Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Spirit Qi Feeding Back

Lin Zhao drew her Bone Sword. “I’m here to take back what’s mine—Phoenix Fortune… and what my brother left behind.”

At the mention of Phoenix Fortune, Chen Luo Luo only sneered.

At the mention of the second thing, her face changed sharply.

“You actually remembered?” Chen Luo Luo’s voice rose. “Phoenix Fortune helped you awaken that far?!” She bared her teeth and shot a glance at the “child” beside her.

Tong Que stood there quietly, big eyes blinking, as if innocent.

Chen Luo Luo knew he wouldn’t help her.

Fine.

She was an entire realm above Lin Zhao. She wouldn’t lose.

She raised her hand and formed a soundproof Barrier Domain around them. Then she smiled, as if righteous. “If you couldn’t protect good things, whose fault is that? These things were always meant to be mine. You shamelessly occupied them for a while, and I simply followed Heavenly Dao and took them back.”

Lin Zhao didn’t waste breath on robber logic.

Green flames flared around her in an instant.

Chen Luo Luo, still taking her time, guided Tong Que back a few steps as if settling a pet. “Que Que, stay right here, okay?”

Tong Que blinked. “Okay.”

Then Chen Luo Luo rushed at Lin Zhao, face twisting with excitement at the thought of Lin Zhao losing everything—becoming a joke, mocked by the world.

She charged straight at her.

To Lin Zhao’s eyes, even compared to when they were both at Foundation Establishment, Chen Luo Luo looked slow.

Lin Zhao exhaled softly.

She didn’t use any complex spirit technique—only shaped her spirit qi into a jade swan that screamed as it dove forward.

“An Enlightenment you got through crooked means like this,” Lin Zhao said, voice cutting, “is nothing but a public embarrassment!”

Heat slammed toward Chen Luo Luo. She cried out and instinctively tried to dodge.

But she couldn’t.

She’d never learned how to fight.

In the past, Lin Zhao had always taken the front—bleeding, struggling—while junior brothers did the dirty work. Chen Luo Luo had only needed to look pretty, arrive at the end, and strike once to claim glory and credit.

Tong Que stared, stunned.

Even as someone who had seen countless things, he was dumbfounded.

He had never seen an Enlightenment cultivator flinch at nothing but a Foundation Establishment Spirit Qi Manifestation.

Normally, even a mediocre Enlightenment cultivator could crush a Foundation Establishment cultivator like an insect.

Just how useless was this woman?

Watching Chen Luo Luo stagger and scramble, Lin Zhao’s earlier suspicion hardened into certainty.

Everything on Yun Ding Peak was under Immortal Venerable Yun Ding’s control. And yet, he hadn’t appeared.

He truly didn’t care whether Lin Zhao lived or died. He only wanted the winner.

Good.

That made things simpler.

Chen Luo Luo grew furious, humiliated that she still couldn’t win despite her realm advantage.

And then, in the depth of her Sea of Consciousness, the silent System spoke.

“Host, pain shielding has been activated. System will take over your body and fight. We must win this battle.”

Chen Luo Luo’s eyes lit up, relief and venom mixing into something ugly. “Bitch. Die!”

In the next moment, her gaze turned dark—deep as a well.

Lin Zhao’s skin prickled. The sense of danger spiked straight upward.

At the same time, Granny murmured, uncertain, “Otherworld evil thought?”

The transformed Chen Luo Luo attacked.

Lin Zhao didn’t hesitate. She threw a punch.

Explosive Fist.

The strike that had blasted Lin Yuan until he vomited blood only made this “Chen Luo Luo” stiffen for a split second. Then she formed sword seals as if untouched.

Thousand Spirit Slash!

An Enlightenment realm was solid and real. On top of that, this “Chen Luo Luo” pushed Thousand Spirit Slash to the absolute limit of what an Enlightenment cultivator could draw out.

After three sword strikes, Lin Zhao was forced to raise the swan sword formation to defend. Even after blocking, the impact shoved her back dozens of steps.

Yet she held.

With only Foundation Establishment cultivation, she had taken an Enlightenment cultivator’s full-strength attack head-on.

When her spirit technique was blocked, faint white mist gathered in “Chen Luo Luo’s” eyes.

“As expected of the Phoenix Maiden.” Her voice was flat, inhuman. “With only Foundation Establishment, you can still withstand an Enlightenment cultivator’s full power.”

That voice wasn’t Chen Luo Luo’s.

“So you’re the one behind her,” Lin Zhao said, eyes narrowing.

“Chen Luo Luo” looked at her as if at filth. “You lowly insect from a lesser plane aren’t worthy of knowing my identity.”

Lin Zhao stuffed a handful of Qi Restoring Pills into her mouth and smiled coldly. “Good. Then I’ll let you taste what it feels like to be beaten into a dead dog by an insect like me.”

The swan sword formation erupted. Sword shadows gathered, and in a blink Lin Zhao was already in front of Chen Luo Luo’s face.

Swan Sword Art, third level: Body and Self as One!

System’s gaze tightened.

At Foundation Establishment, Lin Zhao could fully use a Seventh Grade spirit technique.

“How?” System muttered. Then, sensing it, the answer came. “The final part of Phoenix Fortune has been pushed to the extreme…”

System sighed, almost regretful. “If the person I chose had been you, this task wouldn’t have been such a mess.”

Of course, that was only talk.

Lin Zhao’s will was far tougher than Chen Luo Luo’s. Someone like her could never be controlled.

“If I kill you,” System said quietly, “this Heavenly Phoenix Continent will probably be truly ruined.”

The sword lifted.

Where the tip pointed, clusters of intangible spirit qi lotus blossoms opened, one by one, carrying a lethal chill.

Along with the blossoms came Chen Luo Luo’s eerie voice, flat and merciless.

“Thousand Spirit Blossom.”

The moment lotus met sword light, both women spat blood. Lin Zhao’s teeth ground together. She stepped in and threw another punch.

Explosive Fist formed again.

This time, Chen Luo Luo’s shoulder exploded into a bloody hole.

Yet she showed no pain at all. She stabbed her sword straight for Lin Zhao’s heart.

Lin Zhao had already squeezed her spirit power dry to launch that fist. Facing the killing strike, she could only rely on instinct—twisting her body aside.

The sword still pierced her left arm.

Close combat. Blood and breath and steel.

No one would have imagined the two maidens would fight like this—like beasts cornered, clawing for life.

Lin Zhao reached for pills—

And then her eyes widened.

System stared at the body she was using, disbelief flickering across her face.

At the decisive moment, Chen Luo Luo still managed to ruin everything.

“Aaaaaah! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!”

The darkness in Chen Luo Luo’s eyes faded, replaced by shrieking terror. Her scream nearly tore through the clouds.

Lin Zhao understood at once.

The real Chen Luo Luo was back.

“What did you do?!” Chen Luo Luo gasped, panic flooding her face as she sensed the shift. “Lin Zhao! You despicable thing—why is my spirit qi surging into you?! You used a filthy plundering method like this?!”

Streams of spirit qi poured into Lin Zhao.

Yet the instability Lin Zhao had feared never appeared.

The spirit qi was astonishingly pure, as if refined ten thousand times, perfectly compatible with her.

Granny’s voice was calm. “It should be something your close family left for you.”

Lin Zhao’s blood ran cold.

“You used what my brother left for me,” she said, staring at Chen Luo Luo.

Now she understood how Chen Luo Luo had climbed so quickly.

Chen Luo Luo’s face twisted. She couldn’t accept it—couldn’t accept that she would lose because of this.

Over the years she’d grown used to plundering things from the female leads of various planes. With Lin Zhao, it had been even worse. She had almost come to believe Lin Zhao’s things were hers—that Lin Zhao should hand everything over with both hands.

“System!” Chen Luo Luo screamed inside. “Why is this happening?! I’m not willing to accept it!”

System’s voice was colder than ice.

“Because that jade pendant had a Restriction Seal. If anyone other than Lin Zhao absorbs the spirit qi, they become a container—temporarily storing and refining it for Lin Zhao. Once that spirit qi is inside your body, the moment it meets Lin Zhao’s blood, the seal activates. It converts your spirit qi into refined energy and transfers it to Lin Zhao.”

A pause.

“You idiot.”

Chen Luo Luo’s mind snapped. “Then just kill her! Why did you let her bleed?!”