Love Burning Amidst the Ashes. - Chapter 24 - Fragments of an Ancient Tome

The First Floor Of Bai Cao Ge was permeated by a stale aura that seemed to have settled over a thousand years. It was the scent of countless ancient manuscripts and scrolls—a complex blend of dry ink, aged beast hide, and special preservative elixirs. Heavy and lingering, it pressed deep into the senses, making every breath feel laden with the dust of history.
Dim light filtered through narrow clerestory windows high above, carving alternating paths of shadow and light between densely packed shelves of purple sandalwood that stretched all the way to the ceiling. Tiny motes of dust drifted through the air, dancing silently within the pale shafts of light.
Silence was the dominant melody of this place. Only the occasional faint rustle of turning pages could be heard, as soft as fallen leaves touching the ground, making the vast emptiness and oppressive stillness seem even more profound.
Xu Qing Xuan sat upon a cold, unyielding stone stool in a secluded corner. Before him stood a broad stone desk of the same material. At one edge rested an ancient bronze lamp, its crude fluorite core casting a dim, flickering glow that barely illuminated the heavy tomes spread open before him.
His face remained pale, yet compared to the day of the examination, there was less of death’s shadow upon it and more of the quiet steadiness born of concentration. The leather belt around his waist was still pulled tight, though it was now concealed beneath a light-blue hemp robe, the garment that symbolized his status as an official Dan Tu. The robe hid the dark crimson bloodstains that would otherwise have been impossible to ignore.
The jade token engraved with the character Xuan rested close against his body. Its smooth warmth served as both his pass into this place and the tangible embodiment of the hope weighing heavily upon his heart.

Time was both the most precious and the most scarce resource he possessed.
Aside from the daily quota of alchemy he was required to complete, every remaining moment was spent rooted before the cold stone desk like a statue carved from rock. His fingertips turned the yellowed, brittle pages, producing a faint rustling sound that echoed with unusual clarity through the oppressive silence.
Dark shadows had formed beneath his eyes, and bloodshot veins spread across them like fine crimson threads. Yet those clear, cold eyes shone with startling intensity, like a lone star piercing the depths of a winter night, racing through an ocean of words in relentless search.
Thunder Prison Baleful Qi corrosion?
A dormant Demonic Seed?
Cultivation technique backlash?
Spiritual consciousness contamination?
He pursued every clue he could imagine, searching through one ancient volume after another—General Compendium Of Herbal Properties, Study Of Extraordinary Meridians, Records Of Southern Frontier Poison Gu, Introduction To The Soul And Spirit, and countless others, some massive and complete, others worn and fragmented by time.
His gift of perfect recall was being pushed to its absolute limit.
Endless streams of herb names, meridian manifestations, toxicological principles, and cultivation formulas surged into his consciousness like a raging flood. The overwhelming torrent brought waves of needle-like pain that pierced his mind again and again.
Ignoring the dull ache within his Dan Tian and the mounting exhaustion of his spiritual sea, Xu Qing Xuan forced himself onward.
He dissected every piece of information.
Analyzed it.
Reassembled it.
Again and again.
Like a traveler trapped within a labyrinth of despair, he searched desperately for even the faintest glimmer of light.

Yet his findings were pitifully few.
The records concerning Thunder Prison Baleful Qi focused almost exclusively on its violent and destructive nature. Every text emphasized the same methods of treatment—suppressing or dispersing it with even more powerful lightning arts or treasures imbued with supreme Yang energy.
For Qing Feng, whose cultivation foundation had already been shattered and who remained trapped within a demonic stronghold, such solutions were nothing more than impossible fantasies.
Information regarding the Demonic Seed was even more elusive.
The few surviving references spoke only in vague and fearful terms, describing it as an ancient and forbidden art steeped in unspeakable evil. The texts repeatedly warned:
“Once the Demonic Seed takes root within the marrow, even immortals cannot save the victim.”
Other passages suggested that removal was possible only if the original caster used their own source blood essence as a catalyst. The price, however, was devastating beyond measure.
Fatigue came in waves.
Cold.
Relentless.
Like a rising tide seeking to drown his consciousness.
From time to time, Xu Qing Xuan was forced to stop. Closing his burning eyes, he pressed his fingertips firmly against his brow, struggling to dispel the suffocating dizziness threatening to consume him.
Yet every time darkness claimed his vision, the jade token would pulse with a chilling tremor.
And within his spiritual sea, fleeting images would emerge.
Qing Feng, engulfed by baleful qi.
Qing Feng, struggling desperately.
Qing Feng, screaming in agony.
The visions lashed against his fraying mind like icy whips, striking nerves already stretched to the breaking point.
“I cannot give up…”
“Qing Feng is waiting…”
The hoarse whisper dissolved among the silent bookshelves, carrying the desperate resolve of a man wagering everything on a single chance.
Drawing a deep breath, he filled his lungs with the stale scent of ancient books. The musty fragrance brought with it a trace of bitter clarity.
His gaze returned to the mountain of tomes scattered across the stone desk.
One by one, the titles passed before his eyes.
Then his attention stopped.
In the far corner of the desk, half-buried beneath several larger volumes, lay a tattered scroll made of aged beast hide.
It looked utterly insignificant.
As though it had been forgotten by everyone.
Yet for some reason, his eyes lingered upon it.

The beast-hide scroll was a dark, weathered brown, its edges worn so severely that large portions had crumbled away. The characters, written in an unknown dark-red pigment, had faded into near illegibility. Its cover had long since been lost, and only a fragment of the title page remained. Upon that surviving corner, one could barely make out a single twisted character resembling a writhing insect:
Gu.
It had been mixed among a pile of miscellaneous texts detailing the identification of low-grade medicinal herbs. Had it not been for Xu Qing Xuan’s almost obsessive attention to detail, the scroll would have remained completely overlooked.
As if guided by an unseen hand, he reached out and picked up the tattered relic.
The moment it touched his fingers, he felt its rough, icy surface.
There was also something else.
A dampness.
A cold, clammy sensation that defied explanation.
Carefully, he unfolded the scroll.
Under the dim yellow glow of the bronze lamp, the faded dark-red writing resembled dried blood stains. The characters were distorted and fragmented, making them extraordinarily difficult to decipher.
Most of the contents had been destroyed beyond recovery.
Only scattered passages and incomplete illustrations remained.
At first, Xu Qing Xuan held little hope.
Suppressing the dizziness threatening to overwhelm him, he focused every ounce of his concentration. His mind worked like the most exquisite restoration artifact, painstakingly reconstructing the blurred symbols and broken lines within his spiritual sea, deducing what time had erased.
One fragmented passage read:
“Ten thousand insects devour the heart—not as torture, but as the foundation for refining the Heart Gu … Using supreme resentment and unbearable agony as the catalyst, nourishing a hundred poisons within one’s own body…”
Even in its incomplete state, the description carried an unsettling aura that sent chills crawling down the spine.
Further along, another damaged section emerged.
“The Soul-Devouring Gu … takes Soulfire as its seed and resides within the Spiritual Sea. It gradually consumes the soul and spirit, controlling the host’s body as though it were a puppet…”
Beside the passage was a partially preserved illustration.
The image depicted a grotesque Gu Worm resembling a centipede.
Its maw was lined with vicious, jagged mandibles.
The creature coiled within the silhouette of a human head, its countless legs wrapped around the shadowy contours of the skull as though it had burrowed deep into the victim’s mind.
The sight alone was enough to evoke an instinctive sense of revulsion.
Yet for Xu Qing Xuan, whose eyes had already scanned countless hopeless pages over the past several days, the grotesque image did not inspire fear.
Instead—
His gaze froze.
A faint spark ignited in the depths of his exhausted eyes.

Xu Qing Xuan’s brows knitted tightly together.
Everything recorded within the scroll was sinister and malevolent, completely opposed to the path of healing and salvation.
Just as he was about to give up and toss the worthless heretical text back into the corner, his fingers turned another page.
It was a fragment so badly damaged that barely half of an illustration remained.
Beneath the picture survived only two lines of faded dark-red script.
The handwriting was even more chaotic and distorted than the passages before it, as though the author had been suffering unimaginable agony—or descending into madness—while writing.
Yet the information contained within those few remaining words struck Xu Qing Xuan like a bolt of heavenly thunder.
It crashed directly into his nearly exhausted spiritual sea.
“…A sliver of hope…”
“… Heartbound Symbiotic Gu …”
“…Not fueled by resentment and venom…”
“…But by blood essence of the same origin…”
“…Resonance of souls…”
“…The Twin Yin-Yang Jade Pendants serve as the bridge…”
Heartbound Symbiotic Gu!
The Twin Yin-Yang Jade Pendants serve as the bridge!
For a moment, it felt as though an invisible hand had seized Xu Qing Xuan’s heart and squeezed with merciless force.
His breathing stopped.
Everything vanished.
The exhaustion.
The dizziness.
The pain.
All of it was swept away beneath the impact of that revelation.
He shot upright.
Under the flickering yellow light, every trace of color drained from his already pale face.
Only his eyes remained alive.
Locked upon the damaged words and fragmented illustration.
His pupils contracted violently.
It took every ounce of his willpower to steady his trembling hands.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Almost reverently.
He reached out and touched the surviving half of the illustration.
The drawing was crude and indistinct.
Yet its meaning was unmistakable.
Two human silhouettes stood facing one another.
From the position of each heart extended an impossibly thin strand, fine as silk.
The two strands converged at a single point between them.
And above that convergence—
Drawn with hurried, almost careless strokes—
Were two overlapping half-circle jade pendants.
The image was crude.
The lines were incomplete.
Yet the moment Xu Qing Xuan saw them, his heartbeat thundered within his chest.
Because the shape of those pendants…
Matched, with uncanny precision,
the Yin-Yang Jade Pendant hidden beneath his robes.
The very pendant he carried against his chest at this moment.
For several heartbeats, he simply stared.
Motionless.
As though afraid that even blinking might cause the fragile hope before him to vanish.
Then, for the first time in days—
A genuine light appeared within his eyes.
Not determination.
Not desperation.
But hope.

Bzzzz—!
The dormant Yin-Yang Jade Pendant hanging at his waist suddenly erupted into violent tremors without warning.
Its dull, lifeless surface began to glow.
The jagged crack running across the pendant ignited with a faint yet unmistakable pale-white radiance.
An icy, chaotic wave of energy surged forth.
Yet hidden within that chaos was a strange resonance.
The force shot through the jade pendant and slammed directly into Xu Qing Xuan’s chest.
“Urgh!”
A muffled groan escaped his lips as his entire body shuddered violently.
Within his spiritual sea, the blurred image of the Heartbound Symbiotic Gu was instantly magnified.
Expanded.
Clarified.
Every line and symbol became startlingly vivid.
The trembling jade pendant and the pair of overlapping pendants depicted in the illustration began resonating with one another as though separated pieces of a single whole.
Blood Essence Of The Same Origin.
Resonance Of Souls.
The Twin Yin-Yang Jade Pendants Serve As The Bridge.
The fragmented information scattered across the scroll was like countless broken puzzle pieces.
Driven by the pendant’s violent reaction and the extreme strain placed upon Xu Qing Xuan’s mind, those fragments began assembling themselves at astonishing speed.
Connecting.
Merging.
Evolving.
A thought emerged.
Mad.
Dangerous.
Almost impossible.
Yet within the endless darkness of despair, it was the only visible light.
The realization burst forth like a poisonous vine breaking through stone, instantly entwining every corner of his consciousness.
This Heartbound Symbiotic Gu…
Was not a sinister technique used to enslave another’s soul.
It was something entirely different.
An ancient and obscure symbiotic art.
A forbidden secret that relied upon profound resonance between bloodline and soul.
The ritual demanded that both participants share the closest possible blood connection.
Their soul origins had to possess an extraordinary degree of compatibility.
But most crucial of all—
There had to exist a pair of artifacts.
A matched set imbued with the same primordial source of power.
A bridge capable of linking the very foundations of two lives.
The Twin Yin-Yang Jade Pendants.
At that instant, Xu Qing Xuan’s hand instinctively tightened around the jade pendant hidden beneath his robes.
His heartbeat pounded like thunder.
Because he knew something that no ancient record could possibly know.
He possessed one half of the pair.
And the other half…
Was in Qing Feng’s possession.

The ancestral jade pendant!
If he possessed one half, then Qing Feng must surely carry something connected to the other.
If this Heartbound Symbiotic Gu could truly be planted…
If the Twin Yin-Yang Jade Pendants could serve as the medium…
Then could he share the burden of the violent Thunder Baleful Qi ravaging Qing Feng’s body?
Could he suppress the ever-spreading Demonic Seed?
Could he…
Save him?
A tidal wave of hope crashed into Xu Qing Xuan’s heart.
Yet that hope carried with it an equally terrifying risk.
His fist clenched so tightly that his fingernails sank deep into his palm.
Sharp pain exploded through his hand.
Only then did he barely suppress the cry threatening to escape his throat.
Immediately, he raised his head.
His gaze swept across the surroundings like lightning.
The towering bookshelves cast long shadows across the chamber.
Those shadows resembled dormant beasts lurking in the darkness.
The entire floor remained deathly silent.
Yet in that silence, Xu Qing Xuan suddenly felt as though countless unseen eyes were watching him.
Waiting.
Observing.
Listening.
Calm down.
You must stay calm.
Taking a slow breath, he forced his racing heartbeat to settle.
Then, with the utmost caution, he focused entirely upon the damaged beast-hide scroll.
Using his gift of perfect recall, he engraved every surviving fragment concerning the Heartbound Symbiotic Gu into the deepest reaches of his spiritual sea.
Every blurred character.
Every incomplete sentence.
Every broken line within the illustrations.
Each fragment was as precious as a lifeline cast to a drowning man.
Only after committing everything to memory did he move.
His expression remained perfectly ordinary.
His movements unhurried.
Without drawing attention, he returned the beast-hide scroll to the bottom of the pile of miscellaneous texts.
Several larger books were carefully arranged over it, concealing its existence completely.
To any observer, it would appear as though nothing had happened.
As though he had merely examined another worthless fragment and discarded it.
But the moment his fingertips brushed the rough surface of the scroll one final time—
A strange sensation slithered into him.
It was incredibly faint.
Almost imperceptible.
Yet unmistakably real.
A cold, damp, slippery presence crept up his fingers and into his skin.
The feeling was like touching something unclean.
Something that should never have existed beneath the heavens.
An inexplicable chill swept through his heart.
For a brief instant, Xu Qing Xuan felt as though an unseen thing hidden within the darkness had opened its eyes—
And touched him back.

Xu Qing Xuan rose to his feet.
The movement still carried the stiffness and weakness of severe injuries not yet healed.
Yet his back remained perfectly straight.
He picked up the dim bronze lamp.
Its faint fluorite flame illuminated his pale features and the cold clarity of his eyes.
Deep within those eyes burned something carefully concealed.
A fierce resolve.
A blazing determination as molten as volcanic fire.
He needed to know more.
Far more.
The exact method required to perform the Heartbound Symbiotic Gu ritual.
The supplementary materials it demanded.
The possible backlash.
The price.
The consequences.
The tattered Gu Scripture was clearly only the tip of the iceberg.
Perhaps merely a fragment of a much larger—
And far more dangerous—
Inheritance.
But another question lingered in his mind.
Why was such a thing hidden within Bai Cao Ge of the Tian Ji Pavilion?
Had it been collected by accident?
Or…
Had someone placed it there deliberately?
Holding the lamp, he moved through the labyrinth of shelves like any ordinary Dan Tu engrossed in ancient texts.
His pace was measured.
Unremarkable.
His eyes, however, searched relentlessly.
Deeper.
Further.
Into the most remote corners of the archive where dust lay undisturbed for decades.
One ancient volume after another passed beneath his gaze.
Records Of The Southern Wastelands.
Studies Of Ancient Relics.
Recovered Fragments Of Lost Alchemical Formulas.
Countless forgotten works.
Yet he sought only a single thread.
Anything connected to the Gu Scripture.
The Heartbound Gu.
Or the Twin Yin-Yang Jade Pendants.
Any clue.
No matter how small.
Time slipped away within the endless silence.
The glow of the bronze lamp grew steadily weaker.
The fluorite core dimmed little by little, mirroring the rapid depletion of his own strength.
But apart from the original beast-hide scroll—
He found nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Every trace concerning the Heartbound Symbiotic Gu seemed to have been erased from existence by an invisible hand.
As though someone had intentionally removed every reference.
Every record.
Every hint.
Fatigue returned.
Cold and relentless.
Disappointment followed close behind.
Together they wrapped around him like icy vines.
At last, Xu Qing Xuan nearly surrendered.
The ancient archive had become a suffocating graveyard of forgotten knowledge.
Perhaps there was nothing more to find.
Perhaps the scroll truly was the only surviving fragment.
With that thought, he prepared to leave.
Then—
His eyes caught something.
A narrow gap.
Hidden at the very bottom of a bookshelf tucked away in the corner.
Most people would never have noticed it.
Inside the gap lay a thin booklet.
Ordinary.
Unremarkable.
Bound with nothing more than common hemp cord.
Its cover was made from plain yellow hemp paper, stained with age.
There was no title.
No markings.
No identifying seal.
Nothing at all.
And somehow—
That very absence felt profoundly out of place.
In a hall where every text had a category, a record, a purpose…
Why would a nameless booklet be hidden in such a place?
The weak flame of the bronze lamp flickered.
For an instant, the shadows around the shelf seemed to shift.
Xu Qing Xuan’s eyes narrowed.
A strange feeling stirred within his chest.
The same instinct that had guided him to the beast-hide scroll now whispered once more.
This booklet…
Was not ordinary.

An inexplicable instinct drove him forward.
He crouched down and carefully pulled out the thin booklet from the gap.
After brushing away the thick layer of dust, he untied the hemp cord.
The booklet was extremely thin.
Only a dozen or so pages.
The paper was rough and yellowed with age.
When he opened the first page, he found that it was not a cultivation manual or a secret technique.
Instead, it was a document written in messy handwriting with faded ink—
An inventory record?
“Year Of Bing Chen, Seventh Month, Ninth Day. Received three boxes of ancient cultivation ruins unearthed from the former residence of an ancient cultivator in Crying Blood Valley. Classified under the ‘Gui’ series, numbers seven through nine…”*
“…Gui Box Seven: Twelve damaged volumes of Basic Formation Diagrams, nine volumes of Elementary Talisman Studies…”*
“…Gui Box Eight: Seven unidentified mineral samples, several decayed fragments of magical artifacts…”
“…Gui Box Nine: One incomplete copy of Records Of Southern Wasteland Geography, thirty-seven damaged pages from the Nameless Gu Scripture (severely corrupted, writing difficult to decipher, suspected to be a forbidden demonic text, of little value, sealed away)…”*
Thirty-seven damaged pages of the Nameless Gu Scripture!
The ancient cultivator’s cave dwelling in Crying Blood Valley!
Xu Qing Xuan’s heart suddenly jolted.
He quickly flipped through the booklet.
The records that followed were nothing but ordinary storage entries for miscellaneous items.
Completely irrelevant.
But his eyes remained locked onto those few words.
Gui Box Nine.
Crying Blood Valley Ancient Cultivator Ruins.
His fingers tightened around the booklet.
Crying Blood Valley…
That name.
He had seen it before.
Only briefly.
A fleeting glimpse during his earlier deductions regarding Qing Feng’s location.
The damaged Gu Scripture…
Had actually originated from an ancient cultivator’s cave dwelling in Crying Blood Valley?
And Qing Feng…
Was it possible that he had been sent in that very direction to carry out his mission?
A cold sensation slowly spread through Xu Qing Xuan’s heart.
Too many coincidences.
The damaged scripture.
The Heartbound Symbiotic Gu.
The Twin Yin-Yang Jade Pendants.
And now—
Crying Blood Valley.
Everything seemed to be connected by an invisible thread.
A thread that had been hidden in the darkness from the very beginning.
He lowered his gaze toward the small booklet in his hand.
For the first time, he felt that the answer he had been searching for might not be buried somewhere in the past.
It might be waiting for him—
At the very place where Qing Feng was heading.

A chill mixed with an indescribable sense of urgency suddenly seized him.
It felt as though, somewhere beyond sight, an invisible thread connected Qing Feng’s crisis, the mysterious Heartbound Symbiotic Gu, and the distant ancient cultivator’s ruins within Crying Blood Valley.
“This junior brother, the time is almost up.”
A flat and emotionless voice suddenly sounded from behind him.
Like a ghost appearing without warning.
Xu Qing Xuan was startled.
He immediately snapped the booklet shut and swiftly shoved it back into the bottom of the bookshelf.
His movement was as fast as lightning.
Yet his violently pounding heart refused to calm.
Slowly, he turned around.
A disciple wearing gray servant robes stood not far behind him.
He did not know when the man had appeared.
The servant disciple had a stiff, expressionless face and held a heavy string of yellow brass keys in his hand.
His eyes remained fixed on Xu Qing Xuan without the slightest emotion.
“The pavilion is about to enter restricted hours. Please leave immediately.”
The servant disciple repeated the words.
His voice contained no change in tone.
Taking a deep breath, Xu Qing Xuan suppressed the storm raging within his heart and nodded.
He lifted the bronze lamp, whose flame was now no more than a candle flickering in the wind.
Before leaving, he cast one final glance toward the registration booklet hidden in the corner—
and toward the direction where the damaged Gu Scripture was concealed beneath the lower shelves.
Then he turned around.
Dragging his heavy, exhausted body forward—
yet with a resolve stronger than ever—
he walked toward the massive stone door of Bai Cao Ge.
Outside, the fading light of sunset dyed the sky a tragic crimson.
The sudden brightness pierced his eyes, which had remained in darkness for so long, forcing him to narrow them slightly.
A bitter medicinal wind swept across his face.
But it could not disperse the darkness weighing upon his heart.
Nor the heavy decision forged from both hope and overwhelming danger.
Heartbound Symbiotic Gu…
The Twin Yin-Yang Jade Pendants serve as the bridge…
Crying Blood Valley Ancient Cultivator Ruins…
The silent Yin-Yang Jade Pendant at his waist reacted beneath the dying sunlight.
The vicious crack across its surface seemed to come alive.
A faint yet stubborn pale-white glow flickered from within.
Pressed against his skin, it sent waves of cold and urgent tremors through his body.
As if responding to the distant call of a blood-connected brother.
As if answering the approaching storm of fate—
A storm carrying thunder, blood, and death.
Xu Qing Xuan tightly gripped the warm jade token engraved with the character Xuan.
His knuckles turned pale from the force.
His gaze shifted toward the west.
The direction of Crying Blood Valley.
The direction where Qing Feng was.
The three-day deadline had arrived.
Behind him, the great doors of Bai Cao Ge slowly closed.
The heavy sound echoed through the air.
Like the final path of safety being sealed forever.
The road ahead was filled with unknown dangers.
But there was no longer any hesitation in his eyes.
Only a cold, unwavering determination.
A resolve like a blade tempered in flame.
Under the blood-colored sunset, it reflected a blinding edge.