Chapter 511: “Mermaid” and Bird (Part Two)
“Who?”
The moment the ethereal voice sounded, Su Jiu turned sharply towards its source. During this, her arm trembled as she drew the loquat branch hanging from her waist, assuming a drawing-a-sword stance.
The next moment, her face was filled with a touch of speechlessness. What her gaze landed upon was actually a phantom of a woman, dressed in a fiery red long dress, slowly approaching.
“Didn’t you help me return ‘this’?”
Her gaze fell upon the loquat branch, and the red-clothed woman paused for a moment before letting out a helpless chuckle. She stopped about three meters away from Su Jiu, quietly watching her.
“Return… you?”
Upon hearing this, Su Jiu was slightly taken aback. She glanced down at the “egg” in her hand, a flicker of caution in her eyes, and asked with a tentative smile, “Are you… perhaps the Fen Shuangluan?”
She deliberately avoided using the name commonly used by everyone in this area—Lord Bingluan.
“Fen Shuangluan? What an ancient title…”
The woman was startled. After muttering a few words, a hint of remembrance flashed in her golden eyes. However, soon, she let out a helpless, wry sigh:
“Currently, I am unable to control two elemental forces simultaneously. The world considers me a god, yet I know that with my end approaching, I am not a god at all… merely a powerful monster.”
Having obtained the answer she sought from the true owner, Su Jiu couldn’t bring herself to be happy. The other party’s words implied that her idea of obtaining the feather might be in vain.
What is there to be overjoyed about, and what is there to be worried about in loss?
Her current objective is to ask if the other party has any way to resolve the issue of the monster siege…
Exhaling, Su Jiu suppressed her somewhat disappointed mood and looked up again, asking, “Then… what’s the solution for the problem of the large number of monsters besieging the city? It’s not like I brought the egg back for nothing, right?”
The phantom remained silent for a long time, her golden pupils seeming to avoid Su Jiu’s gaze. The latter stared directly at her, and a strange tacit understanding formed between them.
Seeing the other party’s silence, Su Jiu’s heart sank. She felt like she might have been tricked…
After lowering her head for a long time, the phantom finally broke the silent understanding with a faint sigh: “I’m sorry, the information my main body transmitted might have just been about wanting to survive. As for being besieged by monsters… whether my true form is in a nirvana state, I probably can’t help much.”
“…Do you not have any strength at all right now?”
Upon hearing this answer, Su Jiu’s lips twitched. The hope she had held onto finally died. She was now truly numb. After working for so long, the other party couldn’t help at all in the end, and she had become a delivery person.
“The egg’s energy is insufficient, and the energy of this phantom itself is only at the War General level, used for maintaining daily household needs.”
Seeing Su Jiu’s helplessness, the phantom sighed and very indirectly expressed her own helplessness.
“In that case… my reward, I brought you back your egg, so there should be some reward, right?”
Su Jiu didn’t do anything else. She took a step forward and extended her finger towards the phantom, her gaze fixed on the other party.
She felt that this Fen Shuangluan seemed a bit unreliable.
Being stared at by Su Jiu, the phantom became a little intimidated. She had things, but she couldn’t take them out. After all, what if Su Jiu, an outsider with an Eastern face, tried to snatch them?
She then touched her nose, which was clipping through the model, and after a moment of silence, suddenly said:
“How about I write an IOU… I’ve lived a solitary life, and there’s truly nothing I can give you.”
“Then are there no other collateral items? You are a top-tier War God level.”
Hearing the other party’s words, Su Jiu showed dead fish eyes. The other party was clearly playing her. She immediately felt less inclined to return the egg. This egg could at least be sold for a high price as the descendant of a high-tier War God—
Shop Owner Su never leaves empty-handed!
Thinking this, she quietly put the egg into her pocket, turned to look at the pool, and made a move as if to leave. After all, she still had to help defend the city later.
“Let me think… Hey, hey, wait a moment!!”
The phantom secretly glanced at Su Jiu’s actions, her gaze flickering uncertainly, and her expression froze. No, sister, what are you doing?
Why do you look like you’re about to make a run for it? I’m a bit scared.
“Ahem… Young friend, can you first place the egg in the hot spring to soak?” Clearing her throat, the phantom looked at Su Jiu pitifully.
“You, a top-tier War God, are able to trickle down enough from your fingers for us juniors to eat.”
Glancing at the other party, Su Jiu directly played dead and walked towards the pool. You’re trying to trick her into helping you without any reward? Isn’t this purely treating her, Shop Owner Su, as a tool?
Besides, she wasn’t a local who owed a favor to this Fen Shuangluan.
“Wait a moment longer!!”
Seeing that Su Jiu had already stepped halfway into the water, the phantom reached out and shouted, then looked like she was holding back something, with a constipated expression.
After a long while, she finally came up with an idea. Her golden pupils looked at Su Jiu, she licked her lips with her protruding tongue, and tentatively asked, “How about some Magic Crystals? I think I still have some inventory.”
“No problem, no problem…”
Hearing this, Su Jiu finally showed a faint smile, slowly withdrew her foot that was stepping into the water, and turned to look at the phantom. She saw the phantom pointing behind the trees ahead, showing a forced smile.
“It’s in the storage area behind. Originally, I wanted to use those Magic Crystals to recover my strength. Alas, with my end approaching, I was forced to undergo nirvana rebirth…”
As the latter walked, she didn’t forget to play the victim, almost saying to Su Jiu—”Pay me 50 yuan, and after rebirth, there will be great benefits.”
The reason the phantom was so passive was that she could sense the power contained within Su Jiu. If she went up and acted recklessly to snatch it, she would only lose both the egg and her treasure. She could only hope that Su Jiu had some conscience and wouldn’t drain her dry.
Su Jiu followed behind, playing with the egg, and casually asked, “Whom were you referring to when you mentioned that girl?”
The other party’s tone sounded too much like she was talking about a junior. Could it be Rancy or Mr. Winick? It didn’t feel quite right…
“Ah? Her…” The phantom paused, blinked, then answered with a smile, her voice seeming to have softened considerably.
“She’s a very diligent girl. In the years leading up to my impending end, she’s been the one helping to guard the border. She’s usually cold on the outside but warm on the inside…”
Hearing this, Su Jiu’s mind raced. She suddenly thought of the theory of benevolent monsters and neutral monsters. In the next moment, a massive three-headed figure from her phone’s bestiary flashed in her mind. She asked with some uncertainty, “The ‘her’ you’re talking about, could it be… the Ice Sky Vulture?”
“It’s Little Vulture.”
Upon hearing this, the phantom sighed faintly. She continued:
“I watched her grow up over the years. She had a difficult upbringing. On the day she transformed, she knelt before my mansion for a long time before I agreed to teach her various skills.”
“Later, she became too obsessed with breaking through, even willing to believe in such illusory promises.”
“Just a few days ago, that girl was still searching everywhere for my true form. Only then did I realize the madness in her heart—she wants to surpass me with her own power… The monster attack on the city is probably also a result of her leading the charge.”
“Not ‘probably,’ it’s a hundred percent.”
Su Jiu silently added. She was quite shocked by the other party’s words. So, the Ice Sky Vulture was the Fen Shuangluan’s groomed successor. However, unfortunately, the latter was a disobedient one, and one who would stop at nothing to gain power.
“If you have this kind of relationship, then even if no one found the egg, nothing would have happened, right?”
Then Su Jiu suddenly thought that since the two had such a mother-daughter-like relationship, even if the egg was found, at most it wouldn’t be able to recover immediately, right?
“No… she might cry and fry the egg to eat it.” The phantom said this in a very strange tone, and Su Jiu could even feel a sense of madness from afar.
“After all, this is common sense for monsters. Consuming the bloodline of higher-tier kin has a chance of evolution. I gained my fire attribute by consuming the essence blood of a colossal phoenix bird.”
“Holy crap, an entire chest of Intermediate Magic Crystals! And also…”
Su Jiu stopped in her tracks. She had reached the end of the mountain, where there was a pavilion. Inside the pavilion, Magic Crystals and various exquisite alchemical outfits were displayed.
Her gaze fell upon the pile of Magic Crystals stacked before her, and the scales on her body immediately straightened. Countless thoughts flooded her mind about devouring all these Magic Crystals!
She had children to raise, and her cultivation costs as a Battle King were even higher. If she devoured these, her cultivation as an Initial Stage Battle King would definitely be no problem.
But she still held back…
“This is a feather!?”
This was not what made her desire explode. What truly made Su Jiu stare blankly was the crimson feather above the pavilion. The feather was entirely coated in white frost, but it pulsed with the brilliance of flames at all times.
Seeing Su Jiu’s gaze fixed on the feather, the phantom inwardly cursed, quickly stepped forward, and explained in a conciliatory tone, “Young friend, that feather is merely a decoration for the pavilion; it has no function.”
Then, she put on an expression as if she were cutting off a piece of herself and pointed to one of the chests of Magic Crystals, saying with difficulty, “How about one chest of these belongs to you, young friend?”
Watching the other party’s performance, Su Jiu’s heart remained unmoved, even finding it a bit amusing. She then smiled and pointed to the feather on the pavilion, saying, “Since you need resources so badly, I’ll take this feather back to decorate my room?”
“This… this doesn’t look good either.”
The phantom’s face showed an expression of wanting to cry but having no tears. This feather was the key item for her to quickly recover her strength. If she gave it away and was found by that rebellious descendant without any power, she would die a very ugly death.
“I don’t care, I want this feather, it’s just a decoration anyway.”
With a light smile, Su Jiu reached out for the feather and showed a relieved expression. This trip was not in vain. With a “whoosh,” the feather was drawn over by the external qi and landed steadily in Su Jiu’s palm!
Flames instantly ignited on Su Jiu’s entire palm. The stinging sensation made her frown slightly. It seemed the burning was intensifying. Just as she was about to let go of the feather, a flash of jade green emerged from her palm…
With the feather being taken away, the expression on the phantom’s face became as ugly as it could be. Soon, looking at Su Jiu’s hand, her eyes narrowed, but she curled her lips and chuckled, “This feather has spiritual flames on it. If it’s not recognized by the feather’s owner, you’ll be burned. My true form can’t use it right now, so recognition…”
Before she could finish speaking, she stared intently ahead. In the next moment, she suddenly raised her hand, pointed at Su Jiu’s palm, and said tremblingly, “Whose aura is this on your palm?!”
