Chapter 24: Rain of Blazing Fire Part 2

The Phoenix: “…All right.”

Only then did Fu Yuqiu leave, reassured.

This time the Phoenix didn’t depart at once. He waited patiently in place for a while before vanishing from the Phoenix Hall.

The great hall of the Nine Heavens.

The Immortal Venerable, arrayed in a snow robe with phoenix patterns, walked unhurriedly to his cloud chair and sat.

Feng Beihe was kneeling respectfully below the dais, back ramrod straight—by the look of him, he truly had been kneeling in wait for quite some time.

At the sight of the Immortal Venerable, Feng Beihe inclined his head in salute: “Greetings, Venerated Father.”

The Immortal Venerable gave a distracted acknowledgment and said to Yun Shou nearby, “Bring the White Sparrow.”

—He had flatly ignored Feng Beihe, still kneeling there.

Yun Shou hurried out and soon came back cradling the White Sparrow, setting him on the small table before the Immortal Venerable.

For some reason, Fu Yuqiu—a rare sight—had spread his wings and was hiding his beak behind their very tips, his bean-black eyes swimming with mist.

“What’s the matter with you?” the Immortal Venerable asked, frowning. “Unwell?”

Fu Yuqiu shook his head frantically, trying to cover his mouth and shuffle backward, the mist in his eyes thickening until it nearly condensed into falling drops.

“I don’t know. When I found him he was heading for the Phoenix Hall again, and he seemed to have something in his beak,” Yun Shou said. “But the moment I came over, the thing was gone.”

Fu Yuqiu: “…”

The Immortal Venerable: “…”

Recalling Fu Yuqiu’s declared plan to fetch the Phoenix a fruit, and beholding this conspicuously guilty display, the Immortal Venerable fell silent.

Fu Yuqiu had stolen a Spring Return Fruit from the medicine room and hadn’t dared let the Living Yama see it openly. When Yun Shou came for him, he had popped the fruit into his mouth in one go, puffing his cheeks out round.

He endured the watering of his eyes—which watered purely from the strain—and thought mournfully: I’ve had it in my mouth already. I don’t know if the Phoenix will still mind, even washed.

Truly, one must never do sneaky, thieving things.

Karma had come.

Cheeks stuffed with fruit, Fu Yuqiu mentally calculated: if the Living Yama ordered him to chirp a little tune right now, would he chirp, or not chirp?

He experimentally “chirped”—nearly spitting the fruit out—and hastily clamped down tighter.

So: no chirping.

The Immortal Venerable watched the White Sparrow, who thought himself so well hidden, with a complicated expression. Worried the sparrow might choke himself into real harm, he was about to have Yun Shou carry him back—

when the White Sparrow’s gaze happened to sweep across the kneeling Feng Beihe, and those wet eyes instantly kindled with fury.

“Chirp!”

At the sight of his enemy, Fu Yuqiu let out an enraged cry—and swallowed the fruit in his mouth whole.

The Immortal Venerable: “…”

Whether from choking or from rage, Fu Yuqiu toppled over into the Immortal Venerable’s palm, panting, saying nothing.

The Immortal Venerable’s head snapped up, and Phoenix pressure came crashing down once more.

Caught off guard, Feng Beihe’s head slammed down into a kneel; his gravely wounded body nearly sent its own Spiritual Power surging backward through his meridians.

The Immortal Venerable said flatly, “You frightened him.”

Feng Beihe: “?”

Yun Shou, likewise: “???”

Wonderful. The Venerable One was having another episode.

No one had ever managed to fathom the Immortal Venerable’s temper: some offended him with words and were cheerfully rewarded; at other times he would roast birds alive as fireworks.

After so long in the White Sparrow’s company, Yun Shou had nearly forgotten: the Venerable One was a madman of moods beyond sun and storm.

Feng Beihe couldn’t imagine why he had been blamed out of nowhere. Turning it over, he could only conclude: the Snake Clan again.

—After all, in all these years, he had never once done anything to anger the Venerable One. Except that business of exterminating the Snake Clan.

Feng Beihe adapted smoothly: “Venerated Father, calm your wrath.”

The Immortal Venerable lowered his eyes and channeled Spiritual Power into the White Sparrow, swiftly refining the Spring Return Fruit for him, lest it choke him into real trouble.

Fu Yuqiu coughed twice and spat out a pit.

Such a large pit—it was a wonder he had managed to swallow it at all.

Seeing the sparrow listlessly limp in his palm, the Immortal Venerable stroked his sleek, soft plumes in idle strokes and said flatly, “What is the lower-realm Immortal Alliance raving about this time?”

Gravely wounded and still unhealed, having now been swept twice by the Venerable One’s pressure in mere days, Feng Beihe’s face was deathly pale, his kneeling frame faintly swaying.

But his expression remained composed. “In the past five years, eleven Blazing Fire Rains have fallen upon the lower realm. The Immortal Alliance suspects the Golden Crow’s doing and has raised an eighty-one-story Heaven-Listening Tower, hoping to beg the Venerated Father’s grace to subdue the Golden Crow.”

“Blazing Fire Rain? Golden Crow?” The Immortal Venerable tipped up the White Sparrow’s chin, saying absently, “What business is that of mine?”

Yun Shou said coldly from the side, “There was a Blazing Fire Rain ten years ago as well. The Dragon Clan, on the Venerable One’s orders, spread the Spirit Rain Marsh far and wide—that was already benevolence run to its utmost. Don’t those lower-realm Daoists style themselves immortals? With powers so vast, why must they beg the Venerable One?”

“The Four Clans are also in the lower realm.” Feng Beihe paid the snappish Yun Shou no heed, keeping his eyes on the Immortal Venerable. “Venerated Father, forgive my bluntness. That Blazing Fire Rain days ago—it fell upon the Phoenix Ruins.”

At the words “Phoenix Ruins,” Yun Shou flared into a teal dragon in fury, his vast frame nearly filling the great hall.

The dragon said darkly, “Feng Beihe! Insolence!”

The Immortal Venerable had been imprisoned in the Phoenix Ruins for decades by the previous Vermilion Bird Immortal Venerable—that place was all but the Venerable One’s ground of shame.

Facing a dragon’s pressure, Feng Beihe’s face did not change. He said flatly, “I speak only truth. If the Venerated Father doubts it, send someone down to see.”

The Immortal Venerable, who had been absorbed in petting the white bundle, finally lifted his head lazily. A casual flick of two fingers, and Yun Shou, sulking, resumed human form, glaring at Feng Beihe and grinding his teeth.

“The Phoenix Ruins…” The Immortal Venerable considered. “If I recall, that is in the Xili Mountains?”

Feng Beihe: “It is.”

The Immortal Venerable: “Is there not a valley there?”

Feng Beihe’s brow twitched.

A valley?

The Xili Mountains ran unbroken; only where the Spirit Vein ran were there broad plains, and the Phoenix Ruins sat atop the Spirit Vein.

And where plain met mountains, there was indeed a valley.

Feng Beihe’s heart tightened. “There is,” he answered properly.

The Immortal Venerable frowned, as if puzzled at himself for asking: “Did that valley also fall under the Blazing Fire Rain?”

Legend held that when the Golden Crow wrought havoc, rains fell from heaven hot as blazing fire; where they touched soil, they burned like the deadliest poison, reducing every living thing to ash.

Wherever the Blazing Fire Rain fell, nothing grew, and drought lasted decades.

Fu Yuqiu started.

The valley in the Xili Mountains—wasn’t that the Secluded Sound Valley?

Forget resenting Feng Beihe; Fu Yuqiu leapt up at once, wishing he could sprout a dozen ears to listen.

Feng Beihe frowned and moved to answer.

The Immortal Venerable felt his palm suddenly go empty. Brow creasing, he fixed the White Sparrow with a look, as if grown tired of the whole subject, and said, “Never mind. Have the Dragon Clan spread the Spirit Rain Marsh.”

Feng Beihe bowed his assent. “And the Heaven-Listening Tower?”

The Immortal Venerable gave him a look that was half smile, half not.

Feng Beihe understood at once: “Yes.”

The reason Feng Beihe was the Venerable One’s most valued Junior Venerable was precisely that he could endure, could be ruthless, and could read the Venerable One’s mind.

Where Feng Xingyun was tepid and Feng Xuesheng despondent, a single glance from the Venerable One told Feng Beihe his thoughts, and he saw every task—great or small—done precisely to the Venerable One’s liking.

Seeing his deathly pale face—gravely wounded, surely—the Immortal Venerable gave the slightest tap to a single down feather Fu Yuqiu had left in his palm.

The down feather abruptly transformed into a gleaming Golden Plume.

“Well done in this matter,” the Immortal Venerable said flatly. “Heal properly.”

Feng Beihe loosed a silent breath of relief.

He had assumed some unexpected incident had caused the Venerable One’s inexplicable rage. Now it seemed it was indeed only the White Snake affair, and the Venerable One’s anger had yet to cool.

The injuries within Feng Beihe’s body were worsening; ordinary Golden Radiance Grass no longer worked.

The Golden Plume the Immortal Venerable bestowed repelled his constitution, but fortunately its power was immense—even one plume could mend his wounds to seven or eight parts out of ten.

He bowed respectfully. “My thanks, Venerated Father.”

The Immortal Venerable moved to flick a finger, sending the Golden Plume drifting toward Feng Beihe.

But the plume had barely floated an inch when the White Sparrow, standing quietly on the jade table, suddenly kicked off, spun twice in midair, and clamped the Golden Plume in his beak, biting down and refusing to let go.

Feng Beihe’s brow furrowed.

The Immortal Venerable, though, found it novel. “What’s this? Fond of the plume?” he asked, amused.

Clamping the Golden Plume, Fu Yuqiu put on a look of perfect innocence and nodded obediently.

“Chirp chirp.”

Of course he liked it—plundering Feng Beihe’s things out in the open.

“Then shall I give you a Phoenix Inheritance to play with instead?” the Immortal Venerable said, smiling. “Those are prettier.”

Feng Beihe: “…”

Yun Shou: “…”

Since when was the Phoenix Inheritance something to be handed out for play?!

Fu Yuqiu wanted the Phoenix Inheritance too, but he wanted this Golden Plume more. He shook his head, twisted his head aside, and jammed the Golden Plume into the flight feathers behind his wings.

A mismatched golden plume stuck in flawless snow-white feathers—it looked absurd from any angle.

But Fu Yuqiu thought it looked magnificent. He turned happily to show the Immortal Venerable, dark eyes fixed on him, and for the first time without a trace of loathing or hostility.

“En. It looks fine,” the Immortal Venerable said at once. “It’s yours, then.”

Fu Yuqiu’s eyes curved up with delight, and he actually chirped two ingratiating little notes at him, unbearably sweet.

In high humor, the Immortal Venerable gently ruffled the White Sparrow’s head.

Feng Beihe: “…”

The Immortal Venerable glanced at him.

Feng Beihe knew when to read the room. He bowed respectfully: “Beihe withdraws.”

The Immortal Venerable: “Mm.”

Feng Beihe forced himself up despite the rending pain, face expressionless.

At the moment of departure, he turned sideways for one last look.

On the White Sparrow standing atop the jade table was stuck a long Phoenix Golden Plume—and on that jade-and-snow, darling face lingered a faint, chilling indifference, eyes fixed on him with something near hatred.

Feng Beihe’s brow knotted hard, and he strode out.

The Azure Luan Clan was, indeed, without shame.

Only after Feng Beihe was gone did Fu Yuqiu coldly withdraw his gaze.

Burning the bridge the moment he had crossed the river, he immediately shook the plundered Golden Plume loose from his flight feathers and tossed it carelessly aside.

It wasn’t as if the thing could be given to the Phoenix. What use was it?

The Immortal Venerable lazily picked up the Golden Plume, set it spinning on his fingertip, and said flatly, “Weren’t you just saying how much you liked it?”

Fu Yuqiu glared at him, but quickly reined in his indignant little look.

He had just heard the two of them mention the Xili Mountains—and the Secluded Sound Valley.

Blazing Fire Rain?

Deep in thought, Fu Yuqiu murmured to himself without realizing: “Chirp chirp?”

“What is a Blazing Fire Rain?”

“A Blazing Fire Rain?” The Immortal Venerable toyed idly with the plume the sparrow didn’t want, answering in a warm voice, “A century ago, nine Golden Crows sought to rival the sun itself, and the heavens poured down a world-drowning rain of fire. The Three Realms knew no peace, and no grass grew.”

Fu Yuqiu understood at once.

Rains of fire falling from the sky—he had read of that in the books his brother gave him.

—Back then, it had been the entire Phoenix Clan sacrificing themselves to the Golden Crow that turned back that world-ending calamity.

But weren’t the nine Golden Crows long destroyed? How could there be Blazing Fire Rain again?

And whether the Secluded Sound Valley in the Xili Mountains had suffered the rain or not—why had they cut the story off and walked away?

Feng Beihe really was hateful.

Fu Yuqiu’s brow knotted, thoughts churning.

But very quickly, a far more important realization struck him, belatedly.

He wasn’t in a human body right now. That call just now…

That was just a “chirp chirp,” right?

Then the Living Yama…

Fu Yuqiu went rigid all over and sucked in a violent breath, as if struck by five bolts of thunder at once.

As though the joints of his neck had rusted solid, he lifted his head by millimeter after agonizing millimeter, dry and stiff, and finally—trembling—met the Immortal Venerable’s mischievous golden eyes.

Fu Yuqiu: “…”

Half smiling, half not, the Immortal Venerable asked: “Anything else you would like to ask?”

Fu Yuqiu: “!!!”

Darkness swam before Fu Yuqiu’s eyes; he nearly opened his beak and spat out a blade-of-grass-shaped ghost, ascending to heaven on the spot.

The Living Yama could understand him?!