Chapter 10: Showdown

"Sister Zhao, you're overthinking it…" Li Xuanji comforted her with a smile, and said casually: "We've been together for more than a year, how could I hide anything from you?" "No…" Zhao Yuehua shook her head, and looked into his eyes, and said: "You were a bit distracted today, you must have something on your mind that you're hiding from me." "Something on my mind…" Li Xuanji chuckled, but quietly let go of her hand, and then hinted: "Sister Zhao, two years are almost up…" "…" Zhao Yuehua's expression became a bit dazed when she heard 'two years are almost up', and even the fingers holding the pen trembled slightly. Then she seemed to think of something, and smiled casually: "Yeah, two years, time flies." "Do you remember when you first learned the art of carving runes, I didn't dare to talk to you loudly, and called you senior all the time." Li Xuanji showed a bit of nostalgia, and said with a smile: "It's just a blink of an eye, and you've already learned almost all the runes for making soul-attached puppets." "Almost learned them all?" Zhao Yuehua muttered in a trance, and then smiled and asked: "Why didn't you say so earlier?" Li Xuanji leaned back on the recliner, and said with a pout: "I couldn't bear to." "Is that all?" "Is that all…" "Then what do you mean…" Zhao Yuehua turned to look at him, and then teased him with a mocking tone: "You can bear to now?" "Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?" "Of course the truth." "I still can't bear to…" Li Xuanji looked at her, and said jokingly: "Such a gentle, beautiful, high-level, and second-tier alchemist sister, who can bear to?" "Oh~" Zhao Yuehua pretended to be enlightened, and nodded, and asked with a smile: "Then why don't you keep being picky?" "I don't want to delay you…" Li Xuanji took a long breath, and said to himself: "You set a two-year deadline, and even sold your assets to make that puppet, it must be very important to you, how can I delay you?" "…" Zhao Yuehua was silent for a while, and said: "That puppet is indeed very important to me." Li Xuanji didn't care, and asked: "How important?" "I'm dying…" "Huh?" Li Xuanji's pupils shrank, and he suddenly sat up from the recliner, and then stared at her, and asked with a bit of anger: "What did you say!?" "I said…" Zhao Yuehua saw his reaction, and only smiled softly, and then said word by word: "I'm running out of time, I'm dying…" "You…" Li Xuanji's face turned pale, and his fists clenched so hard that they made a cracking sound. He took a deep breath, and asked: "What's going on?" "The Ancient Secret Realm, you probably haven't heard of it…" Zhao Yuehua thought that he only had the second level of Qi Refining, and didn't know much about many things, and felt a bit frustrated. She pondered for a while, and explained: "It's a secret realm that is jointly controlled by the Green Wave Pool and several other cultivation forces, and it opens once every thirty years. There are a lot of restrictions and heavenly materials and earthly treasures inside, and some caves or inheritances left by other cultivators. The last time it opened, I had just advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage, but I couldn't resist the greed, and signed up to go in. I thought I would just broaden my horizons and gain some experience, but I didn't expect to encounter an ancient cultivator's cave in the ruins, and triggered a restriction, and got the Life Devouring Curse." She paused, and then rolled up her sleeve, revealing a section of her white and tender arm, but there was a small blue mark on her forearm. That mark seemed to be some kind of rune, and it had a sense of evil just by looking at it. "This Life Devouring Curse is very strange, the cursed person has no other reaction, only the speed of life passing by increases, lightly by several times, heavily by dozens of times." Zhao Yuehua looked at the blue mark on her arm, and said calmly: "The Life Devouring Curse I got is relatively light, and the speed of life passing by is about ten times faster. The lifespan of a Foundation Establishment cultivator is about three hundred years, and I have already spent more than twenty years since I got the curse…" She paused, and said casually: "If I don't have any other means to prolong my life, I can only live for another year and a half at most." "…" Li Xuanji was stunned when he heard her say that she could only live for another year and a half, and he didn't know why, but every time he heard her say that she was dying, he felt a sense of irritation in his heart. He took a deep breath, calmed down his emotions, and asked: "What about the Green Wave Pool? Aren't you a disciple of the Green Wave Pool?" He seemed to have found the key, and asked eagerly: "The Green Wave Pool has so many Golden Core and Nascent Soul experts, and you are a disciple of the sect, can't they solve this Life Devouring Curse?" "Heh…" Zhao Yuehua saw his anxious look, and couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh, and said helplessly: "You, you, sometimes you look like you have a lot of schemes, and sometimes you look so naive and cute." Seeing his displeased look, she patiently explained: "The Green Wave Pool is a big cultivation sect, with dozens of Golden Core masters, and several Nascent Soul elders. Do you know how many Foundation Establishment cultivators there are? Not counting some who are always in seclusion and don't care about worldly affairs, the Green Wave Pool has nearly a thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators on record… Not to mention that the Life Devouring Curse is an ancient method that has been lost and unsolvable, even if the true masters and elders of the sect can really break the Life Devouring Curse, why would they help me without any kinship or friendship?" "How can they be so cold and ruthless…" Li Xuanji muttered, not knowing how to respond… "This is the Lonely City, far away from the cultivation world, it's normal that you can't see the coldness and cruelty there." Zhao Yuehua saw his posture, and said to herself: "In the future, if you want to stand on your feet there, you can't be so naive as you are now, otherwise you will be eaten by people without leaving any bones." "What about you?" Li Xuanji heard her preaching, and snorted, and retorted: "How did you stand on your feet in the cultivation world with your temperament?" "I didn't stand on my feet…" Zhao Yuehua pursed her lips and smiled, and pointed to the Life Devouring Curse on her arm, and said: "You see, I'm dying, aren't I?" "…" Li Xuanji's breath was stuck, and he didn't know why, but every time he heard her say that she was dying, he felt a sense of irritation in his heart. He took a deep breath, calmed down his emotions, and asked: "So, what do these things have to do with that puppet?" "It can save my life…" Zhao Yuehua pondered for a while, and explained: "When I was in that cave in the ruins, I got the Life Devouring Curse, but I also found some things, and the jade slip for making Foundation Establishment puppets that you saw was one of them. This puppet is called 'Mirror Flower', and it can be linked to the cultivator's life after being refined. When fighting enemies, it can be as elusive as a mirror flower and a moon in the water, and it's a kind of cheating method of creating an external incarnation." "External incarnation?" Li Xuanji frowned when he heard the words… He had seen some similar methods in some biographies and stories, saying that some Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators could create external incarnations… Some of the incarnations even had similar cultivation levels as the original body, and when fighting enemies, they would join forces with the original body, and have more advantages and means. "Creating an external incarnation at the Foundation Establishment stage is indeed cheating, but the incarnation is ultimately an external method derived from the original body, and you can't even keep your original body, what's the use of creating an incarnation?"