Chapter 177: Half Life’s Fate

“What are you looking at? Ah, I get it now. You actually fancied me all this while. You only fought with me often because you wanted to attract my attention!” Zu An thought about how those in their adolescence first came to know of love but didn’t know how to express their feelings, so they ended up bullying their crushes so as to attract their attention.

Mm, makes perfect sense.

“…” Qiao Xueying.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +999 Rage!

“Forget it, since we’re going to die now, I shan’t hold it against you,” continued Zu An with a sigh. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Chuyan what you did to me even if we reunite with her on the way to the afterlife.”

“…” Qiao Xueying.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +1024 Rage!

Zu An was still going to continue saying something when Qiao Xueying finally exploded. “Are you done yet?!”

“Not really. I reckon I can go on for three days straight if need be. Heaven has blessed me an astoundingly wonderful mouth—I mean, even you couldn’t resist the temptation to kiss me, no?” said Zu An as he reached out to touch his lips.

“…” Qiao Xueying.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +1024 Rage!

She was really frenzied at the moment. This bastard!!! I must have been possessed earlier to actually bear all that kind of thoughts toward him earlier!

She took a deep breath and harrumphed coldly, “Don’t you feel anything different about your own body?”

“Different? What difference could there possibly… Hm?” Zu An lifted his hand but suddenly froze up in shock. He realized that his injuries had mostly recovered, and even his ki had been fully restored. “W-what’s going on?”

“I just used one of my race’s secret art on you—Half Life’s Fate. From now on, you’ll share half of my lifespan and vitality. As for the recovery of your wounds, that’s just a bonus,” explained Qiao Xueying.

“What? I only have half of your lifespan and vitality?” Zu An was alarmed. “Just what grudge do you hold against me to do this to me? I could have lived to a ripe hundred years of age, but I only have of your lifespan now?!”

“…” Qiao Xueying.

Zu An sighed deeply and said, “Forget it, I know that you’re doing this to save me too. So be it then.”

Qiao Xueying gritted her teeth angrily and spat, “Do you not know how long my original lifespan is?”

Zu An assessed her from head-to-toe before replying, “Well, looking at your curved eyebrows and small lips, I doubt that you’re a person blessed by fate. I reckon you don’t have too many years ahead of you. Seventy to eighty at most, I’d say.”

“Under normal circumstances, I can at least live till 1500 years old, but I shared half of it with you. Yet, you’re still complaining about that?” sneered Qiao Xueying coldly.

Zu An was stunned. “W-what? 1500 years old?!”

Qiao Xueying turned her head away angrily. “That’s the minimum here. As I raise my cultivation further, it’s not impossible for me to live for 2000 years.”

“How can a human live for so long…” A thought suddenly struck Zu An. “Wait a moment. You aren’t a human?”

“Who told you that I’m a human?” Qiao Xueying rolled her eyes. “I just happened to grow up in the human world.”

“What race are you then? Dragon girl? Vixen?” Curious, Zu An tried to pry up her skirt to take a look.

Qiao Xueying was both embarrassed and angered. She quickly pulled her skirt back down and bellowed, “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to see if you have a tail,” replied Zu An earnestly.

“…” Qiao Xueying.

Unwilling to let the matter rest at that, he continued probing on, “Speaking of which, what’s your main body then? Ah, I remember that you were able to conjure vines at will. My gosh, you can’t be a tree demoness, are you?”

His impression of tree demons stopped at old men forcing beautiful young women into becoming their concubines… Well, at least that was how it was portrayed in dramas.

“You’re the one who’s a tree demoness! Your entire family is tree demonesses!” screamed Qiao Xueying.

“What are you then?” 

“I shan’t tell you!” Qiao Xueying looked at the two halberd tips that were still lodged in his arm, and she suddenly found her heart mellowing down once more. “Nothing good will come out of you knowing my identity. It’ll only bring you trouble.”

“Alright alright, if you aren’t going to tell me, so be it,” grumbled Zu An.

After the short bicker they had with one another, the terracotta soldiers were already barely tens of meters away from them. He quickly plucked out the halberd tips in his arm before charging toward them with Qiao Xueying wrapped around him.

With his body healed and ki restored, it was as if he had been born anew. The recovery of his injuries meant that he no longer enjoyed the enhancements from the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra, but at the very least, he didn’t have to be scared of suddenly dropping dead anymore.

Still, the sharp reduction of his speed made it much harder to him to dodge the attacks from the terracotta soldiers even when he was using Sunflower Phantasm. He managed to make a decent comeback, but it didn’t take long for his body to be covered in cuts once more.

He looked for an opportunity to escape from the terracotta soldiers before gazing down on Qiao Xueying. Before her doubtful gaze, he leaned down and kissed her.

“Uwuu!” It took Qiao Xueying a bit of effort to struggle free of him in her injured state. She glared at him furiously and bellowed, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing much. Since I was able to be restored back to full health with one kiss, I thought that I could continue recovering from my injuries by kissing you a few more times.” 

Zu An was perplexed as to why it wasn’t working. Do I need to maintain the kiss a little longer?

“Ridiculous!” shouted Qiao Xueying. “Half Life’s Fate is the most valuable secret art for those of our race. It can only be used once in our lifetime!”

“It can only be used once in your lifetime?” Zu An was stunned. “You gave your most valuable thing in your life to me?”

Qiao Xueying’s face reddened. “I just didn’t want to die here, so don’t think too much into it.”

“You could try to cook up a better lie. You were still mired in despair earlier,” remarked Zu An.

“Why do you have so many things to say? I just suddenly don’t want to die anymore, alright? Besides, I’m only here to help you save the young miss!” bellowed Qiao Xueying.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for +213 Rage!

He still wanted to continue asking about it, but the terracotta soldiers had already caught up with him at this point, so he could only turn his focus back  to the fight.

At this point, the terracotta soldiers were already completely confused. They were certain that Zu An was on the verge of collapsing a moment ago, but all of a sudden, he was filled with energy once more.

Are humans supposed to be as resilient as cockroaches?

They watched helplessly as their comrades fell one after another. Despite each and every one of their desperate attempts to inflict a wound on him each, they were still unable to end his life.

And things only took a worse turn when that human picked up the glowing stick. The burst of light would force them back whenever they wanted to launch a decisive assault, thus hastening their defeat.

After a bitter fight, Zu An finally managed to defeat all of the terracotta soldiers, but he left one of them alive at the very end.

He noticed that the woman in his embrace had already lost consciousness. In the first place, she was already severely injured and lost a lot of blood, but she still activated her race’s secret art to save him. The huge decrease in her vitality caused her to fall into a worse state.

Zu An initially tried to anger her so as to keep her conscious, but it was impossible for him to continue talking to her while he was busy dealing with those terracotta soldiers. By the time he noticed it, she had already lost consciousness.

He placed his fingers on her philtrum and noticed that her breathing had grown incredibly shallow.

Putting aside the fact that they still had to overcome the Heaven Seal afterward, even if he brought her out right now, it was unlikely that she would be able to last till he finally found someone to treat her.

So, he decided to slow down his pacing at this crucial moment and finish spending all of his Rage points. He was hoping that he could get something to save her life. He did draw ‘Faith in Brother Spring’ several times in the past, so things were not completely hopeless yet.

If he could draw some artifacts to help him deal with the Heaven Seal, that would be even better. Just the Earth Seal itself nearly had them killed, and the Heaven Seal was guaranteed to be even harder.

As for why he chose to draw the lottery here, it was because he didn’t want to do it in front of Mi Li, which was why he intentionally spared the final terracotta soldier for the time being lest he got automatically teleported out for clearing the Earth Seal.

He had 49,217 Rage points at the moment, much less than the usual amount. The terracotta soldiers did supply him with quite a bit of Rage points, but due to their lacking intelligence, the amount he received from each of them was limited.

In any case, he had 492 tries here. As Qiao Xueying’s life was already hanging by a thread, Zu An couldn’t be bothered to do his usual rituals anymore, diving straight into the lottery.

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