Chapter 250
Chapter 250
Ji Si and Ji Lu did not return that night after all.
The mist grew thick after dark, so the others carried the fish scales back to their temporary shelter.
There had been occasional light rain lately, but fortunately the little hut they had built kept it out.
Shen Qingzhu gathered all the medicinal herbs he had finished processing and carefully stored them away.
“Get some sleep. If they haven’t returned by noon tomorrow, we’ll go find them.”
Jiang Yunsui gave a subdued hum. She was worried, but her body clock soon carried her off to sleep.
When everyone woke the next morning, they began their usual daily activity: gathering mushrooms.
Beauty Mushrooms and Verdant Jade Mushrooms were the most abundant, because the valley’s environment suited those two varieties best.
“The birds are making a fuss over there again.”
While washing, Jiang Yunsui wiped her little face clean. The bangs above her forehead ended up sticking out every which way.
Yet her face was soft and delicate, her skin snowy white, and her huge watery eyes clear and bright. She looked utterly adorable.
Shen Qingzhu could not resist pinching her chubby, baby-soft cheek.
Jiang Yunsui was used to it by now.
She could not help being so popular and charming.
Little Mushroom admired herself shamelessly.
The commotion among the birds grew louder.
Every morning they gathered to perform together before bursting through the dense fog above. The mist over the valley once again formed the spectacular shape of a waterspout.
They had watched it for several days, yet it still seemed wondrous every morning.
Once the birds finished their performance, they scattered and went about their own affairs.
Jiang Yunsui finished getting ready too. In a peach-pink dress, she skipped along at the front like a lively little rabbit.
Perhaps a little too lively. She carried a small stick and poked first here, then there.
Whenever she saw a familiar animal or plant, she greeted it.
“Good morning, Little Tuft~”
That was a white egret with a single silly feather sticking upright from its head.
“Good morning, Silly~”
That was a vacant-looking bird with a huge beak. None of them knew what species it was.
“Good morning, Fatty Tiger~”
This time Little Mushroom flung herself straight at him, hugged the great fat tiger’s head, and rubbed against him affectionately.
The enormous tiger suspected of atavism was remarkably indulgent toward her.
“We’re going to the waterfall. Do you want to come?”
“Roar.”
‘Let’s go.’
They needed to wait until noon.
In the meantime, Shen Qingzhu and Jiang Yunsui finally managed to pick the tea leaves they had discovered the previous day.
Shen Qingzhu had never seen this variety before, but judging by its fragrance and age, it rivaled the finest teas.
There was more than one tea tree on the cliff, though the others grew higher up in dangerous locations.
Fortunately, they knew qinggong.
In the end, they harvested a sizable amount.
Shen Qingzhu asked, “Does anyone know how to roast tea?”
The excited atmosphere instantly froze.
Jiang Yunsui raised one little hand. “I know the steps in my head.”
But she did not know how to do them. More precisely, her mind knew, but her hands did not.
Besides…
“We don’t have the tools for roasting tea.”
Everyone fell silent.
Then what did all their hard work picking those leaves amount to? A display of diligence followed by a great waste?
If they did not process the leaves properly, they would indeed be ruined.
After a speechless pause, Shen Qingzhu asked Jiang Yunsui to explain the tea-roasting process she remembered.
In the end, they cut step after step and could only make do with the tools they had.
The hunter knew how to weave bamboo strips, and there was a bamboo grove in the valley. Soon, everyone busied themselves.
Jiang Yunsui was still thinking about Ji Si and Ji Lu. From time to time, she glanced toward the waterfall.
Her eyes happened to be the sharpest.
She really did spot two moving shadows behind the falls.
“Shen Qingzhu, look, look! Is that Si Si and Liu Liu?”
“Si Si! Liu Liu…”
The little girl made a tremendous racket. Without waiting for Shen Qingzhu to confirm, she ran closer and shouted upward.
Unfortunately, her tiny voice cracked from the effort and still received no reply. The thunder of the falling water completely drowned her out.
On closer inspection, however, it really was the two men descending.
Shen Qingzhu and the others immediately abandoned what they were doing and hurried beneath the waterfall. Their clothes were soon soaked through.
They could only hope for good news.
The rocks around the falls were too slippery to offer firm footing, so Ji Si and Ji Lu descended with exceptional care. From time to time, they drove their blades into a crack to steady themselves.
Both men possessed a strong foundation in martial arts, and in the end, they made it down safely.
Everyone moved away from the waterfall into the sunlight. Only then did the chill in their bodies ease slightly.
“Well?” Shen Qingzhu asked at once.
Jiang Yunsui pushed food into their hands.
Neither man was actually hungry. They had taken provisions up with them, and only a day had passed.
“There really is an enormous nest up there,” Ji Lu said after catching his breath. “But by the time we arrived, the Phoenix-Mimic Bird was already dead.”
Everyone’s spirits sank at the news.
“There was only one Phoenix-Mimic Bird inside the cave. It had been dead for no one knows how long, and the body was completely stiff. Perhaps because of the unusual environment, it hadn’t rotted, though the flesh had partly dried out. There’s no hope of obtaining any blood.”
Disappointment weighed on Shen Qingzhu. “In that case, finding another Phoenix-Mimic Bird will be even harder.”
Ji Si took an egg from inside his clothes.
“A Phoenix-Mimic Bird egg.”
Ji Lu said, “This was all we found. The egg lay in a nest built from the Phoenix-Mimic Bird’s feathers. But the bird looked as though it had been dead for a very long time. We don’t know if this egg can still hatch.”
Everyone turned to Jiang Yunsui at once.
Those close to Little Mushroom knew that Milk Tea would never have hatched from its egg if it had not met her.
No one knew whether this egg could hatch either, but it was worth trying.
Jiang Yunsui held out both little hands and accepted the round egg, which was not much smaller than an ostrich egg.
Cradling it against her chest, she closed her eyes and sensed it carefully. At the same time, she circulated the Imperial Flowing Essence within her body and guided it into the shell.
Everyone else watched with bated breath.
Jiang Yunsui searched for a long while without detecting the slightest trace of life inside.
Just as anxiety and disappointment began to set in…
Thump.
There came a faint pulse, almost too weak to detect, like the beat of a heart.
Jiang Yunsui wondered if she had imagined it. She concentrated even more carefully.
Thump.
After a long interval, she sensed it again.
It was terribly weak, as though it might die on her at any moment.
Jiang Yunsui panicked. It could not die!
They had finally found a hope of curing Ji Yan’an’s poison.
She opened her eyes, surprise and delight shining in their depths.
“There’s a teeny-tiny bit of life inside. It’s almost dead!”
Shen Qingzhu asked excitedly, “Can you save it?”
It was still an egg, so for now they could only rely on Jiang Yunsui’s miraculous abilities. Even a divine physician more skilled than Shen Qingzhu would be unable to save it.
Jiang Yunsui did not dare promise anything. “I don’t know either.”
Shen Qingzhu stroked her hair. “Just do your best.”
For them, the mere fact that a trace of life remained was already a tremendous surprise.
After all, was it not a miracle that the egg still lived after going so long without a parent to incubate it?