Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Three Parts of Fortune Return

The moment Lin Zhao understood what was happening, she didn’t hesitate.

Her sword drove through Chen Luo Luo’s heart.

Then Lin Zhao slammed a fist into her chest.

Chen Luo Luo’s pupils shrank. The light in them dulled, then went out.

“Lin Zhao, how dare you!”

When Yun Ding Peak’s junior brothers saw Chen Luo Luo’s Life Plaque shatter, they came scrambling toward the battlefield, ragged and desperate.

What they saw froze them where they stood.

Lin Zhao threw Chen Luo Luo’s broken corpse aside and tore out her soul.

Ever since Lin Zhao had crippled their cultivation, they’d survived by flattering Chen Luo Luo, begging for low-grade spirit medicine, clinging to her to keep their personal disciple status.

Even so, they’d suffered plenty—humiliated, trampled, forgotten.

Today, after hearing from a heavenly listener that Lin Zhao had come, they had rushed over.

But they were only flesh and blood.

They were too late.

“Master won’t let you off!” the Second Junior Brother shouted, clutching Chen Luo Luo’s corpse, eyes wild.

Lin Zhao’s body went still for a heartbeat as Granny took control.

She ignored him entirely.

Brilliant phoenix fire chains wrapped around Chen Luo Luo’s soul, binding it tight. Within it, a faint gray-white glow drifted like rot in water.

Granny’s gaze sank.

“Otherworld evil thought,” she said softly. “So it really is you filthy things.”

Chen Luo Luo’s soul trembled, panic flooding it as she frantically searched for System.

Then Granny reached out and locked that gray-white light into her flames.

Chen Luo Luo’s connection to System snapped—cleanly severed.

“What did you do?!” Chen Luo Luo shrieked. “How dare you treat me like this?!”

Granny sealed the gray-white light into a jade bottle.

Then Lin Zhao regained control of her body.

She stared at the soul in her hand. Green flames rose at her fingertips, ready to burn it into nothing.

In that instant, a black aura swept in, wrapped Chen Luo Luo’s soul, and delivered it into the hand of Tong Que—the “child” who had not moved the entire battle.

Lin Zhao’s eyes narrowed.

She knew that black aura.

“Demon Clan?!”

Her Heavenly Phoenix Bone Sword flashed toward Tong Que.

She didn’t care whether this Demon Clan was big or small. Demon Clan ate human flesh by nature. Those who cultivated demonic qi were natural enemies of humans.

Tong Que lifted a hand and casually brushed aside her slash, as if flicking away dust. His gaze met Lin Zhao’s—unreadable.

“Phoenix Maiden,” he said softly, “we will meet again.”

A rift opened in space.

His figure vanished into it.

Space rending with a casual gesture.

At least a Spirit Transformation demon king.

Lin Zhao sheathed her sword, breath uneven. Cold sweat slid down her spine. She couldn’t help wondering how Chen Luo Luo had gotten entangled with Demon Clan—and whether she even knew what Tong Que truly was.

Granny’s voice turned sharp. “That Demonic Creature’s cultivation is likely beyond Spirit Transformation. He’s heavily wounded, which is why he looks young. An opponent like that isn’t something you can think about right now. First—take back those three parts of Phoenix Fortune.”

Even though Chen Luo Luo’s soul was gone, Phoenix Fortune still remained in her body.

Lin Zhao urged the final part of Phoenix Fortune within herself. In response, the Phoenix Fortune inside Chen Luo Luo rose slowly, drawn like iron filings to a magnet.

Guided by Lin Zhao’s Fortune, the three stolen parts recognized their source and drifted between Lin Zhao’s brows.

When Phoenix Fortune merged, the green aura around Lin Zhao thickened—then shifted, cooling into a faint blue.

Granny’s voice held satisfaction. “Phoenix Pulse Art is showing signs of advancement.”

Before Lin Zhao could even process the gain, crushing pressure poured down from above.

Lin Zhao’s face darkened. Killing intent flashed in her eyes.

A familiar figure appeared—black hair, cold gaze, arrogance worn like a crown.

“I didn’t expect you’d actually manage to take back Phoenix Fortune,” Immortal Venerable Yun Ding said, looking at her with complicated eyes.

Lin Zhao wiped blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. “What, Immortal Venerable Yun Ding? Are you here to kill me?”

“If you return to the sect right now,” Yun Ding said, “I naturally won’t make a move.”

Lin Zhao understood immediately.

He had let her in to raise a gu—to see whether she or Chen Luo Luo would be the final survivor. And it was clear he’d never expected the survivor to be her.

For a moment, disgust twisted through Lin Zhao. “Chen Luo Luo… look. This is our good master. He let us kill each other and only kept the one left standing.”

Immortal Venerable Yun Ding’s voice turned colder. “This world is one where the strong eat the weak. What’s wrong with what I did? Before, your Phoenix Fortune was weaker than hers. You endured everything like an idiot, so I abandoned you. Once you fought back, didn’t I give you a chance? Didn’t I let you take revenge on Chen Luo Luo?”

Lin Zhao smiled, lips stained red. “Sorry, but being an immortal venerable’s disciple never seems to end well. I value my life. I’ve already escaped the sea of suffering. I’m not jumping back in.”

From the moment Yun Ding had forced her to strip her spirit root for Chen Luo Luo and driven her to suicide, there had been no reconciliation left between them.

If she hadn’t met Granny, she wouldn’t be standing here.

His talk about “giving her a chance” was laughable.

Yun Ding sensed the hostility in her words. His expression turned icy.

“Do you think that just because you’re entering the South Sea Academy, I can’t touch you?” Yun Ding’s palm lifted. “Then I’ll see whether the South Sea Academy is willing to offend me, a Spirit Transformation, for a disciple who hasn’t even enrolled yet!”

He struck.

Lin Zhao watched the palm wind that could kill her—yet she didn’t dodge.

A slightly hoarse female voice rang out. Yun Ding’s palm wind dissolved like mist.

“Yun Ding, you really have no shame.” A tall figure stood before Lin Zhao like an umbrella against the storm. “Attacking a Foundation Establishment junior with your own hands? Your Yun Ding Peak doesn’t care about face, but my Ao Lai Peak does!”

It was Xiao Chang Qing, Peak Master of Ao Lai Peak.

Back then, she had valued Lin Zhao and wanted to take her as a disciple. Lin Zhao had been forced under Yun Ding Peak instead—the very peak Xiao Chang Qing despised.

Even so, Xiao Chang Qing had never been narrow-minded. Because she appreciated Lin Zhao, she had guided her in private more than once.

Explosive Fist was what she taught Lin Zhao.

Compared to Immortal Venerable Yun Ding, Xiao Chang Qing had always been closer to what a master should be.

Once, after Lin Zhao returned badly injured, Xiao Chang Qing had worried she might die on a battlefield one day. She had left Lin Zhao a Spirit Summons Talisman.

In her past life, Lin Zhao had been controlled until death and never had the chance to use it.

Today, before she climbed the mountain, she had crushed the talisman.

When she saw Xiao Chang Qing now, Lin Zhao knew she had underestimated Yun Ding’s shamelessness—and how much he feared her.

Yun Ding’s gaze fell on Xiao Chang Qing. Instead of withdrawing, his killing intent deepened.

“So you prepared this in advance,” he said. Then his eyes shifted to Lin Zhao. “But Lin Zhao—do you really think Xiao Chang Qing, a mid-stage Spirit Transformation, can block me, a late-stage Spirit Transformation? Today, you must die here!”

If Lin Zhao couldn’t be his disciple, then she couldn’t be allowed to live.

Otherwise, one day she would become a threat he couldn’t control.

Yun Ding flashed upward and drew his sword.

With a casual strike, the Yun Ding mountain range shook. Space itself seemed to tear.

“Lin Zhao, go!” Xiao Chang Qing rose at once to meet him, but as their auras collided, her expression darkened.

Yun Ding was using the pressure of heaven and earth to kill a Foundation Establishment junior.

He was insane.

Lin Zhao didn’t hesitate.

She turned and ran.

Immortal Venerable Yun Ding was actually willing to offend fellow Spirit Transformation cultivators—and the South Sea Academy—just to kill her?

“Run?” Yun Ding’s voice echoed. “Let’s see where you can run today.”

He flicked a finger.

A thin stream of cyan light shot toward her, then swelled with the wind like a flood, surging after Lin Zhao.

The moment it locked onto her, Lin Zhao’s scalp went numb. The pressure strangled her breath.

Below Spirit Transformation, a Foundation Establishment cultivator was less than an ant.

A Spirit Transformation could crush tens of millions of them with a finger.

Lin Zhao forced her spirit power into Flame Wings and tore forward at full speed.

“Old bastard Yun Ding,” she snarled, “if I live today, I will kill you someday!”