Chapter One Hundred and Seven
The moment Feng Yin’s figure appeared in the sky above Great Marsh Mountain, Hong Yi sensed it. He turned around, narrowing his eyes as he watched her approach slowly through the air.
A Demigod? There had been no unusual signs of a Thunder Tribulation in the Three Realms, yet this new Phoenix Sovereign had already attained divinity. The Fire Phoenix lineage truly could not be underestimated.
“Your Majesty Hong Yi.” Feng Yin gave a slight nod, completely ignoring Hong Yi’s domineering and overwhelming divine power as she walked through the air to stand before him.
Having reigned as the Demon Emperor for a thousand years, Hong Yi naturally carried an imperial aura. He sized Feng Yin up and said, “I had long heard that Wutong Phoenix Island had welcomed a new sovereign, but I never imagined Your Majesty Feng Yin would be so young.”
The little fox from back then had become the Demon Emperor, and he still had this condescending attitude. Feng Yin raised an eyebrow and retorted without holding back, “This sovereign has also heard that Your Majesty Hong Yi was only born six thousand years ago…” She paused, then smiled. “Judging by the Fox race’s lifespan, Your Majesty is probably not even of age yet, are you?”
The Fox race came of age at eight thousand years. If Hong Yi were not a Ten-Tailed Heavenly Fox who had transcended the Fox race’s age limit to ascend to divinity, he would indeed still be considered a juvenile fox at his current age.
Feng Yin spoke with an utterly composed expression, not mincing her words as she mocked Hong Yi. Over a thousand years ago, before she was even born, her soul had been scattered and spirit dispersed. A thousand years later, after her soul was gathered and she was reborn, she directly inherited the throne of the Phoenix Clan. Hong Yi had originally assumed she had merely lucked into the throne by relying on the Phoenix Clan’s blessings, but now it seemed this newly born little phoenix was even more flamboyant and domineering than the Celestial Emperor Feng Ran.
Having finished his probing, Hong Yi set aside his underestimation and said solemnly, “May I ask why the Phoenix Sovereign requested to meet this sovereign at Great Marsh Mountain?”
Half a month earlier, Feng Yin had sent an envoy to the Heavy Purple Hall in the Third Heaven of the Demon Realm, requesting a meeting with him at Great Marsh Mountain. Since the battle at Rakshasa Land a thousand years ago, the Immortal Tribe and the Demon race had been deeply estranged, and he particularly loathed the Immortal Tribe. Even though Wutong Phoenix Island stood aloof from the Three Realms and had long ceased involvement in the conflicts between the two races, he was unwilling to meet a disciple of the Celestial Emperor. However, the envoy Feng Yin sent had delivered a letter containing only ten short words.
The chaos at Great Marsh Mountain, the Water Condensation Beast Ayin.
The letter had no beginning, no end, and no context. Yet, with just these ten words, Hong Yi had willingly come to Great Marsh Mountain.
“Why did I request Your Majesty’s presence? Don’t you already know? If you didn’t know, why would you have come?” Feng Yin replied lightly. “For a thousand years, what has Your Majesty cared about most if not the massacre of Great Marsh Mountain’s entire sect back then?”
“How do you know about Ayin? Why did you use her name to lure this sovereign to Great Marsh Mountain?” Hong Yi’s expression turned serious, his imperial majesty immediately apparent. With a wave of his hand, the Nirvana Wheel, infused with soaring divine power, pointed at Feng Yin, manifesting a sea of flames. “As the sovereign of the Phoenix Clan, what are your true intentions in stirring up the secret conflicts between the two races from a thousand years ago?”
The Demon Emperor atop Great Marsh Mountain exuded authority even without anger, but Feng Yin’s eyes flickered with the image of that simple, stubborn youth from long ago. Her gaze softened, and she suddenly smiled—a smile devoid of the Phoenix Sovereign’s majesty, instead carrying a hint of mischief.
Hong Yi was taken aback, the flames in his palm from the Nirvana Wheel faltering slightly. That glance and smile from Feng Yin felt strangely familiar, yet he and Feng Yin had clearly never met before.
“Many years ago, I saved a little fox in the Nine Nether Purgatory. I wonder… if he still remembers me.” Feng Yin looked at Hong Yi and spoke slowly, her eyes holding a millennium of memories and nostalgia.The demonic flames of the Nirvana Wheel abruptly extinguished, and Hong Yi’s expression shifted dramatically. “You… you are…” He stared at Feng Yin in disbelief. “No, that’s impossible. She was already…”
“Already what? Already reduced to ashes by the Nine Heavens Profound Thunder?” Feng Yin calmly finished his sentence, then said softly under the Demon Emperor’s astonished gaze, “A Jiu, thank you for keeping the promise you made to me in Rakshasa Land a thousand years ago—quelling the strife between our two clans and maintaining peace for a millennium.”
Before Feng Yin’s words had fully settled, Hong Yi rushed over like a blazing flame and pulled her into his embrace.
The young man’s hands trembled slightly as he held her, choking back sobs several times before finally uttering, “Ayin!”
Scenes from a thousand years ago flashed before his eyes. This was the first time Feng Yin had heard someone call her by that name since her rebirth. Suppressing the ache in her heart, she patted Hong Yi’s shoulder to comfort him.
“Alright, alright. You’re already the Demon Emperor now, yet you’re still acting like the little fox you once were,” Feng Yin said with a light laugh.
Hong Yi’s face flushed, and he hastily released her. “Ayin, how did you become the Phoenix Sovereign?”
“I have always been Feng Yin. The Water Condensation Beast Ayin of Great Marsh Mountain was merely a vessel for one of my phoenix souls.” Seeing Hong Yi’s confusion, Feng Yin glanced toward Great Marsh Mountain. “It’s a long story. The valley behind the mountain isn’t sealed by the immortal barrier. Let’s go there to talk in detail.”
When Great Marsh Mountain fell and Yuan Qi ascended to godhood, he sealed the mountain with Primordial Chaos Power. Only the Forbidden Valley behind the mountain remained unsealed by the immortal barrier.
Hong Yi nodded and followed Feng Yin as they flew toward the back of the mountain.
The Forbidden Valley behind Great Marsh Mountain had been untouched for a thousand years. Feng Yin had assumed it would be in ruins, but to her surprise, the valley remained lush with clear waters and swirling Immortal Power. The small bamboo cottage sat quietly within the ethereal landscape, and the phoenix tree in front of it was as vibrant as it had been a thousand years ago.
Feng Yin was momentarily stunned. Concealing the emotions in her eyes, she waved her sleeve, and the dust on the stone table beneath the phoenix tree vanished, replaced by a jug of clear wine and two delicate cups.
“Sit,” she said, treating the place as casually as her own home, just as she had in the past. Hong Yi’s eyes dimmed slightly as he nodded and took a seat.
“You must have heard about what happened on Wutong Phoenix Island over a thousand years ago.”
Hong Yi nodded. “Yes, I heard. Back then, the Phoenix Sovereign’s successor was undergoing Nirvana Rebirth when Gu Jin…” He paused. “Yuan Qi interrupted it, scattering the Three Hun and Seven Po across the Three Realms. Come to think of it, I even helped search for your soul fragments back then.”
“When I descended upon Phoenix Island, Yuan Qi accidentally intruded upon the Ancestral Phoenix Tree and disrupted my Nirvana. Later, my soul fragments scattered among the phoenix trees across the Three Realms, with one of them landing on a dormant Water Condensation Beast in this mountain cave.”
“What about that Water Condensation Beast…?”
“That Water Condensation Beast’s soul was inherently incomplete. Though its body survived, its spirit had long since departed. Yuan Qi used Drunken Jade Dew to nurture its soul, unintentionally awakening my phoenix soul fragment. Unfortunately, it was only one fragment of me. Though I awakened within the Water Condensation Beast, I had no memory of being Feng Yin.”
Hong Yi suddenly understood. “No wonder we searched the Three Realms back then but could never find Feng Yin’s final soul fragment. So Ayin was your last fragment all along.”Feng Yin sighed with emotion, "Indeed, I never imagined that the Feng Yin I went through so much hardship to awaken back then was actually myself. Perhaps it was all destined by fate." She took a sip of wine. "Later, in Rakshasa Land, the Water Condensation Beast's physical form was destroyed by the Nine Heavens Profound Thunder. My phoenix spirit was left with only a wisp of Spiritual Power, drifting aimlessly into the Ghost Realm. I spent a century gathering my Soul in the Ghost Realm and, with the help of His Majesty Xiuyan, reincarnated for a thousand years, continuously tempering my Soul and Spiritual Power. It wasn't until the end of my final life, when I leaped into the Yellow Springs, that I awoke on Wutong Phoenix Island."
The life-and-death calamities of the past and the twists and turns of a thousand years were recounted in just a few sentences by Feng Yin, her expression as detached as if she were an outsider. Hong Yi looked at the Phoenix Sovereign before him and suddenly understood that the little girl who once playfully fought and argued with him over a piece of mung bean cake on Great Marsh Mountain a thousand years ago would never return.
She was Feng Yin, the Phoenix Sovereign of Wutong Phoenix Island, carrying the memories of the Water Condensation Beast Ayin, yet she was no longer her.
A sudden ache welled up in Hong Yi's eyes. Almost frantically, he picked up the wine on the table and drank it in one gulp, hiding the disappointment in his gaze.
"A..." Hong Yi began to call her, then paused, unsure what to call her now.
"Call me A Yin," Feng Yin said. "Before the truth of the past is uncovered, I don't want anyone to know that the Water Condensation Beast Ayin is still alive."
Hearing Feng Yin's words, Hong Yi's expression also turned serious. Recalling the chaos on Great Marsh Mountain back then, a flicker of apology passed through his eyes. "A Yin, back then, I..."
"I know you were infected with Demonic Qi and had no control over yourself. Now that I've returned, I will definitely uncover everything that happened a thousand years ago and seek justice for all of Great Marsh Mountain," Feng Yin said solemnly. "Back then, I didn't have time to ask you, A Jiu, when exactly did the Demonic Qi appear on you? Did it enter your body while you were recuperating on Great Marsh Mountain?"
Hong Yi's expression froze. He remained silent for a moment before speaking haltingly under Feng Yin's gaze. "No, even before you saved me, I had already been tainted with Demonic Qi in the Nine Nether Purgatory. Back then, my father and mother died at the hands of the Immortal Tribe. After my aunt returned to the clan, I left Tranquil Mountain alone but was taken into the Nine Nether Purgatory by that Demon. The Nine Nether Purgatory was filled with bloodthirsty Demonic Beasts. Pursued by them and facing near-certain death, I made a deal with the Demon who brought me there. In exchange for Demonic Power, I allowed Demonic Qi to enter my body."
Forbidden Valley fell silent at Hong Yi's words. Feng Yin's expression grew complicated. She lowered her eyes, concealing the almost dull ache of emotion.
No wonder Hong Yi possessed such formidable Demonic Power even before reaching adulthood back then.
So, the downfall of Great Marsh Mountain was truly her fault.
If she hadn't saved Hong Yi, how could Great Marsh Mountain have suffered such devastation, its legacy of ten thousand years destroyed in an instant?
"I guessed correctly. That Demon was able to come and go freely within the defenses of Great Marsh Mountain's Immortal Formation because it had long been attached to you. And when I saved you in the Nine Nether Purgatory, that was also a trap set up by that Demon in advance, wasn't it?" Feng Yin looked up, her gaze fixed on Hong Yi.
"Yes. As soon as you stepped into the Nine Nether Purgatory, she recognized from Yuan Qi's sword techniques that he was a disciple of Great Marsh Mountain. She sealed my memories, making me forget about the Demonic Qi entering my heart. She commanded Demonic Beasts to attack me and deliberately left me under the phoenix tree, all to ensure you would save me and keep me by your side."Even after a thousand years, the anger in Hong Yi's eyes remained difficult to conceal. "If I hadn't been born as a Ten-Tailed Heavenly Fox, and if Elder Wu Xi hadn't refined and absorbed my aunt's Demon Core to help me ascend to godhood, I would never have escaped the control of that Demon."
"After the battle in Rakshasa Land, I intended to enter the Nine Nether Purgatory to confront that Demon and settle the score. But I never expected that Purple Moon Mountain would be sealed on the very day you died in Rakshasa Land."
"What did you say? Purple Moon Mountain was sealed?" Feng Yin's expression turned astonished. "What about Elder San Huo and Bi Bo?"
No wonder Hong Yi, despite knowing where that Demon came from, had done nothing over these thousand years. So Purple Moon Mountain had actually been sealed.
Purple Moon Mountain was located deep within the Demon Realm. Hong Yi despised the Immortal Tribe to the extreme, and over the years he had suppressed the news, so the outside world remained unaware that Purple Moon Mountain had long been sealed.
"I don't know," Hong Yi shook his head. "Purple Moon Mountain is enveloped by a Divine Power. No one can approach it, and no one can enter. It seems that unless True God Tian Qi returns, no one will ever know what truly happened inside Purple Moon Mountain."
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