Sludge suction system

When Tan Ge pushed open the door, Qian Wanguan was staring blankly at Yuan Xiangya's dregs of medicine. His jade thumb ring gleamed with a bluish-gray hue under the candlelight—the color that only comes from long-term contact with blood jade. When he looked up, Tan Ge noticed that the jade-like spots on the back of the other man's neck had expanded, almost extending to behind his ears.

"What did Sang Xuan say?" Qian Wanguan's voice was like a taut string, "Stop beating around the bush, I don't have time to listen to your suspense."

Tan Ge knelt on one knee and repeated Sang Xuan's words verbatim, but deliberately paused when mentioning "twin soul blood." Qian Wanguan's thumb ring suddenly shattered on the corner of the table, splinters of wood splattering onto the back of his hand, revealing jade-like skin like scales beneath: "So, that girl Sang Yu and her mother's blood can allow the dragon turtle to shed its bones and be reborn? And my Xiangya... is the vessel for the new bones?"

“My lord, Sang Xuan also said…” Tang Ge lowered his eyelids, concealing the complex emotions in his eyes, “If we use the twin soul blood as a sacrifice, Madam Yuan will not only be cured, but will also obtain the ‘Power of Jade Life’ and share immortality with you, my lord.”

Qian Wanguan abruptly stood up, his gilded sword drawn three inches from its sheath, the blade reflecting his distorted face. Tan Ge knew that the other man had recalled the scene in the blood pool of the Buddhist temple—how Xia Menglian's blood activated the dragon turtle's spiritual bone, and how it planted the seed of resonance within Sang Yu's body.

“Three months,” Qian Wanguan suddenly laughed, his laughter tinged with a morbid excitement, “have Sang Xuan prepare everything. I want to personally take Xiangya to Kunlun Mountain, to watch the dragon turtle be reborn, to watch Sang Yu’s blood… nourish the purest blood jade.”

When Tan Ge looked up, he saw Yuan Xiangya leaning against the door frame. She was wearing a moon-white satin jacket, but it couldn't hide the outline of the blood jade fragment on her chest. When she heard the words "blood sacrifice," her eyelashes trembled violently, and her fingertips dug into her palms—there was a lotus flower newly patterned with cinnabar, along with Tian Xue'er's birthmark.

"Master," her voice was barely audible, "I've heard... there's a Twin Platform at the Wusheng Temple in Kunlun Mountain. If you offer the blood of a mother and daughter to the dragon turtle, you can break the thousand-year curse..."

Qian Wanguan turned around abruptly, his jade ring brushing against her cheek: "Who told you that?"

Yuan Xiangya took out half a handkerchief with a dragon tortoise pattern. The bloodstains on the "Lian" character at the corner of the handkerchief had already frozen into ice crystals: "It was a dream from the skeleton of the old ancestral hall of the Sang family... She said that the twin soul blood can not only make the dragon tortoise shed its bones, but also allow the soul of the sacrificer... to ascend to the ranks of immortals."

Tan Ge gripped the feathered serpent dagger in his sleeve, the lotus pattern on the blade suddenly burning hot. He recognized the handkerchief as Xia Menglian's keepsake, but now it glowed faintly in Yuan Xiangya's hand, resonating with the blood jade fragment on her heart—this was not an ordinary resonance, but rather the soul of the first jade maiden conveying the key to breaking the curse through Yuan Xiangya's mouth.

“My lord, what Madam Yuan said is true,” he said, kowtowing as he concealed the dagger in his boot. “Sang Xuan’s ‘Secret Record of Blood Jade’ also mentions the Twin Platform, which requires the soul blood of a mother and daughter as a catalyst to open the true entrance to the Dragon Turtle Shrine.”

Qian Wanguan stared at the ice crystals on the handkerchief, suddenly recalling the "Shedding Bone Diagram" in Sang Xuan's secret chamber—after the twin soul blood sacrifice, the dragon turtle's spirit bone would split into two, one becoming the Jade of Longevity, and the other the Jade of Curse Removal. He gripped Yuan Xiangya's hand, touching the lotus birthmark on her palm, and suddenly smiled with relief: "Alright, then I'll listen to Xiangya. We'll set off for Kunlun Mountain in three days. I want to show Sang Xuan who the real dealer in this game is."

Suddenly, the hooting of an owl swept past the window. When Tan Ge went out with Qian Wanguan, he saw Tian Xue'er hiding behind a pillar, a white paper lotus tucked into her hair—the attire of the Sang family's jade maiden before her sacrifice. She shook her head slightly at him, her fingertip tracing a line between her lips, indicating that there was more to the story about the handkerchief.

The snow fell heavier and heavier, and the lanterns of the Qian residence cast the shadows of the three people onto the snow, overlapping to form an eerie lotus shape. Tan Ge touched the dagger in his boot, recalling the skeletons in Sang Xuan's dungeon—the tattoos on their palms and his, yet before their deaths, they had carved the character "解" (jie, meaning "unlocked"). Perhaps Yuan Xiangya's appearance was not accidental, but rather the "vessel for breaking the curse" chosen by the souls of the Jade Maidens of past generations, using the twin souls of the Sang family to end this blood sacrifice that had lasted for a thousand years.

“My lord,” he said, gazing at the blue light in the direction of Kunlun Mountain, “I have a premonition that this will be our last chance.”

Qian Wanguan didn't answer, but simply gripped Yuan Xiangya's hand tightly, as if he wanted to etch the lotus birthmark on her palm into his own bones. Meanwhile, Tan Ge knew that three days later on the summit of Kunlun Mountain, there would not only be the excruciating pain of the dragon turtle shedding its bones, but also a trap set by Sang Yu—a trap to bring the Blood Jade Curse and all those who remained obstinate to their doom.

Tan Ge leaned against the well railing, letting snowflakes fall on his feathered serpent dagger. The blade's light reflected the "Xuan" tattoo on his wrist—the blue color had somehow spread across his tiger's mouth, transforming into tiny crystal clusters. Tian Xue'er walked in from the corridor carrying a bowl of medicine. The paper lotus in her hair was wet from the wind and snow, revealing a faint cinnabar birthmark underneath.

“Age, in Madam Yuan’s medicine…” she lowered her voice, her fingertips tracing the rim of the bowl, “I saw with my own eyes that Qian Wanguan added fragments of blood jade to it.”

The dagger suddenly slipped from his palm, striking the bluestone slab with a clear sound. Tan Ge recalled the jade-like skeletons in Sang Xuan's dungeon; the tattoos on their wrists were gradually eroded by the blood jade, eventually becoming nourishment for the mineral veins. He abruptly grabbed Tian Xue'er's hand, flipping open her sleeve—the inside of her elbow, where pale blue scales had appeared without her noticing.

“We’ve all been poisoned by the jade,” his voice trembled. “Sang Xuan was right. Anyone who has come into contact with the blood jade will eventually become a living dead…”

Tian Xue'er suddenly smashed the medicine bowl on the ground. The porcelain shards cut her palm, and the blood that flowed out had a strange blue luster. Tan Ge recalled the jade-like mark on the back of Qian Wanguan's neck, the blood jade fragments on Yuan Xiangya's chest, and the dragon-turtle totem that roamed on Sang Xuan's forearm—they were no longer human, but symbiotic beings of the dragon-turtle spirit bones, maintaining their half-human, half-jade form by devouring the blood of the jade people.

“The mineral veins in Kunlun Mountain are the old bones of a dragon turtle,” he said, picking up a bloodstained shard of porcelain. “Blood jade isn’t a treasure; it’s the scales it shed when it molted. It’s nourished with human blood to develop poison, which then turns around and controls us…”

Suddenly, a fluorescent glow seeped from the base of the wall in the side courtyard. Tan Ge recognized it as the dragon-turtle pattern mark left by Sang Yu when he escaped. Tian Xue'er followed his gaze and saw half a piece of paper stuffed in a crack in the wall. It was written in cinnabar: "At midnight three days from now, there will be a crack on the east side of the Duanyu mine."

“It’s Sang Yu’s handwriting,” she said, her fingertips tracing the serrated edges of the paper, a distress signal carved from fragments of tortoise shell. “She’s telling us… to escape from there.”

Tan Ge suddenly remembered the annotations to the Classic of Mountains and Seas in Sang Xuan's study: "When a dragon turtle sheds its bones, cracks will inevitably appear. Wind is hidden in the cracks, which can break the jade poison." He gripped Tian Xue'er's hand and found that the lotus birthmark on her palm was resonating with the cinnabar on the paper, revealing a hidden route map—an escape route marked with the soul blood of jade beauties throughout the ages.

“Qian Wanguan wants us to go to Kunlun Mountain with him in three days,” he stuffed the note into his pocket, “but that’s not the way out, it’s the altar of the new bones of the dragon turtle. We must find the rift before then and use the Kunlun Heavenly Wind to purify the jade poison in our bodies.”

Tian Xue'er nodded, took the paper lotus from her hair, revealing the blood jade fragments hidden inside—the ones she had stolen from Yuan Xiangya's medicine bowl last night. "This stuff can interfere with the blood jade mark," she said, scattering the fragments into the well, causing black ripples to appear on the surface of the water. "Qian Wanguan's 'Soul-Chasing Incense' can't find us anymore."

As the night watchman struck the second watch gong, the two scaled the back wall of the Qian residence. Tan Ge looked back into the mansion and saw Qian Wanguan's figure flickering on the window paper of the study. His outline was no longer a human curve, but rather the arc of a dragon tortoise's shell. Yuan Xiangya stood beside him, the blood jade fragment on her chest emitting a faint light, echoing the azure light of the distant Kunlun Mountains.

“They are no longer human,” Tian Xue’er gripped his sleeve tightly. “Sang Yu is right. The end of the Blood Jade Curse... is to return everything to its origin.”

Amidst the wind and snow, the two raced towards Kunlun Mountain, following the markings of the spirit deer. Tan Ge felt the jade poison within his body being burned by the mountain winds; the crystal clusters on his wrists gradually peeled away, revealing his normal skin beneath. When they reached the eastern side of the mine, they saw golden light emanating from the depths of the fissure—not the eerie blue of blood jade, but true sunlight, shining into this cursed world for the first time through the cracks in the old dragon turtle bones.

“Let’s go,” he said, leading Tian Xue’er into the crevice. Behind them came a roar from the direction of the Qian family mansion. “Sang Yu is waiting for us, and some truths can only be revealed by living.”

The instant the rift closed, Tan Ge saw Qian Wanguan's face, transformed into a jade figure, pressed against the ice wall. His pupils reflected the lingering image of the dragon-turtle totem, but he could no longer touch the two who had escaped. Meanwhile, atop Kunlun Mountain, Sang Yu's tortoise shell resonated with the dragon-turtle's spiritual bones for the final time—the prelude to the disintegration of the old bones, and the beginning of freedom for all the souls imprisoned by the Blood Jade.