Liu Yunqi, who had been watching over him the entire time, was overjoyed to see his eyes move. “Yun, how do you feel?”

Zhong Yun looked through the glass wall at Yunqi with a hazy gaze. He opened his mouth, and a gurgling sound immediately erupted, sending a string of bubbles toward his lips.

He started, realizing he was submerged in a nutrient tank, his body steeped in therapeutic fluid.

Yunqi glanced up at the display screen above the regeneration tank. Seeing that all of Zhong Yun’s bodily functions were operating normally, she finally opened the tank.

The fluid surrounding Zhong Yun was slowly drained, and then the glass wall split down the middle. He stepped out. Yunqi was already there, holding a large towel ready to wrap around his body.

Zhong Yun reached out, embracing her waist, pulling her close, and lowered his head to kiss her lips.

Yunqi submissively parted her cherry lips, allowing his tongue to invade, her hands hooking around his neck, clinging tightly. They kissed fiercely, their exposed skin pressing together.

“How long was I out?” After a long kiss, Zhong Yun reluctantly pulled away from her lips and asked.

“One whole night,” Yunqi murmured, leaning contentedly into his embrace, utterly unconcerned by the sticky residue of the therapeutic fluid still clinging to him.

“Are we still on Qiyun Star?” Zhong Yun frowned.

“Mmm.” All her thoughts had been consumed by Zhong Yun’s safety; she had no mind to command the Shuixing.

“We need to hurry,” Zhong Yun said, patting her hip lightly.

In the main control room, Zhong Yun sat at the command console, staring at the desolate vista displayed on the massive screen, his heart a complicated knot. Nearly seven years had passed since he first discovered Qiyun Star. He never imagined that in the end, Qiyun Star would be destroyed by his own hands.

The World Tree was a self-propagating plant. Although it bore fruit, those were not its seeds. To obtain the true seeds of the World Tree, one required a World Tree already in the growth stage, which then had to be reduced back into a single seed using a secret technique. A World Tree that had reached maturity could yield two seeds.

The growth of a World Tree was exceptionally difficult; even with the care of a Saintess, it required over a thousand years to successfully reach maturity.

The World Tree was one of the most mysterious plants in the universe. Once its seed touched the ground, it became intrinsically merged with the entire planet; the two could only be separated by destroying one or the other.

Reducing the World Tree back into a seed would not only destroy the tree itself but also doom the entire planet, draining it of all vitality. Within a few days, it would transform into a dead star.

Zhong Yun certainly would not leave the World Tree behind when evacuating. He utilized the secret method obtained from Xiao Ling to reduce the World Tree back into its seed form. Now, the life force of Qiyun Star was severed. Soon, all life on the planet would perish, leaving it a dead rock. Who knew how many tens of thousands of years it would take for life to regenerate here again.

“Depart,” Zhong Yun commanded softly.

The Shuixing and the Huoxing slowly accelerated, leaving the planet stripped of its vitality.

Zhong Yun spread his right palm open. Resting there, on his flesh, was a small, round, green bead, a faint wisp of green energy swirling within it, as if containing boundless life force.

This seed looked slightly different from the first time he saw it; now, its verdant color was even more vibrant, the aura radiating from it making the entire main control room feel alive with vigor.

Retrieving the box he had kept the seed in previously, Zhong Yun carefully placed it back inside and closed the lid, securing it with reverence.

“Dear Master, please set your destination,” the artificial, personified voice of the central computer chimed in.

Zhong Yun’s gaze locked onto the star map on the screen, and he uttered two words: “Dawo.”

On the Shuixing, there was a restricted zone. No one was permitted entry except Zhong Yun. Before the Shuixing, the Huoxing also had such a restricted area—a place Yunqi had never even dared to enter.

Only Zhong Yun would come here to stay for a few hours every now and then. No one knew where it was or what it contained; it remained profoundly mysterious.

Zhong Yun passed through more than a dozen inspections and traversed numerous sealed doors to reach the room at the very center.

It was a bare chamber, devoid of any furnishing. In the center of the room stood a pedestal slightly over a meter tall, upon which rested a long, white, rectangular box.

The room was cold, below freezing point, yet Zhong Yun seemed utterly unaffected as he walked step by deliberate step. The heavy door behind him automatically sealed shut.

He reached the pedestal. The lid of the rectangular box was transparent, revealing a peerlessly beautiful woman lying within. Her pale face was almost translucent. Her once rosy, sensual lips had faded to a nearly white pink.

She wore a light ochre long dress, her expression peaceful, as if merely asleep. Surrounding her were various flowers, all pure white, which only accentuated her quiet serenity.

“Qing…” Zhong Yun looked intently at her face and called out her name from the depths of his soul.

This woman was Yu Daoqing, who had fallen into a state of suspended animation to save Zhong Yun. She had been asleep for a full six years.

For six years, not a single moment had passed when Zhong Yun didn’t long to awaken her. Today, finally, that day had arrived.

“Qing, you’ve slept a long time. It’s time to wake up now,” Zhong Yun said, extending a hand to gently stroke her cheek.

Saying this, he withdrew his hand, stepped back to the edge of the pedestal, and suddenly floated up. With a gesture, dozens of beams of intense white light shot down from the ceiling, converging directly onto Yu Daoqing.

Zhong Yun roared, and a thick, violet mist poured forth from his body, coalescing without dissipating, enveloping Yu Daoqing.

Though infinitesimally faint, to Zhong Yun, it sounded like a thunderclap. It was the sound of a heartbeat emanating from Yu Daoqing—the first beat since she entered her simulated death.

Zhong Yun was overcome with ecstatic joy and intensified the release of his Yuan, pushing it outward.

Zhong Yun had been ambushed and brought to the brink of death. Yu Daoqing had paid with her own life force, using the World Tree to enact the "Life Sacrifice," wrenching Zhong Yun back from the clutches of death. But in doing so, she had depleted too much life energy and nearly perished.

Fortunately, Xiao Ling had placed Yu Daoqing into a stasis container at the critical moment, preserving her life.

A stasis container was a device that brought a person’s bodily functions to a near-halt. It was essential equipment for long-duration interstellar voyages and the closest thing to immortality; once in stasis, a person would not age even after ten or a hundred years.

However, when in stasis, a person’s thought processes also ceased. For them, waking up felt like the blink of an eye.

Yu Daoqing was currently frozen at the precise moment she had lost massive amounts of life force and was near death. Saving her was not impossible; it merely required replenishing her life force simultaneously as she was awakened.

Ideally, the best substance for replenishing life force was the fruit of the World Tree, but it required at least a thousand years for the tree to mature. Distant water could not quench immediate thirst.

Besides that, there were several other items with similar effects. Most of these were available aboard the Shuixing, and the rest were not rare and could be collected from a few free worlds.

All necessary components were present, but one crucial requirement remained: Zhong Yun’s Yuan had to reach Level Four, equivalent to Body Technique Level Four. At a normal rate of progression, it would take him at least another decade to reach that level.

Zhong Yun could wait ten years, but Yu Daoqing could not. Life functions in stasis were not entirely halted; only the dead experienced complete cessation. They merely slowed down drastically.

This meant Yu Daoqing was still losing life force, just at an extremely slow pace. Xiao Ling estimated that if she was not rescued within ten years, she would never be saved. Furthermore, the sooner the rescue, the higher the success rate.

With no other option, Zhong Yun had to take a massive risk. Xiao Ling offered him a method for rapid advancement, but this method carried extreme danger.

That method was to absorb the essence of the World Tree while reducing it to its seed form, causing his Yuan to skyrocket.

However, during this process, the surge of primordial energy (Yuan Qi) was immense; one slip could cause him to explode.

Moreover, using the World Tree this way was an incredible waste. A naturally viable planet (Ziran Xing) was invaluable to any nation. To raise a few levels of Yuan, destroying an entire natural planet—any clear-headed person would never undertake such a drastic measure.

But Zhong Yun had been planning this all along. To him, a hundred natural planets were not as important as Yu Daoqing.

At this point, Zhong Yun’s strength far exceeded Level Forty, so he was impatient to wake Yu Qing.

Thump—thump—thump.

Initially, Yu Daoqing’s heartbeat sounded only once every long interval, but it gradually quickened. Still, it remained exceedingly faint, as if it might cease with the slightest disturbance.

At that moment, a translucent, rich ** flooded up from the bottom of the stasis container, quickly submerging Yu Daoqing’s body. This was not the therapeutic fluid but a miraculous elixir formulated from Xiao Ling’s secret recipe, specifically designed to replenish life force.

The flowers inside the stasis container gradually dissolved into the **. Those flowers were used to catalyze the efficacy of the medicine.

With a flicker of thought from Zhong Yun, the light beige gown covering Yu Daoqing’s body flew away, revealing her flawless, naked form beneath.

Under the intense beams of light, Zhong Yun could not see clearly what was happening inside; he could only rely on his spiritual sense to perceive. He felt the body, which had previously shown almost no sign of life, gradually regaining vitality.

Her organs began to function, her heartbeat growing stronger, pumping blood throughout her body.

Zhong Yun was overwhelmingly tense but dared not allow his focus to waver for an instant. He carefully shielded her brain with his Yuan, allowing the elixir's efficacy to gently nourish her body.

The entire process demanded immense patience. One slight misstep could cause Yu Daoqing to perish forever. He could not afford carelessness.

Time slipped by, second by second. After ten hours, every organ on Yu Daoqing’s body, save for her head, had recovered to a state indistinguishable from a healthy person.

The brain was humanity’s most crucial, complex, and fragile organ, requiring even greater caution.

Zhong Yun had already expended enormous mental effort. He rallied his spirit and began stimulating her brain.

His task was simple: control the effects of the medicine, ensuring the overbearing properties did not harm the delicate neural network of her brain. Fortunately, Zhong Yun’s control mastery had reached the level of subtlety; otherwise, he would have been incapable of this task.

Finally, it was complete. Zhong Yun drew back all his Yuan. A wave of dizziness washed over him as he relaxed, and he nearly fell to the ground.

Slowly descending, he shook his head, hurried to the pedestal, and looked into the stasis container despite the harsh light.

Everything he could do was done; now, he could only wait for her system to fully absorb the medicine. Whether she woke up was now up to fate.

Several hours later, the dozen beams of intense light suddenly extinguished. Zhong Yun’s heart tightened. He noticed that three-quarters of the ** inside the stasis container had diminished. The liquid that had completely immersed Yu Daoqing’s body now barely covered her ears.

Yu Daoqing’s formerly transparent white skin had regained a healthy flush, and her high chest rose and fell with her breathing. Her eyes remained tightly shut; she had not yet awakened.

A wave of relief washed over Zhong Yun, followed by an inexpressible joy flooding his entire being. She was alive.

Staring rapturously at the face now brimming with life, Zhong Yun’s eyes grew moist. Six years. He had kept his promise; he had brought her back to life.

“Xiao Yun, are you sad about something?” A soft voice sounded. Zhong Yun froze as if struck by lightning, his gaze drifting upward. Through the watery haze, those amber eyes were as bright as ever.

“You must have been newly tricked by that boy Zhong Yun, right?”

Weiwei was staring blankly at the sofa in the main hall when a pleasant voice suddenly sounded next to her ear. However, the content of the voice was anything but pleasant. She looked up and saw a face of unparalleled beauty, though the arrogance in her brows made her slightly uncomfortable.

Though Weiwei acted as meekly as a kitten in front of Zhong Yun, she was no pushover. She glanced pointedly at the girl’s chest. “Little sister, are you talking to me?”

This girl was the Princess of the Gaan Empire, who had once been declared dead—though, in truth, she hadn't truly died.

The ancestors of the Jinjing family were descendants of the surviving royal line of the Kalan Kingdom. The Kalan royals possessed unique genes; with the aid of the World Tree, every Kalan descendant became an exceptionally talented individual.

But after losing the World Tree, the Kalan people had been relegated to mediocrity.

However, the ancestor of the Jinjing family was an exception. After immense effort and hardship, they finally discovered a substitute for the World Tree—the Golden Thorns Flower (Jinjing Hua). This extremely precious flower, when refined using a special method, could unlock the royal genes within them, yielding effects comparable to the World Tree.

This branch of the Kalan royal line relied on the Golden Thorns Flower to restore their former glory. They joined the Gaan Empire, then only in its first stage of advanced civilization, and leveraged the technology brought from the Kalan Kingdom to rise, eventually seizing the supreme ruling power of the Gaan Empire and becoming the imperial house. This was, undeniably, a legend.

The Golden Thorns Flower was ultimately only a substitute, possessing a severe inherent flaw. The Jinjing family members’ dependence on the flower was more terrifying than any drug addiction. If they went without the flower for a period, they would gradually wither, like a plant deprived of nourishment.

That princess had reached the end of her natural life force and was declared deceased. Unexpectedly, upon reaching Qiyun Star, perhaps sensing the aura of the World Tree, her heart had started beating again.

At the time, Zhong Yun, mindful of her status as a princess, intended to grant her a dignified burial. Who knew that she would suddenly start thrashing, scaring him half to death? In the end, it was Xiao Ling who reminded him, and Zhong Yun used the World Tree sap to revive her.