ASER - Chapter 194
Chapter 194: Success
Theoretically, A'Diao's body couldn't withstand the Sun Image Rays, which even Spirit Kings feared and had to defend against, the moment she was surrounded by a large amount and they touched her surface. Her likely experience could be explained in about three seconds.
1. Skin erosion.
2. Flesh incineration.
3. Bone shattering.
Someone like her, whose foundation was still human, wouldn't be able to feel even a hint of the so-called "mutating" power possessed by any Sun Image Rays.
No matter how genius, one couldn't surpass the limits of their genes; this ironclad rule applied even to the First Generation.
So... A'Diao's process reached the second step, and this step was halfway through—her internal organs, including her heart, had not yet been incinerated, but her musculature was.
Actually, it was thanks to the resources she had devoured during her frantic escape. Because her cultivation and physique hadn't kept up, a large amount had stagnated in her muscles and meridians, resulting in semi-ineffective absorption, but this had coincidentally formed an energy field in an indirect sense.
Otherwise, A'Diao might very well have completed these three steps in a single second.
Now, it paused for a moment. The light specks were primarily consuming this energy field, and during this pause, A'Diao finally used her mental threads to cast a technique underwater.
Water-element Dragon Abyss, Cloud-Walking Through the Void.
Come!
Suddenly, with a splash from the lake... plants entangled and dragged by mental threads from underwater, mixed with a large volume of water, danced wildly like a dragon beneath the surface. After sweeping up a large quantity of brilliantly glowing purple flowering plants from underwater, it scooped them up.
Underwater, it was a water dragon; out of the water, a flower dragon. It was a dragon-shaped body formed by intertwined flowers—red climbing vines, purple blossoms, crystal clear as if made of jade. After emerging from the water, an overwhelming yin-cold aura swept through the entire space... It then explosively split and surrounded A'Diao.
Water splashed. After coiling, the flowers on the dragon's body came into contact with the light specks.
It was the ultimate yin-cold.
They were the ultimate yang-destruction.
Upon contact... there was the elemental suppression of ice and fire clashing, and also the effect of heavenly thunder igniting earthly fire. But it indeed attracted and suppressed these light specks. In the process of them conflicting and devouring each other, A'Diao, having luckily bought a little time while on the verge of death, did two things—continued to dismantle her bloodline, and activated the Yin-Yang seeds and the array plate. She was going to break through to the Star Realm!
Toilet: !!!
Obviously, A'Diao was taking another risk, but Toilet knew this risk was imperative. Her outer body was already completely incinerated, meaning only half of her physique remained. She simply couldn't successfully complete the final bloodline removal and sealing effect. It was very likely she wouldn't be able to retain a complete cultivation aura, or even suffer a complete collapse, qi deviation, and direct energy self-detonation.
She had to create a new body, but with the light specks present, she needed to both quickly complete the bloodline dismantling and repair a new body—this was impossible.
Therefore, she had to add an extra task—to use the breakthrough to the Star Realm, accelerating the process during the Star Realm's exclusive physique-reconstruction phase assisted by the spiritual path, directly promoting the bloodline sealing.
But this carried a risk: the heavenly tribulation.
The Star Realm heavenly tribulation was terrifying. She was currently on the brink of death and had no spare strength to undergo the tribulation. If the light specks interfered, it was highly probable she would die directly under the heavenly tribulation.
The probability of success for this was only 10%, yet she still did it.
The second array plate activated, the dual Yin-Yang seeds were brought out.
The tribulation lightning experienced during a breakthrough was a very strange existence. It didn't necessarily exist in the sky; theoretically, it could appear in any space. As long as it sensed someone breaking through, it would manifest the corresponding lightning tribulation to strike the person.
These were the rules after the birth of spiritual energy.
And now, although A'Diao was in a secret realm beneath the Orchid Water Abyss, and within a space inside a mountain in a dense forest within that secret realm, it was equivalent to being separated by several layers of space.
Yet, it still manifested above the mountain.
It manifested right under the gazes of Qing Zan and the other Lesser Spirit King who were fighting.
"Star Realm lightning tribulation!" Qing Zan immediately realized A'Diao was breaking through. It was possibly forced, as this was definitely not a good place for a breakthrough.
But since she chose to break through, it meant the breakthrough might offer a way out of the predicament.
Perhaps because the scene of A'Diao's previous breakthrough to the Glimmer Realm was too formidable, everyone in Tang Song knew that Chen A'Diao was a scheming character extremely adept at using difficult situations to her advantage, strategize, and ascend.
Every breakthrough of hers signified a comeback.
What if she succeeded in breaking through this time?
The fact that she hadn't been killed by the curse yet indicated that the biggest surprise in this plan already existed. What else was impossible?
This wasn't Qing Zan's worry; it was her opponent's.
The middle-aged man's pupils flickered darkly. With his Spirit King level cultivation, he could tell this lightning tribulation was not simple. So, this time, it was his turn to want to rush into the mountain, but it was also his turn to be blocked by Qing Zan.
Damn it!
After being blocked twice, a ruthless intent arose in the middle-aged man's heart. He suddenly controlled a long-range attack, and terrifying torrents of metal directly bombarded the mountain.
Qing Zan's expression turned cold. Just as she was about to attack him, she vaguely felt something was wrong.
Not good!!!
By the time Qing Zan reacted, a bizarre mental shockwave arrived.
With a hum... both she and the man, the two Spirit Kings, felt their minds go blank for an instant.
In that instant, his body shifted.
After all, they were Spirit Kings, too powerful. Sometimes, when the mind lost control, the spirituality within their bodies had already formed an autonomous system, like a muscle's stress response. After countless battles, big and small, and centuries of tempering, they had developed an instinct to deal with sudden dangers.
Defend and evade.
In the dense forest, two tentacle-like fluorescent creatures tore through the interlayer, suddenly appearing, and then... Swish!
Two tentacles simultaneously pierced through both their bodies.
Armor was penetrated, and flesh and blood splattered from both Spirit Kings... but they also snapped back to their senses.
Swish, swish! The two immediately split their bodies... teleported and reformed in another area, and sealed their domains onto their bodies to suppress the constantly devouring light specks on their wounds.
Damn it, what is this monster!!
To the naked eye, the two tentacles returned to their main body. They saw countless light specks in the dense forest combine into a huge, ten-meter-long monster shaped like an octopus.
"Sun Image Primordial Beast!!!"
To put it bluntly, a Sun Image Primordial Beast was a species born from Sun Image Rays that were too massive and unabsorbed, then fused with spiritual energy. Something like a living Sun Image spiritual plant host?
Anyway, that was the gist of it.
But it was terrifying because it possessed self-awareness and knew how to lie in wait and hunt. In the First Generation, it was generally believed that one could avoid the dangers of the Sun Image Primordial Feast simply by avoiding the Sun Image Rays, but this thing would actively hunt people, and specifically targeted the strong.
It wouldn't even deign to look at the weak.
For example... when A'Diao arrived, it had noticed her.
Not even a Grandmaster. Am I supposed to act against that?
Not worthy.
But these two Spirit Kings were great. Fighting to the death over a cave—if you don't go in, I will; if I go in, I won't let you; if I don't go in, you can't either...
So it lay in wait, got closer, and finally erupted.
Insidiously cunning, it actually succeeded in its sneak attack.
At this moment, Qing Zan suddenly felt that this wretched place really needed an insidious character like the Mountain Head; she herself couldn't handle this job.
What kind of creatures were these? Even the Sun Image Primordial Beast was so shameless.
The man's face turned green. "How can a Sun Image Primordial Beast exist here? Wasn't it said that after the day of the Sun Image Primordial Feast, Sun Image Primordial Beasts would self-destruct?!"
A ghost would be the one to answer him, and he didn't need an answer either. He decisively fled—towards the large whirlpool.
But Qing Zan couldn't run. She was afraid that if she fled, this Sun Image Primordial Beast would enter the cave.
It hadn't thought much of A'Diao before, but now it was uncertain. Chen A'Diao, undergoing tribulation, would surely gather immense energy.
She could only resist head-on...
Boom!!!
While the heavily injured Qing Zan fought with the Sun Image Primordial Beast, the man fled, but he didn't intend to run too far. He guessed that Qing Zan couldn't escape; she had to stay and tie down the Sun Image Primordial Beast.
This gave him an opportunity.
Lie in wait, until she and the Sun Image Primordial Beast had fought to a near standstill... He would be the oriole.
However, he also noticed that the lightning tribulation had expanded. His expression changed slightly. This tribulation's pressure was too strong. Was it a Star Realm lightning tribulation? Why did it feel not quite right? The aura was a bit strange.
Blood-red, blood-red, and tinged with black qi, like a demon undergoing tribulation.
The uncertainty was too great. He hoped that Qing Zan and the Sun Image Primordial Beast would soon injure each other severely. It mustn't wait until Chen A'Diao successfully passed her tribulation.
Just as the man was thinking this, Boom!!!
The lightning struck down. The speed of the tribulation lightning was extremely terrifying; even a Lesser Spirit King couldn't dodge it, let alone react in time. After all, it was lightning destined to strike someone; how could it let you dodge? Wouldn't that make the rules lose face?
However, this was very strange lightning. At first glance, it was completely blood-red, with swirling, distorted black qi, but within this blood-red, there were countless blood-like filaments.
If the man hadn't just been distracted by watching Qing Zan's fight, he should have recognized that this tribulation lightning was carrying "private goods"—it wasn't just a Star Realm lightning tribulation, but also a bloodline lightning tribulation.
Above the wooden hut, the tribulation lightning responded and descended, striking A'Diao's body, which also meant it simultaneously covered the special flower dragon continuously entwining her and the light specks.
When undergoing a Star Realm tribulation, too many interfering elements were most taboo. But A'Diao's was a special situation: if she didn't go through with it, she'd die, so how she did it was secondary.
Anyway, at this moment, she felt the destruction and repair of her body, and also sensed the frenzy of the light specks.
It had intelligence. It knew it had encountered a tough opponent; if it couldn't consume her, it would be dealt with by the tribulation lightning.
The tribulation lightning's prestige wasn't necessarily lower than its own.
So... seeing itself being suppressed by these special flowering plants and unable to deal with A'Diao, the light specks suddenly had a flash of inspiration and rushed towards A'Diao's head—I can't handle these flowers, but if I affect your mental body and make you unable to control these flowers, then won't I win?!
"No, it's being controlled by someone!"
"There's some living being outside controlling them, otherwise they wouldn't have such strong intelligence."
She had miscalculated.
Fuck!
Both A'Diao and Toilet couldn't help but want to curse.
These damn otherworldly ghost rays were truly frustrating. They descended upon the human world completely aiding demon spirits and destroying the human race, and were so cunning and intelligent. Why didn't lightning strike them dead!
A'Diao felt things were too difficult for her. As the spiritual energy revival went on longer, and with the frantic consumption of cultivation resources by those ancient factions, other people reached the Star Realm as if it were wholesale at a farmer's market.
But when it came to her, all sorts of ridiculously powerful and bizarre things emerged!
Batch after batch, endlessly.
Ah!
A'Diao was furious, but her brain region was indeed attacked by the light specks... A'Diao had to control the Climbing Dragon flower substance to protect her head... like in a Muay Thai fight.
You hit my stomach, I protect my stomach; you hit my chest, I protect my chest; you hit my head, I...
She really wanted to counterattack, for example, if you hit my head, I'd do a "monkey steals the peach"...
But she couldn't.
Chen A'Diao, your head is glowing.
Boom!!
A'Diao, already enduring the tribulation lightning's attack, was frantically dismantling her bloodline, frantically devouring resources to replenish her losses, and also had to control the flower dragon, busy to death. But actually, these Sun Image light specks were correct in their approach.
Attacking the brain region directly caused all three of her processes to begin to collapse.
Removing the firewood from under the cauldron, one force breaks all techniques.
Complete disintegration.
A'Diao felt her brain region collapsing... all her mental threads were trembling, even beginning to break.
She would die.
Was she going to die again?
This present continuous tense was truly hateful.
It was both spiritual despair and physical destruction.
She couldn't even remember how many times the process of continuous reconstruction had occurred, or how painful it was.
"It's no good! You must stop immediately! I am your bonded life-source. I can protect your mental body and dual cores, preserving the best foundation. Then contact the Lesser Spirit King outside to come in. There should be people from Lushan outside. Later, let the Mountain Head reconstruct your physical body. That's the only way."
"A'Diao, don't force yourself!"
"As long as the green hills remain, there's no fear of running out of firewood, A'Diao..."
Toilet watched A'Diao desperately holding on in such a dire situation, feeling a pang of sorrow, and couldn't help but want to protect her.
It was too hard for her; she truly had it too hard.
She should have been a prodigy soaring with a favorable wind, someone protected by the glory and affection of this world, rising straight up. But she was always like this.
It watched her, step by step, treading on thorns as she climbed.
Tiny step by tiny step, then large strides, then a frantic run, then a leap. But someone was unwilling, and heavily struck her down, crushing her foundations... Yet she was unreconciled, clinging to the past bloodstains and continuing to climb.
She should be standing on high, looking down on everything with disdain.
"A'Diao..."
A'Diao, whose mental threads had almost 99% disintegrated, was barely responsive...
Under the tribulation lightning, under the light specks, under the flower dragon, under the bloodline.
She was the most fragile existence.
Like the most helpless child in a deer hunt, forced onto the battlefield. Toilet wanted her to shed her armor and desert, but she...
Finally, she gave Toilet a response.
"I won't."
A weak voice came, just like when she was young in the dim pharmacy, abandoned by everyone, enduring her illness alone.
Weak, yet stubborn and headstrong.
I won't.
I don't want to die, I can't die, why should I be the one to die?
"I, Chen A'Diao, am peerless in this world!"
Then, deep within her brain region, that solid mental body completely melted, turning into countless liquid threads that densely expanded throughout her entire mental sea.
Brilliant radiance, like the sun blazing and the moon scorching.
Extremely yang, yet cold.
It signified unyielding strength, and also extreme calmness.
At that moment, Toilet seemed to see an infinitely expanding mental world.
Countless fragments flashed by.
The ultimate, strongest will—unrelated to romantic love, not familial love, nor affection, nor desire. Any emotion that living beings easily become obsessed with or are bewitched by, she had none.
At this moment, Toilet saw a follow-up.
Regarding the answer to a question it had once asked A'Diao but had not received.
Bullied, endured it for money, was that all there was to it?
Actually, the old Daoist priest later tossed her two books: one on herbal medicine, one on law... Later still, she secretly snuck to that household and put a medicinal powder she had researched and concocted into the favorite food of that hooligan. The young hooligan ate it, and afterwards became mentally deranged and frenzied, his eyes rolling back, foaming at the mouth, as if possessed. Sure enough, some villagers panicked and sought help at the Daoist temple.
What was the old Daoist priest like? He was deliberately vague, seeming somewhat troubled. The villagers became even more frightened. Someone quietly approached A'Diao, tempting her with milk tea and scallion pancakes to get information. She, with an air of innocence and pity, said: "Master... Master said he might be the reincarnation of a demon, but, but he's also innocent, innocent in this life. As long as he's well taken care of and not provoked, he won't... won't awaken his demonic ghost form. Master is afraid of harming him, but... actually, I don't understand either... Are there any more pancakes? I want four."
Later, it was heard that the hooligan was isolated and ostracized by the villagers, who were usually cliquish and exclusionary. Whenever any family encountered misfortune, he would be bagged and brutally beaten. His originally doting family also fractured internally; relatives distanced themselves, and his immediate family, unable to withstand the pressure, drove him out of the village. Later, it was heard that this person roamed outside, acting tyrannically, offended someone he shouldn't have, and was beaten to death, his body never found.
The villagers, being superstitious, all said this person was indeed an evil creature, bringing bad luck, and didn't even allow a funeral to be held.
After learning this news, the two Daoist priests, one old and one young, bought pig ears and smashed cucumbers. One ate the snacks with wine while admiring the moon, the other munched on a steamed bun while watching cartoons.
No one mentioned it, no one asked, but from that time on, certain unspoken secrets began to grow deep within A'Diao's heart.
Life, isn't this how it should be?
Either you die, or I die.
But I've struggled so hard to survive. I don't want to be bullied. If you really bully me, then you go die.
Go die.
That year, she was only 10 years old.
This year, she is 19 years old.
Counting on her fingers, it seemed today was her birthday.
Truly 19 years old in the real sense.
If today passed, she would have successfully lived through her first year after adulthood.
On the first day after her birthday, her mental body completely melted. Myriad mental threads bloomed into a flower.
It not only bloomed in her mental sea but also radiated outwards from her head.
Blooming throughout the entire oval space.
After it bloomed, countless flowers beneath the lake were suddenly hollowed out.
Forty-four flower dragons burst out of the water, roaring... a multitude of dragons coiled.
The light specks were terrified.
Because there were too many of them.
Bullying the few with numbers.
And after these dragons entwined A'Diao's body, just like Nie Yuanyuan once controlled the spirituality of bamboo for her own use, they now became A'Diao's most formidable support.
Devouring the light specks, resisting the tribulation lightning.
When it comes to power, the spirit is king, because it can control energy, and energy can never, in turn, control the spirit.
At this moment, she was king!
And at this time, A'Diao, after awakening her complete mental body aptitude, finally sensed through this terrifying mental body—after these flowers devoured the light specks, it was as if two completely opposing forces clashed and annihilated each other, but in the instant of annihilation, a new type of power was also born.
It was streams of golden radiance.
When it existed, A'Diao realized that the heavenly might of the curse within her body was submitting.
The power of the Celestial Clan, especially the curse power of mental attribute, should logically be NO1 among all powers. Only an existence of the same attribute or the same level could make it submit.
A'Diao decisively attached her terrifying mental power to it.
Spirit attachment, control, drawing it into her dual cores, while her main body was tempered...
And after her mental power strengthened, A'Diao's speed of dismantling her bloodline skyrocketed hundreds of times, almost completing it in one step.
Finally... the last step, after dismantling the last trace of Chen Gui's bloodline.
Hum, it was like a peculiar sensation.
Perhaps similar to a whale finally removing all the barnacles that had been sucking its life force and causing it immense pain; it was free, powerful, and finally found the talent of an ocean king.
Hum!
A wave-like, ferocious pressure was released from her body.
The tribulation lightning passed!
Star Realm body reconstructed!
Limit? No.
Extraordinary? No!
Perfect?! 90%?
91, 92, 93... 100% perfect reconstruction. And even after this 100% purity of her physical shell, she still had spare capacity—internally.
Her five viscera and six bowels, all the internal tissues of her body, were completely tempered and reconstructed by her.
Millions upon millions of Star Coins were like ice cubes melting at 3000% high temperature... directly turning into steam, absorbed as easily as breathing.
After her dual cores advanced, that wisp of Langya spirituality trembled upon seeing the engulfed golden radiance, but it was quickly devoured.
It seemed to emit some thought at the end, but A'Diao didn't sense it clearly because she was advancing on all fronts.
Finally, in the last second.
The stars brilliant, a perfect realm surpassing the limits of human genes.
She reached it. And in that instant, her mental body also transformed... Opening her eyes, a golden glint flashed in her pupils for a moment, but with a hum, an intangible "field" was born from her body.
A naturally formed, pure spiritual domain—she got it.
The bloodline curse finally... vanished like smoke. But in an instant, A'Diao had a special feeling, as if once it left, she changed, truly transforming into another kind of existence.
However, perhaps it didn't leave, but rather dissipated on its own?
A'Diao was a little bewildered, but she did keenly perceive that its curse system had disintegrated.
The Chen family, for her, was like a kind of destiny, finally cast off—at least she had cast off the ancestral bad luck from Chen Gui.
Getting up, A'Diao raised her hand and swept up everything inside the wooden hut. All the substances under the lake, even the water body itself, were also taken by her.
Scraping the land bare.
One second to scrape the land bare, two seconds to exit the space.
Not long after the curse erupted, because the Yinglong had passed through—never mind the reactions of Zhao Yi and others in Jiangzhou—the military headquarters had detected it. Relying on powerful intelligence and numerous think tanks, the Commander also learned of the situation and vaguely guessed there was a imperial clan behind it. While his mood was complex, he subconsciously discovered a huge BUG.
He turned his head to look at Chen Xun, who was sitting and drinking coffee.
He was a bit stunned.
"You..."
Chen Xun: "What are your orders, General?"
"No, why are you...?"
Could it be that Chen Ran was cuckolded?
Thinking of the Chen family incident wildly rumored in official circles, and how his own wife and daughter-in-law fawned over the Chen family photos like simps every day, in reality, the internal officialdom could now be divided into two factions.
First faction: When will that old dog Chen Ran die? Hahaha!
Second faction: It's fine if he doesn't die, maybe he's been cuckolded! The awesome kid isn't even his seed. Let him show off, let him be pretentious! Hahaha!
A big shot in the military like him naturally wouldn't get involved in such childish matters.
So he supported both factions.
But now, it seemed, could it be the second faction?
Chen Xun was so smart, he understood in a second and said lightly, "This is my machine intelligence entity. Actually, my real self has also fallen unconscious."
Ah, is that so?
The Commander raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise in his eyes. "It's not strange that you can create machine intelligence, nor is it strange to anticipate risks and prepare in advance. But to program an intelligent procedure with your own thinking, that's..."
More than that, it was equivalent to predicting all of today's possibilities in advance. Otherwise, where would the program process come from, and how could it cope with today's situation? Machine intelligence is created; it cannot possess all the thinking capabilities of a human body.
This Chen Xun's achievement was likely not accomplished in a single day. At the very least, the intelligence of this mechanical body had been programmed by him for a long time, at least to his own level.
"I have no cultivation aptitude, so this is all I could do. However, due to the risks involved, I didn't report it to you beforehand, General. I apologize. As for whether my main body is dead, that depends on the subsequent situation."
The imperial court might not allow a robot intelligence to occupy an official position. If his main body perished, he would have to rely on certain connections to maintain his current power.
Daoguang's side was implicit; this Commander could be an explicit supporter.
With military achievements to his name, plus a few words from people like the Commander, it would be enough for him to achieve his wish.
The Commander naturally understood in an instant. He patted his shoulder, tacitly agreeing, but also vaguely felt—Chen Xun seemed to think this curse matter would be resolved quickly.
Now, it was merely dealing with the aftermath of the worst-case scenario.
After Chen Xun achieved his goal, he contacted the Chen family.
At the Chen family's old residence, Madam Xu had suppressed the news of Chen Ran's coma. But just as she was about to ask Xie Yuqing, that person was watching a melodramatic soap opera.
If she remembered correctly, it was the soap opera A'Diao was binge-watching when they took the family photos, with a core plot like: "After a scumbag PUA'd my daughter and caused her tragic death, I, as the mother-in-law, underwent plastic surgery, transformed, and PUA'd him back, finally making him fall in love with me and live a life worse than death, paying the price he deserved..."
Xu Zhaoyin, considering Chen Ran was only in a coma and not completely dead, and considering there might be a turn for the better, didn't explain directly. She just calmly and casually asked about Chen Yang. The latter was eating cherry tomatoes and said he was doing homework.
"Why are you asking about him?"
Xu Zhaoyin thought for a moment. It was probably because the incident had just happened, Xie Yuqing didn't know the situation, and it happened to be the time Chen Yang was doing homework in the Little Spirit Gate cultivation room. Xie Yuqing never supervised her child doing homework, so she wouldn't know.
However, since she asked, Xie Yuqing casually turned on the monitor.
When it turned on, Xu Zhaoyin was quite worried Xie Yuqing would cry, but... they only saw Chen Yang lying prone.
Dead?
Xu Zhaoyin had already prepared 18 mental drafts of what to say, lest this person cry herself unconscious.
Instead, she saw Xie Yuqing roll her eyes and mutter, "Brat, sleeping in again. He gets sleepy as soon as he sees a problem. I don't know who he learned this bad habit from."
But she suddenly realized that most people in the family were top students; it seemed only her side was at a disadvantage. She immediately changed her tune: "Well, balancing work and rest is also good... Yangyang, this child, is just so sensible. He doesn't even tell me when he's so tired, and still studies so hard. Heavens, this child is too diligent, my heart aches for him."
Xu Zhaoyin watched her achieve this logical self-consistency and suddenly felt there was no need to explain for now.
After all, Chen Xun had just contacted her and said there should be a turn for the better.
Then...
"Why haven't you left yet? What did you come here for anyway?" Xie Yuqing saw Xu Zhaoyin sit down, paused, her gaze a bit strange, and subconsciously checked her own attire.
Could it be because she was barefaced and wearing loungewear, not looking her best, and this Xu woman was secretly taking photos of her for blackmail material?
Too shameless!
"I came... to deliver professional tutoring materials for Yangyang."
Xu Zhaoyin threw out a pile of test papers, so many, they were stacked over a meter high on the coffee table.
Xie Yuqing: "..."
Is this Xu woman toxic? She's blocking my view of the TV.
Outside the mountain, outside the cave entrance.
Seeing that the lightning tribulation was about to succeed, the Sun Image Primordial Beast suddenly seemed to sense something, shrieked in terror, and turned to flee. When the man saw this, although he didn't know what was happening, he realized Chen A'Diao had escaped and immediately teleported for a sneak attack.
After Qing Zan finished fighting the Sun Image Primordial Beast and saw it suddenly retreat, she understood something must have happened on Chen A'Diao's side. But she was too weak. After the middle-aged man's sneak attack... she blocked it, but vomited blood.
Her consumption was too great, and her injuries too severe. Because the previous Sun Image light specks were attached to her wounds, the man could flee and hide to recover, but she couldn't; she had no time to heal. Originally, she could still suppress him somewhat, but now she could only launch a desperate counterattack.
Boom!!
The middle-aged man was pierced through the heart by a spear from Qing Zan's final burst. Vomiting blood, he pulled out the spear and instantly reconstructed his heart.
For a Spirit King, this kind of injury was not fatal.
"As expected of Lushan's Qing Zan, truly formidable. However, today you are destined to die here with Chen A'Diao."
The middle-aged man's face was ruthless, just as he was about to strike...
Swish! Tearing through the void, another tentacle, piercing through again, but this time it pierced his brain.
Piercing was one thing, but the tentacle dissolved, turning into terrifying corpse poison.
Space tore open once more, just like how the Sun Image Primordial Beast had appeared—that non-human yet sentient existence.
When Qing Zan saw the person who appeared, she was stunned for a moment, and in the next second, she felt a chilling fear.
Not good.
Crash! A tentacle attacked the middle-aged man, directly inflicting severe damage to his brain region with terrifying corpse poison, suppressing his mental body. The middle-aged man, after all, was a Lesser Spirit King. He tried to struggle, his domain distorting and erupting, attempting to escape this state. But the corpse qi was overwhelming; the opponent was also a Lesser Spirit King, and moreover, a Corpse Spirit King who had terrified peers since the First Generation.
The opponent had just killed a Lesser Spirit King; it was not unlikely they would kill her too.
Qing Zan had just become vigilant when she saw the woman enveloped in terrifying black-gray corpse qi transform into two streams of corpse fluid... one enveloped the middle-aged man, the other enveloped the Sun Image Primordial Beast that was about to flee.
Qing Zan was shocked.
This... Corpse Spirit King?
She was actually going to devour a Sun Image Primordial Beast?!!!
Right, it seemed Corpse Spirit Kings indeed didn't belong to the human race, but were undead. They weren't afraid of having their life force extinguished by Sun Image phenomena. Moreover, as long as a Corpse Spirit King had enough corpses to endlessly repair its main body, it could completely withstand the power of Sun Image light specks and undergo bodily mutation.
But the mental body might not be able to withstand it. However, this person was Qu Xia'er, a genius who had independently created spirit attachment techniques just by reading First Generation books before spiritual energy had even revived.
Her... mental body was released.
Qing Zan saw a vast purgatorial world.
Mental Purgatory, King of Death.
"Ah!!!" The middle-aged man indeed broke down. He didn't die, but he was eaten alive.
Two streams of corpse fluid: one absorbed the Sun Image Primordial Beast, the other maintained the damage from the Sun Image light specks by absorbing his body.
And Qu Xia'er's main body was frantically reconstructing and advancing.
A pressure that terrified even Qing Zan emanated from her body.
Qing Zan subconsciously thought: If one Lesser Spirit King wasn't enough, she would be next.
When the last trace of essence blood and substance from the middle-aged man's body was completely devoured, and even his mental body was annexed, he erupted in a final, desperate burst of power.
The storm preceding the fall of a Lesser Spirit King...
Crash, the two streams of corpse fluid suddenly merged, directly engulfing even the storm.
Terrifying.
But even more terrifying was... after her body was reconstructed, Qu Xia'er's pupils shifted slightly. She looked down at her (Qing Zan) without any emotion, and also glanced briefly at the cave entrance.
With just that one glance, a certain someone who had just broken through, was in high spirits but had been sneakily trying to slip out, froze.
Two people.
Both Qing Zan and A'Diao instantly sensed they were targeted.
It's over, it's over!
A'Diao, hiding within the wall, felt like digging a hole in the ground; her composure was crumbling—she had wanted to come out, show off a bit, and help Qing Zan with a sneak attack to finish off that Lesser Spirit King, but look at the result! If she had known, she wouldn't have come out!! Ah! Why was Qu Xia'er here? Why was she so damn powerful?
Swallowing a Sun Image Primordial Beast and a Lesser Spirit King alive.
Look at her, then look at yourself...
The curse was KO'd. A'Diao didn't know what was happening with the Chen family, but on her end, after being glanced at by Qu Xia'er, her inner little evil dragon silently squatted down and raised a small white flag... Her body, however... swished out, using her newly advanced Star Realm's awesome physique... Thwack!
The weak and dying Qing Zan sensed the movement behind her, but being so weakened, her reaction and strength were less than one percent of her original. She truly didn't react in time, and then found a certain knockout point on the back of her neck struck by someone's hand chop.
With a thud, she was knocked unconscious.
Unfortunately, this was her disciple, and this acupoint technique was something she had personally taught her through special instruction.
What a good student indeed.
Benevolent master, filial disciple...
After knocking out her teacher with a thwack, A'Diao quickly stored Qing Zan's body in her living creature storage space, then thwacked down nimbly to her knees, her voice mournful, crying her heart out.
"Auntie Master, you're finally here! Diaodiao has suffered so much! They bullied me... just because Master Jiangnan isn't here, and you weren't here, they bullied me relentlessly! I almost died!"
"If Master Jiangnan were here, she would definitely protect me."
"After all, you and I are her only two relatives! We are family, blood is thicker than water, our feelings run deep!"
"Auntie, do you still remember me?"
Her crying posture was very typical: first kneeling, then sitting back on her heels, body leaning to one side, one hand clutching her heart while wiping tears with the other, sobbing and complaining, utterly grief-stricken, like the purest, most innocent, and wronged little white flower.
Qu Xia'er: "..."
A'Diao: "It's okay if you don't remember, I'll ask again."
Qu Xia'er finally spoke, "You snatched my food."
Who? Qing Zan?
That's my strong backer!
They're both my backers, why fry each other so eagerly!
Moreover, if Lushan and Qu Xia'er clashed, she would be like the scumbag husband caught between his wife and mistress arguing—definitely in a difficult position, as both palms and the backs of her hands are flesh.
She wanted to bestow favors equally and have peace in the world.
"Who? That woman just now? Heavens, she's a bodybuilder type, all sinewy muscle, it must be too tough, not tasty at all! Auntie, if you want to eat, I can recommend some targets who are old but firm, with tender, juicy meat and rich in nutrients—how about it?"
For example, those old dogs from the imperial clans.
A'Diao asked tentatively. Qu Xia'er narrowed her eyes, "You want to use me, and you already have a plan."
You even saw through that.
"No... I just... my heart aches for Master Jiangnan... By the way, has Master Jiangnan been resurrected? I have an excellent plan here—isn't the purpose of you specifically absorbing these Sun Image light specks for Master Jiangnan? I can raise its effectiveness by several LVs."
"Auntie, let us depend on each other and work together for Master Jiangnan, okay?"
"You are not alone, you still have me."
Chen A'Diao's survival skills were something Toilet had acknowledged since her novice days. She could fool gods and ghosts above, and fool idiots below.
Qu Xia'er was the former, because Chen A'Diao saw through her purpose and accurately identified her goal—to resurrect Qu Jiangnan.
Sure enough, Qu Xia'er's magnificent red pupils flickered slightly, and the terrifying corpse qi surrounding her finally began to dissipate... whistling, it suddenly enveloped A'Diao.
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