Cohabitation with Sword Spirit

Chapter 381 - 116: Good People Die Young

When Zhao Chenlu’s mottled figure melted completely into the silver vortex like a candle, the entire battlefield was enveloped in a deathly silence.

The conversation between Zhao Chenlu and Wang Jiu, though only a few sentences with not much content and low volume, was clearly heard by everyone present.

And then, with the intelligence index of those present, no one could miss the intimacy and even sweetness contained within those few words.

It was an utterly chilling sweetness.

Anyone familiar with Zhao Chenlu would have two impressions of this woman who was like the midday sun: one was her stunning beauty, and the other was the arrogance that matched that beauty.

Zhao Chenlu’s arrogance and even arrogance were renowned throughout the continent. At the age of 20, she had already established authority in her family unapologetically, and upon assuming the position of City Lord, she had stubbornly expelled the Holy Sect Envoy stationed in Golden Jade City within the very year she took office, even alerting the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect.

And when the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect personally arrived at Golden Jade City, with countless people inside and outside the city waiting to witness Zhao Chenlu’s embarrassment, Zhao Chenlu unceremoniously sent him back to Heaven-Reaching City after a private discussion. Her means and temperament remained the same, showing no change, and even became colder. The Sect Leader of the Saint Sect refrained from commenting on Zhao Chenlu’s actions thereafter.

Such an event was nearly unprecedented in the two-thousand-year history of the Saint Sect, which held authority over the Immortal Dao, that it chose to yield to the young Zhao Chenlu. This made her image even more unfathomable, and her arrogant and arrogant image also became more deeply ingrained in people’s hearts.

Yet such a fearless woman, who did not back down even in front of the Sect Leader of the Saint Sect, wept and complained in front of Wang Jiu like a wronged little girl... If it weren’t for the phenomenon of intersecting light and shadow being unique to Golden Jade City, and it being unheard of for someone to withstand such destruction with sheer flesh and blood, it would be unimaginable that the person speaking those words could be Zhao Chenlu.

This point was particularly difficult for the eldest son of Golden Jade City to accept. He had grown up under his sister’s wing, and in his heart, his sister was truly akin to a True Immortal in the heavens, untouched by the dust of the Mortal World. But just now, she seemed like a woman deeply in love, showing a world-shattering intimacy towards that Wang Jiu.

Even towards him, her own brother, she had never been so affectionate! Outsiders only thought that the eldest son of Golden Jade City enjoyed the Saint’s favor, but how could they know the kind of life he led as a child was worse than that of pigs and dogs! And this indifferent and arrogant sister fell in love with Wang Jiu... Just why the heck is that?! Had they met before?! They couldn’t have met, right! Today should be their first meeting, yet one look and they’re head over heels in love, is Wang Jiu really that astonishingly handsome?! Do chiseled features really have no rights?!

Zhao Jincheng stood in the Golden Desert, feeling his mind beginning to unravel, and the effects of the Moon Shadow Array’s loss of control gradually surfaced within him, and a moment later, a mouthful of black blood involuntarily spurted out, leaving Zhao Jincheng himself collapsing weakly.

——

On the other side, Wang Jiu stood motionless, the pure white Sword Body quietly floating where Zhao Chenlu’s body had melted.

After a while, the sound of footsteps on sand—one deep and one shallow—came from behind, and Li Wanqing coughed and asked.

"An acquaintance?"

Wang Jiu nodded, letting the pure white long sword tremble slightly: "An old friend, I never thought she would still be alive."

Li Wanqing’s body trembled upon hearing this: "Old friend?!"

For Wang Jiu, this term had special significance, because he had only awakened for a year, and none of the friends he’d made now could be called "old" friends.

A Celestial Divine Sword’s old friend could only be a certain kind of person...

"Really?" Li Wanqing asked, but upon speaking, felt she was asking unnecessarily. This Celestial Divine Sword, despite its behaviors occasionally provoking laughter or tears, had one admirable quality—he was particularly precise in his language and seldom misspoke. If he said it was an old friend, it must refer to the group with whom he once fought life and death, saving human civilization—the Jiu Immortal Venerables.

However... according to Wang Jiu, the Jiu Immortal Venerables of that time had all perished in the battle against the Demon Emperor. Even if they had miraculously survived back then, the nearly ten millennia that had passed since would have been enough to turn heroes into dust. Except for extraordinary items like the Celestial Divine Sword, ordinary cultivators, even those who reached the Heaven Shattering Realm in the Primordial Era, couldn’t live for millennia.

Much less remain active on the Xiangzhou Continent like Zhao Chenlu.

For a moment, the questions within Li Wanqing’s heart were as numerous as a mountain.

Until Wang Jiu suddenly spoke up, explaining for her.

"Everything was a matter of chance. In the decisive battle, her Primordial Spirit was shattered by the Demon Emperor, with fragments scattered, most of them dissipating on the spot. However, one fragment happened to fall into the dark side of Jiuzhou through a space-time distortion and was preserved. The cultivation technique she practiced focused on the fusion of light and shadow, so while the dark side of Jiuzhou was a dead zone for anyone else, it ironically allowed her Primordial Spirit Fragment to thrive. Later, as Jiuzhou collapsed, the dark fragment she was attached to fell into a chaotic void, losing the concept of time. Afterward, the Xiangzhou Continent took ten thousand years to gradually flourish and restore civilization, but for her, time remained still. Eventually, as the survivors of Xiangzhou expanded their civilization outward, surrounding fragments were gradually absorbed, bringing her Primordial Spirit Fragment back with the tide. Of course, theoretically, even though it returned to the Xiangzhou Continent, the surviving Primordial Spirit Fragment was still insufficient to awaken her. In fact, when time began to flow again, her remaining life force would rapidly dissipate... But just then, in Golden Jade City, there was a newborn girl with Zhao Family blood who was about to die prematurely in her mother’s womb due to congenital deficiencies. She took this chance to merge with the girl’s Primordial Spirit, using the girl’s life force to repair her fragmented Primordial Spirit, and thus was reborn as Zhao Chenlu..."

Li Wanqing listened, dumbfounded: "This is too incredible, right?!"

"Yes, a very incredible experience... So incredible that among the nine old friends of that time, only she managed to survive through this experience." Wang Jiu said, his usually calm tone tinged with a slight melancholy.

Li Wanqing was at a loss for words. Although she still found Zhao Chenlu’s reincarnation story hard to believe, she decided to accept it as true for now.

In fact, from a rational perspective, the rebirth of an Immortal Venerable from the Jiuzhou Era after ten thousand years aligns more closely with Zhao Chenlu’s established character. Without an Immortal Venerable’s rebirth, it would be impossible to explain Zhao Chenlu’s legendary life path. Winning the Golden Jade competition at the age of 14, reorganizing her family forces in her early twenties, ascending to the position of City Lord, and becoming the top Cultivator in Xiangzhou before she was thirty. Now, she is on par with the Saint Sect... Such a legendary life path is unprecedented in the two-thousand-year history of Xiangzhou.

"But how do you know so many details?"

Wang Jiu turned the blade, glanced at Li Wanqing, and said, "Of course, she told me."

"... How many words did she say?"

"Of course, not with her mouth." Wang Jiu said, pointing the tip of his sword to the ground. "These are the words she left behind."

Li Wanqing followed the direction of the sword tip, and saw on the ground, where Zhao Chenlu’s body had just melted, the black and white remains of her body formed a neatly arranged piece of black text on a white background. The content was truly astonishing...

"My dear, meeting again after such a long time fills my heart with indescribable joy. Please do not mind my momentary loss of composure. This reunion is full of coincidences, and I know you must be curious about the principles behind it, so let me recount my memories and deductions for you during these days..."

Having read it, Li Wanqing found it largely consistent with what Wang Jiu had said, but the text became increasingly amusing as she read...

"Even when she was on the verge of death, she still had the mind to arrange words with her body for you, and her writing style is so smooth and error-free, it’s hard to believe these were composed in a dying state."

Wang Jiu thought for a moment and said, "That’s her usual style—even if she were going to die in the next moment, she would maintain her beauty while alive. I just confirmed it with her before the decisive battle; she indeed reserved the precious Pill Furnace space for the Youth Pill."

"... The last one to survive turned out to be someone like this."

After a pause, Li Wanqing asked, "What will we do next? She... is still alive, right?"

Wang Jiu replied, "She’s still alive, but it should take one to two months for her injuries to heal."

Upon hearing this, Li Wanqing sighed. For a Cultivator of Zhao Chenlu’s level to require one to two months to heal an injury, it must be extremely serious. And she suffered such serious wounds... just to see Wang Jiu with her own eyes?

"No, the injuries caused by the collapse of the Moon Shadow Array, while serious, would at most require three to five days of rest. It was mainly because she used her body to write a message, which severely aggravated her injuries."

"... How could someone like this become an Immortal Venerable?!"

Wang Jiu said, "It’s indeed an interesting question. According to the general laws of natural selection, groups accustomed to courting death usually become extinct quickly; the survivors in nature are those good at living discreetly. However, at the individual level, exceptions often occur. For instance, people who frequently court death yet don’t die really become hard to kill."

Li Wanqing listened to this sentence, feeling as if it was speaking about herself.

"Anyway, Ah Jiu, congratulations, you actually got to see an old friend."

"Yes, it’s really rare. I thought I’d never have the chance to see her again," Wang Jiu said, the pure white Sword Body gently rippling. Li Wanqing sighed again watching from the side.

Little Sister Qingming, this time you’ve encountered an unprecedentedly formidable opponent.