Zhang Qiling Is My Fiancé

"Zhang Qiling is my fiancé." Yu Zhi looked around at everyone as he spoke. "Does anyone have a problem with that?"

"No! No! Absolutely no problem at all!" Xie Lianhuan hurriedly waved his hands.

"Wouldn't dare! Wouldn't dare!" Wu Sansheng's eyes widened in shock. He hadn't expected Yu Zhi to admit it, and Zhang Qiling hadn't contradicted him either.

Qi Yu said nothing. The emotions in his eyes were somewhat complicated as he looked at Yu Zhi. Yu Zhi noticed that Qi Yu kept pretending to glance casually in his direction. It wasn't obvious, but with his cultivation at Qi Refining Stage Great Perfection, how could he fail to notice? It left Yu Zhi scratching his head for a moment; he couldn't quite make sense of it.

Chen Wenjin kept her head down and said nothing. It was clear she didn't care about these matters.

Huo Ling, on the other hand, looked at the two with envy in her eyes. She could tell they were deeply in love. "You have to invite me when you get married! I'm definitely coming to drink at your wedding banquet."

Yu Zhi didn't care about the varied expressions on their faces. Instead, Huo Ling's words made him smile happily. "Of course. When the time comes, I'll be sure to send wedding invitations to Miss Huo"-he paused briefly-"and your companions." To tell the truth, of everyone in the Nine Gates, Xie Yuchen was the one he liked best. Back then, Zhang Qiling had been able to come out thanks to Xie Yuchen's help.

"Mm-hmm, Mr. Yu, you must remember to send me one. As for the others, I don't care whether you invite them or not," Huo Ling said.

"We won't forget."

Zhang Qiling's cool, clear voice rang out, answering for Yu Zhi.

He hadn't expected A Li to give him the status he had longed for so simply. He was delighted; he had a recognized place at Yu Zhi's side now.

"A Li, let's go." The happiness radiating from Zhang Qiling couldn't be held back.

The five exchanged another round of looks. They had never seen this before, really never seen it before. So when the famous Zhang Family patriarch fell in love, he became this... this... love-brained?

If they hadn't seen it with their own eyes, who would have believed it? Even if word got out, people would treat it as slander. That showed just how aloof and mysterious Zhang Qiling's image had been in everyone's minds.

The gate tower was simple to get past. All it took was one person to climb up and toss down a rope. The others could climb up after them, with no danger involved.

This was where the person who designed the underground palace was so devious: places that seemed dangerous were deliberately made safe, leaving people on tenterhooks as they crossed, only for a mechanism to kill them the moment they breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhang Qiling led everyone into a long corridor with six stone doors along it. These were the legendary six paths of reincarnation. Did King Wannu believe in that? The stone walls on both sides were covered in carvings again, but no one could understand them, nor were they in the mood to look. They all kept close behind the two people in front, afraid that if they looked away for a moment, the pair would vanish.

As they walked, steps began to extend downward. They were about to enter the underground palace.

"Below us is the entrance to the inner hall of the underground palace. Once the door opens, stay close to me. Don't wander around after we go in."

"Yes, Master Zhang!" everyone answered in unison.

The entrance to the underground palace was a stone door without a single pattern, completely at odds with the style of the corridor. A statue of a fiend stood to the left of the door, as tall as a person, while the right side was empty.

Zhang Qiling took out the Ghost Seal and pressed it neatly into a hollow in the fiend's chest. Then he extended his right hand and pressed his Faqiu Finger directly against the fiend's eyes.

Just as Zhang Qiling had told Yu Zhi before, the door could also be opened with three Snake-Eyebrow Copper Fish and Qilin Blood. He had always remembered not to let himself get hurt, because his A Li would feel the pain.

A mechanism could be heard starting up, and then the stone door slowly rose.

Zhang Qiling swiftly pulled out the Ghost Seal and darted inside with Yu Zhi. The door was on a timer and stayed open for only a short while.

The six people from the Nine Gates had been watching his movements intently from the start. They slipped through the door too, less than a second apart.

Wu Sansheng and the others remembered the warning and didn't dare move around. This place was also brightly lit by ever-burning lamps, made with bronze stands and merfolk oil.

A massive stone statue lay prone in the hall, its head raised to face the stone door. It was like the one they had seen on the wall earlier: a giant grasshopper with a human face. No, it should be called a giant house centipede with a human face. Behind the statue were six passageways, leading who knew where.

"Come over, and be careful. King Wannu's lair is just behind here. Don't draw it over. Once you have the pill, hurry back the way you came."

"All right, let's split up and look."

Everyone searched carefully, going through every corner. Nothing. There wasn't a single mud pellet that looked like a pill.

"Do you know where it is?" Yu Zhi quietly asked Zhang Qiling.

Zhang Qiling said nothing and merely shook his head. If these people hadn't mentioned the Longevity Pill, he wouldn't even have known it existed.

"It should be in there!" Chen Wenjin stared at the great cauldron in front of the statue. The cauldron stood two meters high, so she couldn't see inside, but she felt certain the Longevity Pill was in it.

"Most likely," Qi Yu agreed.

"Who's going in to have a look, then?" Huo Ling asked.

"I'll go."

Wu Sansheng leaped up and caught the rim of the cauldron. He pulled himself up and looked inside.

"How is it?"

Everyone below tilted their heads up and asked him anxiously.

"There's something in here. I don't know if it's what we're looking for. I'll go in and get it."

With that, he jumped in, quickly picked up a box, and jumped back out.

"This is it. Of everything here, it's the most likely thing to hold it." Wu Sansheng held out a palm-sized eight-treasure box for them to see.

"Open it and make sure," Huo Ling said cautiously. "Don't get the wrong thing and make this trip for nothing. We might be able to come back in, but Fo Ye doesn't have time to wait."

Wu Sansheng fiddled with it for ages without getting it open, then passed it around for everyone else to try. Not one of them could open the box, whose material they couldn't identify.

Everyone turned toward Zhang Qiling and Yu Zhi, who were standing behind the statue studying something or other, and gestured for help.

Yu Zhi took one look. Well, would you look at that, isn't it just like the box that held the Ghost Seal? He looked at Zhang Qiling. "Will you go work on it for them?"

"Mm." Zhang Qiling then made to take Yu Zhi over with him.

"You go. I'm going to study this." Yu Zhi declined. He had been studying the statue just now. He had heard that it was a one-to-one reproduction of a real person and wanted to see whether its butt had been carved out. It wasn't that he had any unsavory predilections; he was simply curious. He had never seen this kind of stitched-together person before.

"Be careful."

Zhang Qiling quickly went over, took the box, and opened it with his Faqiu Finger.

"Mr. Yu, what are you looking at?"

Seeing Zhang Qiling leave Yu Zhi's side, Qi Yu crossed over to Yu Zhi in a few long strides. Seeing how intently he was studying the statue, Qi Yu leaned over for a look as well.

"Ahem, it's nothing."

Yu Zhi had noticed Qi Yu coming over and hadn't paid it any mind. He hadn't expected him to strike up a conversation.

"A Li, watch out behind you!"

Zhang Qiling cried out in anguish.

He had just taken a look at what the pill looked like when, in the next instant, he caught sight of King Wannu charging toward Yu Zhi like lightning out of the corner of his eye. Without a moment's hesitation, he immediately released his ice and fire spiritual power and attacked King Wannu.

But it was already too late. Just as a tentacle was about to strike Yu Zhi, Qi Yu darted in front of him.

"Ah!"

Qi Yu only had time to cry out in pain before his head was sliced clean off.

Everything happened too quickly, all in the space of a lightning flash.

Blood splattered all over Yu Zhi's face as he held the headless corpse in his arms. This time, there really was no way to use healing. It was true that he had wood-element powers and could heal, but he couldn't just stick the head back on and bring him back to life.

Zhang Qiling's attack enraged King Wannu, and it went after Yu Zhi like a madman.

Yu Zhi was still a little dazed. Who wouldn't be dazed after getting drenched in blood? He instinctively flung out vines to block the attack.

Zhang Qiling reached Yu Zhi's side just then and swung his blade at King Wannu. His blade aura was fierce, carrying both ice and fire power, and it battered King Wannu until it couldn't fight back.

Yu Zhi came to his senses then and hurriedly activated the Azure Nether Creation Art, drawing Qi Yu's soul into his own body. The Azure Nether Creation Art could seize and refine a person's soul, but as its user, he could also store it temporarily without refining it.

In truth, Qi Yu hadn't needed to die. Yu Zhi hadn't needed anyone to save him either. Having reached Qi Refining Stage Great Perfection, he could say that the monsters in these tombs couldn't hurt him in the slightest.

To put it bluntly, this was practically forced scam-claiming. But Qi Yu had meant well, after all. He had died for Yu Zhi, which meant Yu Zhi now owed him a karmic debt, even if it had been forced on him and he hadn't needed it!

For now, he could only store Qi Yu's soul in the Nine-Headed Serpent Cypress within his body and wait to see if he had a chance to repay this karmic debt.

The five remaining members of the Nine Gates couldn't process what had happened. In the span of just a few breaths, Qi Yu had died, and King Wannu had been wounded by Zhang Qiling and fled. So Zhang Qiling was this powerful too.

"Qi Yu!" "Qi Yu!" "Qi Yu!"

Only after watching King Wannu disappear into a passageway did the people from the Nine Gates dare gather around Yu Zhi.

"He's already dead."

Yu Zhi casually wiped his face with his sleeve, rubbing away the blood.

"Qi Yu..."

Huo Ling's eyes were red and full of tears. He had been talking perfectly fine just moments ago, so how had he lost his head in the blink of an eye?

"Take the pill and leave, quickly. It's dangerous here. In a little while, we won't be able to worry about whether you live or die."

Yu Zhi spoke viciously, thinking of that damned King Wannu.

The group exchanged looks. In the end, it was Wu Sansheng who spoke. "We have to take Qi Yu's body out. We can't leave him here."

"Suit yourself."

Yu Zhi didn't stop them. There was no saving the body now, and it was no use to him. Later, he could find Qi Yu's soul an intact body that had just died or something and see if he could help him be reborn.

Hearing rustling sounds coming from the passageway again, the five didn't hesitate for a moment. They carried Qi Yu's corpse on their backs, took his head, and quickly left the place.

In fact, Zhang Qiling hadn't known that King Wannu acted in response to the presence and body heat of living people. In the past, whether it was a member of the Zhang Family or Zhang Qiling himself, they had always come here alone, producing too little presence and heat to stir King Wannu into action. This time, too many people had come, activating King Wannu and bringing him to the front hall.

The design here was like that of the Miluotuo in the Zhang Family Ancient Tower: they acted in response to changes in the presence and temperature of living people. It had to be said that members of the Zhang Family must have had a hand in building this place too.

Zhang Qiling was somewhat moved by Qi Yu's death. Qi Yu had died shielding Yu Zhi from an attack, so they owed him a debt.