Chapter 177: Half a Lifetime's Fate

“What are you looking at? Oh, I finally get it. So you've always liked me. The reason you argued with me so much before was just to get my attention.” Zu An thought of the innocent crushes between elementary school students in his past life, where if someone liked another, they couldn’t help but tease them. He analyzed the situation, taking it for granted.

Fury value from Qiao Xueying: 999!

“Alright, alright, 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 again on the road to the underworld, I won’t tell her what you did to me.”

Fury value from Qiao Xueying: 1024!

Seeing that he was about to say more, Qiao Xueying finally exploded, “Have you said enough?”

“If you really want me to talk, I couldn’t finish in three days and three nights. Alas, who made Heaven bless me with such an exceptional mouth? Even you couldn’t resist kissing it.” Zu An said this while touching his lips.

Fury value from Qiao Xueying: 1024!

She was truly going crazy. This guy was absolutely an oddball. She must have been out of her mind just now, to have had such messy thoughts about him.

Taking a deep breath, she snorted coldly, “Don’t you feel any changes in your body?”

“Changes? What changes could there be… Huh?” Zu An raised his hand, suddenly taken aback. He realized his internal injuries were mostly healed, and even his primal energy had fully recovered. “What… what’s going on?”

Even with his typically unconcerned nature, he was now completely bewildered.

“I just activated my clan’s secret technique on you—‘Half-Life Bond’. From now on, you will have half of my lifespan and vitality. As for healing your injuries, that was just a side effect,” Qiao Xueying explained.

“I only have half of your lifespan and vitality?” Zu An immediately jumped up. “What grudge, what enmity, for you to do such a thing to me? Originally, I could have lived for a hundred years, and now I only have half your lifespan?”

Zu An sighed, “Never mind. You did it to save me, after all. It’s better than dying immediately. If it’s only half, then it’s only half.”

Qiao Xueying glared at him through gritted teeth. “Do you have any idea what my original lifespan was?”

Zu An looked her over. “Judging by your curved eyebrows and small mouth, you don’t look like someone blessed with good fortune. You definitely won’t live long, seventy or eighty at most.”

Qiao Xueying said resentfully, “Under normal circumstances, I could live for at least fifteen hundred years. But now I’ve given half of it to you, and you’re still complaining it’s too little?”

Zu An was instantly stunned. “How much? Fifteen hundred years?”

Qiao Xueying snorted and turned her face away. “That’s the minimum. As my cultivation deepens, it’s not impossible to exceed two thousand years.”

“How can a human live that long…” Zu An suddenly realized something. “You’re not human?”

“Who said I was human?” Qiao Xueying rolled her eyes. “I merely grew up in the human world.”

“So what exactly is your race? Dragon maiden? Fox spirit?” Zu An guessed while running behind her and lifting her skirt to look.

Qiao Xueying was both embarrassed and furious. She quickly pressed her skirt back down. “What are you doing?!”

“I’m checking if you have a tail behind your butt,” Zu An replied earnestly.

Seeing her firmly hold her skirt down, Zu An, not yet content, continued, “By the way, what is your true form? You often manifested some vines earlier. You’re not a tree demon, are you?”

In his impression, tree demons were all like the old hag who forced Nie Xiaoqian to do things, certainly not good characters.

“You’re the tree demon! Your whole family are tree demons!” Qiao Xueying couldn’t help but curse.

“So what are you?” Zu An grew even more curious.

“I won’t tell you.” Qiao Xueying’s gaze fell on the two spearheads embedded in his arm, and her heart softened. She then added, “Knowing my identity brings no benefits; it will only bring endless trouble.”

“Alright, alright, if you don’t want to say, then don’t,” Zu An mumbled. Seeing that the terracotta warriors were only a few zhang away from them, he pulled out the spearheads from his arm. Then, taking Qiao Xueying with him, he charged towards them.

Now his injuries were mostly healed by Qiao Xueying. In a way, he was fully revived. Although he no longer had the berserk boost from the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra, he wouldn’t have to be so anxious when fighting.

Of course, because his speed wasn't as fast as before, even with the Sunflower Mirage 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.

Finding an opportunity, he leaped out of the terracotta warriors’ encirclement. Then, under Qiao Xueying’s bewildered gaze, he cupped her face and kissed her again.

“Mmm-mm!” Qiao Xueying finally managed to break free, hitting him with a mix of shame and anger. “What are you doing?!”

“Nothing much. Just now, I kissed you once, and I was fully healed. I thought if I kissed you a few more times, wouldn’t my injuries recover again?” Zu An wondered why it didn’t work this time. Was it because the kiss wasn’t long enough?

“You wish!” Qiao Xueying cursed with a red face. “‘Half-Life 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 stunned. “You gave the most precious thing in your life to me?”

Qiao Xueying’s face reddened, and she turned her face away. “I just didn’t want to die here. Don’t overthink it.”

“That excuse is too fake; you clearly looked like you had nothing left to live for earlier,” Zu An couldn’t help but mumble. “Why do you talk so much nonsense? Can’t I, this lady, suddenly decide I don’t want to die? Besides, I still have to save your wife!” The more Qiao Xueying spoke, the angrier she became.

Fury value from Qiao Xueying: 213!

Zu An originally wanted to ask more, but the terracotta warriors charged at them again, so he could only continue fighting.

At this point, the terracotta warriors were also full of doubt. This human was clearly on the verge of collapse just now. Why did he get a mouth-to-mouth touch from that long-haired person and instantly recover fully?

Are all humans cheaters?

In grief and indignation, they watched their companions fall one by one. Though they tried hard to leave wound after wound on that guy, they still couldn’t kill him.

After their opponent picked up that glowing stick again, their collapse accelerated even more.

After a bloody battle, Zu An finally defeated all the terracotta warriors. However, he left one last terracotta warrior alive.

This was because Qiao Xueying, in his arms, had already fainted. She had lost too much blood and was severely injured. And later, she had activated her clan’s secret technique to save him, greatly depleting her vitality, leaving her close to the end of her life force.

Zu An had initially deliberately provoked her to anger, to prevent her from falling asleep. Unfortunately, when he was in a desperate struggle with the terracotta warriors later, he couldn’t spare the concentration to talk to her. By the time he looked at her again, she had fallen into a coma.

He reached out and checked her nose, finding that her breathing was barely perceptible.

Not to mention having to enter the Heavenly Secret Realm later, even if he took her out right now, it would probably be difficult for her to last until she could receive treatment.

So he decided to take a breather at this stage, to spend the accumulated fury points and see if he could draw anything good to save her. After all, he had drawn healing potions several times before; there was still a chance to draw something this time.

Of course, it would be even better if he could draw some magical items to deal with the upcoming Heavenly Secret Realm. In the Earth Secret Realm, they were almost wiped out, so the next Heavenly Secret Realm would definitely be even harder to deal with.

The reason for drawing here was out of fear that Mi Li would discover something after they left. That’s why he deliberately left one last terracotta warrior alive, to prevent the Earth Seal from being lifted and them being instantly teleported out.

He quickly tallied it up. The fury value earned this time wasn’t as much as before, only 49,217 points. He figured it was mainly because the enemies encountered in the underground palace this time weren’t very intelligent, each contributing too little.

A total of 492 draws were possible. Because Qiao Xueying’s life hung by a thread, Zu An no longer bothered with those superficial rituals from before; he quickly began drawing.