Chapter 224
Chapter 224
Snow Phoenix ate the Ice Silkworm?
My head nearly exploded when I heard that. Had she lost her mind?!
The Ice Silkworm was a Gu insect. Even I hadn’t dared to use it, yet Snow Phoenix, a tiny fledgling covered in injuries, had actually eaten it.
Wasn’t she supposed to be hibernating in the freezer?
Besides, Snow Phoenix and the Ice Silkworm had been stored separately, in two different drawers. The Ice Silkworm was in the upper one and Snow Phoenix in the lower one. Why would she climb up there and eat it for no reason?
Li Qingying’s next words plunged me even deeper into despair. “Snow Phoenix didn’t just eat the Ice Silkworm. She drank the Dragon Bone Blood too.”
My vision went black, and I bolted toward the back room.
The moment I entered, I saw the refrigerator door hanging wide open and Snow Phoenix flapping around the room in a blind panic.
The tears in her wings hadn’t healed yet. One wing dragged limply while the other beat with all its might, sending her lurching through the air like a drunk.
As she flew, she stretched out her neck and let out hoarse cries. Her eyes were bloodshot, but her eyelids looked as if they had frosted over, covered by a hazy white film. Blood dripped from the edge of her long beak. She looked like she was in agony.
When Gu Yan gave me the Ice Silkworm, she’d explained how to use it and what would happen after it entered the body.
What Snow Phoenix was going through now was only the beginning.
Worse, she had drunk the Dragon Bone Blood at the same time. There was no telling whether the two would clash.
After all, the Dragon Bone Blood was only supposed to be used after the Ice Silkworm Gu Poison had seeped into the flesh and blood.
This was a complete disaster.
I pulled out my phone, chased Snow Phoenix around long enough to record a video, and sent it to Uncle Huo. Then I followed up with a voice message briefly explaining what had happened.
Uncle Huo started a video call soon afterward.
He told me to point the camera at Snow Phoenix. After watching her for a moment, he cried in anguish, “How could this have happened?!”
Exactly. Who could have imagined something so unlikely would actually happen?
Snow Phoenix’s cries grew weaker and weaker, and her wings beat more and more slowly. Then, with a thud, she suddenly dropped straight to the floor.
The sight terrified all of us.
Still holding my phone, I rushed over, but I didn’t dare touch Snow Phoenix. All I could do was aim the camera at her.
Her entire body looked frozen solid. A layer of icy crystals now coated her already snow-white feathers. She stared at me pleadingly, her beak hanging open as though begging me to do something, yet unable to say what.
“Quick, bring some water. Use the biggest basins you can find,” Uncle Huo suddenly ordered. He sounded frantic. “Once the water is here, set the basins beside Snow Phoenix. Don’t touch her, and whatever you do, don’t move her. From here on, she’ll have to rely on her own fortune.”
Li Qingying moved quickly. Before long, she returned with several large basins. I helped set them around Snow Phoenix while Li Qingying attached a hose and began filling them.
At the sound of running water, Snow Phoenix blinked.
Then we watched as she struggled to move her rigid body, using every last ounce of strength to inch toward the basin that was already half full.
She moved so slowly that I desperately wanted to pick her up and place her in the water myself.
But Uncle Huo had said we couldn’t touch her.
All we could do was endure and wait patiently.
After Li Qingying filled all the basins, she crouched beside me. Together with Uncle Huo on the video call, we silently watched Snow Phoenix.
Snow Phoenix inched forward bit by bit. With every movement, icy crystals scattered across the floor behind her, while her body grew stiffer and stiffer.
Splash!
There was a loud splash, and water sprayed everywhere.
The Snow Phoenix had finally fallen into the water.
Yet before the droplets could fall, they froze into slush in midair.
The water in the surrounding basins also began to solidify at a speed visible to the naked eye.
We thought it would freeze into ice, but to our surprise, all the water in the basins turned into a blanket of pure white snow.
The Snow Phoenix was buried beneath it, and we could no longer see what was happening to her.
The temperature in the room plummeted in an instant. Li Qingying and I shivered uncontrollably from the cold.
Uncle Huo, on the other hand, breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s a good thing she’s the Snow Phoenix. She thrives in extreme cold, so she can withstand the frigid temperatures caused by the Ice Silkworm Gu Poison. This has unexpectedly created the environment she loves most, and with the added boost from the Dragon Bone Blood, this may actually prove to be a great opportunity for her.”
“But the Ice Silkworm and Dragon Bone Blood were both brought here to suppress Xiao Jiu’s Symbiotic Curse,” Li Qingying protested unhappily. “Now the Snow Phoenix has eaten and drunk them both. What’s Xiao Jiu supposed to do?!”
Uncle Huo was left at a loss for words. He had no idea how to reassure us.
Before ending the video call, he merely warned us not to touch the large basins or let anyone enter the room without permission.
Li Qingying and I shut the door and returned to the living room of the Rear-facing Room. We sat on the couch and stared at each other in silence.
Li Qingying carefully examined the clearer ‘Slave’ mark on my right cheek, her face etched with worry.
“Xiao Jiu, could there be something wrong with this Symbiotic Curse?” Li Qingying asked. “What if there was never any Symbiotic Curse at all?”
I knew what she meant.
Feng Lishu was dead. Logically, the moment she died, I should have died with her.
Yet apart from the mark on my right cheek becoming more distinct, I seemed perfectly fine.
I had my doubts too. Why did the Symbiotic Curse affecting Feng Lishu and me seem so different from the one in the legends?
Even more baffling was the strange manner of Feng Lishu’s death.
Why had Brother Qiu killed Feng Lishu without mercy after she confronted the Grand Witch?
What was he afraid of?
The thought of the Grand Witch reminded me of the dream I’d just had, and my head began to throb.
I rubbed between my brows and asked, “Liu Junyan and the others aren’t in the Pawnshop right now, are they?”
Otherwise, why hadn’t they come over after all that commotion?
“They are. They’re in the rear courtyard,” Li Qingying replied. “Seventh Master said too much has happened lately, so he wanted to reinforce the Formation in the rear courtyard as a precaution. They’re all caught up in the Formation right now. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone to wake you first.”
So that was why.
I wanted to head to the rear courtyard immediately, but Li Qingying stopped me.
She said the Formation had only just been completed and could not be disturbed. She told me to get some more sleep and wait until dawn.
I returned to my room and leaned against the headboard, but how could I possibly fall asleep now?
The scenes appearing in my dreams were becoming more and more incomprehensible.
The voice that kept telling me to return to Cangwu Mountain clearly belonged to the Grand Witch.
The fire on Cangwu Mountain, the woman standing amid the flames, and the Fengwu clutched in her hand… What message were all these things trying to convey to me?
And then there was the butterfly that appeared at the end… Another butterfly!
Coupled with the two times I had previously glimpsed Tang Xun, it left me deeply unsettled. She seemed to be guiding me toward something, yet at the same time, she also seemed to be avoiding me.
Tang Xun… had changed…