Love & Redemption
Chapter 214: Volume 5 Phoenix Flower Blooms - 21 Blooming Panorama (1)

Chapter 214: Volume 5 Phoenix Flower Blooms Chapter 21 Blooming Panorama (1)

The third watch.

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Xuanji’s playful spirit suddenly arose, and she dashed off in pursuit, chasing the bird into the forest. Sword Control swiftly took to the sky, blinking an eye, she flew right behind the large bird, and reached out to grab it. Who would have known that this bird was incredibly agile, with a flap of its wings, it deftly dodged to the side. Upon closer inspection, Xuanji realized—this wasn’t a bird at all! It was a large snow-white rat with webbed feet that could fly!

She had seen such a creature in the Demon Name List before, called the Fire Rat, reportedly living in fire and belonging to the extremely rare and odd beasts. The most extraordinary thing was that if one could make clothes out of its fur, without needing to wash with water, just by throwing them into the fire to burn for a while and then taking them out, they would be clean and like new.

This Fire Rat didn’t seem very big, but Xuanji didn’t know how it came to be here. Without time to think, seeing it fly off at a slant, she reached out backwards for another grab. This time she did touch it but only tore off a handful of fur; the Fire Rat was astonishingly quick, squeaking sharply as it darted away ten yards in the blink of an eye.

Xuanji was reluctant to stab it with her sword, fearing she’d ruin the fur, yet this creature wasn’t afraid of fire, the more it was burned, the more spirited it became. Suddenly, she reached for the water flask hanging at her waist and had an idea: with a gesture of her hands, she formed a Seal and released two little fire dragons, encircling the Fire Rat between them, spiraling up and down around it.

As expected, the Fire Rat wasn’t the least bit scared, becoming even livelier in the fire, flying faster and faster. The two fire dragons followed it closely, with no intention of harming it, enclosing it in their midst like a pair of dragons playfully rolling a bead. Xuanji hurried after them, pinching her fingers together to dispel the fire dragons and then she untied the water flask and splashed its contents over it.

The Fire Rat couldn’t dodge in time, a full flask of water drenched it squarely; it squealed twice and then plummeted straight down from the sky, caught deftly by Xuanji, who was triumphant. It turned out that the Demon Name List had recorded that the Fire Rat could not be killed by ordinary methods, and even if it died, it would revive and escape after a while. Only by first letting it burn in a fire, and immediately splashing it with water once it emerged from the flames, would it die with one splash.

She hadn’t expected to accidentally catch such a valuable Fire Rat; if its fur were sold outside, it would fetch a pretty price! Holding the Fire Rat, Xuanji, in high spirits, landed on the ground and turned to see Yu Sifeng’s cyan figure flitting around the edge of the forest, seemingly anxiously searching for something. She hurriedly waved her hand and shouted, "Si Feng! Come quick! Look what I caught!"

No sooner had the words faded than he rushed over, his complexion an iron blue, eyes dark as ink, silent, just staring at her intently. Xuanji was startled by his expression, and her smiling face unwittingly fell, muttering as she pointed at the Fire Rat, "You... look, this is... a Fire Rat..."

Yu Sifeng gazed at her deeply, and after a while, he finally spoke, "You... ran off alone, without a word to say, just to catch this thing?"

Xuanji nodded blankly, a sense of foreboding filling her heart, but the source of it was elusive— he was angry, very angry, but crucially, she couldn’t figure out why he was angry.

Yu Sifeng watched her for a moment, then suddenly let out a few low chuckles and turned to leave. He really was like a fool, wasn’t he? So wretched he nearly had nowhere to hide. He hadn’t intended to neglect her; it’s just that by the time he realized, she was no longer there. He thought she left after seeing him talk to Lanlan, feeling uncomfortable, so he quickly came out to find her. But, he was wrong again; she didn’t care at all, she was still just as... heartless. If so, why should he painstakingly search for her, tell her he’d been looking for nearly two years, making his nearly extinguished heart burn again?

He had long understood that no matter what he did, she would never take him seriously. All that mattered was his company, so she wouldn’t be alone. She was like a myriad of silken threads he couldn’t shake or escape; aimless, not understanding love, only knowing to cling to him, to embrace him, trying to pull him into an abyss.

She was truly his demon, making him feel alive as though dead, hope turning entirely to despair.

"Si Feng!" She called out to him again with that soft and tender voice, helplessly clinging to him.

He wanted to dodge as if he had seen a ghost, but suddenly his chest ached sharply, a hot, bitter liquid slid from the corner of his mouth, and he could no longer stand, collapsing onto his back. He heard her scream, then fell into a warm embrace, struggling in vain; she held him tightly in her arms, her face pressed against his, the salty taste of tears on his lips.

He caught her wrist with a trembling hand and said with a shaky voice, "I... don’t want to see you anymore... go away!" After he spoke, darkness engulfed him, and he lost consciousness.

*****

Initially, Yu Sifeng felt extremely cold, as if he were standing naked in a snowy, icy world, freezing to the point of rigidity, his blood ready to turn to ice. After a while, the blinding snowstorm transformed into a scorching summer day, the sun fierce and hot, baking his skin to the brink of cracking, and inside him, a fire burned his organs, unbearably painful.

In a daze, he thought he saw the Great Palace Master standing opposite him, smiling faintly at him, softly calling, "Si Feng, come to daddy. That woman is your demon, give her up! Daddy will give you everything, you must be well!"

He felt a welling of emotion and stepped forward calling out, "Daddy", but the Great Palace Master’s face suddenly changed, looking at him with a completely foreign gaze, coldly saying, "Who are you? Who allowed you to come in?" Startled, the figure in front of him blurred again, the shape became slender, but the face was extremely vague, her hair pinned with a jade hairpin in the shape of a Golden Winged Bird.

The woman opened her arms to him, calling softly, "Si Feng, come here, let mom have a look at you."

He reached out to grab her, but as soon as his fingertips touched her sleeve, she dispersed like smoke, leaving no trace behind. He looked around anxiously, calling out loudly, but the only thing surrounding him was the vast fog, and nothing could be seen. Suddenly, someone grabbed his arm with such force that it made him tremble in pain.

A handsome and valiant face appeared before him, a long scarlet scar across it adding a fierce look. The man toyed with his ponytail and, raising his eyes to look at him, spoke in a deep voice, "Hmph! It doesn’t matter if the Juntian Ring is returned to you! But the scores from a thousand years ago, I will settle with you sooner or later!"

As soon as his voice faded, everything turned blank, and there was silence all around. He stood bewildered for a long time until he heard someone weeping in the distance. Following that, he felt as if he was being held, smelling a light, familiar fragrance. The blankness before his eyes receded like the tide; Si Feng stirred slightly and slowly opened his eyes to the blue mosquito netting of his own bedroom’s ceiling.

He was indeed being held, with his head resting on someone’s lap, his face wet and drops of water continuously falling. He struggled to lift his head and saw Xuanji’s snow-white face close to his, her eyes red from continuous weeping. When she saw him wake up, her face changed color from panic, and with a trembling voice, she said, "Si Feng! Are, are you alright? Does it still hurt anywhere?"

Yu Sifeng silently watched her, exhausted from recalling the past, then after a long while, spoke softly, "Why didn’t you leave? There was no need to stay."

Xuanji said with a trembling voice, "I won’t leave! I will absolutely not leave! I’ve searched for so long, and now that I have finally found you, even if I die, I won’t leave!"

He gave a bitter smile and softly said, "If you don’t leave, the person who will die will only be me..."

Xuanji felt waves of heat and cold wash over her, her heart climbing to peaks and plummeting into abysses. She had never felt such deep agony and confusion before. More than a year, over five hundred days and nights, had brought her not the happiness of being together but perhaps he had never expected her to appear. She was so naive, thinking that overcoming myriad difficulties would allow them to be happy together, that as long as she searched for him, he would definitely come back.

She was wrong, completely wrong.

She had never truly understood him, judging him based on her own preferences and demanding of him. He turned out to have a deeply entrenched, extreme personality. Once hurt, he pushed her thousands of miles away. Between them, he had always been the initiator, but the real Yu Sifeng was not one to persevere stubbornly unless she gave her all; otherwise, he would surely shrink back and evade.

Xuanji slowly clenched her fist and said in a low voice, "If you want to die, I will follow you. Yu Sifeng, don’t think about escaping from me." She suddenly drew out a Bengyu and swiftly made a deep cut on her arm. Blood gushed out like a fountain, and a large pool of fresh blood splashed onto his face, shocking him to the core.

Xuanji lifted the corners of her mouth and softly said, "Each time your Lover’s Curse acts up, I’ll cut myself with three slashes to see who dies faster." After saying this, she drew the Bengyu across her other arm mercilessly and was about to slash her thigh when he forcefully grabbed the hilt of the sword to stop this terrifying act.

"Stop it!" His face pale, he snatched away the Bengyu and threw it to the ground, hissing, "Do not treat life and death as a joke!"

Xuanji said in a low voice, "I’m not joking! It’s you who aren’t serious! You never believe in me, arrogantly jump to conclusions about me, and ignore all my efforts. But the moment I show the slightest laxity, you pounce on it. Who is it that really needs to grow up?!"

Yu Sifeng gazed at her as if she were a stranger. Then Xuanji added, "I’ve always been alone since I was young, from my past life to this one. Then finally someone made me realize how terrible loneliness was. I wanted to grow old with him, together forever. I’ve searched for more than five hundred nights; if that can’t move you even slightly, then you’re free to leave once more, and I’ll keep searching, for ten years, twenty years! How many years would satisfy you? How much longer will it take for you to say to me, ’You’ve worked hard, I’ve waited a long time for you?’"

Her tears suddenly fell again, a few drops of fresh blood staining her snow-white cheeks, mixing with her tears, and dripping down from her chin. Suddenly, she covered her face and said with a quiver in her voice, "Or are you saying that you really don’t want to see me at all? Then tell me: Chu Xuanji, I’m sick of you, now get lost. I will disappear obediently and won’t bother you ever again."

She cried for a long time with her face covered, feeling dizzy, the burn on her leg, the gash on her arm throbbing painfully, causing cold sweat to soak through her clothes. She felt like she could hardly hold on, slowly leaning backward, when suddenly a pair of arms scooped under her ribs, and she was embraced tightly by the man across from her, so tight she nearly couldn’t breathe.

"Fool..." He whispered in her ear, "I’ve waited for you for a long time. You arrived very late, which made me angry."

Xuanji felt as if she was in a dream. Suddenly realizing it, she held him tightly with her arms and said urgently, "Why did you only say so now? You bad person! Why didn’t you want to see me earlier, why did you say those unpleasant words?!" Her tears fell in big drops, and thinking of the grievances she had suffered earlier made her heart feel like it was tearing apart.

He held her head close, kissing her forehead gently, wiping the tears from her eyes with his fingers, and finally whispered, "Because I’m afraid... Xuanji, I can be scared too."

He feared she would let go easily again; he also feared she didn’t understand what love was. It was better to cut off all contact with her completely, as a prolonged pain is worse than a short one.

He held her tightly, that suffocating embrace making it hard for her to breathe. She closed her eyes and murmured, "Si Feng... let’s never be apart again, okay? Just the two of us." His eyes moist with emotion, he said with a quiver in his voice, "Yes, we will never be apart again." (To be continued. For more of this story, please visit www.qidian.com. More Chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!)