Vol 8 Chapter 261 – Fabled Vermillion bird

XH 261 - Fabled Vermillion bird

"Congratulations on breaking into the sixth rank, Master." Da Liu bowed. He was standing at the corner of the room, using the dark shadows to mostly hide himself from view.

They were inside a simple guest bedroom, but none of the things inside it was affordable unless they were super-rich to purchase. Even if Feng Jiu was the Emperor of Zhu Que's niece, she was still treated well, especially with her special status as the Vermillion Bird's vassal.

Long Zhu nodded as he dressed without a servant's help. "I heard Feng Jiu benefited as well?"

"She showed some signs of a potential breakthrough. Once she awakes, she will have the opportunity to do so." Feng Jiu was still in deep slumber from exhaustion.

"That's a relief." Feng Jiu had stuck at the fifth rank for quite some time when she had been the first among the time travelers to reach that rank.

The fight against the Gu Dan king and Liu Chu Chu was not easy, and it was only thanks to their preparation beforehand that the end result slanted towards their favourability. Long Zhu and Feng Jiu's cultivation breakthrough proved the difficulty of the battle.

He did find it a little disgusting that he had to thank that evil woman for this opportunity to breakthrough. However, he understood he had to take what was needed, as long as it would help him become stronger to keep his family safe from Gu Dan and the demon.

"How is Long Lian?" Long Zhu combed his hair and neatly tied it up with a golden hair crown with lotus craving.

"The princess is well and currently keeping the young phoenix' company."

Done dressed, Long Zhu opened the door. "Lead the way."

Long Lian was at the warmest room in Feng Jiu's palace, feeding the two phoenix grapes alternately with a happy smile.

One of them was the real baby phoenix, which had become a little bigger after a few days. The other was Long Lian's contracted beast that decided to copy the phoenix's appearance since the phoenix liked the shapeshifting beast doing so.

The little phoenix knew that the shape-shifting beast was not its real kin, but it does not mind indulging in false happiness that could only soothe its fragile heart of losing its parents for a short time.

The baby phoenix was the first to notice Long Zhu's arrival, letting out a happy chirp.

"Third brother! You are awake!"

Long Lian shoved the rest of the fruits into the expecting beak, which happened to be her contracted beast's turn. The poor beast nearly got choked by the fruits, if not for its smart thinking to change into a beast with a larger throat to swallow them all before returning back to the phoenix form with a traumatized expression.

Long Lian hurried to her brother's side with a concerned expression. "Third brother, are you sure you should be moving around already?" He was still unconscious this morning when she visited him. "I shall summon a doctor!"

"No need." Long Zhu patted her head with a warm smile. "My injuries are fully recovered, but my spiritual energy will need more time before they fully recover."

Long Lian nodded before hugging her brother. "I'm glad you are awake, third brother."

Long Zhu could see his little sister had lost some of her luster from worry over his unconsciousness. "I apologize for worrying you. Thank you for taking care of things for me while I'm unable to do so."

Pulling away, Long Lian gave her favorite brother a fierce look. "Please do not thank me for doing what I should do as your sister."

The baby phoenix let out a long string of beautiful chirps and soon realized the humans were unable to understand it when they just looked at it without an understanding gaze. So it turned to his fake kin and repeated the beautiful chords.

Thanks to the bond between Long Lian and her contracted beasts, the shapeshifting beast could communicate with the princess through the mind without the language barrier in play and passed the words that the phoenix wished to convey.

"Vermillion bird wants to speak to the third brother?" Long Lian turned to Long Zhu in surprise.

"Is that so? Then would you lead the way?" Long Zhu asked the baby phoenix with a smile.

The baby phoenix let out a single chirp and flapped its beautiful golden red wings. A ball of pure red flame was created from the movement and it flew straight towards Long Zhu.

It happened all too sudden that he did not get to defend himself and allowed the red flame to enter his forehead. His vision blurred and like a curtain parted open before him, a large Vermillion bird appeared before him.

Long Zhu's eyes flickered in understanding when he found he was the only one in this place, surrounded by red glowing rocks. "Mind meeting."

《Yes.》 Vermillion bird could not risk letting an outsider know of its hideout and decided to use this method to meet him.

Long Zhu bowed very politely. "It's a great honor to meet the fabled Vermillion bird." It must have something important it wishes to say to him that could not wait for Feng Jiu to wake up and pass the message to tell him instead.

Vermillion bird stared down at the tiny human before it, who gazed back at it with respectful and friendly eyes that did not invite disgust. This human knows his own boundary well.

《The demon you are looking for is not in my kingdom.》

"May I know how do you know of this?" Long Zhu inquired politely, without any signs of accusation.

《Anything on my territory will be known by me. The other three could easily sense a demon in their own territory as well.》

Their natural enemy was demons and hence they were more sensitive towards their presence. However, they were not able to sense anything if the demon was outside of their territory, the Four Kingdoms.

《The four of us are recovering our strength well and would be able to reseal the gate before it disappears. But we still need the Yellow Dragon's help.》

Long Zhu's eyes narrowed. "The Yellow Dragon." Unlike the four celestial beasts, the yellow dragon does not have its own territory and there were no records of its existence if not for the celestial beasts mentioning it.

《Yellow dragon is the strongest among us and its great strength forbids it from descending onto the human realm with a physical body like us. But it will certainly be among us in spirit, helping us when we are in need.》

Just like what happened during the previous great war with the demons. The four celestial beasts knew that they could not successfully create a seal on the gate strong enough to stop the demons from entering the human realm.

《Previously, the Yellow dragon helped us through the hands of a kind monk. This monk willingly sacrificed his soul to act as a lock on the seal, merged with the power of the Yellow Dragon. That was how we could successfully close the gate, stopping more disaster from coming to this realm.》

Long Zhu frowned. The history had not spoken of this monk benefactor at all. It only focused on the four celestial beasts that defeated the great demon, sealed the gate, and founded the Four Kingdoms.

《I suspect that this time, the Yellow Dragon will offer its help from a human's hand again. Go to Black Turtle, for it may be the only one able to identify the next vassal of the Yellow Dragon.》

Long Zhu's vision blurred until he could not see anything. He did not panic and waited until his vision slowly became clear again. He saw Long Lian stood in front of him, her phoenix eyes similar to his were filled with anxiousness.

The baby phoenix let out a few chirps and flew away, likely to return to the Vermillion bird's side.

"Third brother, you nearly scared me to death when you stood still, without any reaction." Long Lian rubbed her chest in relief. If not for her contracted beast telling her that her brother was speaking to the Vermillion bird, she would have likely shaken him until he wakes up.

"Where is the monk?"

Long Lian blinked in surprise. She had never thought her third brother would take the initiative to ask about Liang Shan.

"He left just this morning, in a rush to return to the temple. He gave his word that he will help any time third brother requested it."

"Mhm."

Long Lian sighed inwardly at her third brother's indifference. She knew that not all wishes will be granted and compared to having her brothers mend their relationship or having Xiao Hua to be her future third sister-in-law, she chose the latter!

After the battle, Liang Shan benefited from it too and was enlightened, hence he rushed to return to the temple to solidify his cultivation. He knew that Long Zhu was about to be awake and Long Lian would be fine, so he decided to leave first, as to avoid inviting criticism from the other party.

However, this meeting did not only give him the assistance of understanding Buddhism techniques deeper. Liang Shan had finally crossed the final step away from the clinging reluctance, removing himself from the insensible anger he had towards the unfairness directed towards him in his life.

The remaining anger he had towards the 20th Emperor that ruined his parent's lives could not be completely removed even with the benevolence and forbearance of a monk. But the last of the unreasonable rage towards the royal siblings were cleanly washed away, leaving behind the smell of a new spring that put his heart at peace.

He finally understood and accepted the fact that they had not done anything wrong to him and his parents. It was an act of cruelty when they thoughtlessly harmed the royal sibling just because they were the 20th Emperor's children. The children do not have the obligation to pay for their father's sins.

Liang Shan sympathized with his parents' plight, but they died because they were not strong enough. For 'Long Shan' the prince to die and reborn as 'Liang Shan' the monk, it was his own choice.

Liu Chu Chu's soul was devoured because she had wrongly trusted the demon. His heart slightly ached from her death, but not so much compared to his parent's death. If Liu Chu Chu had not used weird tricks to capture his heart, he knew that he would still fall in love with her, but at a slower pace. He will love her and still retain his own mind.

Pity, that their fate was not meant to last long.

Everything in this world has its own karma and the time for it will either be tomorrow or years later.

To escape it was not possible.