Cuddling with the Cold Female Protagonist – Chapter 115

Volume 4: The Perils of the Jianghu

Phoenix Dominates the World

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince!”

The sight of the Crown Prince’s gruesome state made Xue Cong’s heart sink. If the prince died in front of him, the old emperor would surely hold him accountable. With the other priests fanning the flames, would his position as Grand Priest be usurped?

The thought was unbearable. While struggling to fend off Xue Zhining, he began to edge his way toward the prince.

“You dare get distracted while fighting me? You’ve got some nerve,” Xue Zhining said, her anger flaring at the sight. Xue Cong truly didn’t take her seriously. To not give his all was to look down on her.

She poured more power into her arts. Just as Xue Cong reached the wutong tree, the butterfly suddenly swelled to a colossal size, scattering the bared fangs of the fire dragon. The backlash hit Xue Cong, and he spat out a large mouthful of blood, collapsing to one knee.

The blood he coughed up sprayed directly onto the tree trunk. Upon sensing his bloodline, the wutong tree once again extended its branches, binding him tightly and beginning to absorb his blood.

“Ahhhh—!”

Xue Cong’s wretched scream drew everyone’s attention. It even snapped the bewitched Su Yi out of her trance. Seeing herself pressed up against such a sinister tree, she scrambled back several steps in fright.

After absorbing Xue Cong’s blood, the wutong tree grew increasingly transparent, a faint golden halo slowly spreading from its canopy. As Su Yi stared at the translucent tree, a sentence suddenly surfaced in her mind.

“With the blood of my captors, I shall restore my original form.”

Was it because the ancestors of Xue Cong and the Huachen Kingdom’s Crown Prince had moved this tree from its original home, imprisoning it and causing it to slowly lose its power? Was that why the trunk had become so dull and faded? By absorbing Xue Cong’s and the prince’s blood, was it drawing strength for itself and also taking revenge?

Su Yi gazed at the wutong tree, lost in thought. After clearing out all the soldiers before her, Ji Qingchi turned to see Su Yi not only failing to move away from the sinister tree but staring at it as if possessed. She rushed over, intending to grab her and pull her away.

“What are you thinking about? Why aren’t you leaving? This tree is so damn creepy!”

“Wait, I don’t think this tree has any ill intentions toward us…”

How could it not have ill intentions? Didn’t she see the mangled remains of the Crown Prince and Xue Cong on the ground?

Fearing Su Yi would try to argue, Ji Qingchi decided to ignore whatever she said and just carry her away.

Just as she wrapped an arm around Su Yi’s waist, the blood-drained Xue Cong slowly lifted his face.

He looked like a human husk, his face so shriveled his features were indistinguishable. He was barely hanging on by a thread, yet the venomous hatred in his eyes was like a sharp steel needle, aimed straight at them.

“Even… cough cough… even if I die… I’ll drag you down with me!”

With that, he yanked an arm free. The limb had already been reduced to white bone, but that didn’t stop a crimson art from seeping out of it, forming a sharp blade that shot toward them.

“Look out!” Ji Qingchi slashed down with her soft sword¹, but the blade formed by the art showed no signs of dissipating. Left with no choice, Ji Qingchi hugged Su Yi and dodged backward. But the attack was too fast, and it still managed to slice her arm.

Hiss…

Fresh blood splattered onto the nearby wutong tree trunk.

Su Yi quickly turned to check her injury. “Are you okay? Is it bad?”

Ji Qingchi pressed an acupoint to stop the bleeding and shook her head. “I’m fine.”

“Miss Su, Ninth Highness, are you two alright?” The others had rushed over by now. Xue Zhining used an art to bind the barely-breathing Xue Cong, preventing him from causing any more trouble.

“We’re fine.” Ji Qingchi shook her head. She glanced toward Xue Cong to make sure he couldn’t try any more tricks, but as she looked up, she was stunned to see that the wutong tree had undergone another massive transformation.

The blood that had dripped from Ji Qingchi’s arm, along with another small stream of blood, morphed into the shape of phoenix chicks. The two crimson fledglings intertwined as they climbed the trunk of the wutong tree. When they reached the top, they seemed to grant the tree new life. The entire tree suddenly erupted in a brilliant golden light, turning completely gold from its canopy to its roots.

Feng Ruoqing let out a low cry. “Look!”

At the golden canopy, two phoenixes with intertwined necks appeared, singing in unison. They flapped their wings continuously, one on the left and one on the right, calling to each other.

In that instant, it was as if a beautiful melody filled the heavens and the earth. All the flowers in the world bloomed, a hundred birds took flight in unison, and the air filled with a rich floral fragrance.

An enchanting sound continued to emanate from the treetop. The water at the base of the wutong tree suddenly became living water, surging toward the roots before flowing out again.

Everyone stared, dumbfounded. A moment later, Xue Zhining staggered. She could feel the power of her arts slowly draining away, as if it were being drawn from her body.

She slowly looked up and seemed to meet the azure eyes of one of the phoenixes. From its gaze, which looked down upon all creation, she understood the message it was conveying: What was taken must be returned.

The arts of her clan, it was said, were chanced upon by their very first clan leader.

How he obtained them was a mystery, but it was now clear that he must have stolen the power from the phoenixes.

And now, they were demanding its return.

Xue Zhining did not resist. She calmly accepted the draining of her power. But the sudden loss of such a large amount of strength was difficult to adapt to. She stumbled back two more steps, and just as she felt she was about to fall, a hand steadied her from behind.

Xue Zhining turned to see the cold face of Yue Ling.

She offered a faint smile. “My thanks to the Fourth Princess.”

Yue Ling said nothing, but Xue Zhining didn’t mind. She turned back to watch the miraculous scene unfold.

From the moment the two phoenixes—a male Feng and a female Huang—appeared, Su Yi felt a warm energy coursing through her, chasing away the weakness and fatigue in her limbs.

With a mix of complex feelings, Su Yi looked up to see the two birds dancing above her head. They seemed to understand human nature, their gazes filled with a sense of care.

Su Yi felt a little creeped out. Did I really transmigrate into a female-dominant court drama, not some xuanhuan² cultivation novel?

As her mind wandered, the Feng and Huang birds let out a long, clear cry. They circled above her and Ji Qingchi for a long while before finally landing on the golden wutong tree.

A faint golden radiance showered down from the canopy like timely rain after a long drought, nourishing everyone. Then, the light began to spread further and further, from the palace they were in to the entire Huachen Kingdom imperial palace, filling the sky before gradually suffusing the entirety of the Huachen Kingdom and the Dongli Kingdom.

Everyone in this world was bathed in a warm, gentle glow.

Fearing something might happen, Ji Qingchi quickly stepped forward and sheltered Su Yi in her arms. But after standing there for a good while, nothing happened. The faint golden light grew dimmer, and the wutong tree and the phoenixes became faint and translucent, gradually fading away.

After a quarter of an hour, or perhaps half an hour, both the phoenixes and the wutong tree had completely vanished before their eyes.

All that remained in the vast space was a bare, damp patch of land.

“…Where’s the tree? And the two birds?” After a long moment, Feng Ruoqing rubbed her eyes, staring at the scene in disbelief. “Was I seeing things?”

Hua Wuying said, “I saw it too. There’s no way you were the only one hallucinating.”

“I think I’m dreaming,” Su Yi muttered, reaching out to pinch Ji Qingchi. “Does it hurt? Are we dreaming?”

“…We’re not.” Ji Qingchi quickly grabbed the hand that was about to pinch her again. “What we saw was real,” she pleaded, “so please stop pinching.”

“Tsk, I thought Your Highness wasn’t afraid of pain.”

“Usually you don’t have much strength, so it doesn’t hurt that much. But now you’re suddenly so much stronger—”

Ji Qingchi’s words trailed off. She froze, staring intently at Su Yi.

Although Su Yi still looked delicate and weak, she no longer gave off the illusion that she might die after taking a few extra breaths.

“Physician Feng, come quickly!” Realizing something, she rushed over to Feng Ruoqing, dragging her in front of Su Yi. “Quick!” she said, ecstatic. “Check her pulse!”

Startled, Feng Ruoqing thought something was wrong with Su Yi and quickly took her arm to check her pulse.

After a moment of diagnosis, she looked up at Su Yi in disbelief. “How could this be… The poison that even my master couldn’t cure…”

“How is it?” Ji Qingchi asked anxiously.

“The poison in Miss Su’s body has been completely purged. Though her constitution is still weak, she’ll be fine with some nourishment.”

After being sick for so long, to suddenly be told she was fine left Su Yi completely stunned.

“It’s true! It’s really true!” In contrast, Ji Qingchi was overjoyed to hear the news. She swept Su Yi into her arms and spun her around and around. “This is wonderful, just wonderful!”

“Wait, put me down, I’m getting dizzy—”

DANG—DANG—DANG—

The sound of a tolling bell suddenly echoed from outside.

One strike after another, it rang nine times³.

“That’s news from the palace,” Xue Zhining said, having recovered some of her strength, though her face was still pale. “His Majesty has passed away⁴.”

“Grand Priest, Grand Priest, this is terrible!” As her voice fell, two men dressed as priests ran into the palace, crying their hearts out. When they took in the bodies on the ground and the people standing within, they realized their mistake and immediately turned to flee.

Yue Ling, who was closest to the door, quickly caught the two men. She kicked the backs of their knees, forcing them to the ground a few steps away from the dead, unrecognizable body of Xue Cong.

“Your Grand Priest is already dead,” Ji Qingchi said, kicking one of the struggling priests. “Spit it out, what’s so terrible?”

“If you’re talking about the emperor’s death, we already know,” Hua Wuying said with a smile, pointing at the mangled Crown Prince in his blood-soaked, dragon-embroidered white robes. “Not only that, your Crown Prince is dead, too.”

The two men looked over in horror and realized it was true. They wanted to struggle and resist, but Xue Zhining’s arts were far superior to theirs. Now that even she couldn’t use her powers, what chance did they have?

The moment they raised their hands, they were violently suppressed by Yue Ling. “You dare cause trouble in front of everyone? Spit it out!”

Beaten until they had no strength to resist, the two men collapsed on the ground, begging for mercy. “Alright, I’ll talk, I’ll talk, stop hitting us… The Third Prince, the Sixth Prince, and the Seventh Prince… are all dead.”

Xue Zhining frowned. “What happened?”

“Just now, we were chatting with the princes in the imperial garden. Their Highnesses suddenly cried out in unison, as if their life force was instantly drained from them. They aged in a flash, and after rolling on the ground in pain for a moment, they stopped breathing.”

“That’s bizarre,” Su Yi said, peeking her head out. She felt less like she was in a court drama and more like she was in a fantasy novel.

“Grand Priest…” A moment later, two more people dressed as priests ran in frantically. Their sky-shaking wails could be heard before they even entered the doorway. “This is terrible, Grand Priest! The Thirteenth Prince and the Tenth Prince have passed away…”

Yue Ling grabbed them and questioned them. The way these two princes had died was identical to the others.

Over the next period, several more people arrived to report deaths.

Xue Zhining did a quick mental calculation. In just an hour and a half, of the Huachen emperor’s dozen or so sons, only a single infant remained.

“Heaven is truly on my side,” Xue Zhining said with a faint smile. She had been worrying about how to bypass all these princes to put a princess on the throne. Now, the problem had solved itself.

“Your Highness.” At the same time, Ji Qingchi’s shadow guard hurried over and handed her a secret letter.

Ji Qingchi opened it, her expression unreadable.

Su Yi asked curiously, “What is it?”

“See for yourself.” Ji Qingchi handed her the note.

Su Yi took it and read it. It said that a vast number of men in both the Huachen and Dongli Kingdoms had died in an instant. The few who survived were in terrible condition, either rolling on the ground clutching their stomachs or having aged several years in the blink of an eye, as if their vitality had been sucked away.

The letter stated: “The symptoms resemble those of a woman from pregnancy to childbirth.”

Su Yi was suddenly reminded of the reason why women in the Yanxue Kingdom had to marry a fulang⁵.

They needed to draw nourishment from their consorts’ bodies and have them share the pain of childbirth.

It was said to be a metaphysical method created by the founding female emperor of the Yanxue Kingdom.

So how did she create it?

Su Yi thought she understood.

Back then, the wutong tree must have been within the borders of the Yanxue Kingdom. The founding female emperor also had a phoenix’s fate. For some unknown reason, her blood had seeped into the wutong tree, awakening the phoenixes. Relying on the phoenixes’ power, all the women in Yanxue Kingdom were blessed, spared from the suffering of childbirth by having their consorts bear the pain for them.

Although she didn’t know why only Yanxue had been blessed back then while Huachen and Dongli were only affected now, it was undoubtedly a wonderful thing for the women of all three kingdoms.

From now on, they would never have to suffer the pain of pregnancy and childbirth again.

The revival of the phoenixes had given them life and hope.

In a flash, Su Yi remembered the title of the novel she had transmigrated into.

《Nuzun: Phoenix Dominates the World》

The name was a bit cringey, but she had to admit, it hit the nail on the head.

If women still have to suffer oppression in a nuzun⁶ novel, then what kind of nuzun novel is it?

If the female lead has several husbands but is still constrained at every turn, needing men to save her every time she’s in danger, then what kind of nuzun novel is that?

If it’s nuzun, then women should be the ones who are truly favored by the heavens.

Giving birth is a woman’s privilege. Even in a nuzun novel, that right shouldn’t be taken from them.

A nuzun novel isn’t just a gender-swapped version of a male-dominated one.

It’s a world where women are free to live as they please, to spend their youth and energy pursuing fame and fortune, to seize their own destinies.

Having figured this all out, Su Yi felt that she could peacefully accept everything, even after experiencing a heart-pounding, real-life fantasy scene.

Seeing her staring at the letter, lost in a daze, Ji Qingchi thought she was still in shock. She hugged her tighter and waved a hand in front of her face. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Su Yi clutched the secret letter in her palm, leaned into her embrace, looked up, and gave her a kiss. She smiled. “I’m just really happy.”

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