Chapter 190: Recovery
Translator: Pika
Mi Li’s eyes turned steely. “He prepared a hand?”
“It was out of reminiscence of his ties with you that he chose to seal you instead of killing you...” said Zhang Han.
Before he could finish his words, Mi Li had already interjected with a sneer, “As if he could have really killed me!”
“Indeed, His Majesty was unable to kill you at the start. However, he soon found something that could do it. However, in view that you’re already sealed, he entrusted the item to me in case a mishap occurred. I never thought that a day would come where I would really have to use it!” replied Zhang Han.
“I’d love to see what you have that could kill me!” sneered Mi Li, thinking nothing of his threats at all.
“Have you ever heard of ‘Red Tears of Lady Xiang’?”
“Red Tears of Lady Xiang?” Mi Li frowned. She had no impression of this at all.
“It’s only natural that you don’t, for this is something that happened after you were sealed.” Zhang Han began reminiscing about the past. “There was once when His Majesty was traveling around when he encountered a gale at the Mountain Xiang Shrine and was unable to cross the river. So, His Majesty asked the high priest what kind of god ‘Lord Xiang’ was, to which, the high priest replied that she was ‘Yao’s daughter’ and ‘Shun’s wife’[1], and she was buried here.
“His Majesty was extremely angry at ‘Lord Xiang’, believing that she was intentionally acting against him. So, he ordered his men to chop down all of the trees of Mountain Xiang.
“But all of a sudden, a red droplet suddenly fell from the sky and swiftly dyed the ground around Mountain Xiang red. All of the soldiers who came into contact with the red ground would dissipate into dust. That single encounter killed over half of His Majesty’s imperial guards, and even His Majesty himself almost got done in as well. Speculations later arose that the red droplet was a symbol of Lord Xiang’s rage, a divine retribution toward those who had disrespected her.
“His Majesty ordered the high priest to lead a group of cultivators into Mountain Xiang and extract three droplets of the lethal poison from it. The poison became known as ‘Red Tears of Lady Xiang’. His Majesty has used one himself, and he entrusted the other two to me in case you ever broke out of your seal.”
Mi Li sneered in response, “You make it sound amazing, but I don’t believe that any poison in the world would be that amazing.”
Zhang Han sighed deeply before glancing in the direction of the lake, saying, “The defeat in the battle of Zhangwu resulted in the death of 200,000 Qin soldiers, but you should also know that those soldiers were the elites of our Qin Dynasty. There were many experts amongst them; they couldn’t possibly have been defeated so easily even if they had laid down their arms.”
Mi Li’s heart jolted in astonishment, and she blurted out in astonishment, “You used that poison against them?”
“Indeed,” replied Zhang Han with a nod. His voice was quivering out of fear. “It was just a droplet. A single droplet, and 200,000 elite soldiers of the Qin Dynasty were reduced to dust.”
Mi Li’s face darkened. She raised her right hand, only to suddenly notice the presence of a red droplet on her palm. There was a red thread connecting from the bottom of the red droplet all the way to her elbow, and it was still streaming upward.
“Scram!” bellowed Mi Li coldly.
A powerful aura gushed outward as she channeled her ki toward that red thread, hoping to force it out of her body. At her cultivation rank, most poisons could no longer hope to threaten her any more.
However, a deep frown soon formed on her forehead. The red thread might be thin, but it was unstoppable. Her ki swiftly dissipated in the face of the poison, such that the most she could do was just to barely slow the spread of the poison by a little.
“It’s no use. ‘Red Tears of Lady Xiang’ is a poison which could even kill Earth Immortals, so how could you possibly be able to withstand it?”
Zhang Han’s voice carried no joy, just fear and wistfulness. Clearly, the poison had reminded him of the past, causing guilt and all kinds of emotions to swiftly rush up his mind.
Meanwhile, the other three watching the commotion were stunned. It was just a moment ago that Mi Li made an awe-inspiring entrance and subdued Zhang Han with ease... but who could have thought that there would suddenly be such a huge turnaround?
Zu An knew that they would become Zhang Han’s prey if Mi Li were to be done in. There was no way he could accept this outcome after everything he had done to free Mi Li. He immediately shouted, “Sever your hand and stop the spread of the poison!”
“The ‘Red Tears of Lady Xiang’ wouldn’t have been able to kill an Earth Immortal if it could be dealt with that easily. From the moment she was afflicted with the poison, it had already spread throughout her entire body. It wouldn’t do a thing even if she severs her hand now.”
Mi Li turned her head over and looked at Zu An in surprise. “You don’t wish for my death?”
“How could I possibly wish for big sis empress’ death? Even if we were to just look at this from an aesthetic point of view, you look far more pleasing than that Zhang Han.”
Chu Chuyan and Qiao Xueying glanced at one another. That fellow sure is brazen. How in the world does he find the courage to tease that powerful female zombie?
In her view, a normal human couldn’t possibly live for that long, so they assumed that Mi Li was a zombie like Zhang Han and the others, albeit a beautiful one.
Zhang Han was also rendered speechless. Wait a moment, did he just indirectly say that I’m ugly?!
You have successfully trolled Zhang Han for +444 Rage!
“You’re asking for it!”
Zhang Han morphed into a bundle of black aura and charged toward Zu An. He might have lost his hands, but the difference in their cultivation ranks was absolute. Even if he had lost his legs on top of htat, he would still have been able to kill Zu An easily.
Zu An could have possibly dodged the attack with his movement skill, but what would happen to Qiao Xueying and Chu Chuyan behind him if he were to do that? So, he chose to grit his teeth and attempt to fend off the attack with the Tai’e Sword.
On the other hand, Mi Li waved her sleeves, and the Tai’e Sword suddenly flew out of Zu An’s hands and pierced right into Zhang Han’s chest as swiftly as a bolt of lightning. The impact pushed Zhang Han back all the way to the opposite end of the underground hall and pinned him right onto the wall.
Zhang Han lowered his head to look at the Tai’e Sword. Disbelief filled his face first before swiftly being replaced with resignation. He murmured feebly, “This is fine too. It’s good that it’s all over. I’ve already been tortured for several thousand years now, and it’s about time for me to return to the earth...”
His voice gradually grew softer and softer before his head finally hung limply off his neck. He had breathed his last.
Zu An shot a thumbs up at Mi Li and said, “Woah, you were actually able to kill that powerful Zhang Han in a single blow! My respect for big sis empress gushes forth like the relentless tides of the river...”
“Gush your head!” Mi Li interjected even before he could finish his bootlicking. “How could it be that easily to kill him? He has simply given up on himself.”
Those words made Zu An direct his gaze toward Zhang Han, and all of a sudden, he felt some sympathy for the latter.
He was the general who had stood forward in the Qin Dynasty’s times of crisis and turned the tables on the rebels. Many thought that he would be the savior who would breathe life back into the dying Qin Dynasty, but he ended up surrendering to the enemy after a huge defeat. As if that wasn’t enough, he even plotted the deaths of their final 200,000 elite soldiers.
He had fallen from a hero into a criminal in an instant. The sheer guilt must have been gnawing away at his heart over the years.
His desire to live pushed him to continue existing in such a wretched state to this day. Most likely, Zu An’s impersonation of Ying Zheng, the return of Mi Li, and the vengeance of the 200,000 evil spirits had dredged up his memories of the past, something which he had been trying to ignore to this day, and it finally crushed his heart and compelled him to choose death.
Perhaps it was because his feelings had been heard, Zhang Han’s body suddenly began disintegrating along with the wind.
Along with his death, the black ropes binding Chu Chuyan finally disappeared as well. Zu An quickly pulled her down from the altar and exclaimed, “Honey, are you alright?”
“I’m fine.” Chu Chuyan was still unable to move properly due to her devastated ki meridians, so she could only collapse feebly in his embrace. A trace of redness surfaced on her cheeks.
Noticing how limp her body was, Zu An quickly moved her over to Qiao Xueying’s side before rushing over to Mi Li. “Big sis empress, are you fine?”
“You just want to ask me how your little wife can be saved, no?” Mi Li saw through his thoughts right away and harrumphed coldly.
Zu An smiled sheepishly and said, “I’m also concerned about you too. Is there anything I can do to help you?”
He leaned in closer, intending to see how the situation with her arm was.
However, Mi Li waved her hand and pushed him off, blocking off his gaze. She uttered coldly, “How could such mere poison hope to faze me?”
“That’s good, that’s good.” Zu An heaved a sigh of relief. “Big sis empress, can you fulfill your promise and tell me how to heal my wife?”
Mi Li alternated her gaze between Zu An and Chu Chuyan for a moment as her expression flickered a little. She seemed to be making an extremely difficult decision.
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?” Zu An’s heart skipped a beat.
However, Mi Li simply shook her head as she looked at him with a bizarre gaze.
Chu Chuyan spoke up feebly, “The collapse of my ki meridian is not something that can be solved easily; you shouldn’t make things difficult for her. Don’t worry, I promise you that I won’t try to end my life in the future.”
After how Zu An and Qiao Xueying had done everything they could to save her, even if she found her life meaningless, she wouldn’t undermine the sacrifices they had made for her by ending her own life.
Mi Li harrumphed coldly. “There’s no need to use such tricks on me. Saving you is no big deal for me. I’m just contemplating on something else.”
Zu An was overjoyed to hear that. “Big sis empress, please enlighten us!”
A glimmer of hope surfaced in Chu Chuyan’s eyes too. Despite her nonchalant words, she had been known as a prodigy even from a young age. There was no way she would be content with living as a cripple for the rest of her life.
Meanwhile, Qiao Xueying was intrigued by Mi Li’s words. Based on her knowledge, there was nothing in the world that could recover destroyed ki meridians. She couldn’t help but wonder what kind of method Mi Li was intending to use here.
“Didn’t you learn the Primordial Origin Sutra? Primordial ki is the purest ki in the world, born at the inception of the world. Aside from tempering your own body, you can also use it to heal the injuries of others,” said Mi Li.
Zu An’s heart skipped a beat. “Wait a moment... how did you know that I’ve learned the Primordial Origin Sutra?”
“Do you think that I wouldn’t know that Ying Zheng sealed off the Primordial Origin Sutra in the Tai’e Sword? Hmph! Even if I didn’t know that, I could also tell as much from the moment I saw you. A body that has been tempered by primordial ki is greatly different from that of an ordinary human.”
“I see!” Overjoyed, Zu An quickly made his way over to Chu Chuyan, hoping to infuse his primordial ki into her body to heal her.
However, Mi Li soon interjected, “Infusing the primordial ki into another person’s body won’t work as well as it did with yours. It’ll only allow her to barely regain her mobility and become self-sufficient, but she won’t regain her ability to cultivate.”
Zu An’s face paled. “That’s different from what you said!”
“What are you panicking for?” Mi Li glared at him before continuing on, “Not too long ago, I learned another thing that should make it easy for her to fully recover.”
1. Both Yao and Shun are mythological rulers of ancient China, one of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.