“Sure enough, you’re not that kind.” Gu Yanying came to a realisation.
“Commander Gu, you’re worried about your own matters, so it’s best if you don’t feign concern for the lives of others!” Li Qingshan said in displeasure.
“Alright, I must admit that. However, we’ve screwed over the wolf king this time, so the matter regarding the sleepy bug definitely won’t remain hidden for too long. If the Featherfolk King finds out, he’ll definitely take precautions, and all of our efforts will go to waste.” Gu Yanying remained as persistent as before.
“I can ask the Great Banyan Tree King for a plan. It won’t take very long.”
“The sleepy bug isn’t something that this world should possess. Even the Great Banyan Tree King probably won’t be able to come up with any good plans. Even if he comes up with one, we won’t be able to make all the preparations quickly. It’s a pure waste of time.”
“Not necessarily.”
The two of them bickered away. Neither of them backed down. Under the blue sky and above the white clouds, the surroundings were still as beautiful as ever, except the atmosphere had become rather tense.
Li Qingshan pursed his lips and demonstrated the inflexibility that he had always possessed. Having roamed the land for several decades, he had grown accustomed to moving and making decisions alone. When he was supposed to advance, he would never retreat even if it killed him. When he was supposed to retreat, he would never become too engrossed in battle either. He was not someone who changed his mind so easily.
“Alright, alright!” Gu Yanying sighed. Right when Li Qingshan thought she would give up on the dispute, she suddenly widened her hawk eyes and stared straight at him. “Then I’m not requesting you now. Instead, you need to complete your past promise and pay me back for my kindness. Are you going to do it or not?”
“You!” Li Qingshan was rather surprised. He could not help but raise an eyebrow. “You’re casting our friendship aside if you say that!”
“That’s right, I’m casting aside our friendship,” Gu Yanying said firmly.
Li Qingshan shut his eyes before opening them again. “Alright, I’ll do it.”
“Thank you!” Gu Yanying was apologetic.
Li Qingshan snorted coldly and stopped looking at her.
A smile flitted across Gu Yanying’s face before immediately vanishing again. “Let’s go!”
Before she had even finished what she was saying, Li Qingshan had already taken off. Gu Yanying shook her head and followed close behind, flying straight in the direction of Clouded city.
……
Clouded city.
The morning sunlight pouring into the spacious hall. Li Fengyuan lay there with his arms outstretched as he snored away. Unable to come up with a way to slip away no matter how he racked his brains, he decided to have a hearty drink at the banquet. Afterwards, he simply slept until now.
The Featherfolk King Bai Chen sat on the throne nearby, holding a cup of alcohol and savouring it slowly as he studied Li Fengyuan. He did admire Li Fengyuan’s courage. Even with his current circumstances, he could still sleep.
“Get up!” Bai Jie walked over and kicked Li Fengyuan.
“Oh, it’s morning!” Li Fengyuan stretched and yawned, gazing at the daylight outside.
“How was it? Were you satisfied with the feast?” the Featherfolk King finished off his cup of alcohol and asked with a smile.
“It was so-so!” Li Fengyuan said in an unconcerned manner, but he secretly panicked inside. This hall was like a colossal age to him. No matter how polite the Featherfolk King behaved towards him, the butchering blade would still come for him in the very end.
“Now, I also have a small request, which I hope you won’t decline.” The Featherfolk King fiddled with his cup.
“Feel free to mention it, as long as I can help you out.” Li Fengyuan understood that the Featherfolk King would actually turn against him if he still did not cooperate at a time like this, so he just agreed to it without hesitation.
“That would be for the best. I only require a droplet of blood from you.”
The Featherfolk King raised his right hand, and a pure-white stream of light curled over, approaching Li Fengyuan like a snake.
Li Fengyuan gulped and held back the urge to dodge. He only watched as the stream of light approached him, pierced the tip of his finger, and removed a droplet of phoenix blood.
The bright-red phoenix blood shone with the light of flames, arriving by the Featherfolk King’s side along the white stream and was directly injected into his body.
The Featherfolk Kin shut his eyes. He emanated with red light as he seemed extremely pleased. The pure, scorching life force was basically a fatal temptation to him who was on the verge of death. He was almost tempted to drain all of Li Fengyuan’s blood. He had to take a deep breath to hold back that urge. He could not rush this.
Only when the white stream receded did Li Fengyuan’s heart settle back down. In that moment earlier, he was already prepared to throw his life at the Featherfolk King, but he also understood that given the current situation, even dying probably would not be that easy.
His fate was truly out of his hands now, completely at the whim of others. This deep feeling of helplessness filled him with unprecedented fury. He could not help but clench his fists.
“My king, how do you feel?” Bai Jie asked in concern.
“Fine, very fine, extremely fine!”
The Featherfolk King opened his eyes. His complexion was healthy and vigorous as he answered that question three times.
Sure enough, just as the legends had foretold, phoenix blood could lengthen lives. Furthermore, to his excitement, the dark azure feather also trembled gently with it. He felt the bloodline merge a little more with him too.
The feather possessed unimaginably great power, or even a legacy, but he had never been able to properly grasp this power, let alone inherit the legacy.
That was because featherfolk were not truly avians, so they were not recognised by this feather. Despite everything he tried, he could only use a bare minimum of the power inside, or he would not have to worry about the problem regarding his lifespan anymore.
As the king of birds, phoenixes were naturally close to all avians, and what he felt right now only proved his original conjecture. The feather was extremely close to the bloodline of a phoenix. If his “blood transfusion” succeeded and he gained the bloodline of a phoenix, it definitely would not only lead to a longer lifespan.
Thinking up to there, he clenched his fist firmly, and the white jade cup was crushed to dust. He smiled from ear to ear.
“Bring the alcohol!” Li Fengyuan called out, interrupting the Featherfolk King’s daydream.
“How dare you!” Bai Jie made her way over, raising her hand to teach him another lesson.
“Stop!” The Featherfolk King ordered.
“Your majesty?”
“Give him his alcohol. Give him the finest alcohol we have, as well as a Mother Cloud pill.”
“A Mother Cloud pill!”
Bai Jie was surprised. Mother Cloud pills were refined through gathering the essence of clouds. The process was extremely difficult. It could basically be regarded as the greatest pill the featherfolk could refine. Even among featherfolk, only a very small number of them could actually ingest one.
“Go. Just deduct it from my quota. I know what I’m doing.” Then the Featherfolk King said to Li Fengyuan joyfully, “Don’t be angry. I will make up for your losses on fold.”
“Not everything can be made up with pills!” Li Fengyuan said furiously.
He was a mighty phoenix, yet he was being reared like a pig right now—no, it was even worse than a pig. A pig only had to face the butchering blade once, and that would be the end of it. It did not have to be carved up daily. This sense of humiliation basically could not be put into words.
“I understand how you feel, but unfortunately, this is all that I can do. As cultivators, isn’t longevity the exact thing that we’re all after?”
The Featherfolk King sighed as if he had no other choice, but he had already made up his mind inside. He would never let Li Fengyuan take another step out of Clouded city. No one knew exactly what extent a divine bird, a phoenix, could grow to. Only by killing him would he avoid any potential problems.
He glanced at the dark azure feather. Once he grasped the power inside, he might as well kill Li Qingshan too! Afterwards, he would destroy the Great Xia empire so that godfolk would reign over this world again. Featherfolk would obviously become the supreme rulers.
Everything was unfolding according to plan.
At this moment, a bellow rang out in the air like a clap of thunder.
“Where be the Featherfolk King!?”
