Xie Xuanyi stepped onto the stone wall, adjusted his direction, bent his knees slightly, and shot out like an arrow the next moment.
Whoosh!
Earthfire surged and tumbled!
Countless shattered flames shot toward him!
In that short distance, Xie Xuanyi accelerated without pause, plunging like a meteor. In almost an instant, he arrived before the throne wreathed in black fire!
Just as he had expected... that seemingly magnificent phoenix manifestation was merely an empty shell. The bottom of Emberpeak Mountain had begun to collapse. Several enormous boulders pierced through the light curtain cast by the manifestation and crashed beside the throne with earth-shaking force, while the little girl remained "fast asleep," utterly unaware that a great calamity was about to descend.
Xie Xuanyi hesitated no longer. He stretched out his arms and scooped up her petite body around the waist.
Standing before the throne, he lifted his head and looked upward.
Rumble—
The thunder grew increasingly deafening.
Emberpeak Mountain could clearly no longer withstand the assault of the heatwave. Huge rocks on the inner side of the mountain walls began to break away, tumbling down one after another! This volcano had completely awakened!
Before long, Emberpeak Mountain would utterly "collapse"!
"You really sleep like the dead..."
Xie Xuanyi lowered his eyes to glance at the little girl in his arms and muttered, "Wouldn't it be a little too embarrassing if you died just like this?"
For a phoenix to be buried in a volcano was like a swimming fish drowning in the sea.
That sort of death was indeed far too embarrassing, far too pathetic.
The next moment, Xie Xuanyi focused all his attention.
He did not notice that the little girl curled up in his arms had fluttered her eyelids slightly upon hearing his voice...
Time seemed to slow.
Xie Xuanyi held his breath. Holding the little girl, he crouched again, then sprang up once more after a single breath—
Countless chunks of rubble fell like suspended patches of land. Xie Xuanyi lightly tapped his toes against them, seizing fleeting moments to borrow their force and leap continuously upward, his robes and phoenix fire flying together!
The crackling explosions of shattering stone reverberated through the volcanic crater.
Xie Xuanyi climbed by stepping on the rubble, every step swift, precise, and steady!
Fast! Faster! Faster still!
Without even looking down, he could feel the increasingly scorching aura beneath him.
Boom!!!
The bottom of Emberpeak Mountain shattered completely, and an immensely majestic wave of flame erupted from the ground, surging into the heavens!
Xie Xuanyi had pushed his speed to its utmost limit. At that moment, he was only the slightest distance away from breaking out of the mountain's mouth.
Xie Xuanyi's expression darkened as he instinctively looked back.
In an instant, blazing light illuminated his face.
The wave of flame swallowed his white robes.
In truth, Xie Xuanyi's earlier words had not been meant only for the little girl.
They had also been meant for himself.
Having finally been "reborn" once, he naturally refused to accept such an embarrassing and pathetic death.
Since he had chosen to turn back and save someone, he was completely certain that they would both make it out.
At the moment the wave of flame was about to catch him, Xie Xuanyi turned around and stretched out his palm—
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
Streams of light from all over the sky gathered in his palm!
The primordial energy in the northern territories was sparse, but there was still some. Under the mobilization of Xie Xuanyi's divine soul, the scattered primordial energy drifting through Emberpeak Mountain's caverns instantly converged at his palm, forming a thin barrier!
Though this primordial energy was of poor quality, drops of water could wear through stone. It could withstand the mountain fire!
Bang!
A tremendous blast exploded in midair!
The wave of flame erupting from the bottom of Emberpeak Mountain slammed heavily into the wall of primordial energy. Xie Xuanyi, who had forcibly endured the blow, let out a muffled groan and was hurled away by the enormous impact. Like a kite with its string cut, he flew beyond the mountaintop and finally crashed into a dense forest. He smashed through several ancient trees along the way before barely coming to a stop.
"Hiss."
"Shifu was right. Saving people... really is much harder than killing people..."
Xie Xuanyi lay weakly on the ground, staring through the mottled forest leaves at drifting clouds crossing the sky as he muttered.
He felt as though every bone in his body was about to fall apart.
It had been a long time since he had been in such a sorry state.
This "new body" of his had not even had the chance to cultivate yet. Mobilizing the primordial energy of heaven and earth had amounted to forcibly using a forbidden technique.
That single move alone had exhausted all his strength and focus.
After a long while, Xie Xuanyi recovered somewhat.
He slowly lowered his head and looked at the little girl in his arms.
Saving her had been far more exhausting than killing those demon spirits earlier.
What tired him was not his body, but his soul.
When he lowered his gaze, Xie Xuanyi froze—
He saw a pair of bright eyes.
A pair of eyes burning with blazing crimson fire.
The Phoenix Blood Descendant... was awake?
That was no good news. Xie Xuanyi instinctively tried to prop himself up.
But the next moment, a heavy body pounced on him, carrying scorching heat as it pinned him to the grass.
The little girl, with fire burning at the tips of her brows and hair, sat atop Xie Xuanyi. It had to be said that this Phoenix Blood Descendant's eyes were truly beautiful, dazzling like stars.
But upon closer inspection, one would discover...
Her pupils were unfocused, unable to settle on anything.
She did not look particularly clever.
The moment she opened her mouth, Xie Xuanyi became even more convinced of his earlier conclusion.
"Dad?"
The little girl looked at Xie Xuanyi in confusion and bewilderment. Both hands pressed against his chest, her long fiery-red hair cascaded down around her, and her entire being radiated the innocence of a child.
"I'm not, I didn't, don't spout nonsense..."
Xie Xuanyi nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.
He hurriedly sat up, lifted the little girl off himself, and set her aside. In a very serious tone, he corrected her, "I'm not your dad. You can't call people that recklessly."
The little girl tilted her head and blinked, as though she understood.
The next moment, she cautiously changed the form of address. "Then... Mom?"
"???"
Xie Xuanyi fell completely silent.
It was said that demon spirits with "low intelligence" would treat the first living creature they saw upon opening their eyes as their "parents"... Yet the Phoenix Blood Great Demon before him clearly did not meet the condition of having "low intelligence." The most likely explanation for this was a mutation in her divine soul, wasn't it?
Her divine soul had been injured, so she had lost her memories.
Such a situation was tantamount to having a different soul...
The little girl before him had a stable temperament and no vicious aura about her. Her personality was utterly different from that of the great demon he had encountered during the Northern Hunt years ago!
"Neither Dad nor Mom."
After a moment, Xie Xuanyi explained patiently. He reached out and touched the little girl's head. It was very hot. "My surname is Xie. My name is Xie Xuanyi. Do you remember that name?"
"Xie Xuanyi, Xie Xuanyi..."
The little girl murmured the name, her gaze becoming even more bewildered.
After thinking for a long while, she shook her head like a rattle-drum. "I don't remember that name."
After a brief pause.
She said with great solemnity, "But I know you're a good person."
A good person?
This was the first time Xie Xuanyi had heard that description applied to himself.
He found it somewhat ironic and asked speechlessly, "You think I'm a good person?"
"Of course."
The little girl smiled foolishly.
She carefully edged closer while closely observing Xie Xuanyi's reaction, afraid that he would dislike her. In the end, she successfully grasped a corner of his sleeve.
She looked toward Emberpeak Mountain in the distance, where red light burst forth and heatwaves filled the sky.
With a serious face and an unwavering tone, the little one said, "You saved me, so of course you're a good person—the finest, greatest good person under heaven!"
Xie Xuanyi fell silent again.
He had never encountered anything like this.
Originally, he had been worried that once the Phoenix Blood Great Demon awakened, she would draw her sword against him—
Fortunately, that worst-case scenario had not come to pass.
Perhaps because her injuries had been too severe, this great demon's divine soul had undergone a distortion. He could now be certain that although the little one sitting beside him and the Phoenix Blood Great Demon from years ago shared the same body, they were completely different "species."
The way this little one deliberately tried to please him looked both clumsy and clever.
"You..."
After thinking for a long time, Xie Xuanyi ultimately did not reveal the truth.
He sighed softly in his heart and asked gently, "Do you still remember your own name?"
At this question, the little girl's already bewildered eyes became even more lost.
The tips of her long brows furrowed as she sank into prolonged thought.
Seeing that expression, Xie Xuanyi felt an inexplicable sense of familiarity.
Perhaps he wore the same expression whenever he recalled his own past...
No matter how good a person's memory was, after sleeping for ten years, they would surely forget some things.
Remembering them again was not an easy task.
Xie Xuanyi waited patiently.
This time, he did not have to wait long.
"My name, my name..."
The little girl, who had been murmuring to herself, suddenly lifted her head.
A trace of spirit suddenly appeared within those vacant eyes.
Using her fingertip as a brush, she quickly wrote two neat characters in Xie Xuanyi's palm.
Jiang Huang.
Huang, as in phoenix.