Bing Yue City
The Snow Beast King brought Feng Chu and Zhao Xiangzi to his separate courtyard, a place where he usually retreated from his kin for cultivation. While his nature favored ice and snow, he still needed to engage with human cities for resource exchange. Moreover, Bing Yue City was originally the territory of the Snow Beast King clan.
With Bai Qi's betrayal, the City Lord was likely untrustworthy. This separate courtyard was unknown to Bai Qi.
As the saying goes, the most dangerous place is the safest; it's like the principle of shadows lurking under a lamp.
The courtyard indeed suited the Snow Beast King's aesthetic preferences. Upon entering the house, they saw a massive ice bed, and the room was equipped with an ice formation, as if to ensure he wouldn't die from the cold! Feng Chu and Zhao Xiangzi shivered, genuinely freezing.
"Bai Hong, how can anyone live in this house? It's freezing," Feng Chu channeled his immortal spiritual energy, warming himself, and said with annoyance.
"Why didn't you say it was cold when you were on Ice Moon Mountain? How pretentious! There's a hot spring courtyard next door where you can rest. I need to go into seclusion to see if I can expel the San Yuan Dan poison."
With that, he slammed the door shut, leaving them outside.
The two touched their noses, exchanged glances, and decided to let him be. After all, his clan was annihilated, and he was likely grieving.
After Zhao Xiangzi sent the address of this separate courtyard to Zhao Yangzi via transmission, he comfortably joined Feng Chu in the hot spring.
"This is a spiritual spring!" Feng Chu exclaimed in surprise. The spiritual spring contained traces of immortal spiritual energy and medicinal herbs, which could help repair their damaged meridians.
"It seems Bai Hong is quite extravagant, having ten-thousand-year-old Cold Ice Jade in this humble courtyard, and this healing immortal spring from who knows where," Feng Chu said with a hint of envy.
"In my past life, I heard that the Southern Pole Immortal Weng's supreme medicinal spring was stolen. Doesn't this look similar?" Zhao Xiangzi suddenly recalled the sensational theft case from a million years ago.
"Heh, this Snow Beast King really does love stealing, but I like it!" Feng Chu chuckled mischievously. His Phoenix clan and the Crane clan had always been at odds, especially the Southern Pole Immortal Weng's mount, with whom they had even fought.
"I like it too, hahaha!"
Zhao Xiangzi also laughed heartily, as he too disliked the Crane clan. He used to study various mechanisms and formations, hence he traveled everywhere searching for rare treasures as materials. He once fought with the Saintess of the Crane clan in a treasure land and had his immortal grass stolen. Fortunately, he didn't lose out entirely, having plucked three of her tail feathers. These immortal crane tail feathers were truly extraordinary, forming formation disks that reached the ninth rank.
It was a pity that the formation disk was lost when he descended to the lower realm.
"However, the Crane clan was also wiped out after the destruction of the Divine Wood Realm, leaving only the Saintess and the Immortal Weng's mount," Feng Chu mused with emotion. The Phoenix clan underwent nirvana, thus preserving most of its members during that catastrophe. They should now be on their Phoenix Mountain, where their habitat was relocated.
In Nan Que Prefecture, the Southern Pole Immortal Weng opened his eyes and looked with satisfaction at the crane standing in the medicinal spring. The Divine Wood Realm was showing signs of life, and their divine beasts' God of Beasts was about to return!
This was also the reason for the fame of Feng Chu, the Third Young Master. Their clan still had the Ancestral Phoenix God, and the Phoenix God was particularly protective of his own.
They were able to escape the calamity because Feng Chu had followed Ju Xun from a young age and later became one of the renowned Seven Star Guards. On the day the Phoenix clan attended Ju Xun's ninth birthday banquet, the elder phoenix, intending to forge a marriage alliance, mobilized more than half of the clan's members.
Upon receiving the news, the clansmen left behind in the family suffered heavy casualties. The entire realm collapsed. The spatial forces beyond the void could not be fully escaped by any deity intact.
Those who managed to escape back took countless years to undergo nirvana and be reborn.
Thinking of this, he wished to return and see. He wanted to tell the Ancestor that there were descendants of the Feng family in the lower realm. Although their bloodline was thin, it originated from his clan's bloodline. After that disaster, some clansmen mistakenly entered the void and fell into the cultivation world. Due to severe injuries, they were saved by a mortal woman and had offspring with them, who possessed the Phoenix bloodline.
As the two were meditating, Feng Chu sensed Qi Mo's presence, opened his eyes, and quickly informed the separate courtyard's formation and transmitted a message to the Snow Beast King, to avoid any misunderstanding.
Qi Mo's slender figure submerged into the water, instantly transforming into a small dragon swimming joyfully. As an aquatic spirit beast, he naturally felt a kinship with water.
"Brother, are you injured? Come down quickly and soak in the hot spring," Zhao Xiangzi, though aware that his brother's cultivation was a realm higher than his, still worried that he might not take his injuries seriously.
Zhao Yangzi entered the water without a word. The Qilin also leaped out from Zhao Yangzi's sea of consciousness, joyfully playing with the little dragon. He did not forget to recount the events that had transpired.
When they heard how they had trapped the Nine Heavens Divine Lord in the formation and bombarded him with the Ten Thousand Thunder Divine Annihilation Pills until he cried out in pain, Feng Chu and Zhao Xiangzi touched their noses, feeling a pang of disappointment. They, along with the Snow Beast King and two others, had been beaten and forced to flee – such was the difference.
The name "Ten Thousand Thunder Divine Annihilation Pills" was given by the Qilin himself; it was incredibly potent, with explosions akin to undergoing heavenly tribulation.
Zhao Yangzi looked at Feng Chu and Zhao Xiangzi with a wry smile.
"Injured? Foolish!" Truly venomous indeed!
"Hmph, that Nine Heavens Divine Lord was already injured by me before he encountered you, so of course you could win," Feng Chu retorted, unconvinced.
Zhao Yangzi closed his eyes in silence.
Feng Chu felt as if his punch had hit cotton, and he secretly vowed to recover his cultivation before the other.
A day later, Ju Xun and his party also arrived at Bing Yue City. As soon as they entered the city, they heard the news that Venerable Qing Hua had been murdered in his own sect.
The Immortal Realm was shaken by the demise of a generation's high god, who was reportedly already possessed of divinity and only needed to undergo the tribulation of becoming a god to be officially canonized by the Heavenly Dao.
The group sat in a teahouse. Long Shu, restless, wanted to say something but held back due to some concern.
"Shu'er, what's wrong?" Chen Xi couldn't help but ask.
"Nothing. Lord Chen Xi, you don't need to worry about me." Long Shu didn't understand why this person always tried to get close to her.
She waved her hand, casting a barrier to isolate others' divine senses. Their group had drawn attention from the moment they entered the teahouse. They were too conspicuous, and even she and her sister, wearing veils, couldn't escape the curiosity of those people.
"Sister, Venerable Qing Hua was killed. Can you guess who did it?" Long Shu couldn't help but ask, feeling as though it might have been her father.
"I can guess!" Ju Xun picked up her teacup, sniffed it, and said.
"Who is it?" Chen Xi also became curious.
"You'll know soon enough," Hua Xun interjected.
"Sister, is it Father?" Long Shu suddenly transmitted to Ju Xun. She was too curious. If it were true, then Father was searching for his old enemies, and he was doing something dangerous.
"Yes, Shu'er. Don't worry. If I'm not mistaken, Senior Black Soul and Uncle Long are together. If they both recover their cultivation, others will fear them," Ju Xun reassured her.
"Ye Jue, contact Feng Chu and Qing Yang and see where they are now," Ju Xun also wanted to find her old friends for a chat. It was only polite to reciprocate, wasn't it?