Chapter 177: Half a Lifetime of Fate

"What are you looking at? Oh, I finally get it. You've always liked me, haven't you? All those arguments we used to have were just your way of getting my attention." Zu'an analyzed this confidently, reminded of the innocent crushes between elementary school students in his past life, where if someone liked another, they couldn't help but tease them.

Qiao Xueying was speechless.

Rage points from Qiao Xueying +999!

"Oh well, we're both going to die anyway, so I won't hold it against you," Zu'an sighed. "Don't worry, even if I meet Chu Yan on the path to the underworld, I won't tell her what you did to me."

Qiao Xueying was speechless.

Rage points from Qiao Xueying +1024!

Seeing that he was about to say more, Qiao Xueying finally erupted, "Haven't you said enough?"

"If you really want me to talk, I could go on for three days and three nights," Zu'an said, touching his lips. "Ah, who can blame me? Heaven gave me such an extraordinary mouth, even you can't resist kissing it."

Qiao Xueying was speechless.

Rage points from Qiao Xueying +1024!

She was truly going crazy. This guy was utterly bizarre; she must have been out of her mind just now to have had such muddled thoughts about him.

Taking a deep breath, she scoffed, "Don't you feel any changes in your body?"

"Changes? What changes could there be... Huh?" Zu'an raised his hand and was suddenly startled. He realized his internal injuries were mostly healed, and his vital energy was fully restored. "What... what's going on?"

Even with his normally nonchalant demeanor, he was utterly bewildered.

"I just activated a secret clan technique on you — 'Half-Life's Bond'," Qiao Xueying explained. "From now on, you'll have half of my lifespan and vitality. Healing your injuries was just a side effect."

"I only have half your lifespan and vitality?" Zu'an instantly jumped up. "What grudge do you have against me to do something like this? I was supposed to live a long life, to a hundred, but now I only have half of yours?"

Qiao Xueying was speechless.

Zu'an sighed again. "Fine, you did it to save me. It's better than dying immediately, I suppose. Half is half."

Qiao Xueying glared at him, grinding her teeth. "Do you even know what my original lifespan was?"

Zu'an eyed her up and down. "With your delicate features, you don't look like someone destined for great fortune or a long life. Seventy or eighty years at most, I'd say."

Qiao Xueying said resentfully, "Under normal circumstances, I could live at least fifteen hundred years. Now I've given half of that to you, and you're still complaining it's too little?"

Zu'an was instantly dumbfounded. "How much? Fifteen hundred years?"

Qiao Xueying snorted and turned her face away. "That's a minimum. As my cultivation deepens, it's not impossible to break two thousand years."

"How can a person live that long..." Zu'an suddenly realized something. "You're not human?"

"Who told you I was human?" Qiao Xueying rolled her eyes. "I just grew up in the human world, that's all."

"Then what species are you? A dragon maiden? A fox spirit?" Zu'an guessed, then ran behind her and tried to lift her skirt to see.

Qiao Xueying was both mortified and furious, quickly pressing her skirt back down. "What are you doing?"

"I'm checking if you have a tail behind your backside," Zu'an replied in all seriousness.

Qiao Xueying was speechless.

Seeing her desperately clutching her skirt, Zu'an, still curious, asked, "By the way, what's your true form? You often manifest vines; you're not a tree demon, are you?"

In his impression, tree demons were always those old hags who forced Nie Xiaoqian to do their bidding, certainly not good characters.

"You're the tree demon! Your whole family are tree demons!" Qiao Xueying couldn't help but curse.

"Then what are you?" Zu'an grew even more curious.

"I'm not telling you." Qiao Xueying's gaze fell upon the two spearheads still lodged in his arm, and her heart softened. She continued, "Knowing my identity brings no benefit; it would only bring endless trouble."

"Alright, alright, don't tell me then," Zu'an grumbled. Seeing that the terracotta warriors were only a few dozen feet away, he pulled out the spearheads from his arm and, taking Qiao Xueying with him, charged towards them.

Now that his injuries were mostly healed by Qiao Xueying, he was, in a sense, fully recovered. Although he no longer had the berserk bonus from the Phoenix Nirvana Scripture, he could at least fight without such apprehension.

Of course, because his speed wasn't as fast as before, even with the Sunflower Phantoms technique, it was difficult to evade the attacks of so many terracotta warriors. Although he killed a few more, after a while, he was still covered in injuries.

He found an opportunity to leap out of the terracotta warriors' encirclement, then, under Qiao Xueying's bewildered gaze, cupped her face and kissed her again.

"Mmmph!" Qiao Xueying finally managed to break free, swatting at him with a mix of shame and anger. "What are you doing!"

"Nothing," Zu'an replied. "I just kissed you, and I was fully healed. I thought if I kissed you a few more times, my injuries would recover again?" Zu'an pondered why it hadn't worked this time. Was it because the kiss wasn't long enough?

"Dream on!" Qiao Xueying cursed, her face flushed. "'Half-Life's Bond' is the most precious forbidden technique of our clan; it can only be activated once in a lifetime!"

"Only once in a lifetime?" Zu'an was startled. "You gave me the most precious thing in your life?"

Qiao Xueying's face reddened, and she turned away. "I just didn't want to die here, that's all. Don't overthink it."

"That's a terrible excuse. You clearly looked like you had given up on life just a moment ago," Zu'an couldn't help but grumble.

"Why are you talking so much nonsense? Can't a girl suddenly decide she doesn't want to die? Besides, I still have to save your wife!" The more Qiao Xueying spoke, the angrier she became.

Rage points from Qiao Xueying +213!

Zu'an wanted to ask more, but the terracotta warriors charged forward again, forcing him to re-engage in battle.

At this moment, the terracotta warriors were also utterly confused. This human had just been on the verge of death, yet after a mouth-to-mouth touch with the long-haired person, he was fully recovered?

Are all humans such cheats?

Filled with grief and indignation, they watched their companions fall one by one. Although they managed to inflict wound after wound on him, they simply couldn't kill him.

When their opponent picked up the glowing rod again, their rate of collapse accelerated even further.

After a fierce battle, Zu'an finally defeated all the terracotta warriors, but he deliberately left one alive.

By this point, Qiao Xueying, who was in his arms, had fainted. She had lost a great deal of blood and was severely injured, and then she had used a secret clan technique to save him, which had greatly depleted her vitality, bringing her close to death.

Zu'an had initially provoked her on purpose to keep her from falling asleep. Unfortunately, when he got into a fierce fight with the terracotta warriors and things became critical, he couldn't spare the attention to talk to her. By the time he looked at her again, she had already fallen into a coma.

He reached out and felt her breath at her nostril, finding it barely discernible.

Not to mention having to brave the Heaven's Secret Realm later, even if he took her out immediately, it was doubtful she would survive long enough to receive treatment.

So he decided to pause at this stage and spend his accumulated rage points, hoping to draw something useful to save her. After all, he had drawn healing medicine several times before, so there was a chance this time too.

Of course, if he could also draw some miraculous items to deal with the upcoming Heaven's Secret Realm, that would be even better. They had nearly been wiped out in the Earth's Secret Realm, so the Heaven's Secret Realm would surely be even more challenging.

He chose to draw here because he was worried Mi Li might discover something once they left. That's why he intentionally left one terracotta warrior alive, to prevent the Earth's Seal from being lifted and them being instantly teleported out.

He quickly tallied the points. This time, the rage points earned were not as much as before; there were fewer points, likely because the enemies he encountered in the underground palace had low intelligence, each contributing very little.

He had a total of 492 draws. Since Qiao Xueying's life was hanging by a thread, Zu'an ignored all his usual superficial rituals and quickly began drawing.

***

(Author's note) I originally planned to write three thousand characters, but I simply couldn't keep going. I feel like I don't have as much energy these days as I did when I was younger. Back then, I'd stay up all night playing games and watching the Champions League, feeling incredibly energetic. Now, I can't even make it to midnight.

So, when you're young, cherish your body and don't abuse it, lest you regret it when you're older...