*.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*

CHAPTER 21: Hunt Commission

The chilling murder in that person's eyes were just too terrifying.....

Just one glance had made his heart falter and caused him to lose the strength in both legs. That gaze, that desire for slaughter, he had not ever seen them even from his Elder brother..... never had he been so terrified!

Who would have believed it! ? A dignified Master of Martial Arts frightened witless and running away from a kid who possessed not a sliver of mystical powers?

But that was exactly it! He knew for sure that if he did not run at that moment, they would not live!

When she saw the middle aged man forcibly dragging the young girl to run away, Feng Jiu was feeling a little puzzled. [Didn't he say that she would not be a match for him? Why was he running away? She had thought that after she dealt with the guards, she would be able to have another match with him!]

The dagger in her hand drew an arc, which sliced the last man's throat. The blood gushed out from the wound and that man fell in a heap on the ground.

Looking at the more than ten bodies on the ground, her eyes were expressionless, without the slightest pity showing.

She had always lived by the rule of "you do not offend me, I do not offend you", hence, for people who seeked to take her life, she would not show mercy in the slightest.

She retrieved the Cosmos Sack from the young man's hip, but found that she could not open it. Thinking about it a while, she seemed to remember that something like this needed a person to possess mystical powers before it can be opened. Since she possessed none, she would naturally not be able to do it.

But she found a few sticks of burning embers from the bodies of the guards and she stuffed them into her clothes together with the Cosmos Sack before she suddenly recalled that she had carelessly forgotten about one person.

"Where is that uncle? Don't tell me he left again?" She glanced around at the surroundings and shouted out a few times: "Uncle? Unnnncle?" as she walked further forward, but she only found the area filled with the carcasses of the ferocious beasts.

"Meat....." She eyes lit up as she surveyed the carcasses on the ground, almost salivating, and all that she thought of at that moment, was the image of well roasted, aromatic, fragrant and juicy meat.

She rubbed her tummy and gulped on her saliva. Immediately taking out her dagger, she cut off a whole hind leg and carried it off in search for a good place to enjoy her roast meat.

It was almost two hours later that the middle aged man and the young girl who had left earlier returned to the spot.

"Big Brother!"

The young girl ran forward and hugged her brother's body as she wept in grief. "How am I going to tell Father that you're dead when we get back? Big Brother, how can you die like this..... Hoo..... Hoo....."

When he saw the clan's carefully selected eighteen guards were all dead, and even his nephew had lost his life here, the middle aged man's eyes were filled with indescribable grief. One of his hands was tightly clenched into a fist, while the other injured hand just hung limply unable to exert any strength at all.

"Ying Rou, carry your brother's body back and give him a proper burial. We will definitely avenge ourselves for what happened this day!"

The young girl wiped at her face and said in between sobs: "Second Uncle, that little beggar is here in the Nine Entrapment Woods. If we leave now, how are we going to seek revenge? Once we get out of this woods, we won't even know where to start finding him!"

"No, there is no need for us to do it ourselves. When we get back, I will go to the Mercenaries' Guild and commission a hunt for the little beggar and someone will definitely pluck the head of him!"

His voice was low and grim as he said it, his eyes lowered. He was looking at his own lifeless hand and as the desire to kill grew, he however knew that he was not the little beggar's match!

Hearing those words, the young girl wiped at her tears once more and carried her brother's body on her back. That was when she discovered that the Cosmos Sack at her brother's hip was missing and she said: "Second Uncle, that person has even taken my brother's Cosmos Sack!"

"That's even better! We have many ways of finding him!"

His eyes took on a vicious gleam as he stared into the deep recesses of the woods' inner reaches. Although their trip here had been for the mythical beasts, but it was obvious at that moment, they were not in good enough shape to venture any further into the woods.

As for that little kid, he swore, he would make that kid's life a living hell!

CHAPTER 22: Leading Energies into the Body!

In another part of the Nine Entrapment Woods, Feng Jiu who had had her fill of fragrant roasted meat had however not proceeded further in.

She was seated under a tree deep in thought. Although the poison in her had already been purged, and her life was safe for now, if she left the Nine Entrapment Woods just like that and returned back to the Feng household, she was thinking it would be hard for the members of the Feng Family to believe that she was the real Feng Qing Ge.

Even though she was Feng Qing Ge, with the exception of that Su Ruo Yun and herself, who would believe that she was the genuine article? As compared to a person who had been disfigured, the Feng Qing Ge with her unparalleled beauty currently in the Feng household would be the one that all of them would rather believe to be real.

She was guessing that if she were to boldly go up to the doors of the Feng Family and proclaim that she was Feng Qing Ge and that Su Ruo Yun was the imposter, it was highly probable that she would not even make it past the main doors of the Feng Family and would even be beaten to death right there and then.

There was another thing. That Su Ruo Yun was no simpleton either! Without an infallible plan, there was no way she would be able to return to the Feng Family.

"Haiz! This body's previous owner had really left her in a unbelievable pickle." She clasped her hands together behind her head and laid back to lean against the tree and looked up into the sky above.

"That's right! I should make use of this chance to lead the energy into my body once more!" Her eyes lit up as she mumbled to herself: "Although I do not know the methodology of how I am to induce the energies to enter the body, but it's right there in the memories in my brain right! ?"

When that realisation came to her mind, she suddenly felt really excited about it. The people in this world cultivated Immortality. No doubt, more people cultivated Mystical energies as on average, only one or two people in a hundred were able to cultivate Mystical energies, but for Spirit energies cultivation, it was said that the chances were only one or two in ten thousand people.

The difference between Mystical energy cultivation and Spirit energy cultivation was that Mystical energy cultivation was the training of the material body while Spirit energy cultivation was on the Immortal body.

Immortals, ride the clouds and stand on air, summoned the rain and controlled the wind, moved the mountains and overturned the seas, all with a snap of their fingers.

But as people who were able to cultivate Spirit energies were extremely few and rare, and the fact that examiners for Spirit energy cultivators would not exist in a ninth grade small country like the Sun Glory Country, hence, regardless whether they were from aristocratic families or even members of royalty, they were usually just tested as Mystical energy cultivation and they would begin their cultivation from there.

Unless they were extremely highly gifted, and they had a chance to come out of the Sun Glory Country and go to another small country that was seventh grade and above, they might be able to test themselves for Spirit energy cultivation. And from the memories in her mind, she knew that in the entire Sun Glory Country, the number of people who had been able to cultivate Spirit energy came to a grand total of only three.

But the three people who cultivated Immortality that she remembered from the memories had already left the Sun Glory Country for many years and even then, their families in this Sun Glory Country still held a high standing that was unshakable.

Following her heart's desires, she immediately set to it.

In an instant, she sat with her legs crossed in the lotus position, closed her eyes and followed the cultivation rhyme in her head to lead the energies into her body.....

But, the mind's imaginations always painted a beautiful picture, but reality was instead cruel.

When she purged her mind of all distracting thoughts and emptied her consciousness, reciting the rhyme for cultivation silently to attempt to lead the energies into her body for almost half a day, she had due to having her eyes closed and having cleared her mind of all thoughts while sitting still for such a long time, carelessly fallen asleep.....

"Howl!"

From deep in the woods, a howl from a beast rang out and woke her up.

"Huh?"

Opening her still sleep filled eyes, she gave a long big yawn, her entire being still languid with sleep. When she realised that she had fallen asleep while meditating to lead energies into her body, she shook her head helplessly and laughed to herself. "Not thinking of a darned thing and having my eyes closed, it's really too hard not to doze off!"

Massaging her neck, she stood up to limber up her legs and as she had just woken up from a nap, her entire person was feeling a whole lot more refreshed. Hence, she sat down once again under the tree in a lotus position. Having had prior experience, this time she remained vigilant with her consciousness, and recited again the rhyme for cultivation.

As time gradually passed, about four hours later, at the edges all around her body, the dim presence of mystical power shimmered faintly.....

CHAPTER 23: Reflection in the water

Feng Jiu slowly opened her eyes, the corners of her mouth curled up slightly, revealing a satisfied smile.

Her attempt at drawing energies into her body could be considered to have been successful and it took a little less time than she would have thought. When she recalled that she had the Cosmos Sack, she immediately took it out from her inside her clothes and injected her mystical powers into it before opening it.

"Woohoo! That's quite a load in there!"

The Cosmos Sack's capacity wasn't that voluminous but they had stored quite a load of things in it. She gave the things a quick glance over and subsequently removed the herbs and the gold ingots from her makeshift bundle to stuff them into the Cosmos Sack before tying the sack securely to her hip.

She saw that she had some of the roast meat leftover and she proceeded to stuff it in as well before going further into the woods to look for a water source to clean the wound on her face.

The mud on her face was not just something she had carelessly smeared on but she had carefully mixed ground's core water and ground's core earth together as a mud pack to apply it onto the wound. One of its advantages was that the cooling ground's core water would reduce any inflammation and secondly, the mud would cover up the wound on her face so as to not let her be so easily recognizable.

The mud had been on her face for days and she needed to wash it off, so the most important thing to do at that moment was to locate a water source.

The most direct way to determine the location of a source of water was to do it through studying the density of the trees and vegetation in the woods.

She did not immediately proceed straight deeper into the inner reaches but followed a path based on the density of leaves in the trees and thickness of the vegetation on the ground. It was around four hours later before she found a water source.

It was a flowing stream, located on the lower parts of a sloping hill, and the leaves on the trees on both sides of the bank were seen to be denser.

"Whew! It sure was tough trying to find water in these woods."

She let out a big breath of relief and her steps were light as she came to the side of the stream. She squatted down and scooped up a handful of water by cupping her hands together to drink before opening up the Cosmos Sack to take out a tube of bamboo. She filled up the bamboo tube and kept it away for future use.

She then removed her shoes to soak her feet and she soon felt her weariness flow out of her with the running water down the stream. Resting a little while after soaking her feet hearing the tinkle of the water running over little rocks, she then started to carefully wash off the mud from her face, slowly cleaning out the wound bit by bit, to free it from any residue of the mud.

Until, the water reflected the image of a horrible looking face, badly disfigured by multiple slashes from a sharp blade.

Staring at that face in the water, she eyes filled up with a chill. This body she was in now was supposed to be exactly the same as the body she possessed in the twenty first century and her face had not changed as well. But the very face that she had been so used to seeing for over twenty years had been disfigured to its current terrifying state and as that thought came into her mind, the bloodthirstiness lying dormant in her heart began to stir.

"Su Rou Yun, Su Rou Yun, you better keep yourself alive and well....."

She mumbled to herself in a low voice, the smile that blossomed, lifting up the corners of her lips, was tinged with a spine tingling chill.

Taking out the herbs she had picked along the way from the Cosmos Sack, she mixed them in together with a couple of stems of magical herbs by mashing them before applying the juice from the mixture onto her face. The thick scabs that had formed on the wounds inflicted upon her face had come off together with the mud she had washed out earlier, but the ghastly streaks left behind from the knife wounds would not disappear.

Every single scar left behind by the knife wounds were shown up by their dark pinkish streaks criss crossing her face after the scabs came off. Compared to when they were still scabbing, she did not look as horrifying..... or at least, she would just be considered to be hideous now.

After applying the juice from the herbal mix, she waited for it to dry up a little before bending over the water to look. The crystal clear water showed her a face that had unidentifiable features, and as the reflection showed up a little greenish, she found it to look a little strange.

She continued to stare and her brow suddenly lifted. The crystal clear running water was suddenly clouded with a bloody shade of red.

She lifted her eyes and looked upstream. She paused a moment in thought before she got up and lifted her foot to follow the stream upwards.

It was roughly about half a stick of incense time before her steps stopped, and her gaze fell upon a clump of weeds by the stream.....

CHAPTER 24: Encounter! Wolf Pack!

A man was slumped there.

To be more accurate, it was not known whether he had fainted or was dead. His entire upper body was sprawled within the running stream and as he was lying face down, his face could not be seen. But judging from the quality of the light brown clothes on his body, his family must have been quite well to do.

The clothes around his abdominal region was a ghastly red and his head was bleeding as well. Although he was lying face down in the stream water, he was lucky as where he was sprawled over, there was a slightly larger piece of rock bulging out slightly higher than the water's surface, which kept his face from being submerged under water. If not, even if he did not die from loss of blood, it was thought he would have drowned.

It was because his body was lying in the stream that the blood flowing out from his head and abdomen had naturally followed the water and flowed downstream.

She walked over and flipped the man over. She then reached out her hand to check for any signs of breathing under his nose. She found that he was still breathing and dragged the man onto the grass beside the stream.

She examined his wounds and she took out a tiny bottle from the Cosmos Sack. She sprinkled some of the blood clotting astringent on his head wound before undoing his clothes to sprinkle the medicine on his abdominal wound as well. Next, she took a piece of clothing out from the Cosmos Sack and tore it up into looking strips to bandage up the man's wounds.

"You must be really blessed to have met me."

Looking at the unconscious man, she gave a light and easy laugh, and then felt a little surprised at herself as her brow lifted where she mumbled to herself: "When did I become so nice?"

In order to not let the scent of blood draw in any beasts, she removed the blood stained clothes from the man and threw them into the water, letting it be carried down together with the stream. She then took another piece of clothing out from the Cosmos Sack and covered the man's body with it.

Seeing that it was getting rather late and there was a ready supply of fresh water, she picked up some twigs and small branches to start a fire, intending to spend the night here.

She had thought that by being near the water, she might be able to get some fish. But after squatting beside it for a long while, she did not even manage to spot a single fish swim by and she sighed in disappointment: "Clear waters do not have fish, seems like there is some truth to that!"

She had no choice but to reheat the leftover roast meat and tore off a piece to eat. After filling up her stomach, she sat cross legged in the lotus position and began cultivating once more.

She was only drawing the energies into her body now. Beginners in the warrior phase start from all the way from zero. But she could sense some minute changes in her body after cultivating the mystical energy and since she had been able to feel the tangible advantages, she became highly motivated in carrying out her cultivation.

She carried on with her cultivation for several long hours. It was not until she felt that the mystical energy that had been drawn into her body was breaching into the warrior phase's second grade's initial mystical boundaries that she finally blew out a long breath of relief and opened her eyes.

The sky had turned dark and the air in the woods was getting rather chilly. Fortunately she had been able to draw some warmth from the fire before her and the mystical energy in her body could be diverted to drive out the chill.

She turned to look at the man at the side. Seeing that the curled up figure seemed to be shivering, she reached out a hand to check and she found that inflammation of his wounds had caused his body to be running a fever.

She thought about it for awhile and she dug through the Cosmos Sack. She finally took out another small bottle and poured out a pill into her palm to sniff at it. After ascertaining the medicine's prescribed use and effects, she pulled down the man's lower jaw and stuffed the pill into his mouth before pouring in some water for him to swallow together with the pill.

She threw a few more branches into the fire and the flame burned a little stronger. But at that moment, the sounds that reached her ears from within the woods made her body froze, where she tensed up and felt a feeling of dread.

"Howl!"

"Howl!"

"Hooowl....."

"Wolves?"

She stood up in an instant. Hearing the howl of wolves that sounded especially chilling in the deep of night coming in from far and near, every single howl reverberating in the trees.

Wolves are ferocious beasts that forms packs. When they appear, they would most definitely appear in a group!

CHAPTER 25: Alone against a Pack of Wolves!

She wanted to slip away quickly before the pack of wolves reached here. However, at that moment, from among the masses of weeds, pair after pair of dark green eyes shone and they began to multiply.....

"Looks like it's too late to go."

Her brows creased together as her gaze glanced over to the pack of wolves surrounding her. She took one quick look at the unconscious man behind her and she felt that she really had a knack for seeking out trouble for herself.

Facing the pack of wolves, she thought to herself that it would be fine if she was alone, but with an unconscious man behind her, this could be rather troublesome.

"Howl!"

A long howl sounded, sounding as if it was giving out a command. The previously slowly approaching pack of wolves as they surrounded her suddenly leapt to come right at her.

As the stream was running down a sloping ground, she had dragged the man out of the stream and left him below a slight outcropping that jutted out from the sloping ground. At that moment, the steep slope behind her turned out to become a form of defence for her back and she need not worry that wolves would attack her from behind, nor would she need to worry about being unable to look out for the unconscious man behind her whereby he might be dragged off by the wolves.

She pulled out her dagger holding it horizontally in front of her, fully releasing her killer's instincts unbridled. If she wasn't able to escape, then she would choose to fight! She didn't believe she would not be able to kill all of these ten over wolves!

Her eyes took on a cold chill and they gleamed sharply. She slowly summoned up the mystical powers within her body, her eyes locked onto ten over wolves who were salivating heavily, seeming to be waiting for something.

The pack of wolves were giving out incessant low howls, like they were trying to frighten her into losing her will to fight before approaching her. However, Feng Jiu was no ordinary person and she wasn't the type who could be frightened into becoming weak in the knees and losing the will to resist.

As she was at a huge disadvantage in numbers, she could not charge forward at them or she would be immediately surrounded. So she remained in her spot waiting, waiting for the wolves to leap at her.

Every single one among the more than ten wolves could feel the murderous intent growing more intense instead of diminishing and they howled. And at that moment, a larger built grey wolf gave a long howl from somewhere higher up the slope.

"HOWL! !"

Once the long howl was heard, more than ten wolves immediately leapt at her. Wide slavering jaws revealing sharp wolves' fangs with drool dripping out the sides of their mouths snapped mercilessly at Feng Jiu. The wolves' long claws seemed to gleam razor sharp in the dark night.

Feng Jiu timed herself properly, and struck out in a flash!

Her strange movements when executed together with her mystical powers increased her speed. The dagger in her hand was thrust into the neck of the wolf who leapt at her first and was quickly pulled out. Within the darkness of night, a pitiful howl resounded and she saw a gush of blood spray out. The warm blood carried with it a strong stench as it sprayed all over her her and the wolf collapsed.....

After striking the wolf dead, she immediately took a step back, and the dagger in her hand flashed before two wolves leaping at her from the left. It might have been due to their packmate's sudden death that caused the two wolves to become more alert. Their reactions were extremely fast and they dodged at the same time her dagger struck out while the other wolves were almost upon her from the front.

The wolves attacking from the right had taken the opportunity to leap towards the unconscious man lying on the ground at the back. At that moment, she was unable to split herself up and she had just barely managed to lift a leg to kick at the camp fire while striking out with her dagger at the wolves on her left at the same time, causing a flurry of red glowing branches still aflame to fly towards the wolves on the right.

Wolves dreaded fire and when they saw the flurry of embers flying, they howled out in panic and quickly retreated. That was the moment the dagger in Feng Jiu's hand quickly eliminated two more wolves. Including the one earlier, lying at her feet then, were three wolf carcasses.

It could have been the intense austerity of her murderous intent that was too frightening, or it could be due to her insatiable bloodthirstiness that terrified them, the other wolves in the pack were all giving out low whines as they slowly retreated a step at a time, not daring to take another step forward, but still unwilling to leave just like that.....

CHAPTER 26: Did You Hit Your Head That Hard?

The dawn's sunrays slowed crept across the land, and the man who had been unconscious throughout the night finally awoken at that moment.

But, when he opened his eyes, an extremely strange scene met his eyes.

A little beggar dressed in torn and tattered clothes was sitting in the lotus position beside him, his body covered with blood, and although the stench was still strong, the blood had dried up completely. He was unable to determine the little beggar's features as his face was a deep shade of green, like he had applied some medicine on it.

Seeing that the little beggar was holding a dagger in his hand, and his gaze staring forward, the man turned and followed the little beggar's gaze and what he saw made him narrow his eyes warily.

Besides the three wolf carcasses that had already turned stiff right before the little beggar, at a distance of about three meters away from them, about ten grey wolves with heavily slavering jaws were sitting on the hind legs, and their eyes were watching them hungrily.

Feng Jiu turned her head very slightly, happening to meet the eyes of the man, which were filled with both shock and confusion at what was happening.

"Look out!"

The man shouted out suddenly in shock, his eyes wide with horror as he saw the grey wolf leaping towards the little beggar. In a state of panic, he reflexively tried to stand up but that big movement tore at the wound at his abdomen and he groaned before falling back onto the ground, where blood could be seen seeping out through his wound again.

At the man's shout, Feng Jiu had already turned back, leaping nimbly to her feet in one quick move as her chilling gaze fixed onto the grey wolf. She saw the leaping wolf closing in on her and she immediately crouched and fell into a roll, her dagger slicing in an arc through the air above.

'Szaak!'

"Howl!"

The dagger was pushed in deep with vicious strength and it cut a long deep slash across the wolf's underbelly. The wolf howled out in agony and as its moment from its leap carried it forward, it continued sailing through the air towards the man who had fallen to the ground, its cruel eyes widened staring unwaveringly at the man. It fell to the ground and its body gave a twitch in finality, its large jaws moved a little, before its last breath left the huge furry body.

"AROOOOL!"

The rest of the grey wolves were getting restless and agitated as they raised their heads giving out long howls. The wolves started clawing at the earth, short whimpers sounding from the throats. Their hungry and bloodthirsty eyes continued staring at Feng Jiu in despair, and they did not dare to rush in recklessly.

Feng Jiu had quickly gotten back to her feet in a single bound as her chilling gaze watched the grey wolves once more. Looking every inch like a malevolent demon with an insatiable thirst for blood, her lips curled up and said: "If you still choose to remain here, I will kill every single one of you." Her icy gaze swept over them, finally fixing onto the large wolf standing on the slopes a distance slightly further away, the leader of the pack of wolves.

Seemingly having acutely felt the presence of the intense threat before them, the larger wolf stared at Feng Jiu for a moment, before raising its head to give out a long howl. Not long after, the ten odd wolves closing the humans in got up and loped away into the distance.

The man propped himself up on his elbows, staring in shock and disbelief, his eyes widened big as eggs, his face frozen in astonishment.

Feng Jiu wiped her dagger clean on a wolf's fur before she kept it away. When she turned around and saw the man expression, she laughed indifferently and said: "It's good you woke up. You sleep any longer and I would have left."

She walked to the side and sat down, pulling out her bamboo canister to have a drink of water. After staring down over ten wolves the entire night, her mind had been highly tensed and she had not relaxed a single moment. The moment she let down her guard and made the tiniest slip, in that situation, they could very well have been shredded to pieces by the wolves.

"Who..... Who are you?" He might have been frightened by Feng Jiu's malevolence earlier and the man was now stuttering as he spoke.

"Why do you care who I am."

"Then..... Then who am I?" The moment those words left the man's man, it was suddenly Feng Jiu who was confused.

"Did you hit your head that hard? You don't even remember who you are yourself?"

As she spoke, she seemed to suddenly remember something and she stretched her hand to feel the back of the man's head. As expected, a huge bump had swelled up there.

CHAPTER 27: Hidden Danger

The man stared blankly at the green faced little beggar leaning over him and he still had not regained his senses until he heard the little beggar's voice.

"You must have hit your head on the rocks when you fell. The blood clot must be pressing against your nerves and I am guessing that your amnesia is only temporary and you will be alright once the clot clears." She stood up brushing her hands off and said: "Alright, since you're awake, I will be on my way then."

When he heard that, the man panicked and he endured the excruciating pain in his abdomen as he stood up. Filled with a sense of unease and suddenly feeling rather flustered, he went to stand close beside Feng Jiu. He seemed like he was about to say something but he did not know how to say it and he merely looked at Feng Jiu with his mouth opening and closing wordlessly.

After the man stood up, Feng Jiu was suddenly taken aback. That was when she saw just how tall the man was. He was half a head taller than she was, his skin was well tanned and bronzed, muscular in built, seemingly a little more muscular than that uncle. The set of clothes covering his body at that moment was a little tight and well stretched, the bulging muscles on his arms looking like they would be splitting the clothes any moment.

She turned her eyes and looking at the man following her, she asked: "What are you doing?" She had just rescued the man without thinking and she had not known that it would bring herself so much trouble.

"Can't..... Can't I follow you?" The man looked at her, his eyes filled with unease. "I can't remember anything and I only know you."

Feng Jiu was suddenly speechless. Those words sounded rather familiar to her. She herself had said something close to that when she had decided to cling on to that uncle at that time.

"I..... I will not be any trouble."

Feng Jiu rolled her eyes and said in exasperation: "You, yourself, are already trouble to me."

If not for him, she wouldn't have had to stare down those wolves for an entire night. With her skills and speed, even if she wasn't able to fight them, she would have no problem escaping.

When she didn't hear any reply, she raised her eyes to glance at him, and that one glance had startled her.

"Wh..... What is a grown man like you crying for?"

With such a big and well built man crying with his eyes all red rimmed with tears before her eyes, looking every inch like a little daughter in law having been bullied, what else could she do but be startled?

"You didn't allow me to follow....."

The man looked at her looking all aggrieved. "I don't know where to go, and I don't have anywhere to return to, and you didn't allow me to follow you....."

Feng Jiu slapped her palm on her forehead and stared into the sky in speechlessness. She had really gotten herself stuck with trouble that wasn't easy to be rid of this time....."

Was this retribution? She had plastered herself onto someone, and now someone was doing the same thing to her.

She walked over to the stream and took out her bamboo canister to fill it up with water while she removed the top layer of clothing that had been splattered with wolf's blood and threw it away.

She was preparing to walk away from the place when she saw the man still standing there stupidly, looking like he wanted to follow but not daring to and just staring at her. She gave a heavy sigh and said: "Why are you still standing there? Let's go!"

"Huh? Oh!" The man was surprised a moment before he smiled happily and nodded in agreement, taking quick steps to walk over. However, he had a hand over his abdomen as he endured the pain.

The two of them walked up the slope and went deeper into the woods. At that time, the slowly ambling Feng Jiu's eyes flashed as she discreetly swept her eyes over the surroundings, as she continued walking forward.

"About that.... How..... how should I address you?" The man asked, following at Feng Jiu's side.

"Whatever." She replied nonchalantly, her attention not on the conversation.

Hearing that, the man thought about it a moment and he said with a laugh after: "You're younger than me, so I'll call you Little Kid alright?"

"Mmm."

She replied distractedly, not really listening to what he was really saying, but was instead tilting her head to stare at the huge clumps of weeds at the back.

Hearing Feng Jiu's agreement, his face lit up with joy. He was about to speak again when he noticed the little beggar staring at a spot at the back on the left. He followed the direction of the gaze and what he saw made his face change.

CHAPTER 28: Sinister Smile

"Those wolves are still around? They..... They are going to keep following us?" He was suddenly rather shocked. They have walked quite a distance and he had not realised that there was a pack of more than ten wolves following behind them.

He did not dare imagine. If they had been caught completely unaware and those wolves had pounced on them, what kind of a result would it have been.....

"No worries. They wouldn't dare to pounce on us. They are just waiting for an opportunity." Feng Jiu glanced briefly at the wolves, and then turned back and continued walking.

She knew after she had brutally and mercilessly killed off a few of those wolves, it had already successfully served as a deterrent for the rest of the pack and they would not dare to recklessly charge in at them anymore. The wolves were well aware that any wrong move they made would only mean certain death for them!

But the wolves were unwilling to just leave, so they had tailed the pair a distance away, waiting for a chance.

"Are we going to just let them follow behind us like this?" The man asked in shock, seeing that the little beggar didn't seem the least bit concerned, and found it rather strange.

[The little beggar was obviously much younger than him, how did he come to possess such guts and those amazing skills?]

Feng Jiu stopped in her tracks and looked straight at the man. "Or you want to go chase them away?"

"Har!? ..... I think there's no need. Just let them follow us then!" He smiled sheepishly and scratched at his head helplessly.

Hence, if anyone was closeby, they would then see this strange scene passing.

Two guys ambling leisurely in front, and on their tails about ten meters behind them, was a pack of over ten hungry grey wolves salivating heavily at the jaws.....

"Little kid, do you think what's on this jade emblem could be my name?" He handed a piece of jade to Feng Jiu as he said: "It was originally hung around my neck."

Feng Jiu took the piece of jade and looked at it. There were really three words engraved upon it that read: "Guan Xi Lin?"

Her voice paused a moment as she stared at the man a moment before she asked: "You are called Guan Xi Lin?"

"I am thinking it might be possible."

She returned the jade pendant back to him and said with a laugh: "I had thought you might have been called a big oaf!"

"....."

Guan Xi Lin looked at the little beggar wordlessly, but wisely did not say anything more.

The two of them covered another stretch and the pack of wolves were still following behind, not showing any signs of leaving.

Until, Guan Xi Lin sniffled his nose and he grinned at Feng Jiu to say: "Little kid, there's people up front, let's hurry up and catch up to them. If those people allow us to follow them, then those wolves following behind us would then never dare to attack us anymore."

"People? How do you know?" She peered in front, and besides trees and weeds, she did not see a single sign of anyone there.

He nodded his head insistently: "There is, for sure! I can smell the aroma of meat being roasted."

"The smell of roasting meat? How come I do not smell it?" She mumbled as she continued to walk another distance. After a while, she could really smell the aroma of meat being roasted and she could faintly hear the voices of people talking. She immediately shot a inquisitive look at Guan Xi Lin beside her.

[Does he have the nose of a hound?]

"Heh heh, see? I told you there are people here!" He said with a laugh: "Let's go, when we get there and they allow us to follow them, we wouldn't have to be afraid even if we meet with anymore wild beasts."

"You think people would just allow us into their group that easily?" She glared at him and then said: "Only I would be so free to let you tag along with me."

Seeing him standing there dazed and his face helpless, Feng Jiu glared at him and continued to say: "This place is called the Nine Entrapment Woods and it's filled with many ferocious beasts. In a place so filled with endless dangers, what do you think others will think when they see two strangers suddenly approaching them?"

"What..... what will they think?" He asked curiously, not comprehending the situation.

"Moron! They will think what ulterior motives we have in getting close to them!"

"Then what do we do?"

Feng Jiu's gaze changed, and her lips parted into a sinister smile: "It's alright. I have a plan. Just watch me."

CHAPTER 29: Why Are You Staring at My Little Kid Brother!

After that, Guan Xi Lin just stayed at Feng Jiu's side as they quietly got closer to the group of people. First they hid behind trees and observed the people for awhile from a long distance away, then she led him to walk boldly forward. He had thought that the little beggar was thinking up some scheme to make those people bring the two of them along, and he had not expected that the kid would lead him to walk past the group of people by the side. The little beggar had not said a word, nor had he even cast a glance towards the men.

But those men were instantly on their guard when they saw the two men who had suddenly appeared. The leader discreetly gauged them a moment before he relaxed his guard. As the two men's cultivation were not of a high level, they did not pose a threat to them.

But at that same moment, he heard his tribesmen shout out in surprise.

"Third Lord, it's a pack of wolves!"

Because of that shout, the thirty to forty men who were sitting down in rest suddenly quickly stood up alert. It was also at that moment that Feng Jiu who had already gone a distance ahead shouted out in shock after hearing the man's shout.

"What? A pack of wolves? Where? Where?" She shouted out nervously, as she dragged Guan Xi Lin to backpedal towards the side of the men.

"Who are you two? Did the two of you lure that pack of wolves here! ?" A middle aged man hollered, staring angrily at them.

"How is that possible! ?"

She stared back at them and said: "Those are wolves! Not kittens! How could we possibly make them follow us here? Moreover, if we had earlier known that wolves were tailing behind us, we would have run for our lives! Why would we still be walking so leisurely?"

"Old Sixth, do not be too rash. Keeping our guard up should be out prerogative right at this moment!" The leader of the men said in a stern voice. "That is a whole pack of ferocious grey wolves and they are extremely quick and nimble. Everybody watch out."

Feng Jiu saw the entire team of men systematically forming a surrounding protective ring, with several of the younger and weaker youths, both boys and girls in the middle. She pulled Guan Xi Lin to go closer to the team of men but they remained just on the outer edges, and did not enter the protective ring. Even then, they were stared at viciously by a young girl from inside the ring.

"You filthy little beggar! You had better stay far away from me!"

"Cousin, do not be rude." A youthful boy chided her, looking a little displeased at the girl's spoilt and rude behaviour.

He looked towards Feng Jiu and Guan Xi Lin and said gently: "Seeing that both of you do not possess high cultivation, you had better stand inside the protective ring! My uncles and elders in my family with the guards are highly skilled, and a mere pack of ten over wolves would not pose too big a threat to us."

"Hahaha, that's right! Just these few wolves would be just right for us to stretch ourselves a little." A wide chested and burly man guffawed loudly after hearing the youth's words, swinging the mighty axe in his hands. "Just one swing of this mighty axe will be able take down one of them!"

When he heard those words, the leader of the man shook his head to himself and said: "Steel Bull, we must not get careless and underestimate the enemy at all times. Stay alert. We'll fight those wolves if they leap at us."

"Yes yes yes." The burly man conceded with a laugh as he stared at the wolves not too far away. With that stare, he guffawed once more and said: "Third Lord, look at those wolves! They don't even dare come near us. Hahahaha, they must be frightened at the sight of me."

Feng Jiu could not help herself and a snigger escaped her lips when she heard those narcissistic words before she said to the youth: "Thank you Young Master. We are fine just standing here."

"Kid, what are you laughing at? Are you thinking I am not capable of scaring off that bunch of dogs?" The burly man's brows arched up alarmingly, his face filled with displeasure as he stared at Feng Jiu.

Feng Jiu had not even managed to say a word when Guan Xi Lin at the side suddenly pulled her back to stand behind him.

He had his chest puffed up standing in front of her as he stared back at the burly man: "Why are you staring at my little kid brother!"

CHAPTER 30: Stabbed in the Back!

Feng Jiu was startled a moment as she stared at the tall guy standing in front of her, her gaze a little strange as she glanced at him.

The burly man named Steel Bull looked at the guy before him standing there with his chest puffed up and he hesitated a moment before giving out another loud guffaw: "Hahaha! Good good good, this kid here has got quite a bit of guts! You dare stare at me Steel Bull like this, that's admirable!"

As he spoke, he was happily patting Guan Xi Lin on the shoulder, his palm hitting repeatedly, while Feng Jiu who was watching from behind straightened into a thin line.

Those pats on the shoulder had not been light!

"Ungh!" Having been "patted" a few times on the shoulder, it had tugged at the wound on his abdomen, the pain causing cold sweat to run down his face.

"You hit him too hard! He has injuries on him!" Feng Jiu came to the front as she complained, and lifted the guy's hand that was held over his stomach. As expected, she saw that blood was seeping out from his wound.

"Oops....." The burly man retracted his hand, looking a little apologetic.

"Look, the wolves have retreated!" Someone shouted joyously as he saw the wolves turn around to leave after giving out several short howls.

The crisis had been resolved without having to fight and that had made the large group of men roar with jubilation.

It turned out that the wolves had only reluctantly left when they saw that Feng Jiu and the tall man had joined the group. Afterall, they had not even been able to handle them when it was just the two of them, and with another additional thirty or forty men with them, they would not stand a chance, so the wolves had naturally given up and left.

Then, the young youth who had spoken earlier said gently as he looked at Feng Jiu: "His wound had started bleeding. You better look at your elder brother's injury first!" He handed her a bottle of medicine as he spoke: "Here, I have this medicine that is great for wounds."

"Cousin, why would you bother so much with them?" The young girl complained while stamping her feet, displeased that the young youth was be being so nice to two strangers that had appeared so suddenly.

"It's alright, I have medicine here myself." Feng Jiu said, helping Guan Xi Lin to slowly sit down below a tree at the side before removing the bandages from his abdomen and reapplying the medicine.

"Let's go!" After securing the bandages once more, she said as she helped him up.

Guan Xi Lin hesitated a moment before he nodded his head and said: "Orh!" and followed Feng Jiu to continue on their way.

Seeing the two people leaving without saying another word, the middle aged man who was still feeling rather wary finally relaxed his guard against them but he did not ask them to stay, as the things they were going to do here on this trip must not have any outsiders with them.

After walking for a distance, Guan Xi Lin was still feeling rather puzzled and he asked: "Little kid, did we agree to ask whether they would let us travel with them? Why did we leave without even asking?"

Feng Jiu had a blade of foxtail grass dangling from his mouth, her strides carefree and uninhibited as she swung a small tree branch in her hand before she said: "Why should we travel with them?"

"Of course it is for them to lend us a helping hand when there is danger!"

"Wrong."

She shook her head and reasoned: "One must depend on himself. When one is always thinking of depending on others, he is bound to not survive long. Moreover, the reason we approached the group was to rid ourselves of the wolves. Now that the wolves are no longer following us, why would we want to continue to stick to them?"

Guan Xi Lin was speechless as he scratched his head: "That sounds quite reasonable I think." As he spoke, his eyes began to fill with awe and admiration as he looked at the little beggar and continued to say: "Little kid, you are so obviously much younger than I am, but you are so much smarter and highly skilled than I am."

"Of course, you think I am like you? Having gotten yourself stabbed in the back."

"What stabbed in the back?" He asked, not understanding what she was saying.

Feng Jiu rolled her eyes and glared at him a moment as she slowly explained patiently: "Your wound came from a stab from close proximity, and it was from behind you while you were not aware. It is obvious that someone you know wants to kill you and you don't even believe me when I say that you are dumb."

CHAPTER 31: Familiar Face Coming in from the West!

Upon hearing Feng Jiu's words, Guan Xi Lin was taken aback a moment and was unable to speak for a long while as he walked with his head lowered in forlorn silence.

The two people did not just walked without stopping as Feng Jiu's purpose in the forest was to pick herbs and the route they took was windy as they detoured. Especially after having shaken off the pack of wolves off their backs, they often went through areas thick with weeds and wild vegetation.

Having picked and plucked along the entire way, she managed to accumulate quite a sizable harvest of useful magical herbs, but from her assessment of the grade of herbs she found in this area, they were all of a more common variety and not anything incredibly precious or rare. Afterall, in a ninth ranked little country like this place, it would be impossible to be able to find herbs of the rarest and most precious kind anyway.

Hence, they continued along on their way and they came to the foot of a mountain peak.

The sharp eyed Feng Jiu was able to spot a clump of magical herbs swaying in the wind near the peak from there and her eyes lit up immediately: "You wait for me here while I go pick those magical herbs." After searching for so long, she had finally found magical herbs that would be able to remove scars, so how could she not be excited?

"Little kid, you..... you will return here right?" Guan Xi Lin asked her a little uneasily.

After having taken a few steps, Feng Jiu was a little startled to hear Guan Xi Lin say that and she walked back, pulling out the roasted meat to hand it over to him.

"I will go pick the herbs now and I will return shortly. You have some of that roasted meat in the meantime. And, it's best that you climb up one of the trees so that you won't have to worry even if you come across a wild beast." She looked around and saw a slightly bigger sized tree that towered high towards the sky. She pointed at it and said: "Are you able to climb that tree? I will come back here to find you after I have picked the herbs."

Hearing that she had no intention of leaving him behind, Guan Xi Lin was finally able to smile as he assured her confidently: "Sure I can! Then I will wait for you up upon that tree and you must remember to come back and look for me!"

"Sure." She patted him on the shoulder reassuringly before she turned and went towards the peak.

The steep mountain slope was precipitous and it was rather strenuous for her as she pulled herself up as she climbed. There were times that if she was careless with her footing, loose rocks and stones would become dislodged to roll down the mountain which required her to be extremely careful with every step.

It was about two hour later as she was getting close to the clump of herbs that she saw that there was a small hole beside the clump of magical herbs. A green venomous snake that was about the size of a finger's width was hissing as it spat out its forked tongue from inside the tiny hole, its vicious eyes staring balefully ay her.

She surveyed the area in front of her a moment and noticed that there was another small hole beside the first one she saw, seemingly linked to each other.

She realised that before she was able to pick the magical herbs, she would need to first get rid of the snake. Having decided, her eyes scanned the surroundings a while and she grabbed at a fist sized rock from the mountain's face that was filled with mud and stones. She then pushed herself up a little nearer and just as the snake had pushed itself out of the hole a little to take a peek, her hand immediately reached out and stuffed the hole shut.

At the same moment, the snake had speedily swished out, suddenly appearing from the other hole, its mouth opened wide showing its venomous fangs while it struck quickly closing in towards her arm.

With lightning quick speed, Feng Jiu had drawn her dagger and slashed out in an instant. The snake's head was sliced off in one cut as its body dropped down the cliff. And after that, she carefully dug out the magical herbs from the mud and kept it into her Cosmos Sack.

"Whew! So tiring!"

Having picked the herbs, she climbed all the way to the peak, intending to see the surroundings from a high vantage point. However, she chanced upon a magical herb that was emanating a faint aura of spirit energy just at the side of the peak and she joyously plucked it and put it in her Cosmos Sack as well.

"What luck! I actually managed to find two types of magical herbs in this place!" She said to herself with a smile. Standing upon the high peak and looking down, she could see that a team of people were going deep into the woods on the west side.

The leader among them was a handsome man dressed in a suit of white, and recognised him to be the fiance of the previous owner of her body, the Third Prince of the Sun Glory Country, Murong Yi Xuan. And there was a girl at his side, dressed in a flowing water blue dress, with a face so undeniably familiar to her.....

CHAPTER 32: Strange Yet Familiar

"What a surprising coincidence!" She mumbled softly to herself, her eyes taking on a chilling gaze.

Cloudy Moon City was quite a distance away from here and even if they rushed, it would still take a few days' journey. Why would she come all the way here? And even that Murong Yi Xuan as well?

Her gaze hovered on Murong Yi Xuan for a while. Obviously, he had not noticed that that Feng Qing Ge was no longer the same Feng Qing Ge. At that moment, she was suddenly curious. Do men only recognise people just from their faces?

Her gaze did not stay long on the pair as she soon discovered that surrounding her near and far, there were quite a number of teams of people heading deeper into the woods. Some of the teams were still a distance away from her, while some were just tens of meters away.

Recalling all her previous encounters on this journey, her eyes flashed as she calm down and thought to herself: [What is there in the deeper reaches of the Nine Entrapment Woods? It had drawn all these people here to go running in there!]

As she was deep in thought, she suddenly felt a pair of eyes filled with malice staring at her. She turned around quickly and that glance drove a persistent twitch to tug at her eyebrow: "A black bear!?"

At a distance barely five meters away from her, a black bear looking about two to three meters tall was crouched. Its teeth were all bared as it stared maliciously at her, its crouched body seemingly having been quietly approaching her but was discovered by her, and the huge black bear lifted its head to give out a loud roar as it lunged at her.

"Roar!"

The black bear's loud angry roar caused the ground to slightly reverberate. The roar sounded out from that high peak and in a moment, it spread to reach a large part of the surrounding area, where all the teams of people in the woods heard.

Faced with such a gigantic black bear, Feng Jiu did not see the possibility of her winning in a battle with it, and she grabbed the chance to fall into a low crouch and slid to one side as the black bear lunged, summoning her mystical powers, she used her unorthodox form of movements to speedily stride down towards the foot of the mountain in escape.

"Roar roar!"

The huge black bear's lunge yielded it nothing but air and it lifted its head to roar another two times. Its huge body turned and charged, suddenly moving extremely quickly in fierce pursuit of Feng Jiu.

"Damn! There's another one!"

Fleetingly moving towards the foot of the mountain, Feng Jiu spotted another brown bear that bounded out and could not help herself but cursed: "What a darned bad day this is turning out to be!" Her eyes quickly turned around, looking for an escape route.....

The teams of people making their way into the deeper reaches of the woods who were currently in the areas surrounding the peak had upon hearing the black bear's roar, suddenly stopped in their tracks, and looked up towards the source of the roar.

Black bears possessed incredible power in battle and the black bears in the Nine Entrapment Woods were not just ordinary black bears, but were high grade beasts of the second level.

Even when numbering more than ten, it would be impossible for warriors just in their initial stages of the mystical levels to be able to hunt down a second level high grade black bear. Hence, every single person who dared step into these woods knew, if they see a black bear from afar, they were to avoid it and not confront them in battle.

In the western part of the woods, Murong Yi Xuan's heart suddenly winced and his steps stopped, his head turning quickly back to look towards the peak.

"Big brother Murong, what's wrong?" The Feng Qing Ge dressed in a flowing blue dress had her flawlessly beautiful face creased up in concern. Seeing his gaze fixed unwaveringly on the peak, she turned her eyes to look into the same direction but did not see anything there.

"Nothing." He shook his head and smiled gently at the person beside him, but the sense of unfamiliarity in him was becoming more and more intense.

As if.....

The girl before his eyes was entirely not the Feng Qing Ge he knew. Over the past few days they had spent together, she had been right in front of his eyes throughout the entire period, but he had not been able to feel the same pounding of the heart that he had always felt when he was with her before.

And that single brief assessing gaze earlier, had although been from a person he did not know, but somehow made him feel rather familiar.....

CHAPTER 33: Shocking Inexplicable Change

Under the scrutiny of that deeply serene gaze, her heart suddenly filled with unease as she raised her hand onto her cheek and asked softly: "Why is Big Brother Murong looking at me like this? Is there something on my face?"

He did not answer and only smiled gracefully: "Let us be on our way!" And he turned and started to continue their way forward.

Feng Qing Ge paused a moment before she caught up and followed at his side as they walked deeper into the woods.

As they walked, she would occasionally tilt her face slightly to the side and look at the dignified countenance. He was just so perfect, so gentle, which made her fall so uncontrollably hard for him, made her heart palpitate for him, mesmerized by him, even if that meant that she would have to live her life with someone else's face, there would be no regrets.....

On the other hand, Feng Jiu was caught in a rather wretched situation. Because the two bears behind her had already been chasing her for more than two hours.

She had initially thought that she would be able to shake them off easily but the speed the two bears had been able to sprint had been unexpectedly fast and while running away, the reverberations she was able to feel under her feet and the occasional loud roars coming from behind did not allow her to slow down in the slightest.

She couldn't afford to reduce her speed, but to run at that pace without stopping, even the deities wouldn't be able to last!

"Argh! Stop chasing me already! If you make me mad, I will really fight you with everything I have!" She screamed with her head thrown back, her speed not reducing, but she was already panting very slightly.

She had merely picked a bunch of magical herbs! Did they need to chase after her all this way for more than two hours for that! ?

"Roar! Roar!"

The only response she got was just two loud roars from the bears with their undiminished speed.

She spotted a thick and strong tree in front of her and she turned her head to glance behind while gasping for air before she sped up her legs. And just as she was nearing the big tree, she bent her knees into a slight crouch and she leapt up with her hands extended to grab onto a branch, before quickly leaping up onto the branch and up into the big tree.

"Whew! I'm exhausted."

She was done running. She sat high up upon the tree branch panting heavily as she saw the two bears quickly having caught up to her reaching the bottom of the tree in just a few breaths. The bears then attempted to use all four of their paws to climb up. Fortunately, the tree she chose was not only sturdy, but its tree bark was smooth and slippery, making it difficult to climb.

"Bam!"

As expected, one of the bears who had climbed about one meter above the ground fell onto ground its four paws waving in the air and Feng Jiu could not help herself but laugh at the sight.

"But, what kind of effects does that stem of magical herbs really have? Why would it make both of you chase after me so persistently for so long?" She retrieved the stem of herb she had picked earlier from her Cosmos Sack to take a look at it and as she had never seen it before, she didn't know what kind of use it had.

"Roar roar!"

The two bears at the bottom of the tree had immediately upon seeing her take out the stem of magical herb, started roaring loudly again. Unable to climb the tree, the two bears combined their strengths and shook the tree, looking like they were thinking of shaking her out of the tree.

The tree shook violently, almost causing her to fall out of it. She held on to the tree with one hand and shouted down below: "Are you tired of it already? Thinking of taking this magical herb away from me? You can jolly well forget about it."

"Roar! Roar roar roar roar!"

The two bears were infuriated and their angry roars sounded endlessly, shaking the tree so badly that Feng Jiu was thinking that she cannot stay up there any longer. Hence, she kept the stem of magical herb away and began to look around her, thinking to leap from this tree to another, to find a way for her to escape.

However, just as she stood up, the sky suddenly rumbled with a loud noise, sounding just like a loud thunderclap that had descended from the clouds. A powerful wave of oppressive aura fell from the clouds above as well and a strong wind suddenly kicked up under the overwhelming aura. The wind gusts were so strong the trees in the woods were swaying and the fallen leaves o the ground were thrown up into the air in the swirling currents.

"Woo woo arh....."

"Roar!"

"Woo!"

The terrified sounds from the various beasts in the woods rang out, a discordant symphony of animal cries reverberating throughout the woods.

At that same moment, Feng Jiu saw the two towering bears at the bottom of the tree suddenly fallen to the ground in trembling heaps, all curled up in terror.....

CHAPTER 34: Ancient Mythical Beast

Feeling every bit of the heavy oppressiveness in the air, Feng Jiu raised up her head to look into the sky. That was when she saw that the entire sky was covered with a mass of cumulus clouds brilliantly lit up in fierce fiery blaze. And the blazing fiery coloured clouds gathered and slowly took shape to turn into a mesmerizing Fire Phoenix with its wings fully spread. It was a glorious sight to behold and so beautiful it caused endless pairs of eyes to stare at it transfixed.....

At that moment, the strange phenomenon in the sky stirred up many instances of ruckus in many parts of the land. Almost all the countries surrounding the Sun Glory Country had spotted the phenomenon in the skies above, and powerful exponents from everywhere were suddenly highly excited by the sight.

"Manifestation in the Heavens! That is the sign a Sacred Beast is born!"

"Clouds of blazing fire, an image of a phoenix! My Heavens! It's the Ancient Sacred Beast, the Fire Phoenix! Hurry!"

The exponents from the various surrounding countries had after recovering from shock, gotten highly excited and joyously set off towards the Sun Glory Country's Nine Entrapment Woods. Some rode on flying swords, while some rode their flying beasts, and there were even some who used magical items that allowed them to travel a thousand miles in a day.....

They all had only one goal, and that was to seize the Ancient Sacred Beast who had descended onto the mortal realm!

Some still not as powerful cultivators who were not capable of vying with the highly skilled exponents could only watch on as the exponents moved out towards the Sun Glory Country's Nine Entrapment Woods and say with a sigh: "To think that a place so lowly like the ninth grade Sun Glory Country would have a Ancient Sacred Beast appear in it, no one could have expected that!"

"I really wonder what kind of person would that Sacred Beast fall to?"

"The most powerful exponents had all rushed there. The tiny Sun Glory Country would not be able to keep defend themselves against all the others and keep the Sacred Beast for themselves. I think the Sacred Beast will fall into the hands of someone from other countries."

"Heh heh, that might not be the case. Who doesn't know that destiny plays a bigger part when it came to Ancient Sacred Beast such as this. I think the fact that the Ancient Sacred Beast's fiery clouds had manifested above the Sun Glory Country means that someone with a highly fortunate destiny is there."

"That's also true. After all, when the Ancient Green Dragon descended, hadn't it been the same thing when exponents from all over had rushed there immediately as well? In the end, not a single one among them managed to even see the Sacred Beast."

"Now that you mention it, it is really rather strange. The Ancient Green Dragon descended more than a decade ago but over the years, besides the sighting of the phenomenon when it descended, no one had ever gotten a glimpse of the Ancient Green Dragon ever since! No one knows just who the owner of the Ancient Green Dragon actually is till today!"

"The appearance of a Sacred Beast would rock people from the entire land. We will surely hear something about it in the near future."

The few of them looked in the direction of the Sun Glory Country and in their hearts, they thought: [Another Ancient Sacred Beast has appeared. Looks like tumultuous days are near.....]

While back in the Nine Entrapment Woods, the mass of people heading into the deeper reaches were highly elated.

"Look! It the blazing fire cloud and the image of a phoenix! The Sacred Beast descending is the Ancient Fire Phoenix!"

"I heard that a Sacred Beast will be appearing, but I had not expected for it to be an Ancient Sacred Beast. It's just fantastic! We must hurry and get there before everyone else and seal a contract with the Ancient Sacred Beast!"

And in the deepest reaches of the Nine Entrapment Woods, Ling Mo Han's deep eyes had a strange glint in them when he saw the phenomenon in the sky and said to himself: "Ancient Sacred Beast, the Fire Phoenix?"

Although he was thinking it strange that he would see the image of an Ancient Sacred Beast manifest in such a tiny ninth grade country like the Sun Glory, but he still remembered that his purpose of being here was not for the Ancient Sacred Beast. He had something more important on his hands that he needed to do.

Hence, he turned his eyes away and continued to walk towards his destination.....

In another part of the woods, Feng Qing Ge who had also spotted the strange phenomenon in the sky was not able to contain her excitement as she tugged at Morong Yi Xuan beside her: "Big Brother Murong! Look! It's the Ancient Sacred Beast! The Fire Phoenix!"

She was feeling highly excitedly in her heart while telling herself determinedly in her mind: [This Ancient Sacred Beast, the Fire Phoenix will be mine!]

Murong Yi Xuan had been shocked when he saw the image of the Fire Phoenix in the sky as he exclaimed: "It's actually an Ancient Sacred Beast, that is the king of Sacred Beast."

The moment he finished his words, from behind the blazing clouds of fire, came the cry of a phoenix sounding like it had come from ancient times. Immediately after that, a blinding shaft of golden light shot down suddenly like a shooting star from the Heavens.....

CHAPTER 35: A Chance Find of a Sacred Beast Egg

The people in the entire Nine Entrapment Woods only heard a loud crash reverberate around them. A flash of brilliant golden light with a powerful aura flared outwards from the spot it had crashed. Shock waves visible to the naked eye shimmered and rippled like water as it swept outwards, toppling a swathe of trees with its powerful force.

"Hurry! The Sacred Beast has manifested! Let's go to the spot!"

The mass of people shouted excitedly, surging as one towards the loud crash in a mad sprint, deeply afraid that being a single step slower could mean that others would snatch it up.....

And no one knew that when that golden light had shot down from the Heavens, it had actually landed right at the foot of the tree that Feng Jiu was in.

The overwhelmingly powerful oppressive aura and the shock wave shook the enormous tree that had a girth larger than two men with their arms extended could go around, and pushed it to fall on its side, almost completely uprooted. Feng Jiu who was on the tree had naturally been knocked off the tree by the shockwave to fall towards the ground, to roll into the large hole created by the loud crash landing.

Caught in the powerful oppressive aura, she was suddenly finding it hard to breathe and she was suffocating. She was feeling the pain on her face as the shockwave tore past her, and she was not even able to open her eyes.

"Oof!"

As she fell deeper down the big hole in the ground, her stomach hit against something sticking out, causing her to groan out in pain. And at that same moment, the surrounding oppressive aura began to gradually dissipate.

As the suffocating feeling lifted, Feng Jiu was finally able to stand up and when she did, she saw the thing sticking out of the ground was actually a glittering golden egg!

"Is that the Phoenix egg from the strange phenomenon in the sky earlier?"

Her gaze was tinged with wonder, not with surprise, but more like questioning. The Nine Entrapment Woods was such a big place and all the other places to crash, it had to choose to crash right beside her.....

"Well, since it's right here before me, it will be a shame if I do not pick it up. And since it chose to crash at my feet, then that means it's mine to keep."

She thought about it only a moment newbie she cradled the egg in her arms to take a look at it. She saw the glittering golden light starting to diminish and the complicated looking runes that was initially visible on the egg's shell were disappearing as well. Besides it being gold in colour, and with it being several times bigger than an ordinary egg, she didn't find anything else about it to be extraordinary.

Glancing around at the surroundings, she did not see a single other person. She had wanted to wanted to keep the golden egg in the Cosmos Sack and when she opened it, she found that she was not able to stuff it in. That was when she remembered that the Cosmos Sack could only store inanimate items, and you cannot put anything that is alive in there.

Immediately, she quickly stuffed the golden egg into her clothes, summoned her mystical powers and employed her strange steps to speedily leave that place.....

It was about an hour after she left that the first team arrived. The family clan saw the big hole in the ground and the humongous tree that had almost been completely uprooted and was leaning teetering on one side, and nothing much else but an emptiness.

"Why is there nothing here? Has someone come here a step earlier than us?" The team leader who was a middle aged man was bathed in sweat from his mad sprint, the high anticipation that had filled his heart suddenly turned to rage as he stared at the large empty hole in the ground.

"Who was it? Who had been faster than us! ?"

Just as he finished his statement, Murong Yi Xuan and Feng Qing Ge arrived rushing in at great speed. When they saw that there was nothing within the large hole in the ground, Murong Yi Xuan did not show much of a reaction, but as for Feng Qing Ge, her face immediately changed.

"Who was it?" Her malicious gaze turned sharply to look at the other team and she asked impatiently: "Where's the Sacred Beast?"

At that moment, she wasn't aware that Murong Yi Xuan was standing at the side and staring at her, seemingly deep in thought.

As in Murong Yi Xuan's heart, Feng Qing Ge was a gentle and sweet tempered girl. She was also kind and thoughtful for others. He had known her from a young age and he had never seen her show an expression with her eyes so filled with such sharp malice like the girl before his eyes.

This had caused him to have to reconsider.....

MESMERIZING GHOST DOCTOR
C36 Experts Exponents Gather
Feng Qing Ge seemed to have felt something and she turned around quickly, and she immediately saw the pair of eyes that were looking at her, seemingly deep in thought. Her heart panicked and she said in a hurry: "Big Brother Murong, I..... I was just too anxious....."

Murong Yi Xuan smiled gracefully and told her in a gentle voice: "For an Ancient Sacred Beast to have manifested in our Sun Glory Country is already more than anyone could expect and the fact that we had even been able to witness it's divine light hit the ground is just incredible! A Sacred Beast's descended? Actually, we don't have to be too fixated on whether we can get it as all this has already been decreed by fate and chance."

"Mmm, Big Brother Murong is right. Qing Ge has been too anxious." She reverted back to her composed and gentle self and her eyes filled up with admiration for Murong Yi Xuan once more as she looked at him.

"Who has the Sacred Beast! ?"

A loud and forceful voice boomed down from up in the skies. The voice had been imbued with spirit power and it could be heard clearly within a large area of the woods.

Feeling the undulation of spirit power distinctly, which was different from mystical power, the people standing near to the large hole were shocked as they all lifted their heads, and saw a middle aged man standing on a flying artifact hovering in mid air, his hands clasped behind his back as he stared at them from his high vantage point. The exponent's awe flared out instantly, engulfing the people down below.

The people below felt a thick and heavy presence suddenly pressing down on them like a mountain, like a huge rock had fallen upon the chest, finding it hard to breathe. Their legs were almost about to buckle under the immense pressure, where they would soon fall to their knees.

In fact, those who were less practiced in their cultivation had already crumbled before the oppressive pressure from above and plopped onto their knees, blood churning in their chests, to seep out down the corners of their mouths.

The powerful oppressive awe had driven cold sweat to run down Feng Qing Ge's forehead, her face turned pale and her legs became weak, almost falling to the ground. Murong Yi Xuan who was standing beside her held her up with his arm and summoned his mystical power to shield her heart channels, to prevent her blood from surging.

"Senior, could you first retract your oppressive awe and allow your humble junior to tell you in detail?"

Murong Yi Xuan was looking up at the middle aged man in the air when he noticed a few more people coming in from the surrounding areas. He saw some of them riding their swords, some on flying beasts, and some standing on their flying artifacts.

"What! ? The Sacred Beast is gone! ?" An old man at the side exclaimed as he swept his eyes over the scene below. His brows creased up and he stared at the middle aged man who had released his oppressive awe and said: "Retract your awe and listen to what that kid below has to say. So, who's got his hands on the Sacred Beast! ? Speak now!"

It might be because of the old man's words, or it could be because Murong Yi Xuan standing below was being neither haughty nor servile, but the middle aged man retracted his oppressive awe and said: "Tell us everything you know!"

Once the oppressive awe dissipated, the people below felt the huge rocks lift from their chests and found that they could breathe again, and they were finally relieved.

Faced with such highly skilled exponents, none of the people below dared to be disrespectful to them.

Murong Yi Xuan cupped his hands together and offered his greetings to the expert exponents in the sky above in a bow before he said: "My esteemed Seniors, when your humble Junior rushed here, the Sacred Beast was already no longer here and I do not know who had taken it. Every word your Junior has just said is the truth and if you do not believe me, you can ask the gentlemen over there. They got here a step before us."

His eyes were looking at another group of people and those men were already flustered and in a state of panic from the earlier oppression from the middle aged man's release of his awe and they had naturally not dared to hide anything: "Yes, yes, it's true. When we got here, there was no Sacred Beast to be seen and we do not know where the Sacred Beast has gone. If we have the Sacred Beast with us, we will definitely not dare hide it from all our revered and respected Seniors here."

[Immortality cultivators! These people are really cultivators of Immortality! Even if they had a hundred lives, they would never dare lie to a cultivator of Immortality!]

At that moment, the gaze of another middle aged man from up in the air was fixed on the figure of Murong Yi Xuan, noticing that his demeanor was not ordinary, he asked: "Who are you?

CHAPTER 37: First Suspicions

"Your humble junior is Murong Yi Xuan." His voice was gentle, and his tone was unhurried as he spoke.

"So it is the Sun Glory Country's Third Prince, it's little wonder you showed such outstanding bearing."

The middle aged man nodded and turned his eyes to the few others beside him and said with a laugh: "Gentlemen, the Sacred Beast had only just manifested and I believe it is still within the Nine Entrapment Woods. Let's just compete based on our own abilities and see who gets it first!" When he finished, he threw his head back and laughed aloud as he rode his sword to go search out the surroundings.....

When the others saw the man leaving, they were afraid they would lag behind and they all left right after to search out the surrounding areas as well.

When the people below on the ground saw the group left, they all immediately heaved a sigh of relief unconsciously.

Cultivators of Immortality, and seven or eight of them appearing at the same time. Before this, all of them have only heard of these cultivators of Immortality and had never been fated to meet one. And the first time that they met them today had nearly scared them out of their lives.

Seeing the seven or eight cultivators of Immortality ride off on their swords so captivatingly graceful, Feng Qing Ge's eyes were filled with yearning. She turned her head to Murong Yi Xuan beside her and said softly: "Big Brother Murong, when we have the chance, we should go together and get ourselves accepted into an Immortality Sect and learn to cultivate Immortality as well!"

"Sure." Murong Yi Xuan responded in a gentle voice, his handsome face smiling faintly.

Seeing that he had nodded in agreement, her heart filled with delight as she said in a pliant voice: "Big Brother Murong, are we still going to continue searching for the Sacred Beast?"

"With those cultivators of Immortality here, we will not stand a chance. Even if we managed to find it, we will only invite persecution from those people upon ourselves."

"Are we going back now then?"

Hearing that, Murong Yi Xuan looked up at her and said gently: "You can go back first! I'll ask Guardsman Feng escort you back. I still need to go to the mountain pass in the deepest reaches of the Nine Entrapment Woods to help Old Qin retrieve some mud from the heart of the well."

"I'll go with you."

She held on to Murong Yi Xuan's sleeve and shook it before saying in a soft voice: "Big Brother Murong, I don't want to go back so soon. I want to stay with you."

"The deepest reaches of the Nine Entrapment Woods are not like the area around here. Every hundred meters deeper that we move in further would see different dangers. Especially at the heart of the well from the mountain pass. It is said that very few people go there as there are high grade ferocious beasts of the third level guarding the place. Be good, go back home first and I'll go look for you when I get back."

Hearing Murong Yi Xuan's words, Feng Qing Ge knew that he would not be letting her tag along and she could only nod and said: "Alright! I'll return home first. Remember to come look for me when you get back."

"I will."

He smiled slightly and after glancing once more at her, he picked ten men from the group he had brought along with him and gave them their instructions: "All of you escort Miss Feng Qing Ge back to her residence safely and if any mishap happens on the way, I will hold all of you responsible!"

"Yes!" The ten men answered respectfully and went to stand behind Guardsman Feng.

After hearing those words, Feng Qing Ge was feeling rather blissful as she reluctantly bade goodbye to Murong Yi Xuan, allowing Guardsman Feng and his men to escort her home.

Only after seeing Feng Qing Ge had gone a far enough distance, the smile on Murong Yi Xuan's face faded and his deep and calm gaze peered at the far distant figures before he collected himself and hid the deep thoughts and radiance in his eyes.

On the other side, hearing the commotion behind her, Feng Jiu gave a great leap and rolled down the slope before picking herself up quickly, all the while cradling the golden egg in one arm as she stuck her back against a clay wall, trying her best to conceal herself behind the weeds in front of her, to escape discovery.

A few heartbeats later, a lone cultivator of Immortality was suddenly passing through the air riding on a flying artifact, his eyes scanning the woods below for any suspicious figures or signs of movement.

Feng Jiu stuck her back tightly against the wall and did not move in the slightest as she held her breath. It was until the figure flying through the air had gradually flown further away and disappeared that she finally breathed out.

"Whew! That was really close! This egg has really brought me a lot of trouble!"

Her face creased up in a frown as she stared at the golden egg, thinking how was she going to deal with it?

CHAPTER 38: Deep into the Ground

She reached out her hand to knock on it and there was no other sound other than the soft knocking she made.

She was thinking to herself that she would not be able to hide the egg and the moment she met someone, she would definitely be found out. Those guys flying in the air were still looking for this egg and they did not look like they will be leaving anytime soon. If she carried this egg with her to go look for Guan Xi Lin, irregardless whether she would manage to reach there safely, she would be dragging him into untold danger if she was with him.

"What to do? With this troublesome thing." Her brows creased up as she recalled the method to seal a contract from her mind. Her eyes lit up and she immediately bit down on her finger to drip a drop of blood on the shell of the egg.

But somehow? That drop of blood was not absorbed into the shell of the egg but had instead rolled down the side.

She stared hard at it at said: "Isn't it said that before beast types are born, dripping a drop of blood on them would contract them to you? Was that a hoax?" She did not give up and she squeezed out another two drops of blood to drip on it, but there was still no response.

Finally, she had no choice but to give up.

"Huh? What's that noise?" She pricked up her ears and looked around, finally discovering that the faint noise seemed to be coming from below the ground.

As expected, when she looked down and observed the ground around her, she saw a spot that some earth was being pushed up, like something underground was boring through it.

"Burrowing Gopher? It shouldn't be! There isn't any Burrowing Gophers that is this big!"

She stuffed the golden egg into her clothes before her chest and had wanted to leap off the rumbling ground and her head had just popped up and she immediately saw a middle aged man riding a sword towards her area not too far away and she instinctively backpedaled. But that one step backwards had put her foot over loose soil and her entire person lost her balance and she fell into a home below the loose soil's surface.

"Ahhhh!"

She cried out in surprise and everything suddenly turned black. Her body slid down a steep drop and the incredible speed that everything was happening at did not allow her any time to react.

Meanwhile at the top, just after Feng Jiu had down the slide, two Burrowing Gophers stuck their heads out of the ground, and chittered a few times as they looked too their left and right. Shortly after, they once again went back to digging, to fill up the hole that had been exposed to the surface.

Riding on his sword, the middle aged man who was searching for the source of the sound earlier looked all around, but did not see any human around nor could his detect the presence of anyone there before he frowned deeply: "Did I hear it wrongly?"

He released his consciousness to spread over the area a few times and when he still did not find anything, he finally left the area still riding his sword.

"AHHhhh....."

Underground, Feng Jiu's cry of surprise reverberated in the tunnel as her body continued to slide down. It was completely dark and she could see nothing. She only knew that the tunnel zigzagged left and right as she slid all the way down. Midway through the unstoppable fall, her foot seemed to have kicked into something fleshy and with a shrill squeak, that soft ball of flesh had rolled down together with her.

"Bam!"

"Ouch! Argh!"

She cried out in pain as her body fell forward from the momentum of the crazy slide. But she did not fall into the ground. She had fallen into the soft and fleshy thing that had been before her down that slide.

"Ow ow! That really hurts."

Having slid down at such a pace all that way, the abrasions on her body could not be imagined as she felt her entire body burning up in pain. Even then, when she saw the countless pairs of eyes surrounding her staring at her as they glowed a dull green in the dim darkness, she quickly leapt up.

"Squeak squeak."

"Squeak squeak squeak squeak."

[Mice?]

She felt her skin crawl. Hearing the noises, they sounded like mice. But in the darkness, she could faintly see that the shape did not seem to be like the common type of rodents and they were still continuing to come surround her at that moment.

When she realized that the hole she was in was big enough to accommodate a human while her eyes were seeing all the rodent type animals before her, her body immediately tensed up tightly.

"Burrowing Gophers!"

She raised a hand to feel the golden egg within her clothes at her chest to make sure it was not damaged or broken while the other hand reached down her thigh, to grip the dagger lashed on the side of her thigh in her hand.....

CHAPTER 39: Fallen Into A Nest of Mice?

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

Surrounding her on all sides were about forty or fifty of those Burrowing Gophers, and every single one of them were of an enormous size. At that moment, she was surrounded by all of them, one by one all staring at her, squeaking incessantly.

With the powers she had, how was she going to get herself out of this predicament?

Kill all of these forty to fifty Burrowing Gophers? These Burrowing Gophers were obviously mutants and they might not be that easy to take out.

As she thought through her options, she felt a fierce wind rush from the side and saw a Burrowing Gopher leaping at her after giving out a squeak from the left.

She pushed the pain wrecking at all parts of her body away from her mind and her eyes steeled as they swung around with her hand lashing out gripping the dagger at the same time. A faint red glow of mystical power aura encased the sharp dagger slashing out through the air with a swoosh, aimed at the attacking Burrowing Gopher.

At that moment, the rest of the forty to fifty Burrowing Gophers squeaked out and they all leapt at the same time at her, completely surrounding her, biting and clawing.

"ARRRGH!"

The pain caused her to cry out, but even with forty to fifty Burrowing Gophers biting and tearing at her, the speed of her slashing dagger did not slow in the slightest. At that moment, she was like the incarnate of death as she screamed out while her body spun with her dagger lashing out lightning quick, piercing and pulling back, only one lone thought filling her mind, and that was to stay alive!

"Squeak!"

Squeak squeak....."

The number of fallen Burrowing Gopher corpses on the ground grew more and more, and the rest of them did not dare to come too near her anymore.

The corpses of the Burrowing Gophers had already piled up to form a little hill around her and a thick stench of blood hung heavily pungent in the dark little space.

As for her, Feng Jiu was covered in dripping blood, both her own and the blood from the Burrowing Gophers....

"Come on! Not going to leap at me anymore?"

Her icy tone was heavily laced with devilish challenge and her gaze swept over every single one of those slowly retreating Burrowing Gophers. Her entire body flared with bloodthirsty murder and her gory blood covered self made her look every inch like the blood drenched death come to claim their lives. The terrifying bloodthirstiness emanating from her entire being alone was enough to make the rest of the Burrowing Gophers too frightened to take a step forward.

"Too scared! ? Hah! I am not done with the slaughter!"

The same moment her malicious voice stopped, her body immediately moved, the sharp dagger gleaming chillingly as it thrust towards another Burrowing Gopher. The incredible speed that the dagger moved at did not allow it to even dodge.

"Squeak!"

A pitiful squeak sounded, warm blood flowed, and another Burrowing Gopher was killed by the dagger.

"Squeak squeak!"

The rest of the Burrowing Gophers numbering slightly more than ten squeaked loudly and ran away through the tunnels in a panic.

She bit down on her lip as she stared at the tunnels a moment, before she went step by step towards a direction where she felt a slight breeze, with every one step she took, she left a footprint, and with every footprint, she left behind a drop of blood.....

She walked for almost close to an hour and the first sound she heard was the sound of flowing water, and thereafter, a gradually brightening ray of light. As there was water present, the surrounding air was rather humid, and she bit down hard with every step, tolerating the almost unbearable pain, taking step after step, till she reached the flow of water.

It was a deep pool, the bottom not visible but the water was crystal clear. The water was moving and flowing, but it was not known where the it flowed out to.

There were no other routes that she could see from here, the slanted light rays were coming from above her head seemingly like she was at the bottom of a deep gorge. As water flowed down the steep walls in thin rivulets, they were covered in green moss and algae, while vines hung down.

She gave them one glance and she turned her eyes back. What she needed to do now was not to leave this place, but to be concerned about the wounds and injuries upon her body.

If those bites and scratches from the Burrowing Gophers were not treated, they would become infected and fester. Fortunately, she had chanced upon this clear pool of water.

She removed the blood drenched clothes off her body and carefully placed the golden egg aside, before she slid herself into the pool, letting the clear and cool water cleanse and wash out her wounds.....

CHAPTER 40: Breaking Out of the Egg!

Feng Jiu's eyes were narrowed as she felt the biting chill from the pool's water and the pain from the multiple wounds on her body. But after the initial pain, came a feeling of soothing comfort, like a warm flow was softly passing over her weary body with gentle touches.

[Warm flow?]

She suddenly opened her eyes and looked at her body in the supposed to be chilly water. At that moment, she seemed to be able to detect a faint aura over the water's surface.

[Not mystical power, but pure and untainted spirit power!]

Looking at the pool that was emanating with faint traces of spirit power aura, she thought back to those Burrowing Gophers she had encountered previously. [Was it due to the spirit power from this pool that had caused them to become so big and strong?]

[But why would there be such pure and untainted spirit power aura in a place like this?]

As she fell deep in thought, the golden egg she had placed high up on the side of the pool suddenly shifted a little and without any other warning, it began to roll towards the pool.

'Ploom'

The golden egg dropped into the water and it quickly sank under the surface. Caught by surprise and shock, her hand grabbed at the Cosmos Sack and dagger and she quickly dived down into the water.

With her eyes open underwater, she could see the golden egg slowly and gradually sinking. But, she saw that as it got deeper down, the crystal clear water in the pool became dark and impenetrable by sight, looking like a bottomless pit filled with endless mysteries.

She was worried that if it sank deeper, her breathe would not hold out long enough, and she was also worried as she did not know what kind of things she would encounter if she went down deeper, hence, she increased her speed as she dived down. When she saw that she was getting nearer, she reached out her hand and grabbed at the egg, holding it close to her.

And just as she was about to swim up to towards the surface after securing the egg in her arm, she suddenly seemed to have spotted an algae covered stone door further down into the dark dim depths?

Although puzzled, she wasn't too curious at that moment as she couldn't hold her breath any much longer and she immediately kicked and pushed with her arm and legs to push her speedily up. And at that moment, the stone door deep down in the pool suddenly creaked open.

A tremendously strong suction came out from behind that door, just like a vortex from the bottom of the pool, that sucked all the water in towards the door, carrying her down together with it.

"Ugh!"

Caught within that tremendous suction within the water, she was not able to avoid getting herself spinning together with the whirlpool that had suddenly kicked up, and was sucked in through the door.

But the immense pressure from the water and being caught in that fiercely swirling vortex made her suddenly feel her heart's blood surge into her chest and she vomited it out through her mouth, with most of it falling squarely onto the golden egg she had clasped firmly in her arm. But before she saw the heart's blood that she coughed out being absorbed by the golden egg, everything suddenly turned black before her eyes and she lost consciousness.....

At that same moment, the golden egg began to emanate a faint golden glow, the complicated looking runes on its shell that had disappeared surfaced once more, spreading out over the exterior of the shell together with the golden light.

What was really beyond anyone's expectation was that the golden egg that had been approximately the size of two fists was suddenly gradually growing under the golden light. It was still clasped in Feng Jiu's arm, but it was now the size of a huge watermelon.

And right between Feng Jiu's eyebrows, a scarlet red rune of the Fire Phoenix appeared. And at the same time when that rune appeared, her body was suddenly bathed in a golden light, and the multitude of wounds upon her body were closing and healing at a speed visible to the eye.....

A loud crash resounded. Feng Jiu who had been pulled in by that strong vortex was thrown straight onto the ground, the water from the whirlpool splashing onto her body. The impact and the stinging pain woke her as she gradually regained her consciousness. As she slowly peered her eyes open, she was almost blinded by a bright golden light.

'Crack!'

The sound of a clear and crisp crack startled her and she looked down at the golden egg that had rolled out from her grasp which was now as big as a huge watermelon, with a long crack running down the side.

'Crack!'

The crack sounded again and another long zigzagged line appeared on the shell of the egg. And when she saw the two halves of the shell break open, she was suddenly stunned and rendered completely speechless.....

                                    *.·:·.☽✧ ✦ ✧☾.·:·.*