Even the howling autumn wind seemed to freeze at this moment.

The two figures that had just stepped out of the shattered golden cocoons stood quietly in place.

Heads bowed, they looked at their slender yet powerful hands, feeling the surging vitality and mana within them like a bursting dam, their eyes filled with deep confusion.

"Aren't I... already dead?"

Zhao Qingcang muttered to himself.

His memory was still stuck in that desperate battle in the Nagato Sea Area.

In order to completely Seal Yamata no Orochi after it evolved into its ultimate form, he had watched his beloved master Deng Qihe burn through his life force. Then, without hesitation, he had poured his own vast vitality Origin into the 【spirit sealing coffin】, using his body of flesh and blood to forcibly push back the snake head breaking out of the coffin.

The agony of his life force being drained bit by bit, his body rapidly aging and withering, along with the chilling sensation of his soul plunging into endless darkness, remained vivid in his mind to this day.

But now...

Zhao Qingcang instinctively clenched his fist.

*Crack!*

A sharp sonic pop detonated in his palm. The surrounding space actually undulated with intense ripples from that casual squeeze.

This feeling of explosive power, this perfect body devoid of even a single old ailment or hidden injury...

...was definitely not something an elderly marshal, with hair white as snow and one foot in the grave, could possess!

Filled with doubt and shock, Zhao Qingcang slowly raised his head and swept his gaze across his surroundings.

The moment he looked up, he saw the woman standing not far to his side.

At the same time, the woman in the white dress happened to turn her head and look over with an equally bewildered gaze.

Their eyes met.

Time seemed to fall into absolute standstill at this moment.

Zhao Qingcang's resolute face, which wouldn't flinch even when facing Hell-level foreign beasts, instantly went as stiff as a wooden statue, as if struck by lightning.

Across from him, the moment Lin Zhu clearly saw Zhao Qingcang's face, her body trembled violently.

Memories rushed back like a tidal wave, as if instantly pulling the two back to those most green yet deeply cherished years.

That was the era when Great Xia Nation was at its most turbulent, yet produced an abundance of Geniuses.

On the tree-lined avenues of Imperial Capital Academy, a spirited and superbly talented young man always shamelessly followed behind a cold and aloof junior female student; during countless deadly Secret Realm explorations, the two stood back to back, entrusting their rear to each other without reserve...

Lin Zhu stared intently at the man in front of her.

Sword-like eyebrows, starlike eyes, sharp features, straight and tall like a green pine, radiating an unyielding and dominant aura.

This was clearly the young man who used to pester her every day back then, making her both angry and fond of him!

Where was there even a trace of the old age and majesty of Great Xia's highest supreme marshal?

Lin Zhu's eyes instantly reddened, a haze of moisture uncontrollably welling up in them.

At the moment she was killed in one strike by that mysterious person and fell into the endless darkness, her greatest regret was not being able to see this man one last time.

And now, he was standing alive right before her—and in the finest appearance from her memories.

"Qingcang..."

Lin Zhu's voice trembled slightly, tinged with incredulous hoarseness. She took half a step forward and spoke carefully, terrified that if her voice was even slightly louder, the dreamlike scene before her would pop and shatter completely like a soap bubble.

"Is... is it you?"

This call, filled with longing and affection that transcended life and death, was enough to melt the hardest steel into soft ribbon.

Watching from the side, Chen Huaishu and Wei Liao also felt a pang in their noses, and were even prepared to witness an earth-shattering, century-spanning embrace.

However...

Looking at Lin Zhu whose eyes were red, Zhao Qingcang instinctively swallowed hard.

He blinked, an extremely strange and hesitant look emerging on his young, handsome face.

After a long pause, he squeezed out a sentence.

"Uh..."

"Who are you?"

Silence.

A dead silence.

The tenderness and romance between them, enough to melt glaciers, instantly shattered into pieces with Zhao Qingcang's mood-destroying, straight-laced comment.

Not only was Lin Zhu stunned.

Even Chen Huaishu and Wei Liao, who were so moved they were about to wipe away tears, froze on the spot, eyes wide open.

The affection and tenderness deep in Lin Zhu's eyes froze in a tenth of a second, then transformed at a visible speed into a monstrous rage that could boil rivers and burn seas!

"Zhao—Qing—cang!"

A roar almost piercing the clouds burst from Lin Zhu's mouth.

Her originally gorgeous face was now full of shame, embarrassment, and fury. She gnashed her teeth and pointed at Zhao Qingcang's nose: "Do you want to die?! You can't even remember what I look like?!"

"You heartless jerk! You blind, heartless jerk!"

Before her words even faded!

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

The wasteland within a hundred-meter radius trembled. Countless thick, python-like dark green vines crashed through the hard soil and burst forth!

Gleaming with the terrifying magic power unique to an SS-grade Wood-element Professional, these vines resembled enraged dragons, whipping wildly at Zhao Qingcang with air-rending screeches that blotted out the sky!

"Holy crap!"

Zhao Qingcang let out a startled cry, his young face covered in panic.

Facing this destructive attack, his body reacted instinctively.

*Hum!*

Space twisted violently. Zhao Qingcang's figure vanished on the spot, barely dodging several massive vines capable of squashing tanks into iron patties.

The next second, he appeared in midair thirty meters away.

"Lin Zhu! Lin Zhu!"

While continuously spatial jumping in midair to awkwardly dodge the net of vines pursuing him like maggots on a bone, Zhao Qingcang waved his hands repeatedly and begged loudly for mercy.

"Stop hitting me! Stop! I know you're Lin Zhu! Of course I know!"

"You're still so violent! I was just joking with you! Just a joke!"

He truly regretted it down to his core.

He had just felt the atmosphere was too sentimental and wanted to lighten the mood. Who knew this auntie's temper was identical to back then—igniting at the slightest spark and giving him no chance to explain!

"A joke? I'll give you a joke!"

Lin Zhu refused to let him off. With a flick of her slender hand, the sky full of vines expanded again, weaving an airtight strangling net in midair, swearing to hang this infuriating bastard upside down and give him a beating.

"You're just a heartless jerk! Were you just waiting for me to come back to life to anger me to death?!"

Not far away.

Chen Huaishu silently watched the chaotic, dust-flying scene before him, his old, wrinkled face twitching violently, completely speechless.

What in the world was this!

What happened to Great Xia's pillar of stability? What happened to the dignified and elegant academy vice principal?

How come as soon as they revived, they acted just like two young adults flirting and squabbling in the streets?

Military Intelligence Minister Wei Liao was even more dumbfounded. He leaned toward Chen Huaishu and lowered his voice, remarking in an extremely weirded-out tone: "Old Chen... why do I feel that not only has the Marshal turned younger, but... his mindset seems to have regressed back to his twenties as well?"

Usually, Marshal Zhao—whose dignified presence commanded respect without anger and whose single glare could silence the entire army—was actually being chased across the sky by a woman?

If this scene were filmed and sent back to the military department, the entire top brass of Great Xia would probably collectively question their life choices.

"Shut up!"

Chen Huaishu glared at Wei Liao in annoyance, scolding him in a low voice: "Stop talking nonsense! How dare you casually discuss the Marshal's business?"

Though he said so, the corners of Chen Huaishu's mouth couldn't help curving up slightly.

It really was great to see the Marshal so full of life.

Right then, Zhao Qingcang, who was fleeing head over heels in midair, forcibly opened up some distance.

He caught his breath, his peripheral vision finally catching sight of Chen Huaishu and Wei Liao standing not far away, along with a completely unfamiliar young man.

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Zhao Qingcang shouted hurriedly in midair, pointing down: "Alright, alright, no more fighting! Old Chen and Minister Wei are over there watching! Don't make a laughingstock out of us in front of them!"