176: wake up

"Corpse King?" Holy Sun immediately became alert and asked, "Can that even be called being alive?"

Hanba shrugged and said, "I'm just using your human terminology, just like you call me the Ancestor of Corpses."

Then, in a tone as if it had nothing to do with her, she explained calmly, "Back when I still held the title of Goddess, countless humans would come to me every day to pray and make wishes, and the wish I heard most often was to bring the dead back to life."

"So I satisfied them. As long as someone had been dead for no more than seven days, they could be resurrected through my blood. The only price was that they needed to consume fresh blood to maintain their life."

"At first, although they were a bit afraid, their joy at seeing their family members alive again outweighed their fear."

"I would only selectively use my blood to resurrect humans; I wouldn't save everyone."

"But the humans I resurrected also possessed a portion of my power. They followed my example and used their own blood to save their relatives."

"What followed were increasingly severe side effects. They no longer needed blood periodically; they developed an endless craving for it. To satisfy this, they would actively attack other humans."

"They became fearful of the sun, lost their body temperature, and ceased to think, becoming moving corpses—what you call Jiangshi."

"And I, the culprit, became the Ancestor of All Corpses, the King of Jiangshi!"

Holy Sun frowned deeply and said, "In other words, those you personally resurrect have no other side effects besides needing to consume blood periodically?"

Hanba nodded and said, "Exactly. They are essentially kin created with my power. With my current strength, I can only create one at most."

After thinking it over repeatedly, Holy Sun nodded and said, "You... go ahead. I will use my own blood to feed Yi Yi. I will never let her harm anyone else."

Walking toward the crystal coffin, Hanba said, "Don't worry. A Corpse King usually eats normally; they only need to consume blood once a week to maintain their state. With your strength, it won't affect you much. You can feed her for a lifetime."

She then added, "By the way, a Corpse King has a very long lifespan, but you don't need to worry about what happens after you die."

"A Corpse King is actually a type of Divine Beast, so it doesn't affect reproduction with humans. You can leave future matters to your children."

Hearing this, Holy Sun's face turned red, a rare sight. "I... I haven't thought about that kind of thing..."

The others smiled but said nothing, watching as Hanba approached the crystal coffin once more.

This time, she didn't make as many movements. She used the sharp nail of her right hand to slice open the palm of her left, then pried open Jiang Yiyi's closed lips and dripped the blood inside.

One drop, two drops, three drops... After three drops of bright red blood fell in, the vines on top of Jiang Yiyi's head began to thrash in pain.

It seemed to want to detach itself from the body voluntarily, but it couldn't pull its root system out.

Under the frantic swaying, fine blood-red patterns slowly crawled over the entire vine.

Then it gave up struggling and retreated back on its own.

After the vine shrank back, the wound on Jiang Yiyi's smooth forehead where the vine had bored through healed at a speed visible to the naked eye, until finally, not even a scar remained.

Then, her long eyelashes seemed to tremble imperceptibly.

Holy Sun, who had been watching with full concentration nearby, immediately lunged forward.

"Yi Yi, are you awake? Open your eyes, Yi Yi!"

He had waited many years for this moment, even thinking he would never see it, but he hadn't expected to see hope today.

Accompanying his shouts, Jiang Yiyi's eyes fluttered constantly as if trying to open, and her fingers twitched slightly, but she still didn't wake up completely.

Hanba explained from the side, "Although she has been in a state of being half-alive and half-dead, her bodily functions have been stagnant for over a hundred years. Give her a little time to adapt."

Holy Sun suppressed his wildly excited heart and waited, holding Jiang Yiyi's hand tightly, but tears began to flow unconsciously.

Because he felt warmth—the warmth in her palm.

Just as he lowered his head and pressed Jiang Yiyi's hand to his forehead, cherishing the body temperature he hadn't felt in a century...

A light laugh made him jerk his head up: "My Great Sage, why have you become so scruffy? And are you crying? The real Great Sage doesn't cry."

Through his blurry tears, Holy Sun saw the long-awaited girl's moving smile and heard her voice, which sounded like heavenly music.

"Yi Yi, you're finally awake. Do you know how long I've waited for this moment!"

Holy Sun pulled the girl's fragile body into his arms in one motion.

With a blushing face, she saw Su Ze and the others nearby and lightly thumped his back. "There are so many people here, I'm dying of embarrassment..."

For Holy Sun, he had experienced a hundred years of torment and waiting, growing into one of the top combat powers of Great Xia.

But for Jiang Yiyi, she had merely taken a nap. Completely unaware that a century had passed, she still had the disposition of a young girl.

However, she seemed to sense something from his embrace, and her hands changed from fists to gently stroking his back.

"Alright, I'm here. Mmhmm, I promise you, I won't leave again."

This scene made the surrounding crowd unable to stifle their laughter. It was hard to imagine that Holy Sun, who acted arrogant even toward Xiao Sheng, would turn into this now.

"Based on my understanding of him, let's just pretend we didn't see anything later, otherwise he'll definitely settle accounts with us afterward," Xiao Sheng whispered to the group.

Under Jiang Yiyi's soothing, Holy Sun's emotions finally calmed down a bit, and he let her go. His tears had already dampened her white dress.

Jiang Yiyi finally had a chance to ask her first question: "What time is it now?"

After hearing the year that had leaped forward by over a hundred years, she finally understood why Holy Sun had lost his composure just now. She took his hand back just as he was about to let go.

"Tell me more about what happened after I fell asleep."

Seeing this, the crowd exchanged glances and then tactfully retreated outside the tree hollow, quietly waiting for the pair to finish talking.

Only then did Su Ze notice that Xu Yao had somehow already become a sobbing mess beside him.

"Wuwu, it's so moving. Lord Holy Sun's feelings for Sister Yiyi haven't changed in a hundred years. Su Ze, if I also..."

Before she could finish her sentence, Su Ze covered her mouth.

"Silly girl, I won't let that kind of thing happen."

Then the two also embraced outside the tree hollow.

Even Hanba, because she had just lost blood, pulled Feng Qingyi aside.

Leaving only the solitary Xiao Sheng and Lin Xi standing in his shadow.

"Why do I feel like this atmosphere is targeting the two of us..."

Xiao Sheng replied, "Who's 'the two of us'? I have Azure Cloud to keep me company!"

Finally, only Lin Xi was left standing there alone. He couldn't take it anymore and dived into the shadow, going off to play in the Shadow Realm by himself.