Chapter 722

Zhan Jia'e violently struggles to her feet, and all of her cultivation surges toward her spine.

The blade trembles incessantly from the impact, cracks spider across it, and Zhao Zixun's blood at the corner of his mouth keeps flowing.

Crackle!

At the moment the battle soul on the blade's tip split open, another bolt of Heavenly Tribulation struck down.

This time it fell squarely on Zhan Jiao'e.

The blade shattered.

Zhan Jiao'e's spine split open with a deep, gaping wound, and black qi poured straight out.

She lay on the ground in pain, yet she stared at Zhao Zixun and burst into unrestrained laughter: 'General Zhao, your battle soul is shattered; your only end is to be scattered to ashes and smoke. Though I have not truly broken through to the ninth life, my eighth-life Heavenly Tribulation has already passed. I only need to lie still in the Nether Realm's depths for a hundred, a thousand years, continuously drawing the Spiritual Power of the various medicinal herbs of this Nether Holy Land. One day I will surely make a comeback. Alas, a generation's war god has been destroyed just like that—tsk tsk.'

Zhan Jiao'e's malicious sneer held nothing but pain, and her eyes were filled only with mockery toward Zhao Zixun.

Zhao Zixun, however, did not grow angry.

He was very calm.

So calm it was frightening, as if everything remained under his control.

He kept staring at Zhan Jiao'e, and she laughed and laughed until she could laugh no more.

She only felt that inside the wound of her broken spine there was a warmth, as if something were moving.

That sensation quickly spread throughout her body, as if something had taken root inside her.

Zhan Jiao'e wanted to move a little to see what was happening inside her body.

But she discovered she could not move at all.

Something protruded from her abdomen, pinning her firmly to the ground!

She cried out in disbelief: 'Zhao Zixun, what have you done to me!'

"I once thought that I descended to the mortal realm this life to undergo tribulation merely to eradicate the undead legion, stop you from becoming a nine-life evil, and prevent calamity in the human world," Zhao Zixun said slowly. "Until I met Commander Fu, I finally realized where this tribulation of mine lies in the mortal realm."

Zhan Jiao'e snapped: 'I don't care where your tribulation falls; I only ask you, what exactly have you done to me!'

Zhao Zixun continued unhurriedly: 'Zhan Jiao'e, you have made a fatal mistake. The Nether Realm's depths are not your domain; the true master of the Nether Realm is this thousand-year seven-leaf spirit mushroom, which is the fiefdom Fu Wan's parents won for her. What are you, to think you could truly take root and cultivate here in the Nether Realm's depths and become the next master of the Nether Realm?'

Zhan Jiao'e objected: 'Though the seven-leaf spirit mushroom is not yet mature, I have swallowed it whole, leaving not a scrap!'

"Yes, you devoured her and absorbed some of her Spiritual Power, allowing you to successfully evolve bronze skin and iron bones," Zhao Zixun said. "But if I act quickly enough, I can condense her spiritual form with my battle soul, giving her a chance to be reborn."

Zhan Jiao'e blinked in confusion: 'So you pierced my spine not to kill me, but… but to let your battle soul break in…'

Zhao Zixun smiled: 'Only now do you realize—perhaps it's already too late.'

As soon as his words fell, a plant with seven leaves, resembling a piled-floor plant, sprouted from the crack in Zhan Jiao'e's spine.

Zhan Jiao'e felt her Xiūwéi rapidly dwindling as that thing grew; she began desperately gathering her inner strength, locked in a continuous tug-of-war with the seven-leaf spirit mushroom.

But as her Xiūwéi faded, her bronze skin and iron bones also deteriorated, and the seven-leaf spirit mushroom finally broke open her belly, taking root in the soil.

Its spiritual roots, protected by Zhao Zixun's battle soul, regained vigor.

It will sink deeper and deeper, ceaselessly drawing the Spiritual Qi of the Nether Realm's depths.

And this moment arrived sooner than Zhan Jiao'e had imagined.

When a cluster of red blossoms emerged at the center of the seven-leaf spirit mushroom's leaves, bloomed, withered, then gave way to a crimson spirit mushroom that gradually condensed into a spore… this process took the seven-leaf spirit mushroom only ten years.

During those ten years, Zhan Jiao'e hovered on the brink of death, while Zhao Zixun, whose battle soul lay shattered, had turned completely white-haired, gaunt, sitting cross-legged there as if petrified.

But when that tiny spore reappeared, Zhao Zixun's eyes snapped open.

At that moment, Zhan Jiao'e also moved.

She opened her eyes, suffused with blood-red, glanced at Zhao Zixun, then suddenly opened her mouth and expelled a mouthful of rich black qi.

That black qi swiftly condensed into a humanoid shape and rushed toward the spore.

Zhan Jiao'e, worthy of her multi-life evil nature, would do anything to keep herself alive.

Over those ten years, her body was imprisoned by the seven-leaf spirit mushroom in the Nether Realm's depths, her Xiūwéi continually siphoned by the mushroom, yet the Nether Realm's depths border the Wangchuan River, and the Wangchuan River never lacks yin-sha qi.

Thus Zhan Jiao'e found another way: she no longer clung to competing with the seven-leaf spirit mushroom for Spiritual Qi, but instead directly absorbed the yin-sha qi overflowing from the Wangchuan River.

This yin-sha qi lingered within Zhan Jiao'e's body, quietly cultivating, waiting for just this moment when the seven-leaf spirit mushroom matured and released its spore.

In the blink of an eye, at the instant that black qi was about to devour the spore, Zhao Zixun condensed his final breath of true qi and slashed at the black qi.

And his battle soul, the only remnant left after its shattering, swiftly gathered from the seven-leaf spirit mushroom's stalk onto the spore's surface, enveloping it.

Zhao Zixun formed hand seals, pointed his sword toward the heavens above the Nether Realm's depths, and shouted loudly: 'Wanwan, go! Flee quickly!'

The battle soul enveloping the spore surged upward without cease.

That black qi, re-formed and condensed, pursued relentlessly…

"Wanwan! Wanwan!"

My body was shaken hard, and Yu Nian's voice burst into my eardrums, snapping my awareness back.

"Wanwan, why are you spacing out? Why are you crying?"

At this moment, my face was streaked with blood and tears.

I looked around and realized I was still inside the barrier.

And what I had just witnessed were memories from my past life.

As it turns out, the connection between me, Zhao Zixun, and Zhan Jiao'e is exactly this.

As it turns out, even in my past life, Zhao Zixun sacrificed so much for me.

As it turns out, my true form is a seven-leaf spirit mushroom; my father is a piled-floor plant, once the master of the Nether Realm; my mother is a thousand-year spirit mushroom.

I inherited my father's appearance and my mother's habits; I ought to be the next master of the Nether Realm.

Yet before I came of age, the Nether Realm suffered a calamity of innocent disaster in its struggle for territory with the ancient Feng Clan in the Nether Realm, leaving all living beings in misery.

What has become of the Nether Realm now…?

Back then, it took only ten years for Zhan Jiao'e to condense the yin-sha qi of the Wangchuan River into that black qi that attacked me.

So, now that over a hundred years have hurriedly passed, what should she restore herself to?

During this time, how many ill-intentioned people have reached out a helping hand to Zhan Jiaoe?

My parents, being controlled by someone, built that little shrine, voluntarily... for Zhan Jiaoe's continuation of life...