Half an hour after settling some business, Empress Tianshan finally spoke to Jill Young. You know that classic "embarrassed and angry" look? Well, Empress Tianshan was both, blushing for ages, her face stuck in a mix of awkward and huffy. Jill couldn't stop snickering—how could someone who's lived ninety-plus years be this cute now?
Maybe it's because a newborn's brain isn't fully developed, so her personality's kinda gone back to being a kid too?
Anyway, half an hour later, Empress Tianshan started acting all shy and stammered, "Um, Jill, could you do me a favor...?"
"Oh? Need another potty break? You sure are diligent!"
"Of course not!" Empress Tianshan couldn't help but shout, "I—I can handle that myself from now on!"
"Pfft, first it was 'I', now it's 'I, the Empress'..." Jill muttered, not too quietly, making Empress Tianshan's mind fill with dark lines. Seeing she'd teased her enough, Jill waved her hand, "Alright, alright, I'll stop. So, what's up?"
"Huff, huff—" Empress Tianshan took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself, then said, "Could you get me some blood to eat? Every day at noon, I... this Empress..." Jill's teasing had her so flustered she barely knew how to talk. After a few seconds of struggling, she just gave up: "Anyway, I need fresh blood at noon to practice my martial arts. If I don't get it, I can't recover my power."
"Oh!" Jill clapped her hands, suddenly getting it. She hadn't thought about the original novel since middle school—it's been, what, a dozen years? She'd forgotten: Empress Tianshan needed to drink blood daily to restore her power. Every day meant a year of growth; restore a year, age a year. No wonder she said she'd handle things herself from now on. "Sure, but—" Jill glanced around and shrugged, "Doesn't look like there are any animals in this valley, so we'll have to make do."
Empress Tianshan was pretty shocked—how did Jill know there were no animals in the valley without moving an inch? If she still had her powers, she could do that too, but Jill didn't have any internal energy and could still pull it off. That was seriously impressive. "So, how are we making do?"
"I'll go ask Tieba for some blood. You just drink up, as much as you want." Suddenly, Jill realized Tieba wasn't just a human compass—he could be emergency rations, too. Not bad, not bad, a real jack-of-all-trades.
"Well..." Empress Tianshan got a bit bashful. "Because of my special martial arts, male blood doesn't work..." Out here in the wild with no animals, and unable to drink Terrence Bar's blood, Jill was the only option left. Empress Tianshan felt awkward, but remembering how she'd just been teased, she suddenly got bold: "So you have to give me some of your blood!"
"Huh? Picky eater, are we? Was that in the original story? Whatever, it's fine." Jill sat Empress Tianshan on her lap and pulled out a short spear. It looked dull and black, but she still remembered it piercing an alloy sword—its tip was seriously sharp.
Jill fiddled with the short spear, sizing up her finger for a good spot, then suddenly remembered: "Wait, aren't you practicing that Supreme Six Harmonies Skill thing?"
"Supreme Six Harmonies Skill."
Hmm? That sounded a bit different from her memory, but whatever. Jill wanted to ask something else, a detail triggered by the blood-drinking thing: "So, does practicing this skill always mean drinking blood? I remember the previous Empress Tianshan only got this problem after a scare during training—she went off the rails and that's how the blood thing started. Did you go off the rails too? And I thought last generation could drink any blood, male or female?"
"You sure know a lot." Empress Tianshan gave Jill a meaningful look, but answered anyway: "The Supreme Skill itself doesn't make you revert to infancy. It's only after going off the rails that weird stuff like this happens. So yeah, I went off the rails too."
Jill was surprised: "You had your master watching over you, and you still went off the rails?"
"Well..." Empress Tianshan thought about it, then decided to spill it: "The Supreme Skill I practice is different from my grandmaster's. The internal energy was originally Pure Yang, but my grandmaster, being super smart, reversed it into Pure Yin and actually pulled it off. But me? I didn't reverse it, just went all in on Pure Yang."
"Pure Yang?" Jill's eyes widened. "I don't really get internal energy stuff, but you sound even more stubborn than the last Empress Tianshan! The old one was proud and switched Pure Yang to Pure Yin just to master the Supreme Skill. But you? You didn't even bother switching, just powered through with Pure Yang—and it actually worked!"
"You're amazing, but can a woman even practice Pure Yang internal energy?" In all those wuxia stories, the female masters practiced stuff like Jade Maiden Heart Sutra or Little Non-Phase Skill. Jill had never heard of a woman making it with Pure Yang energy before.
"Why not?" Empress Tianshan shot back defiantly. "Men say we can't do it, so I just have to prove them wrong—and do it better! Why shouldn't a woman be able to master Pure Yang internal energy? I'm going to do it, just because they say I can't!"
"Love that attitude!" Jill clapped. "So, that's when you went off the rails?"
"Hmph, I still pulled it off!" Empress Tianshan said proudly, then sighed. "This path is insanely tough. For a woman to master Pure Yang, you have to go against heaven itself, and take risks no one else dares. I made it, but only thanks to a secret technique that nearly got me killed. Can't go into details, but if my internal energy hadn't gone off the rails, I'd probably be dead. So really, going off the rails saved my life."
For most martial artists, going off the rails is something to avoid at all costs, but for her, it was a stroke of luck. Jill could see it now—Wu Zhengfeng just wasn't the type to back down. With all the Freewind Sect's martial arts manuals at her fingertips, she still chose the hardest path. There had to be a reason for that.
Jill had to admit, she liked people like that. The road against heaven is tough, but she's happy to lend a hand when she can. "You're way more interesting than your grandmaster. Come on, drink up." With a flick, Jill used the spear tip to make a tiny cut on her finger. A drop of blood squeezed out, and Jill raised an eyebrow in surprise—the sunlight made the blood glow faintly.
"Huh?" Empress Tianshan was surprised too, then couldn't help but sniff, "Smells amazing!"
Jill suddenly understood—after reaching Dragon Power, her whole body was different, her blood packed with even more life energy than Purified Liquid. Breaking through to Dragon Power opened up a whole new world, a whole new journey. And if she kept going, she'd reach the Flesh Pill stage someday.
"Uh... I have no idea if my blood's gonna give you indigestion. Want to start with half a drop and see?"
Empress Tianshan eyed the blood, nodded cautiously—she could sense it was something special.
Jill flicked her finger, letting half a drop fall into Empress Tianshan's mouth, saving the rest for later. But even that tiny bit made Empress Tianshan gasp, her whole face turning bright red—she'd overdosed! Her breathing sped up, and she started puffing out wisps of white smoke, which soon wrapped her up entirely.
From inside the smoke came groans mixed with pain and pleasure—like getting a blind massage, hurts like hell but feels amazing. Bones crackled nonstop; fifteen minutes later, it was finally over. With a long inhale, she sucked all the smoke back in. Now, in front of Jill, stood a one-year-old girl. From newborn to toddler, her features had opened up, cuter than ever.
Wu Zhengfeng opened her eyes and got a shock—Jill was staring at her with this weirdly serious, slightly mischievous look. She'd reverted to infancy plenty of times, but no one had ever looked at her quite like that before.
"Wh-what are you looking at?"
"I'm looking at your swaddling clothes—and at your future."
"Swaddling clothes?" Wu Zhengfeng looked around, and as her body grew, her swaddling started to stretch. She grabbed the blanket corner to cover herself, stubbornly saying, "What's wrong with swaddling clothes?"
"They're fine for now, still cover you up. But in three days—" Jill grinned, looking like she was oozing black magic. "You'll be running around naked."
"What!" Wu Zhengfeng was thunderstruck, totally dumbfounded.