CH 178

Thanks for participating… Thanks for participating… Ki Fruit… Thanks for participating…

Zu An would usually feel depressed when he got ‘Thanks for participating’, but he wasn’t even in a mood to brood over it anymore. He simply continued redrawing the lottery again and again, praying hard to get what he wanted.

However, his complexion slowly turned more and more awful. He didn’t get ‘Faith in Brother Spring’ or any artifact or skill. He did get quite a few Ki Fruits, drawing 49 of them… but that was not what he needed right now!

There were only two more draws left right now.

“Shit, I can’t possibly be that unlucky, can I? Oh please, Jade Emperor, Gautama Buddha, and all of the great gods of the world, please bless me so that I can draw a ‘Faith in Brother Spring’!” Zu An prayed.

However, the result of the first draw was still ‘Thanks for participating’…

With this, he was really down to his last try. A conflicted look appeared on his face as he murmured, “Great gods above, please bless my draw. I’d willingly not draw anything good for the next time if I can get ‘Faith in Brother Spring’ this time around!

Zu An was just about to click on the draw button when he still felt worried, so he supplemented, “Forget it, I’ll stake my luck for the next three times here. As long as I can get ‘Faith in Brother Spring’, I’d rather not draw any skills or artifacts at all for the next three times!”

He was feeling the pinch even while making the promise as he felt that he was making a huge loss here. However, thinking about how Qiao Xueying sacrificed half of her lifespan in order to save him and was currently on the verge of death, he felt that he should at least do this much for her.

He had never felt so uneasy drawing the lottery before.

This shaky hands pressed down on the enter, and the light marker began moving all over the Keyboard. When it finally stopped on the number ‘1’, he was so moved that he could burst into tears. “O’ heaven, it looks like I’m still your favored one!”

But looking at it from another perspective, the fact that he wasn’t able to get it in the past few hundred draws, only for it to finally appear after he made a vicious vow felt like the world was playing a nasty prank on him.

In any case, he quickly supported Qiao Xueying up. Her body felt frighteningly limp and cold, making his heart skip a beat. He hurriedly poured ‘Faith in Brother Spring’ into her mouth.

However, Qiao Xueying was unconscious at the moment, such that she wasn’t even able to swallow the fluid by herself. Soon, a droplet of medicine leaked from the corner of her lips.

It made Zu An’s heart bleed. That’s worth more than gold! Left with no choice, he could only pour the medicine into his own mouth before feeding it to her mouth-to-mouth. He gently guided the medicine down her throat bit by bit.

Fearing that the precious medicine would leak out, he dared not to move his mouth away, leaving the two of them in an amorous position.

‘Faith in Brother Spring’ was as incredible as ever. Not too long after she drank the medicine down, Qiao Xueying began to slowly open her eyes. The first thing she saw was a magnified view of Zu An’s face in front of her, and it left her dazed by the sight for a moment before quickly snapping out of it. She immediately pushed him away and shouted, “What are you doing?!”

As she spoke, she subconsciously raised her arm to wipe her mouth because she felt a moist sensation by the corner of her lips.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +123 Rage!

“Why are you wiping it away?! That’s precious medicine over there!” exclaimed Zu An. “I’m not even complaining about your saliva here, yet you’re acting as if I took advantage of you?”

Qiao Xueying’s body trembled. “You pervert! How could you do such a thing to me while I’m unconscious?!”

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +168 Rage!

What’s with this woman? She’s so angry, but she only provided me with so few Rage points? What happened to her usual 999s?

“What do you mean by ‘such a thing’? I’m saving you here, alright! You wouldn’t swallow the medicine I fed you earlier, so I had no use but to force-feed you.”

Qiao Xueying was stunned. She could indeed taste medicine on the tip of her tongue, and the medicine seemed to be of rather high quality at that. She had never drunk anything as potent as this before.

She could feel most of her injuries recovering. Even the arrow wound on her shoulder didn’t hurt anymore; there was an itch instead, a sign that the wound was in the midst of recovering.

It was then that she realized that she had misunderstood the other party. A hint of awkwardness appeared on her face as she said, “Ah… I’m sorry. I hope that you can understand that any woman would react greatly when placed in such a situation.”

“That’s because they’re strangers. It’s not the first time the two of us are kissing anyway, so why are you reacting so greatly?” retorted Zu An.

Qiao Xueying’s face reddened. “How can that be the same? I did it earlier in order to save you. It’s not like I really wanted to kiss you or anything.”

Zu An felt wronged. “I also did that earlier to kiss you… Pui, I mean to save you!”

Qiao Xueying felt a little awkward at the situation. She untied the bindings on her and put some distance between the two of them. “Anyway, I kissed you earlier in order to activate Half Life’s Fate. There’s nothing more to that. We aren’t a couple, so please do not kiss me casually in the future.”

“Do not kiss you casually?” Zu An was amused by that remark. “In other words, I kiss you as long as there’s a legitimate reason or if you agree to it?”

Qiao Xueying felt that her mind was getting muddled by all of the semantics he was arguing about. She exclaimed furiously, “How could I possibly agree to that?”

“That’s hard to say,” Zu An said with the smile of a wily, old fox.

Qiao Xueying was made a little uncomfortable by his smile, so she averted her gaze and murmured, “There’s not a chance that would happen… Hm? Wait a moment…”

She suddenly realized something and turned over to glare at him, “If you had such a medicine, why didn’t you bring it out in the first place? Did you intentionally do it in order to trick me into using Half Life’s Fate?”

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +666 Rage!

There were all sorts of conspiracy theories filling her mind. I actually fell for this fellow’s despicable plan and gave away my most important thing!

“I’m being slandered here,” exclaimed Zu An. “I paid a huge price in order to get that medicine out at the last moment. If I had it all along, I would have drunk it long ago! Besides, I didn’t even know of that Half Life’s Fate or something skill in the first place, so how could I have tricked you into using it?”

Qiao Xueying thought that those words made sense. Half Life’s Fate was her greatest secret, such that even Shi Kun was unaware of it. It was unthinkable for Zu An to possibly know of its existence prior to this.

However, when she scanned the surroundings, she couldn’t help but ask doubtfully, “How did you manage to exchange for that medicine in here?”

“I have my means, of course. Just like how you paid a heavy price to use Half Life’s Fate, I had to pay a heavy price for this medicine too!” Technically speaking, Zu An wasn’t lying. Just thinking about how he wouldn’t get anything good in the subsequent three rounds of lottery draws made his heart bleed.

However, Qiao Xueying seemed to have misunderstood his words. She thought that he had used some sort of skill he could only use once in a lifetime like her, which made her feel incredibly grateful. “Actually… you really don’t have to treat me so well.”

Zu An waved his hands and said, “Putting aside our history, you did save my lives several times here, so I won’t leave you to the lurch. I count my debts quite clearly.”

Qiao Xueying stared at Zu An in a daze as emotions rippled in her eyes.

Why is it that some people simply don’t understand such simple reciprocation? In times of danger, all he cares about is himself.

Seeing tears welling up in Qiao Xueying’s eyes, Zu An shook his head and said, “You’re feeling moved with just this much? Tsk tsk tsk, you must have led a miserable life.”

“Nonsense, who is moved here? Sand just got into my eyes, that’s all. Look at the dust flying all around the place!” Qiao Xueying turned her face away as she grumbled obstinately.

“Since you’ve fully recovered, go and deal with the last terracotta soldier. I’m too tired, so I want to rest a little,” said Zu An as he sat down.

“Alright.” Not daring to look at him, Qiao Xueying unhesitatingly made her way over to subdue the last terracotta soldier.

“Pitiful fellow. Looks like he has turned into her punching bag,” remarked Zu An. He took out the 49 Ki Fruits he had just drawn earlier and swallowed them. A warm surge of energy flowed through his ki meridians, leaving him feeling as if he was soaked in a warm spring. He felt incredibly comfortable.

Hm?

To his astonishment, Zu An realized that he managed to fill up the sixth formation after consuming the 49 Ki Fruits. One must know that the sixth formation should have taken him 610 Ki Fruits in order to fill up!

He had barely managed to fill up the fifth formation earlier from consuming a leaf of the Evanescent Lotus, so how in the world did he manage to fill up the sixth formation so quickly?

But then, he quickly remembered the hellish battle he had just been through, as well as the severe injuries he had suffered along the way. Had it not been for Qiao Xueying’s Half Life’s Fate, he would have already died numerous times.

The Phoenix Nirvana Sutra was a skill that increased one’s cultivation through suffering a beating. It would appear that he hadn’t suffered the beating in vain.

Of course, his greatest takeaway here was still the several centuries of lifespan he had gained from Half Life’s Fate. It was such a huge gift that he didn’t know what to say at all.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Qiao Xueying was walking back after dealing with the terracotta soldier when she noticed that Zu An was staring at her weirdly.

“I suddenly feel that you look pretty nice,” replied Zu An with a chuckle.

He intended it as an empty compliment, but taking a closer look, her skin was fair like snow and her eyes twinkled like the stars. He instinctively neglected her appearance previously since she was dressed as a maid, but now that she was wearing normal clothes, her beauty was really starting to shine through. It was no wonder why she was ranked amidst the top in the Sweetheart Ranking.

Qiao Xueying blushed upon hearing those words. She spat, “Leave those words to fool Chu Chuyan instead.”

“You aren’t even going to call her young miss anymore?” asked Zu An.

“I am a spy who infiltrated the Chu clan, not a real maid of the Chu clan. Why would I continue calling her young miss?” Qiao Xueying sounded oddly exasperated. “Besides, I made such a huge sacrifice in order to save her this time around. I should have repaid the debt I owed to her all this while.”

“Alright then…” Zu An still wanted to say something, but there was a sudden gust of wind that reduced the corpses of the terracotta soldiers into dust, causing them to dissipate into nothing. Soon, the space around the two of them distorted as the familiar feeling of weightlessness swallowed them.

By the time the two of them regained their awareness, they were already back at the underground palace.

Noticing that the two of them were standing at the center of the Earth Seal, they immediately realized what was going to happen next from their previous experience, and they exclaimed in unison, “Be careful!”

As they shouted those words, they grabbed the other party to leap away from the seal. But before they could move away, they suddenly became conscious of each other’s movements and fell in a daze. Then, the Earth Seal suddenly opened up, and they fell to the third level.

“Oh? You were still arguing with one another earlier, but all of a sudden, the two of you started holding hands and worrying about one another. I wonder what happened inside to bring about such a huge change,” Mi Li’s teasing voice echoed from the surroundings.

The two of them quickly retracted their hands. Qiao Xueying turned her head sideward and murmured, “Who’s worried about him? I would have lent a helping hand even if my companion was just a pig.”

“I’m not that kind-hearted as you. If it was a pig standing beside me, I wouldn’t have bothered to even reach out to it,” replied Zu An.

“Who are you insulting here?” Qiao Xueying immediately turned over and glared at him.

“Didn’t I pull you earlier? That proves that you’re not a pig.” Zu An shrugged.

“I don’t need you to prove that I’m not a pig…” Barely as those words came out of Qiao Xueying’s mouth, she suddenly realized how weird her words sounded.

“Looks like men really can’t be trusted. Your wife is still in danger, yet you’re still in the mood to flirt around with other women. Hah…” sneered Mi Li.