The Palaces of the Twelve Sacred Beasts

Translated by Ying of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

"Yo, Ye Yin Ju. You're still not dead, huh?"

A moment of silence passed; Tong Ying furrowed his brow as he looked at the frail man in black. Even though Tong Ying hadn't dealt a death blow on that day, the force of his attack should have rendered Ye Yin Ju unable to move.

Ye Yin Ju couldn't be bothered to pay any attention to Tong Ying; he subconsciously reached a hand up to support the rib which Tong Ying had broken earlier. Despite the fact that Qian Lu's treatment had somehow healed it, it still throbbed with pain.

Seeing that Ye Yin Ju wasn't answering, Tong Ying pursed his lips, unamused, but he felt a heaviness in his heart lifting. If it weren't for the curse Ye Yin Ju had placed, Gu Ting Yu might have already died by his hand. On top of that, even though Ye Yin Ju was an extremely detestable person, his death would still be a bit of a waste.

Hah, anyway, compared to his rivals in love, who were furiously competing and showing off, the dead log known as Ye Yin Ju didn't stand a chance. Tong Ying could feel shreds of empathy for the man in front of him who couldn't vocalize his feelings even if he loved the other man to bits.

As they were revolutionary comrades… The road in front of them was long.

"Are you injured? What happened?" A surprised Gu Ting Yu came over to squat beside Ye Yin Ju to examine his wounds, and Ye Yin Ju's already pale face further drained of colour.

Tong Ying felt anxious as he thought about the possibility of Ye Yin Ju ratting him out. If that happened, on one hand, the man's confession would consequently make Gu Ting Yu hate Tong Ying; on the other hand, Ye Yin Ju would be awarded with Gu Ting Yu's sympathy. Damn it… The idiot wouldn't do it, would he…?

After a long while, Ye Yin Ju merely cast his eyes downwards whilst remaining silent—only then did Tong Ying feel his heart return to its original position while selfishly thinking to himself, Ye Yin Ju, good job.

Meanwhile, Gu Ting Yu's heart was a mess as he looked on the silent Ye Yin Ju; he suddenly remembered that Tong Ying had once said that "Ye Yin Ju is about to die, for you…" In an instant, his anxiousness went through the roof as he said, "Talk!"

Both Ye Yin Ju's black hair and long clothes had been burned in multiple places and while the wounds on his body had been treated by Qian Lu to no longer bleed, the scars that covered his entire figure were still horrifying.

"…" Ye Yin Ju finally seemed to have some sort of reaction as he lifted his head, his black pupils seemingly so deep that their bottom couldn't be seen. A big calloused hand came up to stroke Gu Ting Yu's face gently and its owner said four words softly, "Your complexion… is terrible."

It was true that because of the incident with Mian, Gu Ting Yu had not been able to sleep even once with his mind at ease. Black circles hung under his eyes and his pupils which had been as gentle as water had also lost some of their shine.

They hadn't met for a few days; Ye Yin Ju didn't know if it was just his overthinking it, but he felt that Gu Ting Yu had lost a lot of weight. Humans were already skinny, their snow-white skin suiting their builds perfectly. Gu Ting Yu's bone structure wasn't large; it seemed as though an arm could easily wrap around his waist and pull him into an embrace with little effort. His wrists and collar bones were thin and skinny as they could be. The only part that had some sort of flesh on it were probably his round buttocks.

The thinking had caused Ye Yin Ju's pitch-black pupils to darken further.

After hearing those four simple words, Gu Ting Yu froze.

If a person is good to you, the things they do might not be something that you see with your eyes, but you can always somewhat feel it.

While his whole body was covered in wounds, what Ye Yin Ju cared about was Gu Ting Yu's complexion.

Gu Ting Yu couldn't speak a word, but he unconsciously lifted a hand to gently stroke Ye Yin Ju's wounds… If someone told him that these wounds were all because of him, Gu Ting Yu would believe it.

Tong Ying was standing to the side, and his eyes were about to pop out of their sockets… What was this? Gu Ting Yu was watching Ye Yin Ju with eyes full of distress, concern and guilt while shreds of some complicated light also seemed to seep through. The idiot Ye Yin Ju had only taken a few injuries… He hadn't even spouted any sort of romantic or meaningful lines, so why would Gu Ting Yu's face look as though he had fallen under a spell?!

Tong Ying went sour as a lemon; he immediately fell to ground and started howling, not caring that he was losing face——

"Damn it! … Hey! … It's so painful… I'm gonna die from pain…"As he lamented, he stole a glance at Gu Ting Yu out of the corner of his eye; as expected, as soon as he had heard his cries, Gu Ting Yu had rushed over.

"What's wro… En?" Gu Ting Yu was just about to start his inquiry when he noticed Qian Lu had beat him to stepping in front of Tong Ying. Qian Lu's mouth carried a smile as he leisurely pulled out a few silver needles.

"Where does it hurt? I'll help you, let me take a look at it! …Eh? Stop right there! What are you running for!!"

…

Fooling around when a dog runs after a chicken who flies away is inevitable.

Unfortunately, the rare humor was shaken to pieces by the rumbling thunder descending from the clouds above. It was the beginning of a storm.

The wind picked up the scarlet sand and rocks and threw them into people's faces, causing sharp stabs of pain.

The grey, heavy clouds in the distant were close-knit; it was as though the ink demons under the sea had expanded their territory, slowly dyeing the entire sky black.

It was sunny until a mere instant ago, but now it seemed as though night had fallen.

Everyone's heart was heavy and filled with unrest; some hid it well while other had it written clearly all over their faces. They looked towards the same direction unanimously, watching the storm stir the world up.

The once quiet volcano had started to overflow with thick opaque smoke, and its inner walls crumbled without an end. If one looked out at the scene, the volcanoes, standing tall, produced screeches like that of a boiling kettle, beginning a symphony of destruction.

Following an explosion, the debris from the volcano started to roll down the side of the mountain. Right at that moment——

BOOM!!!

The magma under the Earth's shell suddenly burst out of the surface with a blast and lit up the pitch black sky as the streams burst upwards like fiery dragons reaching for the night sky. That sort of majestic and solemn scene was something that the people watching would never be able to forget.

The world had collapsed…

From far above, the entire scene would only consist of two different colors. The scorching scarlet seemed to consume everything in the night-like pitch blackness. A fiery light extended its arms as more lava streamed out from every direction, ultimately coming together to form a blazing sea of fire.

"Leave now!!! This place… Won't last much longer…" Even Tong Ying who was the one in charge of this palace had never seen an outburst at this level in his thousand years. While it might have just been an explosion, volcanoes which acted like this had already lost any sort of control, seeming as though they would do everything in their power to take the world into destruction with them.

Coughs sounded as the volcanic ash choked Gu Ting Yu while it slowly took his ability to keep his eyes open away. The world and sky seemed to sway and shake. The sounds 'ka—ka—' could be heard as something was snapping. Scorching smoke rose from the ground, and it didn't even take a moment for the ground underneath their feet to show cracks that extended down to the core of the Earth, glowing with a fiery light.

As Gu Ting Yu fell, he only saw a flash of white, but once his mind had caught up to the present, he found that he felt as though he had fallen onto a soft and fluffy white rug.

"Bai Zhi Ao…"

The gigantic white hound gently bent downwards, signaling for Gu Ting Yu to hold onto him. Meanwhile, ten shining beams of light protected Gu Ting Yu.

The huge white dog, the grey werewolf, the green peacock, the ink-colored crow, the silver unicorn, the python with bright yellow eyes, the mermaid surrounded by water, the black cheetah, the scarlet fox and the blue sea monster.

"Ready?"

——If destiny had already chosen a path, even if every bone in my body were to break, I was ready to use my life in defense.

For the only light in this darkness, for the only god in my heart.

In the tossing and turning sea of fire, the tiny silhouettes of their bodies were like fragile boats in a storm. They had nowhere to escape—there was no longer a road open behind them. They had transformed back into their original forms, because this was the only way they could use the maximum of their spiritual powers.

They seemed to shine with determination as they marched towards the steel suspension bridge in the complete darkness; little did they know that the scene was identical with the dream of an ordinary woman a thousand years later.

【 … In her pregnancy, a woman's body was wracked with nightmares as she slept. In her dreams, the sky had sunk towards the earth; she stood in the middle of a steel bridge while something rushed towards her. In front of the bridge, there was a castle. A huge python twined around the bridge's column, not far behind it there was a scarlet nine-tailed fox demon and a running cheetah while a glowing silver unicorn flew through the sky… There were other strange creatures, but the woman couldn't see any of them clearly; they rushed by as though she weren't there. She could feel an evil spirit awakening—it was waiting for them in the castle… She wanted to stop them from advancing because she knew that they stood no chance of beating that sort of evil power.

At the end of the group, a human figure appeared. He rode upon a huge white dog, and he seemed as sacred and inviolable as a god.

"Ding-dang—Ding-dang—" The castle's bell tower rung, and flowers covering the ground immediately wilted… The color of the sky changed, and the blackness emerging from the castle spread and enveloped the entire world. 】

If all of this had been decided when Gu Ting Yu was still in the womb of the woman, then they had already been pushed towards the holy war by a pair of invisible hands.

The gears of destiny groaned and creaked; finally, the answer to this mystery was within reach.