Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 114

Volume 4: The Perils of the Jianghu

But I’m a Great Peng!

The newcomer was none other than Ji Qingchi.

When Su Yi saw her, she asked in astonishment, “How did you know I was here?”

“This place feels… unsettling. Let’s get inside first.”

Gazing at the enormous wutong tree, Ji Qingchi frowned. The moment she saw the giant tree, she felt an irresistible urge to approach it, as if it possessed a magical quality that was calling out to her with a strange sense of familiarity.

Su Yi deeply agreed. Ji Qingchi carried her and carefully entered the palace.

After helping Su Yi sit down, checking her pulse, and meticulously examining her for any injuries, Ji Qingchi finally let out a breath of relief. She pulled her into a tight embrace, her heart hammering wildly. She wished she could brand Su Yi onto her own skin so they would never be separated again. “You scared me to death… I thought…”

“I’m fine, aren’t I?”

The two recounted their experiences. When Su Yi heard that Hua Wuying was now in charge of the Xuanji Tower, she laughed. “Miss Hua really has guts.”

Ji Qingchi wasn’t as optimistic. She said worriedly, “We need to be careful. The priests of the Huachen Kingdom you encountered are incredibly sinister. When I led our troops against them, we ran into a lot of their unnatural creations. Their general was extremely arrogant and told us they were made by their priests. Though we didn’t know what those things were, they were terrifyingly destructive. We lost a lot of soldiers.”

Su Yi understood. These priests must have seen modern warfare through the water mirror and were simply copying what they saw, having the craftsmen of the Huachen Kingdom modify them into weapons.

The ingenuity of the common people was limitless. Once they had a prototype, creating a similar weapon wasn’t difficult at all.

Ji Qingchi ground her teeth, her expression turning vicious. “These damned priests cost us so many lives. This time, we have to wipe them all out at once.”

Su Yi poked her cheek. The person who had just looked ready to tear someone limb from limb instantly smoothed her expression. She took Su Yi’s hand and quickly checked her pulse again. “What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

“No, I was just wondering when Your Highness learned to diagnose pulses during our time apart.”

“I had Doctor Feng teach me. Your constitution is weak; how could the person watching over you not know medicine?” Ji Qingchi sat down beside her, looking at her face with lingering fear, her gaze fixed for a long time. “Besides, it wasn’t a short time. It’s been twenty-one whole days.”

Trapped in the palace, Su Yi had been bored to tears every day with no phone to entertain her. She had almost lost track of how many days she’d been confined, only knowing it had been quite a while.

While she had been eating, drinking, and idling her days away, Ji Qingchi had been frantic. After getting the Emperor’s permission, she had rushed to the Huachen Kingdom without stopping, riding five or six horses to their deaths along the way.

She had been on edge the entire journey. Fearing she would let her imagination run wild, Feng Ruoqing had offered to teach her medicine. Only by focusing on her daily studies could she find some measure of peace.

“Doctor Feng and the others came too?”

“Not just Doctor Feng. We’re here too.”

Before Ji Qingchi could reply, a woman’s teasing voice rang out. Su Yi looked toward the palace entrance and saw not only Feng Ruoqing, but also Hua Wuying and Yue Ling. Even more surprisingly, Xue Zhining was with them.

Su Yi looked at Yue Ling and Xue Zhining in shock. “Weren’t you two captured? How did you get out?”

Yue Ling’s expression was dark. She shot a sideways glance at Xue Zhining. “You’ll have to ask her about that.”

Xue Zhining smiled and gave a slight nod. “Fourth Princess, don’t be offended. My actions were a matter of necessity at the time. Besides, what I made you spit out was coagulated, stagnant blood. It had absolutely no negative effect on your body.”

This priestess, Xue Zhining, was even more cunning than Xue Cong. Not only were her spiritual arts superior to his, but she was also a master of human psychology. Long ago, by telling fortunes for the palace guards and maids or by helping them with money, she had earned the gratitude and trust of many. After they were captured, a guard secretly reported the incident to the old emperor of the Huachen Kingdom.

The High Priest had suddenly arrested a princess of Huachen for no good reason. It was hard for the old emperor not to suspect that the Crown Prince had ordered it. Suspicious, he sent people to check on Yue Ling and the others, at which point Xue Zhining had Yue Ling feign illness.

Seeing that she looked perfectly healthy, Xue Zhining used her arts to manipulate Yue Ling, causing her to break out in a cold sweat, turn deathly pale, and spit up several mouthfuls of blood.

When the old emperor heard this, he was terrified. He summoned the Crown Prince for a harsh scolding. The Crown Prince, feeling wronged, turned around and complained to Xue Cong.

Although the priests of Huachen held more power than the royal family, that was a thing of the past. Xue Cong’s spiritual arts were insufficient; unlike his father, he couldn’t predict celestial phenomena or divine the best times for farming. His reputation among the common folk was terrible, and the other priests looked down on him. While they wouldn’t say anything to his face, they didn’t respect him as they had his father.

As a result, Xue Cong had to rely on the royal family. His father had treated the royals with imperious arrogance, but Xue Cong didn’t dare be so brazen. After being chastised by the Crown Prince, he decided to give him some face and released Xue Zhining and the others.

After listening to Xue Zhining’s unhurried explanation of their escape, Su Yi gave her a thumbs-up. “Miss Xue, you’re truly amazing.”

Hua Wuying smiled. “When you’re in a subordinate position, you learn to be extra vigilant. Ah Ning did well.”

Aside from the serenely smiling Xue Zhining, everyone else looked at her in surprise. “You two know each other?”

“Didn’t I mention I had a friend in the Huachen Kingdom?” Hua Wuying answered with a smile. “When I was injured in the Huachen imperial palace, she was the one who saved me.”

At that time, Xue Zhining was still a priestess. Wandering aimlessly in the woods behind the palace one day, she stumbled upon a critically injured and near-death Hua Wuying.

“After she saved me, we kept in touch through letters.”

Feng Ruoqing was astonished. “Miss Xue knows medicine?”

Ji Qingchi looked at Xue Zhining warily. “It’s said that shamans and doctors are one and the same. Since she’s a priestess, it’s not strange for her to know these things.”

Xue Zhining didn’t argue about being a priestess, not a shaman. She looked at Ji Qingchi with great interest. “Young lady, your features speak of great fortune. Your body is wreathed in a purple aura, and there’s even the faint, thunderous might of a phoenix… A moment ago, when I asked for your name, you wouldn’t give it. Let me take a guess now. Might I ask if you are the Ninth Imperial Daughter of the Yanxue Kingdom?”

Her identity exposed, Ji Qingchi didn’t bother to hide it. “I am.”

“With Your Highness here, things will be much easier.” Xue Zhining clapped her hands with a smile. “Has Your Highness ever heard of the Phoenix Fate?”

Ji Qingchi said, “I’ve heard whispers of it.”

While leading troops, she had heard rumors on the frontier about a “phoenix emerging to stabilize the world,” and that following the one with the Phoenix Fate would guarantee a life free from want.

“It seems Your Highness has only heard the trivial parts. It’s much more than that. The legend says that the one with the Phoenix Fate will unite the world.”

She chuckled softly. “Which is to say, they will merge the three kingdoms into one.”

To be able to annex other nations was a dream countless people yearned for.

Ji Qingchi raised an eyebrow. “It’s just a rumor. Not worth taking seriously.”

“It’s more than just a rumor. Everyone, please follow me.”

Xue Zhining pushed the door open and went outside. The others exchanged glances and followed her.

Xue Zhining walked to the giant wutong tree and placed her hand on its trunk. A golden light flowed from her palm into the wood.

A moment later, the light slowly transformed into an image: a phoenix circling in the highest heavens. It held its head high, looking down on all creation as flames blazed around it. Beneath its powerful, mighty talons was a sea of fire, and under that sea was a map.

Looking closely, they realized it was a map of the Yanxue, Huachen, and Dongli Kingdoms.

Yue Ling was stunned. “This is…”

“About twenty years ago, this image suddenly appeared on the trunk of the wutong tree. After a divination, the High Priest of that time believed that a woman with the Phoenix Fate would appear and unite the world. After more than a decade of effort, our clan’s priests finally divined that this woman… is Your Highness.”

The High Priest at that time was Xue Cong’s father. Upon foreseeing this, the first thing he did was perform a divination for his newborn son. He was overjoyed to foresee his son wreathed in a purple aura. The meaning was clear: his son was destined to be the husband of the woman with the Phoenix Fate.

The Huachen Kingdom was merely a mid-sized nation. How could it compare to the allure of being the master of the world? And how could being a priest in Huachen compare to being by the side of an emperor who had united the lands?

Moreover, how long could a woman remain an emperor? With a bit of planning, couldn’t the throne be transferred from the woman’s hands to his son’s?

After Xue Zhining finished her explanation, Hua Wuying commented with a placid smile, “He died young, but his ambitions certainly weren’t small.”

“Died young but knew how to dream, more like,” Yue Ling snorted in disdain. “That sort of bastard dared to covet the emperor’s throne? Truly overestimating himself.”

Ji Qingchi, however, said nothing, silently studying the image as she mulled something over.

Su Yi remembered her dream and the illusion of Xue Cong she had seen. “Why did that Xue Cong call me a harbinger of world-ending disaster the moment he saw me?”

Xue Zhining waved her hand, and another image quickly appeared on the tree trunk: it was still the same phoenix, but this time it had lost its divine spirit. Its head was drooping as it cried out in sorrow toward the distant clouds. Its beak and the grass beneath its talons were spattered with blood. And beside it was a long-dead… thing, shrouded in mist, that looked like a cloud-sparrow.

Su Yi stared for a long time before pointing at the dead bird. “Don’t tell me I’m this bird?”

“According to the old High Priest’s prophecy, yes.” Xue Zhining spread her hands and smiled. “Since the phoenix is a woman, this cloud-sparrow must also be a woman. They believe it is this cloud-sparrow who causes the phoenix to end up in such a state. So, for the phoenix to achieve her destiny of uniting the world, the woman who is the cloud-sparrow’s incarnation must be killed.”

Su Yi used to think the saying, “How can a sparrow know the aspirations of a swan?” was a bit of an exaggeration. Now, she felt it was an even bigger exaggeration.

How was it that Ji Qingchi was a phoenix, while she was just a cloud-sparrow? What kind of ridiculous prophecy was this? Was it even discriminating against people?!

Su Yi was indignant. “I think I should be a Great Peng¹!”

As she spoke, she made a “Great Peng spreading its wings” gesture.

Miraculously, as soon as she finished speaking, the mist shrouding the “cloud-sparrow” dissipated, revealing its true form.

It turned out to be another phoenix, just slightly smaller and curled up, which was why it had looked like a cloud-sparrow when shrouded in the obscuring mist.

“Ah, this…” Su Yi offered an awkward yet polite smile and looked at Xue Zhining. “So, uh, is this diagram of yours… voice-activated?”

Xue Zhining’s smile vanished. She carefully examined the image twice, and after confirming that it had genuinely changed, her expression grew grave. “When this diagram was discovered, it was already shrouded in mist. The previous High Priest, fearing the secret would be leaked, specifically used his arts to conceal both this image and the first one. Only those in the clan with powerful spiritual arts could reveal their true forms.”

She didn’t believe Su Yi could change the diagram with a single sentence. There had to be another reason.

But what that reason was, she couldn’t know for now. Perhaps… she would never know.

Yue Ling said thoughtfully, “Since the image has changed, the prophecy should change as well, right?”

Ji Qingchi had never believed in prophecies or divinations. She sneered, “It’s just a picture, yet you people can spin so many stories from it. You folks from Huachen really have too much time on your hands.”

Before Xue Zhining could respond, she added, “Let’s drop this useless talk. The urgent matter is how to get out of here.”

That hit the nail on the head. Su Yi said, “I forgot to ask earlier, how did you get in?”

Xue Zhining nodded slightly. “I sent a message to Her Highness, telling her how to avoid the guards and slip into the palace.”

After Ji Qingchi’s group had rushed to the imperial palace, Hua Wuying had sent a signal to Xue Zhining. Only then did Xue Zhining guide them in. Once they rendezvoused, Xue Zhining told her Su Yi’s location, which was how she had been able to find her so quickly.

Ji Qingchi said, “Since you could get us in, you must have a way to get us out.”

“Now that the Ninth Imperial Daughter is here, why would you want to leave?”

Just as Ji Qingchi finished speaking, a man’s light chuckle echoed through the grand hall.

The group immediately went on alert, their gazes snapping to the palace entrance—

Xue Cong, dressed in lotus-white robes, stood smiling at the doorway. Beside him was the Crown Prince of Huachen, and behind them stood soldiers in modern military uniforms.

“And here I was, wondering why the Huachen imperial palace was so easy to infiltrate.” Ji Qingchi assumed a combat stance, shielding Su Yi behind her, and sneered, “So, you were lying in wait.”

Yue Ling grabbed Xue Zhining’s arm, twisted it behind her back, and glared. “Are you in league with them?! Was this whole thing a trick to lure us all here?!”

Xue Zhining tilted her head, seemingly unfazed by the pain of her twisted arm. She met Yue Ling’s gaze calmly and said with a smile, “If I said I wasn’t, would the Fourth Princess believe me?”

“Princess of Huachen, you mustn’t accidentally harm Zhining. It truly wasn’t her doing; she was simply outmatched. She is, after all, our future Crown Princess Consort. It would be a shame if she were injured.”

Xue Cong spoke with a smile, his eyes fixed on Ji Qingchi with a crazed and obsessive gleam—the hunger for power that was almost within his grasp. “Your Highness, the Ninth Imperial Daughter, we finally meet.”

The Crown Prince, standing beside him, looked at Su Yi and hesitated. “High Priest, isn’t the Ninth Imperial Daughter acquainted with the fairy maiden? Since they know each other, she can’t be a harbinger of disaster. Why don’t you… just let her go?”

Xue Cong’s gaze remained locked on Ji Qingchi. “Your Highness the Crown Prince, you must be joking. It is precisely because of her that the phoenix can be born!”

With that, he commanded the soldiers behind him, “Seize them.”

He looked at Su Yi, his expression wild as he laughed. “Let us witness how a phoenix achieves nirvana!”

The way he looked at her was as if he were looking at a cold corpse.

A chill slowly rose from the bottom of Su Yi’s heart. She finally understood why the damn pervert Xue Cong hadn’t touched her all this time. He was deliberately luring Ji Qingchi here to rescue her, just so he could kill her right in front of Ji Qingchi.

She didn’t know the exact meaning of the second diagram, but she guessed that in the eyes of these Huachen priests, they had to personally kill the “cloud-sparrow” woman in front of the one with the Phoenix Fate for her to fulfill her destiny.

In other words, she had to die in front of Ji Qingchi.

Su Yi quickly hugged herself tight. “You want me to die? In your dreams! I think I’ll be witnessing how you die first!”

As she stretched her neck out to yell, Ji Qingchi and Yue Ling shot forward like arrows loosed from a bow, clashing with the soldiers. Hua Wuying protected them from the front, Feng Ruoqing brandished her poisons to block the left, and Xue Zhining, rubbing her arm, shielded Su Yi’s right.

Su Yi was huddled in the middle like a little chick. The soldiers couldn’t get near her. After a long fight, seeing many of his personal soldiers being struck down by Ji Qingchi and Yue Ling, Xue Cong’s eyes turned crimson. “You’re courting death!”

He stretched out his hand, and a fire art flowed in his palm. In moments, it coalesced into the form of a fire dragon, which roared as it charged toward them.

“Be careful,” Xue Zhining said. She, too, summoned her arts. A gracefully dancing butterfly flapped its wings, slowly growing to the same size as the fire dragon, and met it head-on.

Every one of the fire dragon’s roars was shattered by the flapping of the butterfly’s wings.

Xue Zhining’s mastery was a level higher than Xue Cong’s. She had deliberately hidden her true strength before, but now, going all out, Xue Cong gradually felt his stamina failing. Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead. His peripheral vision caught the stunned Crown Prince, and he yelled, “Your Highness, go kill that woman!”

The Crown Prince glanced hesitantly at Su Yi, then at the soldiers dead on the ground. Gritting his teeth, he picked up a sword from the floor and walked toward her.

Everyone else was tied down, leaving a large opening in front of Su Yi. The Crown Prince quickly reached her. Su Yi wanted to run, but the chaos around her left no path of retreat. She could only watch as the sword-wielding Crown Prince got closer and closer. She secretly reached for the glass bottle containing the Gu King with one hand, while feigning pitifulness with the other. “Your Highness the Crown Prince… we have no grudges, old or new. Why must you do this to a weak woman like me?”

“Fairy Maiden, This Prince is also being forced.” The Crown Prince wore a look of profound anguish. “This Prince likes you very much, but the High Priest says you are a scourge. This Prince will one day be the emperor of Huachen, and This Prince cannot allow anyone to threaten the kingdom. My apologies…”

As he spoke, he pushed the sword forward with a look of inner turmoil. The delay was enough for Su Yi to pull out the Gu King. She uncorked the bottle, and the Gu King leaped out joyfully, landing directly on the Crown Prince’s face.

The Gu King was venomous all over. It was a disaster for it to land on bare skin. With a few sizzling sounds, the Crown Prince dropped his sword and clawed at his face in agony. “Aaaah! My face! It hurts! It hurts! Get off! Get away!”

But it didn’t help at all. The skin on his hands that touched the Gu King was also corroded, and soon his face and hands were a bloody, mangled mess.

“Aaaah!” The Crown Prince shrieked in pain, stumbling away as he tried to get the Gu King off his face. Su Yi was terrified and scrambled back. He didn’t get more than a few steps before he crashed into the wutong tree. BANG! It was a heavy sound that looked painful.

Su Yi retreated several steps, watching the Crown Prince go mad. Just as she was hesitating whether to recall the Gu King, the wutong tree, which the Crown Prince had struck, suddenly extended dozens of roots. They wrapped tightly around him, and amid his tortured screams, the color of the wutong trunk slowly shifted from a withered yellow to a golden yellow.

Then, the surface of the trunk, like a clay-coated piece of porcelain, began to peel away inch by inch, revealing its true form within.

A nearly transparent wutong tree quietly stretched out its branches and leaves.

Watching the tree, Su Yi felt as if she were bewitched and slowly moved closer to it.

Her hand unconsciously touched the trunk, and a warm power began to seep from her palm, spreading throughout her entire body.

She felt the illness in her body, like a light feather, slowly float away.

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