red liquid poured down like a waterfall.

Su Han instinctively shielded Bi Yao beneath him. The moment the liquid landed on his back, a burning, excruciating pain surged through him.

He let out a muffled groan, feeling as if his skin were being gnawed by countless ants. Looking down, he saw the liquid that had fallen to the ground sizzling with white smoke, corroding deep pits into the rock.

"It's the Black Witch Blood Curse!"

Bi Yao's voice was filled with terror. "These runes..."

She pointed to the dark red patterns on the stone wall. Those dried "bloodstains" were now beginning to flow, winding and converging into new patterns.

"They are summoning something!"

The tremors in the cave became increasingly violent, and Su Han felt the ground beneath his feet beginning to sink.

He dragged Bi Yao back toward the narrow crevice, only to see black mist pouring out from deep within it. Countless twisted human faces vaguely emerged from the fog.

Those faces all bore dark red patterns similar to Bi Yao's, and their hollow eye sockets flickered with a deep blue light.

"Don't touch that mist!"

Bi Yao suddenly pushed Su Han aside, but she herself was entangled by the black mist around her ankle.

She stumbled and fell to the ground, her fingertips leaving five bloody marks on the rock.

Su Han rushed over and grabbed her hand, but he felt the warmth in his palm slipping away—Bi Yao's skin had turned ice-cold, as if her vitality were being devoured by the mist.

"Su Han..."

Bi Yao looked up with difficulty. Her eyes reflected the scene behind him, and her pupils suddenly constricted. "Watch out!"

Before Su Han could react, his back slammed into a hard object.

He turned around and came face-to-face with a pair of massive vertical pupils.

The monster was covered in scales, and between the gaps in its scales flowed the same dark red liquid as the runes on the stone wall. It opened its massive maw, which was lined with barbs, and a foul stench washed over him.

In his panic, Su Han reached for the short blade at his waist.

This was the weapon he had repeatedly used in his hallucinations, yet holding it now, it felt strangely heavy.

The monster's sharp claws grazed his shoulder, striking a shower of sparks.

He swung his blade to counterattack, but the edge sparked as if it had struck metal.

Bi Yao suddenly leapt from the ground and hurled a burning piece of debris at the monster's eye.

The monster roared in pain, the vibrating sound waves making their eardrums ache.

Taking advantage of the moment it was blinded, Su Han dragged Bi Yao and ran toward the other side of the crevice.

The moment they stumbled out of the crevice, the entire cave collapsed with a roar.

Su Han looked back one last time and saw the monster's silhouette flickering amidst the ruins.

Meanwhile, the runes on the stone wall were forming a massive magic circle. The deep blue water of the pool was being sucked into the formation, creating a beam of light that shot straight to the cave ceiling.

"What is that?" Su Han asked, gasping for breath.

He felt the taste of blood surging in his throat, and the spot on his back burned by the Black Witch Blood Curse was still searing hot.

Bi Yao did not answer. She stared at the beam of light at the cave ceiling, her face even paler than before.