Yggdragon territory, the White Palace.
Yangji looked outside and told Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng, “Let’s go. Today, I’ll be taking you to the Blue Diamond Falls. It’s really pretty there.”
These few days in the Eighth Universe, Xia Fei had received nothing but warm reception from Yangji and his family. Every day, Chu Jingfeng accompanied him in his cultivation, while Yanji was tasked with bringing him around to see the scenery. Instead, it was the old Dragon King Yangguang and his wife, Lady Hanxiao, who had not shown their faces during this time.
The views and vista of the Eighth Universe were naturally amazing; alas, Xia Fei, who was preoccupied with his thoughts, was in no mood for leisurely enjoyment. How could he, along with the entire Skywing Clan, be a descendant of the Fiends?! In his mind, this was a huge question hanging in doubt.
After all, he was about to head over to the Annihilation Universe, and that was somewhere Fiends were hated! If Xia Fei’s identity got exposed there, things could take a disastrous turn!
“What’re you staring blankly at? Quick, let’s go!” urged Yangji happily.
Draconids matured slowly, so this Yangji was still a child at heart. He felt very happy to have been accompanying Xia Fei these days; he had been feeling lonely growing up all alone, with hardly any companion at all, in the past.
*Whoosh*
Yangji revealed his true form and carried Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng throughout the galaxy, ferrying the two to see the Blue Diamond Waterfall at his greatest speed.
Chu Jingfeng, who was currently hugging himself, commented, “There’s still some disparity between the Yggdragons and the Megadragons. It’s said that after the Megadragons mature, their wingspan can reach up to three thousand miles, with their king’s even reaching up to ten thousand miles!”
Xia Fei was stunned. Yangguang’s full wingspan was eight hundred miles, and Hanxiao was six hundred. Their son was only a hundred miles, but that was already enough to leave Xia Fei awestruck. As for a wingspan ten thousand miles wide, that would be a size even greater than a planet! It was simply unimaginable.
Very soon, Yangji landed by a waterfall shimmering in blue. The size of this waterfall was massive, and it was as though the entire planet served as a platform, with the drop akin to a billowing blue ribbon, truly a magnificent spectacle in this part of the universe.
“How is it? This place isn’t half bad, yeah? I love having a bath here; the water is icy cold, and it feels great trickling on my body.”
After saying that, Yangji leaped from the top of the waterfall and dove into the deep pool below sans a care of the surroundings whatsoever. His huge body set a huge wave off, and Yanji felt very pleased with the result.
Xia Fei and Chu Jingfeng did not jump off like Yangji; instead, they found a boulder to sit on. Xia Fei lit a cigarette and asked calmly, “You said that there are likely people from above secretly helping me. What do you mean by that?”
Chu Jingfeng answered casually, “You all have a very unique identity. You used to live in Desolate Glacier, which is what your peoplecall the Law Realm. That place is considered the lowest out of all the nine universes, so it’s acceptable for the Annihilation Universe to have not noticed your existence at all.
“However, when you all entered the Alpha Universe, creating quite a commotion as you did, I refused to believe that the Annihilators still won’t be aware of the Skywings, especially you.
“You actually made it into the Collapsed Expanse of Founders! That’s a selection system the Annihilation Universe created! One must take a blood test before being accepted! The fact that no one discovered the presence of our Fiend bloodline, never mind me, even the entire world wouldn’t believe it!”
Xia Fei made a smoke ring as he arched his eyebrow. “In the Collapsed Expanse of Founders, I very clearly remember there being a weird crash, and then those people from the Blueblood Zadin Clan brought me to the Devil Shadow Dragoon’s selection system. They were full of questions regarding my identity, but they had no way of determining it, either.”
Chu Jingfeng smiled. “Well, that’s just it, isn’t it? The Zadins are a powerful division of the Bluebloods, but they’re by no means the most elite force in the Annihilation. Someone must’ve secretly tampered with the Collapsed Expanse of Founders’ system, so the people of Zadin found you to be rather weird and failed to uncover the mystery of your bloodline.”
Xia Fei looked at Chu Jingfeng and asked, “So if the Zadin Clan wasn’t able to tell, how were you able to?”
Chu Jingfeng let out a weird laugh and replied softly, “Don’t forget. My family ancestor was in charge of God’s Eden, the mystical garden established by the Four Great Sky Devils. Countless Fiends wished that they could be the caretakers of that garden, yet the Sky Devils chose my human grandfather, which in itself couldn’t be any clearer.”
Xia Fei had already heard about God’s Eden from Chu Jingfeng; the Fiends were very stubborn and closed off. The Chu family was one of the few human clans that had gained the Fiend species’s trust and made headways in it.
To have been bestowed the position of gardener to God’s Eden by the Four Great Sky Devils was evidence enough of just how extraordinary the Chu family ancestor was.
Unfortunately, after the Four Great Sky Devils departed, resulting in God’s Eden becoming ownerless, the place had steadily declined to the point where plenty of biological life there had gone extinct. Having no other options, the Chu family packed up their bags and left the Fiends’ side.
This move turned out to be for the best, as the Chu family did not get embroiled in that species’s utter eradication. His grandfather, who had died in the war against the Megadragons, was hailed as a hero, so those forces seeking to erase any traces of the Fiends in the universe let Chu Jingfeng’s father off the hook, opting not to pursue his family over his past job as God’s Eden caretaker.
However, not pursuing his family did not mean that they had gotten away scot free. Chu Jingfeng’s father, who had inherited the Chu family’s ultimate art and was immensely talented, led a mediocre life, all because the Annihilation Universe still distrusted him.
While Annihilation had ultimately not purged the Chu family, they had completely isolated them from the mainstream. Even Chu Jingfeng, whose research into miscellaneous fields was the best throughout the entire universe, still had no way of being accepted into the Annihilation’s mainstream society and had to be lowkey in collating the Thousand Soul Rankings and other such stuff, whiling his time away with all that.
However, because Chu Jingfeng’s grandfather had once been the gardener of God’s Eden, he, along with the Yggdragons, was one of the few individuals in the Annihilation who still admired the Fiends. Yangguang and his family had quite a decent relationship with the Fiends and had also personally met the Four Great Sky Devils.
When the Hero Alliance forced the sundering of the universe for the sake of keeping the universe safe, they had splintered this piece of space where the Yggdragons lived. It was not until Yangguang and his family discovered a way to connect their plane with the Alpha Universe that they received some news, and this had happened only in the recent years.
When they learned that the Fiends had all been wiped off from the face of the universe, Yangguang had been despondent for a good long while; later, the Dark Spiritualists used a secret method to connect to the Eight Universe, and Yangji bumped into Xia Fei. Only then did Yangguang learn that the Fiends still had a surviving bloodline.
Thus, he had Yangji bring Xia Fei to the Eighth Universe.
Stubbing the cigarette out, Xia Fei furrowed his brows and sighed. “I originally thought that joining the Annihilation Universe will give me the chance to get in touch with the greatest power across the universe, but who knew that it’d be at such great risk? If I am a Fiend, won’t that make me an enemy to all of the Annihilators?!”
Xia Fei could feel a headache coming on. He had not even taken a step into the Annihilation Universe, yet he had already made enemies?! How many members did the Skywing Clan have? It would be impossible for them to take on the entire Annihilation Universe!
Chu JingFeng said, “Since many generations have passed, the Fiend bloodline that can be traced in you or anyone else in the Skywing Clan should already be very diluted. Still, a Fiend remains a Fiend. I checked all the things you’d all done in the Law Realm. Very incisive, indeed.”
Xia Fei was momentarily left speechless. The Skywing, especially in the recent few years, had been an absolute aberration in the Law Realm. That place had completely been turned on its head by the Skywings!
It had never once crossed Xia Fei’s mind that the Skywing Clan having such personality could be due to them holding a bit of the Fiend bloodline, but thinking back on it now, he did find it somewhat strange.
Grand Ancestor Xia Guchheng was not born from a rock, and from when he was alone at the start till he created a clan, which was coincidentally called the Demon-sealing Fiendish Blade, the word ‘fiend’ had been so vividly and sharply represented and lived up to!
Thinking about it now, he could not help thinking of why the Skywings had been so fiendish. There was indeed a reason for it; only, the reason behind it was simply too big.
Chu Jingfeng gave the matter some thought and said, “Relax. Whether it’s you or the entire Skywing Clan, the Fiend bloodline is so rare that anyone who hasn’t met a Fiend before can hardly tell your identity, and even if they did, as long as you can keep a low-profile, you won’t really draw much attention.
“Of course, Xia Gucheng must never go near the Annihilation Universe. I’ve been secretly observing him, and while your identity needs a bit of scrutiny and testing, anyone can tell at a glance that he’s a descendant of the Fiends!”
Xia Fei nodded. “That I understand. It just so happens that the grand ancestor plans to retire. I’ll chat about this with him when I get back, warning him not to reveal himself too much for the time being. By the way, you mentioned something about the Arhat fruit being able to mask fiend energy. How sure are you of its effectiveness?”
Chu Jingfeng answered, “Aside from Xia Gucheng, the rest of you can use that, for even if he were to consume an Arhat fruit in a timely fashion, there’d be no way for him to mask his aura. After all, he’s a direct descendant of the Fiends, while you’re the second most prominent. You’ll need to consume it exactly as I tell you and to replenish yourself with it constantly.”
Xia Fei’s aura had always been the most similar to Xia Gucheng, with the both of them having a pair of Fiendwings, and were also the only two who had those in the entire clan.
Thinking a little more, Chu Jingfeng added, “I have no idea why Xiu Zetian knows that you’re a descendant of the Fiends, and for him to insist you join the Annihilation Universe. I am certain that this matter is by no means simple. Before anything had happened to him, he was widely regarded as a generational genius and was a man of high intelligence.
“Rumors later spread that he died with his wife, and later those rumors turned into just him; while Xiu Zetian is still alive and has caught the eye of a person who represents the pinnacle of strength in the Annihilation Universe, in charge of the most powerful assassination squad.”
Swallowing saliva, Chu Jingfeng’s eyes sparkled. “Remember: Hatred lingers in Xiu Zetian’s heart. He might be in a hurry to bring you to Annihilation because your identity as a fiend could help him solve some of his problems.”
Xia Fei smiled. Given how sinister a place the Annihilation Universe was, he had already long suspected that to be the case.
“Well, we’ll be mutually using each other. Xiu Zetian is using me, and I’m also using him,” Xia Fei replied calmly, “I remember clearly that every time I ask my grand ancestor about his upbringing, he will always have a very pained expression. I’ll be taking this chance to figure that out, uncover what truly happened to the Fiend Clan all those years back.”
“There’s something that I can’t make sense of yet, though. There were the Four Dragoon legions—Darkmoon, Holy Light, Destiny, and Devil Shadow—all those years back, Since the Annihilation Universe determined that the Devil Shadow Dragoons were traitors, there’s no way such a powerful army would just disappear over the course of one night after the betrayal, right? They were the strongest warriors of the Fiends, so where could they have gone?” Xia Fei wondered out loud.
Chu Jingfeng shrugged, helpless. “That’s an ancient mystery; no one has a clue where the Devil Shadow Dragoons went. In any case, all of them disappeared overnight, and the news of their betrayal soon spread throughout the Annihilation Universe. This forced the Hero Alliance to engage in a suicidal assault, essentially dying with the Megadragons.”
“If the Devil Shadow Dragoons had really betrayed the cause, they should’ve appeared while the Hero Alliance was attacking the Megadragons. I once saw a corpse from the Triclopean Fiend Clan, and there were scenes from the war that I saw in his memories. Throughout the assault against the Megadragons, there hasn’t even been a single shadow of the Fiends anywhere,” Xia Fei said.
Chu Jingfeng shook his head again, unsure of what to make of it.
In any case, any trouble Xia Fei faced in his life would always be very troublesome, and if the Skywings were the true descendants of the Fiends, then the entire Annihilation Universe would be their enemy!
