The High Priest looked at Huangquan, his eyes shifting slightly, silently indicating to Huangquan not to speak of it.
Huangquan understood and frowned, saying, “If that’s my brother, and you’re asking me to stay behind while you go in, what’s going on?”
The others behind them, upon hearing Huangquan’s words, initially worried about the High Priest but immediately felt relieved upon hearing the rest of the conversation.
“He’s my disciple,” the High Priest said, looking at Huangquan, not just to cooperate with him but also to convey the reason for his entry into the tower.
Huangquan looked at him thoughtfully for a moment and said, “Let’s find a place to discuss this properly.”
“If you win, I’ll let you go,” Huangquan added before walking towards the other side of the tower.
The High Priest understood that Huangquan wanted to ask him about what had happened.
“Mirror Still,” the High Priest turned his head towards him. “Watch over them. I’ll be back soon.”
Upon hearing this, Feng Jiuyuan chuckled, “Are you sure he can handle us?”
The High Priest glanced at him expressionlessly and said, “Isn’t the Dragon’s Song Qin enough?”
Feng Jiuyuan fell silent instantly.
With Feng Jiuyuan’s response, the High Priest didn’t linger and followed Huangquan.
On the other side of the tower,
Huangquan looked at the approaching High Priest and asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
Before the High Priest could say anything, Huangquan continued, “Your current condition isn’t good. Given how you are now, entering the tower is simply unrealistic.”
“I’m just feeling a bit uncomfortable, nothing more,” the High Priest replied.
“It’s not just discomfort, is it pain?” Huangquan stared at him. “You were fine before entering here, including when I saw you after my brother disappeared. But just now, you don’t seem right. I guess the problem started on the way here.”
“It’s strange. Everyone else is fine, so why are you the one in trouble?” Huangquan approached the High Priest as he spoke. “From your appearance, it’s not the first time you’ve felt this kind of pain. If you were prepared, why did the problem still occur?”
“Hmm?”
Huangquan stood before him, asking, “Would you mind giving me an answer?”
The High Priest looked at her with deep eyes. “What if I said I do mind?”
Huangquan raised an eyebrow. “Then I’ll have to insist.”
Upon hearing this, the High Priest chuckled softly. “Fine, I’ll tell you.”
“If Emperor Qin knew you were insisting on me,” the High Priest delicately phrased it, “he would certainly understand.” Huangquan smirked at his words. “You can rest assured, Qin Qin won’t overthink it.”
The High Priest paused in his gesture of adjusting his sleeve, raising his eyes to her. “So confident?”
“Absolutely,” Huangquan lifted her chin slightly, her tone proud. “I’m a connoisseur of beauty. If someone isn’t as handsome as Qin Qin, I won’t spare them a second glance.”
The High Priest was inwardly amused. Seriously, what’s with being proud of being a face-gazer?
“What if you encounter someone even more handsome than Emperor Qin?” The High Priest looked at her. “Could you resist looking?”
“My eyes appreciate beauty and acknowledge it when I see it,” Huangquan replied seriously, meeting the High Priest’s gaze. “But…” She paused, her expression solemn and earnest. “Qin Qin is the most handsome in my eyes!”
The High Priest couldn’t help but chuckle upon hearing this. He was undoubtedly pleased to hear such words.
Huangquan looked at him. “Find that amusing?”
“Stop laughing and tell me about your situation,” the High Priest managed to hold back his laughter, then rolled up his left sleeve and extended it for Huangquan to see.
Huangquan glanced down at it, but when she looked up at the High Priest, her expression changed…
The High Priest’s left arm bore a black line that started from his wrist and extended up, disappearing under his clothing.
“A death line?”
Looking at the black line on the High Priest’s arm, Huangquan furrowed her brow and asked, “How did this death line come to be on you?”
The death line was a type of curse. Its counterpart was the life line.
Life lines were red, while death lines were black.
The two lines, life and death, were interconnected. If the life line died, the death line would perish too. Rather than being just a curse for killing, it was more about control. This curse was particularly strict because the death line had to willingly accept it.
Life and death lines couldn’t exist alone; they needed to be simultaneously imposed on two individuals. The life line wasn’t controlled by the death line, but the death line was controlled by the life line. Therefore, this kind of curse required the death line to be willingly accepted…
But rather than saying it controlled the death line, it was more accurate to say it controlled the life line.
The one with the death line must be the person most cherished by the one with the life line. Once the person with the death line died, the death line would disappear as well. Therefore, the person with the life line would accept their fate and be controlled.
“Life and death lines. The death line is on you. Where is the life line?”
Huangquan looked at him and said, “If the life line exists, I can help you undo this life and death line.”
“It can’t be undone…”
The High Priest let go of his sleeve. “The life line has long been gone.”
His tone was calm, as if he were describing today’s weather. But Huangquan was shocked by his words. “If the life line isn’t there, the death line will perish. You…”
“You’re right,” the High Priest looked up at her. “My survival is nothing short of a miracle.”
“Because this death line isn’t just on me alone, but on every member of our clan, passed down through generations,” the High Priest said calmly. “The life line has long disappeared, but the death line has persisted within our clan. Every newborn would bear this death line, and those children would not live long before passing away. In order to prevent this catastrophe, the clan leader, endowed with foresight, found a solution: to exchange the lives of everyone in the clan for the life of one child.”
“And I, not yet born at that time, was chosen by the clan. The moment I was born, it brought about the death of our entire clan, including my mother…”
“Even so, I still bear the death line. However, due to the sacrifice of the clan, the spread of the death line on my body stopped at my shoulders. This was the life bought by the sacrifices of my entire clan.”
Huangquan listened silently, observing him without saying a word.
The life and death lines are most commonly seen imposed on two individuals, but clearly, the High Priest’s situation involved not just two individuals, but one person and an entire clan.
Still, the fundamental principle remains: the death line is a voluntary acceptance of death. Regardless of the circumstances, the death line must be willingly accepted by the bearer themselves, stated in clear terms.
So… was his entire clan controlled?
“The death line has persisted through generations until it reached me, where it finally stopped. The price paid to halt it was our entire clan,” the High Priest said indifferently. “I was entrusted prematurely by the clan leader to be taken away. Since then, the Tianqi Empire emerged, and the reason I came to the Tianqi Empire was because of Emperor Qin.”
“He bears something similar to what I bear, but he endures much more, which is more terrifying,” the High Priest said, looking at Huangquan. “So, when I heard that you could suppress the death aura on Emperor Qin, I became curious about you. However…”
It was only upon their meeting that he realized she did not control the life and death that dictated his existence.
“It’s just that death lines and death auras are ultimately different,” the High Priest lowered his gaze, hiding the murky and obscure colors in his eyes.
