Sludge suction system

Tan Ge's riding boots crushed the last piece of frozen snow, and the blue tiles of the old Sang family ancestral hall gleamed eerily in the moonlight. Tian Xue'er clutched half a dragon-tortoise patterned handkerchief, her fingertips touching the character "Lian" embroidered on the corner—that was the maiden name of Sang Yu's mother, Xia Menglian, and also the offering from the blood sacrifice in the Buddhist hall last night.

“Ager, look at this handkerchief,” her voice trailed off in a puff of breath, “there are even ice crystal-like fragments in the bloodstains…”

“It’s fragments of Blood Jade.” Tan Ge took the handkerchief and, by the light of the tinderbox, saw the shimmering blue among the blood streaks—a characteristic of “living jade” that had been nurtured with the blood of living people for over twenty years. Suddenly, the Taotie pattern on the old ancestral hall door knocker resonated with the feathered serpent dagger at his waist, emitting a low, buzzing sound.

The moment the ancestral hall was pushed open, countless fragments of blood-red jade fell from the beams, forming a lotus flower array on the ground. Tian Xue'er suddenly covered her mouth—in the center of the array was a skeleton, with a blood-red jade lock belonging to Yuan Xiangya hanging around its neck, and half a silver hairpin inserted into its ribs, the tip of which was engraved with the character "Xuan".

“They are the first generation of jade beauties of the Sang family,” Tan Ge said, using a dagger to lift the blood jade lock. The inside of the lock core was engraved with densely packed birth dates and times. “Sang Xuan used their blood to ‘renew the bones’ of the dragon turtle. Each generation of jade beauties paves the way for the next…”

In a hidden compartment in the corner of the ancestral hall, lay a yellowed copy of the "Blood Jade Secret Record." Tian Xue'er turned to the first page and saw a vermilion annotation: "Using the blood of mother and daughter as a catalyst, the dragon turtle's spirit bone can be split in two, one for immortality, and the other to break the curse." She suddenly remembered the old scar behind Sang Yu's ear—it wasn't a birthmark, but the "seed for breaking the curse" implanted when she was seven years old.

"Ager, Sang Yu's blood... can simultaneously break the curse and refine the Jade of Immortality?" Her fingertips traced the blood sacrifice illustration in the secret manual, depicting Sang Xuan using a silver hairpin to inject her mother's blood into her daughter's body. "Xia Menglian's death wasn't an accident; it was to make Sang Yu's blood more 'pure'..."

Suddenly, a wolf howled outside the ancestral hall. The moment Tan Ge blew out the tinderbox, he saw the blood jade Guanyin statue on the offering table slowly turn, revealing the Kunlun mineral vein map carved on the base. At the core of the mineral vein, the "Twin Platform" was circled in cinnabar, with a note next to it: "Use the soul blood of mother and daughter as the key to unlock the dragon turtle's molting bones."

Tian Xue'er's lotus hairpin suddenly broke, revealing a miniature blood jade bottle hidden in the hairpin head—containing Xia Menglian's blood from the previous night. Tan Ge stared at the ice crystals floating in the bottle and suddenly recalled the medical case in Qian Wanguan's study: Yuan Xiangya's "jade poison attacking the heart" symptom was exactly the same as the vibration frequency of these blood jade fragments.

“So it turns out that Madam Qian wasn’t sick, but had been implanted with a ‘jade embryo’,” he gripped the feathered serpent dagger, the blade gleaming and revealing figures in the cracks of the ancestral hall wall—the shadow guards of the Sang family, the blood jade fragments behind their ears resonating with Tian Xue’er’s hairpin. “Sang Xuan and Qian Wanguan were both lying to us. The real secret method for nourishing blood jade… is to refine the ‘heart of the dragon turtle’ with the blood of twin souls.”

The shadow guards suddenly sprang into action. Tan Ge swung his sword, severing the incoming chains, but froze when he saw the opponent's pupils—they were a deathly white, completely jade-like, identical to the patch on Qian Wanguan's nape. Tian Xue'er smashed the blood jade bottle against the lotus array diagram. Xia Menglian's blood dripped onto the lock on the white skeleton's neck, turning the entire skeleton glow and revealing the inscriptions for breaking the curse beneath.

"Hurry up!" Tan Ge dragged her towards the back alley of the ancestral hall, and heard Sang Xuan's cold laughter behind them: "Tan Ge, do you think finding the secret record can save Yuan Xiangya? Don't forget, the blood jade fragment in your body... has long been nourishment for the dragon turtle."

In the shadows at the alley entrance, Qian Wanguan's musket was already aimed at them. Tan Ge felt the blood jade fragments within his body burning hot, resonating with the Kunlun Mountains in Sang Yu's direction. He suddenly understood Sang Xuan's conspiracy—Qian Wanguan, Tan Ge, and Sang Yu were all merely pawns in the dragon turtle's molting process, and the true game-changer was only the girl who had ventured deep into the mine with the turtle shell.

“Shoot,” Tang Ge pushed Tian Xue’er into the secret passage, the feathered serpent dagger arcing in the moonlight, “but you will never get the Dragon Turtle’s heart, because it has already chosen Sang Yu.”

Amidst the roar of muskets, Tange's figure vanished into the snowstorm. Qian Wanguan picked up the "Blood Jade Secret Record" from the ground and saw the dragon-turtle totem drawn on the last page—the totem's eyes were identical to the scales behind Sang Yu's ears. He suddenly looked towards Kunlun Mountain and saw a blue light rising from the direction of the mine vein, a sign of the dragon-turtle's spiritual bones awakening, and also a harbinger of the imminent collapse of his dream of immortality.

Tan Ge was chained to the dripping stone wall, the character "Xuan" tattooed on his wrist by cold iron. Sang Xuan's silver hairpin gleamed with a ghostly blue light under the candlelight. It was a "living hairpin" reforged from Xia Menglian's blood jade fragments. In the blood beads that had congealed on the hairpin head, the faint shadow of a dragon turtle's spirit bone could be seen.

"Do you know why I didn't kill you?" Sang Xuan's fingertips brushed against the blood jade fragment behind Tan Ge's ear, where tiny crystal clusters had grown. "Because you and Yu'er are both vessels for 'twin souls'."

From the depths of the dungeon came the wailing of the water prison. Only then did Tan Ge realize that the walls were not embedded with stone bricks, but with the skeletons of jade maidens from past generations, their palms all etched with his tattoo. Sang Xuan flicked his sleeve, revealing his forearm. Beneath the jade-like skin, a dragon-turtle totem was moving through his veins: "Three hundred years ago, the Sang family ancestor signed a symbiotic contract with the dragon-turtle. The men offered their bones, and the women offered their blood, in exchange for the 'Power of Jade Life'."

"So Yuan Xiangya's illness... is the dragon turtle's 'need for bone shedding'?" Tan Ge recalled the blood jade fragment in Madam Qian's heart, whose shape was clearly a miniature of the dragon turtle's shell.

Sang Xuan nodded, and used the silver hairpin to lift Tan Ge's chin: "Qian Wanguan thought that he could prolong his wife's life with the concubine's blood, but he didn't know that the blood had entered the cracks in the dragon turtle's spiritual bones. Yuan Xiangya is not a patient, but a 'flesh and blood container' for the dragon turtle's new bones."

Blood-red liquid suddenly seeped from the top of the dungeon, gathering on the ground in the shape of a dragon turtle. Tang Ge watched his reflection distort in the blood pool and finally understood why Sang Yu's turtle shell could activate the ore vein—it wasn't a "key" at all, but rather the old bones that the dragon turtle had shed, a guiding light to guide the birth of new bones.

“Sang Yu’s mother, Xia Menglian,” Sang Xuan’s voice was unusually gentle, “is the ‘Bone-Growing Agent’ that I specially prepared for my daughter. Her blood is mixed with the spirit bone powder of the first generation Jade Maiden, which can give Yu’er’s blood the power of both ‘nourishing bones’ and ‘breaking bones’.”

Tan Ge suddenly looked up: "You mean, Sang Yu can both revive the dragon turtle and... destroy it?"

Sang Xuan smiled, a sickly sense of relief in his smile: "The Dragon Turtle Spirit Bone needs to molt every three hundred years. The old bone turns into Blood Jade, and the new bone needs to be forged with the soul blood of twins. Yu'er and Xia Menglian are the 'human sacrifices' for this generation's bone molting. And you..." His silver hairpin pressed against Tan Ge's throat, "...are the 'surprise' I left for Qian Wanguan—your blood contains the key to make the new Dragon Turtle Bone obey the Sang family."

A sudden, avalanche-like tremor erupted outside the dungeon. Tan Ge noticed that the jade-like skin on Sang Xuan's sleeve was cracking—a sign that the dragon turtle's spiritual bone was about to awaken. Sang Xuan staggered and steadied himself against the blood pool, his silver hairpin falling into the water and revealing the two characters "Meng Lian" engraved inside—it turned out that what he had hidden for twenty years was not power, but guilt towards his wife.

“Go tell Qian Wanguan,” Sang Xuan threw out the dungeon key, “bring Yuan Xiangya to Kunlun Mountain. I will let him see with his own eyes what the true ‘Way of Jade Life’ is.”

Clutching the key, Tan Ge rushed into the snowy night, behind him came Sang Xuan's whisper: "Yu'er, don't blame your father. As long as the dragon tortoise lives, the Sang family will continue... and we are just dust when it sheds its bones."

Amidst the wind and snow, Tan Ge gazed at the azure light rising from the direction of Kunlun Mountain, finally understanding the truth behind the Sang family's curse—not being imprisoned by the Blood Jade, but being chosen by the Dragon Turtle to become its sacrifice for rebirth generation after generation. And Sang Yu, the girl who escaped with the tortoise shell, might be the only loophole left by heaven in this vicious cycle, an opportunity for both the Dragon Turtle and the Sang family to be freed.