Everyone was shocked by this scene; nobody knew what kind of fire it was.

　　Ren Fuyao may have amputated one of Shen Changgeng’s arms, but he’d saved his life in the process.

　　“Young Sect Master, what in the world is this? It’s so terrifying!” A disciple from Sky Peak Sect asked with a pale face.

　　Ren Fuyao didn’t answer. He just looked toward Bai Yichen beside him. “What does Young Master Bai think?”

　　Bai Yichen’s eyes twinkled, but he still shook his head and answered, “Never heard of it before, never seen it before.”

　　“How is it compared to your Small Mingyin flame?”

　　“I’m ashamed to say it’s inferior to this fire.” Bai Yichen replied lightly. “The Small Mingyin flame doesn’t belong to me anymore.”

　　Ren Fuyao whispered to a man in a black robe beside him, “Go investigate.”

　　The man disappeared in a flash.

　　The world outside was full of gossip and wild speculation, chickens flying around and dogs jumping about chaotically. Similarly, there was a great commotion inside the Pill Limit Mysterious Land as well.

　　The bald bird finished spewing out fire and saw that so many people had been burnt, and even the trees and mountains had all been burnt as well. Only then did he happily raise his head as he stood on Yan Tianhen’s shoulder and give a proud “Chirp”.

　　There was a clean circle surrounding them that hadn’t been touched at all by the fire, with the bald bird and Yan Tianhen at the center. Ah Bai, Hu Po, Ling Chigu, and Duan Yuyang were all inside this circle.

　　Outside the circle, a single spark started this prairie fire, and a sea of flames burned on.

　　The fire wasn’t accompanied by smoke; scarlet flames danced inside the bright yellow fire. Everywhere it touched, vegetation was reduced to ashes, leaving nothing behind. In places where the flames were concentrated, one could faintly discern the shape of a giant bird flickering about.

　　“Chirp chirp chirp!” The bald bird seemed to be showing off.

　　Duan Yuyang’s legs were soft. He sat down on the ground and wiped away his sweat. “What the fuck…in the world is this bird? Too…too scary!”

　　Ah Bai and Hu Po shivered nonstop and directly slipped into the cave entrance inside the safe circle, huddling behind Lin Xuanzhi and not daring to show their faces.

　　Yan Tianhen was also dumbfounded. He sat blankly for a while, the conflagration still reflected in his black eyes.

　　“Chirp!” The bald bird didn’t receive any praise and somewhat unhappily jumped down to peck at Yan Tianhen’s fingers.

　　Yan Tianhen came back to his senses and lowered his head to lock gazes with the bald bird.

　　The bald bird tilted his head, flapped his wings, and happily jumped a few times. The three long feathers that stood out on his tail also swung from side to side along with the bird’s movements.

　　Yan Tianhen, “…..”

　　Rather adorable, ugly and adorable.

　　Yan Tianhen’s heart suddenly turned soft. He picked up the bald bird and gazed into his eyes. “Maomao, you’re so amazing.”

　　The bald bird suddenly reeled and almost fell down from Yan Tianhen’s palm — he was born a phoenix and innately understood everything from astronomy to geography from the moment of his birth. Naturally, he also knew his own name.

　　The bald bird opened his mouth and chirped twice, “I’m not called Maomao.”

　　Yan Tianhen asked, “If your name isn’t Maomao, then what is it?”

　　Duan Yuyang interrupted, “…Wait a minute! This bird can talk!”

　　Yan Tianhen also experienced a sudden shock. “Maomao, you can actually speak the human tongue!”

　　Maomao gave Yan Tianhen’s palm a fierce peck. Yan Tianhen, however, didn’t feel pain or itchiness, as if Maomao was throwing a small tantrum.

　　“Feng Jingyu I am!”

　　“Feng Jingyu?” Yan Tianhen looked pensive. “You’re close relatives with the phoenix tribe?”

　　“This monarch…no, this king, is not called Maomao.” The bald bird said angrily, “This king has a name and a surname.”

　　“Not just close relatives.” A voice that was as clear and cold as springwater sounded from behind. It was actually Lin Xuanzhi, who had finished absorbing the celestial-level pill in just three days and had awakened at this moment. “He is a phoenix; moreover, he’s the only remaining phoenix left in this world today.”

　　“Dage!” When Yan Tianhen saw Lin Xuanzhi walking towards him, how could he spare any energy for the phoenix? He threw the little bald bird in his hand to the side and threw himself into Lin Xuanzhi’s arms, tightly hugging his waist. “Just now, Shen Changgeng led other people here to encircle us. I almost died and couldn’t see Dage again.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi was extremely fond of Yan Tianhen acting spoiled around him. He comforted, “How can we not see each other again? We will die together or live together, neither life nor death can separate us.”

　　Yan Tianhen thought about it, then hurriedly nodded. “Dage is right.”

　　Feng Jingyu, who was thrown aside, was dazed for a moment and crawled up from the ground.

　　Duan Yuyang was stuffed full of this public display of affection, and his heart felt stifled while his eyes were blinded. The baby phoenix beside him suddenly exclaimed while jumping, “Such nerve, you actually dared to throw this king! Do you know how noble this king’s identity is? How many people wish to serve this king?! This king will skin you and have you run naked in public!”

　　Duan Yuyang listened to him refer to himself as “this king” in every sentence, but his voice had the milky tone of an infant. It wasn’t threatening at all and sounded quite adorable.

　　Feng Jingyu shouted loudly, expressing his dissatisfaction. Suddenly, a shadow fell over him. He stretched his neck up and stared into Lin Xuanzhi’s pair of black eyes that were calm pools without any ripples.

　　Feng Jingyu, “…”

　　Lin Xuanzhi smiled gently. Two clean white fingers pinched Feng Jingyu’s neck and lifted him up. Lin Xuanzhi mumbled as he looked at the bird, “Looks like this baby phoenix has such a good diet that he looks like glossy jade and round pearls. The quality of his meat should be good. Who knows what he’ll taste like after being roasted.”

　　Feng Jingyu, “!!!”

　　Why was this great beauty so savage?

　　He actually dared to roast a phoenix to eat, such insolence!

　　Yan Tianhen looked at the baby phoenix, whose eyeballs were so wide that he became cross-eyed, and abruptly started laughing.

　　Duan Yuyang suddenly gave an “Ah” as he asked incredulously, his eyes wide, “Are you sure this is a phoenix?”

　　Feng Jingyu raised his head and nodded, immensely proud of himself. This king is indeed the only phoenix under the heavens!

　　Clearly, Duan Yuyang didn’t believe Feng Jingyu’s words. He was asking Lin Xuanzhi.

　　Lin Xuanzhi nodded, “He’s a phoenix, there should be no mistake.”

　　Duan Yuyang immediately sucked in a cold breath, “A phoenix is the king of all birds and a natural god. The last phoenix was the Jiushao Monarch, who’d long since perished in the Great Immortal-Demon War hundreds of thousands of years ago. This…then where did this phoenix come from?”

　　Although he wasn’t from the Nine Lands, the legends from the Nine Lands, especially legends of the supreme rulers of the Nine Lands, naturally spread to every corner of the Nine Lands just like air and water.

　　Thus, cultivators on the Five Continents also knew a lot about the influential figures in the Great Immortal-Demon War.

　　For example, the ancient ancestor of demonic beast phoenixes — the Jiushao Monarch, who, in order to subdue the demons, sacrificed himself and directly jumped into the great demon-sealing array, his soul scattering away into nothingness in the process.

　　He was the last phoenix in this world.

　　When Feng Jingyu heard the title Jiushao Monarch, a trace of difficult-to-detect sorrow flashed through his reddish-gold eyes but was quickly deeply hidden by him, not letting others see.

　　Feng Jingyu chirped once and flapped his wings, flying onto Yan Tianhen’s head. He opened his golden beak and put away his two small claws as he nested himself on the top of Yan Tianhen’s head.

　　Lin Xuanzhi swept a glance over Feng Jingyu. “It’s fortunate that you thought to take him with you.”

　　Who knew what Yan Tianhen was thinking either. He took Feng Jingyu with him wherever he went. Before, he put Feng Jingyu in a small cradle specially made for him and even filled it with cotton wadding and small velvet quilts. He was very afraid of the tiny sleeping phoenix suffering even a little and catching a cold. Unexpectedly, even after entering Pill Limit Mysterious Land, Yan Tianhen still had him stuffed in his clothes.

　　Yan Tianhen rubbed his nose and let the little phoenix behave wildly on his head. “I was worried that someone would bully Maomao when I’m gone if I don’t take him with me and have him stay by my side.”

　　Maomao…no, Feng Jingyu was immediately greatly moved and stopped calling himself “this king”. He chirped twice in a coquettish voice.

　　Ever since his dad left the West Palace with his whereabouts and life or death unknown, no one had ever cared so much about him anymore.

　　He was born aware of everything and also knew what was happening outside even while inside the egg. Although he had never seen his father the king, he knew who his father was. He also knew that from the day he came out of his shell, he no longer had a father.

　　Or a dad.

　　His father had already died when his dad was still conceiving him.

　　Furthermore, his dad once stroked his belly as he sighed, speaking to the Feng Jingyu in his stomach, “If I’d told the emperor earlier that he had a child, would he still have been this determined to die for the world?”

　　Feng Jingyu thought, his father probably didn’t even know about his existence, even when he died.

　　Later, he was born.

　　He had been incubating in the egg for nearly a thousand years. This period of a thousand years was enough for the imperial family within the Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital to turn from weakened decline into prosperity after recovering from the war.

　　His dad accompanied him for some years but quietly left before he broke out of his shell.

　　He became the only phoenix in the world, possessing a noble status upon birth as the ruler of the Nine Lands’ West Imperial Palace. The first mouthful of fire he spewed upon breaking out of his shell burnt all the Heavenly Capital lackeys who came to encroach on the masterless West Imperial Palace into ashes that scattered with the wind, not leaving even a single strand of hair behind.

　　From then on, the people in West Imperial Palace both respected and feared him, and even that person in the Purple Emperor’s Heavenly Capital didn’t dare to openly have any ideas about striking the Western Land again.

　　However, he was lonely.

　　Feng Jingyu chirped once and rubbed his soft, fluffy head against the top of Yan Tianhen’s head.

　　Yan Tianhen felt like he was carrying a small warm heater on his head, making it warm and cozy.

　　Lin Xuanzhi glanced at the little phoenix resting in the nest on top of Yan Tianhen’s head. “Phoenixes are born from the Blazing Heavenly Fire on top of Wutong Mountain, and I know of only one place in this world that has a Wutong Mountain, which is the Western Land. His identity is very troublesome, and moreover, he’s different from ordinary demonic beasts — he’s very difficult to tame and also not very obedient.”

　　Feng Jingyu immediately stood up straight and stared at Lin Xuanzhi with some panic.

　　He was a very clever phoenix and naturally understood what Lin Xuanzhi’s words meant.

　　Lin Xuanzhi didn’t want to keep him.

　　And didn’t allow Yan Tianhen to keep him either.

　　Yan Tianhen felt the little phoenix’s uneasiness and took him down as he held the phoenix in his hands. He looked at Lin Xuanzhi as he persuaded, “But Dage, Maomao saved us just now and didn’t hurt anyone who shouldn’t have been hurt. If it weren’t for him, I’m afraid that we would already be in the underworld right now!”

　　Feng Jingyu had already given up on correcting the silly name “Maomao” that Yan Tianhen gave him. He vigorously nodded his small head and stared at Lin Xuanzhi with pleading eyes.

　　Feng Jingyu could very much tell that Lin Xuanzhi had the final say in this group when deciding whether he could remain with them or had to leave.

　　Lin Xuanzhi said lightly, “It’s still too dangerous. A phoenix from the Nine Lands suddenly showing up in this small Five Continents’ mainlands. I’m afraid that this isn’t an accident from carelessly getting lost, right?”

　　Feng Jingyu felt bewildered and indecisive. Although he looked like a baby bird, in reality, his mind was already mature. It was only because phoenixes were a kind of natural demonic beast god that he could revert to his infancy after suffering a fatal injury. In addition, phoenixes had a very long infancy period, so he still looked like a nestling who hadn’t even shed his down yet.

　　—