Love & Redemption
Chapter 200: Volume 5 Phoenix Flower Blooms - 7 Wuzhiqi (Part 3)

Chapter 200: Volume 5 Phoenix Flower Blooms Chapter 7 Wuzhiqi (Part 3)

Third watch. Are the students satisfied?

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Zi Hu’s face, filled with a joyful and surprised smile, suddenly froze as she stared at her long-lost beloved, whom she hadn’t seen in a thousand years, momentarily unable to utter a single word.

Wuzhiqi coughed, and a blush of embarrassment actually appeared on his bronze-colored face. He spoke in a low voice, "Oh dear, it’s been so long since I’ve seen a woman, my apologies... Beautiful lady, please come in, please have a seat, beautiful lady, have some tea."

The more Zi Hu looked at him, the more he seemed different from someone else, unlike the rebellious bad boy she remembered. How could he, how could he—resemble Liu Yihuan, that rapist?!

She walked in dazedly, sat down—there was only a shabby straw mat for a bed, had tea—it was just a broken porcelain bowl with some water dripped from the straw. Everything was so crude, so crude it was hard to believe that this once-dominant Great Demon had been tortured here alone for a thousand years. Zi Hu coughed softly, recalling his once majestic appearance, and her eyes gradually reddened.

"Does the water taste bad? Ah, I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do about it. I don’t have anything better here..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zi Hu suddenly threw herself into his arms, holding him tightly, and began to sob. This truly flustered Wuzhiqi, who looked for a handkerchief to wipe her tears but only had his torn clothes on him, resulting in an awkward situation. Thus, he could only soothe her with a soft voice, "Don’t cry, don’t cry! There’s really nothing fun about this place, I’ve been living here alone for a while. Although I don’t know what wrong you did to be locked up here, at least it won’t be lonely with the two of us from now on..."

Zi Hu cried out, "You damn Monkey! You damn Monkey! It’s only been a thousand years, how can you not recognize me!"

Wuzhiqi suddenly paused, then gripped her shoulders tightly, pulling her away to look at her closely with growing surprise, and finally exclaimed, "Oh my God... you, you’re Little Fox?! How did you turn into a beautiful lady..."

As Zi Hu cried and stamped her feet, "A thousand years! I’m not an idiot, of course, I’ve transformed into a human form!"

Wuzhiqi awkwardly scratched his head, chuckling, "Well, it seems so... it really is you... it really is you..." His mood became despondent as he let go of Zi Hu, the spark in his eyes instantly fading, showing a unique kind of melancholy. Indeed, anyone held in such a place for a thousand years would have gone mad if they hadn’t blown away their former radiance like the sun.

Zi Hu threw herself on him heedlessly, clinging to him and choked up, "I’ve always been thinking of you! I finally saw you today! This isn’t a dream, right? Wuzhiqi! You’re still alive and well!"

Wuzhiqi was slightly moved, raising his hand to gently pat her head, just like before, with a touch of tender indulgence. She was like a temperamental yet lovely pet he had raised—just patting her head whenever she was angry would dissipate her grievances.

It took a while for her crying to subside, and as she gradually calmed down, Wuzhiqi finally asked, "How did you end up here? Did you also commit a terrible crime?"

Zi Hu shook her head and briefly explained how she had cultivated into a human form over the past thousand years, how she had met Xuanji and others, and finally, how she had ended up in the Netherworld. She then whispered, "Do you know? The people from Lize Palace have been trying hard to rescue you. So... don’t be anxious, one day they will definitely get you out! Now that I’m here, I absolutely won’t leave, I’ll stay with you."

Wuzhiqi frowned, questioning in surprise, "Lize Palace? Who are these people? Why should they come to rescue me after my mishap?"

Zi Hu softly said, "You don’t know the Golden Winged Bird clan from overseas? Lize Palace is full of such demons."

Wuzhiqi’s expression changed drastically, he shouted, "Golden Winged Bird?! They actually have the audacity to rescue me in their name?!" Seeing his strange reaction, Zi Hu asked curiously, "What’s the matter? Why such a big reaction?" Wuzhiqi shouted fiercely, "That despicable scoundrel! If it weren’t for his help with the Upper Realm, how could I have..."

Before he could finish, he immediately shut his mouth, pulling Zi Hu up from the bed and whispered a command, "Stay here and be quiet. Someone is coming!"

Zi Hu obediently nodded, leaning against his broad back. Seeing his ragged clothes and tangled hair, a sourness welled up in her heart. She opened her arms, gently embracing him, feeling no resistance from him, and her heart sweetened. She leaned against him, one moment bittersweet, the next ecstatic, no longer caring about anything from the past or future. After all, she had found him; being with him, even if she were to die immediately, she wouldn’t care.

The door to the straw hut creaked as it was gently pushed open from outside, and after a moment, a head cautiously peeked in. It was a pale little face with soft black hair hanging down, and two eyes like black crystals scanned around, pausing on Wuzhiqi, seemingly evaluating him silently.

Wuzhiqi never expected another pretty young girl to enter; the murderous look on his face instantly changed to one of peachy delight. Smiling, he waved at her, his voice softened, "Don’t be afraid, there are no bad eggs here, come on in." Before he could finish, he felt a sharp pinch on his back from Zi Hu. Wincing in pain, he almost jumped up, only to see Zi Hu go around him, smiling, "Xuanji! You’re here too! Come in, this is Wuzhiqi!"

Just as Xuanji nodded at the door, about to push it open, she suddenly felt a great force from behind. Tengshe kicked the frail door to pieces and bellowed, "Wuzhiqi! I have finally found you! Come out and fight me for three hundred rounds!" Everyone froze under his roar, and Wuzhiqi looked at him curiously before finally scratching his head and asking, "Who are you?"

Tengshe coughed twice, suddenly feeling a bit awkward. True, back when Wuzhiqi was causing havoc in the Lower Realm, he had wanted to go down and fight him, but Emperor Bai and the others strictly forbade it. Now that he had finally met him, it was after he had been captured to be interrogated and judged in Heaven. Glancing over the crowd, he saw the disheveled demon and was somewhat stunned then.

He had never seen a demon who still looked so spirited after being captured by Heaven; his eyes didn’t lie—that was not the gaze of an evil schemer. Those eyes were like fierce fire, full of a zest for life and love, seemingly curious and refreshed by everything. He wasn’t defeated by them; he was just temporarily tired, finding a place to rest, to replenish his energy—for another battle.

From that moment, Tengshe had an idea; no matter what, he needed to fight him at least once to be satisfied. For Tengshe, fighting was the best method of communication, even better than words.

"This is Lord Tengshe, Wuzhiqi, he came with us. I told you just now, did you forget? And this is Xuanji; her past life was quite something! She was..." Zi Hu hurriedly tried to smooth things over.

"I know, the War God General, right! Hehe," Wuzhiqi suddenly laughed, cutting her off. When Xuanji first came in, he felt she looked familiar, but couldn’t quite place her because although Xuanji’s appearance hadn’t changed much after reincarnation, she was still a child and quite different from the War God in her prime. But he quickly recognized her true identity, because of those eyes staring at him, dark as black crystals—he had seen them before, seen them once, and would never forget that look.

Back then, she had looked at him in the same way, slightly bewildered and seemingly indifferent, yet exceptionally sharp. With Ding Kun held high, he thought he would be split in two in the next moment, but eventually, she slowly sheathed her sword and said softly, "Forget it, you can go." After that, she turned and left first.

He loudly asked her why, and at that time, she turned around, thought seriously for a moment, and finally said with a hint of melancholy, "You make sense, Heaven is not always right."

He had never met someone like her before, as if carved from Liuli, cold and sharp from a distance, untouchable. Yet on a closer look, she was such a contradiction—naive yet mature, simple yet melancholic, truly unpredictable.

And importantly, she was a beauty. On a whim, Wuzhiqi called out, "Beauty, wait, don’t go! You see... since you don’t want to kill me, and I can’t bear to fight you, why don’t we turn our fight into friendship, how about that?"

He eagerly gazed at her radiant face, fearful that her delicate head might shake in denial, or that she might suddenly change her mind and come after him again. After a moment of hesitation, she asked him a question he never expected.

She asked, "What is a friend? Can you eat it?"

This response stunned him for a long time, and then he burst into uncontrollable laughter.

One was in the sky, the other on the ground; talking about friendship was completely facetious, and they didn’t see each other for a long time afterwards. But he really admired her—a woman reaching the status of War God was not easy by any means. He was almost ready to treat her like a brother.

Of course, he never ended up treating her as a brother. Betrayed by a confidant, and those murky immortals in Heaven actually resorted to exploiting her beauty app sending the War God General to him again. He admitted, he had no defense against a beautiful woman, losing to her once more, yet she didn’t kill him this time either, only telling him, "Hmm, I know what a friend is now. Being friends isn’t a bad idea."

His jaw nearly dropped at those words, and in his brief panic, he was captured by the other immortals and could no longer move.

The later events involved interrogations, torture, punishments... eventually, he was confined in the damp and miserable Netherworld, locked up for a thousand years.

Over those thousand years, he reflected on the past, how glorious and imposing he once was, nearly flooding the Heavenly Court with a great flood, but dwelling on these memories eventually proved wearying. Beyond that, what he thought about most was the War God’s final words. Was she serious? Or was it a little trick played in collusion with Heaven, deceiving him all along?

Wuzhiqi chuckled, seeing Xuanji firmly looking at him, her eyes as clear as black crystals, the same as they were a thousand years ago.

He coughed twice, and said earnestly, "Beauty, how about we be friends?" (To be continued. To find out what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters are available; support the author and support genuine reading!)