Chapter 235

Chapter 235

I had a strange and absurd dream.

In it, butterflies of every kind covered my entire body.

They carried a lovely floral fragrance, with the faintest trace of medicinal herbs beneath it.

They landed on me and beat their wings without pause, pouring a seemingly endless stream of power into my body.

They descended layer by layer, then died layer by layer.

I had no idea how much time had passed. I only knew that my Souls felt full to bursting, and my entire being throbbed with newfound vitality.

My eyes flew open, and I bolted upright.

The next instant, a small porcelain vial was shoved against my lips.

A cool, fishy-sweet liquid poured down my throat, followed by a piece of milk candy stuffed into my mouth…

By the time I fully came to my senses, Li Qingying was sitting beside my bed with red, swollen eyes, looking at me with guilt written all over her face.

Only then did I realize that what she’d just given me must have been Dragon Bone Blood.

“Sister Qingying, you’re back.” I glanced behind her. “Where’s Aunt Tang?”

“She’s gone,” Li Qingying said. “I ran into her just as I came back, but she didn’t even say hello. She practically fled.”

I frowned. Why had Tang Xun been acting stranger and stranger lately?

And yet, she’d helped me again.

I asked, “What about Snow Phoenix? Did you see her when you came back?”

“No.” Li Qingying’s voice was thick with anger. “She probably doesn’t have the nerve to face you anymore.”

From the moment we’d brought Snow Phoenix back until today, we’d invested no small amount of time and effort in her.

Uncle Huo had helped treat her, while Li Qingying had looked after her every day… Yet in the end, she had joined forces with Brother Qiu to hurt me. How could Li Qingying not be furious? How could she not hate her?

I patted her hand and tried to comfort her. “She’s only a fledgling. They threatened her with the lives of more than a hundred members of the Snow Phoenix Clan. She had no choice.”

Even if she left the Pawnshop now, life wouldn’t be easy for her.

“No matter how hard things were, she still shouldn’t have hurt you!” Li Qingying still couldn’t get past what had happened. “She’s nothing but a White-eyed Wolf! She’d better hope I never see her again, because I’ll beat her every single time I do!”

I smiled but said nothing.

A moment later, Li Qingying suddenly apologized. “I’m sorry, Xiao Jiu. I never should have entrusted you to Snow Phoenix. I misjudged her and nearly got you killed. And I came back too late…”

“Sister Qingying, what are you talking about?” I demanded, feigning anger. “Who could have expected any of this? You’ve been running yourself ragged for my sake and doing everything you could. I can’t thank you enough.”

Li Qingying looked at my right cheek, her eyes aching with concern. “The Ice Silkworm’s Gu Poison has already been suppressed, and your Fragmented Soul has temporarily been restored, just like Aunt Tang’s was. Your body should recover soon, but why…”

Two things in her words stunned me.

The first was that my Fragmented Soul had been restored in the same way as Aunt Tang’s.

That was right.

Back then, in the Paradise Beyond the World — no, Snow Phoenix had said that place was called Spirit Butterfly Valley.

In that hollow in Spirit Butterfly Valley, Aunt Tang’s Souls had been made whole through the Sacrifice of layer after layer of butterflies.

And what I had just experienced in my dream was exactly the same.

But could that happen to anyone… or only to certain people?

If it was the latter, then there seemed to be some inexplicable bond of fate between Tang Xun and me.

It looked like I would have to find a way to sit down and have a proper talk with her.

But right now, she seemed to be deliberately avoiding us. What was she so conflicted about?

The second thing that stunned me was how Li Qingying had trailed off.

Without thinking, I raised a hand and touched my right cheek again.
A layer of gauze covered the spot.

Yet even through the gauze, I could feel a trace of blood beneath my fingers.

I hurriedly got out of bed and went to the vanity. When I peeled off the gauze, I saw that the area where the word ‘Slave’ had once been was now badly ulcerated, leaving a mangled mess of flesh and blood.

A small, bloody hole had even opened at the center.

Somehow, two-thirds of my hair had turned white. Only the patch at the back of my head remained black.

At this rate, all my hair would be white in a matter of days.

Was that also a sign that, by then, my life would be nearing its end?

I’d been planning to return to Cangwu Mountain, but now it seemed I might not have enough time.

I sat in front of the vanity mirror. My eyes were fixed on my reflection, but my thoughts had already drifted far away.

I thought of Feng Lishu.

I thought of how different she had been this time, and the strange, mutual pull between us that had never existed before.

I thought of the scene where Tang Xun had forced Feng Lishu to leave.

Tang Xun didn’t want me getting close to Feng Lishu. Did that mean she knew something?

Then I thought of the silhouette of the girl who had appeared time and again in my dreams, standing amid that sea of flames with Fengwu in her hand. I felt the same pull toward her.

What kind of connection existed among the three of us?

I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even notice Li Qingying gripping my shoulders and gently shaking me.

Li Qingying suddenly panicked. She pulled me into her arms and pleaded, “Xiao Jiu, don’t be like this. You have to trust Seventh Master. He’ll find a way to save you.”

Her emotions were running high, and even her voice trembled slightly.

Only then did I snap back to my senses. The state I’d been in must have frightened Li Qingying.

After all, my face was rotting and my hair was turning white. Both were signs that my life was approaching its end.

Was Li Qingying afraid I wouldn’t be able to accept it and might do something foolish?

I was just about to explain that I wasn’t so fragile and had no intention of giving up on life when Li Qingying said, “Xiao Jiu, you’ll get through this. You’ll turn danger into safety and find a way out even when all hope seems lost, just like I did back then. I’ve never told you about my past, have I? Back then, they really did almost kill me…”

I instinctively swallowed the words on the tip of my tongue.

That was right. Li Qingying had never told me about her origins or what she had once endured.

All I knew was that her horn had been broken off.

It was already incredibly difficult for a carp to cultivate a human form. Growing a horn was rarer still.

What a shame.

“I was born in Linghai, as a member of the Red Carp Clan,” Li Qingying slowly began. “I bore auspicious signs from birth, and all the clan elders declared that I was a koi reincarnated. My talent for cultivation was exceptional, and it took me less than a century to assume human form. Then, when I was nearly two hundred years old, a sharp red horn unexpectedly sprouted from my forehead.

“The clan elders were overjoyed. They said I might have a chance to achieve Dragon Transformation.

“They devoted themselves to nurturing me and lavished the finest resources in the clan on me. The horn on my forehead grew larger and larger, gradually showing signs of branching. The clan leader said it was time for me to undertake Leaping the Dragon Gate.

“If a carp successfully crossed the Dragon Gate, it could achieve Dragon Transformation. If the Red Carp Clan gained a Dragon, what greater glory could there be?

“And so, when I was over three hundred years old, they took me to the place where Leaping the Dragon Gate was held. You’ve been there with me before. It was the Forbidden Zone of Linghai Dragon Palace.”

I frowned. It had happened there?

Li Qingying paused before continuing, “I had made every possible preparation. I had imagined that I might fail at Leaping the Dragon Gate and disappoint my entire clan, but I never imagined that the friends who had always been closest to me would stab me in the back at that critical moment and all but destroy me…”