Chapter 1343: Reunion

By Sannin On'yokuWord Count: 1263

In a daze, Jian Changsheng slowly opened his eyes.

My head hurts so much...

Jian Changsheng felt as if he had drunk counterfeit alcohol; though awake, his mind was a chaotic mess, and a faint ache lingered throughout his body, as if he had been severely beaten.

He fumbled and struggled to sit up, then looked around in confusion:

"Where... is this?"

"It's Red Heart's Palace."

Jian Changsheng turned his head and saw Jiang Xiaohua sitting quietly cross-legged on the ground, showing no signs of poisoning whatsoever.

"Red Heart... a palace?? This guy actually has a palace???" Jian Changsheng finally snapped back to reality, recalling what had happened before he fainted. He eyed Jiang Xiaohua with a strange expression, "How are you completely fine??"

"I don't know... The venomous insects bit me, and then they themselves fainted," Jiang Xiaohua replied innocently. "Red Heart's subordinates couldn't carry me, so I walked here myself."

Jian Changsheng: ...

Jian Changsheng was about to ask something else when a series of painful and violent retching sounds continuously erupted from nearby.

"Ugh..."

"Ugh—!!!!"

Sun Bumian was squatting on the ground, his face deathly pale and contorted, as if he were trying to vomit up his bile.

"What's wrong with him?" Jian Changsheng asked, puzzled.

"Oh, he was French-kissed by a toad."

Sun Bumian vomited for a full ten minutes before a hint of color finally returned to his face. After that, he sat there blankly, his gaze hollow and desperate, as if he had lost all desire to live.

Jian Changsheng also took a moment to recover, and only after the feeling of exhaustion completely vanished did he totter to his feet.

With his head still spinning, he vaguely recalled a dark, unsettling face... He couldn't remember where he had seen that face, but in his blurry memory, it definitely existed... Was it Red Heart? No, that couldn't be right...

Was he poisoned into unconsciousness and now hallucinating?

"Where's Red Heart?" Jian Changsheng asked.

Jiang Xiaohua thought for a moment, "He said he's preparing dinner for us. Some venomous insects will come to escort us shortly."

"Hmph, at least he has some conscience," Jian Changsheng grumbled, displeased. "We traveled all this way to see him, and almost got poisoned to death by his subordinates... If he doesn't compensate us with a lavish banquet, it just won't do."

Hearing the words "lavish banquet," the weak Sun Bumian's ears twitched...

Having just thrown up everything he'd eaten in the past two days, he was in dire need of food. He forced himself to forget the utterly disgusting appearance of the toad and walked straight towards Jian Changsheng and Jiang Xiaohua.

"Speaking of which, I noticed something off about this place earlier..." Sun Bumian said in a deep voice.

"What?"

"This palace is a place of great ill omen."

Sun Bumian pointed at the palace floor beneath them, his gaze extremely serious.

Sun Bumian had only recently recovered from the poisoning. He hadn't even actively performed a divination for good or ill fortune, but the malevolent aura here was so dense that it didn't need to be revealed through divination... For him, an auspicious being, to sense such danger, it was clearly more than just ordinary "ill fortune."

In fact, even if one wasn't an auspicious being, any human standing here would feel the strangeness. The bone-chilling cold and the uncomfortable goosebumps all indicated that this place was entirely unsuitable for human habitation.

"Why did Red Heart choose a place like this for himself?" Jian Changsheng frowned deeply.

"It seems we really need to take him away quickly. Staying in this inauspicious place for too long, something bad is bound to happen sooner or later."

Just as the three were talking, a rhythmic knock sounded at the door.

Thump, thump, thump—

The three simultaneously looked at the door. After exchanging glances, Jian Changsheng stepped forward and opened it directly.

The next moment, he was so startled he nearly drew his sword and struck!

Standing upright at the doorway was a centipede with numerous slender legs. It was actually standing like a person, knocking on the door with its mouth, an act that was both polite and unsettlingly eerie.

"Damn it, what has Red Heart trained these centipedes to be like? They can actually stand up and knock on doors??" After being startled, Jian Changsheng couldn't help but curse.

The centipede seemed unaware of the psychological impact its upright knocking had on the three of them. After a soft hiss, it lowered itself and crawled away in a certain direction.

"Let's go, it's probably taking us to Red Heart," Sun Bumian said, stepping forward.

The three followed the centipede, traversing the palace. It was larger than they had imagined, with intricate corridors lined with countless closed doors—conservatively, well over a hundred rooms.

The three were somewhat curious: why did this palace have so many "guest rooms," like a hotel?

Jian Changsheng wanted to open some of the rooms to look inside, but felt it wasn't appropriate, so he just continued following the centipede... After several turns, a dimly lit room, resembling a dedicated banquet hall, appeared before them.

A long table was set in the center of the dining room, like an elegant place where vampire dukes and other royal nobles might dine in old movies. Brass candlesticks sat on the table, a few white candles slowly burning, and combined with a row of torches on the surrounding walls, they managed to illuminate most of the space.

An expensive, intricately carved tablecloth covered the long table, on which four sets of gleaming, neatly arranged tableware were laid out—plates, porcelain cups, chopsticks, knives, forks, everything imaginable...

Behind each place setting, a small centipede respectfully lay prostrate, awaiting orders like a servant.

At the far end of the long table, a figure draped in a large red theatrical robe had his back to the three of them. The flickering candlelight on the table cast his shadow on the wall, swaying silently like black flames.

As if sensing their arrival, he slowly turned...

A white smiling mask met their gaze.

"Spades, Diamonds, Clubs... Long time no see," Chen Ling's soft chuckle came from beneath the mask.

Seeing the white mask, all three paused slightly, appearing somewhat puzzled as to why Chen Ling had suddenly donned a mask.

However, to them, whether Chen Ling wore a mask or not, he was still Chen Ling. Without a word, Jian Changsheng quickly strode forward, threw an arm around Chen Ling's neck, and grinned, playfully scolding him:

"You scoundrel, Red Heart!! We came all this way to find you, and almost got eaten by your venomous insects... So, what are you going to do about it??"

"Exactly," Sun Bumian said, placing one hand on his hip and starting to complain quite unhappily. "My life was almost lost because of you... And that toad you sent, I don't even want to talk about it... Ugh!!!"

Halfway through his sentence, Sun Bumian's mouth began to twitch again, and he rushed to a corner to continue retching.

Jiang Xiaohua simply stood there, scratching his head, and sincerely spoke:

"Red Heart... we were worried about you."