Chapter 100: Life and Death

“Young Master...”

That was Nightingale’s blood-cry before she transformed into the Purple-Gold Roc!

The entire second floor of Fuyang Inn exploded in that instant. A tiny Purple-Gold Roc, wrapped in a sacred and solemn radiance, appeared in the air where the building had once stood.

A streak of purple-gold light flashed toward the direction where Lin Zhan had fallen, enveloping him at once. Then a roc-shaped seal, flashing with Purple-Gold Roc energy and bearing power that seemed capable of annihilating all things, crashed down upon Wei Xiaoran in midair!

In his panic, the staff appeared once more in Wei Xiaoran’s hands, growing larger and stronger until it became a pillar linking heaven and earth. Yet beneath the scorching blaze of the Purple-Gold Roc seal, it melted into countless brilliant sparks and vanished without a trace.

The staff was destroyed!

Wei Xiaoran, his face deathly pale, immediately brought out several talismans and cast them one after another, muttering an incantation under his breath. Then he tipped a bottle of pills into his mouth.

His spiritual power surged wildly, his aura roiling and shaking, arrogant beyond measure. He shouted at the Purple-Gold Roc seal, “Break!”

But after destroying the staff, the Purple-Gold Roc seal showed not the slightest sign of weakening. Amid repeated, piercing explosions, Wei Xiaoran’s drum-tight spiritual shield was shattered!

Bang!

It was as though a round object between heaven and earth had been crushed to pieces. In an instant, Wei Xiaoran’s body split apart into countless fragments of flesh, skin, and bone, scattering in all directions...

With a sharp whoosh, the Purple-Gold Roc seal fell to the ground, erasing Wei Xiaoran’s aura completely. Even the thousand-year ice bricks beneath his feet, which had once been incomparably sturdy, were reduced to powder.

And that was not all. The devastation spread to all the Wei clan members in the courtyard who had been standing slightly farther out, including everyone below the Yellow Rank, Second Grade. Among them was even Young Master Wei, who had believed Lin Zhan was surely doomed!

These people, together with the earlier bodies of the bare-chested men and the black-clad attackers, were all obliterated in this catastrophe, leaving not a trace behind.

Even the protective barrier Wei Xiaoran had previously set up with talismans burst apart at this moment, no longer able to hold its shape.

Watching the seal gradually fade, the Purple-Gold Roc in the air let out a mournful cry and flew to Lin Zhan’s side. Gazing at the unconscious Lin Zhan, the tiny roc spat out a mass of something suffused with purple-gold light and infused it into the light that had originally been shielding him.

“Young Master! Nightingale is useless. I still have not fully absorbed all the energy within the Purple-Gold Roc bloodline essence, and I cannot save you now. I can only send this drop of essence into your body, hoping it can protect your heart meridians... Nightingale can no longer hold on, and from now on, I will not be able to accompany you any longer... Though I have known you only a short while, for Nightingale, that is already enough...”

The tiny Purple-Gold Roc’s body flickered in and out of brightness, the severe aftermath of having unleashed a forbidden, ultimate strike.

Under normal circumstances, Nightingale could have delivered three attacks at the Yellow Rank, Second Grade level. But combining those three into a single strike, while enough to kill a Yellow Rank, Fifth Grade expert, was nearly enough to drain herself dry.

More than that, seeing Lin Zhan in such a life-threatening state, his body ruined both inside and out, with only the faintest thread of life remaining, she had spat out the Purple-Gold Roc clan’s final inherited blood essence, hoping to give him one last chance to rise from certain death.

At that moment, Nightingale was already dazed, and the form of the Purple-Gold Roc was on the verge of disintegrating.

In the time it takes to say it, the Nine-Star Chart, which had not played any notable role in the battle, suddenly shot out a beam of light and drew the tiny Purple-Gold Roc inside.

The Fuyang Inn, now nothing more than wreckage and ruins, fell into utter silence at that moment, as though the Purple-Gold Roc had never appeared, as though no one from the Wei family had ever come...

Only Lin Zhan remained, lying quietly atop a massive block of ice, eyes empty as he stared blankly at the sky.

His face was smeared with horrific streaks of blood, yet he appeared extraordinarily calm. Only the faint glimmer at the corner of his eye betrayed him.

When Nightingale had used the purple-gold light to shield him, his consciousness had awakened first. Though his body was shattered, unable to heal itself, unable to move, unable to do anything at all, he had seen everything Nightingale did.

Wei Xiaoran’s destruction was certainly gratifying, but Lin Zhan did not want to lose Nightingale like this. If he could, he would rather have been a coward and, after leaving the Heaven’s Treasures Workshop, never returned to Fuyang Inn at all, but instead fled far away. Then none of this would have happened, and Nightingale would not have been forced to make such an enormous sacrifice.

Nightingale had only just returned to her clan today. Only today had the Purple-Gold Roc bloodline awakened within her. Only today had she been about to stride toward a brilliant future.

Now, Nightingale’s dream had shattered.

The Purple-Gold Roc essence blood entered Lin Zhan’s body and quickly broke apart, releasing tremendous energy. His injuries healed at a rapid pace.

Though he still could not move for the moment, his body was in fact undergoing earthshaking changes within.

Lin Zhan had once absorbed the energy of the gold skeleton of the Great Evolution Venerable, and his body had already been cleansed and refined once over. Yet his bones had remained the same as before.

Now his bones, shattered into dust and fragments, were being rebuilt. His meridians and blood vessels were being repaired and revived. His flesh and skin were recovering their vitality once more...

All of it was like casting off the old body and forging a new one, like remaking a person from the ground up!

The process of Nightingale’s Purple-Gold Roc bloodline awakening had now repeated itself within Lin Zhan.

Lin Zhan felt his eyelids growing unbearably heavy; his entire body had lost all sensation...

Footsteps began to sound around him. It seemed people were speaking, calling out a certain name. Lin Zhan bared his teeth in a faint grimace, unable to respond in any way.

“Brother Lin Zhan! Brother Lin Zhan!”

At last, the newcomers drew near, calling his name. Their voices were filled with concern and grief, mingled with ragged breathing and coughing.

Only then did Lin Zhan’s mouth finally part. The ones who had come were not greedy predators looking to seize his treasures in the midst of chaos, but the young master of the Jiangnan Dao-Robe Clan, Jin Shi!

Ah, this fellow seemed to be truly decent. Lin Zhan’s heart relaxed at once, and he promptly lost consciousness for good.

“Young Master, Young Master Lin still has a breath left. Let us carry him back first!” said one of Jin Shi’s attendants.

“As long as he’s alive, that’s all that matters. All of you, hurry and help carry him. Take him to Heaven’s Treasures Workshop as fast as possible!” This order came from Lian Fengying.

So it was not only Jin Shi who had come, but Lian Fengying as well.

After Heaven’s Treasures Workshop received word that a bloody clash had broken out at Fuyang Inn, Jin Shi, who happened to be there at the time, immediately thought of what Lin Zhan had once said, that he was staying at that very inn and had even taught the Wei family’s young master a lesson. Back then, Jin Shi had cheered to the skies over it!

Now that he heard something had happened at Fuyang Inn, Jin Shi naturally thought of Lin Zhan first, and worried that the one in danger might be him.

Thus, disregarding the fact that his own injuries had not yet fully healed, he insisted on coming to see for himself. He believed this was the moment to repay a kindness.