I Was Forced To Marry The Phoenix Empress

Chapter 280: Leaving the Tomb

While the wounds were healing, changes were also taking place inside her body.

The thin shell of the Ninth Core residing within her mind space became thicker and thicker, and the semi-solid Qi within the core began solidifying as well.

As a result, the entire core glowed with a deep black light, emitting an intense, mystical glow.

The moment this light reached its limits, the entire core collapsed into itself and disappeared out of existence.

BOOM!

Her entire mind space shook for a moment, and the energy generated by the implosion gave rise to an enormous gate which broke all rules of space.

The gate, embedded with symbols she had never seen, started opening on its own the next second, and a creaking sound resonated in her mind.

From the gap formed came an otherworldly white light, and the moment it did, an intense amount of information was assimilated inside Gao Zhen’s mind, accompanied by an enormous rise in strength.

Outside, the red orb embedded inside the ice wall kept flickering as if resisting a strong series of blows.

The moment the gate was completely ajar, an energy wave swept out from within her body, pushing all the nearby dust away.

FWOOOOSH!

With that, Gao Zhen finally opened her eyes, which glimmered with an otherworldly light as the strength of the First Heaven Ascension Stage Expert coursed through her veins.

However, being out of breath, she kept gasping for air. While doing so, a drop of sweat trickled down her face and fell, prompting her to look downwards.

The moment she did so, Yi Chen’s face appeared right before her eyes. A guilty expression immediately took over her exhausted face.

"Y-Yi Chen..."

She muttered as her hand gently traced the side of his face, tears welling up in her eyes.

"...I know you’ll never forgive me for this...but still, I must say this... I’m sorry."

Tightly biting onto her lip to the point blood trickled down her chin, Gao Zhen finally stood up.

A few moments later, she turned towards the ice wall inside which the tomb’s core was still glimmering, albeit with less intensity than before.

Her eyes glimmered the next moment as the tomb’s core broke out of the ice the next instant and raced towards her.

Isn’t it amazing? This power? If only you had taken his heart, you would already be at the Ninth Level, just a brink away from ascensi-

"Shut up."

Gao Zhen said in a cold voice, not paying attention to any of the soul’s misgivings, and turned towards Yi Chen’s figure.

Forcing herself to forget what had happened between them just now, she said with a gentle smile on her face, "Let’s go back then...Young Master Chen."

The next second, she picked him up and wrapped his arm around her shoulders before moving towards the room’s exit.

Just like the soul had told her earlier, she kept walking through the hallway and finally arrived at a gateway shining with blue light in front of her.

"Looks like you weren’t lying..."

Lying? Do you think I had the leeway to lie at that time when you were being so unreasonable?

A snort echoed in Gao Zhen’s mind the next moment.

Gao Zhen didn’t give much attention to it and kept walking, soon entering it.

"Hm?"

A frown formed on Gao Zhen’s face when she saw her surroundings.

Instead of transporting them out of the tomb, the portal had transported them out of the black temple.

Seeing the hundreds of Undead Skeletons both in the air and on the ground, Gao Zhen was about to pulverise them all as an enormous ball of Qi started taking shape above her head.

Wait! Don’t do that!

Hearing its sudden exclamation, Gao Zhen paused her actions and asked, "Why? They’ll start attacking us the moment we get out of this gate...or do you have a better idea?"

I do! Instead of destroying them, you can tame them! Just raise your hand high in the air and circulate your Qi in the way I tell you to.

"Tame them?" Gao Zhen frowned, but with curiosity apparent in her eyes, she raised one of her hands up and followed the sequence the soul told her about.

The hundreds of Undead Skeletons, both on air and land, turned into black clouds the very next moment, and this cloud rushed towards Gao Zhen’s hand from all directions and was sucked in by it.

By the time the cloud dispersed, a black tattoo in the shape of a skull formed on the underside of her wrist.

"Interesting..." Gao Zhen muttered while glancing at the skull on her wrist. Just glancing at it would make any normal cultivator tense up.

That’s my treasured artefact, the Undead Mark. Although it couldn’t be compared to its peak, it still possesses enough power to exhaust cultivators below the Heaven Ascension Stage to death, Kekeke.

"I see," Gao Zhen nodded before making her way downhill, towards the enormous gateway of green light that was still shining brightly at the town’s centre.

As she walked downhill, the memories of the time when she was rushing uphill along with Yi Chen and the rest flashed in her mind, and she couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.

Glancing at Yi Chen’s unconscious face beside her, she smiled and muttered, "Do you remember Young Master Chen? It was at this spot that I had almost lost hope, thinking I would be devoured by the Skeletons...at that time, you saved my life as well."

She thought back to how embarrassed she felt when Yi Chen wrapped his arms around her waist and carried her uphill. It was truly one of her most embarrassing moments.

The smile on her face widened as a result, making her shake her head with a tinge of embarrassment.

Soon entering the town’s interior, she walked along the grid-like pathways they had run for their lives back then and was hit by another wave of nostalgia.

She welcomed the feeling and kept moving. Finally arriving at the town’s centre, her eyes glanced at the enormous gateway of green light.

Before making her way in, she glanced at Yi Chen’s face, a bittersweet expression taking over her face.

This years-long journey...it has finally come to an end.

Taking a deep breath, she finally started walking as both their figures disappeared inside the gateway.

[End of Volume 2]