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“???” Zu An.
His eyes nearly bulged out upon seeing this sight.
What’s going on? It was only a moment ago that they pledged their loyalty to you, but you killed them right after? What about my army of terracotta soldiers? I haven’t managed ot show them off yet!
As if having sensed Zu An’s doubts, Mi Li shot a glance at Chu Chuyan and Qiao Xueying and remarked, “It’s only on your account that I spared them, or else they would have suffered the same fate as those terracotta soldiers.”
“Why did you kill them? They have already pledged their loyalty to you!” exclaimed Zu An.
“Loyalty?” sneered Mi Li. “That’s just a beautiful sounding word that people spout for the sake of it. If you don’t want to be betrayed by your subordinates, you need to offer them something that they can’t resist. What a pity that I’m unable to ensure that in my current state, and I can’t bring them with me either. Since that’s the case, I might as well just kill them and be over with it lest they leak my secrets out in the future.”
“You killed all of them over that?” Zu An was horrified. “They can’t even speak! How could they leak your secrets?”
“They have witnessed everything that has happened here. Even if they are incapable of speech, there’s no way I could allow them to continue existing on the world,” remarked Mi Li. “I would rather be the one to betray others than to be betrayed.”
“…” Zu An.
Sis, why in the world did you even bring out Cao Cao’s famed words too?
However, this incident made him realize that he and Mi Li lived in completely different worlds. He had transmigrated over from the modern world, and while he was a little greedy, lustful, and handsome, he was still a good person overall. Unless someone threatened his life, he wouldn’t go to the extent of taking a person’s life.
However, the world of cultivation was a cruel place where everyone was born unequal. Those who were born in noble clans or possessed exceptional cultivation talent were far more privileged than their peers, and the positions of superiority they were in made them look down on those beneath them.
Mi Li was one example of it. She used to be the lofty empress of a dynasty, and no one dared to cross her. That eventually bred an egocentric point of view in her.
Noticing the awful look on Zu An’s face, Mi Li harrumphed. “Are you a man or not? I thought that you were a decisive person from the way you fought earlier, but you’re far more of a wuss than I thought.”
Zu An shook his head bitterly. “How can that be the same? It’s only normal to go all out in a fight against an enemy, but I can’t bring myself to be vicious toward those who have never shown me hostility before.”
“Naive!” evaluated Mi Li. “There were countless famed young generals who shared the same thought as you. They were able to conquer the battlefield, but they ended up getting backstabbed by those who envied them and lost their lives. I couldn’t care less about your foolishness, but our fates are now tied together. I won’t allow you to walk in their footsteps like an utter imbecile.”
Zu An fell silent. He knew that Mi Li’s words did have some sense to them, but he still couldn’t accept her world view.
Mi Li wasn’t interested in preaching philosophy to Zu An either as she changed the topic. “The two of them are about to wake up soon. You should know better than anyone else what you should and should not say before them. My soul has suffered quite some damage today, and it seems like the poison from the Red Tears of Lady Xiang is still affecting me. I’ll need to hibernate for a long period of time in order to recuperate, so don’t disturb me unless there’s something important.”
After saying those words, she returned back to the Tai’e Sword. A moment later, her worried voice sounded once more, “Brat, make sure that you don’t carelessly die this time around. You should know that you have two lives on you right now!”
“…” Zu An.
Her use of phrase…
“Don’t worry. I might have many flaws, but I do have one strength, and that’s fear of death.”
Zu An was probably the only one in the world who could openly boast about his fear of death. He waited for a while, but he didn’t hear any response from Mi Li.
“At least say something. It’s rude of you not to respond to me.”
Despite his retorts, he had no intention of really knocking on the Tai’e Sword to demand a sentimental goodbye message from Mi Li. Instead, he quickly rushed over to check on Chu Chuyan and Qiao Xueying.
The two of them gradually woke up with a slight moan.
“How are you feeling?” Zu An looked at the two of them anxiously.
Even though Mi Li had guaranteed him time and time again that they were fine, he found it hard to trust her after seeing how vicious she could be.
As soon as Chu Chuyan opened her eyes, she saw that she was lying in the embrace of a man and immediately stiffened up. She instinctively pushed him away before darting aside. Despite her frantic movement, her fluttering hair and robe were still incredibly beautiful.
As expected of my wife. She looks gorgeous no matter what she does. But while I admit that you’re beautiful, you can’t just turn your back on me like that!
It was only then that Chu Chuyan realized that it was Zu An, and she retrospectively felt that her reaction was a little overboard. Her face reddened in embarrassment. “Pardon me… I didn’t know it was you.”
Zu An felt a bit more assuaged upon hearing those words. “It’s fine. Do you still remember what happened earlier?”
Chu Chuyan’s face reddened further as she turned her head away and muttered, “D-did anything happen?”
“???” Zu An.
Mi Li fooled me!
“Can the two of you spare some thought for the severely injured patient lying beside you?” grumbled Qiao Xueying.
Her grudging voice made Zu An feel a bit apologetic. After all, she had only gotten injured due to him. “My bad. I’ll bring you out right now to see if we can get any recovery medicine from the other students.”
“Hm? If I recall correctly, you were severely injured earlier too. You look perfectly fine now though… Weird,” remarked Qiao Xueying in intrigue.
Zu An reckoned that this lapse in memory might be due to her forgetting about the Primordial Origin Sutra, so he tried asking, “Do you remember how I got injured?”
“Of course I do. You were in the midst of saving me when… Hm?” Qiao Xueying suddenly froze up. “Wait a moment, why can’t I remember who hurt you?”
Chu Chuyan also pressed on her temples as she sensed that there were some gaps in her memories.
Zu An quickly laughed it off and said, “Hahaha, who else could it be? It was the evil spirits and terracotta soldiers who hurt me!”
“Did you manage to clear off the evil spirits and the terracotta soldiers?” Chu Chuyan was astonished. One must know that there were 200,000 evil spirits, and those terracotta soldiers weren’t pushovers either. “How did you do it?”
“You want to know? Call me hubby and I’ll tell you.” Zu An couldn’t think of an excuse to clean up the mess Mi Li left for him, so he could only try to divert the topic elsewhere.
Chu Chuyan turned her head away and ignored him.
“Let’s head out first. Treating Snow takes precedence here,” said Zu An as he pulled Qiao Xueying into his arms and carried her up.
“Let me down!” The sudden princess carry left Qiao Xueying’s pale cheeks reddening once more.
“Stop struggling. Your wounds will open up again,” reminded Zu An. “You’ve already given the most precious thing in your life to me, so it’s only right for me to help you here.”
“Looks like you still have a conscience.” Qiao Xueying thought that Zu An’s words made sense. She did use her Half Life’s Fate on him, so it was only right for him to do this much for her. Besides, she had been carried in an even more embarrassing position back in the Earth Seal anyway.
On the other hand, Zu An lowered his head contemplatively. He had intentionally asked the question to probe how much Qiao Xueying remembered, and he heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing her answer.
However, Chu Chuyan was utterly dumbfounded by those words.
The most precious thing in her life? Isn’t what is the most precious thing to a woman obvious?
What’s the situation with these two? He has just barely done that with me… then he suddenly went to hook up with Snow right after?
Even though Chu Chuyan had betrothed Qiao Xueying to him back then, she still felt something very uncomfortable about the current situation.
Zu An took the lead with Qiao Xueying in his arms. “Why are you so light? You should eat a bit more meat. Your body won’t grow properly if you just munch off melon seeds.”
“I don’t like meat. Besides, what’s wrong with melon seeds?” protested Qiao Xueying in dissatisfaction.
“Ah, I forgot that you’re a tree demoness,” teased Zu An.
“You’re the one who is a tree demoness! Your whole family is tree demonesses!” roared Qiao Xueying in response.
…
Chu Chuyan noticed that even though the two of them were bickering as always, there was a lack of tension and hostility in their interaction. She chuckled softly at their interactions before suddenly falling into a daze. She noticed that she was unable to get into their conversation at all.
What’s with this awkward feeling watching the two of them in front of me?
“How did you manage to clear those evil spirits?” asked Qiao Xueying.
“Well, I enlightened them with my words. They agreed that it isn’t good for them to continue living in such a manner, so they willingly dissipated themselves into the world,” replied Zu An with a smile.
“Never mind if you don’t want to tell me.” Qiao Xueying harrumphed.
Zu An shrugged in response. He wasn’t exactly lying either since the evil spirits were indeed fooled by Mi Li’s words…
It was then that a white silhouette suddenly flashed across them. Chu Chuyan had run ahead of them.
Noticing their doubtful gazes, she replied coldly, “There are still some zombie soldiers lingering ahead. I’ll clear the path.”
Zu An glanced at the Tai’e Sword he was carrying on his back as he spoke, “Actually, there’s no need for that. I’m a man who carries an aura of kingship. Those zombies will flee in my presence.”
He recalled Mi Li mentioning that the Tai’e Sword had the effects of suppressing the terracotta soldiers, and he thought that it should work on the weaker zombie soldiers above too.
“…” Chu Chuyan.
“…” Qiao Xueying.
This fellow just can’t stop bragging, huh?
As the group headed back upward, the zombie soldiers who were roaming in the area swiftly gathered around them like sharks having caught the scent of blood. Chu Chuyan swung her sword at them, releasing a burst of frost that turned them into ice sculptures.
Zu An was amazed. “Honey, you’re much stronger than before! What’s your current cultivation rank?”
“I’m at pinnacle sixth rank. It’s thanks to the Evanescent Lotus that you fed me…” Chu Chuyan suddenly jolted upon realizing something. She turned around to look at him curiously as a question lingered on the tip of her tongue, but her face reddened right away and she found herself unable to pose the question.
Qiao Xueying, on the other hand, was more liberal. She asked directly, “Speaking of which, you should be inept down there, right? Why are you suddenly ‘abled’ again?”