“What are you looking at? Ah, I get it now. You actually fancied me all this while. You only fought with me so often because you wanted to attract my attention!” Zu An was reminded of how adolescents who first came to know of love but didn’t know how to express their feelings ended up bullying their crushes so as to attract their attention.

Mm, makes perfect sense.

Qiao Xueying just glared at him.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for 999 Rage points!

“Forget it, since we’re going to die now, I shan’t hold it against you,” continued Zu An with a sigh. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Chuyan what you did to me even if we reunite with her on the way to the afterlife.”

Qiao Xueying couldn’t believe what was going through his mind.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for 1024 Rage points!

Zu An was about to say something else when Qiao Xueying finally exploded. “Are you done yet?!”

“Not really. I reckon I can go on for three days straight if need be. Heaven has blessed me with an astoundingly wonderful mouth—I mean, even you couldn’t resist the temptation to kiss me, no?” said Zu An as he reached out to touch his lips.

Qiao Xueying was on the verge of beating him senseless.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for 1024 Rage points!

Her vision was covered in a cloud of angry red mist. This bastard!! To think I had those sorts of thoughts towards him earlier on! I must have been possessed!

She took a deep breath and sniffed coldly.  “Don’t you feel anything different about your own body?”

“Different? What difference could there possibly… Hm?” Zu An raised his hand, but suddenly froze in shock. He realized that his injuries had mostly healed, and even his ki had been fully restored. “W-what’s going on?”

“I just used one of my race’s secret arts on you—Half Life’s Fate. From now on, you’ll share half of my lifespan and vitality. As for the healing of your wounds, that’s just a bonus,” explained Qiao Xueying.

“What? I only have half of your lifespan and vitality?” Zu An was alarmed. “Just what grudge do you hold against me to do this to me? I could have lived to a ripe old age of a hundred, but now, I only have half of your lifespan?!”

Qiao Xueying seethed in silence.

Zu An sighed deeply and said, “Forget it, I know that you’re doing this to save me. So be it then.”

Qiao Xueying gritted her teeth angrily and spat, “Don’t you know the length of my original lifespan?”

Zu An assessed her from head-to-toe before replying, “Well, judging by your curved eyebrows and small lips, I doubt that you’re a person blessed by fate. I reckon you don’t have too many years ahead of you. I’d say seventy to eighty at most.”

“Under normal circumstances, I would live to be one thousand five hundred years old, but I’ve just shared half of it with you. And yet, you’re still complaining about that?” sneered Qiao Xueying coldly.

Zu An was stunned. “W-what? One thousand five hundred years old?!”

Qiao Xueying turned her head away angrily. “That’s the minimum. As my cultivation increases, it’s not impossible for me to live for two thousand years.”

“How can a human live for that long…?” A thought suddenly struck Zu An. “Wait a moment. You aren’t human?”

“Who told you that I’m human?” Qiao Xueying rolled her eyes. “I just happened to grow up in the human world.”

“What race are you, then? Dragon girl? Fox girl?” Curious, Zu An tried to lift her skirt to take a look.

Qiao Xueying was both embarrassed and angered. She quickly pulled her skirt back down and bellowed, “What are you doing?”

“I’m trying to see if you have a tail,” replied Zu An earnestly.

Yet again, Qiao Xueying had no reply.

Unwilling to let the matter rest, he continued probing. “Speaking of which, what’s your actual body, then? Ah, I remember that you were able to conjure vines at will. My gosh, you can’t be a female tree demon, are you?”

His impression of tree demons stopped at old men forcing beautiful young women into becoming their concubines… Well, at least that was how it was portrayed in dramas.

“You’re the one who’s a tree demon! Your entire family are tree demons!” screamed Qiao Xueying.

“What are you, then?” 

“I shan’t tell you!” Qiao Xueying looked at the two halberd tips that were still lodged in his arm, and she suddenly found her heart mellowing down once more. “Nothing good will come from you knowing my identity. It’ll only bring you trouble.”

“Fine, fine. If you aren’t going to tell me, so be it,” grumbled Zu An.

In this short span of time they’d spent bickering, the terracotta soldiers were already barely tens of meters away from them. He quickly pulled out the halberd blades lodged in his arm before charging toward them, Qiao Xueying still wrapped around him.

With his body healed and ki restored, it was as if he had been born anew. Now that he’d recovered from his injuries, he no longer enjoyed the enhancements from the Phoenix Nirvana Sutra, but at the very least, he didn’t have to be scared of suddenly dropping dead anymore.

Still, the sharp reduction of his speed made it much harder for him to dodge the attacks of the terracotta soldiers, even with his Sunflower Phantasm. He managed to make a decent comeback, but it didn’t take long for his body to be covered in cuts once more.

He looked for an opportunity to escape the clutches of the terracotta soldiers, then gazed down at Qiao Xueying. She gazed back at him uncertainly, and he leaned down and kissed her.

“Uwuu!” In her injured state, it took Qiao Xueying some effort to struggle free of him. She glared at him furiously and bellowed, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing much. Since I was restored back to full health with one kiss, I thought that I could continue healing my injuries by kissing you a few more times.” 

Zu An was perplexed as to why it wasn’t working. Do I need to maintain the kiss a little longer?

“Ridiculous!” shouted Qiao Xueying. “Half Life’s Fate is the most valuable secret art for those of our race. It can only be used once in our lifetime!”

“It can only be used once in your lifetime?” Zu An was stunned. “You gave away the most valuable thing in your life to me?”

Qiao Xueying’s face reddened. “I just didn’t want to die here. Don’t think too much into it.”

“You could try to cook up a better lie. You were still mired in despair earlier,” remarked Zu An.

“Why do you have so many things to say? I just suddenly don’t want to die anymore, all right? Besides, I’m only here to help you save the young miss!” retorted Qiao Xueying.

You have successfully trolled Qiao Xueying for 213 Rage points!

He wanted to probe further, but the terracotta soldiers had already caught up with him, so he could only turn his focus back to the fight.

By this time, the terracotta soldiers were completely befuddled. They were certain that Zu An had been on the verge of collapsing a moment ago, but all of a sudden, he was full of energy once more.

Are humans supposed to be as resilient as cockroaches?

They watched helplessly as their comrades fell, one after another. Despite their desperate attempts to inflict even a single wound on him, they were still unable to end his life.

Things only took a worse turn when the human picked up the glowing stick. The burst of light would force them back whenever they wanted to launch a decisive assault, hastening their defeat.

After a bitter fight, Zu An finally managed to defeat all of the terracotta soldiers, but he left one of them alive at the very end.

He noticed that the woman tied to him had already lost consciousness. She was already severely injured, and had lost a lot of blood, but she still activated her race’s secret art to save him. The massive decrease in her vitality had caused her condition to worsen further.

Zu An had tried to anger her in order to keep her conscious, but it was impossible for him to continue talking to her while he was busy dealing with those terracotta soldiers. By the time he noticed it, she had already lost consciousness.

He placed his fingers on her philtrum and noticed that her breathing had grown incredibly shallow.

Putting aside the fact that they still had to overcome the Heaven Seal afterward, even if he took her out of the current trial right now, it was unlikely that she would be able to last long enough for him to find someone to treat her.

He decided to slow down his pace at this crucial moment, and finish spending all of his Rage points. He was hoping that he could get something to save her life. He’d drawn ‘Faith in Brother Spring’ several times in the past, so things were not completely hopeless yet.

If he could draw an artifact or two to help him deal with the Heaven Seal, that would be even better. Just the Earth Seal itself had nearly killed them, and the Heaven Seal was guaranteed to be even harder.

He was drawing the lottery here because he didn’t want to do it in front of Mi Li. This was why he intentionally spared the final terracotta soldier for the time being, lest he be automatically teleported out for clearing the Earth Seal.

He had 49,217 Rage points at the moment, far fewer than the usual amount. The terracotta soldiers had supplied him with some Rage points, but due to their low intelligence, he’d only received a small amount from each of them.

In any case, he had 492 attempts. Since Qiao Xueying’s life was already hanging by a thread, Zu An forsook his usual rituals, and dove straight into the lottery.