Chapter 457

Báijiāo's dragon body underwent a tremendous change after merging with the White Dragon's inner elixir.

At this moment, I faintly understood why Hēimǎng wanted the White Dragon's inner elixir.

The inner elixir of a powerful being who once could cultivate the eighth po is, for anyone, a miraculous elixir.

It not only greatly tonifies, but even transforms the body and marrow.

I watched Báijiāo shuttle back and forth in the seawater, watched the pair of antlers split on his head, watched his complete scales shine in the seawater, and felt joy and emotion in my heart.

Who says good people don't get good rewards?

Look, Liu Junyan, after suffering so many undeserved calamities, finally gained an unexpected harvest.

Laughing and laughing, a bloody scene from Yin Dang Hang suddenly flashed in my mind, and my whole body shuddered again.

For no reason, I felt panicked, and my whole person was uneasy.

My right hand was trembling.

It trembled badly.

I tried to clench my fist tightly to steady it, but it was utterly useless.

Even when I lowered my head to look at my right hand, I would see it gripping a blood-dripping Língchí blade.

"Xiao Jiu, what's wrong with you?"

I don't know when, Báijiāo turned back into Liu Junyan's appearance, and he swiftly brought me rushing out of the sea surface.

When we stood face to face on the cliff, Liu Junyan grabbed my shoulders with both hands, shaking my drenched body, and asked anxiously.

I suddenly came to, the dazed feeling vanished, and my right hand stopped trembling.

Immediately I cried out in fear, "Soul-guiding Lamp! Where is my Soul-guiding Lamp?"

"Here, I brought it up." Liu Junyan hurriedly shoved the Soul-guiding Lamp into my hand.

Only when I tightly gripped the Soul-guiding Lamp and saw, inside the lamp chamber, a translucent red vertebra wrapped in Merit Light did my heart truly settle.

I looked around; Hu Yulin stood not far away, and on the sea surface the Eight Great Protectors stood there.

In the direction of the Linghai Dragon Palace, there was still a murky haze.

I asked, "Āyàn, aren't you going back to the Linghai Dragon Palace to have a look?"

Liu Junyan shook his head: "That is Xiāo gē's battlefield; power, status, and future must be fought for by him himself, and I trust his strength."

I understand Liu Junyan's thinking.

The White Dragon is dead; all traces of him will be completely erased, and the Linghai Dragon Palace will henceforth have a new master.

Liu Junyan does not want to intervene any further.

The Eight Great Protectors simultaneously bowed to Liu Junyan, then instantly vanished into the Linghai Forbidden Ground.

They will continue to guard that Ancient Bronze Sword.

Only then did Hu Yulin walk over and circle Liu Junyan a few times.

I noticed he was also injured, fortunately not seriously.

This time, Hu Yulin helped us greatly again.

He kept clicking his tongue: "Hey, Brother Liu, you went down to the sea once and your whole person changed? You're completely unharmed—does that match the Nine Heavenly Thunderbolts, and does it match my sorry state?"

Liu Junyan raised his hand and patted his shoulder, saying generously: "Go back and rest a bit, then head to the Jiǔyàn zone to pick a plot—whatever piece you want, I'll mark it out for you."

Hu Yulin's eyes instantly lifted; his folding fan unfolded with a swish, he fanned himself, and said proudly: "You have a conscience."

Unfortunately, one of the ribs of that folding fan was broken in the middle; it will probably take a lot of effort to fix.

On the way back, Liu Junyan drove.

Hu Yulin and I were both wounded, just barely holding on.

As soon as we got in the car, Hu Yulin reverted to his true form, curled up in the back seat and began to snore.

I leaned against the passenger seat back, closed my eyes, and tried to sleep a while.

My thoughts were in a mess; I wanted to sort them out, and talk to Liu Junyan slowly after we got back to the pawnshop.

But as soon as I closed my eyes, my mind filled entirely with the bloody scene from Yin Dang Hang.

That memory seemed to have been forcibly implanted in my mind, impossible to erase.

I dared not sleep; I struggled to keep my eyes open, not letting myself wander in thought.

Liu Junyan seemed to notice my abnormality and softly asked, "Xiao Jiu, are you still okay?"

"Āyàn," I turned my body, looked at his profile, and asked, "What do you think of the Seven Halls Yama?"

Liu Junyan gripped the steering wheel with both hands, eyes staring straight ahead, but the slight narrowing of his eyes let me know he was thinking seriously.

After a while he said, "I haven't dealt with him many times, but my overall impression of him is not bad; he doesn't seem like a bad person."

Immediately, he glanced at me: "Why are you asking this?"

I first reminded Liu Junyan to drive well, then I recounted, in detail and as calmly as possible, what had happened these past days for him to hear.

The road from Linghai to the pawnshop isn't very long; by the time Liu Junyan steadily parked the car at Xijiekou, I had just finished telling him everything that happened before I went to Linghai.

Liu Junyan unfastened his seatbelt, went around to the passenger side, and opened the door.

I had just loosened my own seatbelt when he swept me into his arms.

He held me tightly, almost as if he wanted to knead me into his body.

Hearing the engine sound, Li Qingying rushed out to greet us, but upon seeing this scene, she shrank back again.

Liu Junyan spoke in a hoarse voice: "Xiao Jiu, sorry for letting you bear so much pressure; I failed to protect you well."

"Āyàn, I was originally part of it, I……" I said with difficulty, "I might actually be the real culprit."

At this moment, my emotions really were a bit out of control.

Perhaps because I went through this life-and-death calamity, I am now feeling lingering fear.

Or perhaps it's because I returned to the pawnshop, with the one I love deeply beside me, I've become a bit sentimental, and my whole person feels fragile.

In short, I buried my face in Liu Junyan's embrace, sobbing, my whole body trembling uncontrollably.

Liu Junyan scooped me up in one motion, took us straight back to our room, gave me a hot bath, changed me into clean, dry clothes, and then blow-dried my hair.

Throughout this process, Liu Junyan kept his body as close to mine as possible, letting me feel his warmth and giving me strength.

When my hair was half-dry and Liu Junyan was combing it, I leaned against him and then told him, one by one, about the encounter with the Hēimǎng in the abyss of the forbidden zone.

"Āyàn, do you think that person's skin might really have been peeled off by my own hands?"

"And those cinnabar spirit bones—could they really have been extracted by me?"

"Āyàn, could I really be an executioner guilty of the ten unforgivable sins?"

"I—"

""No, absolutely not!" Liu Junyan set down the comb, gripped my shoulders, and made me meet his gaze. "Xiao Jiu, you must believe the principle that like attracts like and people gather in groups. If you were truly a person guilty of the ten unforgivable sins, those drawn to you would mostly be the same. So tell me, what kind of people are actually drawn to you now?""

""Over the past year or so, because of your presence, how many people's fates have been changed? And how many have improved because of you? Xiao Jiu, you have saved many people, do you know that?""

""If even such a person counts as unforgivable, where is heavenly justice?""