Phoenix

"Have you really made up your mind to stay by this person's side?"

At night, Qing Yanjing sat cross-legged on the bed with her eyes closed, resting. Ling Xi and Bai Ye slept on either side of her.

In Qing Yanjing's eyes, the two children were obediently resting, but she had not expected another living being to be hidden within Bai Ye's body.

"Why are you always so resistant to this, Bing Yu?"

Faced with Bing Yu asking the same question again and again, Bai Ye asked in confusion.

Bing Yu fell silent again, seemingly deep in thought.

Bai Ye was not in a hurry. He was not sleepy in the slightest anyway, so he could wait for Bing Yu to think it over.

After a long while, so long that Bai Ye was starting to feel sleepy, Bing Yu's voice sounded in his heart once more. "Because she's very strong."

"Isn't being strong a good thing?"

What kind of reason was that?

In Bai Ye's eyes, the stronger Aunt Jing was, the more it seemed to benefit them.

"Not really."

Bing Yu replied coldly.

"If it weren't for how young you are, with that woman's strength, she could easily sense my presence while examining your body."

"Aunt Jing can't know about your existence, Bing Yu?"

Bai Ye had not expected such an answer.

He did not understand.

"No."

Bing Yu's answer was concise and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.

"Why?"

Bai Ye grew even more confused.

"Because..." Bing Yu paused, not knowing how to explain this to the little fellow.

"Because she is human."

After hesitating for a moment, Bing Yu gave that answer.

???

Bai Ye was dumbfounded. What kind of answer was that? It was so perfunctory.

"I'm human too."

"You're different."

"How am I different?"

"You're very weak."

"..."

"Phew."

Bing Yu let out a breath, her tone somewhat helpless.

"Little fellow, I don't know whether your mother ever told you that the world beyond the Sin Domain is different from the Sin Domain, where even the colors are so monotonous."

"Different?"

"Ah, why am I explaining this to a child?"

It was clear that Bing Yu was helpless to the extreme.

If she could, she truly did not want to discuss such things with a child barely over three years old.

"It doesn't matter if you can't understand it now. You'll slowly come to understand in the future. All I can tell you is that, in the eyes of powerful human cultivators, my very existence is a treasure. I can't guarantee that the woman beside you won't harbor ill intentions toward me."

"Aunt Jing wouldn't."

Bai Ye understood what Bing Yu meant and spoke firmly.

"What makes you so sure?"

Bing Yu felt as if she had gone mad, arguing over such a matter with a child.

If she had not been temporarily unable to leave Bai Ye's body, she would have fled from this person while Qing Yanjing had taken Ling Xi to wash up earlier.

Although her original strength had dissipated during her last Nirvana, as one of the Great Thousand World's top divine beasts, her ability to sense the strong remained intact.

In her perception, the woman beside them was unfathomably powerful.

Even at her peak, she might have been somewhat inferior to her, let alone now.

She did not dare to gamble...

"Because she looks a lot like Mother."

Bai Ye's words were as inexplicable as ever.

Yet the boy's tone was incomparably earnest.

"Anyone who resembles Mother can't be a bad person."

Bing Yu was slightly stunned.

There had once been only three living beings in the Sin Domain: a married couple and a female bird.

Then, on the day the wife gave birth, the man had forced himself to use the spiritual energy within him against the suppression of the Ancestral Decree, protecting the baby boy who had entered a dangerous state because of his powerful bloodline.

Later, the man turned into specks of starlight and scattered throughout the Sin Domain.

And there were still only three living beings in the Sin Domain.

Bing Yu had seen the woman the man called "A-Yu" more than once.

She was a very gentle woman. Even in Bing Yu's long life as a beast, she had rarely seen a woman so gentle.

The two females in the Sin Domain had never exchanged a word, but Bing Yu would often secretly watch from above while flying through the sky.

She watched the woman endure the pain of her husband's death as she steadfastly cared for her fragile infant. She watched her teach her son according to her own unique understanding. She watched her accompany Bai Ye as he slowly grew up. Finally, she watched her fall ill from longing and fade away from the Sin Domain far too soon.

Bing Yu rarely felt fondness for humans, but the human woman named Bai Yu was one of the few humans she liked.

And because of that, she subconsciously believed in this child she had watched grow up.

"How ridiculous."

Bing Yu spoke coldly.

Though it truly was absurd, Little Bai Ye's words had an unexpected effect.

She did not think Qing Yanjing resembled Bai Yu, but if Bai Ye insisted on staying by this person's side, then she had to protect Bai Ye as well.

It could be considered doing something for that woman.

"What exactly are you, Bing Yu?"

Now that they had reached this point in their conversation, Bai Ye had completely lost any sleepiness. He gently turned over, facing the wall.

Qing Yanjing's eyelids moved slightly, as though she had sensed Bai Ye shifting. But seeing that the little boy was sleeping fairly peacefully, she returned to her meditative posture.

"Didn't I tell you before?"

Bing Yu spoke coldly.

"I'm a phoenix."

Upon hearing those words, Bai Ye instinctively sensed that something was off in Bing Yu's tone.

But he could not say exactly what was wrong.

Perhaps their earlier conversation had opened Bing Yu up. Before Bai Ye could even ask, her voice sounded in the boy's heart.

"Don't misunderstand. I only said that to give you a direct impression. If I could, I wouldn't want to add such a disgusting classification after the name of my race."

This time, Bai Ye could clearly sense Bing Yu's disgust toward the word "phoenix."

"Disgusting?"

"There are no creatures in this world more disgusting than them."

Bing Yu said coldly.

"If there is a bloodline more disgusting than a True Phoenix, it must be a True Huang. Even those arrogant worms are thousands, tens of thousands of times better than them."

Wow, that was some intense hostility.

"Then you must be..."

Faced with Bing Yu like this, Bai Ye could only ask cautiously.

Bing Yu fell silent for a moment. She did not know whether anyone still remembered that race which had flashed briefly across the Great Thousand World.

"A Great Thousand World God-level Spirit Beast, an Emperor Crystal Ice Phoenix."

In the Great Thousand World, countless spirits competed for supremacy. There was an item known as the Myriad Beasts Record, which established the Heaven and Earth Rankings and recorded every spirit beast within them.

On the Earth Ranking, spirit beasts that made it into the top hundred were known as Heaven Beasts. Among those Heaven Beasts, those who could enter the Heaven Ranking were called God-level Spirit Beasts, or so-called divine beasts.

Spirit beasts that reached such a level were so powerful that even human experts of the Supreme Realm had to avoid their sharp edge.

And Bing Yu, who was now inside Bai Ye's body, was precisely such an existence.

"So, you're actually very powerful, Bing Yu."

After listening to Bing Yu's explanation, Bai Ye spoke.

"Once I complete my final Nirvana, I'll reach the realm my mother once stood in. At that time, I'll be hard-pressed to find an enemy in the entire Great Thousand World."

As she spoke of this, Bing Yu's tone revealed immense confidence.

"Every Nirvana of an Emperor Crystal Ice Phoenix is a transformation. Once the number of Nirvanas reaches nine, my strength will stand at the pinnacle of the Great Thousand World. Tell me, am I powerful or not?"

"Then which Nirvana are you on now?"

"The seventh."

"Wow!"

Bai Ye was very surprised. Nine minus seven was two, which meant that Bing Yu only needed to undergo Nirvana two more times to become incredibly, incredibly powerful.

But...

"If that's the case, why can't you leave the Sin Domain...?"

Faced with Bai Ye's innocent question, Bing Yu was slightly taken aback.

"Do you think the Sin Domain is so easy to leave? Every region within the Sin Domain is covered by the Ice Spirit Clan's Ancestral Decree, which is why the entire Sin Domain is filled with flying snow. Every living being who enters the Sin Domain is restricted by it and cannot leave. To walk out of that place, aside from reaching the Heavenly Supreme realm yourself, the only way is to rely on the ancestral return of the Spirit Vein within your body to leave without being restricted."

"Spirit Vein? Me?"

The matter had suddenly turned to himself, and Bai Ye was slightly stunned.

"You didn't know?"

Bing Yu was stunned as well. Given that couple's strength, they should have noticed the once-in-ten-million-years Spirit Vein Ancestral Return when Bai Ye was born...

"I didn't."

Bai Ye said he had never even heard of such a thing.

"I don't know much about it either."

Bing Yu explained.

"The bloodline inheritance I received once mentioned a phenomenon like yours. The strongest ancestor in Ice Spirit Clan history was the Ice Spirit Emperor, one of the Ancient Nine Emperors during the Ancient Era. She founded the present Ice Spirit Clan with her own hands. It is said that the Ice Spirit Clan's Ancestral Decree was formed from a drop of her heart's blood. Under the Ancestral Decree, every being with Ice Spirit Clan bloodline would be suppressed, except..."

Bing Yu's voice abruptly stopped, because at that moment, she heard the boy's faint snoring.

After such a day, not to mention a three-year-old child, even an ordinary youth would be mentally exhausted.

"Little fellow, you have no idea what astonishing talent lies within your body."

Spirit Vein Ancestral Return meant that the Spirit Vein in Bai Ye's body could rival that of the Ice Spirit Emperor from the Ancient Era.

She was one of the Ancient Nine Emperors. Even in the Ancient Era, where powerful experts were as numerous as clouds, she had been among the foremost existences. When Bing Yu had discovered this, she had been so shocked that she did not close her eyes for days, and from time to time, she would fly over to glance at the place where the little fellow was.

What amused her even more was that the Ice Spirit Clan's strongest bloodline had actually been exiled to the Sin Domain. It was simply the greatest joke in the world. If that Ice Spirit Clan Old Man outside found out, he would probably be unable to resist strangling his younger self from over a decade ago.

"The Ice Spirit Ancestral Vein, along with an Emperor Crystal Ice Phoenix?"

Where Bai Ye could not see, a trace of emotion flashed through a pair of beautiful Gilded Gold eyes.

"This must be fate."

Legend had it that in the distant Ancient Era, beside the mysterious and powerful Ice Spirit Emperor, there had been an aberrant member of the Phoenix Clan.

One human and one phoenix had forged tremendous renown in that magnificent age.

Perhaps her closeness to this little fellow was not entirely unaffected by their bloodlines.

"Forget it. Let it be."

Bing Yu shook her head.

Perhaps even if she had regained the peak strength she possessed before Nirvana, she still would not leave this little fellow.

She no longer had a single family member in this world. This little fellow she had watched grow up was now the person closest to her.

It seemed that the only meaningful thing she could do in this Great Thousand World was watch him continue to grow, then become the person he wished to be.

Why did that suddenly make her feel like a mother?

She was clearly still a young female spirit beast.

But the ancestral vein...

At that thought, a trace of concern flashed through her Gilded Gold eyes.

If she remembered correctly, the Ice Spirit Clan's ancestral vein did not seem to be such a wonderful thing...

"Once he turns six, everything will become clear..."