Chapter 278: Meeting in the Night Sky
The icy lake water struck his face like countless sharp knives.
He didn’t know how much time had passed. Chen Changsheng finally woke up and tried to open his eyes, but the onrushing lake water made them sting unbearably, so he had to close them again. He had no idea what was happening now, only that he was being propelled through the lake water at an unimaginable speed, and from the sensation in his hand, he confirmed that the yellow paper umbrella had saved his life.
The yellow paper umbrella was an inanimate object—how could it act on its own? To him, this was an extremely difficult question to understand. A faint sword intent coming from somewhere ahead gave him a vague guess, but he still couldn’t connect that sword intent to the yellow paper umbrella. That sword intent should belong to the legendary Sword Pool, which had vanished from the Garden of Zhou for centuries, while the yellow paper umbrella was a new creation made by the Tang family of Wenshui at the request of the former junior master of Li Mountain, Su Li. There was an age gap between them; logically, there should be no connection at all.
After another stretch of time, he grew a bit more lucid. Struggling to adjust his position, he squinted his eyes open a crack and saw the pair of light wings not far behind him. He realized the danger hadn’t passed. At the same time, the invisible injuries inside his body began to clearly transmit their pain into his consciousness, pushing him to the brink of agony.
The yellow paper umbrella spun rapidly ahead, like the propeller used by the people of Daxizhou to build great ships, dragging him forward at high speed. The dark, icy lake water relentlessly battered his body, bringing even more suffering. How long would this rushing continue? Where was the yellow paper umbrella taking him?
Suddenly, he realized the lake water had vanished, and many sounds poured into his ears.
There was the sound of water splitting, the chirping of insects in the grass by the lakeshore, and a clear yet somewhat fierce cry that seemed to come from far away—yet why did it feel so close, as if right beside his ear?
Was this dark curtain before his eyes the true lakebed? No, it was the night sky. The reason it was so dark was that there were no stars in the Garden of Zhou.
This was a small lake about a dozen li ahead of Mu Valley.
Tonight, this small lake had witnessed the bloody, fiery battle at the peak, heard the phoenix’s cry, been illuminated by fire wings, and now heard the sparrow’s shriek. Just as it tried to calm down, it was shattered once more.
The yellow paper umbrella spun, carrying Chen Changsheng as it burst out of the lake.
Lake water cascaded off the umbrella and his body, splashing in all directions, forming a falling curtain of water.
Chen Changsheng came to his senses, knowing he had finally escaped the eerie, terrifying lake water and returned to the world above the lake—though he wasn’t sure if he was still in the Garden of Zhou or back at the Cold Pool.
The next moment, he found himself in the night sky. The small lake below him had turned into a mirror, at least several dozen zhang beneath his feet.
Suddenly, going from the depths of the lake to the heights of the night sky would leave anyone stunned and disoriented.
Just then, the lake water split open again. The pair of light wings turned into streaks of light, chasing him from below. Their tips converged into a sharp spike, striking heavily against his chest and abdomen.
A dull thud.
Chen Changsheng’s blood surged, nearly making him vomit. He forced it down, but that didn’t mean he was unharmed.
Already gravely wounded, this heavy blow left him unable to hold on any longer.
Gripping the yellow paper umbrella, he was like a broken kite, drifting feebly higher into the night sky.
When he reached the highest point and then fell back to the ground, would that be his death?
Thinking these thoughts, he lost consciousness again. In the last moment before he blacked out, he suddenly felt the night sky grow brighter.
It wasn’t the illusion of dying; the night sky was truly being illuminated.
What lit up the night sky was a pair of fire wings.
Not the light wings of the two women chasing him, but… a pair of fire wings.
Those fire wings spread wide in the night sky, enormous, radiating warm and holy flames.
And so, the girl within those fire wings seemed somewhat petite.
The fire wings tore through the night sky, arriving just as Chen Changsheng was about to fall to his death. They caught him, then continued flying into the distant sky.
The two women who had been chasing Chen Changsheng felt an inexplicable, intense fear. Their light wings fluttered rapidly as they retreated backward. Then, recalling the sparrow’s shriek they had heard in the lake water earlier, their fear grew even stronger. Without a second thought, they flew at an unimaginable speed toward the source of that cry, almost burning their own life force in the process.
Nanke leaped from the cliff’s edge, falling like a stone, faster and faster. The howling wind tousled her hair but couldn’t blow away the indifference in her eyes. As for the ground rushing closer and death looming, they meant nothing to her, because she saw clearly that her two maidservants were already waiting at the base of the cliff before Mu Valley.
Silently, the two women caught Nanke’s small body. In an instant, they transformed into a blur of light, melting into the light wings, like a wisp of cloud dissolving into the clear sky. The bright light wings that had been chasing Chen Changsheng earlier suddenly took on color, their edges tinged with an eerie green, as if shifting from spiritual forms into solid ones.
Green wings slowly flapped behind Nanke. She gazed coldly into the distant night sky. Once she confirmed the direction of the fire wing that had become a mere speck of light, she didn’t hesitate to beat her wings and pursue it. The several-zhang-long green wings stirred up two gales before the cliff, and a terrifying roar of tearing air echoed through the night before she vanished.
The innate bloodlines of humans or demons, which resembled the transformations of the demon race, were actually quite different. The awakening of an innate bloodline generally went through four stages. The initial awakening lay in the bloodline itself; the second awakening was the awakening of the soul. In simpler terms, after this awakening, the cultivator and their innate bloodline became one, inseparable, truly understanding what they were.
After two full days and nights without rest, ultimately unable to defeat the combined forces of Nanke and the old man playing the zither, Xu Yourong had calmly walked into the abyss of despair. In the face of death’s great terror, she had successfully completed her second awakening. The phoenix soul deep within her body had awakened. Her bloodline merged with her body, and with a thought, fire wings spread across the night sky.
But this didn’t mean she suddenly gained the power to incinerate the entire world. She was still gravely wounded, and Nanke’s venomous blood continued to ravage her body, blurring her vision. So she didn’t fly back to the cliff top to settle the score with Nanke. Instead, she flew into the distant night sky. What she needed most now was healing and preening her feathers.
Yet she hadn’t expected that, just a few moments after leaving Mu Valley, she would encounter another battle at this seemingly calm small lake over a dozen li away. She only glanced at it and knew that the two figures bursting out of the lake, connected by their bodies and bearing light wings on their backs, were the infamous Nanke’s Twin Wings. So who was it that they were chasing?
(Next chapter before 8:30.)