The Legend of the Princess' Counterattack

Chapter 751 Whisper in the Bloody Sea of Flowers

The blood-red sea of flowers in the ethereal dreamland shimmered eerily in the moonlight. Millions of red spider lilies floated in the inky mist, their petals clung to dewdrops that looked like blood. Yun Yao's sleeves had long been ripped and tattered by the poisonous mist, her exposed skin covered in purple curse marks. But her gaze remained fixed firmly on the center of the sea of flowers—the Nine-Turn Resurrection Flower, as big as a millstone. Its twelve petals slowly rotated in accordance with the heavenly path, its pistil pulsing with a golden light like a heart.

"Just three inches..." Her fingertips nearly touched the edge of the petals when the entire flower suddenly trembled violently. Inky poisonous mist surged from the petals' veins like a living thing, instantly weaving a web of death across the sea of flowers. Simultaneously, a roar like the earth cracking could be heard from the void. A scarlet-flamed Kui Ox shattered the spatial rift and descended. The soul-destroying flames entwined in its horns incinerated the surrounding red spider lilies to ash. Yun Yao's tiny figure was reflected in the ox's pupils, as if looking at a predestined corpse.

This was her thirty-seventh day in the Netherworld. Ever since Chu Mochen was severely injured by Liu Yan'er's Heart-Erosion Curse during the battle between good and evil half a month ago, nearly shattering his soul, she had entered this legendary forbidden land, using the coordinates provided by the system. Time flowed chaotically within the illusion, and each day presented a different test. On the first day, she encountered the Ten Thousand Swords Piercing Heart Formation, which she forced through using her modern pharmacy knowledge to concoct a paralyzing elixir. On the tenth day, she encountered a vision of her inner demon, where Chu Mochen personally stabbed her in the heart with a sword. She bit her tongue to stay awake through the pain. On the thirtieth day, she accidentally stepped into a turbulent flow of time and space, and was surprised to see a scene from a modern laboratory. She saw herself in a white coat, smiling at a reagent bottle with an explosion countdown. The image stunned her for three full breaths, and she was nearly torn to pieces by the turbulent flow.

At this moment, facing the legendary Red Flame Kuiniu, which even the strong ones in the Cave Void Realm have to avoid, the system's mechanical voice was rarely accompanied by the noise of electricity: "Host, please note that the soul of this mythical beast is bound to the laws of illusion. Its body is the guardian beast under the seat of the ancient War Halberd God. Only by reflecting its obsession with the 'Heart Demon Illusion Mirror' can it be broken." Before the words fell, the Kuiniu had already let out a deafening roar, and the soul-destroying karma fire turned into thousands of fire snakes that swept over. Wherever it passed, even the space was distorted and rippled.

Yun Yao rolled back violently, three poison-tipped silver needles emanating from her sleeves, only to see them evaporate the instant they came into contact with the karmic fire. Her palms were already bruised from the scratches of her nails, and her mind flashed back to Chu Mochen's pale face lying on the icy bed—black blood still clung to the corners of his lips, and the mark on his heart, the Fate-Defying Disk, was dim and lifeless. If he couldn't obtain the Resurrection Flower, he might not survive the next attack of the poison. "Heart Demon Illusion Mirror..." She silently chanted the incantation, her fingertips drawing blood between her brows. A three-inch bronze mirror flew out from her sea of consciousness, reflecting not the Kuiniu's obsession, but the illusion of Chu Mochen's near death.

Suddenly, something unexpected happened! The Kuiniu's pupils suddenly contracted, and fragments of memories from a century ago surfaced in its eyes: the War Halberd Divine Lord and the Chaos Demon Sect's leader battled in the starry sky. Amidst the flying blood and flesh, the Kuiniu used its body to block the demonic sword that was aimed directly at the Divine Lord's back. As his soul was about to dissipate, the Divine Lord injected a ray of divine thought into its forehead - "Guard this Resurrection Flower for me, until she returns here in her seventeenth reincarnation..."

The poisonous fog suddenly solidified. Yun Yao keenly caught the struggle in the Kui Niu's eyes and seized the opportunity to activate the mirror's light. In the illusion, Chu Mochen suddenly coughed up black blood, a bitter smile curling his lips. "Yao'er, don't take risks for me again..." This scene unexpectedly overlapped with the scene of the God King's fall a hundred years ago. The Kui Niu let out a mournful cry, and the soul-destroying karma fire extinguished.

"So you've been waiting for her." Yun Yao's voice was as gentle as moonlight. The illusion in the mirror gradually transformed into the shadow of the God King, overlapping with Chu Mochen's face. "Seventeenth reincarnation, I'm finally here." She reached out and touched the divine mark on Kuiniu's forehead, where the God King's warmth still lingered. "You've spent a hundred years guarding your obsession. Have you ever thought about how heartbroken the God King would be if he knew you still couldn't get rid of it?"

The Kuiniu's massive body slammed to its knees, tears welling in its eyes. The poisonous mist surrounding the blood-red sea of flowers began to dissipate, and the Nine-Turn Resurrection Flower slowly flew toward Yun Yao. The golden patterns on its petals suddenly illuminated, signaling a breakthrough to the Void Refinement Realm! Just as she was about to catch the flower, a system shrieked from her sea of consciousness: "Warning! The laws of the illusion are being restructured. The divine beast's soul is about to merge with the sea of flowers!"

The Kuiniu's body began to become transparent, transforming into tiny specks of golden light and blending into the sea of flowers. Each red spider lily lit up with golden veins. Yun Yao was horrified. She finally understood the true meaning of the system's "mortal trial"—it wasn't about defeating the divine beast, but about forcing it to willingly let go of its obsession. The vision had not only touched the Kuiniu, but also triggered the bond between it and the Divine Lord, forcing it to choose the path of heaven.

"Thank you for guarding me for so long." Yun Yao caught the falling Resurrection Flower. The golden light from the pistil suddenly flooded into her sea of consciousness. The Heaven-Defying Fate Plate trembled violently, and the previously blurred lines on the plate began to clear, especially the part related to Chu Mochen. The broken red line actually glowed faintly. However, just as she was about to exit the illusion, the space at the center of the sea of flowers suddenly cracked, revealing a deeper netherworld rift. A familiar spiritual aura emanated from it—it was Chu Mochen's aura, but with a majesty that did not belong to him.

"Host! This is the core of the illusion's origin. Contact is death!" System Lord's voice was filled with unprecedented panic. Yun Yao, for some unknown reason, reached out. The moment her fingertips touched the crack, countless images flooded her mind: in the ancient divine realm, the Lord of the War Halberd knelt on one knee to place a ring engraved with twin star patterns on the fingertips of the Holy Maiden of Heaven; in the three thousand small worlds, they had reincarnated seventeen times, always missing each other at the crucial moment, yet burning their souls for each other in the moments of death; the final scene was the moment of the modern laboratory explosion. A jade pendant shimmering with golden light flew from her chest. It was the Heaven-Defying Fate Plate she now wore!

"So, everything is destined..." she muttered to herself, and the Resurrection Flower suddenly vibrated violently. The golden lines on its petals transformed into chains, forcibly closing the rift. At the same time, she felt something slip through the cracks and into the Heaven-Defying Fate Disk—a wisp of divine thought, imbued with a sense of vicissitudes, gently brushing across her sea of consciousness, like the sigh of an old friend.

When Yun Yao opened her eyes again, she was back at the entrance to the illusion. The Resurrection Flower in her hand radiated a warm glow, the golden lines on its petals the key to a breakthrough to the Void Refinement Realm. She sat cross-legged, concentrating the flower within her dantian. A surge of spiritual energy instantly washed over her limbs and bones, and the meridians eroded by the poisonous mist began to heal. The Heaven-Defying Fate Plate within her sea of consciousness shone brightly, reconnecting Chu Mochen's destiny line on the plate and even thinning the dark mist of the Heart-Erosion Curse at its end.

"The host's soul strength has been detected to have exceeded the critical value. Fragments of past life memories are being integrated—" The System's voice was filled with a murmur of electricity. Countless fragments suddenly flashed through Yun Yao's mind: a woman in a Hongmeng Taoist robe standing before the galaxy, holding the Heaven-Defying Fate Disk in her hand; the War Halberd God, holding a blood-stained halberd, protecting her; and a notebook filled with cultivation formulas in a modern laboratory. It turned out that she had been studying space-time rifts before she traveled through time...

"In the three thousand divine realms, only the realm of rules can reverse time and space..." The familiar female voice echoed in the sea of consciousness. Yun Yao suddenly opened her eyes and found that there was still blood from the illusion between her fingernails. On the destiny plate against heaven, there was a vague golden light spot at the end of Chu Mochen's destiny line - that was the sign of a breakthrough to the realm of refining emptiness.

"Yao'er?" Suddenly, Chu Mochen's weak voice called out from afar. Startled, she hurriedly put away the Resurrection Flower, only to discover she had been stuck in a fantasy world for three days and nights. Chu Mochen had somehow entered the edge of the fantasy world, now panting for breath while leaning against a stone tablet inscribed with spells, blood still smearing the corners of his lips.

"Are you trying to kill yourself?!" Yun Yao rushed over to support him, only to discover that he was holding a half-broken jade in his palm. It was the very token of love he had shattered to protect her in the sect's secret realm. Chu Mochen forced a smile, his fingertips tracing the poison mark on her wrist. "I felt your aura suddenly disappear, and I..." He didn't finish his words before he began to cough violently, and the mark of the Heart-Erosion Curse on his chest glowed black again.

Yun Yao's eyes welled up as she broke off a petal from the Resurrection Flower, transforming it into a golden liquid and feeding it to him. The moment the liquid entered his mouth, a flash of golden vertical pupil flashed across Chu Mochen's eyes—a sign of the Candle Dragon bloodline, but it vanished in a flash. His breathing gradually steadied, and the corners of his lips finally showed color. "This is... the Nine-Transformation Resurrection Flower? Did you succeed?"

"It's more than just the Resurrection Flower." Yun Yao watched his face gradually recover, remembering the fragments of memory she had seen in the illusion. She suddenly reached out and pressed her hand between his eyebrows. The light of the Heaven-Defying Fate Disk poured into his sea of consciousness. "Chu Mochen, do you know why the Scarlet Flame Kuiniu let me go? Because it saw the scene of the War Halberd Divine Lord's fall a hundred years ago in my Heart Demon Mirror."

Chu Mochen's body stiffened, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes. Yun Yao continued, "It guards the Resurrection Flower not to prevent intruders, but to await me, in my seventeenth reincarnation. A hundred years ago, before his death, the War Halberd God injected a wisp of divine consciousness into the Kui Niu, telling it to wait for me to retrieve the flower, wait for me..." Her voice suddenly choked, "waiting for me to unlock the causal lock he left behind."

Chu Mochen raised his hand and gently wiped away the tears from her eyes: "Silly girl, why are you crying? I'm fine, aren't I?" His fingertips slid across the destiny disk on her chest. Suddenly, the two people's destiny lines appeared on the disk, and the red lines intertwined to form a twin star diagram. "You see, our cause and effect has never been a single arrow."

Yun Yao suddenly recalled the visions of the divine realm she had seen. The War Halberd God had blocked a fatal blow for the Heavenly Saint, but before his spirit dissipated, he smiled and said, "In the next life, it will be your turn to find me." At that moment, Chu Mochen's eyes reflected her image, overlapping with the God in her memory. She suddenly understood that the so-called mortal trial had never been a test of her martial prowess, but rather a test of her willingness to face the bond between them that spanned seventeen lifetimes.

"Let's go back." She helped Chu Mochen to his feet. The illusory sea of blood-red flowers had unknowingly turned back to its normal red color. Lycoris radiata swayed gently in the wind, as if everything that had just happened was just an illusion. However, the shimmering golden lines on the Heaven-Defying Fate Plate and the faint presence of the Candle Dragon within Chu Mochen reminded her that this trial had brought about far more changes than met the eye.

The moment she emerged from the illusion, a torrential downpour descended. The water washed away the poison marks on Yun Yao's body, but it couldn't wash away the throbbing in her heart. Chu Mochen suddenly stopped and pulled out a small jade bottle from his bosom. "I found this at the edge of the illusion. It looks like an ancient elixir." Yun Yao took it and looked. The bottle was filled with dragon blood frozen into ice crystals—the final gift left to her by the Scarlet Flame Kuiniu before it dissipated.

"So, not only did it spare us, it also left us an opportunity for a breakthrough." Yun Yao stored the dragon's blood in her ring, a complex mix of emotions welling up within her. The Kuiniu had used a century of obsession to protect the flower, yet at the last moment, it had left its source of power to her. Perhaps this was the ancient beast's final act of loyalty to its master.

Amidst the torrential rain, the two smiled at each other. Yun Yao knew that even more dangerous trials awaited them ahead. Liu Yan'er's Heart-Erosion Curse had not yet been eradicated, and the Chaos Demon Sect's conspiracy was still surging in the dark. But at this moment, the Resurrection Flower in her hand, the opportunity of the Void Refining Realm within her body, and Chu Mochen's gradually recovering aura gave her the courage to face everything.

"Next time, it will be my turn to protect you." She said softly. The Destiny Plate glowed faintly in the rain. At the end of Chu Mochen's destiny line on the plate, the golden light suddenly became clear - that was the sign of the middle stage of the Void Refinement Realm, and she knew that this was just the beginning.

The whispers of the blood-red sea of flowers gradually faded into the sound of rain, but deep within their souls, they planted a seed called "defying destiny." When Yun Yao returned to the real world and placed the Resurrection Flower into the medicine cauldron, the core of the entire Netherworld suddenly trembled. A golden Lycoris radiata quietly blossomed in the center of the sea of flowers, two names engraved on its petals: Yun Yao and Chu Mochen.

This was the causal connection of their seventeenth reincarnation, and the starting point for the re-turning of fate. And at that moment, deep within the Chaos Demon Sect, Liu Yan'er watched the blood-red sea of flowers vanish from the crystal ball, a sneer curling her lips. In her palm, she held half a petal of the Resurrection Flower, stained with inky poisonous mist—a petal Yun Yao had accidentally dropped in the illusion, and the key to the Chaos Demon Sect's next conspiracy.

The rain continued to fall, but the trajectory of fate had quietly changed. The moment Yun Yao fed the Resurrection Pill into Chu Mochen's mouth, the Heaven-Defying Fate Plate suddenly sounded a piercing alarm. Unbeknownst to her, in the deepest reaches of the Netherworld, the rift in space and time she had briefly touched was slowly emitting a breath that didn't belong to this world—a fragment of memory from modern Earth, belonging to "Su Yao."

The trial in the blood-red sea of flowers was only the beginning. The real challenge began with the blooming of the resurrection flowers.