Chapter 97 – Sobered Xiong Zhenzhen
= 20th Floor =
Xiong Zhenzhen slowly regained her consciousness. She opened her eyes and sat up.
Her memories jumbled. She recalled that Xu Xiuying had given her a blood crystal, which was refined from a true-blood vampire's dantian core. Her master said that it would give her the vampire bloodline, which would synergize with her secret technique.
At that time, Xiong Zhenzhen was still an inner disciple, and her cultivation base was at the 4th rank, the Essence Condensing Realm.
Unfortunately, after consuming the blood crystal, Xiong Zhenzhen couldn't remember anything.
"Where... am I?"
The woman looked around. Upon sensing the chilly air on her chest, she looked down.
Then, Xiong Zhenzhen found out that she was half-naked.
"!!!"
In shock, Xiong Zhenzhen took the nearest clothes and put them on. Afterward, she examined her surroundings.
Xiong Zhenzhen stopped looking around when she found a young man meditating at the center of the room.
Xie Tian was there, meditating and recuperating from the poison damage to his dantian. He was digesting Xiong Zhenzhen's corrupted energy and converting them into his dragon yang Qi.
The protagonist's expression did not look well. His head twitched and shook every second as if he was possessed. The rough breathing, sweating, and black veins revealed that he couldn't control the new corrupted energy.
Xiong Zhenzhen frowned. She had seen these symptoms before.
'Demonic corruption!'
Several colleagues of Xiong Zhenzhen once had these symptoms. At first, they had to meditate and digest the rampaging mysterious Qi within their bloodstream. Once the unknown energy merged with their Qi, these symptoms would disappear, but their characters and personalities would change forever.
Most of them suddenly got mental illnesses while the rest of them were taken away by Yao Lan and Xu Xiuying. Xiong Zhenzhen never saw them again afterward.
Although the man in front of her was a stranger, Xiong Zhenzhen didn't want to see someone suffer the same fate as her friends. Without hesitation, she rushed to his side and tried to use her inner essence to help him driving out the bad blood.
Unfortunately, Xie Tian had absorbed a lot of Xiong Zhenzhen's essence when her vampire bloodline took over her conscience. She could not gather her demon essence.
Still, Yin Essence and Yin Qi remained. She was about to send her Qi into Xie Tian's bloodstream through his forehead.
At that moment, Xie Tian's eyes snapped open. He sent a palm strike to Xiong Zhenzhen's chest.
However, Xiong Zhenzhen's physical strength, Essence quality, and constitution was that of the 5th stage master. She activated her essence aura and blocked the attack.
*PA*
Xie Tian's palm was 2cm away from Xiong Zhenzhen's left breast. A wall of blue flame blocked Xie Tian's hand from reaching her.
Xie Tian's eyes flickered from yellow to red, but they changed back to yellow. He gritted his teeth and muttered, "Your energy is wicked, woman! You're cultivating a demonic art!"
Xiong Zhenzhen was taken aback. She wanted to save him, but he turned out to be an ingrate bastard.
"And here I'm trying to save your life. Fine! You can subdue those energies on your own!"
The girl ignored Xie Tian. She instinctively walked toward the balcony, where she always sat and cultivated alone.
When Xiong Zhenzhen got outside, she questioned herself.
'Why am I here? Where am I exactly?'
The girl peeked over the balcony. She found several protective arrays around here, which prevented anyone from entering or leaving this place. She tilted her head in confusion.
'I kinda know this place, but I don't remember.'
There were many things in Xiong Zhenzhen's mind after she got sober. She closed her eyes to recollect her fragmented memory.
...
Xie Tian was in a bad shape. Using Energy Drain on Xiong Zhenzhen was a bad idea.
At first, his dragon yang could suppress Xiong Zhenzhen's demonic energy. But after a while, these demon essences slowly ate away his dragon yang, turning them into something new.
Xie Tian could barely maintain his consciousness. The harder he tried to purify the demonic energy, the faster his dragon yang Qi becoming corrupted.
'My dragon yang Qi is the best in the world! Why can't I purify this demonic energy!?'
While struggling, Xie Tian didn't realize the change in his dantian. His foundation weakened, but his cultivation base soared. His bone strength shot up to level 4 and slowly climbed to the next rank.
Xie Tian's bone marrow and the demonic qi merged. The silver-white bones in his body reddened.
"AAAAHHHHHH!!"
Unable to contain the rampaging energy anymore, Xie Tian screamed in pain. He thrashed and threw dragon fireballs in a random direction, trying to eject all evil Qi from his body.
One of the fireballs hit the defensive arrays of Xu Xiuying's treasure troves.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
The defensive arrays blocked all the fireballs, but they revealed the location of the secret shelves, which hid Xu Xiuying's spatial boxes and crates.
In anger, Xie Tian tossed more fireballs at the shelves behind the barriers.
*BOOM*
*BOOM*
The barriers only shook after being hit by Xie Tian's dragon fireballs. Xie Tian's attempt was futile.
"SCREW YOU!!!!"
Xie Tian lost his temper. He gathered all his evil Qi inside his dantian into a single fireball and hurled it at the barrier again.
*BOOM*
This time, the barrier fluctuated. It hummed and gathered the surrounding Qi before it sent an air bullet toward Xie Tian.
*POEK*
The bullet got stuck on his chest, which had turned into dragon scales. Then, it dissipated into thin air.
However, the impact stunned him. Xie Tian fell on his back.
After releasing the pent-up energy, Xie Tian's complexion got better. His black vein changed to blue, and his red eyes returned to yellow.
Once more, Xie Tian's dragon Qi managed to control the demonic energy.
"Whew."
Xie Tian felt better. The uncontrollable anger was gone, leaving with emptiness feeling.
As the protagonist was recovering his stamina and planning to get back on his feet, Xiong Zhenzhen walked toward the arrays that Xie Tian failed to destroy.
...
'Somehow, I kinda know these shelves.'
Xiong Zhenzhen's legs automatically brought her toward the barriers. She reached out her hand and touched it.
*VING*
The barriers hummed and faded. Xiong Zhenzhen grinned and walked toward one of the shelves.
Then, she pulled a sealed spatial box on it.
'Let see... Right, I can't open this one, but I can open the boxes on that shelf.'
Xiong Zhenzhen returned the box and walked toward the shelf that she was familiar with. She pulled a 1-cubic-meter box, which was at the bottom.
*VING*
The spatial box hummed as if it was greeting its master. Again, Xiong Zhenzhen's muscle memory took over her body as she injected her Qi into it.
The cubic box was unlocked and transformed into a black spatial ring. Xiong Zhenzhen picked it and put it on her finger.
'I know this ring. Isn't this ... my mother's ring?'
This thing was Xiong Zhenzhen heirloom. But for whatever reason, it was stored here.
She inspected inside the ring. It was a blank ring without any item inside. Yet, its space size was one cubic kilometer.
Xiong Zhenzhen recalled her mother's teaching. This ring was called "Rose Dimension Ring" which could store other spatial rings or spatial boxes.
Recalling the vague memory, Xiong Zhenzhen walked toward other spatial boxes and stored all items inside her ring!
Once all shelves were emptied, Xiong Zhenzhen tilted her head again, trying to figure out where she was.
'I don't exactly remember everything, but this place seems to be the top floor of my sect. Where is the exit again? I miss my friends and my old room. There should be refined Yin stones under my bed if I remember correctly...'
Xiong Zhenzhen massaged her temples and allowed her muscle memory to guide her. She walked toward a black wall and pressed her palm on it.
*VING*
The illusion of the wall dispersed and revealed a corridor path toward a stair. She followed the path and descended from the 20th floor.
All Xiong Zhenzhen's actions couldn't escape Xie Tian's eyes. As soon as he discovered a chance to flee from this building, he got back on his feet and followed after her.
...
As Xiong Zhenzhen's legs led her downstairs, she ran into a pair of disciples.
"Senior sister!"
"Greetings, senior sister!"
They were JY disciples, which was in charge of guarding the 20th-floor entrance. They cupped their fists and bowed to Xiong Zhenzhen even though the latter was younger than them.
Xiong Zhenzhen nodded at them and moved on.
But when Xie Tian appeared, the two JY disciples took out their weapons and pointed at his neck.
Xiong Zhenzhen's feet stopped. She hesitated a bit, but she decided to save him, "He's my pet. Leave him alone."
"I-I'm sorry, senior sister!"
Xie Tian gulped as these disciples retracted their weapons. He rushed to Xiong Zhenzhen's side and followed after her.
Feeling guilty for what had happened earlier, Xie Tian bowed his head, "I'm sorry for before. I can't control my temper."
Xiong Zhenzhen sighed, "If you're really sorry, act like you're my servant. I'll guide you out of here."
"Okay... Thank you."
"Thank me when you're out. Right now, your life is in danger if we're caught."
"Right."
"But before we leave here, I want to visit a place."
"Sure. Where are you heading to?"
"I'm going to visit my room on the 17th floor first. Then, I'll visit a friend on the 14th floor."
Xiong Zhenzhen thought of a certain twin-tail loli, which had a bad personality. Yet, she was once her senior, who had helped Xiong Zhenzhen a lot when she was a rookie.
'Senior Zheng, I wonder if you're still an outer disciple...'
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