Transmigrating into the world of Jade Dynasty, I was targeted by the female lead in a reverse romanc

Biyao slowly walked ashore, water droplets dripping from her hair and the hem of her clothes, accumulating into a small puddle at her feet. She stood next to Jiang Xiaochuan, an arm's length away.

"...Thank you," she said. Her voice, still slightly damp, sounded exceptionally clear in the empty cave.

Jiang Xiaochuan didn't respond. He turned his head to the side, looking at the pool, leaving her only with the outline of his sharply defined profile, his wet hair plastered to his face.

The dim light from the beads on the cave ceiling reflected on his face, and Biyao saw that the base of his ears had an unusual red tinge.

She blinked, took half a step forward, and tilted her head to look at his face. Jiang Xiaochuan immediately turned his head away even further, his eyes fixed on a dent in the stone wall, as if flowers had suddenly bloomed on it.

"Why is your face red?" Biyao asked, her voice carrying a hint of teasing.

She leaned closer, almost touching his shoulder, her breath brushing against his earlobe. "Hmm? Why won't you look at me?"

Jiang Xiaochuan stiffened, but he still didn't turn around. He only let out a muffled murmur, then whispered, "...Why don't you take a look at yourself?"

Biyao was taken aback and subconsciously lowered her head.

The large black robe he was wearing was soaked through after walking in the water, and clung heavily to his body.

Her clothes had come undone at some point, revealing a section of her fair collarbone. Further down, her soaked undergarment clung tightly to her skin, the thin fabric revealing the color of her skin underneath and the more indistinct, youthful, undulating contours of her body. The fabric darkened as it became wet, clinging to her body so tightly that it was almost as if she wasn't wearing anything at all.

Her mind went blank, her face flushed, and the heat spread all the way to the base of her neck. She abruptly raised her hand to clutch her clothes, her fingers clenching tightly.

She wanted to curse, scream, and gouge the eyes out of the bastard in front of her.

But in the next instant, those surging feelings of shame and anger strangely and quickly subsided.

She remembered that when she woke up from her coma, she was wearing this same clothes. She remembered him saying, "It's soaked, you'll get sick if you wear this." She remembered that when he changed, perhaps... he had already seen it.

What's the point of covering it up now that we've already seen it?

Biyao released her grip, letting her clothes hang open. She raised her head and looked at Jiang Xiaochuan. The blush on her face hadn't completely faded, but her eyes had turned cold, as calm as a deep pool.

"Let's go," she said, her voice flat, and turned to walk into the depths of the pool.

Jiang Xiaochuan watched her retreating figure. Her soaked black clothes clung to her body, outlining her slender yet curvaceous waist and legs. He swallowed hard, but didn't speak, and followed her.

The two waded into the water one after the other. The water was icy cold, reaching up to their thighs. When they reached the center of the pool, behind the curtain of water hanging from the cave ceiling, there was indeed a dark cave entrance. Without hesitation, Biyao ducked and crawled inside. Jiang Xiaochuan followed behind.

Behind the water curtain was an upward passage, not very wide, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side. The stone walls were wet and covered with slippery moss. Only a few glowing beads were embedded in the ceiling at intervals. The light was dim, and one could barely see the path under their feet. The passage was winding and turned several times, going all the way up. Apart from the sound of footsteps and each other's suppressed breathing, there was no other sound.

After walking for a while, Jiang Xiaochuan suddenly stopped.

He took out a neatly folded, moon-white dress from his pocket and handed it over.

"Your clothes are wet," he said, looking into the darkness ahead in the corridor. "Change them."

Biyao didn't answer. She looked at him, and a smile slowly curved her lips, with a hint of amusement and an indescribable sense of resignation.

"What?" Her voice was soft, echoing in the narrow passage. "Want to see me change?"

Jiang Xiaochuan's body stiffened visibly. He still didn't look at her, but the blush on his cheeks reappeared.

After two seconds, as if he had finally given up on something, his shoulders slumped slightly, and he said decisively, with a hint of self-abandonment:

"Yes. That's right."

Biyao was stunned. She hadn't expected him to admit it so readily. She stared at him for several moments, then suddenly laughed, as if she had breathed a sigh of relief, or perhaps she found it amusing.

"Okay," she said, and then, in the dimly lit passageway where she could barely see, she actually began to take off her soaking wet black robe.

Her fingers touched the cold, damp fabric, and she untied the sash. Her outer robe slipped down and piled at her feet, revealing her soaked undergarments. She paused, then looked up at Jiang Xiaochuan.

Jiang Xiaochuan abruptly turned around as she began to undo her clothes, standing ramrod straight like a piece of wood nailed to the ground, his ears burning red.

Looking at him, Biyao suddenly found it a little funny. Compared to his stiff and tense back, her previous "what the hell" attitude made her seem more composed.

Without further hesitation, she deftly removed her soaked undergarment, picked up the clean, moon-white dress, shook it out, and put it on.

The fabric was very soft, with a clean, sun-dried smell and a very faint scent, like soapberry. The size was almost right, except that it was a little wider at the chest and hips. She tied her belt and straightened the cuffs and hem.

"Okay," she said.

Jiang Xiaochuan didn't move. He still had his back to him.

"I said, that's enough," Biyao said again, her voice tinged with amusement.

Jiang Xiaochuan slowly turned around, his eyes first glancing at her well-fitting moon-white dress, then quickly shifting away to look at the ground. "...Hmm."

Biyao stopped teasing him, bent down to pick up her soaked black outer robe and her undergarments from the ground, crumpled them up, and casually stuffed them into his arms.

"Here you go, what's yours."

Jiang Xiaochuan held the bundle of wet clothes, paused for a moment, and then silently put it into his storage space.

The two continued walking, one in front of the other, a few steps apart. Neither of them spoke again.

After turning another corner, the view suddenly opened up before us.

It was a round stone chamber, quite spacious. The passage they entered through was located in the center of the chamber, while on the opposite side, there was another deep passage extending inwards, its destination unknown.

On the left side of the stone chamber stand two enormous stone statues, almost reaching the top of the cave.

One statue has a kind and benevolent face, a smile on its lips, and flowing robes, giving it a dignified and majestic appearance. The other statue has a ferocious face, with a blue face and fangs, strange horns on its head, eight arms and four heads. One of its mouths even has a line of blood carved on it, as if it were flowing, which is very lifelike and has a sinister aura.

In front of the two stone statues, there is an ancient stone table with an incense burner and several packets of incense and candles covered in thick ash. At the other end of the stone chamber, there are a few old prayer cushions lying around. There is nothing else there.

When Biyao saw the two stone statues, her expression changed instantly. Her previous nonchalance and joking vanished without a trace, replaced by an almost devout solemnity.

She strode forward, took a prayer mat, carefully brushed off the dust, placed it under the stone table, then took out a relatively intact bundle of incense and candles from the incense pouch on the table, took out a flint from her bosom, and lit it with a "snap".

The orange flames leaped up, illuminating her focused face. She inserted the incense into the incense burner, stepped back to the prayer mat, straightened the hem of her moon-white dress, and knelt down solemnly.

Wisps of smoke rose and swirled in the silent stone chamber. Biyao lay prostrate on the ground, her clear and devout voice echoing between the stone walls:

"Holy Mother of the Underworld, Heavenly King of Fiends above, I, Biyao, the forty-third generation disciple of the Holy Sect, pay my respects with utmost sincerity. The Holy Sect has suffered a great calamity and has long been in decline. Countless followers have devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the revival of the Holy Sect, sacrificing themselves one after another. I humbly beseech the Holy Mother of the Underworld to have mercy on all living beings, grant me blessings, and help my Holy Sect to regain its prestige, to guide all beings, and together ascend to the blissful realm of immortality!"

After she finished speaking, she solemnly kowtowed three times before standing up. The solemnity on her face lessened slightly, but her eyes were still surprisingly bright, with lingering excitement.

She turned to Jiang Xiaochuan, who had been standing quietly to the side, and said, "This is the sacred ground of our Holy Sect; we cannot linger here. Let's continue our exploration and see if there's a way out. Let's go."

His tone was natural, as if he had just been kneeling before not a demon god worshipped by a cult, but an ordinary ancestral tablet.

The two walked one after the other into the passage on the opposite side of the stone chamber. The passage was even dimmer, and the luminous particles on the stone walls were sparse and scattered.

The passage was short, and soon it led to another spacious area, which was completely different from the man-made stone chamber outside. It was a natural cave.

Countless stalactites of various shapes hang from the cave ceiling, and jagged rocks stand on the ground, their colors vibrant and shimmering with an eerie light in the dim light. At the entrance of the cave, a huge stone tablet stands prominently.

On the stone tablet, ten large characters, each about half a person's height, are carved with incredibly vigorous and powerful strokes that seem to penetrate the stone's back:

Heaven and earth are ruthless, treating all things like straw dogs!

Biyao glanced at it only once before looking away, seemingly uninterested in the sentence that contained some profound truth. She walked straight past the stone tablet and headed towards the dense and peculiar stalactite forest behind it.

Jiang Xiaochuan followed behind, his gaze lingering on those ten words for a moment. His heart stirred for a moment, then fell silent again. He looked away and followed Biyao.

The two walked among the stalagmites for a while, when Biyao, who was walking in front, suddenly let out a soft cry and stopped.

Jiang Xiaochuan was puzzled and about to ask when the dormant Bloodthirsty Bead deep in his left chest suddenly shrank without warning.

thump.

A heavy thud struck my empty, cold chest, and then the sensation vanished swiftly, leaving only deathly silence. It was as fast as an illusion.

He frowned and looked up.

At the end of the cave was a smooth, mirror-like stone wall, with a deep tunnel leading to an unknown destination on each side.

Beneath the stone wall, on a slightly abrupt bluestone platform, sits a complete skeleton, maintaining a cross-legged posture, silent and still, having sat there for countless years.

Biyao was startled at first, but as the young master of the Demonic Sect, she quickly calmed down. She stepped forward and carefully examined the skeleton, but found nothing unusual. Instead, she turned around and gave Jiang Xiaochuan a smile that was both mocking and complicated.

"Perhaps this is the infamous, ruthless old devil who was feared throughout the world eight hundred years ago."

She said, her tone ambiguous, whether it was reverence or mockery, "I never imagined that I would end up passing away here."

Jiang Xiaochuan nodded without speaking, but his gaze fell on the ground near the bluestone platform where the skeleton sat cross-legged, as if he were searching for something.

Biyao waited for a while, but when he didn't say anything more, she pouted and turned to walk towards the tunnel on the right.

"I'll go take a look over here."

Jiang Xiaochuan watched her figure disappear at the tunnel entrance, hesitated for a moment. He originally wanted to go to the left, where the first volume of the Heavenly Book should be.

But looking at the dark tunnel that Biyao went into, some blurry images suddenly flashed through his mind. In the original story, the Dripping Blood Cave didn't seem to have any deadly traps, but... what if it did?

He clicked his tongue, thinking he was only worried about a two-dimensional character.

He told himself this, but his feet had already turned, and he followed into the tunnel on the right.