XH 284 -  Huang Temple
 
The next morning, when Xiao Hua woke up, properly dressed and in Long Zhu's warm embrace, she slowly remembered what happened before she blanked out. Much to Xiao Hua's mortification, she remembered she had fainted from an orgasm just from having her breasts being teased. 
 
She had left Long Zhu hanging and aching!
 
There were novels Le XiaoTing had read about the female lead fainted from sex, and she found it hard to believe. It was right until last night where she had broken her own belief by doing the same thing as the other female leads.

But Xiao Hua was even worse, to faint right before the main event!
 
Xiao Hua dared not to move, too ashamed by last night, but her unnatural stiffness woke Long Zhu. "Awake?" Long Zhu smiled sleepily and caressed her head that was slowly lowering itself like a shy tortoise. 
 
This would be a beautiful sight to enjoy if not for the mortification over what she had not done last night!
 
"I-I…I… yesterday…" Xiao Hua stammered with a bright red face, unable to maintain eye contact. 
 
"The tracking team will arrive soon. We should get ready." Long Zhu sat up, pulling her along and kissed her still slightly swollen lips briefly. Xiao Hua watched Long Zhu get out of the bed with his usual gentle smile, only that his eyes were brighter than usual. 
 
F*ck, if she was not confident that they had not done the deed yesterday, she would have assumed he had continued solo with her unresponsive body!
 
Actually, Long Zhu had no reason to be in a bad mood despite being left with his raging desire and unsatisfied craving. As a man, who will not be happy and proud that he managed to send his woman unconscious from his bed techniques, especially the inexperienced Long Zhu?
 
Today's breakfast was heavy, with four out of five dishes were different types of seasoned meat. They looked mouth-watering, except that these dishes were prepared for another reason.
 
Xiao Hua could not contain her blush when she thought how loud she was yesterday and definitely being heard by everyone outside the bedroom! Especially when everyone was cultivators with sharp hearing!
 
How...How to appease this shame?! 

How was Long Zhu able to maintain his usual expression after what they had done last night? Especially with Duan XiYing smiling at the corner with a knowing smile! 

What if they misunderstood the couple had gone all the way when they actually have not?
 
Xiao Hua really wanted to dig a hole and jump right into it for her shameful failure.

The breakfast felt tasteless to her and she only ate the necessary amount to fill her stomach.
 
When Long Zhu and Xiao Hua arrived at the meeting room, the tracking team had already arrived, including Long Shan and a group of tough looking monks. But only Long Shan and another monk stepped into the meeting room and the rest waited outside. 
 
This was the first time Xiao Hua saw the hero close up after two years. Her guess that the hero would still look handsome with a bald head was indeed accurate.
 
Long Shan could be given the title of the most handsome monk in the world. Most single ladies will certainly dare to risk angering the God to seduce and corrupt the servant of the God to be their man. 
 
The leader of the tracking team finished his verbal report and left the room first. He was aware that what comes next in the meeting room was none of his business. 
 
Heise, the 19th Emperor, Long Zhu and Xiao Hua were the only one in the meeting room with the two monks.
 
They already knew Long Shan, who now goes by the name of Liang Shan. The other monk was the High monk Shan He, the highest in authority in the temple, with a glowing and fair face, giving off an air of immortality.
 
"Monk Liang Shan, tell them what you have seen in your prophecy dream," High monk Shan He invited with a calm air.
 
Liang Shan bowed and started speaking about his dream, only for Xiao Hua to find it eerily similar. It was the dream of the end of the world that she had a few nights ago. 

She had not thought much about the dream, but after Liang Shan telling the same dream, perhaps it was the World Spirit that had sent that dream to her?
 
After Liang Shan finished speaking, Heise was the first to launch a question. "Are you saying you know the location of the gate?"
 
"Yes. It is currently in a state where no eyes could comprehend it. My dream self seems to have imparted me the way to make it reveal itself."
 
"Strange that you would believe a strange dream," the 19th Emperor commented with a suspicious stare. No one would simply believe such an outrageous dream without hard facts and would quickly depart to the place revealed by a dream.
 
"This will need this monk to explain," Shan He spoke up and pressed his palms together. "If it is not because of our temple's sacred duty, no one will believe Monk Liang Shan's dream to be a prophecy, but only a nightmare."
 
No one urged the high monk to speak quickly and patiently waited.
 
"My predecessors had carefully entrusted a piece of history to their next successor, which continues passing on to the next successor. I am the current successor and have been told a piece of truth about the war between the five celestial beasts and demons from the other realm that history books do not record completely."
 
That got everyone's attention, except for Liang Shan who already knew the truth from the high monk. 
 
As for Long Zhu, his eyes flashed with insight. Perhaps the monk that had sacrificed himself to help seal the gate was related to this temple. He caught Heise's gaze, which held the similar thought as his.
 
What Shan He said next confirmed Long Zhu and Heise's guesses. 
 
"Our Huang temple is actually built to worship and pray for the great celestial Yellow Dragon, the fifth to Azure Dragon, Vermillion bird, White Tiger and Black Turtle," Shan He revealed and passed a simple looking book with yellow pages that revealed its age to Heng Xin.

Heng Xin carefully passed the book to Heise, who was equally careful in flipping the pages to avoid tearing it. The words from the book justified Shan He’s words and he nodded to his grandfather and brother. 
 
Huang Temple was smaller in size as they only pray to a small number of Gods and centered on the Yellow Dragon, but it's prestige was amazing due to the goodwill offered by the monks to those in need. Especially the travelling monks from the temple that would help people everywhere they went for self-enlightenment. 
 
It was their prestige that got Long Shan to choose their temple to join. Initially, Long Zhu and Heise do not think much about it, since the temple has no relation to Long Shan and his maternal family. But now that the truth of the temple's relation to the Yellow Dragon surfaced, Long Shan's entering Huang Temple must be predetermined by fate. 
 
"The great celestial often impart insights to us, guiding and helping us to continue walking the right path. Only the successor has the fortune to be blessed to hear the celestial Yellow Dragon's voice. But never once had the celestial dragon showed us a prophecy dream."
 
This meant that Liang Shan had a very high affinity with the Yellow Dragon, or he had a fate that he needed to play out. 
 
"Our predecessor trained every successor to prepare for the day the seal will stop working. We are prepared to accept the celestial Yellow Dragon's strength to help re-seal the gate and prevent the calamity." Shan He smiled, like a person happy to reunite with his loved ones in the other realm. 
 
That destined day is coming.
 
Heise frowned as his mind busily mulling over the new information that was actually not that surprising. Rather, it was this monk's eagerness to sacrifice himself that disturbed him greatly. 
 
Sharing the same thought as Heise, Xiao Hua asked grimly. "Monk Liang Shan is prepared to sacrifice his soul to reseal the gate?"
 
She had seen the hero turned into a Yellow Dragon and agreed to sacrifice his soul to reseal the gate, but was Liang Shan destined to be the type of hero that needed to sacrifice his life for the world? The thought of it left a bitter taste in her mouth even if they were previously enemies. 
 
"It is this monk's honour to sacrifice my life to protect the world from being ruined," Liang Shan said calmly, surprisingly peaceful and accepting of his looming death. 
 
"Sacrifice you will indeed be the fastest and easiest method," Heise agreed. "But I prefer not to use this method without exhausting other means first."
 
Before Heise met the living and breathing Long Shan, he had only considered him to be a male lead in the novel, complying to everything he wrote like a doll. There were no thoughts about what the fictional character would think of the abuse and the brain dead romance Heise had forced him to follow. 
 
After transmigrating to this world, Heise started to accept this world as another reality and he was no longer an author that could rewrite a person's entire life story at his whim.
 
They were all living and breathing people, just like him.  
 
But even so, towards Long Shan, Heise still has a tiny bit of affection as a father towards his unfamiliar son. Which father will sacrifice his son so heartlessly?
 
"This monk thanked the Emperor for your kindness. Our temple will never blame anyone for the choice we made by ourselves, as it is our duty handed down by our predecessors." 

If they could not come up with a better solution, they would have to sacrifice Liang Shan.
 
The monks agreed to keep an eye on the nameless village while the Four Kingdoms prepared for a war with Gu Dan and possibly demons. They need to discuss among themselves what they need to do. 
 
When Long Zhu held out an arm for Xiao Hua to support herself when she stood up from her seat, Liang Shan approached them silently.
 
"May this monk speak to the Third Princess Consort?" Liang Shan requested politely.
 
"I would be delighted," Xiao Hua agreed, happily accepting this opportunity where the World Spirit will by chance, appear once again. She was completely uncaring with what Liang Shan wanted to speak to her about, thinking that he might be influenced by the World Spirit to approach her.  
 
Long Zhu was not happy about it, but after meeting Xiao Hua's expressive eyes with a pleading smile, he forced himself to swallow his protest.
 
"You will not mind this Emperor joining the conversation?" Heise popped in all of the sudden. 
 
Heise's smile looked harmless but his gaze spoke otherwise. Liang Shan knew that if he did not agree, the young Emperor would not be forgiving.
 
"This monk dare not."
 
Unfortunately, Long Zhu could not insist on joining in and risk scaring the World Spirit away, so he left the room and waited outside with his ears trained to hear any sound from the room.