"Wait! I have something to say!" The pointed-eared Zhaolijuan clings to a glimmer of hope when he senses the inevitable approach of death, hoping to turn the situation around with his eloquence.
He has never been renowned for his strength in battle. What he excels at, in fact, is his oratory skills, capable of exaggerating a fraction of credit into ten. This was so persuasive that even the Lord of the Sky was deceived into thinking he was the most loyal and reliable disciple. The Lord entrusted him with the crucial Six-Soul Banner, meant to turn the tide, only to be betrayed.
Zhaolijuan is not to be accused of premeditation. After all, saints are not easily duped. Even Tongtian, renowned for his straightforwardness among saints, couldn't be deceived. A saint's mind can penetrate the myriad things in the world in the blink of an eye; how could he be deceived? He could only say that it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. Seeing the inevitable decline of Jiugong Sect, he made a decisive move to change sides.
Even so, it can be seen that Zhaolijuan is far from as loyal as he has portrayed himself to be. The ability to deceive Tongtian all this time is in itself a skill.
If given the chance to speak, a person with a cautious and conservative personality might actually succeed in turning an adversary into a friend through eloquence, reaching a handshake agreement.
Unfortunately, Nezha does not possess a cautious and careful nature.
At a crucial moment in the life and death battle, you just shout out for me to stop? Am I not smart? First, let me pierce through this transparent hole.
With a "pish" sound, the Dragon Flame Lance pierced through Zhaolijuan's weak enchantment, directly piercing his heart. He loosened his grip, and the Six Ghost Pennants, already snapped by the Chaos Bell, fell to the ground. Zhaolijuan looked stunned, unable to believe that he would die here.
This can't be my destiny!
He tried to speak with his lips, but before he could say anything, Taiyang Sword pierced through his head.
Shijie, who had never encountered the Chaos Bell before, was utterly unprepared. Caught off guard, he was nearly driven to disperse his essence and spirit.
Her character was extremely resilient. Nezha was prepared, but she was not; yet, in the same moment, she endured the intense discomfort transmitted through her essence and spirit, exerted all her strength, and with one stab, pierced through Zhaolijuan's head.
Under the simultaneous attack to the heart and head, Zhaolijuan's physical body died immediately. His spirit tried to escape, but it was only able to fly a distance of less than ten zhang before it was swept away by the residual waves of the Chaos Bell that had not yet dispersed. The spirit was torn into pieces like flesh, eventually disappearing completely.
"Did that guy seem like he wanted to say something just now?" Nezha, with the Dragon Flame Lance, delivered a finishing blow to the body, stabbing it seven or eight times until it was almost torn apart. He was very certain that this guy was definitely dead, and only then did he turn around to ask Shijie.
He is not worried about the series of consequences that would arise from killing a Jiugong Sect immortal. Instead, he feels a bit regretful, wondering what Zhaolijuan might have said in his last moment. Maybe he was begging for mercy or praising himself? He has an itchy feeling in his heart, wishing for time to flow backward so he could let him speak first and then kill him afterward.
Shijie doesn't have the ability to guess people's thoughts, and she doesn't want to.
She shared the information she knew: "It is said that Zhaolijuan had a rare encounter at the beginning of his cultivation. He had a conversation with his future self in a cold pool and mastered several major opportunities related to himself. That's how he was able to successfully enter Jiugong Sect."
Nezha made a "hm" sound, then didn't continue the conversation. It's normal for a primeval immortal to have a rare encounter; it's the lack of one that would be unusual.
In fact, for any cultivation-realized immortal, compiling his life story and past into a book would be like a protagonist's treatment.
There are countless examples of characters finding magic weapons while outside, surviving falls from cliffs, and receiving divine skills from revered ancestors.
Huanglong Zhenren had no rare encounters? Being able to become a disciple of the Jade Purity Palace is already a rare occurrence.
Nezha had no rare encounters? When he was serving as the nephew, encounters like the Kunqian Circle and Hunsanti Lin were already arranged.
Shijie said only a few words and then lost interest in the conversation.
Shijie looked a bit disheveled, with sweat dripping from her temples. Her left hand had been completely corroded by the ghost energy, turning black, and her spirit was like boiling water, agitated. These were actually easy to treat, and with time, they would heal.
The most critical issue was the subtle damage. Nezha was from the human race, but she wasn't; she had been attacked by Zhaolijuan and experienced a severe backlash from her human energy. Her headache felt as if it would split open, and some ethereal and mysterious force was affecting her. Her own fortune, destiny, and luck were all plummeting at a large amplitude in some way.
"The curse of being pointed at by a thousand people, dying without illness" is generally used to describe immortals who are subjected to the backlash of human fate and energy.
Nezha doesn't like Shijie, but he won't watch her die without doing anything.
The Mount Emei and the mortal world are closely linked, unlike the gods who are blind to human fate and virtues. The nuns here have a system and effective solutions to deal with such issues.
Nezha searched in his sleeve for a moment and quickly pulled out a scroll of silk. He threw it to Shijie, "Take this. Fill in your name, and the backlash will be eliminated."
What is this thing? How can it have such strong effects?
Shijie unfolded the silk scroll and read carefully. It was a decree from the Han Emperor Deng Xiu, with the name field left blank. The content was simply to invite the holder of the decree as the Grand Master of Han, which carried little responsibility and few obligations. A duplicate of the decree was kept in Han's guard vault, and as long as she filled in her own name, any slight backlash from Han would be taken care of by her.
For her personally, the massive backlash was nothing when spread out among all the humans of the race.
Shijie was just stubborn in personality, but not an idiot. He knew the importance of this silk scroll and said, "Thank you."
Nezha nodded and went to check on Little Five on the side.
Little Five is fine, but Yuanxiao, who has been protecting her, has collapsed from exhaustion.
At this moment, the Door-Slab Broadsword was stuck to the ground, and she was lying down, leaning against a large stone, resting after being tired. Her pink tongue also protruded out from her mouth.
On her fat, black and white face, there appeared an additional shade of pink, which looked quite odd.
Little Five took out a banana leaf and began to fan Yuanxiao, who was sweating profusely, with steam rising from her head like a steaming bamboo basket.
Little Five secretly made a resolution. When she got home, she would definitely tell her parents that she wasn't afraid of hardships or fatigue. This time, she absolutely had to learn some protective skills so that she wouldn't have to go through something like this again.
The Six Ghost Pennants controlled by Zhaolijuan were shattered, freeing the ghosts under their control.
Ji Fa's face was full of regret. It would have been better if everyone at the scene were strangers, but unfortunately, there was someone here who recognized him.
"General Li, it's been a long time."
"Wang of Wu King." Nezha's words were quite harsh: "Has the Wang of Wu King finally come to his senses?"
Ji Fa disliked being made the butt of a joke in this situation, but he felt that he should share the intelligence he had: "General Li, you have grievances against me, which is understandable. I have no face to see my father or the ancestors, but I have an important piece of information that concerns the safety of the Primordial Era and the teachings of the Sanjiao. I hope you can pass it on to my teacher, Guang Chengzi."
