My Husband’s Ascension C77
Chapter 77 Extra 5
“Xie… Zhu?” Hearing the unfamiliar name, Zhao Zhao froze for a moment. Then, frowning tightly, she ripped the mask from his face.
A familiar countenance leapt into view. Though she had steeled herself, seeing it for real still made her breath catch.
“Liar.” Zhao Zhao refused to believe that this person was not Xie Lanshu. “Who are you, really? Do you even know whose face you bear exactly? If you’ve deliberately assumed it to deceive, do you think I won’t hang you up and peel your skin off?!”
Xie Zhu barely registered her words.
No matter how refined one’s artistry, a lifeless figure drawn on paper could never match even a fraction of the vitality of a living being.
The woman he had traced over and over on paper now stood before him, and his gaze roamed almost greedily across her countenance.
The slight furrow of her brows—beautiful.
The long, thick lashes—beautiful.
Even the red lips that had threatened to peel his skin—also verybeautiful.
“The Xie Residence at Yunmeng Pier… A hundred years ago, when you returned home to visit, you once asked a little youth delivering water whether he could draw the Single Intent Sword. Don’t you remember?”
Though he spoke the words, Xie Zhu did not truly expect her to recall.
She was the sect master of Cloudculm Abode. Over the past century, countless people had passed before her eyes; how could she possibly remember a small, dusty servant from Yunmeng Pier?
Yet she hesitated for a moment, and the grip of her hands loosened slightly.
“It’s you.”
Two short, simple words, yet they stirred a quiet ripple through him.
She remembered him.
“But back then…you didn’t look like this. Only your eyes were like his. How is it that now…”
Perhaps it was because the vines had pressed too tightly; the delayed pain began to rise steadily.
Xie Zhu pressed his lips together and turned his head slightly. “I don’t know.”
Zhao Zhao fell into thought.
She understood now: the Xie Zhu before her was not a reincarnation but the vessel of Xie Lanshu’s seven po souls. The original Xie Zhu must have possessed some unique destiny or constitution, and his death had occurred at precisely the right moment for Xie Lanshu’s seven po souls to enter his body.
Once the seven po souls entered, the host’s appearance and constitution were gradually shaped by the influence of those souls, slowly transforming to resemble the original Xie Lanshu.
The reason the original Xie Zhu could not draw the Single Intent Sword back then was likely that the seven po souls had only just fused with the body; even the sword could not yet discern his true identity.
With this in mind, Zhao Zhao summoned the scabbard of the Single Intent Sword and handed it to him. “Unsheathe this sword again.”
Xie Zhu smiled. “I won’t.”
Zhao Zhao’s eyes widened slightly.
“I know you want to prove who I am, but I am not that person.”
The youth, bound tightly by vines, seemed to want to move closer to her. The tighter he pressed forward, the deeper the flush of struggle that colored his pale face beneath the mask.
Seeing him strain so much, Zhao Zhao feared she might truly hurt him. She loosened the vines slightly but to her surprise, he only grew more determined, forming a hand seal and cutting through the bindings entirely.
A sudden gale rose behind them, and the long-hidden peach blossom yao attempted another ambush. The youth shifted his body subtly, flipping Zhao Zhao astride him so that she was now protected beneath him.
The razor-sharp petals froze an inch from his back, then were incinerated by a single burst of fire.
“I am simply Xie Zhu—who trained for a hundred years to be worthy of you, who set foot upon the immortal path to chase after you, who crossed a thousand landscapes in your pursuit…is that not enough?”
The story of Cloudculm Abode’s Sect Master Xie Tanzhao and Dao Lord Tianshu of Immortal Realm of Kunwu was widely known.
He had heard of their loves and hatreds, the cold cruelty of that man, the years of grievances and entanglements they had endured.
But that was the story of Xie Tanzhao and Dao Lord Tianshu.
He had no memories, no past. He had come into this world in confusion and emptiness, and it was her voice that awakened him, becoming the first presence in his life filled with color and warmth.
He did not wish to be bound by anything trivial.
“As long as you wish it, I will remain only Xie Zhu. And Xie Zhu will forever be devoted to you alone.”
The youth’s clear, gentle eyes were like a soul-seizing spell. Merely meeting his gaze felt as if some bottomless force was drawing her in, pulling her into a trap perfectly disguised.
“…First, help me get the Water-Wood Azure Lotus.” Zhao Zhao looked away and gently pushed him off her.
Xie Zhu’s lips curved in a smile. He hummed in acknowledgment, asking nothing about why she needed it, and leapt toward the peach blossom yao hidden amid the cascade of falling petals.
Flames roared skyward. Wave after wave of petals were scorched by his fire, finally rousing the peach blossom yao’s anger. It no longer feigned playfulness or ignorance; the branches of the tree twisted and lunged like phantoms, snapping and clawing, determined to crush this impudent little intruder and turn him into fertilizer.
The millennium-old peach blossom yao had grown serious. Xie Zhu’s fiery technique no longer affected her.
Without a weapon, he could not sever the powerful, whirling branches. He had no choice but to weave through the storm of wood and petals—but his eyes had already found the target.
At the center of the tree, sheltered by a cluster of thick branches, something glimmered with pale green light, seemingly drawing spiritual energy from the tree continuously.
That must be the very thing she had come seeking.
The wound on his back, torn by the branches, continued to gush blood, yet Xie Zhu’s expression remained calm, seemingly unaffected. His eyes were fixed solely on the pale green lotus.
“Xie Zhu!!” Zhao Zhao had expected him to retreat, yet he plunged headlong into the heart of the peach blossom tree.
His soul was incomplete, and his cultivation barely a century old—how could he possibly contend with a millennium-old peach blossom yao?
Zhao Zhao abandoned all caution. Drawing the sword, she slashed through several of the tree’s main branches.
Earlier she had held back, but now the peach blossom yao realized she was a cultivator who had already entered the fourth major realm. Though a wood-spirit practitioner of the Divine Farmer Dao, her swordsmanship was formidable.
Caught off guard, the peach blossom yao lost her advantage. By the time she attempted to ensnare Zhao Zhao again, she found her main branches shattered and scattered.
Even the Water-Wood Azure Lotus that the yao had hidden so carefully—
“Here.”
The pale green lotus floated toward Zhao Zhao. She caught it without a second glance, her expression complicated as she turned her gaze to the youth beneath the petals, cruelly ensnared by the wrathful peach blossom yao in place of the lotus.
A curse had been placed on the pale green lotus: to take it, something of equal value had to be offered in exchange.
Xie Zhu had no treasures or precious artifacts. After a moment’s thought, he offered himself in exchange, and at last the Water-Wood Azure Lotus was freed.
Zhao Zhao looked down at the youth, tightly bound by the branches, his spirit energy being drained relentlessly.
Whether speaking of him, or of herself back in Separation’s Regret Heaven, wagering her life for a single glimpse of him, Zhao Zhao frowned and whispered softly, “…To place one’s life in the hands of another is the most foolish thing in the world.”
His spiritual energy ebbed at an alarming pace, yet Xie Zhu still smiled. “Then… will you save me?”
Zhao Zhao pressed her lips tight. Something rough seemed lodged in her throat; every attempt to speak drew pain and the taste of blood.
Yet in the end, just as Dao Lord Tianshu had once saved her, she could not stand by and watch him die.
“This peach blossom yao is using you as a hostage. I cannot save you, you must save yourself.”
His spiritual energy thinned further, and Xie Zhu’s vision blurred.
Snow and plum petals drifted down from above. The female immortal who had appeared countless times in his midnight dreams, like the softest clouds that existed only in the sweetest of dreams, lightly touched his brow, unlocking his inner spiritual abode*.
(TLN: 灵府 refers to the “abode of the spirit”, primarily meaning the mind/heart (inner consciousness), and by extension an abstract inner spiritual space or mental realm where thoughts and emotions reside.)
The inner spiritual abode was the most hidden and vulnerable part of a cultivator.
Yet in that moment, both Xie Zhu and Zhao Zhao felt the other’s spirit fully and openly laid bare before them.
Almost instantly, Xie Zhu understood what she intended.
Zhao Zhao had only ever read of the legendary method of dual cultivation of body and soul. Having never attempted it, and being of mortal origin, her subconscious had always assumed that physical contact was the true measure of intimacy.
Thus, she had never considered spiritual union to be an act of intimacy, merely another method of transferring spiritual energy.
But the moment their inner spiritual abode opened and their souls began to merge, Zhao Zhao realized how completely mistaken she had been.
Physical contact offered some buffer; the merging of souls was like a tide crashing in, instantly sweeping one into the clouds.
The gentle wood-spirit within her was tightly entwined by the vigorous force of his metal-spirit energy. Every point of convergence, every moment of engulfing, sent shivers through consciousness and made the soul tremble.
It was unlike anything… entirely unlike what she had imagined…
Sensing the wood-spirit struggling under the intensity of the metal-spirit, Xie Zhu’s energy softened, transforming into a subtler, gentler force, gradually smoothing the parts of their spirits that had not yet fully harmonized.
Only when she ceased resisting did the power that had long lain in wait coil around her again. Their spirit energy surged upward, the entire spiritual abode seeming to take on an almost boiling warmth, filling and suffusing them both.
At the peak of it, Zhao Zhao felt like a drowning person suddenly breaking the surface of the water. She recoiled abruptly, gasping for breath as the air of the real world rushed back into her lungs.
In the next instant, the youth, having broken through into the third major realm, tore free from his restraints and lifted the slightly dazed Zhao Zhao from the tree.
Xie Zhu’s forceful escape rebounded upon the peach blossom yao. Now bereft of her hostage and fearing the two might turn and kill her, she fled in panic without a moment’s delay.
The peach blossom tree shuddered violently, its yao aura receding into the distance.
From a branch heavy with blossoms, another shower of petals cascaded down. Pale pink flowers and pure white snow whirled together through the air, beautiful like some absurd, dreamlike vision.
Xie Zhu gently set Zhao Zhao down upon the snow blanketed with peach blossoms. Half-kneeling beside her, he asked, “Shall we pursue it?”
Zhao Zhao had yet to fully regain her senses. After a moment, she slowly shook her head. “…No need. I came for the Water-Wood Azure Lotus. Since we have it, that is enough. Whether the yao lives or dies makes no difference…”
Zhao Zhao herself scarcely knew what she was saying.
Her lips kept moving, as though if she stopped speaking, she would be forced to confront thoughts she had no wish to face.
“…You could inform Miss Immortal Lanyan. She seems to be undergoing a successor’s trial and would probably have great use for that peach blossom yao… Have you encountered her in the blessed land? Ah I forgot… even if you had, you wouldn’t know who she is… I intend to return to the sect now. Yao Ling is still waiting for the medicine. Will you continue deeper into the blessed land, or not?”
“Forgive me, but could I answer your questions in a moment?”
“…Why?”
The youth’s clear, autumn-water eyes gazed quietly at Zhao Zhao.
Strands of hair on her brow were damp with sweat, clinging to her flushed cheeks. Though she tried to appear calm, the evasiveness of her gaze betrayed her unease.
Xie Zhu’s eyes fell upon her lips, redder than the peach blossoms scattered around them.
“Because right now, I can’t think of anything. I only want to kiss you.”
