Chapter Eight: Behind the Door

“Your hand is bleeding.”

Su Yuanbai’s face remained as calm and indifferent as ever, the expressionless countenance of a corpse; it was as if he hadn’t even noticed the woman in prison garb’s panic and fear.

“You’ve stolen that outfit with some skill, I see.”

The woman in prison clothes, having realized the newcomer was neither a jailer nor a guard, gradually regained her composure and eyed the deep yellow, broad-sleeved silk robe on Su Yuanbai with a cold sneer.

“It’s not stolen—someone else gave it to me,” Su Yuanbai replied, turning his head to glance at a certain cell down the corridor and nodding slightly as he spoke.

“In this pitch-black dungeon where you can’t see your hand in front of your face, aside from you, me, and the faint whistling of the cold wind, could there possibly be anyone else?” The woman clearly didn’t believe Su Yuanbai’s explanation. She’d heard tales of this dungeon, Bilu, even before she was thrown in. Twenty years ago, on a moonless night, every prisoner and guard here had vanished without a trace.

No one knew where they had gone.

Some said they’d staged a mass escape.

Others claimed their sins were so great they’d been devoured by the beast of legend.

Still others whispered that they’d all been murdered.

Whatever the truth, the woman was certain of one thing: aside from the jailer who’d just left, there was absolutely no one else here—and she was the first prisoner to have been locked inside in twenty years.

Wait, if there couldn’t possibly be any other prisoners, then whose robe did he steal? And from the look of him, even if he wasn’t a prisoner here, he was certainly no ordinary man.

A sudden chill gripped her heart.

“Of course there are others,” Su Yuanbai replied as if it were obvious.

The woman looked at his tranquil expression, and her heart began to race—not from an unnameable attraction, but from fear.

All the dark rumors about this prison began to rage through her mind like wildfires sweeping through dry grass.

“Have you come… to kill me?” Her tone now held not a trace of mockery; her mind had become razor-sharp. Someone who seemed immune to her attacks, who wore no talismanic chains and could move about freely in Bilu—such a person could mean only one thing.

“To kill you?” Su Yuanbai frowned, as if remembering something.

“What is your name?” he asked.

“Xi Chunxue.” Xi Chunxue stared at Su Yuanbai, the massive bronze door behind her, carved with the beast’s visage, blocking any chance of escape. She had no choice but to face this strange man head-on.

“And are you… human?” Su Yuanbai pressed further.

“I’m from Baigu City, Shanquing Prefecture,” she replied, her breath heavy.

“So, you are human?” Su Yuanbai asked, puzzled.

“Why do you insult me like this? Of course I’m human!” Xi Chunxue snapped, a flash of anger in her voice. She braced herself; if death was inevitable, she would at least face it with dignity.

“In that case, we’re the same. You’re trying to open this door?” Su Yuanbai mused. Since this woman was human, and so was he, it was only right to help one’s own kind.

But Xi Chunxue couldn’t know his thoughts. She assumed he was toying with her, taking pleasure in tormenting his prey.

Her tone cooled. “Yes.”

“In that case, why not let me try? I think I’m fairly strong,” Su Yuanbai offered, with a hint of inquiry in his voice.

Xi Chunxue’s delicate brows furrowed. The changes in his manner left her unable to fathom his intentions, but she stepped aside nonetheless. Whatever his motives, things at least seemed to be moving in the right direction.

She stopped overthinking it and watched as he placed his hands on the bronze door, just as she had, apparently preparing to push his way inside. She sneered inwardly.

But instead of pushing, Su Yuanbai’s face grew thoughtful. He let his hands climb up the beast’s carved form until they reached its amber eyes.

“Oh, this door isn’t meant to be pushed—it’s meant to be pulled. No wonder you couldn’t open it.” He pressed two fingers of each hand against the pupils of the beast’s eyes, gently pressed, then instinctively hooked his fingers upward, catching a recessed notch.

Xi Chunxue grew increasingly puzzled. She had tried pressing the eyes herself—those golden orbs hadn’t budged an inch.

A thunderous rumble shattered her thoughts. Xi Chunxue’s jaw dropped at the sight before her.

The massive bronze door ground against the floor with a roar like thunder, testament to its incredible weight.

But the man who opened it looked completely unfazed—not a single vein stood out on the back of his hand.

Had he not opened it by himself? Was it triggered by a mechanism?

So when Su Yuanbai stepped inside, Xi Chunxue didn’t rush after him. Instead, she hurried to the door’s left side and pressed the beast’s eyes again.

Even as veins bulged grotesquely on her smooth forehead, the sculpted eyes of the beast were as unmovable as a mountain. No matter how much strength she used, she couldn’t budge them in the slightest.

A wave of dread swept through her.

She noticed the door’s edge was thick enough to let another person pass through side by side. If this man had opened it by force, his strength was enough to split mountains—a terrifying thought.

Wait—

Xi Chunxue sniffed the air. A strange odor assaulted her, not the ordinary stench of a prison, but a foul, nauseating reek of rot and decay.

A sense of foreboding welled up within her.

“It’s dead,” Su Yuanbai’s calm voice echoed from the darkness.

“What’s dead?” Xi Chunxue’s heart clenched. She followed the voice; the darkness here was even deeper than outside. No matter how wide she opened her eyes, she couldn’t make out a single shape.

The closer she got, the thicker the stench became, forcing her to pinch her nose to keep from fainting.

“If you described it correctly, and if I’m not mistaken, it’s the beast you spoke of—dead,” Su Yuanbai said evenly.

Xi Chunxue froze, staring into the blackness, unable to take another step. It was as though any further would plunge her into a hell haunted by demons.

“The wind has stopped, too.” Su Yuanbai abruptly turned in the darkness. The cold, damp wind that had pervaded every corner of the prison vanished the moment he opened the bronze door.