Can one attain eternal life?

By the time the Anti-Zhou Army arrived, the flames had already devoured the entire Lu Tai!

"Shao Ji! This is Shao Ji!"

Seeing this, someone cried out in alarm, "King Zhou's intentions are vicious! I beg My King to offer sacrifices to Heaven to dispel his curse!"

Ji Fa stared at the blazing inferno, raising his hand to silence the clamor.

He lifted his gaze into the distance.

Outside Chao Ge City, Verdant Green Maiden skipped forward, swinging her gourd and humming a tune under her breath.

From the woods ahead, three men in coarse cloth and hemp clothes emerged.

The three blocked Verdant Green Maiden's path.

"Sir, please slow down!"

They greeted her with beaming smiles, bowing in salute.

Three strangers suddenly blocking her way—Verdant Green Maiden narrowed her eyes, her expression turning hostile.

She fastened the gourd to her waist.

"You three, instead of chasing merits at Chao Ge, you're blocking my path in this little forest. What's your business?"

The leading Gray-robed Daoist wore a gentle expression, clasping his hands toward Verdant Green Maiden, "We have come for My King, to seek from you the Art of Longevity."

"For yourselves, just say so. No need to dress it up so prettily."

Hearing his words, Verdant Green Maiden muttered under her breath, then waved them off, "Don't have it. Get out of my way."

The three smiled at this.

The Gray-robed Daoist stepped forward, bowing to Verdant Green Maiden.

"Sir jests. Since you came to our Xi Qi over a decade ago, your face has not aged a day. If that isn't the Art of Immortality, what is?"

"Sir, do not hoard your secrets!"

"My King is a Wise Ruler the likes of which the world has rarely seen. If he were to attain longevity, would that not be a great boon to all under Heaven?"

The three chatted and laughed as they slowly closed in on Verdant Green Maiden.

Verdant Green Maiden grew impatient.

"I said I don't have it! Good Snake keeps his word—I never lie. Don't block my way!"

Seeing that Verdant Green Maiden refused to reveal the Art of Immortality, the Gray-robed Daoist's smile gradually faded. He exchanged glances with the two beside him.

"For My King's sake, for the sake of Great Zhou's dominion—forgive us, Sir!"

The three spread out into formation, producing their so-called Magic Tools, surrounding Verdant Green Maiden with the intent to capture her by force.

Verdant Green Maiden watched them form their array, Muttering Incantations under their breath, and fell silent.

Then, she walked straight toward the woods on one side.

Seeing Verdant Green Maiden casually stroll right out of the formation they had set, the three were Astonished.

"This..."

"How can this be!"

"This is the formation passed down by Ancestor Master!"

Ignoring their Astonishment, Verdant Green Maiden snapped off a tree branch and turned back.

Under the three's bewildered, stunned gazes, Verdant Green Maiden raised the branch.

Whack after whack, she struck them hard.

The branch seemed light as a feather, but each blow carried the force of a Thousand Jin!

The three were knocked to the ground in an instant.

Verdant Green Maiden beat them as she muttered, "Blocking my way, huh! Laying hands on me, huh! Longevity, immortality! Cat got your tongues? Speak! Still want to live forever?"

"Sir, spare us..."

"No more, we don't want longevity! Please, Sir, forgive us!"

The Body Tempering Technique the three prided themselves on was utterly useless under Verdant Green Maiden's strikes!

They wailed, begging for her mercy.

After they pleaded, Verdant Green Maiden struck a few more times before stopping.

She tossed the branch aside, walked over, and kicked away the tools the three had used to set up their formation.

"What junk is this, thinking it could trap me?"

"Do you think This Snake is someone to mess with? Did you really think you were the Great Zhou from Investiture of the Gods?"

"You've been reading too many novels!"

The three on the ground had no idea what the second half of Verdant Green Maiden's words meant. They were now wracked with excruciating pain, as if their Bones had been snapped by her blows.

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Verdant Green Maiden crushed the utensils underfoot, then grabbed the Gray-robed Daoist by the collar.

She bared her fangs, her tone turning cold.

"Tell Ji Fa that my transaction with him has begun. When the time comes, I'll come to collect what I'm owed!"

"Yes... what you say, This Humble One will surely relay to My King!"

The Gray-robed Daoist nodded weakly, his aura thin.

Verdant Green Maiden released his collar, wiped her hands, and slipped back into her earlier carefree demeanor, humming a tune as she left the place.

By evening, three badly injured Daoists were carried before Ji Fa.

The Gray-robed Daoist relayed Verdant Green Maiden's words to him.

Ji Fa listened, fell silent for a long time, and finally just waved his hand, ordering the three to be taken away for proper treatment.

"Prime Minister, did Gu do wrong?"

Jiang Ziya sighed. "Great King should not have so easily opposed that one."

Ji Fa remained wordless for a long while.

The next day, Ji Fa performed the Sacrifice to Heaven outside Chao Ge City!

A month later, the Zhou Army returned in triumph to Xi Qi.

Several months after that, Verdant Green Maiden climbed Qin Ling, gazing at the Heavenly Auspicious Fortune under the night sky.

In the hazy distance, the Dragon Qi of Chao Ge dissipated.

Above Hao Jing, Clouds and Mist churned!

Watching the shifting winds and clouds, Verdant Green Maiden shook her gourd, listening to the sound of two drops of Heart's Blood within—blood that held nearly a thousand years of fortune from two dynasties—and she laughed aloud.

"Sooner or later, I'll become a dragon!"

The brilliant and mighty King Zhou, Ji Fa, could not continue his Great Undertaking.

Just one year after conquering Shang, Ji Fa fell ill.

Illness struck like a landslide.

Ji Fa's sickness dragged on for two years, and he never rose again.

Inside the palace at Hao Jing.

The Palace Staff stood solemnly, keeping watch outside Ji Fa's bedchamber.

After nightfall, Ji Fa, in a haze, saw Verdant Green Maiden standing by his bedside.

"You've come?"

Ji Fa's expression flickered with surprise at seeing her, but he quickly accepted it.

He coughed a few times and asked, "Have you come to take Ji Fa's life?"

Verdant Green Maiden shook her head and said to Ji Fa, "What use would your life be to me? I want the life of Great Zhou's final king."

Hearing this, Ji Fa forced a bitter smile.

"Then you'll have to wait a long time. The Prime Minister says Great Zhou should have eight hundred years of rule."

"Eight hundred years is nothing. I can wait."

Verdant Green Maiden didn't care how long it took.

She had no other special traits, but her life was exceptionally long.

Maybe Old Heaven was compensating her—after all, traveling through time, turning from a man into a snake, from a man into a woman, such a novel experience deserved some recompense.

"As expected of you. A thousand years of wind and clouds, laughed off in a single breath."

Ji Fa gave a wry laugh. He looked at Verdant Green Maiden, paused for a moment, then said, "Back then..."

"I know. Those Daoists were just greedy for the Art of Longevity."

Verdant Green Maiden understood what Ji Fa wanted to say. She reassured him, "I didn't take it to heart. Don't you dwell on it either. After all, you don't have much time left. Look on the bright side."

"Your way of comforting people is still so unique."

"At first, I'd put real effort into it. But after seeing so much, I lost the inclination."

Verdant Green Maiden shrugged, pulled two Fruits from her robe, wiped them clean, and handed one to Ji Fa. "Want some? Picked from your palace. Not bad."

Looking at the Red Fruit in her hand, Ji Fa raised his arm weakly.

"You... I'm sorry..."

Seeing this, Verdant Green Maiden simply stuffed the fruit into his hand. "Take it."

Ji Fa held the fruit, feeling its cool Aura, his gaze fixed on Verdant Green Maiden.

"Have you been in Hao Jing all these three years?"

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