Douluo Continent: Starting with a Heavenly Fire Judgment

Faced with Ma Xiaotao's questioning, Ji Lin rolled his eyes and said irritably, "I should be asking you the same thing. Why didn't you retreat? My plan didn't include having you cover our retreat."

Ma Xiaotao awkwardly looked away, then whispered, "Didn't you want to leave that Nangong Wan behind? Then we can't let them find out that we left from Nangong Wan's camp. That means someone has to stay behind to cover our retreat. You know I have that Saint Mark Technique, I won't die."

Ji Lin was taken aback by what he heard. He sighed, lowered his head, and kissed Ma Xiaotao's red lips fiercely until she was breathless before letting her go.

Ji Lin hugged Ma Xiaotao tightly, looked at her tenderly, and said, "Sister Xiaotao, don't do this next time. One Nangong Wan is nothing compared to you. Even if you had ten thousand of him, you wouldn't be as good as him. Although you have the Phoenix Nirvana skill, which allows you to revive by leaving behind a trace of your original fire and absorbing enough soul power, the taste of death must be very unpleasant."

Ma Xiaotao smiled faintly, reached out and stroked Ji Lin's handsome cheek, and said softly, "You underestimate your sister Xiaotao too much. This is nothing. As long as it can help you, that's good enough. I also want to thank you for choosing the Holy Mark for me. Otherwise, I wouldn't have obtained such a powerful Holy Mark skill."

The Sacred Mark Skill, Phoenix Rebirth, allows the user to pre-split a wisp of the soul's primordial fire and preserve it separately. Upon death, the user can instantly transfer their soul into the primordial fire, absorb sufficient soul power, and achieve a perfect resurrection. The cooldown period is one year.

Despite its various limitations, this Sacred Mark skill is an absolute divine skill. Possessing it is equivalent to having a second life. The moment Ma Xiaotao obtained this Sacred Mark skill, she gave her soul's primordial fire to Ji Lin.

You must know that the Soul Origin Flame is Ma Xiaotao's most important possession. If Ji Lin has ill intentions, Ma Xiaotao's life and death will be entirely in Ji Lin's hands. Giving the Soul Origin Flame to Ji Lin means that Ma Xiaotao has given everything to Ji Lin, and it represents her absolute trust in Ji Lin.

With Ma Xiaotao surrounded by Zhongli Wu and others, Ji Lin was unable to rescue her, nor could he stand by and watch her be captured and tortured by Zhongli Wu. Therefore, the best option was to kill Ma Xiaotao and revive her from the Soul Origin Fire in Ji Lin's hands. This is why Ma Xiaotao dared to stay behind alone to cover their retreat.

Having the Phoenix Rebirth ability, she cannot die. As long as she is not killed along with Ji Lin, she will be resurrected by Ji Lin. This is also one of the flaws of the Phoenix Rebirth. To be resurrected, someone needs to provide sufficient soul power. If no one provides soul power, Ma Xiaotao's soul will gradually dissipate and eventually be scattered.

Ji Lin was well aware that Ma Xiaotao possessed this Sacred Mark Skill, so he decisively used Heavenly Fire Unsheathed to kill Ma Xiaotao directly. After all, it was almost impossible to take Ma Xiaotao away under the noses of Zhongli Wu and the six elders; it would be more likely if Chi Yuan came.

What Ji Lin didn't expect was that Ma Xiaotao stayed behind to cover the rear, actually to cooperate with him and fill the gaps he left behind. If Zhongli Wu and the others saw that they left from Nangong Wan's camp, then Nangong Wan would most likely be exposed. Don't underestimate the abilities of evil soul masters.

When Ji Lin learned that Ma Xiaotao had chosen to cover the rear for this reason, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. Nangong Wan was just a pawn he had casually placed. It would be best if it could play a role, but it didn't matter if it was exposed. It wasn't worth Ma Xiaotao dying once. But since it had already happened, there was no use in regretting it. He could only try to make it up to Ma Xiaotao. He knew very well that although Ma Xiaotao said she didn't care on the surface, the taste of death must have been unpleasant.

Ji Lin took out a set of clothes from his storage soul tool and helped Ma Xiaotao put them on. Ma Xiaotao's storage soul tool had been reduced to ashes by the Heavenly Fire. Fortunately, she hadn't brought any valuable items with her, otherwise she would have been heartbroken.

Ji Lin's storage soul tool contains a lot of clothes, including those of Wang Qiu'er, Ling Luochen, Meng Hongchen, and Zhang Lexuan. As for why he carries so many different girls' clothes, that's another story.

He also had Ma Xiaotao's clothes, of course.

Ma Xiaotao gracefully dressed in front of Ji Lin, then raised her long, slender, snow-white legs, gesturing for Ji Lin to help her put on stockings. Ji Lin, of course, wouldn't refuse such a good thing, and readily helped Ma Xiaotao put on the stockings.

After getting dressed, Ma Xiaotao and Ji Lin headed to where Zhang Lexuan and the others were.

Before reviving Ma Xiaotao, Ji Lin had already guessed what form she would take, so he found a secluded place to revive her in advance. He didn't want other men to see his woman's body.

While Zhongli Wu and the others were busy outside, Bei Bei and the others were living comfortably in the undead demiplane. The only problem was Tang Ya's condition.

Returning to the undead demiplane and sealing it off, even if the Sun and Moon Empire dug three feet into the ground, they wouldn't be able to find a single clue.

Ma Xiaotao's final rearguard action swept away all traces that could have been discovered by the enemy. Under the cover of the blizzard and phoenix flames, no one saw how Beibei and the others left, and Nangong Wan's presence was also concealed to prevent him from being exposed.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon Ma Xiaotao's return. When they learned that Ma Xiaotao had covered the retreat and was then killed by Ji Lin, they were all stunned, thinking that Ji Lin had gone mad. It was only after Zhang Lexuan explained that everyone realized that Ma Xiaotao possessed a resurrection skill, and that Zhang Lexuan had known this all along. This was why she was at ease letting Ma Xiaotao cover the retreat; she knew that no matter what, Ma Xiaotao would not die.

Otherwise, given her personality, she would rather stay behind herself to cover the retreat than let Ma Xiaotao stay behind alone.

At this moment, Tang Ya was in a bad state. Lying in Bei Bei's arms, she closed her eyes tightly, her face was terribly pale, and she kept covering her head, looking very painful.

"Junior Brother Ji Lin, what should we do?" Ji Lin's reliable reputation was deeply ingrained in people's minds, and Bei Bei looked to Ji Lin for help.

Ji Lin said helplessly, "Senior Tang Ya has been poisoned by a kind of evil poison from the Holy Spirit Cult that affects the mind. This evil poison has invaded every part of her body, even her martial soul and spiritual sea. Although I have a kind of immortal herb pollen that can cure all poisons and gradually neutralize this poison, the current situation is that Senior Tang Ya has been poisoned for too long and has completely merged with this evil poison. Once the immortal herb pollen is used to detoxify her, Senior Tang Ya's life force will also be depleted, and her body will become weaker and weaker. She may not live for more than a few years. The only way now is to evolve Senior Tang Ya's martial soul and stimulate the origin of her Blue Silver Grass martial soul, using the Blue Silver Grass's own life force to replenish the life force she lost while detoxifying. Only in this way can Senior Tang Ya be reborn."

Beibei sighed and said, "It's good that there's a way. No matter the cost, I will help Xiaoya's martial soul evolve. Junior Brother Ji Lin, given Xiaoya's current condition, can we hold off on detoxifying her for now and wait until I find a way to help her martial soul evolve? She was fine when she was with the Holy Spirit Sect, wasn't she?"

Ji Lin shook his head and said, "Judging from Senior Tang Ya's current condition, maintaining the status quo is definitely not an option. She was stimulated by you this time, and her own consciousness is forcibly recovering, which has caused the evil poison in her body to become chaotic. If she can continue to take evil poison, it can be stabilized, but in that case, she will only become more poisoned. Moreover, we don't have any evil poison for her to take. We must start helping her clear the toxins. Otherwise, once the evil poison in her body fully erupts, it will truly be beyond saving."

Beibei took a deep breath to calm herself down and said in a deep voice, "Junior Brother Ji Lin, give me a definite answer: if we help Xiaoya clear the evil poison from her body, how long can she live?"

Ji Lin shook his head and said, "I'm not sure either. It depends on how quickly the toxins in her body are eliminated. It could take as little as six months or as long as a year, but I'm sure she won't last more than a year."

Xu Sanshi's face darkened. "Six months? How can that be so short? Finding a way to help Tang Ya's martial soul evolve in just six months? This is incredible!"

Jiang Nannan and the others hesitated to speak. Martial Soul evolution is a rare and precious opportunity. Finding the rare materials or methods to help Tang Ya evolve her martial soul within half a year is not an easy task, even with the resources of Shrek Academy. Moreover, Shrek Academy is not owned by Bei Bei, and now is a critical moment in the war. How could Shrek Academy have the energy to care about Tang Ya?

Bei Bei fell silent, looking at Tang Ya, whose face was as pale as paper, in his arms. His heart was filled with despair. If he could, he would give his own life for Tang Ya's, but he dared not gamble on finding a way to help Tang Ya's martial soul evolve within six months! If he failed to find it, Tang Ya would surely die!

The cruelest thing in the world is to give hope first and then despair. Tang Ya has been rescued, but she only has six months left. Apart from helping Tang Ya evolve her martial soul in six months, the only way is to send Tang Ya back to the Holy Spirit Cult and let the Holy Spirit Cult continue to feed Tang Ya evil poison. But no one present would choose this option.

Rather than letting Tang Ya be controlled and exploited by the Holy Spirit Cult, it would be better for her to die; that would be a relief for her!

Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong'er turned their heads away, unable to bear it. Bei Bei had finally managed to rescue Tang Ya, but now she was facing another life-or-death decision. If she chose to detoxify, and no way to evolve the Blue Silver Grass could be found within six months, Tang Ya would truly be separated from Bei Bei forever.

Zhang Lexuan sighed, looked at Ji Lin, and asked, "Xiao Lin, is there any other way? You've been to the legendary Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, is there really no way to save Tang Ya there?"

(End of this chapter)