Chapter 719: Extra 2: Tiny Spore

What is the most painful thing in a person's life?

It is probably when you discover that the person you thought was your closest kin and benefactor, who should have been good to you, is actually the one who killed your nearest and dearest, the demon who controls your life.

Or perhaps it is when you realize you have fallen in love with a very good person, yet you clearly know you do not deserve them.

I was born in the depths of sin.

To me, Zhao Zixun is redemption.

He is a war god who ought to return to the heavens.

He should not have been dragged into this abyss by me.

Of course, I could not do nothing.

On my step‑by‑step way back to Lady Zhan Jiao'e's side, I left markers that only Zhao Zixun and I could understand.

He will surely come.

I also firmly believe he will immediately discover the clues I left for him, the traps I highlighted, and the formation's eye needed to break it.

Zhao Zixun arrived faster than I imagined, and his speed in breaking the formation was even more swift.

When Lady Zhan Jiao'e's Língchí dāo slit my scar‑covered wrist, I sensed that the outer formation had been broken.

Lady Zhan Jiao'e certainly noticed as well.

When she, venting her anger, cut away the flesh on my cheek, I heard the warhorse's neigh.

I have fought Zhao Zixun many times; I am all too familiar with the neigh of his warhorse and the sound of its hooves.

I laughed.

Blood all over my face kept shaking off with my laughter.

Lady Zhan Jiao'e grabbed my chin and snarled, 'You treacherous wretch! I raised you to this size, yet you betray me for a man!'

I sneered back: 'You raise me? You killed my nearest kin, imprisoned me at your side, used my blood as a medicine guide to concoct pills to prolong your life, and at any moment could send me to the altar to be sliced alive and devoured—is that what you call raising me? If it weren't for you, my parents would have raised me far better!'

Slap!

A hard slap landed on my face, blood spattering; some spattered onto Lady Zhan Jiao'e's lips, and she stuck out her bright red tongue, licking them clean bit by bit.

That was the first time I met her gaze head‑on, seeing in it the blood‑thirsty light that makes one's hair stand on end.

Her pupils dilated visibly, turning red.

Fine lines quickly spread at the corners of her eyes; her skin, once supple, turned gray‑white and withered, and sharp fangs grew in her mouth.

She opened her mouth and lunged at me, her hands gripping my shoulders with long, sharp fingertips whose edges even sprouted short… white hairs?

As her face loomed huge before me, I clearly saw white hairs sprouting on her face, about the same length as the edges of her fingernails.

Then I recalled Zhao Zixun telling me that my master was a living dead person undergoing his eighth life.

A living dead person… is essentially a kind of zombie, right?

A zombie with white hair… a white‑haired zombie?

At that moment I felt no fear of becoming someone else's meal; instead I thought I might have lost the chance to warn Zhao Zixun about this.

I wondered whether Zhao Zixun's abilities could defeat a white‑haired zombie.

Sharp, icy fangs pierced my neck, instantly numbing the surrounding nerves, yet the intense pain from the rapid blood loss still made me gasp.

I did not struggle.

I have been raised by her since birth; all my best skills were taught by her hand, and I could never overturn her Five Finger Mountain.

She greedily sucked my blood, her sharp teeth grinding against my collarbone, making a grating sound, until… she suddenly froze, lifted her corpse‑like face toward me, her mouth full of blood.

"You… schemed against me!"

She roared like a beast, choking my neck with her sharp nails digging deep into my flesh.

I was almost drained dry, covered in wounds, my face and neck a blur of blood and flesh, like a ragdoll at her mercy.

Yet the corner of my mouth curled into a triumphant smile.

Precisely because she never thought I could overturn her Five Finger Mountain, she let her guard down against me.

She would never imagine that, the first time I learned of her crimes from Zhao Zixun, I had already staked my own life.

I took pills mixed with cinnabar, soaked my body in black‑dog blood, and carefully dosed them so that no one would notice my abnormality, yet I would not be poisoned by the cinnabar.

When her fangs sank deep into my flesh, I was actually excited inside.

At last… I had waited for this moment.

All my efforts were not in vain.

I watched her keep howling, and soon she clutched her own throat with both hands.

Not enough! Far from enough!

She began scratching and pressing her whole body, trying to suppress the lethal lethal effect of the pure‑yang cinnabar and black‑dog blood on her body.

I savored the fruits of my victory at this moment.

Even though my mind grew hazy from extreme blood loss and weakness, and my vision blurred, I knew I had succeeded.

I dealt her a fatal blow.

The sound of hooves drew nearer.

At that moment I thought, perhaps when Zhao Zixun bursts in, this utterly wicked wretch will already have been taken down by me.

Alas, things turned out otherwise.

She actually seized a nearby attendant, without hesitation bit through his neck… then immediately the second, the third…

She used this method to recover quickly.

When she had somewhat recovered, she grabbed my collar, lowered her voice, and snarled, 'Do you think you've won?'

"You are indeed willing to sacrifice yourself, but you think playing this little trick can affect me? How naïve."

"Wanwan, do you know how much effort I expended to find you? The reincarnation of the Nine Abyss Pagoda and the ten‑thousand‑year lingzhi—as long as your spiritual root remains in the Nine Abyss and your original spirit is not extinguished, you can forever be my sacrificial offering!"

「Little spore, you cannot die; this is already my eighth life. With one more life, I will become an immortal body. There is nothing more suitable, more perfect as a sacrifice than you. Now I will take you back to the Nine Abyss, okay？」

Crackle!

Just as her words fell, a bolt of heavenly thunder struck down suddenly, shaking the entire space with earth-shaking force.

After the thunderclap, the outside was filled with intense fighting sounds.

When Zhao Zixun rushed in, I happened to be being carried away on Zhan Jiao'e's back.

I saw my own body still lying on her back, but my soul had already floated up.

This light, drifting sensation, sinking and floating with the wind, felt familiar.

Little spore…

I finally understood why Zhan Jiao'e called me that.

She said I am the child of the Nine Abyss Pagoda and the ten-thousand-year spirit mushroom, so my true form should inherit their unique traits, such as spraying spore powder after reaching adulthood…

And I suppose I am the reincarnation of a spirit mushroom spore?

Just how many spores can a single spirit mushroom spray?

Have all these spores been reincarnated?

If they have been reincarnated, are they my brothers and sisters, or are they my true form's Fēnshēn?