Chapter One Hundred Twelve: Five Blossoms in Bloom

[Restored to peak condition; maximum health permanently increased by thirty percent. [Looking for books? You can find almost anything you want here. Far more stable than ordinary sites, with faster updates and complete texts without advertisements.]]

Before he had time to marvel at the liquor’s miraculous effects, Luo Hanya felt a large hand settle on his head.

“Boy, have you recovered?”

Luo Hanya looked up and saw only Oleander’s lecherous grin. A nameless chill ran through him.

“If you’re better, then get going.” Oleander licked his lips and rubbed his fists together, seemingly eager for what came next.

“Get going? Where?”

His ominous premonition appeared to have come true. In front of Oleander, Luo Hanya felt like a helpless little lamb, as though the wild wolf before him would devour him clean in the very next moment.

“Why, of course…”

Oleander grabbed Luo Hanya by the collar and hurled him toward the distant sea with all his strength. Just before sending him flying, he even gave him a solemn farewell salute.

“Out through the sea!”

With a loud splash, Luo Hanya plunged into the ocean like a cannonball. He struggled through the water for several moments before using the strength of his legs to rise to the surface.

“Hey! You old bastard, what are you doing?”

Luo Hanya drew a deep breath at the surface and waved his right arm in protest, conveying both his anger and dissatisfaction.

“Even if I told you, you wouldn’t understand. Anyway, this sea can send you back to the Misty Inn. Ha ha, young man, enjoy yourself.”

Oleander glanced at Luo Hanya’s position, then laughed heartily. Happily drinking his liquor, he watched the spectacle from the shore, leaving Luo Hanya alone to drift angrily upon the sea.

It seemed even the heavens had decided to make things difficult for him. The pale sun climbed serenely upward, while the rain continued yesterday’s performance. Damp, freezing sea winds joined in at just the right moment, and in the blink of an eye, the ocean was raging beneath wind and rain. A huge wave suddenly crashed over him and swallowed Luo Hanya whole. He thrashed desperately with his arms and, after considerable effort, finally managed to raise his head above the water.

“You old bastard! You never even told me which way to swim! Do you want me to drift around on the sea?”

“Oh? You’re right. Heh heh. Swim toward the seabed!”

“You old bastard, how am I supposed to swim to the bottom? I can’t breathe underwater!”

“Just swim. Why are you spouting so much nonsense?”

…

Driven by some strange force whose origin he could not identify, Luo Hanya fought against the raging wind and towering waves, swimming with all his strength toward the depths of the sea.

The depths of the ocean were not entirely black. Instead, faint glimmers of mysterious light flickered in the darkness. Strangely enough, Luo Hanya had gone several minutes without breathing any air, yet his lungs remained filled with oxygen. The pressure beneath the water had not increased either; only the temperature continued to fall.

Compared with the violent turbulence on the surface, the world beneath the waves seemed entirely different. He could not feel the wind or waves above at all. The silence was unnaturally complete, while the cold within the water seemed so dense that it had nearly solidified, like an icy hell.

Luo Hanya paid no attention to the changes around him and continued swimming deeper toward the seabed with all his strength. A single line of dreamlike, ghostly light shone upon him without pause, as though guiding him toward the mysterious ocean floor.

Suddenly, an icy sensation reached his hand. Luo Hanya had touched the seabed.

As he arrived at the bottom, the ghostly light gradually expanded until it illuminated a strange rock—one that appeared to be a stone carving.

The carving was ancient and mysterious. It seemed to depict a peculiar plant, its branches dividing into five stalks, each bearing a single flower. Every stalk radiated a different kind of brilliance.

“How could something like this exist in a place like this?”

Puzzled, Luo Hanya moved closer and gently touched the carving. A bone-chilling cold immediately spread from it.

Looking farther down, he discovered that beneath the stone plant was a heart.

It was not part of the carving. It was a living, beating heart.

Luo Hanya’s scalp prickled. Anyone who encountered such a bizarre carving growing from a heart on the lightless ocean floor would have found it horrifying.

The heart continually contracted and swelled, as though supplying nourishment to the plant.

“What… what in the world is this thing?”

Luo Hanya furrowed his brow, hesitating over whether he should touch the carving.

Yet there was no other way to break the deadlock. Like Pandora’s box, the carving drew him in despite his indecision.

“Enough. No more hesitating. I’m doing it!”

True to his word, Luo Hanya placed his hand directly on the heart.

Boom. Boom. Boom…

Perhaps it was only his imagination, but the moment Luo Hanya touched it, the heart began beating violently, its rhythm astonishingly identical to his own.

“No! That’s not right! This…”

Luo Hanya froze for an instant, then realized in horror that it was not the heart’s rhythm matching his own. Rather, his heartbeat was becoming increasingly violent, as though struggling to catch up with the rhythm of that other heart.

Boom!

Boom… boom!

The sound of the beating grew louder and louder, its vibrations like war drums. A sudden wave of suffocating nausea rose within him.

“Ah!”

Two thin trails of blood slowly seeped from Luo Hanya’s eyes. Blood began leaking from his ears, nose, and mouth as well, while his face turned pale as paper.

“Damn it! What is happening? Why does my heart hurt so much?”

Luo Hanya felt as though something had pierced through his heart. The pain was unbearable. He could no longer remain standing and slowly dropped to his knees on the freezing seabed, hammering the ground wildly with both hands in an attempt to distract himself.

But the agony did not end. Instead, it grew fiercer and fiercer, until everything before his eyes blurred and sank into the depths of nothingness.

“Help me!”

Strangely, in the final instant before Luo Hanya’s consciousness fell into darkness, he heard an utterly shrill scream.

It was an incredibly familiar voice, one that seemed to accompany him every day.

“No! Don’t!”

Luo Hanya instinctively tried to save that familiar voice, but his consciousness could no longer linger. There was nothing more he could do.

The stone carving before him had vanished. The icy seawater surrounding him had disappeared as well. All that remained were the rotten windows and ceiling of the Misty Inn.

Luo Hanya struggled up from the bed and rubbed his eyes hard. Unable to believe what he was seeing, he looked around the room.

Everything was bizarre—cold and unfamiliar, yet carrying a faint sense of recognition. The surroundings remained dim, and he was still bare-chested.

“What… what does this mean? Have I never left this place at all? Was everything I just experienced an illusion?”

Luo Hanya felt a slight headache and pressed both hands against his forehead. His mind was still filled with everything he had experienced moments ago. The most vivid image remained that strange stone carving, with its five blooming flowers—disturbingly bizarre.

The morning light streamed through the cracks in the window and entered the gloomy room. A gentle breeze passed through, causing scattered patches of light to flicker endlessly across the walls.

Just like Luo Hanya’s mood at that moment, everything drifted uncertainly, and his thoughts refused to settle.